Basilisk

In European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk (pronounced either "BASS-i-lisk" or "BAZ-i-lisk") is a legendary creature known as the king of serpents, said to possess the power to kill with merely a glance. Pliny the Elder's *Naturalis Historia* describes the basilisk of Cyrene as a diminutive yet deadly snake, measuring no more than twelve inches in length. Its venom was said to be so potent that it left a toxic trail in its wake, and meeting its gaze meant certain death.

Pliny noted that the basilisk had one significant weakness: the scent of a weasel. People would identify a basilisk's lair by the scorched vegetation surrounding its entrance, then send in a weasel to defeat the creature. Modern scholars suggest that the European basilisk legend, including its conflict with the weasel, may have originated from travelers' accounts of real-world interactions between venomous snakes (like cobras) and their natural enemy, the mongoose, in Asia and Africa.