Crocodiles ', Turtles, and Lizards. 31 



to stone them wherever found, as they hang their necks 

 in mockery of the Moslem's attitude of prayer. To this 

 day, therefore, the faithful persecute them rigorously as 

 scoffing unbelievers. 



" Fadladeen, besides the spiritual comfort he derived from 

 a pilgrimage to the tomb of the saints from whom the valley 

 is named, had opportunities of gratifying, in a small way, 

 his taste for victims, by putting to death some hundreds of 

 those unfortunate little lizards, which all pious Mussulmans 

 make it a point to kill ; taking for granted that the manner 

 in which the creature hangs its head is meant as a mimicry 

 of the attitude in which the faithful say their prayers ! " 



None the less they were considered, and indeed are still, 

 very important in Eastern medicine, the traditional coldness 

 of the creatures recommending them to the Pharmacopoeia 

 of Fancy as being supposed to be beneficial in all ailments 

 arising from excessive heat, although so diverse as burns, 

 sunstroke, sand-blindness, and scarlet fever. 



Newts, the pretty " eft " of our ponds, receive the most 

 infamous treatment from poets. Wordsworth calls them 

 " offensive," Eliza Cook miasmatic : 



" Mist and chill are over the hill, 



The crops on the upland are green and stark, 

 Newts are about and the rain puts out 



The tender light of the glow-worm's spark." 



It delights me to quote this fustian. Imagine crops being 

 " stark ! " and then that line, " neivts are about!" 



But Spenser calls them " fearefull e.ftes," Garth " hateful," 

 and Shelley "poisonous." Shakespeare's witches mix the 

 eyes of newts with the toes of frogs in their dreadful broth. 



" Onely these marishes and myrie bogs, 

 In which the fearefull ewftes do build their bowres, 

 Yeeld me an hostry mongst the croking frogs." Spenser. 



" And from a stone beside a poisonous eft 

 Peeps idly." Shelley. 



