(Python) still lingered in Eastern Europe. Huge tame snakes were
kept as sacred by the Macedonian women; and one of them (according
to Lucian) Peregrinus Proteus, the Cagliostro of his time, fitted
with a linen mask, and made it personate the god AEsculapius. In
the "Historia Lausiaca," cap. lii. is an account by an eye-witness
of a large snake in the Thebaid, whose track was "as if a beam had
been dragged along the sand." It terrifies the Syrian monks: but
the Egyptian monk sets to work to kill it, saying that he had seen
much larger--even up to fifteen cubits.

{121} Now Capo St. Angelo and the island of Cerigo, at the southern
point of Greece.

{123a} See p. 52. [Around footnote 52a in the text--DP.]

{123b} Probably dedicated to the Paphian Venus.

{130} The lives of these two hermits and that of St. Cuthbert will
be given in a future number.

{131} Sihor, the black river, was the ancient name of the Nile,
derived from the dark hue of its waters.

{159} Ammianus Marcellinus, Book xxv. cap. 9.

{160} By Dr. Burgess.

{163} History of Christianity, vol. iii. p. 109.

{203} An authentic fact.