HEPTILES AND SERPENTS* 477 
the inhabitants by devouring vermin of different 
kinds ; and the terrestrial monitor of Egypt, the 
ouran el hard^ which is common in the deserts 
that bound Egypt, is the terrestrial crocodile of 
Herodotus, and the true scinque of the ancients. 
The common chameleon, so famous on account of 
the power it possesses of changing its colour, is a 
native of Egypt and Barbary ; and other species 
of the same genus are met with in Senegal, and 
at the Cape of Good Hope. 
SerpentSk 
The great boa (hoa constrictor, LinJ) is l3y some 
naturalists said to be a native of Africa, but more 
accurate observers are of opinion, that no species 
of the boa tribe occur in the old world. The large 
serpents of Africa belong to the Python tribe. 
Jugglers in Egypt train the haje (coluber haje, 
Lin,) to perform a variety of motions, called by 
them dancing, as the Hindoos practise with the 
cobra de capello, (coluber naja, Lin.) in India. 
The haje erects itself when we approach to it ; 
hence, the ancient Egyptians fancied that it guard- 
ed the fields it inhabited. They adopted it as the 
divine emblem of protection, and we observe it 
sculptured on the portals of their temples. It ap-» 
pears also to be the serpent described by the an- 
cients under the name aspic. 
