Latin Texts & Translations

LET US now pass on to the other animals, and first of all to the land animals. The elephant is the largest of them all, and in intelligence approaches the nearest to man. It understands the language of its country, it obeys commands, and it remembers all the duties which it has been taught. It is sensible alike of the pleasures of love and glory, and, to a degree that is rare among men even, possesses notions of honesty, prudence, and equity; it has a religious respect also for the stars, and a veneration for the sun and the moon. ^[Note] It is said by some authors, that, at the first appearance of the new moon, herds of these animals come down from the forests of Mauritania to a river, the name of which is Amilos; ^[Note] and that they there purify themselves in solemn form by sprinkling their bodies with water; after which, having thus saluted the heavenly body, they return to the woods, carrying before them ^[Note] the young ones which are fatigued. They are supposed to have a notion, too, of the differences of religion; ^[Note]

and when about to cross the sea, they cannot be prevailed upon to go on board the ship, until their keeper has promised upon oath that they shall return home again. They have been seen, too, when worn out by disease, (for even these vast masses are liable to disease,) lying on their back, and throwing the grass up into the air, as if deputing the earth to intercede for them with its prayers. ^[Note] As a proof of their extreme docility, they pay homage to the king, fall upon their knees, and offer him the crown. Those of smaller growth, which the Indians call bastards, ^[Note] are employed by them in ploughing. ^[Note]

The first harnessed elephants that were seen at Rome, were in the triumph of Pompeius Magnus over Africa, when they drew his chariot; a thing that is said to have been done long before, at the triumph of Father Liber on the conquest of India. Procilius ^[Note] says, that those which were used at the triumph of Pompeius, were unable to go in harness through the gate of the city. In the exhibition of gladiators which was given by Germanicus, ^[Note] the elephants performed a sort of dance with their uncouth and irregular movements. It was a common thing to see them throw arrows with such strength, that the wind was unable to turn them from their course, to imitate among themselves the combats of the gladiators, and to frolic through the steps of the Pyrrhic dance. ^[Note] After this,

too, they walked upon the tight-rope, ^[Note] and four of them would carry a litter in which lay a fifth, which represented a woman lying-in. They afterwards took their place; and so nicely did they manage their steps, that they did not so much as touch any of those who were drinking there.

It is a well-known fact, ^[Note] that one of these animals, who was slower than usual in learning what was taught him, and had been frequently chastised with blows, was found conning over his lesson in the night-time. ^[Note] It is a most surprising thing also, that the elephant is able not only to walk up the tight-rope backwards; but to come down it as well, with the head foremost. ^[Note] Mutianus, who was three times consul, informs us that one of these animals had been taught to trace the Greek letters, and that he used to write in that language the following words: "I have myself written these words, and have dedicated the Celtic spoils." ^[Note] Mutianus states also, that he himself was witness to the fact, that when some elephants were being landed at Puteoli ^[Note] and were compelled to leave the ship, being terrified at the length of the platform, which extended from the vessel to the shore, they walked backwards, in order to deceive themselves by forming a false estimate of the distance.

These animals are well aware that the only spoil that we are anxious to procure of them is the part which forms their weapon of defence, by Juba, called their horns, but by Herodotus, a much older writer, as well as by general usage and more appropriately, their teeth. ^[Note] Hence it is that, when their tusks have fallen off, either by accident or from old age, they bury them in the earth. ^[Note] These tusks form the only real ivory, and, even in these, the part which is covered by the flesh is merely common bone, and of no value whatever; though, indeed, of late, in consequence of the insufficient supply of ivory, they have begun to cut the bones as well into thin plates. Large teeth, in fact, are now rarely found, except in India, the demands of luxury ^[Note] having exhausted all those in our part of the world. The youthfulness of the animal is ascertained by the whiteness of the teeth ^[Note] These animals take the greatest care of their teeth; they pay especial attention to the point of one of them, that it may not be found blunt when wanted for combat; the other they employ for various purposes, such as digging up roots and pushing forward heavy weights. When they are surrounded by the hunters, they place those in front which have the smallest teeth, that the enemy may think that the spoil is not worth the combat; and afterwards, when they are weary of resistance, they break off their teeth, by

dashing them against a tree, and in this manner pay their ransom. ^[Note]

It is a wonderful thing, that most animals are aware why it is that they are sought after, and what it is, that, under all circumstances, they have to guard against. When an elephant happens to meet a man in the desert, who is merely wandering about, the animal, it is said, shows himself both merciful and kind, and even points out the way. But the very same animal, if he meets with the traces of a man, ^[Note] before he meets the man himself, trembles in every limb, for fear of an ambush, stops short and scents the wind, looks around him, and snorts aloud with rage; and then, without trampling upon the object, digs it up, ^[Note] and passes it to the next one, who again passes it to the one that follows, and so on from one to the other, till it comes to the very last. The herd then faces about, returns, and ranges itself in order of battle; so strongly does the odour, in all cases, attach itself to the human footstep, even though, as is most frequently the case, the foot itself is not naked. In the same way, too, the tigress, which is the dread of the other wild beasts, and which sees, without alarm, the traces even of the elephant itself, is said at once, upon seeing the footsteps of man, to carry off her whelps. How has the animal acquired this knowledge? And where has it seen him before, of whom it stands in such dread? Doubt there can be none, that forests such as it haunts are but little frequented by man! It is not to be wondered at, if they are astonished at the print of a footstep before unknown; but how should they know that there is anything that they ought to dread? And, what is still more, why should they dread even the very sight of man, seeing that they are so far supe-

rior to him in strength, size, and swiftness? No doubt, such is the law of Nature, such is the influence of her power-the most savage and the very largest of wild beasts have never seen that which they have reason to fear, and yet instantly have an instinctive feeling of dread, when the moment has come for them to fear. ^[Note]

(5.) Elephants always move in herds. ^[Note] The oldest takes the lead, and the next in age brings up the rear. When they are crossing a river, they first send over the smallest, for fear lest the weight of the larger ones may increase the depth of the channel, by working away the bed of the river. We learn from Antipater, that King Antiochus had two elephants, which he employed in his wars, and to which he had given the names of celebrated men; and that they were aware too of this mark of distinction. ^[Note] Cato, in his Annals, while he has passed over in silence the names of the generals, has given that of an elephant called Surus, which fought with the greatest valour in the Carthaginian army, and had lost one of its tusks. When Antiochus was sounding the ford of a river, an elephant named Ajax, which on other occasions had always led the van, refused to enter the stream; upon which proclamation was made, that the first rank should belong to the one which should take the lead in passing over. One called Patroclus hazarded the attempt, and as a reward, the king presented it with some silver pendants, ^[Note] a kind of ornament with which these animals are particularly delighted, and assigned it all the other marks of

command. Upon this, the elephant that had been degraded refused to take its food, and so preferred death to ignominy. Indeed their sense of shame is wonderful, and when one of them has been conquered, it flies at the voice of the conqueror, and presents him with earth and vervain. ^[Note]

These animals are sensible to feelings of modesty; they never couple but in secret: ^[Note] the male after it has attained its fifth year, the female after the age of ten. ^[Note] It is said, that their intercourse takes place only every second year, and for five days only, and no more; on the sixth day they plunge into a river, before doing which they will not rejoin the herd. Adulterous intercourse is unknown to them, and they have none of those deadly combats for the possession of the female, which take place among the other animals. Nor is this because they are uninfluenced by the passion of love. One in Egypt, we are told, fell in love with a woman, who was a seller of garlands; and let no one suppose that he made a vulgar choice, for she was the especial object of the love of Aristophanes, who held the very highest rank as a grammarian. Another became attached to the youth Menander, a native of Syracuse, in the army of Ptolemy; whenever it did not see him, it would manifest the regret which it experienced, by refusing its food. Juba gives an account also of a female who dealt in perfumes, to whom one of these creatures formed an attachment. All these animals manifested their attachment by their signs of joy at the sight of the person, by their awkward caresses, and by keeping for them and throwing into their bosom the pieces of money which the public had given them. ^[Note] Nor, indeed,

ought we to be surprised, that an animal which possesses memory should be sensible of affection: for the same author relates, that an elephant recognized, after the lapse of many years, an old man who had been its keeper in his youth. They would seem also to have an instinctive feeling of justice. King Bocchus once fastened thirty elephants to the stake, with the determination of wreaking his vengeance on them, by means of thirty others; but though men kept sallying forth among them to goad them on, he could not, with all his endeavours, force them to become the ministers of the cruelty of others.

Elephants were seen in Italy, for the first time, in the war with King Pyrrhus, ^[Note] in the year of the City 472; they were called "Lucanian oxen," because they were first seen in Lucania. ^[Note] Seven years after this period, they appeared at Rome in a triumph. ^[Note] In the year 502 a great number of them were brought to Rome, which had been taken by the pontiff Metellus, in his victory gained in Sicily over the Carthaginians; ^[Note] they were one hundred and forty-two ^[Note] in number, or, as some say, one hundred and forty, and were conveyed to our shores upon rafts, which were constructed on rows of hogsheads joined together. Verrius informs us, that they fought in the Circus,

and that they were slain with javelins, for want of some better method of disposing of them; as the people neither liked to keep them nor yet to give them to the kings. ^[Note] L. Piso tells us only that they were brought into the Circus; and for the purpose of increasing the feeling of contempt towards them, they were driven all round the area of that place by workmen, who had nothing but spears blunted at the point. The authors who are of opinion that they were not killed, do not, however, inform us how they were afterwards disposed of.

There is a famous combat mentioned of a Roman with an elephant, when Hannibal compelled our prisoners to fight against each other. The one who had survived all the others he placed before an elephant, and promised him his life if he should slay it; upon which the man advanced alone into the arena, and, to the great regret of the Carthaginians, succeeded in doing so. ^[Note] Hannibal, however, thinking that the news of this victory might cause a feeling of contempt for these animals, sent some horsemen to kill the man on his way home. In our battles with Pyrrhus it was found, on making trial, that it was extremely easy to cut off the trunks of these animals. ^[Note] Fenestella informs us, that they fought at Rome in the Circus for the first time during the curule ædileship of Claudius Pulcher, in the consulship of M. Antonius and A. Postumius, in the year of the City 655; and that twenty years afterwards, during the curule ædileship of the Luculli, they were set to fight against bulls. In the second consulship ^[Note] of

Pompeius, at the dedication of the temple of Venus Victrix, ^[Note] twenty elephants, or, as some say, seventeen, fought in the Circus against a number of Gætulians, who attacked them with javelins. One of these animals fought in a most astonishing manner; being pierced through the feet, it dragged itself on its knees towards the troop, and seizing their bucklers, tossed them aloft into the air: and as they came to the ground they greatly amused the spectators, for they whirled round and round in the air, just as if they had been thrown up with a certain degree of skill, ^[Note] and not by the frantic fury of a wild beast. Another very wonderful circumstauce happened; an elephant was killed by a single blow. The weapon pierced the animal below the eye, and entered the vital part of the head. The elephants attempted, too, by their united efforts, to break down the enclosure, not without great confusion among the people who surrounded the iron gratings. ^[Note] It was in consequence of this circumstance, that Cæsar, the Dictator, when he was afterwards about to exhibit a similar spectacle, had the arena surrounded with trenches ^[Note] of water, which were lately filled up by the Emperor Nero, ^[Note] when he added the seats for

the equestrian order. ^[Note] When, however, the elephants in the exhibition given by Pompeius had lost all hopes of escaping, they implored the compassion of the multitude by attitudes which surpass all description, and with a kind of lamentation bewailed their unhappy fate. So greatly were the people affected by the scene, that, forgetting the general altogether, and the munificence which had been at such pains to do them honour, the whole assembly rose up in tears, and showered curses on Pompeius, of which he soon afterwards became the victim. They fought also in the third consulship of the Dic- tator Cæsar, twenty of them against five hundred foot soldiers. ^[Note] On another occasion twenty elephants, carrying towers, ^[Note] and each defended by sixty men, were opposed to the same number of foot soldiers as before, and an equal number of horsemen. Afterwards, under the Emperors Claudius and Nero, the last exploit ^[Note] that the gladiators performed was fighting singlehanded ^[Note] with elephants.

