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It is found in Ethiopia near to the source Nigricapo. It is not a
very large animal, is sluggish in all its parts, and its head is so
large that it carries it with difficulty, in such wise that it
always droops towards the ground; otherwise it would be a great pest
to man, for any one on whom it fixes its eyes dies immediately.
[Footnote: Leonardo undoubtedly derived these remarks as to the
Catoblepas from Pliny, Hist. Nat. VIII. 21 (al. 32): Apud Hesperios
Aethiopas fons est Nigris (different readings), ut plerique
existimavere, Nili caput.-----Juxta hunc fera appellatur catoblepas,
modica alioquin, ceterisque membris iners, caput tantum praegrave
aegre ferens; alias internecio humani generis, omnibus qui oculos
ejus videre, confestim morientibus. Aelian, Hist. An. gives a far
more minute description of the creature, but he says that it poisons
beasts not by its gaze, but by its venomous breath. Athenaeus 221 B,
mentions both. If Leonardo had known of these two passages, he would
scarcely have omitted the poisonous breath. (H. MULLER-STRUBING.)]
THE BASILISK.
This is found in the province of Cyrenaica and is not more than 12
fingers long. It has on its head a white spot after the fashion of a
diadem. It scares all serpents with its whistling. It resembles a
snake, but does not move by wriggling but from the centre forwards
to the right. It is said that one
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