Notes on an alleged species of poisonous Lizard, $c. 373 



and bogs of Albin, and the jungles, or weed-covered ruins 

 of Hindoostan, whose bite is deadly. But even in old 

 England we have the traces of a similar notion ; thus, the 

 Duke of Suffolk, in the play of Henry VI. (part II.) cursing 

 his enemies, imprecates after the following fashion — 

 « Poison be their drink ! 



Gall, worse than gall, the daintiest that they taste ! 



Their sweetest shade, a grove of cypress trees ! 



Their chiefest prospect, murdering basilisks ! 



Their softest touch, as smart as lizards' stings !" 



And again in the third part of the same drama — Queen 

 Margaret thus retorts on Richard Plantagenet (Richard III.) 



« But thou art neither like thy sire, nor dam ; 



But like a foul mishap en stigmatic, 



Mark'd by the destinies to be avoided, 



As venom toads, or lizards' dreadful stings." 



In the highlands of Scotland, it is the Lacerta vulgaris 

 that is thus calumniated, and in India we have the Biscopra, 

 a serpent-headed lizard. An old brother officer I have said, 

 kindly sent me a Biscopra, preserved in spirits, from Meerut, 

 which I regret to say, is no longer in my possession, nor 

 procurable for the purpose of reference. The person bitten 

 by a Biscopra, it is said, either dies immediately, or lingers 

 for a day or two ; the symptoms being the same as in a case 

 of snake bite. I have spoken with two respectable natives, 

 one of whom declared that he knew of an individual in Cal- 

 cutta having died in three days from the bite of a kind of 

 lizard, and he informed me that a Mohurrur of the late 

 Rajah of Burdwan, many years ago died from the same cause, 

 in the same space of time. 



Not unfrequently beneath the surface of a popular belief 

 may be found traces of truth. Approaching as the Lacerta 

 family do in several respects to the snake tribe, it were 

 scarcely philosophical to deny the possibility of such a crea- 

 ture's existence, as a fanged lizard. I was accordingly very 