The elephant is said to display such a merciful disposition towards animals that are weaker than itself, that, when it finds itself in a flock of sheep, it will remove with its trunk ^[Note] those that are in the way, lest it should unintentionally

trample upon them. ^[Note] They will never do any mischief except when provoked, and they are of a disposition so sociable, that they always move about in herds, no animal being less fond of a solitary life. When surrounded by a troop of horsemen, they place in the centre of the herd those that are weak, weary, or wounded, and then take the front rank each in its turn, just as though they acted under command and in accordance with discipline. When taken captive, they are very speedily tamed, by being fed on the juices of barley. ^[Note]

In India ^[Note] they are caught by the keeper guiding one of the tame elephants towards a wild one which he has found alone or has separated from the herd; upon which he beats it, and when it is fatigued mounts and manages it just the same way as the other. In Africa ^[Note] they take them in pit-falls; but as soon as an elephant gets into one, the others immediately collect boughs of trees and pile up heaps of earth, so as to form a mound, and then endeavour with all their might to drag it out. It was formerly the practice to tame them by driving the herds with horsemen into a narrow defile, artificially made in such a way as to deceive them by its length; and when thus enclosed by means of steep banks and trenches, they were rendered tame by the

effects of hunger; as a proof of which, they would quietly take a branch that was extended to them by one of the men. At the present day, when we take them for the sake of their tusks, we throw darts at their feet, which are in general the most tender part of their body. The Troglodytæ, who inhabit the confines of Æthiopia, and who live entirely on the flesh of elephants procured by the chase, climb the trees which lie near the paths through which these animals usually pass. Here they keep a watch, and look out for the one which comes last in the train; leaping down upon its haunches, they seize its tail with the left hand, and fix their feet firmly upon the left thigh. Hanging down in this manner, the man, with his right hand, hamstrings the animal on one side, with a very sharp hatchet. The elephant's pace being retarded by the wound, he cuts the tendons of the other ham, and then makes his escape; all of which is done with the very greatest celerity. Others, again, employ a much safer, though less certain method; they fix in the ground, at considerable intervals, very large bows upon the stretch; these are kept steady by young men remarkable for their strength, while others, exerting themselves with equal efforts, bend them, and so wound the animals as they pass by, and afterwards trace them by their blood. The female elephant is much more timid by nature than the male.

Elephants of furious temper are tamed by hunger ^[Note] and blows, while other elephants are placed near to keep them quiet, when the violent fit is upon them, by means of chains. Besides this, they are more particularly violent when in heat, ^[Note] at which time they will level to the ground the huts of the Indians with their tusks. It is on this account that they are prevented from coupling, and the females are kept in herds

separate from the males, just the same way as with other cattle. Elephants, when tamed, are employed in war, and carry into the ranks of the enemy towers filled with armed men; and on them, in a very great measure, depends the ultimate result of the battles that are fought in the East. They tread under foot whole companies, and crush the men in their armour. The very least sound, however, of the grunting of the hog terrifies them: ^[Note] when wounded and panic-stricken, they invariably fall back, and become no less formidable for the destruction which they deal to their own side, than to their opponents. The African elephant is afraid of the Indian, and does not dare so much as look at it, for the latter is of much greater bulk. ^[Note]

The vulgar notion is, that the elephant goes with young ten years; ^[Note] but, according to Aristotle, it is two years only. He says also that the female only bears once, and then a single young one; that they live two hundred years, and some of them as much as three hundred. The adult age of the elephant begins at the sixtieth year. ^[Note] They are especially fond of water, and wander much about streams, and this although they are unable to swim, in consequence of their bulk. ^[Note] They are particularly sensitive to cold, and that, indeed, is their greatest enemy. They are subject also to flatulency, and to looseness of the bowels, but

to no other kind of disease. ^[Note] I find it stated, that on making them drink oil, any weapons which may happen to stick in their body will fall out; while, on the contrary, perspiration makes them the more readily adhere. ^[Note] If they eat earth it is poison to them, unless indeed they have gradually become accustomed by repeatedly doing so. They also devour stones as well; but the trunks of trees are their most favourite food. They throw down, with a blow from their forehead, palms of exceeding height, and when lying on the ground, strip them of their fruit. They eat with the mouth, but they breathe, drink, ^[Note] and smell with [the proboscis], which is not unaptly termed their "hand." They have the greatest aversion to the mouse of all animals, ^[Note] and quite loathe their food, as it lies in the manger, if they perceive that it has been touched by one of those animals. They experience the greatest torture if they happen to swallow, while drinking, a horseleech, an animal which people are beginning, I find, to call almost universally a "blood-sucker." ^[Note] The leech fastens upon the wind-pipe, and produces intolerable pain.

The skin of the back is extremely hard, that of the belly is softer. They are not covered with any kind of bristles, nor yet does the tail even furnish them with any protection from the annoyance of flies; for vast as these animals are, they suffer greatly from them. Their skin is reticulated, and invites these insects by the odour it exhales. Accordingly, when a swarm of them has settled on the skin, while extended and smooth, the elephant suddenly contracts it; and, in this way,

the flies are crushed between the folds which are thus closed. This power serves them in place of tail, mane, and hair. ^[Note]

Their teeth are very highly prized, and from them we obtain the most costly materials for forming the statues of the gods. Luxury has discovered even another recommendation in this animal, having found a particularly delicate flavour in the cartilaginous part of the trunk, for no other reason, in my belief, than because it fancies itself to be eating ivory. ^[Note] Tusks of enormous size are constantly to be seen in the temples; but, in the extreme parts of Africa, on the confines of Æthiopia, they are employed as door-posts for houses; and Polybius informs us, on the authority of the petty king Gulussa, ^[Note] that they are also employed as stakes in making fences for the folds of cattle.

Africa produces elephants, beyond the deserts of the Syrtes, and in Mauritania; they are found also in the. countries of the Æthiopians and the Troglodytæ as mentioned above. ^[Note] But it is India that produces the largest, ^[Note] as well as the dragon, ^[Note] which is perpetually at war with the elephant, and is itself of so enormous a size, as easily to envelope the elephants with its folds, and encircle them in its coils. The contest is equally fatal to both; the elephant, vanquished, falls to the earth, and by its weight, crushes the dragon which is entwined around it. ^[Note]

The sagacity which every animal exhibits in its own behalf is wonderful, but in these it is remarkably so. The dragon has much difficulty in climbing up to so great a height, and therefore, watching the road, which bears marks of their footsteps when going to feed, it darts down upon them from a lofty tree. The elephant knows that it is quite unable to struggle against the folds of the serpent, and so seeks for trees or rocks against which to rub itself. The dragon is on its guard against this, and tries to prevent it, by first of all confining the legs of the elephant with the folds of its tail; while the elephant, on the other hand, endeavours to disengage itself with its trunk. The dragon, however, thrusts its head into its nostrils, and thus, at the same moment, stops the breath and wounds the most tender parts. When it is met unexpectedly, the dragon raises itself up, faces its opponent, and flies more especially at the eyes; this is the reason why elephants are so often found blind, and worn to a skeleton with hunger and misery. What other cause can one assign for such mighty strifes as these, except that Nature is desirous, as it were, to make an exhibition for herself, in pitting such opponents against each other?

There is another story, too, told in relation to these combats —the blood of the elephant, it is said, is remarkably cold; for which reason, in the parching heats of summer, ^[Note] it is sought by the dragon with remarkable avidity. It lies, therefore, coiled up and concealed in the rivers, in wait for the elephants, when they come to drink; upon which it darts out, fastens itself around the trunk, and then fixes its teeth behind the ear, that being the only place which the elephant cannot protect with the trunk. The dragons, it is said, are of such vast size, that they can swallow the whole of the blood; consequently, the elephant, being thus drained of its blood, falls to the earth exhausted; while the dragon, intoxicated with the draught, is crushed beneath it, and so shares its fate.

Æthiopia produces dragons, not so large as those of India, but still, twenty cubits in length. ^[Note] The only thing that surprises me is, how Juba came to believe that they have crests. ^[Note] The Æthiopians are known as the Asachæi, among whom they most abound; and we are told, that on those coasts four or five of them are found twisted and interlaced together like so many osiers in a hurdle, and thus setting sail, with their heads erect, they are borne along upon the waves, to find better sources of nourishment in Arabia.

Megasthenes informs us, that in India, serpents grow to such an immense size, as to swallow stags and bulls; ^[Note] while Metrodorus says, that about the river Rhyndacus, ^[Note] in Pontus, they seize and swallow the birds that are flying above them, however high and however rapid their flight. ^[Note] It is a well-known fact, that during the Punic war, at the river Bagrada, a

serpent one hundred and twenty feet in length was taken by the Roman army under Regulus, being besieged, like a fortress, by means of balistæ and other engines of war. ^[Note] Its skin and jaws were preserved in a temple at Rome, down to the time of the Numantine war. The serpents which in Italy are known by the name of boa, render these accounts far from incredible, for they grow to such a vast size, that a child was found entire in the stomach of one of them, which was killed on the Vaticanian Hill during the reign of the Emperor Claudius. ^[Note] These are nourished, in the first instance, with the milk of the cow, and from this they take their name. ^[Note] As to the other animals, which have been of late repeatedly brought to Italy from all parts of the world, it is quite unnecessary to give any minute account of their form.

Scythia produces but very few animals, in consequence of the scarcity of shrubs. Germany, which lies close adjoining it, has not many animals, though it has some very fine kinds of wild oxen: the bison, which has a mane, and the urus, ^[Note]

possessed of remarkable strength and swiftness. To these, the vulgar, in their ignorance, have given the name of bubalus ^[Note] whereas, that animal is really produced in Africa, and rather bears a resemblance to the calf and the stag.

The North, too, produces herds of wild horses, as Africa and Asia do of wild asses; ^[Note] there is, also, the elk, which strongly resembles our steers, except that it is distinguished by the length of the ears and of the neck. There is also the achlis, ^[Note] which is produced in the island of Scandinavia; ^[Note] it has never been seen in this city, although we have had descriptions of it from many persons; it is not unlike the elk, but has no joints in the hind leg. Hence, it never lies down, but reclines against a tree while it sleeps; it can only be taken by previously cutting into the tree, and thus laying a trap for it, as otherwise, it would escape through its swiftness. Its upper lip is so extremely large, for which reason it is obliged to go backwards when grazing; otherwise, by moving onwards, the lip would get doubled up. In Pæonia, it is said, there is a wild

animal known as the bonasus; ^[Note] it has the mane of the horse, but is, in other respects, like the bull, with horns, however, so much bent inwards upon each other, as to be of no use for the purposes of combat. It has therefore to depend upon its flight, and, while in the act of flying, it sends forth its excrements, sometimes to a distance of even three jugera; ^[Note] the contact of which burns those who pursue the animal, just like a kind of fire.

It is a remarkable fact, that pards, ^[Note] panthers, lions, and other animals of this kind, walk with the points of their nails concealed in a sheath in the body, lest they should be broken or blunted; and that, when they run, their hooked claws are turned backwards, and are never extended, except in the act of seizing their prey. ^[Note]

(16.) The noble appearance of the lion is more especially to be seen in that species which has the neck and shoulders covered with a mane, which is always acquired at the proper age by those produced from a lion; while, on the other hand, those that are the offspring of the pard, are always without this distinction. The female also has no mane. The sexual passions of these animals are very violent, and render the male quite furious. This is especially the case in Africa, where, in consequence of the great scarcity of water, the wild beasts assemble in great numbers on the banks of a few rivers. This is also the reason why so many curious varieties of animals are produced

there, the males and females of various species coupling promiscuously with each other. ^[Note] Hence arose the saying, which was common in Greece even, that "Africa is always producing something new." The lion recognizes, by the peculiar odour of the pard, when the lioness has been unfaithful to him, and avenges himself with the greatest fury. Hence it is, that the female, when she has been guilty of a lapse, washes herself, or else follows the lion at a considerable distance. I find that it was a common belief, that the lioness is able to bear young no more than once, because, while delivering herself, she tears her womb with her claws. ^[Note] Aristotle, however, gives a different account; a man of whom I think that I ought here to make some further mention, seeing that upon these subjects, I intend, in a great measure, to make him my guide. Alexander the Great, being inflamed with a strong desire to become acquainted with the natures of animals, entrusted the prosecution of this design to Aristotle, a man who held the highest rank in every branch of learning; for which purpose he placed under his command some thousands of men in every region of Asia and Greece, and comprising all those who followed the business of hunting, fowling, or fishing, or who had the care of parks, herds of cattle, the breeding of bees, fish-ponds, and aviaries, in order that no creature that was known to exist might escape his notice. By means of the information which he obtained from these persons, he was enabled to compose some fifty volumes, which are deservedly esteemed, on the subject of animals; of these I purpose to give an epitome, together with other facts with which Aristotle was unacquainted; and I beg the kind indulgence of my readers in their estimate of this work of mine, as by my aid they hastily travel through all the works of nature, and through the midst of subjects with which that most famous of all kings so ardently desired to be acquainted.

Aristotle then informs us, that the lioness, at the first birth, produces five whelps, and one less every succeeding year,

until, after having produced one only, she ceases to bear. ^[Note] The young ones, when first born, are shapeless and extremely small in flesh, being no larger than a weasel; for six months they are scarcely able to walk, ^[Note] and until they are two months old, they cannot move. Lions, he says, are found in Europe, but only between the rivers Achelous and Nestus; being much superior in strength to those which are produced in Africa or Syria. ^[Note]

There are two species of lions; in the one the body is shorter and more compact, and the mane more crisp and curly; ^[Note] these are more timid than those with a longer body and straight hair, which, in fact, have no fear of wounds. The males raise the leg like the dog, when they pass their urine; ^[Note] which has a most disagreeable odour, the same being the case too with their breath. They seldom drink, and only take food every other day; ^[Note] when they have gorged themselves, they will sometimes

go without food for three days. They swallow their food whole, without mastication, so far as they are able; and when they have taken more than the stomach can possibly receive, they extract part of it by thrusting their claws into the throat; the same too, if, when full, they have occasion to take to flight. That they are very long-lived is proved by the fact, that many of them are found without teeth. Polybius, ^[Note] the companion of Æmilianus, tells us, that when they become aged they will attack men, as they have no longer sufficient strength for the pursuit of wild beasts. It is then that they lay siege to the cities of Africa; and for this reason it was, that he, as well as Scipio, had seen some of them hung upon a cross; it being supposed that others, through dread of a similar punishment, might be deterred from committing the like outrages.

