THE BASILISK. 345 



where basilisks did congregate, each person bearing a mirror. 

 This was the only weapon. The hunters advanced, each 

 holding the mirror well before him. The sands were well 



o 



explored ; and if, in the course of beating, a basilisk should 

 chance to gaze upon the mirror, back came his own glances 

 reflected. He was a dead basilisk forthwith. This system 

 was ingenious ; but it must have been awfully dangerous and 

 most abominably slow. 



There is usually some foundation for every myth, and the 

 basilisk myth is no exception, whether we study its ancient 

 serpent phase or its mediaeval toad-like mutation. If the 

 part of the ancient tale which relates to the immunity of the 

 weasel in presence of the king of serpents is reflected on, the 

 naturalist is reminded of the well-attested relations between 

 the cobra di capello and a weasel-like animal called the mun- 

 goose. Not only is this little animal fearless in presence of 

 the dreaded cobra, but no sooner does he meet with this ser- 

 pent than he violently attacks it. If bitten, as sometimes 

 happens, notwithstanding that the mungoose is wonderfully 

 agile, he runs away, eats of a certain herb which acts as an 

 antidote, then returning to the attack, does not desist from 

 battle until the cobra lies dead. It is easy to perceive that 

 the Greek and Roman accounts of the immunity of the weasel 

 in presence of the basilisk have reference to this well-attested 

 fact in natural history. 



Equally comprehensible is the basis on which the fable of 

 the cave and mine and well inhabiting mediaeval and modern 

 basilisk is reared. Occasionally it happens now that persons 

 who enter those places are struck down dead on the instant, 

 as though they had swallowed a dose of prussic acid ; but the 

 occurrence is now referred to the breathing of some mephitic 

 gas. The Grotto del Cane, near Naples, has long been cele- 

 brated for this reason ; and the fabled effects of the upas tree 

 of Java are only a mingling of two distorted facts. Certainly 

 a very poisonous tree does grow in Java, and its name is 



