Asp

or Haje, a venomous serpent of Egypt akin to the cobra of India. It is three to five feet long. Like the cobra, it dilates the loose folds of the neck into a hood. The jugglers of Cairo extract its fangs and teach it to dance for the amusement of the people. Both the asp and the cobra are fond of music. It is said that these jugglers of today can throw the asp into a rod-like rigor by pressing the nape of its neck, and it has been suggested that a similar trick was performed before Pharoah. Exodus vii: 9-12. Despite its venom, the asp was regarded as the sacred guardian of temples. It is supposed to have been another kind of asp, really a viper, which was smuggled in to Queen Cleopatra in a basket of fruit. The story is that she plunged her bare arm into the basket, preferring to die by the bite of a serpent, rather than walk the streets of Rome in chains to grace the triumph of Augustus. See Cobra; Cleopatra