The lion is the only one of all the wild beasts that shows mercy to the suppliant; after it has conquered, it will spare, ^[Note] and when enraged, it will vent its fury rather upon men than women, and never upon children, unless when greatly pressed by hunger. It is the belief in Libya, that it fully understands the entreaties which are addressed to it. At all events, I have heard it asserted as a fact, that a female slave, who was returning from Gætulia, was attacked by a number of lions in the forests; upon which she summoned sufficient courage to address them, and said that she was a woman, a fugitive, helpless creature, that she implored the compassion of the most generous of animals, the one that has the command of all the others, and that she was a prey unworthy of their high repute —and by these means effectually soothed their ferocity. There

are various opinions on this point, as to whether it is through some peculiar disposition of the animal, or merely by accident, that their fury is thus soothed by addressing them. As to what is alleged, too, about serpents, that they can be drawn from their holes by singing, and thus be made to yield themselves up to death, the truth or falsity of it has not by any means been satisfactorily ascertained. ^[Note]

The tail of the lion gives indication of the state of his feelings, just as the ears do in the horse; for these are the distinguishing signs which Nature has given to each of the most generous of animals. Hence it is that, when pleased, the tail is without motion, and the animal fawns upon those who caress him; a thing, however, that very rarely happens, for his most frequent state is that of rage. He begins by beating the earth with his tail; and as he becomes more furious, he lashes his sides, as if trying to excite himself. His greatest strength is situate in the breast. From every wound that he makes, whether it is with his claws or his teeth, a black blood issues. ^[Note] When his hunger is satisfied, he becomes harmless. The generous disposition of the lion is more especially manifested in time of danger; not only at the moment when, despising all weapons, he long defends himself solely by the terror which he inspires, and protests, as it were, that he is compelled thus to defend himself, but when he rises at last, not as though constrained by danger, but as if enraged by the mad folly of his adversaries. This, however, is a still more noble feature of his courage—however numerous the dogs and hunters may be that press upon him, as he makes his retreat he comes to a stand every now and then upon the level plain, while he is still in view, and scowls contemptuously upon them: but as soon as ever he has entered the thickets and dense forests, he scours away at the swiftest possible pace, as though aware that the place itself will shelter his shame. When in pursuit, the lion advances with a leap, but he does not do so when in flight. When wounded, he discovers, with wonderful sagacity, the person who struck the blow, and will find him out, however great may have been the

multitude of his pursuers. If a person has thrown a dart at him, but has failed to inflict a wound, the animal seizes him, whirls him round and throws him to the ground, but without wounding him. When the lioness is defending her whelps, it is said that she fixes her eyes steadily on the ground, that she may not be frightened at the spears of the hunters. In all other respects, these animals are equally free from deceit and suspicion. They never look at an object obliquely, and they dislike being looked at themselves in such a manner. It is generally believed, that, when the lion is dying, he bites at the earth, and sheds tears at his fate. ^[Note] Powerful, however, and fierce as this animal is, he is terrified by the motion of wheels or of an empty chariot, and still more on seeing the crest or hearing the crowing of a cock; ^[Note] but most of all, is he afraid of fire. The only malady to which the lion is subject, is loss of appetite; this, however, is cured by putting insults upon him, by means of the pranks of monkeys placed about him, a thing which rouses his anger; immediately he tastes their blood, he is relieved.

Q. Scævola, the son of P. Scævola, when he was curule ædile, was the first to exhibit at Rome a combat of a number of lions; and L. Sylla, who was afterwards Dictator, during his prætorship, gave the spectacle of a fight of one hundred lions with manes. ^[Note] After him, Pompeius Magnus exhibited six hundred lions in the Circus, three hundred and fifteen of which had manes; Cæsar, the Dictator, exhibited four hundred.

It was formerly a very difficult matter to catch the lion, and it was mostly done by means of pit-falls. In the reign, however, of the Emperor Claudius, accident disclosed a method which appears almost disgraceful to the name of such an animal; a Gætulian shepherd stopped a lion, that was rushing furiously upon him, by merely throwing his cloak ^[Note] over the animal; a circumstance which afterwards afforded an exhibition in the arena of the Circus, when the frantic fury of the animal was paralyzed in a manner almost incredible by a light covering being thrown over its head, so much so, that it was put into chains without the least resistance; we must conclude, therefore, that all its strength lies in its eyes. This circumstance renders what was done by Lysimachus ^[Note] less wonderful, who strangled a lion, with which he had been shut up by command of Alexander. ^[Note]

Antony subjected lions to the yoke, and was the first at Rome to harness them to his chariot; ^[Note] and this during the civil war, after the battle on the plains of Pharsalia; not, indeed, without a kind of ominous presage, a prodigy that foretold at the time how that generous spirits were about to be subdued. But to have himself drawn along in this manner, in company with the actress Cytheris, ^[Note] was a thing that

surpassed even the most monstrous spectacles that were to be seen at that calamitous period. It is said that Hanno, one of the most illustrious of the Carthaginians, was the first who ventured to touch the lion with the hand, and to exhibit it in a tame state. It was on this account that he was banished; for it was supposed, that a man so talented and so ingenious would have it in his power to persuade the people to anything, and it was looked upon as unsafe to trust the liberties of the country to one who had so eminently triumphed over even ferocity itself. There are some fortuitous occurrences cited also, which have given occasion to these animals to display their natural clemency. Mentor, a native of Syracuse, was met in Syria by a lion, who rolled before him in a suppliant manner; though smitten with fear and desirous to escape, the wild beast on every side opposed his flight, and licked his feet with a fawning air. Upon this, Mentor observed on the paw of the lion a swelling and a wound; from which, after extracting a splinter, he relieved the creature's pain. ^[Note] There is a picture at Syracuse, which bears witness to the truth of this transaction.

In the same manner, too, Elpis, a native of Samos, on landing from a vessel on the coast of Africa, observed a lion near the beach, opening his mouth in a threatening manner; upon which he climbed a tree, in the hope of escaping, while, at the same time, he invoked the aid of Father Liber; for it is the appropriate time for invocations when there is no room left for hope. The wild beast did not pursue him as he fled, although he might easily have done so; but, lying down at the foot of the tree, by the open mouth which had caused so much terror, tried to excite his compassion. A bone, while he was devouring his food with too great avidity, had stuck fast between his teeth, and he was perishing with hunger; such being the punishment inflicted upon him by his own weapons, every now and then he would look up and supplicate him, as it were, with mute entreaties. Elpis, ^[Note] not wishing to risk trusting himself to

so formidable a beast, remained stationary for some time, more at last from astonishment than from fear. At length, however, he descended from the tree and extracted the bone, the lion in the meanwhile extending his head, and aiding in the operation as far as it was necessary for him to do. The story goes on to say, that as long as the vessel remained off that coast, the lion showed his sense of gratitude by bringing whatever he had chanced to procure in the chase. In memory of this circumstance, Elpis consecrated a temple at Samos to Father Liber, which the Greeks, from the circumstance above related, called "the temple χεχηνότος διονύσου," or "of the open-mouthed Bacchus." Can we wonder, after this, that the wild beasts should be able to recognize the footsteps of man, ^[Note] when of him alone of all animals they even hope for aid? For why should they not have recourse to others for assistance? Or how is it that they know that the hand of man has power to heal them? Unless, perhaps, it is that the violence of pain can force wild beasts even to risk every thing to obtain relief.

(17.) Demetrius, the natural philosopher, relates an equally remarkable instance, in relation to a panther. ^[Note] The animal was lying in the middle of the road, waiting for some one to pass that way, when he was suddenly perceived by the father of one

Philinus, an ardent lover of wisdom. ^[Note] Seized with fear, he immediately began to retreat; while the beast rolled itself before him, evidently with the desire of caressing him, at the same time manifesting signs of grief, which could not be misunderstood in a panther even. The animal had young ones, which had happened to fall into a pit at some distance from the place. The first dictates of compassion banished all fear, and the next prompted him to assist the animal. He accordingly followed her, as she gently drew him on by fixing her claws in his garment; and as soon as he discovered what was the cause of her grief and the price of his own safety, he took the whelps out of the pit, and they followed her to the end of the desert; whither he was escorted by her, frisking with joy and gladness, in order that she might more appropriately testify how grateful she was, and how little she had given him in return; a mode of acting which is but rarely found, among men even.

Facts such as these induce us to give some credit to what Democritus relates, who says that a man, called Thoas, was preserved in Arcadia by a dragon. ^[Note] When a boy, he had become much attached to it, and had reared it very tenderly; but his father, being alarmed at the nature and monstrous size of the reptile, had taken and left it in the desert. Thoas being here attacked by some robbers who lay in ambush, he was delivered from them by the dragon, which recognized his voice and came to his assistance. But as to what has been said respecting infants that have been exposed and nourished by the milk of wild beasts, ^[Note] as in the case of the founders of our city by a wolf, I am disposed to attribute such cases as these rather to the greatness of the destinies which have to be fulfilled, than to any peculiarity in the nature of the animals themselves.

The panther and the tiger are nearly the only animals that are remarkable for a skin distinguished by the variety of its spots; ^[Note] whereas others have them of a single colour, appropriate to each species. The lions of Syria alone are black. The spots of the panther are like small eyes, upon a white ground. It is said that all quadrupeds are attracted in a most wonderful manner by their odour, ^[Note] while they are terrified by the fierceness of their aspect; for which reason the creature conceals its head, and then seizes upon the animals that are attracted to it by the sweetness of the odour. It is said by some, that the panther has, on the shoulder, a spot which bears the form of the moon; and that, like it, it regularly increases to full, and then diminishes to a crescent. At present, we apply the general names of varia ^[Note] and pard, (which last belongs to the males), to all the numerous species of this animal, which is very common in Africa and Syria. ^[Note] Some writers distinguish the panther, as being remarkable for its whiteness: but as yet I have not observed any other difference between them.

There was an ancient decree of the senate, which prohibited

animals being imported from Africa into Italy; but Cn. Aufidius, the tribune of the people, ^[Note] procured a law repealing this, which allowed of their being brought over for the games of the Circus. Scaurus, in his ædileship, ^[Note] was the first who sent over the parti-coloured kind, one hundred and fifty in the whole; after which, Pompeius Magnus sent four hundred and ten, and the late Emperor Augustus four hundred and twenty.

The same emperor was the first person who exhibited at Rome a tame tiger ^[Note] on the stage. ^[Note] This was in the consulship of Q. Tubero and Fabius Maximus, ^[Note] at the dedication of the theatre of Marcellus, on the fourth day before the nones of May: the late Emperor Claudius exhibited four at one time. ^[Note]

(18.) Hyrcania and India produce the tiger, an animal of tremendous swiftness, a quality which is more especially tested when we deprive it of all its whelps, which are always very numerous. They are seized by the hunter, who lies in wait for them, being provided with the fleetest horse he can possibly obtain, and which he frequently changes for a fresh one. As soon as the female finds her lair empty-for the male takes no care whatever of his offspring-headlong she darts forth, and traces them by the smell. Her approach is made known by her cries, upon which the hunter throws down one of the

whelps; this she snatches up with her teeth, and more swift, even, under the weight, returns to her lair, and then again sets out in pursuit; and this she continues to do, until the hunter has reached his vessel, while the animal vainly vents her fury upon the shore.

Camels are found feeding in herds in the East. Of these there are two different kinds, those of Bactria and those of Arabia; ^[Note] the former kind having two humps on the back, and the latter only one; they have also another hump under the breast, by means of which they support themselves when reclining. Both of these species, like the ox, have no teeth in the upper jaw. ^[Note] They are all of them employed as beasts of burthen, in carrying loads on the back, and they answer the purpose of cavalry in battle. Their speed is the same with that of the horse, but their power of holding out in this respect is proportioned in each to its natural strength: it will never go beyond its accustomed distance, nor will it receive more than its usual load. The camel has a natural antipathy to the horse. ^[Note] It can endure thirst for four days even, and when it has the opportunity of obtaining water, it drinks, as it were, both for past and future thirst, having first taken care to trouble the water by trampling in it; without doing which, it would find no pleasure in drinking. They live fifty years, some indeed as much as one hundred. These animals, too, are liable to fits of frenzy. ^[Note] A peculiar mode of castrating them, and the females, even, when required for the purposes of war, has been discovered; it renders them more courageous, by the destruction of all sexual feelings.

There are two others ^[Note] animals, which have some resemblance to the camel. One of these is called, by the Æthiopians, the nabun. ^[Note] It has a neck like that of the horse, feet and legs like those of the ox, a head like that of the camel, and is covered with white spots upon a red ground; from which peculiarities it has been called the cameleopard. ^[Note] It was first seen at Rome in the Circensian games held by Cæsar, the Dictator. ^[Note] Since that time too, it has been occasionally seen. It is more remarkable for the singularity of its appearance than for its fierceness; for which reason it has obtained the name of the wild sheep. ^[Note]

It was at the games of Pompeius Magnus that the chama ^[Note]

was first exhibited; an animal called rufius by the Gauls; having the figure of a wolf, with the spots of the pard. There were also exhibited some animals from Æthiopia, which they called by the Greek name, χήποι, ^[Note] the hinder extremities of which resembled the human feet and legs, while the fore-feet were like hands. These animals have not been seen at Rome since that time.

