" It was formerly believed that if
killed by a spear from on horseback the power of the poison
conducted through the weapon killed not only the rider, but the
horse also. To this Lucan alludes in these lines:
"What though the Moor the basilisk hath slain,
And pinned him lifeless to the sandy plain,
Up through the spear the subtle venom flies,
The hand imbibes it, and the victor dies."
Such a prodigy was not likely to be passed over in the legends of
the saints. Accordingly we find it recorded that a certain holy
man, going to a fountain in the desert, suddenly beheld a
basilisk. He immediately raised his eyes to heaven, and with a
pious appeal to the Deity laid the monster dead at his feet.
These wonderful powers of the basilisk are attested by a host of
learned persons, such as Galen, Avicenna, Scaliger, and others.
Occasionally one would demur to some part of the tale while he
admitted the rest. Jonston, a learned physician, sagely remarks,
"I would scarcely believe that it kills with its look, for who
could have seen it and lived to tell the story?" The worthy sage
was not aware that those who went to hunt the basilisk of this
sort took with them a mirror, which reflected back the deadly
glare upon its author, and by a kind of poetical justice slew the
basilisk with his own weapon.
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