ASOPUS, the god of the river A., married to Nethope, by whom he had two sous and from 12 to 20 daughters. These daughters were carried oft from time to time by the gods; but when Zeus took away yEgina, A. rebelled and proposed to fight the abductor; whereupon Zeus immortalized the angry parent by transfixing him with lightning.
ASP, Avis, a venomous serpent, the name of which has come down from ancient times; the vague descriptions of ancient authors, however, causing uncertainty as to the species. It is very generally supposed to be Cie nuke, haje, the el haje or, haje washer of the Arabs, which is very common iu Egypt, Cyprus, etc., and often appears in hiero glyphic and other sculptures as one of the sacred animals of ancient Egypt. It is some times from 3 to 5 ft. in length, of nearly equal thickness throughout, with a gradually tapering tail; brownish, varied with dark and pale spots; the scales of the neck, back, and upper surface df the tail slightly carinated; the tail about one fourth of the whole length of the animal. The neck is capable of considerable dilatation, through the distension of its loose skin, although not so much as that of the nearly allied cobra da capello of India (naja tripudiane). The dilatation of the neck takes place when the serpent is irritated. The jugglers of Egypt arc accustomed to perform tricks with this serpent, as those of India with the cobra da capello, causing it to dance to their music; after they have first, however, carefully extracted the poison-fangs. It is very venom
ous. Several varieties exist at the cape of Good Hope, one of which is nearly white; and one is called spuugh slang, or spitting snake, by the colonists, from its supposed power of ejecting its poison to a distance when irritated; the poison which distills from the fangs in such circumstances being probably carried off by the forcible expirations which the creature makes—a characteristic, however, not exclusively belonging to a particular variety.—Other Serpents of the same family, viperidce, are by some believed to be the true asp, particularly ripen& and V. ceraetes. The former is of a grayish or yellowish brown color, with rays and eye-like spots on the upper parts: it is found both in India and the 11. of Africa. The latter is of agrayish color, and has a very broad heart-shaped head, a short obtuse rounded muzzle, and the superciliary or eyebrow scales remarkably developed, so that one of them is often produced into a sort of spine: it inhabits the deserts of northern Africa.—The name asp is now generally given to vipers aRpix, a native of the Alps, found also in the s.c. of Europe and in Sicily, which much resembles the common viper, but is more slender, and has a larger head; it is also more venomous.