At the same games the rhinoceros was also exhibited, an animal which has a single horn projecting from the nose; ^[Note] it has been frequently seen since then. This too is another natural-born enemy of the elephant. ^[Note] It prepares itself for the combat by sharpening its horn against the rocks; and in fighting directs it chiefly against the belly of its adversary, which it knows to be the softest part. The two animals are of equal length, but the legs of the rhinoceros are much the shorter: its skin is the colour of box-wood.

Æthiopia produces the lynx ^[Note] in abundance, and the sphinx,

which has brown hair and two mammæ on the breast, ^[Note] as well as many monstrous kinds of a similar nature; horses with wings, and armed with horns, which are called pegasi; ^[Note] the crocotta, an animal which looks as though it had been produced by the union of the wolf and the dog, ^[Note] for it can break any thing with its teeth, and instantly on swallowing it digest it with the stomach; monkeys, too, with black heads, the hair of the ass, and a voice quite unlike that of any other animal. ^[Note] There are oxen, too, like those of India, some with one horn, and others with three; the leucrocotta, a wild beast of extraordinary swiftness, the size of the wild ass, with the legs of a stag, the neck, tail, and breast of a lion, the head of a badger, a cloven hoof, the mouth slit up as far as the ears, and one continuous bone instead of teeth; ^[Note] it is said, too, that this animal can imitate the human voice. Among the same people, there is also found an animal called eale; it is the size of the river-horse, has the tail of the elephant, and is of a black or tawny

colour. ^[Note] It has also the jaws of the wild boar, and horns that are moveable, and more than a cubit in length, so that, in fighting, it can employ them alternately, and vary their position by presenting them directly or obliquely, according as necessity may dictate. But the wild bulls which this country produces are the fiercest of all; they are larger than our domestic bull, and exceed all the others in swiftness; are of a tawny colour, with azure eyes, and the hair turned the contrary way; while the jaws open as far as the ears, and the horns are as moveable as those of the eale. The hide of this animal is as hard as flint, and effectually resists all wounds. These creatures pursue all the other wild beasts, while they themselves can only be taken in pitfalls, where they always perish from excess of rage. Ctesias informs us, that among these same Æthiopians, there is an animal found, which he calls the mantichora; ^[Note] it has a triple row of teeth, which fit into each other like those of a comb, the face and ears of a man, and azure eyes, is of the colour of blood, has the body of the lion, and a tail ending in a sting, like that of the scorpion. Its voice resembles the union of the sound of the flute and the trumpet; it is of excessive swiftness, and is particularly fond of human flesh.

There are in India oxen also with solid hoofs ^[Note] and a single horn; ^[Note] and a wild beast called the axis, which has a skin

like that of a fawn, but with numerous spots on it, and whiter; ^[Note] this animal is looked upon as sacred to Bacchus. The Orsæan Indians hunt down a kind of ape, which has the body white ^[Note] all over; as well as a very fierce animal called the monoceros, ^[Note] which has the head of the stag, the feet of the elephant, and the tail of the boar, while the rest of the body is like that of the horse; it makes a deep lowing noise, and has a single black horn, which projects from the middle of its forehead, two cubits in length. ^[Note] This animal, it is said, cannot be taken alive.

Among the Hesperian Æthiopians is the fountain of Nigris, by many, supposed to be the head of the Nile. I have already mentioned the arguments by which this opinion is supported. ^[Note] Near this fountain, there is found a wild beast, which is called the catoblepas; ^[Note] an animal of moderate size, and in other respects sluggish in the movement of the rest of its limbs; its head is remarkably heavy, and it only carries it with the greatest difficulty, being always bent down towards the earth. Were it not for this circumstance, it would prove the destruction of

the human race; for all who behold its eyes, fall dead upon the spot. ^[Note]

There is the same power also in the serpent called the basilisk. ^[Note] It is produced in the province of Cyrene, being not more than twelve fingers in length. It has a white spot on the head, strongly resembling a sort of a diadem. ^[Note] When it hisses, all the other serpents fly from it: and it does not advance its body, like the others, by a succession of folds, but moves along upright and erect upon the middle. It destroys all shrubs, not only by its contact, but those even that it has breathed upon; it burns up all the grass too, and breaks the stones, so tremendous is its noxious influence. It was formerly a general belief that if a man on horseback killed one of these animals with a spear, the poison would run up the weapon and kill, not only the rider, but the horse as well. To this dreadful monster the effluvium of the weasel is fatal, a thing that has been tried with success, for kings have often desired to see its body when killed; so true is it that it has pleased Nature that there should be nothing without its antidote. The animal is thrown into the hole of the basilisk, which is easily known from the soil around it being infected. The weasel destroys the basilisk by its odour, but dies itself in this struggle of nature against its own self. ^[Note]

In Italy also it is believed that there is a noxious influence in the eye of a wolf; it is supposed that it will instantly take

away the voice of a man, ^[Note] if it is the first to see him. Africa and Egypt produce wolves of a sluggish and stunted nature; ^[Note] those of the colder climates are fierce and savage. That men have been turned into wolves, and again restored to their original form, ^[Note] we must confidently look upon as untrue, unless, indeed, we are ready to believe all the tales, which, for so many ages, have been found to be fabulous. But, as the belief of it has become so firmly fixed in the minds of the common people, as to have caused the term "Versipellis" ^[Note] to be used as a common form of imprecation, I will here point out its origin. Euanthes, a Grecian author of no mean reputation, informs us that the Arcadians assert that a member of the family of one Anthus is chosen by lot, and then taken to a certain lake in that district, where, after suspending his clothes on an oak, he swims across the water and goes away into the desert, where he is changed into a wolf and associates with other animals of the same species for a space of nine years. If he has kept himself from beholding a man during the whole of that time, he returns to the same lake, and, after swimming across it, resumes his original form, only with the addition of nine years in age to his former appearance. To this Fabius ^[Note] adds, that he takes his former clothes as well. It is really wonderful to what a length the credulity ^[Note] of

the Greeks will go! There is no falsehood, if ever so barefaced, to which some of them cannot be found to bear testimony.

So too, Agriopas, who wrote the Olympionics, ^[Note] informs us that Demænetus, the Parrhasian, during a sacrifice of human victims, which the Arcadians were offering up to the Lycæan ^[Note] Jupiter, tasted the entrails of a boy who had been slaughtered; upon which he was turned into a wolf, but, ten years afterwards, was restored to his original shape and his calling of an athlete, and returned victorious in the pugilistic contests at the Olympic games.

It is also commonly supposed, that the tail of this animal contains a small lock of hair, which possesses an amatory power; and that when the creature is caught, this hair is shed by it, but has no virtue whatever, unless it is procured from the animal while alive. ^[Note] It is said that these animals couple for no more than twelve days in the year; ^[Note] and that when pressed by hunger they will eat earth. Among the points of augury, to have our progress cut short to the right by a wolf, if at the time its mouth is full, is the best of omens. There is a species, which is known as the stag-wolf, such as we have already said ^[Note] were brought from Gaul and exhibited in the Circus by Pompeius Magnus. It is said, that however hungry this animal may chance to be, if it only turns its head while eating, it immediately becomes oblivious of the food that is before it, and takes its departure to seek it elsewhere. ^[Note]

With reference to serpents, it is generally known, that they

assume the colour of the soil in which they conceal themselves. The different species of them are innumerable. The cerastes ^[Note] has little horns, often four in number, projecting from the body, by the movement of which it attracts birds, while the rest of its body lies concealed. ^[Note] The amphisbæna ^[Note] has two heads, ^[Note] that is to say, it has a second one at the tail, as though one mouth were too little for the discharge of all its venom. Some serpents have scales, some a mottled skin, and they are all possessed of a deadly poison. The jaculus ^[Note] darts from the branches of trees; and it is not only to our feet that the serpent is formidable, for these fly through the air even, just as though they were hurled from an engine. ^[Note] The neck of the asp ^[Note] puffs out, ^[Note] and there is no remedy whatever

against its sting, except the instant excision of the affected part. ^[Note] This reptile, which is thus deadly, is possessed of this one sense, or rather affection; the male and the female are generally found together, ^[Note] and the one cannot live without the other; hence it is that, if one of them happens to be killed, the other takes incredible pains to avenge its death. It follows the slayer of its mate, and will single him out among ever such a large number of people, by a sort of instinctive knowledge; with this object it overcomes all difficulties, travels any distance, and is only to be avoided by the intervention of rivers or an accelerated flight. It is really difficult to decide, whether Nature has altogether been more liberal of good or of evil. First of all, however, she has given to this pest but weak powers of sight, and has placed the eyes, not in the front of the head, so that it may see straight before it, but in the temples, so that it is more frequently put in motion by the approach of the footstep than through the sight. (24.) The ichneumon, too, is its enemy ^[Note] to the very death.

This hostility is the especial glory of this animal, which is also produced in Egypt. It plunges itself repeatedly into the mud, and then dries itself in the sun: as soon as, by these means, it has armed itself with a sufficient number of coatings, it proceeds to the combat. Raising its tail, and turning its back to the serpent, it receives its stings, which are inflicted to no purpose, until at last, turning its head sideways, and viewing its enemy, it seizes it by the throat. Not content, however, with this victory, it conquers another creature also, which is no less dangerous.

The Nile produces the crocodile also, ^[Note] a destructive quadruped, and equally dangerous on land and in the water. This is the only land animal that does not enjoy the use of its tongue, ^[Note] and the only one that has the upper jaw moveable, and is capable of biting with it; and terrible is its bite, for the rows of its teeth fit into each other, like those of a comb. ^[Note] Its length mostly exceeds eighteen cubits. It produces eggs about the size of those of the goose, and, by a kind of instinctive foresight, always deposits them beyond the limit to which the river Nile rises, when at its greatest height. ^[Note] There is no animal that arrives at so great a bulk as this, from so small a beginning. ^[Note] It is armed also with claws, and has a skin,

that is proof against all blows. It passes the day on land, and the night in the water, in both instances on account of the warmth. ^[Note] When it has glutted itself with fish, it goes to sleep on the banks of the river, a portion of the food always remaining in its mouth; upon which, a little bird, which in Egypt is known as the trochilus, and, in Italy, as the king of the birds, for the purpose of obtaining food, invites the crocodile to open its jaws; then, hopping to and fro, it first cleans the outside of its mouth, next the teeth, and then the inside, while the animal opens its jaws as wide as possible, in consequence of the pleasure which it experiences from the titillation. ^[Note] It is at these moments that the ichneumon, seeing it fast asleep in consequence of the agreeable sensation thus produced, darts down its throat like an arrow, and eats away its intestines. ^[Note]

Like the crocodile, but smaller even than the ichneumon, is the scincus, ^[Note] which is also produced in the Nile, and the flesh of which is the most effectual antidote against poisons, and acts as a powerful aphrodisiac upon the male sex. But so great a pest was the crocodile to prove, that Nature was not content with giving it one enemy only; the dolphins, therefore, which enter

the Nile, have the back armed with a spine, ^[Note] which is edged like a knife, as if for this very purpose; and although these animals are much inferior in strength, they contrive to destroy the crocodile by artifice, which on the other hand attempts to drive them from their prey, and would reign alone in its river as its peculiar domain. For all animals have an especial instinct in this respect, and are able to know not only what is for their own advantage, but also what is to the disadvantage of their enemies; they fully understand the use of their own weapons, they know their opportunity, and the weak parts of those with which they have to contend.

The skin of the belly of the crocodile is soft and thin, aware of this, the dolphins plunge into the water, as if in great alarm, and diving beneath its belly, tear it open with their spines. There is a race of men also, who are peculiarly hostile to this animal; they are known as the Tentyritæ, from an island in the Nile which they inhabit. ^[Note] These men are of small stature, but of wonderful presence of mind, though for this particular object only. The crocodile is a terrible animal to those who fly from it, while at the same time it will fly from those who pursue it; these, however, are the only people who dare to attack it. They even swim in the river after it, and mount its back like so many horsemen; and just as the animal turns up its head for the purpose of biting them, they insert a club into its mouth, holding which at each end, with the two hands, it acts like a bit, and, by these means they drive the captured animal on shore. They also terrify the crocodile so much by their voice alone even, as to force it to disgorge the bodies which it has lately swallowed, for the purpose of burial. This island, therefore, is the only place near which the crocodile never swims; indeed, it is repelled by the odour of this race of men, just as serpents are by that of the Psylli. ^[Note] The

sight of this animal is said to be dull when it is in the water, but, when out of the water, piercing in the extreme; it always passes the four winter months in a cave, without taking food. ^[Note] Some persons say, that this is the only animal that continues to increase in size as long as it lives; it is very long-lived.

