A brief DESCRIPTION of the NATURE OF THE Basilisk, or Cockatrice.  

Basilisci Prosopopoeia.   
Quos vivens vidi, ●e●●i, nunc mortuus, V●i  
Do Vitam; dum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 numerosa videt.  
All men I killed that I did see,  
But now I am Dead one lives by me.   

A brief DESCRIPTION of the NATURE OF THE Basilisk, or Cockatrice.  
BEing lately in Holland I met with a Doctor in Physic, who having traveled in most parts of the World, brought a Basilisk, otherwise called a Cockatrice out of Ethiopia; he commiserating my sad Condition, did bestow it upon me, to the end that by showing this Rarity to my Honourable Benefactors, I might invite their Charity towards me. But because I found some made it a scruple, whether there was any such living Creature which can kill men by only looking on them; I thought worth the while to search into the works of many Authors about it, and found that the Romans did call it in Latin, Regulus, that is to say, a little King, the reason why they did call it so, was partly because he wears a Crest on his head, somewhat like a Crown, and partly because he is a terror to all other living Creatures, snatching away their Food from them, and killing them by the penetrating faculty of his Poison.  
Aelian saith that it is of a yellowish colour.  
Albertus' magnus thinks that it is bred out of an Egg, and saith that the shape of his body is somewhat like a Cock, but that his Tail is like that of a Serpent.  
Solimus asserteth that the Cockatrice is not only destructive to all other living Creatures, but that it also soils, corrupts and poisons the very Ground on which it goes.  
In the time of Alexander the great, there was one of them which lying hid in a Wall, killed a great troop of his Soldiers by the poisonous glances of his Eyes upon them.  
I did also search into the works of Pliny who treating of all Animals, doth assert in his eight Book, that there is a Serpent in Ethiopia of the bigness of a Man's finger, which killeth men by his Eyesight.  
The Holy Scripture also maketh mention of the Cockatrice in the 91 Psalm ver. 13. in the 23 of the Proverbs ver. 31. Esaias 11. ver. 8. and also the 14th Chapter ver. 29. and Jeremy Chap. 8. and 7. verse.  
That which might be reputed a piece of a Mountebank to some, cannot be esteemed shameful for a Stranger, who being destitute of all Earthly Comfort, doth seek an honest livelihood without doing any injury to no man; and I hope that my generous Benefactors will not despise this manner of seeking a poor subsistence, but rather that out of their Charity, will help a distressed Stranger who is reduced to very great straits.