[155] “It is probable that the island of Zanig described by Qazvinius, in his geographical work (for extracts from which vide Scriptorum Arabum de Rebus Indicis loci et opuscula inedita, by I. Gildemeister, Bonnæ, 1838), as the seat of the empire of the Mahraj, is identical with Zaledj. He says that it is a large island on the confines of China towards India, and that among other remarkable features is a mountain called Nacan (Kini Balu?), on which are serpents of such magnitude as to be able to swallow oxen, buffaloes, and even elephants. Masudi includes Zanig, Kalah, and Taprobana among the islands constituting the territory of the Mahraj.”—P. Amédée Jaubert, Géographie d’Edrisi, vol. i. p. 104; Paris, 1836.
[156] Book vi., chap. iv. § 16.
[157] Serpent Worship, p. 35; Welder, New York, 1877.
[158] Pliny’s Natural History, Book viii., chap. xi., translated by J. Bostock and H. T. Riley; Bohn, London, 1855.
[159] Pliny’s Natural History, Book viii., chap. xii.
[160] Ibid., Book viii., chap. xiii.
[161] Ibid., Book viii., chap. xiv.
[162] “At the present day the longest Italian serpents are the Æsculapian serpent (a harmless animal) and the Colubes quadrilineatus, neither of which exceeds ten feet in length.”—Nat. Hist., Book viii., chap. xiv.
[163] Aristotle’s History of Animals, Book viii., chap. xxvii. § 6, by R. Cresswell, Bohn’s Series; Bell, London, 1878.
[164] An abridgment of these travels is contained in Voyages par Pierre Bergeron, à la Haye, 1735. They were originally written in Hebrew, translated into Latin by Benoit Arian Montare, and subsequently into French. [The introduction refers to his return to Castille in 1173, presumably after the termination of his voyages; but in the opening paragraph there is a marginal note giving the same date to his setting out from Sarragossa.] Sir John Mandeville gives a similar account in speaking of the tower of Babylon; he says, “but it is full long sithe that any man durste neyhe to the Tour: for it is all deserte and fulle of Dragouns and grete serpents, and fulle of dyverse venemous Bestes alle about he.”—The Voyages of Sir John Mandeville, Kt., p. 40; J. O. Halliwell, London, 1839.