Note 1749 — BOOK VIII. THE NATURE OF THE TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS.

Lucan mentions the jaculus, B. ix. l. 720, and l. 822. In the last passage he says: “Behold! afar, around the trunk of a barren tree, a fierce serpent—Africa calls it the jaculus—wreathes itself, and then darts forth, and through the head and pierced temples of Paulus it takes its flight: nothing does venom there affect, death seizes him through the wound. It was then understood how slowly fly the stones which the sling hurls, how sluggishly whizzes the flight of the Scythian arrow.”