ice,) writhed the body of a large snake; the eagle's neck was erect,
his head slightly bent, his wonderfully expressive eye glancing downwards,
his hooked beak opening and disclosing the tongue slightly raised; the
scant feathers round the olfactory fissures up; the snake hissing, his
head elevated, and darting upwards, to anticipate the lacerating blow:

"_Hic_ sinuosa volumina versat,
Arrectisque horret squammis, et sibilat ore,
Arduus insurgens; _illa_ haud minus urget adunco,
Luctantem rostro."

The delusion as to the substance and weight of the bird was perfect. At
first we doubted being able to lift him without considerable effort. On
making the attempt, however, we find him light as a Nola jar. A glorious
bird is the eagle, well worthy the attention and regard bestowed on him in
ancient times by prophet, priest, and poet; but had they been silent, we
should have learned the veneration in which he was popularly held by the
frequent recurrence of his image--whether incised on Egyptian obelisk,
chiselled by Grecian hands on ornamented casque, guarding the tombs of
heroes, grasping the thunderbolts of colossal Joves, perched on Latin,
standards, carrying off young Ganymedes to wait, _invita Junone_, on the
gods above[5]--or bearing aloft, on consecrated coin, some most religious
and gracious _Augusta_ to Glory and to Olympus!

One day, meeting the elder Cadet in the street returning alone from the
bird-market--a very unusual occurrence, for they generally hunted in
couples--we asked after the daughter, and hearing she was _ammalata
assai_, and wanted one of our little pills to set her to rights, turned in
with the mother, and found the young _naturalista_ reclining on an
ill-stuffed _bergere_, with a large Coluber coiled round her temples, and
a half-prepared Hoopoe in her hand. In the same apartment were a vulture
picking an old shoe to pieces under the belly of an Esquimaux dog, and
some little land-tortoises nibbling away at a large lettuce in the middle
of the floor. Our inquiries were somewhat embarrassed by the unusual
circumstances of our patient, particularly by the presence of the snake,
which now began to untwist. "See! he has recognised his master," said the
dame: "or perhaps has raised his head with a view of taking part in the
consultation." We had seen snakes entwining the lovely brow of Medusa, in
marble, cameo, and intaglio--painted snakes in clusters hissing in the
hair of the Eumenid