258 
ICHNEUMON. 
lief from a certain herb which has the power of 
correcting the poison. 
The description which Lucan has given of the 
manner in which the ichneumon seizes a serpent 
to avoid being injured by ity is thus translated by 
Rowe : 
Thus oft’ th’ ichneumon, on the banks of Nile, 
Invades the deadly aspic by a wile ; 
While artfully his slender tail is play’d. 
The serpent darts upon the dancing shade ; 
Then turning on the foe with swift surprise. 
Full on the throat the nimble seizer flies : 
The gaping snake expires beneath the wound. 
His gushing jaws with pois’nous floods abound. 
And shed the fruitless mischief on the ground. 
The eyes of the ichneumon are very bright and 
full of fire ; the nose is long and slender ; the limbs 
are short ; and the whole body is covered with hard 
coarse hair varying in colour. The general figure 
of the animal is like that of the pole-cat ; but the 
fur is more beautiful and elegant, consisting of 
shades of brown, fawn-colour, and silvery gray. 
The Egyptians always held the ichneumon in great 
veneration on account of the number of noxious 
animals it destroyed ; and particularly the crocodile, 
whose eggs seldom remain undiscovered by the crea- 
ture, though hid beneath the sand : we have reason 
to admire his usefulness as well as industry in de- 
stroying them, when we are told that the crocodile 
lays two or three hundred eggs at a time, very few 
