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The Dragon: Egypt

Cicero, again, speaks of the ibis as being a very large bird, with strong legs, and a horny long beak, which destroys a great number of serpents, and keeps Egypt free from pestilential diseases, by killing and devouring the flying serpents, brought from the deserts of Lybia by the southwest wind, and so preventing the mischief which might * Book viii. chap. xxxv. + Pharsalia, Book ix. 1 attend their biting while alive, or from any infection when dead.

There are not unfrequent allusions in ancient history to serpents having become so numerous as to constitute a perfect plague; the dreadful mortality caused among the Israelites by the fiery serpents spoken of in Numbers is a case in point, and another * is the migration of the Neuri from their own country into that of the Budini, one generation before the attack of Darius, in consequence of the incursion of a huge multitude of serpents. It is stated that some of these were produced in their own country, but for the most part they came in from the deserts of the north. The home of the Neuri appears to have been to the northwest of the Pontus Euxinus, pretty much in the position of Poland, and I believe that at the present day the only harmful reptile occurring in it is the viper common to the rest of Europe. Diodorus Siculust mentions a tradition that the Cerastes had once made an irruption into Egypt in such numbers as to have depopulated a great portion of the inhabited districts.

These stories are interesting as showing a migratory instinct occurring in certain serpents, either periodically or occasionally, and are thus to some extent corroborative of the account of the annual invasion of Egypt by serpents, referred to in a previous page. They also, I think, confirm the impression that serpents were more numerous in the days of early history, and had a larger area of distribution than they have now, and that possibly some species, such as the Arabian and flying serpents, which have since become extinct, then existed. Thus the boa is spoken of by Pliny as occurring commonly in Italy, and growing to such a vast size that a child was found entire in one of them, which was killed on the Vatican Hill during the reign of the * Herodotus, Book iv. chap. cv. † Book iii. chap. xx.

Emperor Claudius. Yet at the present day there are no snakes existing there at all corresponding to this description. Parallel instances of invasions of animals materially affecting the prosperity of man are doubtless familiar to my readers, such as the occasional migration of lemmings, passage of rats, flights of locusts, or the ravages caused by the Colorado beetle; but many are perhaps quite unaware what a terrible plague can be established, in the course of a very few years, by the prolific unchecked multiplication of even so harmless, innocent, and useful an animal as the common rabbit. The descendants of a few imported pairs have laid waste extensive districts of Australia and New Zealand, necessitated an enormous expenditure for their extirpation, and have at the present day* caused such a widespread destruc- * "It may be some comfort to graziers and selectors who are struggling, under many discouragements, to suppress the rabbit plague in Victoria, to learn that our condition, bad as it is, is certainly less serious than that of New Zealand. There, not only is an immense area of good country being abandoned in consequence of the inability of lessees to bear the great expense of clearing the land of rabbits, but, owing to the increase of the pest, the number of sheep depastured is decreasing at a serious rate. Three years ago the number exceeded thirteen millions; but it is estimated that they have since been diminished by two millions, while the exports of the colony have, in consequence, fallen off to the extent of £500,000 per annum. A Rabbit Nuisance Act has been in existence for some time, but it is obviously inefficient, and it is now proposed to make its provisions more stringent, and applicable alike to the Government as well as to private landowners. A select committee of both Houses of the Legislature, which has recently taken a large amount of evidence upon this subject, reports in the most emphatic terms its conviction that unless immediate and energetic action is taken to arrest the further extension of, and to suppress the plague, the result will be ruinous to the colony. A perusal of the evidence adduced decidedly supports this opinion. Many of the squatters cannot be accused of apathy. Some of them have employed scores of men, and spent thousands of pounds a year in ineffectual efforts to eradicate the rabbits from their runs. One firm last year is believed to have killed no less than 500,000; but the following spring their run was in as bad a state as if they had never put any poison down. tion of property in the latter country, that large areas of ground have actually had to be abandoned and entirely surrendered to them.

It is interesting to find in the work of the Arabic geographer El Edrisi a tradition of an island in the Atlantic, called Laca, off the north-west coast of Africa, having been formerly inhabited, but abandoned on account of the excessive multiplication of serpents on it. According to Scaligerus, the mountains dividing the kingdom of Narsinga from Malabar produce many wild beasts, among which may be enumerated winged dragons, who are able to destroy any one approaching their breath.

Megasthenes (tradente Æliano) relates that winged serpents are found in India; where it is stated that they are noxious, fly only by night, and that contact with their urine destroys portions of animals.