CHAP. 116.—ANIMALS WHICH WHEN FED UPON POISON DO
NOT DIE, AND THE FLESH OF WHICH IS POISONOUS.
The animals which feed upon poison have been already [Note]
mentioned. Some of them, which are harmless of themselves,
become noxious if fed upon venomous substances. The wild
boar of Pamphylia and the mountainous parts of Cilicia, after
having devoured a salamander, will become poisonous to those
who eat its flesh; and yet the danger is quite imperceptible
by reason of any peculiarity in the smell and taste. The sala-
mander, too, will poison either water or wine, in which it
happens to be drowned; and what is more, if it has only drunk
thereof, the liquid becomes poisonous. The same is the case,
too, with the frog known to us as the bramble-frog. So nu-
merous are the snares that are laid in wait for life! Wasps
greedily devour the flesh of the serpent, a nutriment which
renders their stings fatal; so vast is the difference to be found
between one kind of food and another. In the country, too,
of the Ichthyophagi, [Note] as we learn from Theophrastus, the oxen
are fed upon fish, but only when alive.
