#uncat 

The Warsaw Basilisk is a folk legend of a basilisk sighting in Warsaw, Poland, in **1587**

The story goes this way: 
a daughter of a blacksmith, along with her friend, went for a walk but never returned. Eventually, a housemaid and the wife of the blacksmith found them laying motionless in the ruins of a cellar. The housemaid went in but looked at something and froze, after which the wife ran away and called for aid.

It was quickly pronounced that it was a basilisk.

Two versions of the story:
1) tailor named Jan Ślązak was wrongfully accused of murder and sentenced to death was given an opportunity for a pardon if he killed the basilisk. Ślązak prepared by buying a large mirror and basically making the basilisk look at itself
2) Silesian convict Johann Faurer, who had been sentenced to death for robbery, was at length persuaded to make the attempt for a pardon. Faurer was dressed in creaking black leather covered with a mas of tinkling mirrors, and his eyes were protected with large eyeglasses. He went in there, grabbed the basilisk with a rake, and brought it to the sunlight, killing it