A TKIAD OF MEDIAEVAL MYTHS. 



THE BASILISK. 



IT has been sometimes made a matter of regret, that Science, 

 which is knowledge in its largest sense, should interfere with 

 mythic lore, explaining one by one a number of time-cherished 

 mysteries. In such regret I do not participate, well aware 

 that Science opens out the existence of more mysteries than 

 she conceals. The mathematician knows full well that two 

 lines may continually approach yet never meet ; a condition 

 even to him a mystery. The chemist knows that one and the 

 same element may appear under the guise of two different 

 forms as charcoal and the diamond, as ordinary phosphorus 

 and allotropic phosphorus; the former poisonous, the latter 

 not. What can be a greater mystery ? Let us not disparage 

 Science, then, because she explains certain things to our fore- 

 fathers inexplicable ; rather let us feel grateful that her pure 

 light, beaming upon the field of our limited faculties, reveals 

 some fair gems of truth. 



Chemistry and zoology have both had to do with revealing 

 the mystery of basilisks and cockatrices, things which may 

 be regarded as synonymous. This being so, it may not be 

 uninteresting to recite how the revelation came about ; to 

 state by what train of reasoning and experiment ancient and 

 mediaeval lore has been robbed of one of its strangest mon- 

 sters, and the world set at rest concerning what, if real, would 

 be its direst enemy. 



Credence in the reality of basilisk existence prevailed from 

 periods of great antiquity, down through mediaeval ages al- 

 most to our own times. If the basilisk and the cockatrice be 



