[175] Vol. i. p. 601.
[176] See Proceedings of Royal Society of Tasmania, September 13, 1880. Mr. C. M. Officer states—“With reference to the Mindi or Mallee snake, it has often been described to me as a formidable creature of at least thirty feet in length, which confined itself to the Mallee scrub. No one, however, has ever seen one, for the simple reason that to see it is to die, so fierce it is, and so great its power of destruction. Like the Bunyip, I believe the Mindi to be a myth, a mere tradition.”
[177] Pinkerton’s Voyages, vol. xiv. p. 247.
[178] Ibid., vol. xiv. p. 514.
[179] It is interesting to compare this belief with stories given elsewhere, by Pliny, Book viii. chap. xiv., and Ælian, Book ii. chap. xxi., of the power of the serpents or dragons of the river Rhyndacus to attract birds by inhalation.
[180] Pinkerton’s Voyages, vol. xiv. p. 713.
[181] Herodotus, Book iii. chap. cvii., cviii.
[182] Herodotus, Book iii. chap. cviii.
[183] Herodotus, Book ii., chap. lxxv.
[184] Ibid., Book ii., chap. lxxvi.