SERPENTS. 61 



des traced on the widened portion of its disk. It is extremely poi- 

 sonous, but it is said tliat the root of the Ophiorhyza mungos is a 

 sure antidote against tlie effects of its bite. The jugglers of India 

 tame and teach it to dance, having previously extracted the fangs. 

 The same use is made of another species in Egypt, the 



Col. haje, L. ; VHaje, Geoffr., Egypt. Rept. pi. vii; and Savign. 

 Id. Suppl. pi. iii, whose neck is not so wide, and which is greenish 

 bordered with brownish. The jugglers of that country, by pressing 

 on the nape of the neck with their linger, throw it into a kind of ca- 

 talepsy, which renders it stiff and immoveable, {this is the turning of 

 it into a rod). Its habit of raising itself up when approached, in- 

 duced the antient Egyptians to believe that it was the guardian of 

 the fields it inhabited. They made it the emblem of the protecting 

 divinity of the world, and sculptured it on each side of a globe upon 

 the gates of their temples. There is no doubt that it is the serpent 

 described by the antients under the name of the Jsp of Egypt, Asp 

 of Cleopatra, &c. 



Elaps*, Schn. (part of), 



Are Vipers with a head furnished with plates, very differently organized 

 from the Naice. They are not only deprived of the power of dilating their 

 ribs, but they cannot even dilate their jaws, on account of the shortness 

 of the tympanal bone, and particularly of the mastoid ones, the result of 

 which is, that their head, like that of the Tortrices and Amphisbasnae, is 

 of one uniform piece with the body. The most common species is 



Col. lemniscatus, L. ; Seb. I, x, ult. and II, Ixxvi, 3. A white 

 ground marked with triple black rings; tip of the muzzle black. It 

 inhabits Guiana, where it is greatly dreaded, and where it causes an 

 equal degree of fear to the Tortrix scytale, and the Coluber jEscu- 

 lapii, although they are harmless, in consequence of their resem- 

 blance to it in form, size, and colours. There are several species of 

 Elaps in the two continents with a nearly similar distribution of 

 colours f. 



MicRURUs, Wagl. 

 Are Elaps with a very short tail. 



Platurus, Lat. 



Have the head enveloped with plates, and double ones under the tail; the 

 latter, however, is compressed in the form of an oar, which renders them 

 aquatic |;. 



' " Schneider comprised among his ELip« all the serpents he supposed to be deficient 

 in a separated mastoid bone, but of this he judged from external appearances, or the 

 small degree of enlargement in the occiput; this character, therefore, is only true in 

 the Tortrices of Oppel or llysia. He paid no attention either to their scales or their 

 venom. Elaps, Elaps, are the Greek names of a non-venomous serpent. 



f Such are E. a'iguifiDmis, Schn.; — the Up. Psyche, Daud. VIII, c. 1; — Col. lac- 

 teus, Lin. Mus. Ad. Fr. XVII, 1, and better, Seb. II, xxxv, 2; — El. nob. surinamensis, 

 Seb. II, vi, 2, and Ixxxvi, 1; — Cut. latoniiis, Merr. I, 2. and Seb. II, xxxiv, 4, and 

 xliii, 3, the same as the Col. lubrkus; — Cul.flai-ius, &c. 



* Le Plature a bandcs {Col. laticaudalus, L., or Hydrtis colubrinus, Sh.), Daud. 

 VIl.lxxxv. 



