Asp, Rochester Bestiary, c.1230
The medieval bestiary records that there are many different types of asp all of which have a poisonous bite.
Some move with their mouth open steaming. When the asp notices a snake charmer trying to get it to come out of its hole and it doesn't want to, it will lie with one ear on the ground and put its tail in the other ear to stop from hearing the charmers magic sounds (Barber 2008).
Transcription
Translation
diversa species. Videlicet dipsa. Ipnalis. emorois.
prester. Dipsa; latine dicitur situla. quia quem mo-
morderit; siti perit. et est tante exiguitatis; ut
cum calcatur non videtur. Cuius venenum ante extin-
guit; quam senciatur. ut nec tristiciam inducat morituro3.
De quo poeta. Signiferum iuvenem tirrem sanguinis
aulum; tota capud retro dipsa calcata momordit.
The asp kills with its poisoned bite. There are different types of this. Evidently: dipsa, Ipnalis, emorois, prester. Dipped; in Latin it is called a bucket, because it has bitten; he perishes of thirst, and there is so littleness; so that when it is trodden it is not seen. Whose poison he extinguishes before; as it should be felt, so as not to bring sadness to the dying. About which the poet He bit down on a significant young man with a blood stream, his entire head was trampled on the back.
apsidis sompno necat. Hanc sibi cleopatra appo-
suit. et morte quasi sompno soluta est. Emorois;
sanguinem totum humanum per dissolutas venas desu-
dare facit. Prester; semper ore patenti et vaporan-
ti; currit. Unde poeta. Oraque distendens avidus
fumantia prester. Hic quem percusserit disten-
ditur. enormique corpulentia necatur. Extube-
ratum enim putredo sequitur. Fertur autem.
omnis aspis cum ceperit pati incantatorem. ut eam
quibusdam incantationibus a cavernis suis extra-
hant; illa cum exire noluerit; unam aurem
in terram premit. alteram obturat cauda;
et operit. atque ita voces illas magicas non audi-
ens; non exit ad incantantem. Nomine igitur aspidis
dicuntur maliciosi iudei. sive venenosi he-
retici. Unde in deuteronomio. Fel draconum
vinum eorum. et venenum aspidum insanabile;
Plinius dicit venenum aspidis aceto repelli.
There was hardly any pain or sensation in the tooth. Sleep kills the type of apse. Cleopatra put this to him, and in death she was dissolved as in a dream. hemorrhoids; it causes the whole human blood to flow out through the dilapidated veins. Priest; always open-mouthed and steaming; running Hence the poet. And stretching out his mouth, the avid smoking priest. Here he whom he strikes is distended, and his enormous corpulence is killed. For exhumation is followed by decay. Now it is said that every wasp, when it has caught a charmer, has to draw it out of its caves by certain incantations; when she refused to go out; he presses one ear to the ground, the tail stops the other; and he covers, and thus not hearing those magical voices; does not go out to enchantment. Therefore, by the name of asps, the malicious Jews are called, or poisonous heretics. Hence in Deuteronomy. Their wine is the gall of dragons, and the poison of the asp is incurable. Pliny says that the poison of the asp is repelled by vinegar.