ABSTRACT
Where did Pacheco derive the authority for his statement? Strabo speaks of Ethiopian serpents whose length he does not define but which are “ so large that even grass grows upon their backs” (Geography, book xvii, chap. 3, para. 5). Pliny, another of his standard authorities, speaks of serpents “ that seize and swallow birds that are flying above them, however high and however rapid their flight ” (Natural History, book vm, chap. 14). With such imaginative precedents as these, it was not difficult for Pacheco to persuade himself of the existence of even larger reptiles. It would seem, however, from his remarks about the incredibility of these things to those that have no experience of them that he expected some of his readers to be less credulous than others.
