“Creatures venomous, and offensive to man”
The basilisk, dipsas, and amphisbaena all figure in Josuah Sylvester’s list of “Creatures venomous, and offensive to man” (pp. 148-149 of his translation Du Bartas his deuine weekes and workes of 1611). Sylvester and other writers of natural history described the habits of what we would consider to be mythical serpents alongside more standard animals, suggesting that many early modern people may have believed these fantastic creatures to exist. A basilisk or cockatrice is a mythical reptile which is said to hatch from a cock’s egg and to be able to kill its prey just by looking (OED). A catoblepas was described by ancient authors as an African animal that may have resembled a buffalo or gnu (OED), but Pliny in The historie of the world: commonly called, The naturall historie of C. Plinius Secundus groups the basilisk and catoblepas together as venomous serpents whose looks have the power to kill. The amphisbaena is a mythical serpent with two heads which can move in either direction and the dipsas is a mythical serpent whose bite was said to cause a raging thirst (OED). Edward Topsell catalogued the effects of the poisons of the basilisk, amphisbaena, and dipsas in The historie of serpents.
Among all liuing creatures, there is none that perrisheth sooner then dooth a man by the poyson of a Cockatrice, for with his sight he killeth him, because the beames of the Cockatrices eyes, doe corrupt the visible spirit of a man, which visible spirit corrupted, all the other spirits comming from the braine and life of the hart, are thereby corrupted, & so the man dyeth: euen as women in their monthly courses doe vitiat their looking-glasses, or as a Wolfe suddainly meeting a man, taketh from him his voyce, or at the least-wise maketh him hoarse.
To conclude, this poyson infecteth the ayre, and the ayre so infected killeth all liuing things, and likewise all greene things, fruites, and plants of the earth: it burneth vp the grasse where-vppon it goeth or creepeth, & the fowles of the ayre fall downe dead when they come neere his denne or lodging. Some-times hee byteth a man or a beast, and by that wound the blood turneth into choller, and so the whole body becommeth yellow as gold, presently killing all that touch it, or come neere it.
Among the Hesperian Æthiopians there is a fountain named Nigris, the head (as many haue thought) of the riuer Nilus, and good reason there is for it, alledged by vs before: neere which spring keepeth a wild beast called Catoblepes, little of body otherwise, heauy also and slow in al his limnes besides, but his head only is so great that his body is hardly able to beare it, he alwaies carrieth it downe to the earth, for if hee did not so, hee were able to kill all mankind; for there is not one that looketh vpon his eies, but he dies presently. The like propertie hath the serpent called a Basiliske: bred it is in the prouince Cyrenaica, and is not aboue twelue fingers bredth long: a white spot like a starre it carrieth on the head, and sets it out like a coronet or diadem: if he but hisse once, no other serpents dare come neere: hee creepeth not winding and crawling by as other serpents doe, with one part of the body driuing, the other forward, but goeth vpright and aloft from the ground with one halfe part of his body: he killeth all trees and shrubs not onely that he toucheth, but also that hee breatheth vpon: as for grasse and herbes, those he sindgeth and burneth vp, yea, and breaketh stones in sunder: so venimous and deadly he is.
Topsell’s description of the amphisbaena’s poison, including its risk to pregnant women:
The wounds that come by the byting or stinging of this Serpent, are not great, but very small, and scarcely to be discerned outwardly, yet the accidents that followe, are like to those which ensue the bytings of Vipers, namely, inflamation, & a lingering death. The cure therefore must be the same which is applyed vnto the sting of Vipers. And peculiarly I finde not any medicine seruing for the cure of this poyson alone, except that which Pliny speaketh of, namely Coriander drunke by the patient, or layd to the sore.
It is reported by Gallen and Greuinus, that if a woman with childe doe chaunce to goe ouer one of these Double-headed-serpents dead, shee shall suffer abortment, and yet that they may keepe them in their pockets aliue without danger in boxes. The reason of this is giuen by Greuinus, because of the vapoure assending from the dead serpent, by a secrete antypathy against humane nature, which suffocateth the childe in the mothers wombe. And thus much for this Serpent.
Topsell’s description of the dipsas’s poison:
As we haue said already, a man or beast wounded with this serpent, is afflicted with intollerable thirst, insomuch as it is easier for him to breake his belly, then to quench his thirst with drinking, alwaies gaping like a Bull, casteth himselfe downe into the water, & maketh no spare of the cold liquor, but continually sucketh it in till either the belly breake, or the poyson driue out the life, by ouer-comming the vitall Spirites. To conclude, beside all the symptomes which follow the biting of Vipers, which are common to this serpent, this also followeth them, that the party afflicted can neither make water, vomit, nor sweat, so that they perish by one of these two waies: first either they are burned vp by the heat of the poyson, if they come not at water to drinke, or else if they come by water, they are so vnsatiable, that their bellies first swell aboue measure, and soone breake about their priuy partes.