144 ABOUT LIZARDS. 



REPTILES IN PALESTINE AND SYRIA. 



Several kinds of lizards occur in Palestine; and in 

 ruined walls is very common tlie Lacerta stellio, or Hardun 

 of the Arabs, which the Turks kill, from a curious idea 

 that it mimics them saying their prayers. The sand lizard 

 is also abundant; a slender, active, harmless, swiftly- 

 moving little creature, which loves to bask in the noontide 

 warmth, and shows its sense of gi^atification by gentle 

 undulations of the tail. The lizard is often spoken of in 

 the East as the friend of man, because it never retreats from 

 him, but apparently regards his approach with pleasure. 

 It passes the winter in a torpid state, at the bottom of a 

 small burrow which it excavates in the soil ; but the first 

 warm airs of spring awaken it to vigorous life, and it 

 sallies forth to seek its mate. It feeds chiefly upon insects, 

 and more particularly upon flies. 



The Chameleon is also common ; that well-kno^\Ti lizard, 

 whose property of changing its colour has been so often 

 used 



" To point a moral, and adorn a tale." 



The superstitions which prevailed respecting it in days 

 of old were very strange. It was supposed to change its 

 shape very often, and that it had no fixed colour peculiar 

 to itself. Plutarch asserts that it takes every colour in 

 turn but white ; Ai'istotle, that it changes colour all over 

 the body ; ^lian, that when it disguises itself in any 

 other colour but gray, it embellishes only a portion of its 

 body. 



The body of the chameleon is rather slender ; an angular 



