N I G H T B R I N G E R . S E
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BASILISK
Of all the legendary monsters there were no more hideous than the basilisk [Gallo Conoda di Serpente], also cockatrice. It was partly a snake, partly a rooster and came out from an egg that had been layed by a seven years old rooster at the time when Sirius was high. The egg was spherical and covered of a thick membrane. Sometimes a toad was brooding the egg... for nine years. The creature that came out from the egg after this hade a breath that parched the earth and a look that could kill everything - even the basilisk itself.
Many infidels deny this creature's existence, but Semprello Aurator saw and handled one that had been blinded by lightning as a punishment for having fatally gased on a lady of rank whom Jupiter loved. Juno afterward restored the reptile's sight and hid it in a cave. Nothing is so well attasted by the ancients as the existence of the basilisk.
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