“BASILISK, n. The cockatrice. A sort of serpent hatched form the egg of a cock. The basilisk had a bad eye, and its glance was fatal. Many infidels deny this creature's existence, but Semprello Aurator saw and handled one that had been blinded by lightning as a punishment for having fatally gazed on a lady of rank whom Jupiter loved. Juno afterward restored the reptile's sight and hid it in a cave. Nothing is so well attested by the ancients as the existence of the basilisk, but the cocks have stopped laying.”
Ambrose Bierce
“They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.”
Bible
“It may be the cock that crows, but it is the hen that lays the eggs.”
Margaret Thatcher
“The cocks may crow, but it's the hen that lays the egg.”
“Learn one thing from a lion; one from a crane; four a cock; five from a crow; six from a dog; and three from an ass.”
Chanakya
“It's a sad house where the hen crows louder than the cock.”
Scottish Proverb