The Nile produces the hippopotamus, another wild beast, of a still greater size. It has the cloven hoof of the ox; the back, the mane, and the neighing of the horse; and the turned-up snout, the tail, and the hooked teeth of the wild boar, but not so dangerous. ^[Note] The hide is impenetrable, except when it has been soaked with water; and it is used for making shields and helmets. ^[Note] This animal lays waste the standing corn, and determines beforehand what part it shall ravage on the following day; it is said also, that it enters the field backwards, to prevent any ambush being laid for it on its return.

M. Scaurus was the first who exhibited this animal at Rome, together with five crocodiles, at the games which he gave in his ædileship, in a piece of water ^[Note] which had been temporarily prepared for the purpose. The hippopotamus has even been

our instructor in one of the operations of medicine. ^[Note] When the animal has become too bulky by continued over-feeding, it goes down to the banks of the river, and examines the reeds which have been newly cut; as soon as it has found a stump that is very sharp, it presses its body against it, and so wounds one of the veins in the thigh; and, by the flow of blood thus produced, the body, which would otherwise have fallen into a morbid state, is relieved; after which, it covers up the wound with mud.

The bird also, which is called the ibis, ^[Note] a native of the same country of Egypt, has shewn us some things of a similar nature. By means of its hooked beak, it laves the body through that part, by which it is especially necessary for health that the residuous food should be discharged. Nor, indeed, are these the only inventions which have been borrowed from animals, to prove of use to man. The power of the herb dittany, in extracting arrows, was first disclosed to us by stags that had been struck by that weapon; the weapon being

discharged on their feeding upon this plant. ^[Note] The same animals, too, when they happen to have been wounded by the phalangium, a species of spider, or by any insect of a similar nature, cure themselves by eating crabs. One of the very best remedies for the bite of the serpent, is the plant ^[Note] with which lizards treat their wounds when injured in fighting with each other. The swallow has shown us that the chelidonia ^[Note] is very serviceable to the sight, by the fact of its employing it for the cure of its young, when their eyes are affected. The tortoise recruits its powers of effectually resisting serpents, by eating the plant which is known as cunile bubula; ^[Note] and the weasel feeds on rue, when it fights with the serpent in the pursuit of mice. ^[Note] The stork cures itself of its diseases with wild marjoram, and the wild boar with ivy, as also by eating crabs, and more particularly those that have been thrown up by the sea. ^[Note] The snake, when the membrane which covers its body

has been contracted by the cold of winter, throws it off in the spring by the aid of the juices of fennel, ^[Note] and thus becomes sleek and youthful in appearance. First of all, it disengages the head, and it then takes no less than a day and a night in working itself out, and divesting itself of the membrane in which it has been enclosed. The same animal, too, on finding its sight weakened during its winter retreat, anoints and refreshes its eyes by rubbing itself on the plant called fennel or marathrum; but if any of the scales are slow in coming off, ^[Note] it rubs itself against the thorns of the juniper. The dragon relieves the nausea which affects it in spring, with the juices of the lettuce. ^[Note] The barbarous nations go to hunt the panther, provided with meat that has been rubbed with aconite, which is a poison. ^[Note] Immediately on eating it, compression of the throat overtakes them, from which circumstance it is, that the plant has received the name of pardalianches. ^[Note] The animal, however, has found an antidote against this poison in human excrements; besides which, it is so eager to get at them, that the shepherds purposely suspend them in a vessel, placed so high, that the animal cannot reach them even by leaping, when it endeavours to get at them; accordingly, it continues to leap until it has quite exhausted itself, and at last expires: otherwise, it is so tenacious of life, that it will con-

tinue to fight long after its intestines have been dragged out of its body.

When an elephant has happened to devour a chameleon, which is of the same colour with the herbage, it counteracts this poison by means of the wild olive. Bears, when they have eaten of the fruit of the mandrake, lick up numbers of ants. ^[Note] The stag counteracts the effect of poisonous plants by eating the artichoke. Wood-pigeons, jackdaws, blackbirds, and partridges, purge themselves once a year by eating bay leaves; pigeons, turtle-doves, and poultry, with wall-pellitory, or helxine; ducks, geese, and other aquatic birds, with the plant sideritis or vervain; cranes, and birds of a similar nature, with the bulrush. The raven, when it has killed a chameleon, a contest in which even the conqueror suffers, counteracts the poison by means of laurel.

There are a thousand other facts of this kind: and the same Nature has also bestowed upon many animals as well, the faculty of observing the heavens, and of presaging the winds, rains, and tempests, each in its own peculiar way. It would be an endless labour to enumerate them all; just as much as it would be to point out the relation of each to man. ^[Note] For, in fact, they warn us of danger, not only by their fibres and their entrails, to which a large portion of mankind attach the greatest faith, but by other kinds of warnings as well. When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it ^[Note] before-hand, and the spiders with their webs are the first to drop. Divination from birds has been made a science among the Romans, and the college of its priests is looked upon as peculiarly sacred. ^[Note] In Thrace, when all parts are covered

with ice, the foxes are consulted, an animal which, in other respects, is baneful from its craftiness. It has been observed, that this animal applies its ear to the ice, for the purpose of testing its thickness; hence it is, that the inhabitants will never cross frozen rivers and lakes until the foxes have passed over them and returned.

We have accounts, too, no less remarkable, in reference even to the most contemptible of animals. M. Varro informs us, that a town in Spain was undermined by rabbits, and one in Thessaly, by mice; that the inhabitants of a district in Gaul were driven from their country by frogs, ^[Note] and a place in Africa by locusts; ^[Note] that the inhabitants of Gyarus, ^[Note] one of the Cyclades, were driven away by mice; ^[Note] and the Amunclæ, in Italy, by serpents. There is a vast desert tract on this side of the Æthiopian Cynamolgi, ^[Note] the inhabitants of which were exterminated by scorpions and venomous ants. ^[Note]

and Theophrastus informs us, that the people of Rhœteum ^[Note] were driven away by scolopendræ. ^[Note] But we must now return to the other kinds of wild beasts.

It is the vulgar notion, that the hyæna possesses in itself both sexes, being a male during one year, and a female the next, and that it becomes pregnant without the co-operation of the male; Aristotle, however, denies this. ^[Note] The neck, with the mane, runs continuously into the back—Bone, so that the animal cannot bend this part without turning round the whole body. Many other wonderful things are also related of this animal; and strangest of all, that it imitates the human voice among the stalls of the shepherds; and while there, learns the name of some one of them, and then calls him away, and devours him. It is said also, that it can imitate a man vomiting, and that, in this way, it attracts the dogs, and then falls upon them. It is the only animal that digs up graves, in order to obtain the bodies of the dead. The female is rarely caught: its eyes, it is said, are of a thousand various colours and changes of shade. It is said also, that on coming in contact with its shadow, dogs will lose their voice, and that, by certain magical influences, it can render any animal immoveable, round which it has walked three times.

By the union of the hyena with the Æthiopian lioness, the

corocotta is produced, which has the same faculty of imitating the voices of men and cattle. Its gaze is always fixed and immoveable; it has no gums in either of its jaws, and the teeth are one continuous piece of bone; they are enclosed in a sort of box as it were, that they may not be blunted by rubbing against each other. Juba informs us, that the mantichora of Æthiopia can also imitate the human speech.

Great numbers of hyænas are produced in Africa, which also gives birth to multitudes of wild asses. In this species each male rules over a herd of females. Fearing rivals in their lust, they carefully watch the pregnant females, and castrate the young males with their teeth, as soon as they are born. ^[Note] The pregnant females, on the other hand, seek concealment, and endeavour to bring forth in secret, being desirous to increase their opportunities of sexual indulgence.

The beavers of the Euxine, when they are closely pressed by danger, themselves cut off the same part, as they know that it is for this that they are pursued. This substance is called castoreum by the physicians. ^[Note] In addition to this, the bite of this animal is terrible; with its teeth it can cut down trees

on the banks of rivers, just as though with a knife. ^[Note] If they seize a man by any part of his body, they will never loose their hold until his bones are broken and crackle under their teeth. The tail is like that of a fish; ^[Note] in the other parts of the body they resemble the otter; ^[Note] they are both of them aquatic animals, and both have hair softer than down.

Bramble-frogs, ^[Note] also, which live both on land and in water, are replete with various medicinal substances, which they are said to discharge each day, and to take in again with their food, of which they only retain the poisonous parts.

The sea-calf, too, lives equally in the sea and on land, being possessed of the same degree of intelligence as the beaver. It vomits forth its gall, which is useful for many purposes in medicine; also the rennet, ^[Note] which serves as a remedy in epilepsy; for it is well aware that it is hunted for these sub-

stances. Theophrastus informs us, that lizards ^[Note] also cast their skins like the serpent, and instantly devour them, thus depriving us of a powerful remedy for epilepsy; he says, too, that the bite of the lizard is fatal in Greece, but harmless in Italy. ^[Note]

Stags, although the most mild of all animals, have still their own feelings of malignancy; ^[Note] when hard pressed by the hounds, of their own accord they fly for refuge to man; and when the females bring forth, they are less anxious to avoid the paths which bear traces of human footsteps, than solitary spots which offer a retreat to wild beasts. ^[Note] They become pregnant after the rising of the constellation Arcturus; ^[Note] they bring forth after a gestation of eight months, and sometimes produce two young ones. They separate after conception, but the males, upon being thus abandoned, become maddened with the fury of their passion; they dig up the earth, and their muzzles become quite black, until they have been washed by the rain. ^[Note] The females, before they bring forth, purge themselves by means of a certain herb, which is called seselis, by the use of which parturition is rendered more easy. After delivery, they take a mixture of the two plants called seselis ^[Note] and aros, ^[Note] and then return to the fawn; they seem desirous, for

some reason or other, that their first milk, after parturition, should be impregnated with the juice of these plants. They then exercise the young ones in running, and teach them how to take to flight, leading them to precipices, and showing them how to leap. The sexual passion of the male having been now satisfied, he repairs to the pasture lands with the greatest eagerness. When they feel themselves becoming too fat, they seek some retired spot, thus acknowledging the inconvenience arising from their bulk. Besides this, they continually pause in their flight, stand still and look back, and then again resume their flight when the enemy approaches. This pause is occasioned by the intense pain which they feel in the intestines, a part which is so weak, that a very slight blow will cause them to break within. The barking of a dog instantly puts them to flight, and they always run with the wind, in order that no trace of them may be left. They are soothed by the shepherd's pipe and his song; ^[Note] when their ears are erect, their sense of hearing is very acute, but when dropped, they become deaf. ^[Note] In other respects the stag is a simple animal, which regards every thing as wonderful, and with a stupid astonishment; so much so, indeed, that if a horse or cow happens to approach it, it will not see the hunter, who may be close at hand, or, if it does see him, it only gazes upon his bow and arrow. Stags cross the sea in herds, swimming in a long line, the head of each resting on the haunches of the one that precedes it, each in its turn falling back to the rear. This has been particularly remarked when they pass over from Cilicia to the island of Cyprus. Though they do not see the land, they still are able to direct themselves by the smell. The males have horns, and are the only animals that shed them every year, at a stated time in the spring; at which period they seek out with the greatest care the most retired places, and after losing them, remain concealed, as though aware that they

are unarmed. Still, however, they envy us the good that these might do us; for it is said the right horn, which possesses, as it were, certain medicinal properties, can never be found, a circumstance the more astonishing, from the fact that they change their horns every year, even when kept in parks; ^[Note] it is generally thought that they bury their horns in the ground. The odour of either horn, when burnt, drives away serpents and detects epilepsy. They also bear the marks of their age on the horns, every year, up to the sixth, ^[Note] a fresh antler being added; after which period the horns are renewed in the same state, so that by means of them their age cannot be ascertained. Their old age, however, is indicated by their teeth, for then they have only a few, or none at all; and we then no longer perceive, at the base of their horns, antlers projecting from the front of the forehead, as is usually the case with the animal when young.

When this animal is castrated it does not shed its horns, nor are they reproduced. When the horns begin to be reproduced, two projections are to be seen, much resembling, at first, dry skin; they grow with tender shoots, having upon them a soft down like that on the head of a reed. So long as they are without horns, they go to feed during the night. As the horns grow, they harden by the heat of the sun, and the animal, from time to time, tries their strength upon the trees; when satisfied with their strength, it leaves its retreat.

Stags, too, have been occasionally caught with ivy green and growing on their horns, ^[Note] the plant having taken root on them, as it would on any piece of wood, while the animal was rubbing them against the trees. The stag is sometimes found white, as is said to have been the case with the hind of Q. Sertorius, which he persuaded the nations of Spain to look upon as having the gift of prophecy. ^[Note] The stag, too,

fights with the serpent: it traces out the serpent's hole, and draws it forth by the breath of its lostrils, ^[Note] and hence it is that the smell of burnt stags' horn has the remarkable power of driving away serpents. The very best remedy for the bite of a serpent is the rennet of a fawn that has been killed in the womb of its mother.

The stag is generally admitted to be very long lived; some were captured at the end of one hundred years with the golden collars which Alexander the Great had put upon them, and which were quite concealed by the folds of the skin, in consequence of the accumulation of fat. ^[Note] This animal is not subject to fever, and, indeed, it is a preservative against that complaint. We know that of late some women of princely rank have been in the habit of eating the flesh of the stag every morning, and that they have arrived at an extreme old age, free from all fevers. It is, however, generally supposed that the animal must be killed by a single wound to make sure of it possessing this virtue.

