The ancients believed in a horrible little brute called the Amphisbena, "a small kind of serpent which moveth backward or forward, and path two heads, one at either extreme." Galen, Pliny, Nicander, and many other early
writers gravely describe this especially objectionable little reptile. }Elian, who was so far in advance of his age as to call the Chimera and Hydra fables, believed fully in the amphisbena. Some few serpents really have the power of taking a mean advantage of those they assault by springing at them from directions not always "straight to your front," as the drill sergeants express it,* but none, of course, have an equal facility for moving either back-ward or forward ; and certainly still more of course, no serpent at present known to science, or likely to be, has a head " at either extreme."
|
|