70 ICHNEU MON.

Lucan, in his ‘“‘Pharsalia,” written about the year 62:—

“Thus oft th’ ichneumon on the banks of Nile,
Tnvades the deadly aspie by a wile;

While artfully his slender tail is play’d,

The serpent darts upon the dancing shade;
Then turning on the foe, with swift surprise,
Full on the throat the nimble seizer flies,

The gasping snake expires beneath the wound,
His gushing jaws with poisonous floods abound,
And shed the fruitless mischief on the ground.”

This animal frequents the banks of rivers, and, like
the otter, is an expert diver and swimmer, and is able
to remain for a considerable time under the water. In
that country, however, as is so well known, inundations
periodically occur, and then the ichneumon resorts to
higher grounds, and approaches near to the habitations
of man.