390 GERASTES; 



the Prester, all of them are but this viper, de^ 

 scribed from the form of its parts or colours*. 

 Cato must have been marching in the night when 

 he met this army of serpents : the Cerastes hides 

 itself all day in holes in the sand, where it lives ill 

 contiguous and similar houses to those of the Jer- 

 boa ; and I have already said, that I never but once 

 found any animal in this viper's belly, but one 

 Jerboa in a gravid female Cerastes." 



I kept two of these last-mentioned creatures 

 in a glass jar, such as is used for keeping sweet-* 

 meats in, for two years, without having given 

 them any food : they did not sleep, that I ob- 

 served, in winter, but cast their skins the last days 

 of April. The Cerastes moves with great rapidity, 

 and in all directions, forward, backward, and side- 

 ways. When he inclines to surprise any one, who 

 is too far from him, he creeps with his side to- 

 wards the person, and his head averted, till judg- 

 ing his distance, he turns round, springs upon 

 him, and fastens upon the part next to him ; for 

 it is not true what is said, that the Cerastes does 

 not leap or spring. I saw one of them at Cairo, 

 in the house of Julian and Rosa, crawl up the side 

 of a box, in which there were many, and there lie 

 still as if hiding himself, till one of the people 

 who brought them to us, came near him, and 

 though in a very disadvantageous posture, stick- 

 ing, as it were, perpendicular to the side of the 

 box, he leaped near the distance of three feet, and 



^ . * Luc. lib. 9' 



