monly ejected by a perforation in the fangs, or cheekteeth, in the act of biting. We learn, however, from several facts mentioned by Calmet, that "serpents have a power of throwing out from their mouth, a quantity of fluid of an injurious nature." The quantity cast out by the great red dragon, is in proportion to his immense size, and is called a flood or stream, which the earth, helping the woman, opened her mouth to receive. "Gregory, the friend of Ludolph, says in his history of Ethiopia, We have in our province, a sort of serpent as long as the arm. He is of a glowing red colour, but somewhat brownish. This animal has an offensive breath, and ejects a poison so venomous and stinking, that a man or beast within reach of it, is sure to perish quickly by it, unless immediate assistance be given."

"At Moure, a great snake, being half under a heap of stones and half out, a man cut it in two, at the part which was out from among the stones; and as soon as the heap was removed, the reptile turning, made up to the man, and spit such venom into his face as quite blinded him, and so he continued some days, but at last recovered his sight."g The prophet Jeremiah alludes also to the hideous voracity of the boa, where he predicts the destruction of Babylon, the cruel oppressor of his people : "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Bayblon, hath swallowed me up; he has filled his belly with my delicacies." The same writer, in his description of a severe famine, represents the wild ass upon the summit of a rock, "snuffing up the wind like dragons."i Nor do these terrible reptiles content themselves with catching the passing breeze; they are said to

& Barbot, in Churchill, vol. v, p. 213, quoted by Calmet, vol iv.
h Jer. li, 34.
† Ch. xiv, 6.

suck from the air, the birds that fly above them, by the strength of their breathing. When the ancient Hebrews observed the dragons erect, and with expanded jaws fetching a deep inspiration, they interpreted the circumstance as if these animals, with their eyes lifted up to heaven, complained to their Maker of their miserable condition, that hated by all creatures, and confined to the burning and sterile deserts, they dragged out a tedious and miserable existence. It was perhaps to some idea of this kind that Job referred, when, bemoaning the hardness of his lot, he complained: "I am a brother to dragons, and a companion of owls." He was unable to associate with mankind; cut off from the comforts of life, and doomed to wear out the rest of his days in poverty and wretchedness. The prophet Micah has the same allusion in the day of his adversity, to the habits of that reptile: "I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls." He may refer also to its hissing, which Ælian says is so loud, that it alarms and terrifies every creature within hearing.

Pliny, and many other writers affirm, that the dragon has no poison; but Homer seems to have entertained the opinion, that he became envenomed by the noxious herbs which he devoured.

Ως δε δρακων επι χειη ορέςερος ανδρα μενησι
Βεβρωκως κακα φαρμακα.

Il. lib. xxii, 1. 9, 394.

Ælian says in his history, that when the dragon meditates an attack on a man, or one of the lower animals, he feeds on deleterious roots. Other ancient writers affirm, that the pioson of the dragon is natural to him, and depends upon no adventitious circumstances, and that it is extremely active. Its envenomed tooth is thus celebrated by Lucan :

"Vos quoque qui cunctis innoxia numina terris,
Serpitis aurato nitidi fulgore dracones,
Pestiferos ardens facit Africa."

Lib. ix.

So deadly is the poison of the serpent which they called the dragon, that the barbarous warriors of antiquity, to secure the destruction of their enemies in battle, dipped in it the points of their arrows.

"Aurea tela quibus, de sanguine tincta draconis,
Mortifero splendore micant."

Prudentius Hamart. 1. 481.°

As the boa is well known to have no poison, these ancient writers must have referred to some other huge and destructive animal, to which they gave the name of the dragon.

These testimonies vindicate the correctness of Moses, who mentions in his dying song, "the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps;" or the venerable lawgiver more probably meant the poison of any large serpent, which the comprehensive sense of the original term sufficiently warrants.

The silent and barren wilderness is the chosen haunt of the dragon. It is on this account, the prophets of Jehovah, in predicting the fall of populous cities, so frequently declare, "they shall become the habitation of dragons; by which they mean to threaten them with complete and perpetual desolation. The same allusion is involved in the complaint of the Psalmist: "Thou hast broken us in the place of dragons;" or, as Aquila not improperly renders it, in the place which cannot be inhabited.

• See Bochart. Hieroz. lib. iii, cap. 14, p. 438.

P Alian, lib. vi, cap. 63.

But although the dragon often inhabits the dry and barren waste, yet, when at liberty to choose, he more willingly fixes his residence in the irriguous valley. What the prophet therefore asserts concerning the mystical, is equally true when applied to the real dragon: “The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls; because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen."P The dragon well at Jerusalem, mentioned by Nehemiah, seems to have taken its name from one of these snakes having fixed his residence there, during the long desolation of that city.

In the book of Revelation, the devil is called the "Old Serpent," probably in allusion to the long course of years through which it is believed that serpents in general, and particularly the dragon, protract their existence. Ælian affirms that he lives to an extreme old age. Nor is the dragon a name given to every wicked spirit, but seems to be appropriated to Satan, that arch fiend who beguiled our first mother; and designed to intimate, that he holds the same rank among apostate spirits, as the dragon among prostrate serpents: that he is a most subtile and cruel tempter, and that none whom he has marked for his prey, can escape by his own wisdom and power. Entering into the body of a serpent, most probably the great red dragon or boa, he seduced the first pair from their allegiance, involving them and all their posterity in sin and misery; and like the adder in the path, or the dragon by the well, lying in wait for the unwary passenger, he still watches with uneeasing vigilance and activity, to plunge us deeper in guilt and wretchedness. To this cause, perhaps, may be traced the hatred which animates every human bosom against the whole brood of the serpent; than which nothing is more odious, nothing more carefully shunned.

"Nempe ruri est uxor tua, quam dudum dixeras
Te odisse æque atque angues.”

Plaut. in Mercatore.

But so great is the inconsistency of the human mind, that the creature which is now an object of universal dislike, was, in early times, honoured with religious worship by every nation. Rites were devised and temples built to its honour; and priests were appointed to conduct the ceremonies. These miserable idolaters, appeared before the altars of their contemptible deity, in gorgeous vestments, their heads adorned with serpents, or with the figures of serpents embroidered on their tiaras, when the creatures themselves were not to be had; and in their frantic exclamations cried out, in evident allusion to the triumph which the old serpent obtained over our first mother, Eva, Eva. So completely was Satan permitted to insult our fallen race, that the serpent, his chosen agent in accomplishing our ruin, was actually raised to the first place among the deities of the heathen world, and reverenced by the most solemn acts of worship. The figure of the serpent adorned the portals of the proudest temples in the east. If, as many theologians believe, the apostate spirit fell in an attempt to seize the throne of the second Person of the Trinity, and rob him of his glory as the supreme ruler of the universe, that daring and restless adversary, still intent on his original purpose, endeavoured to retrieve his lost honour, and wreck his vengeance on Him whom he had made his foe, by introducing the serpent into the place of the second personage in the heaBryant's Anal. vol. i, p. 413, 449, 467.