BASILISK (the /3aathtaios of the Greeks, and Tsepha (

See also:

• COCKATRICE

cockatrice)  of the Hebrews), a name given by the ancients to a horrid monster of their own imagination, to which they attributed the most malignant powers and an equally fiendish appearance . The term is now applied, owing to a certain fanciful resemblance, to a genus of lizards belongingto the familylguanidae,the species of which are characterized by the presence,in the males, of an erectile crest on the head, and a still higher, likewise erectile crest—beset with scales—on the back, and another on the long tail . Basiliscus americanus reaches the length of one yard; its colour is green and brown, with dark crossbars, while the crest is reddish . This beautiful, strictly herbivorous creature is rather common amidst the luxuriant vegetation on the banks of rivers and streams of the Atlantic hot lands of Mexico and Guatemala . The lizards lie upon the branches of trees overhanging the water, into which they plunge at the slightest alarm . Then they propel themselves by rapid strokes of the hind limbs, beating the water in a semi-erect position and letting the long rudder-like tail drag behind . They are universally known as pasa-rips, i.e. ferrymen .