(33.) Of the same species is an animal, which only differs from the stag in having a beard and long hair about the shoulders: it is called tragelaphus, ^[Note] and is produced nowhere except on the banks of the Phasis. ^[Note]

Africa is almost the only country that does not produce ^[Note]

the stag, but then it produces the chameleon, ^[Note] although it is much more commonly met with in India. Its figure and size are that of a lizard, only that its legs are straight and longer. Its sides unite under its belly, as in fishes, and its spine projects in a similar manner. Its muzzle is not unlike the snout of a small hog, so far as in so small an animal it can be. Its tail is very long, and becomes smaller towards the end, coiling up in folds like that of the viper. It has hooked claws, and a slow movement like that of the tortoise; its body is rough like that of the crocodile; its eyes are deep sunk in the orbits, placed very near each other, very large, and of the same colour as the body. It never closes them, and when the animal looks round, it does so, not by the motion of the pupil, but of the white of the eye. ^[Note] It always holds the head upright and the mouth open, and is the only animal which receives nourishment neither by meat nor drink, nor anything else, but from the air alone. ^[Note] Towards the end of the dog-days ^[Note] it is fierce, but at other times quite harmless. The nature of its colour, too, is very remarkable, for it is continually changing; its eyes, its tail, and its whole body always assuming the colour of whatever object is nearest, with the exception of white and red. ^[Note] After death, it becomes of a

pale colour. It has a little flesh about the head, the jaws, and the root of the tail, but none whatever on the rest of the body. It has no blood whatever, except in the heart and about the eyes, and its entrails are without a spleen. ^[Note] It conceals itself during the winter months, just like the lizard.

The tarandrus, ^[Note] too, of the Scythians, changes its colour, but this is the case with none of the animals which are covered with hair, except the lycaon ^[Note] of India, which is said to have a mane on the neck. But with respect to the thos, ^[Note] (which is a species of wolf, differing from the common kind in having a larger body and very short legs, leaping with great activity, living by the chase, and never attacking man); it changes its

coat, and not its colour, for it is covered with hair in the winter, and goes bare in summer. The tarandrus is of the size of the ox; its head is larger than that of the stag, and not very unlike it; its horns are branched, its hoofs cloven, and its hair as long as that of the bear. Its proper colour, when it thinks proper to return to it, is like that of the ass. Its hide is of such extreme hardness, that it is used for making breastplates. When it is frightened, this animal reflects the colour of all the trees, shrubs, and flowers, or of the spots in which it is concealed; hence it is that it is so rarely captured. It is wonderful that such various hues should be given to the body, but still more so that it should be given to the hair.

India and Africa produce the porcupine, the body of which is covered with prickles. It is a species of hedgehog, but the quills of the porcupine are longer, and when it stretches the skin, it discharges them like so many missiles. With these it pierces the mouths of the dogs which are pressing hard upon it, and even sends its darts to some distance further ^[Note] It conceals itself during the winter months, which, indeed, is the nature of many animals, and more especially the bear.

Bears couple in the beginning of winter, ^[Note] and not after the fashion of other quadrupeds; for both animals lie down and embrace each other. ^[Note] The female then retires by herself to a separate den, and there brings forth on the thirtieth day, mostly five young ones. When first born, they are shapeless masses of white flesh, a little larger than mice; ^[Note] their claws alone being

prominent. The mother then licks them gradually into proper shape. There is nothing more uncommon than to see a she-bear in the act of parturition. ^[Note] The male remains in his retreat for forty days, the female four months. If they happen to have no den, they construct a retreat with branches and shrubs, which is made impenetrable to the rain and is lined with soft leaves. During the first fourteen days they are overcome by so deep a sleep, that they cannot be aroused by wounds even. They become wonderfully fat, too, while in this lethargic state. This fat is much used in medicine; and it is very useful in preventing the hair from falling off. ^[Note] At the end of these fourteen days they sit up, and find nourishment by sucking their fore-paws. ^[Note] They warm their cubs, when cold, by pressing them to the breast, not unlike the way in which birds brood over their eggs. It is a very astonishing thing, but Theophrastus believes it, that if we preserve the flesh of the bear, the animal being killed in its dormant state, it will increase in bulk, even though it may have been cooked. ^[Note] During this period no signs of food are to be found in the stomach of the animal, and only a very slight quantity of liquid; there are a few drops of blood only near the heart, but none whatever in any other part of the body. ^[Note] They leave their retreat in the spring, the males being remarkably fat: of this circumstance, however, we cannot give any satisfactory explanation, for the sleep, during which they increase so much in bulk, lasts, as we have already stated, only fourteen days. ^[Note] When they come out, they eat a certain plant, which is known as

aros, ^[Note] in order to relax the bowels, which would otherwise become in a state of constipation; and they sharpen the edges of their teeth against the young shoots of the trees. Their eye-sight is dull, for which reason in especial, they seek the combs of bees, in order that from the bees stinging them in the throat and drawing blood, the oppression in the head may be relieved. ^[Note] The head of the bear is extremely weak, whereas, in the lion, it is remarkable for its strength: on which account it is, that when the bear, impelled by any alarm, is about to precipitate itself from a rock, it covers its head with its paws. In the arena of the Circus they are often to be seen killed by a blow on the head with the fist. The people of Spain have a belief, that there is some kind of magical poison in the brain of the bear, and therefore burn the heads of those that have been killed in their public games; for it is averred, that the brain, when mixed with drink, produces in man the rage of the bear. ^[Note] These animals walk on two feet, and climb down trees backwards. ^[Note] They can overcome the bull, by suspending themselves, by all four legs, from its muzzle and horns, thus wearing out its powers by their weight. In no other animal is stupidity found more adroit in devising mischief. It is re- corded in our Annals, that on the fourteenth day before the calends of October, ^[Note] in the consulship of M. Piso and M. Messala, Domitius Ahenobarbus, the curule ædile, brought into the Circus one hundred Numidian bears, and as many Æthiopian hunters. I am surprised to find the word Numilian added, seeing that it is well known that there are no bears produced in Africa. ^[Note]

The mice of Pontus also conceal themselves during the winter; but only the white ones. ^[Note] I wonder how those authors, who have asserted that the sense of taste in these animals is very acute, found out that such is the fact. The Alpine mice, which are the same size as badgers, also conceal themselves; ^[Note] but they first carry a store of provisions into their retreat. Some writers, indeed, say that the male and female, lying on their backs alternately, hold in their paws a bundle of gnawed herbs, and, the tail of each in its turn being seized by the teeth of the other, in this way, they are dragged into their hole; hence it is, that at this season their hair is found to be rubbed off their backs. There is a similar animal also in Egypt, ^[Note] which sits, in the same way, upon its haunches, and walks on two feet, using the fore feet as hands.

Hedgehogs also lay up food for the winter; rolling themselves on apples as they lie on the ground, they pierce one with their quills, and then take up another in the mouth, and so carry them into the hollows of trees. These animals also, when they conceal themselves in their holes, afford a sure sign that the wind is about to change from north-east to south. ^[Note] When they

perceive the approach of the hunter, they draw in the head and feet, and all the lower part of the body, which is covered by a thin and defenceless down only, and then roll themselves up into the form of a ball, so that there is no way of taking hold of them but by their quills. When they are reduced to a state of desperation, they discharge a corrosive urine, which injures their skin and quills, as they are aware that it is for the sake of them that they are hunted. A skilful hunter, therefore, will only pursue them when they have just discharged their urine. In this case the skin retains its value; while in the other case, it becomes spoilt and easily torn, the quills rotting and falling off, even though the animal should escape with its life. For this reason it is that it never moistens itself with this poisonous fluid, except when reduced to the last stage of desperation; for it has a perfect hatred for its own venomous distillation, and so careful is the animal, so determined to wait till the very last moment, that it is generally caught before it has employed this means of defence.

They force it to unroll itself, by sprinkling warm water upon it, and then, suspended by one of its hind legs, it is left to die of hunger; for there is no other mode of destroying it, without doing injury to its skin. This animal is not, as many of us imagine, entirely useless to man. If it were not for the quills which it produces, the soft fleece of the sheep would have been given in vain to mankind; for it is by means of its skin, that our woollen cloth is dressed. From the monopoly of this article, great frauds and great profits have resulted; ^[Note] there is no subject on which the senate has more frequently passed decrees, and there is not one of the Emperors, who has not received from the provinces complaints respecting it. ^[Note]

There are also two other animals, whose urine possesses very wonderful properties. We have heard speak of a small animal, to which the name of leontophonus ^[Note] has been given, and which is said to exist only in those countries where the lion is produced; if its flesh is only tasted by the lion, so intensely venomous is its nature, that this lord of the other quadrupeds instantly expires. Hence it is, that the hunters of the lion burn its body to ashes, and sprinkle a piece of flesh with the powder, and so kill the lion by means of the ashes even-so fatal to it is this poison! The lion, therefore, not without good reason hates the leontophonus, and after destroying its sight, kills it without inflicting a bite: the animal, on the other hand, sprinkles the lion with its urine, being well aware that this too is fatal to it.

The urine of the lynx, in the countries ^[Note] where that animal is produced, either becomes crystallized, or else hardens into a precious stone, resembling the carbuncle, and which shines like tire. ^[Note] This is called lyncurium; ^[Note] and hence it is, that many persons believe that this is the way in which amber is produced. The lynx, being well aware of this property, envies us the possession of its urine, and therefore buries it in the earth; ^[Note] by this, however, it becomes solid all the sooner.

The badger, when alarmed, shows its fear by a different kind of artifice; inflating the skin, it distends it to such a degree, as to repel equally the blows of men and the bite of dogs. ^[Note] The squirrel, also, has the power of foreseeing storms,

and so, stopping up its hole at the side from which the wind blows, it leaves the other side open; besides which, the tail, which is furnished with longer hair than the rest of the body, serves as a covering for it. It appears, therefore, ^[Note] that some animals lay up a store of food for the winter, while others pass the time in sleep, which serves them instead of food.

It is said, that the viper is the only one among the serpents that conceals itself in the earth; the others lurking either in the hollows of trees or in holes in the rocks. ^[Note] Provided they are not destroyed by cold, they can live there, without taking food, for a whole year. ^[Note] During the time that they are asleep in their retreat, none of them are venomous.

A similar state of torpor exists also in snails. These animals again become dormant during the summer, adhering very powerfully to stones; and even, when turned up and pulled away from the stones, they will not leave their shells. In the Balearic isles, the snails which are known as the cave-snail, ^[Note] do not leave their holes in the ground, nor do they feed upon any green thing, but adhere to each other like so many grapes. There is another less common species also, which is closed by an operculum that adheres to the shell. ^[Note] These animals always burrow under the earth, and were formerly never found, except in the environs of the Maritime Alps; they have, however, of late been dug up in the territory of Liternum; ^[Note] the

most valued, however, of all, are those of the island of Astypalæa. ^[Note]

It is said, that the lizard, the greatest enemy of all to the snail, never prolongs its life beyond six months. The lizards of Arabia are a cubit in length, ^[Note] while those upon Nysa, ^[Note] a mountain of India, are twenty-four feet long, their colour being either yellow, purple, or azure blue.

Among the animals, also, that are domesticated with mankind, there are many circumstances that are far from undeserving of being known: among these, there are more particularly that most faithful friend of man, the dog, and the horse. We have an account of a dog that fought against a band of robbers, in defending its master; and although it was pierced with wounds, still it would not leave the body, from which it drove away all birds and beasts. Another dog, again, in Epirus, recognized the murderer of its master, in the midst of an assemblage of people, and, by biting and barking at him, extorted from him a confession of his crime. A king of the Garamantes also was brought back from exile by two hundred dogs, which maintained the combat against all his opponents. The people of Colophon ^[Note] and Castabala ^[Note] kept troops of dogs, for the purposes of war; and these used to fight in the front rank, and never retreat; they were the most faithful of auxiliaries, and yet required no pay. After the defeat of the Cimbri, their dogs defended their moveable houses, which were carried upon waggons. Jason, the Lycian, having been slain,

his dog refused to take food, and died of famine. A dog, to which Darius gives the name of Hyrcanus, upon the funeral pile of King Lysimachus being lighted, threw itself into the flames, ^[Note] and the dog of King Hiero did the same. Philistus also gives a similar account of Pyrrhus, the dog of the tyrant Gelon: and it is said, also, that the dog of Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, tore Consingis, ^[Note] the wife of that king, in consequence of her wanton behaviour, when toying with her husband.

Among ourselves, Volcatius, a man of rank, who instructed Cascellius in the civil law, ^[Note] as he was riding on his Asturian jennet, towards evening, from his country-house, was attacked by a robber, and was only saved by his dog. The senator Cælius, ^[Note] too, while lying sick at Placentia, was surprised by armed men, but received not a wound from them until they had first killed his dog. But a more extraordinary fact than all, is what took place in our own times, and is testified by the public register of the Roman people. In the consulship of Appius Junius and P. Silius, when Titius Sabinus ^[Note] was put to

death, together with his slaves, for the affair of Nero, the son of Germanicus, it was found impossible to drive away a dog which belonged to one of them from the prison; nor could it be forced away from the body, which had been cast down the Gemitorian steps; ^[Note] but there it stood howling, in the presence of vast multitudes of people; and when some one threw a piece of bread to it, the animal carried it to the mouth of its master. Afterwards, when the body was thrown into the Tiber, the dog swam into the river, and endeavoured to raise it out of the water; quite a throng of people being collected to witness this instance of an animal's fidelity.

