Chap. 14.] SERPENTS OE EEMARKABLE SIZE. 
261 
CHAP. 13. (13.) — DEAGONS. 
-Ethiopia produces dragons, not so large as those of India, but 
still, twenty cubits in length."^^ The only thing that surprises 
me is, how Juba came to believe that they have crests. "^^ The 
^Ethiopians are known as the Asachaei, among whom they 
most abound ; and we are told, that on those coasts four or 
five of them are found twisted and interlaced together like so 
many osiers in a hurdle, and thus setting sail, with their 
heads erect, they are borne along upon the waves, to find bet- 
ter sources of nourishment in Arabia. 
CHAP. 14. (14.) SE:aPENTS OF EEMAEKABLE SIZE. 
Megasthenes informs us, that in India, serpents grow to 
such an immense size, as to swallow stags and bulls while 
Metrodorus says, that about the river Ehyndacus,^^ in Pontus, 
they seize and swallow the birds that are flying above them, 
however high and however rapid their flight.^^ It is a well- 
known fact, that during the Punic war, at the river Bagrada, a 
76 Cuvier states, that in India and America there are serpents of the 
genus boa, or python, thirty feet or more in length. He observes, that 
there are various species of aquatic reptiles in the seas of India, but that 
they never swim twisted together, or with their heads elevated. -ZEliau 
gives an account of the great size of the dragons in Ethiopia. — B. 
"^"^ Cuvier remarks, that there are no serpents with crests on the head, 
and that Juba must have been thinking probably of some animal of the 
genus lacertus, when he made this statement. We may here remark, that 
the " basiliscus," or ''king of serpents," was said by the poets to have 
a crown on its head, as denoting its kingly rank. See c. 33 of this Book. 
7^ It is well known, that certain serpents have the jaws and fauces so 
constructed, that they will allow of the passage of an animal more bulky 
than themselves ; they first crush its bones, and form it into a kind of pulp, 
and then pass it, without further change, into the stomach, where it is 
slowly dissolved by the gastric juices. — B. 
Supposed to have been in Mysia, or Bithynia, considerably to the west 
of Pontus. — B. 
so This account is entirely without foundation. The same statement is 
made by JElian, Anim. Nat. B. ii. c. 21, who probably copied it from Me- 
trodorus. There are stories of the power which serpents possess of fasci- 
nating birds by the eye, but they are not improbably without foundation. 
— B. There is little doubt, however, that some serpents have the power, 
by some means or other, of fascinating the birds which they make their 
prey. 
