Lucan. 270.
According to Pliny and other antient Historians, this Serpent in its Motion, inclines to the Erect; it goes half upright, the middle and posterior parts of the Body only touching the Ground. The Venom of the Basilisk is said to be so exalted, that if it bites a Staff, ’twill kill the Person that makes use of it; but this is Tradition without a Voucher[[159]].
[159]. Ælian. Gyllii Accessio, cap. xviii. p. 247. Jonstoni Historia Natural. Serp. p. 34, 35.
The reason why this Serpent is dubb’d King, is not because ’tis larger in bulk than others of the Fraternity, or because it wears a Crown, or because that Title seems to be recognized by a divine Prophet, who speaking of Ahaz and his Son Hezekiah, says, Out of the Serpent’s Root shall come forth a Cockatrice, and his Fruit shall be a fiery flying Serpent. The Hebrew expresses it by a word, that Signifies a Prince or King, but not with a View to Empire over the serpentine Race.
But ’tis most probable, that the royal Stile is given to this Serpent, because of its majestic Pace, which seems to be attended with an Air of Grandeur and Authority. It does not, like other Serpents, creep on the Earth; which if it did, the sight of it would not be frightful, but moving about, in a sort of an erect Posture, it looks like a Creature of another Species, therefore they conclude ’tis an Enemy. Serpents are for Uniformity, therefore can’t endure those that differ from them in the Mode of Motion.
’Tis said of this Creature, that its Poison infects the Air to that Degree, that no other Animal can live near it, according to the Tradition of the Elders famous for magnificent Tales. These little Furioso’s are bred in the Solitudes of Africa, and are also found in some other Places, and every where are terrible Neighbours.
The crown’d Basilisk leads me to Ovid, who, speaking of Man’s erect Posture, says ’tis a Mark of Distinction due to the Excellencies of the human Mind:
A Creature of a more exalted kind
Was wanting yet; and then was Man design’d,
Conscious of Thought, of more capacious Breast.——