have never seen, but have to take the word of others for it. The 

 griffin, as you all know, plays a prominent part in the heraldry of 

 the City of London, and also by some occult process of reasoning, 

 does he visit the Post Office, and if you have not already observed 

 him. the next time you pass up the Sandgate Road, if you take a 

 look at the top of the General Post Office you will find him perched 

 up aloft, guarding the treasures in the safes below. We now will, 

 if you please, just glance at another mythical monster, the exis- 

 tence of which was firmly believed in throughout ancient and 

 mediaeval times. I mean the cockatrice also mentioned in scripture 

 as having a " den." Descriptions and figures of it appear in the 

 natural history works of such writers as Pliny, published so late 

 as the beginning of the 17th century. Produced from a cock's 

 egg and hatched by a serpent, it was believed to possess the most 

 deadly powers. Plants withered at its touch, and men and 

 animals died poisoned by its look. It stood in awe however, of 

 the crowings of the cock, the sound of whose crowing killed it ; 

 consequently, travellers were wont to take this bird with them 

 when travelling through districts supposed to be infested by these 

 monsters. What would happen however, should the cock refuse 

 to crow at the critical moment history is silent upon. The weasel 

 alone among the mammals was unaffected by the glance of its evil 

 eye, and attacked the monster, it is said, often with signal success, 

 for when wounded by the monster's teeth, it found a ready remedy 

 in rue, the only plant the cockatrice could not wither. 



The next monster that we have to encounter is the " Basihsk." 

 Very little appears to be known about the basilisk ; which, however, 

 should find a place in this paper, as it comes under the heading of 

 our discourse this evening. " It was a horrid monster," say the 

 authorities on the subject, *' of the most demoniacal powers and of 

 equally demoniacal appearance." The term is now used to describe 

 a genus of lizards, which are characterized by a membranous bag on 

 the crown of the head which they can distend or contract at will ; 

 they also possess a fin-like ridge along the back part of the tail. 



I shall bring this paper to a conclusion by giving a little infor- 

 mation about our old heraldic friend the " Unicorn," about which 

 animal there might, as you may well imagine, whole volumes be 

 written : 



The myth appears to have originated with the rhinoceros, though 

 how any person can reconcile the two ideas, is rather difficult to 

 imagine. It should have the body of a horse, with a long 

 spirally twisted horn projecting from the forehead, like that of the 

 narwhal. The belief in the existence of the animal is very 

 ancient, dating back to Aristotle; the Bible also mentions the 

 unicorn, although probably it is a mistranslation for antelope. 

 However, be that as it may, whether antelope or rhinoceros, it 



