ii 8 ORPHEUS AT THE ZOO 
followed ; but this failed to please, they stood further 
off, stamped, and shook their heads again, looking 
excited and defiant. But we had not come to play 
to the deer that day. The snakes and pythons were 
our object, the more so as we could play to these 
without interruption from the interested visitors, 
whose inconvenient attention our enterprise was 
beginning to attract. 
“ Behind the scenes ” in the new Reptile House lies 
a most interesting region ; and Orpheus has a pre- 
scriptive right of entry to the arcana of the serpent- 
world. We explained the object of our visit, — 
“ Cessit immanis mihi blandienti 
Janitor aulae ! ” 
and we were most kindly taken to the private side 
of snake-land at the Zoo. There, if we may not 
“ breakfast on basilisks’ eggs,” as in the land of 
Cleopatra’s asp, we may at least see the creature that 
does breakfast on basilisks’ eggs, the great monitor 
lizard, which eats the eggs of the crocodile— or of 
hens at the Zoo, where crocodiles’ eggs are scarce. 
There too we may see young basilisks, or crocodiles, 
frisking in a homely watering-pot; young rats too, 
by the score, parti-coloured and piebald, the destined 
food of serpents, but meantime in high spirits and 
playfully squeaking. It was the very place for a 
chamber concert to the cobras, for the thick plate- 
glass before the cages shuts out the sound of the 
curious crowd in front, while in the back of each 
