Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 410

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With reference to serpents, it is generally known, that they assume the colour of the soil in which they conceal themselves. The different species of them are innumerable. The cerastes1745 has little horns, often four in number, projecting from the body, by the movement of which it attracts birds, while the rest of its body lies concealed.1746 The amphisbæna1747 has two heads,1748 that is to say, it has a second one at the tail, as though one mouth were too little for the discharge of all its venom. Some serpents have scales, some a mottled skin, and they are all possessed of a deadly poison. The jaculus1749 darts from the branches of trees; and it is not only to our feet that the serpent is formidable, for these fly through the air even, just as though they were hurled from an engine.1750 The neck of the asp1751 puffs out,1752 and there is no remedy whatever against its sting, except the instant excision of the affected part.1753 This reptile, which is thus deadly, is possessed of this one sense, or rather affection; the male and the female are generally found together,1754 and the one cannot live without the other; hence it is that, if one of them happens to be killed, the other takes incredible pains to avenge its death. It follows the slayer of its mate, and will single him out among ever such a large number of people, by a sort of instinctive knowledge; with this object it overcomes all difficulties, travels any distance, and is only to be avoided by the intervention of rivers or an accelerated flight. It is really difficult to decide, whether Nature has altogether been more liberal of good or of evil. First of all, however, she has given to this pest but weak powers of sight, and has placed the eyes, not in the front of the head, so that it may see straight before it, but in the temples, so that it is more frequently put in motion by the approach of the footstep than through the sight. (24.) The ichneumon, too, is its enemy1755 to the very death.