Book 22
15.26
These same birds meet the winged armies of snakes which issue from the marshes of Arabia, producing deadly poisons, and before they leave their own lands vanquish them in battles in the air, and devour them. And it is said of those birds that they lay their eggs through their beaks.See Aristotle, De Gen. iii. 6.
15.27
Egypt also breeds innumerable serpents, surpassing all their destructive kind in fierceness: basilisks, amphisbaenae, scytalae, acontiae, dipsades, vipers, and many others,The basilisk was found principally in the Cyrenaica and got its name from a white spot on its head, resembling a diadem; Pliny, N.H. viii. 78. The amphisbaenae were so-called from moving forwards and backward. The scytalae were long and slender like a staff (σκυτάλη). The acontiae are called by Pliny (viii. 85) by the Latin name iaculus, javelin. The dipsades caused excessive thirst (δίψος). These snakes are not found in Egypt in modern times, and the ibis has gone to its native Aethiopia. all of which are easily surpassed in size and beauty by the asp, which never of its own accord leaves the bed of the Nile.Apparently a misunderstanding of Lucan, xi. 704 f., ipsa caloris egens gelidum non transit in orbem sponte sua Niloque tenus metitur harenas, needing heat, the asp never of its own accord passes into cold regions, but traverses the desert as far as the Nile and no farther (Lucan, L.C.L., p. 557).
