The Basilisk Mug

"Deadliest of serpents, this native of the empty Libyan deserts derived its name from the Greek basileus, or "king," because it was the monarch of its kind. In its brightly colored cock's head burned enormous eyes, whose baleful glance could kill. Its very breath brought pestilence to the regions it inhabited and was said to kill even the birds that flew in the sky above. Although its body was serpentine, the basilisk moved not by slithering on its belly but in rearing coils. A weasel finding the lair of the basilisk kills it with the smell of its odor, and this smell, indeed, often kills the weasel itself." #artJWB