CHAP. 105.—THE GAIT, THE FEET, THE LEGS.
All animals take a right-hand direction when they first
begin to walk, and lie down on the left side. While the other
animals walk just as it may happen, the lion only and the
camel walk foot by foot, or in such a way that the left foot
never passes the right, but always comes behind it. Men have
the largest feet; in every kind of animal the female has the
smallest. Man only [Note] has calves, and flesh upon the legs: we
find it stated by authors, however, that there was once an
Egyptian who had no calves on his legs. All men, too, with
some few exceptions, have a sole to the foot. It is from these
exceptional cases that persons have obtained the names of
Plancus, [Note] Plautus, Pansa, and Scaurus; just as, from the malformation of the legs, we find persons called Varus, [Note] Vacia, and
Vatinius, all which blemishes are to be seen in quadrupeds
also. Animals which have no horns have a solid hoof, from
which circumstance it is used by them as a weapon of offence,
in place of horns; such animals as these are also destitute of pastern bones, but those which have cloven hoofs
have them; while those, again, which have toes have none,
nor are they ever found in the fore-feet of animals. The
camel has pastern bones like those of the ox, but somewhat
smaller, the feet being cloven, with a slight line of division,
and having a fleshy sole, like that of the bear: hence it is,
that in a long journey, the animal becomes fatigued, and the
foot cracks, if it is not shod.