Dogs are the only animals that are sure to know their masters; and if they suddenly meet him as a stranger, they will instantly recognize him. They are the only animals that will answer to their names, and recognize the voices of the family. They recollect a road along which they have passed, however long it may be. Next to man, there is no living creature whose memory is so retentive. By sitting down on the ground, we may arrest their most impetuous attack, even when prompted by the most violent rage.

In daily life we have discovered many other valuable qualities in this animal; but its intelligence and sagacity are more especially shown in the chase. It discovers and traces out the tracks of the animal, leading by the leash ^[Note] the sportsman who accompanies it straight up to the prey; and as soon as ever it has perceived it, how silent it is, and how secret but significant is the indication which it gives, first by the tail and afterwards by the nose! ^[Note] Hence it is, that even when worn out with old age, blind, and feeble, they are carried by the huntsman in his arms, being still able to point out the coverts where the game is concealed, by snuffing with their muzzles at the wind. The Indians raise a breed between the dog and the tiger, ^[Note] and for this purpose tie up the females in the forests

when in heat. The first two litters they look upon as too savage to be reared, but they bring up the third.

The Gauls do the same with the wolf and the dog; ^[Note] and their packs of hounds have, each of them, one of these dogs, which acts as their guide and leader. This dog they follow in the chase, and him they carefully obey; for these animals have even a notion of subordination among themselves. It is asserted that the dogs keep running when they drink at the Nile, for fear of becoming a prey to the voracity of the crocodile. ^[Note] When Alexander the Great was on his Indian expedition, he was presented by the king of Albania with a dog of unusual size; being greatly delighted with its noble appearance, he ordered bears, and after them wild boars, and then deer, to be let loose before it; but the dog lay down, and regarded them with a kind of immoveable contempt. The noble spirit of the general became irritated by the sluggishness thus manifested by an animal of such vast bulk, and he ordered it to be killed. The report of this reached the king, who accordingly sent another dog, and at the same time sent word that its powers were to be tried, not upon small animals, but upon the lion or the elephant; adding, that he had had originally but two, and that if this one were put to death, the race would be extinct. Alexander, without delay, procured a lion, which in his presence was instantly torn to pieces. He then ordered an elephant to be brought, and never was he more delighted with any spectacle; for the dog, bristling up its hair all over the body, began by thundering forth a loud barking, and then attacked the animal, leaping at it first on one side and then on the other, attacking it in the most skilful manner, and then again retreating at the opportune moment, until at last the elephant, being rendered quite giddy by turning round and round, fell to the earth, and made it quite reecho with his fall.

This animal brings forth twice in the year; it is capable of bearing young when a year old, and gestation continues for sixty days. The young ones are born blind, and the greater the supply of nourishment from the mother's milk, the more slowly do they acquire their sight; still, however, this never takes place later than the twentieth day, or earlier than the seventh. It is said by some writers, that if only one is born, it is able to see on the ninth day; and that if there are two, they begin to see on the tenth, every additional one causing the power of seeing to come a day later. It is said, too, that the females which are produced by the mother in her first litter, are subject to the night-mare. ^[Note] The best dog of the litter is the one which is last in obtaining its sight, or else the one which the mother carries first into her bed.

Canine madness is fatal to man during the heat of Sirius, ^[Note] and, as we have already said, it proves so in consequence of those who are bitten having a deadly horror of water. ^[Note] For this reason, during the thirty days ^[Note] that this star exerts its influence, we try to prevent the disease by mixing dung from

the poultry-yard with the dog's food; or else, if they are already attacked by the disease, by giving them hellebore.

(41.) We have a single remedy against the bite, which has been but lately discovered, by a kind of oracle, as it were—the root of the wild rose, which is called cynorrhodos, ^[Note] or dogrose. Columella informs us, that if, on the fortieth day after the birth of the pup, the last bone of the tail is bitten off, the sinew will follow with it; after which, the tail will not grow, and the dog will never become rabid. ^[Note] It is mentioned, among the other prodigies, and this I take to be one indeed, that a dog once spoke; ^[Note] and that when Tarquin was expelled from the kingdom, a serpent barked.

King Alexander had also a very remarkable horse; ^[Note] it was called Bucephalus, either on account of the fierceness of its aspect, or because it had the figure of a bull's head marked on its shoulder. It is said, that he was struck with its beauty when he was only a boy, and that it was purchased from the stud of Philonicus, the Pharsalian, for thirteen talents. ^[Note] When it was equipped with the royal trappings, it would suffer no one except Alexander to mount it, although at other times it would allow any one to do so. A memorable circumstance connected with it in battle is recorded of this horse; it is said that when it was wounded in the attack upon Thebes, it would not allow Alexander to mount any other horse. Many other circumstances, also, of a similar nature, occurred respecting it; so that when it died, the king duly performed its obsequies, and built around its tomb a city, which he named after it. ^[Note]

It is said, also, that Cæsar, the Dictator, had a horse, which

would allow no one to mount but himself, and that its forefeet were like those of a man; indeed it is thus represented in the statue before the temple of Venus Genetrix. ^[Note] The late Emperor Augustus also erected a tomb to his horse; on which occasion Germanicus Cæsar ^[Note] wrote a poem, which still exists. There are at Agrigentum many tombs of horses, in the form of pyramids. ^[Note] Juha informs us, that Semiramis was so greatly enamoured of a horse, as to have had connection with it. ^[Note] The Scythian horsemen make loud boasts of the fame of their cavalry. On one occasion, one of their chiefs having been slain in single combat, when the conqueror came to take the spoils of the enemy, he was set upon by the horse of his opponent, and trampled on and bitten to death. Another horse, upon the bandage being removed from his eyes, found that he had covered his mother, upon which he threw himself down a precipice, and was killed. We learn, also, that for a similar cause, a groom was torn to pieces, in the territory of Reate. ^[Note] For these animals have a knowledge of the ties of consanguinity, and in a stud a mare will attend to its sister of the preceding year, even more carefully than its mother.

Their docility, too, is so great, that we find it stated that the whole of the cavalry of the Sybarite army were accustomed to perform a kind of dance to the sound of musical instruments. These animals also foresee battles; they lament over their masters when they have lost them, and sometimes shed tears ^[Note] of regret for them. When King Nicomedes was slain, his horse put an end to its life by fasting. Phylarchus relates,

that Centaretus, ^[Note] the Galatian, after he had slain Antiochus in battle, took possesion of his horse, and mounted it in triumph; upon which the animal, inflamed with indignation, regardless of the rein and become quite ungovernable, threw itself headlong down a precipice, and they both perished together. Philistus relates, that Dionysius having left his horse stuck fast in a morass, the animal, as soon as it disengaged itself, followed the steps of its master, with a swarm of bees, which had settled on its mane; and that it was in consequence of this portent, that Dionysius gained possession of the kingdom. ^[Note]

These animals possess an intelligence which exceeds all description. ^[Note] Those who have to use the javelin are well aware how the horse, by its exertions and the supple movements of its body, aids the rider in any difficulty he may have in throwing his weapon. They will even present to their master the weapons collected on the ground. The horses too, that are yoked to the chariots in the Circus, beyond a doubt, display remarkable proofs how sensible they are to encouragement and to glory. In the Secular games, which were celebrated in the Circus, under the Emperor Claudius, when the charioteer Corax, who belonged to the white party, ^[Note] was thrown from his place at the starting-post, his horses took the lead and kept it, opposing the other chariots, overturning them, and doing every thing against the other competitors that could have been done, had they been guided by the most skilful charioteer; and while we quite blushed to behold the skill of man excelled by that of the horse, they arrived at the goal, after going over the whole of the prescribed course. Our ancestors considered it as a still more remarkable portent, that

when a charioteer had been thrown from his place, in the plebeian games of the Circus, ^[Note] the horses ran to the Capitol, just as if he had been standing in the car, and went three times round the temple there. But what is the greatest prodigy of all, is the fact that the horses of Ratumenna came from Veii to Rome, with the palm branch and chaplet, he himself having fallen from his chariot, after having gained the victory; from which circumstance the Ratumennian gate derived its name. ^[Note]

When the Sarmatæ are about to undertake a long journey, they prepare their horses for it, by making them fast the day before, during which they give them but little to drink; by these means they are enabled to travel on horseback, without stopping, for one hundred and fifty miles. Some horses are known to live fifty years; but the females are not so long-lived. ^[Note] These last come to their full growth at the fifth year, the males a year later. The poet Virgil has very beautifully described the points which ought more especially to be looked for, as constituting the perfection of a horse; ^[Note] I myself have also treated of the same subject, in my work ^[Note] on the Use of the Javelin by Cavalry, and I find that pretty nearly all writers are agreed respecting them. ^[Note] The points requisite for the Circus are somewhat different, however; and while horses are put in training for other purposes at only two years old, they are not admitted to the contests of the Circus before their fifth year.

The female of this animal carries her young for eleven months, and brings forth in the twelfth. The connection takes place at the vernal equinox, and generally in both sexes, at the age of two years; but the colt is much stronger when the parents are three years old. The males are capable of cover-

ing up to the thirty-third year, and it is not till after the twentieth that they are taken for this purpose from the Circus. At Opus, ^[Note] it is said, a horse served as a stallion until his fortieth year; though he required some assistance in raising the fore part of the body. There are few animals, however, in which the generative powers are so limited, for which reason it is only admitted to the female at certain intervals; ^[Note] indeed it cannot cover as many as fifteen times in the course of one year. ^[Note] The sexual passion of the mare is extinguished by cropping her mane; she is capable of bearing every year up to the fortieth. We have an account of a horse having lived to its seventy-fifth year. The mare brings forth standing upright, and is attached, beyond all other animals, to her offspring. The horse is born with a poisonous substance on its forehead, known as hippomanes, ^[Note] and used in love philtres; it is the size of a fig, and of a black colour; the mother devours it immediately on the birth of the foal, and until she has done so, she will not suckle it. When this substance can be rescued from the mother, it has the property of rendering the animal quite frantic by the smell. If a foal has lost its mother, the other mares in the herd that have young, will take charge of the orphan. It is said that the young of this animal cannot touch the earth with the mouth for the first three days after its birth. The more spirited a horse is, the deeper does it plunge its nose into the water while drinking. The Scythians prefer mares for the purposes of war, because they can pass their urine without stopping in their career.

It is well known that in Lusitania, in the vicinity of the town of Olisipo ^[Note] and the river Tagus, the mares, by turning their faces towards the west wind as it blows, become impregnated by its breezes, ^[Note] and that the foals which are conceived in this way are remarkable for their extreme fleetness; but they never live beyond three years. Gallicia and Asturia are also countries of Spain; they produce a species of horse known to us as thieldones, ^[Note] and when smaller, asturcones; ^[Note] they have a peculiar and not common pace of their own, which is very easy, and arises from the two legs of the same side being moved together; ^[Note] it is by studying the nature of this step that our horses have been taught the movement which we call ambling. ^[Note] Horses have very nearly the same diseases as men; ^[Note] besides which, they are subject to an irregular action of the bladder, as, indeed, is the case with all beasts of burden. ^[Note]

M. Varro informs us that Quintus Axius, the senator, paid for an ass the sum of four hundred thousand sesterces; ^[Note] I am

not sure whether this did not exceed the price ever given for any other animal. It is certainly a species of animal singularly useful for labour and ploughing, ^[Note] but more especially for the production of mules. ^[Note] In these animals also, the country in which they are born is taken into consideration; in Greece, those from Arcadia ^[Note] are the most valued; and in Italy, those of Reate. ^[Note] The ass is an animal which is unable to endure cold, ^[Note] for which reason it is that it is never produced in Pontus; nor is it allowed to cover at the vernal equinox, like other cattle, but at the summer solstice. The males are less proper for covering, when out of work. The earliest age at which the females are ever capable of bearing is the thirtieth month, but the usual time begins at the age of three years. The number to which it gives birth is the same as the mare, which it also resembles, in the length of its gestation, and in its mode of bringing forth; but the female will discharge the generative fluid from the womb, being unable to retain it, unless by blows she is forced to run immediately after being covered. They seldom bring forth two at one birth. ^[Note] When the she-ass is about to bring forth, she shuns the light and seeks darkness, in order to escape the observation of man. Asses are capable of breeding throughout the whole of their life, which extends to thirty years. Their attachment to their young is great in the extreme, but their aversion to water is still greater. They will pass through fire to get at their foals, while the very same animal, if the small-

est stream intervenes, will tremble, and not dare so much as to wet even its feet. Nor yet in their pastures will they ever drink at any but the usual watering-place, and they make it their care to find some dry path by which to get at it. They will not pass over a bridge either, when the water can be seen between the planks beneath. ^[Note] Wonderful to relate, too, if their watering-places are changed, though they should be ever so thirsty, they will not drink without being either beaten or caressed. They ought always to have plenty of room for sleeping; for they are very subject to various diseases in their sleep, when they repeatedly throw out their feet, and would immediately lame themselves by coming in contact with any hard substance; so that it is necessary that they should be provided with an empty space. The profit which is derived from these animals exceeds that arising from the richest estate. It is a well-known fact, that in Celtiberia there are some sheasses which have produced to their owners as much as four hundred thousand sesterces. ^[Note] In the rearing of she-mules it is said to be particularly necessary to attend to the colour of the hair of the ears and the eyelids, for, although the rest of the body be all of one colour, the mule that is produced will have all the colours that are found in those parts. Mæcenas was the first person who had the young of the ass served up at his table; ^[Note] they were in those times much preferred to the onager or wild ass; ^[Note] but, since his time, the taste has gone out of fashion. An ass, after witnessing the death of another ass, survives it but a very short time only.

