Reptiles. 389 



drawne they should see." It chanced however that one of the knights, 

 being stung by an adder on the knee, was unintentionally the cause 

 of bringing on a bloody combat between the opposing armies The 

 circumstance is thus narrated — 



" When the knighte found him wounded sore, 

 And saw the wild worme hanging there, 

 His sworde he from his scabbarde drew ; 

 A piteous ease as ye shall heare. 



" For when the two hostes saw the sworde 

 They joyned battayle instantlye, 

 'Till of soe many noble knightes 



On one side there were left but three." 



Dr. Clarke, in speaking of the common snake, remarks — " The 

 movements of this species are highly elegant. Its course among 

 grass or underwood is performed in a zigzag direction ; the head and 

 neck are thrust forward alternately to the right and left, whilst the 

 rest of the body follows precisely the same course. In its progress 

 the head pushes aside the blades of grass or other yielding bodies, 

 and the remainder of the body follows without communicating any 

 motion to them ; and in this way a snake will often steal across a 

 meadow, or through a thicket, unperceived by a person standing at a 

 little distance."* In contrast with the clear and simple statement 

 here given, of the movements of the common English snake, it is in- 

 teresting to place the magnificent description so well known to every 

 reader of ' Paradise Lost.' 



" So spake the enemy of mankind, enclosed 

 In serpent, inmate bad ! and toward Eve 

 Addressed his way ; not with indented wave 

 Prone on the ground as since, but on his rear 

 Circular base of rising folds, that tower'd 

 Fold above fold, a surging maze ! his head 

 Crested aloft, and carbuncle his eyes, 

 With burnished neck of verdant gold, erect 

 Amidst his circling spires that on the grass 

 Floated redundant." — Book ix. 



Like many other now exploded specifics, the flesh of serpents, or 

 the liquid, especially wine, in which they were infused, was held of 

 peculiar efficacy for the cure of disease, and as an antidote to poison. 

 These ideas, preposterous as they may now appear, were not " quietly 

 inurned " until the last century was far advanced. By Dr. Owen's 

 * Mag. Nat. Hist, 1838, p. 479. 



