The antique Romans called him(the basilisk) "regulus" or little king, not only because of his crown, but because he terrorized all other creatures with his deadly look and poison.
During the first century AD, many travelers crossing the deserts of North Africa used to take with them cockerels as a protection against Basilisk. Strangely, a new type of Basilisk appears which had the head of a ---- instead of that of a reptile. It was first called a Basil ---- and later a Cockatrice or Cockatrix. Its birth is very curious. It has to be born from a shell-less egg, which is laid by a seven-old-year ---- during the period when Sirius the Dog Star can be seen in the sky. A toad or snake on a dung heap must then hatch the spherical egg. The cockatrice that emerges from the egg has eyes that resemble those of a toad but still retains their basilisk mortal stare. To the medieval Christians it represented sin and sudden death