Basilisk

baz'i-lisk, the fabled, eight-legged, lizard-like king of dragons and serpents. It is now considered that the basilisk and the cockatrice were the same superstitious conception under different names. The cockatrice was produced from an egg laid by a very old cock and hatched by a toad. "It inhabited the deserts of Africa, and, indeed, could only inhabit a desert, for its breath burned up all vegetation; the flesh fell from the bones of any animal with which it came in contact, and its very look was fatal to life; but brave men could venture into cautious contest with it by the use of a mirror, which reflected back its deadly glance upon itself." The name has been applied by zoologists to a harmless hooded lizard of South America.