THE COCKATRICE, OE BASILISK.
The fruitful imagination of man knows hardly any bounds. The animal which bears the name of Basilisk was originally supposed to be a serpent, with a sort of comb or crown on its head: but that was not sufficiently marvellous. It was supposed also to be hatched from a cock’s egg, upon which a snake had performed the office of incubation; and the animal had the head of a cock, and the wings and tail of a dragon. Hatched near a spring of water, the common resort of serpents, it was asserted that, frightened at his own extraordinary shape, he soon precipitated himself to the bottom, whence, by the mortal look from his fiery eyes, he had the power of killing whoever dared to gaze at him. There are no less than four kinds of basilisks mentioned by various authors. One burnt up everything near him, and reduced the place he lived in to a complete desert; another kind had the power of producing a stony rigidity in whoever looked at them, which was followed by death; or the gazers’ flesh fell from their bones. The basilisk was said to be killed by carrying a mirror to its lair; and the creature encountering the reflection of its own baleful glance, was killed with its own weapons.