CHAPTER XV

Of the Amphisbæna.

That the Amphisbæna, that is, a smaller kind of Serpent, which moveth forward and backward, hath two heads, or one at either extream, was affirmed first by _Nicander_, and after by many others, by the Author of the Book _De Theriaca ad Pisonem_, ascribed unto _Galen_; more plainly _Pliny_, _Geminum habet caput, tanquam parum esset uno ore effundi venenum_: but _Ælian_ most confidently, who referring the conceit of _Chimera_ and _Hydra_ unto Fables, hath set down this as an undeniable truth.

Whereunto while men assent, and can believe a bicipitous conformation in any continued species, they admit a gemination of principle parts, not naturally discovered in any Animal. True it is that other parts in Animals are not equal; for some make their progression with many legs, even to the number of an hundred, as _Juli_, _Scolopendræ_; or such as are termed _Centipedes_: some fly with two wings, as Birds and many Insects, some with four, as all farinaceous or mealy-winged Animals, as Butterflies, and Moths: all vaginipennous or sheath-winged Insects, as Beetles and Dorrs. Some have three Testicles, as _Aristotle_ speaks of the Buzzard; and some have four stomachs, as horned and ruminating Animals; but for the principle parts, the Liver, Heart, and especially the brains; regularly they are but one in any kind or species whatsoever.

And were there any such species or natural kind of animal, it would be hard to make good those six positions of body, which according to the three dimensions are ascribed unto every Animal: that is, _infra_, _supra_, _ante_, _retro_, _dextrosum_, _sinistrosum_: for if (as it is determined) that be the anterior and upper part, wherein the senses are placed, and that the posterior and lower part which is opposite thereunto, there is no inferiour or former part in this Animal; for the senses being placed at both extreams, doth make both ends anterior, which is impossible; the terms being Relative, which mutually subsist, and are not without each other. And therefore this duplicity was ill contrived to place one head at both extreams, and had been more tolerable to have setled three or four at one. And therefore also Poets have been more reasonable then Philosophers, and _Geryon_ or _Cerberus_ less monstrous than _Amphisbæna_.

Again, if any such thing there were, it were not to be obtruded by the name of _Amphisbæna_, or as an Animal of one denomination; for properly that Animal is not one, but multiplicious or many, which hath a duplicity or gemination of principal parts. And this doth _Aristotle_ define, when he affirmeth a monster is to be esteemed one or many, according to its principle, which he conceived the heart, whence he derived the original of Nerves, and thereto ascribed many acts which Physitians assign unto the brain: and therefore if it cannot be called one, which hath a duplicity of hearts in his sense, it cannot receive that appellation with a plurality of heads in ours. And this the practice of Christians hath acknowledged, who have baptized these geminous births, and double connascencies with several names, as conceiving in them a distinction of souls, upon the divided execution of their functions; that is, while one wept, the other laughing; while one was silent, the other speaking; while one awaked, the other sleeping; as is declared by three remarkable examples in _Petrarch_, _Vincentius_ and the _Scottish_ History of _Buchanan_.

It is not denied there have been bicipitous Serpents with the head at each extream, for an example hereof we find in _Aristotle_, and of the like form in _Aldrovandus_ we meet with the Icon of a Lizzard; and of this kind perhaps might that _Amphisbæna_ be, the picture whereof _Cassianus Puteus_ shewed unto the learned _Faber_. Which double formations do often happen unto multiparous generations, more especially that of Serpents; whose productions being numerous, and their Eggs in chains or links together (which sometime conjoin and inoculate into each other) they may unite into various shapes and come out in mixed formations. But these are monstrous productions, beside the intention of Nature, and the statutes of generation, neither begotten of like parents, nor begetting the like again, but irregularly produced, do stand as Anomalies in the general Book of Nature. Which being shifts and forced pieces, rather then genuine and proper effects, they afford us no illation; nor is it reasonable to conclude, from a monstrosity unto a species, or from accidental effects, unto the regular works of Nature.

Lastly, The ground of the conceit was the figure of this Animal, and motion oft-times both ways; for described it is to be like a worm, and so equally framed at both extreams, that at an ordinary distance it is no easie matter to determine which is the head; and therefore some observing them to move both ways, have given the appellation of heads unto both extreams, which is no proper and warrantable denomination; for many Animals with one head, do ordinarily perform both different and contrary Motions; Crabs move sideling, Lobsters will swim swiftly backward, Worms and Leeches will move both ways; and so will most of those Animals, whose bodies consist of round and annulary fibers, and move by undulation; that is, like the waves of the Sea, the one protruding the other, by inversion whereof they make a backward Motion.

Upon the same ground hath arisen the same mistake concerning the Scolopendra or hundred-footed Insect, as is delivered by _Rhodiginus_ from the Scholiast of _Nicander_: _Dicitur à Nicandro_, ἀμφικαρὴς, _id est dicephalus aut biceps fictum vero, quoniam retrorsum_ (_ut scribit Aristoteles), arrepit_, observed by _Aldrovandus_, but most plainly by _Muffetus_, who thus concludeth upon the Text of _Nicander_: _Tamen pace tanti authoris dixerim, unicum illi duntaxat caput licet pari facilitate, prorsum capite, retrorsum ducente cauda, incedat, quod Nicandro aliisque imposuisse dubito_: that is, under favour of so great an Author, the Scopolendra hath but one head, although with equal facility it moveth forward and backward, which I suspect deceived _Nicander_, and others.

And therefore we must crave leave to doubt of this double-headed Serpent until we have the advantage to behold or have an iterated ocular testimony concerning such as are sometimes mentioned by _American_ relators; and also such as _Cassianus Puteus_ shewed in a picture to _Johannes Faber_; and that which is set down under the name of _Amphisbæna Europæa_ in his learned discourse upon _Hernandez_ his History of _America_.