Lesson 9 - Basilisk

Available: April 16
Due Date: May 6. Please try to hand in assignments before the due date. Due to time zones, while you may think you still have an hour left, in actuality the assignment may have closed 2 hours ago.

BASILISK- MoMC- XXXXX



The first recorded Basilisk was bred by Herpo the Foul, a Greek Dark Wizard and Parselmouth. He had discovered that a chicken egg hatched beneath a toad would produce a gigantic serpent possessed of extraordinaily dangerous powers. It is a brilliant green serpent that may reach up to 50 feet in length. Also known as the King of Serpents, the male Basilisk has a scarlet plume upon its head. It has exceptionally venomous fangs but its most dangerous means of attack is the gaze of its large yellow eyes. Anyone looking directly into the eyes will suffer instant death.

If the food source is sufficient, the Basilisk may live to be a very old age. Herpo the Foul's Basilisk is believed to have lived for almost 900 years. The serpent feeds on all mammals, birds and most reptiles. Since medieval times the creation of Basilisks has been illegal. But the practice is easily concealed by simply removing the chicken egg from beneath the toad when the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures comes to call. However, since Basilisks are uncontrollable except by Parselmouths, they are as dangerous to most Dark Wizards as to anybody else. Luckily there haven't been any Basilisks in Britain for at least 400 years.



Even though the first modern Basilisk was bred till much later, Basilisks were written about by Pliny the Elder, a first-century writter. According to Pliny the basilisk was a small but lethal snake, no longer than 12 inches and found in North Africa. It was still known as the King of Serpents then because of the crown like marking on its head. Basiliskos means "little king" in Greek. It attacked its prey with its body held upright rather than slithering across the ground like other snakes. The venom of the Basilisk was said to be so powerful and strong that if a rider on horseback were to kill a basilisk with a spear, the venom would rise up through the spear, kill the rider and then kill the horse as well.

The Basilisk does have 2 weaknesses though. It cannot tolerate the scent of a weasel or the sound of a rooster crowing. The mere sound of a rooster crowing would cause the basilisk to go into convulsions and die. Some have thought that the best defense against a basilisk is to hold a mirror up to it and turn its own fatal gaze against it, causing it to die of fright. Above all other creatures, spiders fear the Basilisk.

Please be sure to complete Assignment 9.