Explore "The Double-Headed Snake of Newbury" by John Greenleaf Whittier on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"Concerning ye Amphisbaena, as soon as I received your commands, I made diligent inquiry: . he assures me yt it had really two heads, one at each end; two mouths, two stings or tongues. " -- REV. CHRISTOPHER TOPPAN to COTTON MATHER.
FAR away in the twilight time Of every people, in every clime, Dragons and griffins and monsters dire, Born of water, and air, and fire, Or nursed, like the Python, in the mud And ooze of the old Deucalion flood, Crawl and wriggle and foam with rage, Through dusk tradition and ballad age. So from the childhood of Newbury town And its time of fable the tale comes down Of a terror which haunted bush and brake, The Amphisbaena, the Double Snake!