Bestiary: basilisk, weasel, and cerastes
The basilisk's lethal venom; the weasel that slays it by scent; and the leaf-hidden horned cerastes.
A full text page of the bestiary in mirror script, written with the notebook inverted and without illustration. It completes the basilisk entry, whose venom runs up a horseman's lance to kill both rider and mount, and which withers crops, grass and stone. The weasel (or ermine) follows, killing the basilisk with the smell of its scattered urine, an odor that often kills the weasel too. The page closes with the cerastes, which hides under leaves showing only its four movable horns to lure birds, then coils around and devours them.
On this page
The basilisk's venom slays man and horse
The passage completes the basilisk entry: though the creature is killed by a horseman's lance, its venom runs up the shaft to kill both rider and mount. It is said to ruin even the crops it merely breathes upon, to wither grass and to split stones.
The weasel that kills the basilisk by scent
The weasel, or ermine, finding the basilisk's lair, destroys it with the smell of its own scattered urine. The same odor, the note adds, often kills the weasel itself.
The cerastes that fishes for birds with its horns
The cerastes has four small movable horns; to feed, it buries its whole body under leaves, leaving only the horns exposed. Their motion makes the horns look to birds like little worms at play, so the birds swoop to peck, and the snake coils around them in a circle and devours them.