118 



LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



chored for the night close to the island of Celebes. 

 One of the party went on shore to look for betel- 

 nut, and, on returning from his search, stretched 

 his wearied limbs to rest on the beach, where he 

 fell asleep, as his companions believed. They 

 were roused in the middle of the night by his 

 screams, and hurried on shore to his assistance. 

 But they came too late. A monstrous snake had 

 crushed him to death. All they could do was to 

 wreak their vengeance on his destroyer, whose 

 head they cut off, and bore it with the body of 

 their shipmate to their vessel. The marks of the 

 teeth of the serpent, which was about thirty feet 

 in length, were impressed on the dead man's right 

 wrist, and the disfigured corpse showed that it had 

 been crushed by constriction round the head, neck, 

 breast, and thigh. When the snake's jaws were 

 extended, they admitted a body the size of a man's 

 head. 



By great Apollo's arm the python slain, 



O'er many a rood lay stretch'd upon the plain. 



Latona's son did his work with the graceful 

 ease of a divinity oh, that the work of Leontius* 

 had been spared to us ! but the mortals who 

 were opposed by the enormous python near Utica 

 had a very different task to perform : 



Well knowne it is that Attilius Regulus, generall 

 under the Romans during the wars against the 

 Carthaginians, assailed a serpent near the river 

 Bagrada,f which carried in length 120 foot ; and 

 before he could conquer him was driven to discharge 

 upon him arrows, quarrels, stones, bullets, and such- 

 like shot, out of brakes, slings, and other engines 

 of artillery, as if he had given assault to some strong 

 warlike towne ; the proofe whereof was to be seen 

 by the marks remaining in his skin and chawes, 

 which, until the war of Numantia, remained in a 

 temple or conspicuous place of Rome. 



But, though vanquished, the monster had his 

 revenge ; for his huge carrion and corrupt gore so 

 polluted the air and waters that his conquerors 

 were obliged to move their camp, not, however, 

 without taking his skin with them as spolia opima. 

 General Peter Both made a better thing of it with 

 a great Indian python, for he and his friends 

 feasted on a magnificent wild boar, which the 

 enemy had pouched just before its defeat and 

 death-! 



The African or Asiatic pythons may have been 

 in the eye of the sculptor of the Laocoon, but the 

 models may have existed nearer home, " for that 



* This "famous imageur," as Philemon Holland 

 calls him, who "expressed lively in brasse," executed, 

 among other bronzes, "one Apollo playing upon his 

 harpe ; as also another Apollo, and the serpent killed 

 with his arrowes, which image he surnamed Dicaeus, 

 i. e. t just ; for that when the city of Thebes was won 

 by Alexander the Great, the gold which he hid in the 

 bosome thereof when hee fled, was found there safe 

 and not diminished, when the enemy was gone and he 

 returned." 



t Some write " Bagradas " and "Magradas" (Me- 

 jerda). 



t Bontius. Regulus was not the only great captain 

 who had to encounter other than human enemies. It 

 was, no doubt, very smart to say, 



Philip fought men, but Alexander women, 



we see in Italy other serpents named boae, so big 

 and huge, that in the daies of the Emperor Clau- 

 dius, there was one of them killed in the Vaticane, 

 within the belly whereof there was found an infant 

 all whole."* Europe is separate from Africa by 

 no very wide gulf 



It is a narrow strait, 



You can see the blue hills over ; 



and the character of some of the vegetation of the 

 south reminds the observer of that of Africa. 



But to see the true boae in their native forests 

 we must cross the Atlantic ; and those who are 

 not familiar with the story may have no objection 

 to learn how Captain Stedman fared in an 

 encounter with one twenty-two feet and some 

 inches in length, during his residence in Surinam. 



whatever injustice there may have been in a sarcasm 

 so dearly paid for; but, without standing up for the 

 bravery of the men he conquered on their own soil 

 men who fought valiantly pro aris et focis, Philip's 

 son, according to Vincentius, was sorely beset by 

 monsters as well as men. To say nothing of the 

 "Hippodami," which rushed upon and devoured his 

 troops as they were passing the Indian river, when, 

 in indignation at those who had led his Macedonians 

 into such peril without proper precautions, he ordered 

 a hundred and fifty of his generals to be thrown into 

 the stream, where the hippodami aforesaid did execu- 

 tion upon them -justa peena afecerunt to say nothing 

 of that episode, his soldiers had other horrors to con- 

 front. His camp was pitched near a lake, and the 

 weary Greeks were reposing after the heavy fatigues 

 of the day, when, at the rising of the moon, down came 

 an army of scorpions for their accustomed night- 

 draught. They were followed by a host of cerastes 

 and other serpents, of all sizes and colors, some red. 

 some black, some white, and others glittering like 

 gold. ' The whole country resounded with their hiss- 

 ings. The affrighted soldiers threw themselves in- 

 stinctively into the serried phalanx, and with their 

 spears and shields crushed and pierced the invaders, 

 and the light troops plied them with fire. After a 

 fight of about two hours, some of the reptiles were 

 killed, some got their drink, and the survivors, to the 

 joy of the troops, departed to their hiding-places. 

 Then, up to the third hour of the night, the garrison 

 had a little rest, when down came immense serpents, 

 as long and as big as columns, with two or three 

 heads apiece. With these the Macedonians fought 

 for more than an hour not by Shrewsbury clock and 

 routed them, but not without the loss of thirty slaves 

 and twenty soldiers. After the departure of the ser- 

 pents appeared enormous crabs, with shells like 

 crocodiles. Many of these were burnt, but many 

 fought their way into the lake. The harassed troops 

 now began to hope that their troubles were, for the 

 present, ended, when down came white lions as big as 

 bulls, great boars, lynxes, tigers, and horrible pan- 

 thers ; and as soon as they were driven off, an army of 

 bats as big as pigeons was about their ears. But, 

 above all, there came a beast bigger than an elephant, 

 black, with a head like a horse, and its forehead armed 

 with three horns, called by the Indians "odonta." 

 This- odonta, having drunk at the lake, espied the 

 camp, and immediately charged it, notwithstanding 

 the fires. In this last encounter six-and-thirty soldiers 

 were slain ; and fifty-three falchions rendered useless. 

 At length the monster died, transfixed by spears. 

 While the men were thus employed, the quadrupeds 

 were attacked and killed by an army of Indian rats. 

 Those who would see what the hippodami were like, 

 as well as the scorpions, serpents, crabs, (which, by 

 the way, have the form of lobsters or crayfish,) white 

 lions, panthers, bats, and, above all, the odonta that 

 figured in this night attack, let them turn to the de- 

 lectable woodcuts in the Prodigiorum ac Ostcntorum 

 Chronicon Basileae, 1557. 

 * Holland's Pliny. 



