280 SHAKESPEARE’S [SERPENT. 
thereto, and ween to find there a ram, and find a venomous 
Serpent when they have assayed. Also Boa is a Serpent 
full great in quantity, and is in Italy, and followeth flocks 
of neat and of bugles [buffaloes], and setteth himself guile- 
fully to the udders of the beasts that be full of milk, and 
sucketh and slayeth them. The head of a Serpent scapeth 
and liveth, if it may scape with two fingers of the body, 
and therefore they put forth all the body for defence of the 
head. Also all Serpents have dim sight, and look away- 
ward, and no wonder, for their eyes be not in the forehead 
but in the temples, so that they may rather hear than see. 
Also no beast moveth the tongue so swiftly as the Serpent, 
for it moveth the tongue so swiftly, that it seemeth that it 
hath three tongues, yet it hath but one. Also the bodies 
of serpents be moist, so that where they glide and go, they 
infect the way, and mark it with a manner glymy [viscous] 
humour. Also Serpents live long and without meat. And 
they live so long time, that they put away their old skins, 
and become young again. The manner of changing of 
Serpents’ skins seemeth wonderful enough; for the adder 
feeleth himself grieved with evil, or with age, and abstaineth 
