BOOK VIII. XXXV. 85-87 



XXXV. As concerning serpents, it is generally The snake. 

 stated that most of them have the colour of the earth 

 that they usually lurk in ; that there are innumerable 

 kinds of them ; that horned snakes have little horns, 

 often a cluster of four, projecting from the body, by 

 moving which so as to hide the rest of tlie body they 

 lure birds to them ; that the amphisbaena ° has a tvvin 

 head, that is one at the tail-end as well, as though 

 it were not enough for poison to be poured out of one 

 mouth ; that some have scales, othei-s coloured 

 marldngs, and all a deadly venom ; that the javehn- 

 snake hurls itself from the branches of trees, and 

 that serpents are not only formidable to the feet but 

 fly Uke a missile from a catapult ; that when asps' 

 necks swell up there is no remedy for their sting 

 except the immediate amputation of the parts 

 stung. Although so pestilential, this animal has one 

 emotion or rather alfection : they usually roam in 

 couples, male and female, and only Hve with their 

 consort. Accoi-dingly when either of the pair has 

 been destroyed the other is incredibly anxious for 

 revenge : it pursues the murderer and by means 

 of some mark of recognition attacks him and him 

 only in however large a throng of people, bursting 

 through all obstacles and traversing all distances, and 

 it is only debarred by rivers or by very rapid flight. 



It is impossible to declare whether Nature has 

 engendered evils or remedies more bountifully. In 

 the first place she has bestowed on this accursed 

 creature dim eyes, and those not in the forehead for 

 it to look straight in front of it, but in the temples 

 — and consequently it is more quickly excited by 

 hearing than by sight ; and in the next place she has 

 given it war to the death with the ichneumon*. 



63 



