When any are wounded by these venemous Animals, the Hair of the Head immediately falls off, the whole Body turns scurfy, leprous and putrid; yea, the very Bones, as well as the Flesh, putrify and corrupt; therefore some call it the putrid Serpent[[115]]. The Poet accounts for the Symptoms of its Poison[[116]].
[115]. Nonnulli ex Scoligero, non male putriam vocare. Jonstonus, p. 14.
[116]. Mors est ante oculos Seps stetit exiguus—Parva modo Serpens, sed qua nonnulla cruentæ. Fugit rupta cutis. Lucan Pharsal. lib. ix. p. 271.
These Serpents are Asiaticks, Inhabitants of the Rocks in Syria; Syria, the supposed western Porch of Paradise. These resemble the Hemorrhous in Colour and external Figure: According to Ælian, they change into the Similitude of the Things they light upon. He might, I think, as well have said, they chang’d their Notes on different Trees, since there is a kind of relation between Musick and Colour, as the Learned Newton observes.
VI. KOKOB Serpent, is between three and four Foot long, of a dusky Colour, and made beautiful by Spots of red and light Blue. Its Wounds are terrible, and the Effects not very dissimilar to those of the Hemorrhous. Nierembergius observes, that it resides among Stones; and when it rambles out, and hears any Noise, makes towards it like a mighty Hero. Thus the Gallic Monarch, upon Debates among Princes, marches out as sovereign Umpire of Europe, and never returns home but by way of Lorrain, Corsica, Palatine, or Spanish Flanders.
VII. The Asp, so called from the Asperity of its Skin, as Arnoldus, or from aspiciendo, because of the Acuteness of its Eyes. A Serpent well known, but not accurately describ’d, says the Learned Mr. Ray: Some make it a small Serpent, others say ’tis several Feet long; and both may judge right, for according to Ælian, there are various Species of Asps; some a Foot and half long, and others six.
Among these different Proportions, the least of them is said to be most hurtful, and kills the soonest. Its Poison is so dangerous and quick in its Operation, that it kills almost in the very Instant that it bites, without a Possibility of applying any Remedy: They die within three Hours, says my learned Author[[117]]; and the manner of their dying by Sleep and Lethargy, without Pain, made Cleopatra chuse it as the easiest way of dispatching herself. (More of this further on.)
[117]. Calmet in Verbum, p. 213.
These Aspick Serpents, are the Growth of several Climates: Olaus observed some of them in the northern Parts, of rugged and rough Skins, ash Colour, sparkling Eyes, three or four Cubits long[[118]]; tho’ Lovers of warm Situations, yet delight in shady Retirements[[119]]. Many of them are found in the Spanish Islands[[TN]]; but Egypt, Libya, and other Places in Africa claim the greatest Right to them, for there they are most numerous and venemous.
[118]. Jonstonus Hist. de Serp. p. 15.