ORDER OPHIDIA. 369 



The Cerastes has received its name from the Greek word 

 jtE^aj, in consequence of the eminences which surround its 

 eyes, and which, from the most ancient times, have been 

 erroneously compared to the horns of mammiferous animals ; 



" Cornua praetendens immania fronte cerastes 

 Dum torquet spinam sibilat ecce vagus." 



It attains to the length of about two feet, and the resem- 

 blance of those eminences just mentioned to a grain of barley, 

 must probably give rise to the fable recounted by Pliny and 

 Solinus, who tell us that the cerastes, concealing in the earth, 

 or under leaves, the rest of their body, put these little horns 

 in motion to attract the birds which they want to devour. 

 This absurd assertion has received further amplification from 

 Bishop Isidore, who, in a collection of all the popular stories 

 in circulation in his time, has written that the horns of these 

 serpents were curved like those of rams. 



The cerastes partakes with the Naja the dominion of the 

 deserts in the hottest regions of Northern Africa. Shunning 

 humid and marshy situations, it is found only in the burning 

 and arid sands of Egypt, Arabia, and Syria — sands in which 

 it remains concealed during the entire day, and notwithstand- 

 ing its great agility, it waits patiently until some victim 

 presents itself to its insatiable voracity. It sometimes in 

 this way gets possession of the jerboa, whose hole, according 

 to Bruce, is very often contiguous to its own. 



The singularity of the horned head of this serpent, and 

 the danger which accompanies its bite, have caused it to be 

 remarked even from the heroic times, by the inhabitants of 

 those countries which are watered by the Nile. Accordingly, 

 the Egyptians, friends equally zealous and blind of the 

 marvellous, have often figured it among the hieroglyphics of 

 their sacred monuments, and pointed it out to strangers as 

 one of the most redoubtable of beings. They also pretended 



VOL. IX. 2 B 



