COCKATRICE, a fabulous monster, the existence of which was firmly believed in throughout ancient and mediaeval times,—descriptions and figures of it appearing in the natural history works of such writers as Pliny and Aldrovandus, those of the latter published so late as the beginning of the 17th century. Produced from a cock’s egg hatched by a serpent, it was believed to possess the most deadly powers, plants withering at its touch, and men and animals dying poisoned by its look. It stood in awe, however, of the cock, the sound of whose crowing killed it, and consequently travellers were wont to take this bird with them in travelling over regions supposed to abound in cockatrices. The weasel alone among mammals w as unaffected by the glance of its evil eye, and attacked it at all times successfully; for when wounded by the monster’s teeth it found a ready remedy in rue—the only plant which the cockatrice could not wither. This myth reminds one of the real contests between the weasel-like mungoos of India and the deadly cobra, in which the latter is generally killed. The term “cockatrice” is employed on four occasions in the English translation of the Bible, in all of which it denotes nothing more than an exceedingly venomous reptile; it seems also to be synonymous with “Basilisk,” the mythical king of serpents.

צפען, or צפעי, Proverbs xxiii, 32; Isaiah xi, 8; xiv, 29; lix, 5; Jer. viii, 17. A venomous serpent. The original Hebrew word has been variously rendered, the _aspic_, the _regulus_, the _hydra_, the _hemorhoos_, the _viper_, and the _cerastes_. In Isaiah xi, 8, this serpent is evidently intended for a proportionate advance in malignity beyond the _peten_ which precedes it; and in xiv, 29, it must mean a worse kind of serpent than the _nahash_. In lix, 5, it is referred to as oviparous. In Jer. viii, 17, Dr. Blayney, after Aquila, retains the rendering of basilisk. Bochart, who thinks it to be the regulus or basilisk, says that it may be so denominated by an onomatopœia from its hissing; and accordingly it is hence called in Latin _sibilus_, “the hisser.” So the Arabic _saphaa_ signifies “flatu adurere,” [to scorch with a blast.] The Chaldee paraphrast, the Syriac, and the Arabic, render it the _hurman_ or _horman_; which rabbi Selomo on Gen. xlix, 17, declares to be the _tziphoni_ of the Hebrews: “_Hurman vocatur species, cujus morsus est insanabilis. Is est Hebræis_ tziphoni, _et Chaldaicè dicitur_ hurman, _quia omnia facit_ חרם _vastationem; id est, quia omnia vastat, et ad internecionem destruit._” [The species is called _hurman_, whose bite is incurable. It is the _tziphoni_ of the Hebrews, and is called in Chaldee _hurman_, because it makes all things חרם--a waste; that is, because it lays waste and utterly destroys every thing.]