Chap. 35.J SEEPENTS. 285 



assume the colour of the soil in which they conceal themselves. 

 The different species of them are innumerable. The cerastes''' 

 has little horns, often four in number, projecting from the 

 body, by the movement of which it attracts birds, while the 

 rest of its body lies concealed." The amphisbieaa™ has two 

 heads," that is to say, it has a second one at the tail, as 

 though one mouth were too little for the discharge of aU its 

 venom. Some serpents have scales, some a mottled skin, and 

 they are aU possessed of a deadly poison. The jaculus*" darts 

 from the branches of trees; and it is not only to our feet that 

 the serpent is formidable, for these fly through the air even, 

 just as though they were hurled from an engine.^"- The neck 

 of the asp** puffs out,^ and there is no remedy whatever 



'* The cerastes, or homed serpent, is mentioned by Lucan, in his de- 

 scription of serpents, Pharsalia, B. ix. 1. 716. One of the Scholiasts on 

 Lucan relates a story that when Helen was eloping with Paris, she trod on 

 the back of a cerastes, and broke it ; from which circumstance, the whole 

 race moved with a crooked course. 



" Cavier has observed this animal burying itself in the sand, and has 

 seen the motion of its horns, but does not credit its alleged power of at- 

 tracting birds ; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 412. — B. 



'^ The amphisbsena is mentioned by Lucan, B. ix. 1. 719. " The dan- 

 gerous amphisbaena, that moves on at either of its heads." 



'^ The account of the two heads is obviously incorrect ; the idea has 

 arisen from the two extremities being nearly of the same size and appear- 

 ance. It has been supposed, that there were certain serpents, with the 

 power of moving with equal facility in both directions ; and that the name, 

 A/t^jff/Saiva, was derived from this circumstance. — B. 



** Lucan mentions the jaculus, B. ix. 1. 720, and 1. 822. In the last 

 passage he says : " Behold ! afar, around the trunk of a barren tree, a fierce 

 serpent — Africa calls it the jaculus — wreathes itself, and then darts forth, 

 and through the head and pierced temples of Paulus it takes its flight : 

 nothing does veu>m there affect, death seizes him through the wound. It 

 was then understood how slowly fly the stones which the sling hurls, how 

 sluggishly whizzes the flight of the Scythfan arrow." 



*' There is an account of the jaculus, or, as it is called in Greek, 

 'AKoi/riats i" -SJlian, Anim. Nat. B. vi. o. 18 ; it is mentioned by Galen, 

 Theriaca, c. 8. — B. 



^ In B. ix. 1. 701, Lucan says : " Here the gore (of the Gorgon Me- 

 dusa) which first from the sand lifted a head, raised the drowsy asp with 

 its puffed-out neck." The whole of this passage in Lucan is well worth the 

 attention of those desirous to know something of the serpent-lore of the 

 ancients. 



*' Cuvier says, that Geoffroi St. Hilaire has identified this animal with 

 the Coluber haje of Linnaeus, which has, from the earliest ages, been known 

 as a native of Egypt, and where it still exists. Its two most remarkable 

 characteristics are those here referred to ; the puffing out of the neck when 



