CURIOUS CREATURES. 321 



pestiferous breath hadde infected the Ayre round about, 

 whereby great mortality followed in Rome : but how the 

 said Cockatrice came thither, it was never knowne. It 

 is most probable that it was created, and sent of GOD 

 for the punnishment of the Citty, which I do the more 

 easily beleeve, because Segonius and Julius Scaliger do 

 affirme, that the sayd pestiferous beast was killed by 

 the prayers of the said Leo the fourth. . . . 



" The eyes of the Cockatrice are redde, or somewhat 

 inclyning to blacknesse ; the skin and carkase of this 

 beast have beene accounted precious, for wee doe read 

 that the Pergameni did buy but certaine peeces of a 

 Cockatrice, and gave for it two pound and a halfe of 

 Sylver : and because there is an opinion that no Byrd, 

 Spyder, or venomous Beast will endure the sight of 

 this Serpent, they did hang uppe the skinne thereof 

 stuffed, in the Temples of Apollo and Diana, in a cer- 

 taine thinne Net made of Gold; and therefore it is 

 sayde, that never any Swallow, Spider, or other Serpent 

 durst come within those Temples ; And not onely the 

 skinne or the sight of the Cockatrice worketh this effect, 

 but also the flesh thereof, being rubbed uppon the 

 pavement, postes, or Walles of any House. And more- 

 over, if Silver bee rubbed over with the powder of the 

 Cockatrices flesh, it is likewise sayde that it giveth it a 

 tincture like unto Golde : and, besides these qualities, 

 I remember not any other in the flesh or skinne of this 

 serpent. . . . 



" We read also that many times in Affrica, the Mules 

 fall downe dead for thirst, or else lye dead on the ground 

 for some other causes, unto whose Carkase innumerable 

 troupes of Serpentes gather themselves to feede there 

 uppon ; but when the Bazeliske windeth the sayd dead 



