THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
149 
PROTEUS. 
meat and frogs, on which it thrived extremely well, by which its natural food 
is suggested. 
The Basilisk (Basilicus mitratus) is found along and north of the equator, 
in the Western Hemisphere, as far as Mexico. Many 
singular superstitions have been prevalent concerning 
this creature, some of which are believed by the more 
ignorant even to this day. By not a few it is still 
spoken of as the king of reptiles, whose sovereignty 
is attested by the crown (so called) he wears. He was 
also allied to nameless things, having some occult 
powers conferred by reason of having eaten an egg 
laid by a cock, upon which a snake had set. Others 
as strongly maintained that the egg thus laid, out 
of the course of nature, was incubated by a toad. A 
glance of his eye was believed to be the arrow of 
death, while his breath infected the air with a poison 
so virulent as to kill not only the animal life that 
fell within its influence, but to destroy vegetation as 
well. As one naturalist in the seventeenth century 
wrote: “This poison of the basilisk so infecteth the 
air, and the air so infected killeth all living things, 
and likewise all green things, fruits and plants of 
the earth; it bnrneth up the grass whereupon it goeth or creepeth, and the 
foules of the air 
fall down dead 
when they come 
near his den or 
lodging. Some¬ 
times he biteth a 
man or beast, and 
by that wound the 
blood turneth into 
choler, and so the 
whole body be- 
cometh yellow or 
gold, presently 
killing all that 
touch it or come 
near it.” The 
cock was the only 
creature before 
whom this terri¬ 
ble animal would 
retreat, hence trav- 
• ellers in the re¬ 
gions where it 
was common 
rarely ventured upon a journey without carrying with them one or more roosters. 
All these idle stories have long since been exploded, until we now know 
r_.uT,?£-' • 
UZARD OE THE STEPPES, GROUND HENS AND HORNED VIPER. 
