370 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the fifth Bolgia in the "Inferno," in which the judges who take 

 bribes for giving judgment squirm in a marsh of boiling pitch, 

 over which Graffiacane and other such demons wheel on pon- 

 derous wings. The wretched souls would fain get respite by 

 emerging from the pitch, and so (Inf. xxii. 25) — 



" As on the brink of water in a ditch, 

 The Frogs stand only with their muzzle out, 

 So that they hide their feet and other bulk ; 

 So upon every side the sinners stood." 



But not for long. The warder demons, when they see them, 

 swoop down upon them, at whose approach they mostly plunge 

 again into the pitch, though Dante saw one wait, " as one Frog 

 remains, and another dives down." We have, too, the description 

 of the accursed souls that fly before the approach of the celestial 

 messenger, who strides dry-shod across the Styx (Inf. ix. 76), 

 '* even as Frogs disappear in all directions across the water 

 before the (biscia) snake, till they are huddled all together on the 

 land." 



This brings us to the consideration of snakes, for which he 

 used as generic names " serpe " or " serpenti," crawling animals. 

 Since the thieves in Hell (Inf. xxiv. 82) are punished by snakes, he 

 gives us a grand selection. He says there were more there than 

 could be found in the deserts of Libya or in Ethiopia, or above 

 the Red Sea. 



" Chelidri, iaculi e faree cencri con amphisbena." 



Not unlike Milton's list (Par. Lost, x. 525) — "Asp and amphi- 

 sboena dire" — 



" Cerastes horned, hydrus and ellops drear." 



In other passage, speaking of the Furies (Inf. ix. 41), who 



" Con idre verdissime eran cinte, 

 Serpentelli e ceraste avean per crine." 



As a whole they are more interesting as mentioning the snakes 

 known to the ancients than for any other reason, for they come 

 from Lucan's ' Pharsalia,' and are to be found in Pliny's Natural 

 History ; but some of them are probably Italian, for Virgil speaks 

 (Geo. xi. 214) of "nigris exesa chelydris creta," which may have 

 been Tropodonatus tessellatus and viperinus, both Italian snakes, 

 that live almost exclusively in the water, and feed on fish. 



