DANTE AS A NATURALIST. 371 



The Jaculus is found in Greece, and may in old times have 

 been found in Italy, though there is no record of it ; it is an 

 unpleasing little reptile that hurls itself at one from a tree. 

 He is speaking more from observation (Inf. xxv. 53) when he 



speaks of 



" Sei-pentello acceso, 

 Livido e nero come grar di pepe " ; 



a fiery little serpent (fiery in the Biblical sense, that is to say, 

 venomous), partly dark green, partly black. A very good de- 

 scription of the Adder, by one of which I was nearly bitten in 

 the nose one hot day in June when I stooped to bathe my face 

 in a stream near San Gemignano. The little beast was sitting 

 coiled up in the water, with only its head protruding. Both it 

 and the ordinary Grass- Snake very often take to the water, even 

 in England. In White's ' Selborne,' he says they will stay under 

 water in search of food. There is no doubt that both species 

 frequent damp places where Frogs and the like abound, and will 

 swim after them, if their quarry take to the water. This brings 

 us back to the Biscia, which perhaps should have been included 

 in the generic name for snakes, for the word is onomatopoeic to 

 represent the hissing animal, an idea which Milton conveys by 

 the frequent repetition of sibilants when describing snakes. 

 Here it is probably the Common Grass- Snake. Dante had seen 

 such chasing Frogs in the swamps around Ravenna, to which the 

 passage above quoted refers ; and he says that Cacus had around 

 his chest more snakes than he would have believed could have 

 been found in the Maremma (Inf. xxv. 19), that other marshy 

 district on the west coast of Italy, part of which was drained by 

 Napoleon, part planted more recently with eucalyptus. There 

 are several other references to snakes, but they are not worth 

 anything from the naturalist's point of view, except the one that 

 invaded the happy vale in Purgatory (Purg. viii. 98) ; for, though 

 he gives a fabulous touch to it by saying, " possibly it was the 

 one that gave the bitter fruit to Eve," yet it is drawn from life ; 

 for he says that it pursued its way through the green grass and 

 bright flowers, turning every now and then its head towards its 

 back, and licking like a beast does when it smooths its coat. 

 A description from which Milton has borrowed (Par. Lost, 

 ix. 525). 