From the union of the male ass and the mare a mule is pro-

duced in the thirteenth month, an animal remarkable for its strength in laborious work. We are told that, for this purpose, the mare ought not to be less than four years old, nor more than ten. It is said also that these two species will repulse each other, unless the male has been brought up, in its infancy, upon the milk of the other species; for which reason they take the foals away from the mare, in the dark, and substitute for them the male colts of the ass. A mule may also be produced from a horse and a female ass; but it can never be properly broken in, and is incorrigibly sluggish, ^[Note] being in all respects as slow as an old animal. If a mare has conceived by a horse, and is afterwards covered by an ass, the first conception is abortive; but this is not the case when the horse comes after the ass. It has been observed, that the female is in the best state for receiving the male in the seventh day after parturition, and that the males are best adapted for the purpose when they are fatigued. ^[Note] A female ass, which has not conceived before shedding what are called the milk-teeth, is considered to be barren; which is also looked upon as the case when a she-ass does not become pregnant after the first covering. The male which is produced from a horse and a female ass, was called by the ancients "hinnulus," and that from an ass and a mare "mulus." ^[Note] It has been observed that the animal which is thus produced by the union of the two species is of a third species, and does not resemble either of the parents; and that all animals produced in this way, of whatever kind they may be, are incapable of reproduction; she-mules are therefore barren. It is said, indeed, in our Annals, that they have frequently brought forth; ^[Note] but such cases must be looked upon only as prodigies. ^[Note] Theophrastus

says that they commonly bring forth in Cappadocia; but that the animal of that country is of a peculiar species. ^[Note] The mule is prevented from kicking by frequently giving it wine to drink. ^[Note] It is said in the works of many of the Greek writers, that from the union of a mule with a mare, the dwarf mule is produced, which they call "ginnus." From the union of the mare and the wild ass, when it has been domesticated, a mule is produced which is remarkably swift in running, and has extremely hard feet, and a thin body, while it has a spirit that is quite indomitable. The very best stallion of all, however, for this purpose, is one produced from a union of the wild ass and the female domesticated ass. The best wild asses are those of Phrygia and Lycaonia. Africa glories in the wild foals which she produces, as excelling all others in flavour; these are called "lalisiones." ^[Note] It appears from some Athenian records, that a mule once lived to the age of eighty years. The people were greatly delighted with this animal, because on one occasion, when, on the building of a temple in the citadel, ^[Note] it had been left behind on account of its age, it persisted in promoting the work by accompanying and assisting them; in consequence of which a decree was passed, that the dealers in corn were not to drive it away from their sieves. ^[Note]

We find it stated, that the oxen of India are of the height

of camels, and that the extremity of their horns are four feet asunder. In our part of the world the most valuable oxen are those of Epirus, owing, it is said, to the attention paid to their breed by King Pyrrhus. ^[Note] This perfection was acquired by not permitting them to breed until after their fourth year. By these means he brought them to a very large size, and descendants of this breed are still to be seen at the present day. But in our times, we set heifers to breed in their first year, or, at the latest, in their second. Bulls are fit for breeding in their fourth year; one being sufficient, it is said, for ten cows during the whole year. If the bull, after covering, goes to the right side, the produce will be a male; if to the left, a female. ^[Note] Conception takes place after a single union; but if, by any accident, it should not have taken place, the cow seeks the male again, at the end of twenty days. She brings forth in the tenth month; whatever may be produced before that time cannot be reared. Some writers say, that the birth takes place the very day on which the tenth month is completed. This animal but rarely produces twins. The time of covering begins at the rising of the Dolphin, the day before the nones of January, ^[Note] and continues for the space of thirty days. Sometimes it takes place in the autumn; and among those nations which live upon milk, they manage so as to have a supply of it at all times of the year. Bulls never cover more than twice in the same day. The ox is the only animal that walks backwards while it is feeding; among the Garamantes, they feed in no other manner. ^[Note] The females live fifteen years at the longest, and the males twenty; they arrive at their full vigour in their fifth year. It is said that they are made fat by being

washed in warm water, or by having the entrails inflated with air by means of a reed, introduced through an incision in the skin. We must not look upon those kinds as having degenerated, the appearance of which is not so favourable. Those that are bred in the Alps, although very small of body, give a great quantity of milk, and are capable of enduring much labour; they are yoked by the horns, and not by the neck. The oxen of Syria have no dewlap, but they have a hump on the back. Those of Caria also, which is in Asia, are unsightly ^[Note] in appearance, having a hump hanging over the shoulders from the neck; and their horns are moveable; ^[Note] they are said, however, to be excellent workers, though those which are either black or white are condemned as worthless for labour. ^[Note] The horns of the bull are shorter and thinner than those of the ox. Oxen must be broken in when they are three years old; after that time it is too late, and before that time too early. The ox is most easily broken in by yoking it with one that has already been trained. ^[Note] This animal is our especial companion, both in labour generally, and in the operations of agriculture. Our ancestors considered it of so much value, that there is an instance cited of a man being brought before the Roman people, on a day appointed, and condemned, for having killed an ox, in order to humour an impudent concubine of his, who said that she had never tasted tripe; and he was driven into exile, just as though he had killed one of his own peasants. ^[Note]

The bull has a proud air, a stern forehead, shaggy ears, and horns which appear always ready, and challenging to the combat; but it is by his fore feet that he manifests his threatening anger. As his rage increases, he stands, lashing back his tail ^[Note] every now and then, and throwing up the sand against his belly; being the only animal that excites himself by these means. We have seen them fight at the word of command, and shown as a public spectacle; these bulls whirled about and then fell upon their horns, and at once were up again; then, at other times, they would lie upon the ground and let themselves be lifted up; they would even stand in a two-horsed chariot, while moving at a rapid rate, like so many charioteers. ^[Note] The people of Thessaly invented a method of killing bulls, by means of a man on horseback, who would ride up to them, and seize one of the horns, and so twist their neck. Cæsar the Dictator was the first person who exhibited this spectacle at Rome.

Bulls are selected as the very choicest of victims, and are offered up as the most approved sacrifice for appeasing the gods. ^[Note] Of all the animals that have long tails, this is the only one whose tail is not of proportionate length at the moment of birth; and in this animal alone it continues to grow until it reaches its heels. It is on this account, that in making choice of a calf for a victim, due care is taken that its tail reaches to the pastern joint; if it is shorter than this, the sacrifice is not deemed acceptable to the gods. This fact has also been remarked, that calves, which have been carried to the altar on men's shoulders, are not generally acceptable to the gods; and also, if they are lame, or of a species which is not appropriate, ^[Note] or if they struggle to get away from the

altar. It was a not uncommon prodigy among the ancients, for an ox to speak; ^[Note] upon such a fact being announced to the senate, they were in the habit of holding a meeting in the open air.

In Egypt an ox is even worshipped as a deity; they call it Apis. It is distinguished by a conspicuous white spot on the right side, in the form of a crescent. There is a knot also under the tongue, which is called "cantharus." ^[Note] This ox is not allowed to live beyond a certain number of years; it is then destroyed by being drowned in the fountain of the priests. They then go, amid general mourning, and seek another ox to replace it; and the mourning is continued, with their heads shaved, until such time as they have found one; it is not long, however, at any time, before they meet with a successor. When one has been found, it is brought by the priests to Memphis. There are two temples appropriated to it, which are called thalami, ^[Note] and to these the people resort to learn the auguries. According as the ox enters the one or the other of these places, the augury is deemed favourable or unfavourable. It gives answers to individuals, by taking food from the hand of those who consult it. It turned away from the hand of Germanicus Cæsar, and not long after he died. ^[Note] In general it lives in secret; but, when it comes forth in public, the multitudes make way for it, and it is attended by a crowd of boys, singing hymns in honour of it; it appears to be sensible of the adoration thus paid to it, and to court it. These crowds, too, suddenly become inspired, and predict future events. Once in the year a female is presented to the ox, which likewise has her appro-

priate marks, although different from those on the male; and it is said that she is always killed the very same day that they find her. There is a spot in the Nile, near Memphis, which, from its figure, they call Phiala; ^[Note] here they throw into the water a dish of gold, and another of silver, every year upon the days on which they celebrate the birth of Apis. ^[Note] These days are seven in number, and it is a remarkable thing, that during this time, no one is ever attacked by the crocodile; on the eighth day, however, after the sixth hour, these beasts resume all their former ferocity.

Many thanks, too, do we owe to the sheep, both for appeasing the gods, and for giving us the use of its fleece. As oxen cultivate the fields which yield food for man, so to sheep are we indebted for the defence of our bodies. The generative power lasts in both sexes from the second to the ninth year, sometimes to the tenth. ^[Note] The lambs produced at the first birth are but small. The season for coupling, in all of them, is from the setting of Arcturus, that is to say, the third day before the ides of May, ^[Note] to the setting of Aquila, the tenth day before the calends of August. ^[Note] The period of gestation is one hundred and fifty days. The lambs that are produced after this time are feeble; the ancients called those that were born after it, cordi. ^[Note] Many persons prefer the lambs that are born in the winter to those of the spring, because it is of much more consequence that they should have gained strength before the summer solstice than before the winter one; consequently, the sheep is the only animal that is bene- fitted by being born in the middle of winter. It is the nature of

the ram to reject the young and prefer the old ones, and he himself is more serviceable when old, ^[Note] and when deprived of his horns. ^[Note] He is also rendered less violent by having one horn pierced towards the ear. If the right testicle is tied up, the ram will generate females, and if the left, males. ^[Note] The noise of thunder produces abortion in sheep, if they are left alone; to prevent such accidents, they are brought together into flocks, that they may be rendered less timid by being in company. When the north-east wind blows, males are said to be conceived; and when the south wind, females. In this kind of animal, the mouth of the ram is especially looked to, for whatever may be the colour of the veins under the tongue, the wool of the young one will be of a similar colour. ^[Note] If these veins are many in number, it will be mottled. Any change, too, in their water or drink, will render them mottled. ^[Note]

There are two principal kinds of sheep, the covered ^[Note] and the colonic, ^[Note] or common sheep; the former is the more tender animal, but the latter is more nice about its pastures, for the

covered sheep will feed on brambles even. The best coverings for sheep are brought from Arabia. ^[Note]

The most esteemed wool of all is that of Apulia, and that which in Italy is called Grecian wool, in other countries Italian. The fleeces of Miletus hold the third rank. ^[Note] The Apulian wool is shorter in the hair, and only owes its high character to the cloaks ^[Note] that are made of it. That which comes from the vicinity of Tarentum and Canusium is the most celebrated; and there is a wool from Laodicea, in Asia, of a similar quality. ^[Note] There is no white wool superior to that of the countries bordering on the Padus, ^[Note] nor up to the present day has any wool exceeded the price of one hundred sesterces per pound. ^[Note] The sheep are not shorn in all countries; in some places it is still the custom to pull off the wool. ^[Note] There are various colours of wool; so much so, indeed, that we want terms to express them all. Several kinds, which are called

native, ^[Note] are found in Spain; Pollentia, in the vicinity of the Alps, ^[Note] produces black fleeces of the best quality; Asia, as well as Bætica, ^[Note] the red fleeces, which are called Erythræan; those of Canusium are of a tawny colour; ^[Note] and those of Tarentum have their peculiar dark tint. ^[Note] All kinds of wool, when not freed from the grease, ^[Note] possess certain medicinal properties. The wool of Istria is much more like hair than wool, and is not suitable for the fabrication of stuffs that have a long nap; ^[Note] so too is that which Salacia, ^[Note] in Lusitania, finds the most useful for making its chequered cloths. There is a similar wool, too, found about Piscenæ, ^[Note] in the province of Narbonensis, as also in Egypt; a garment, when it has been worn for some time, is often embroidered with this wool, and will last for a considerable time.

The thick, flocky wool has been esteemed for the manufacture of carpets from the very earliest times; it is quite clear, from what we read in Homer, that they were in use in his time. ^[Note] The Gauls embroider them in a different manner from that which is practised by the Parthians. ^[Note] Wool is

compressed also for making a felt, ^[Note] which, if soaked in vinegar, ^[Note] is capable of resisting iron even; and, what is still more, after having gone through the last process, ^[Note] wool will even resist fire; the refuse, too, when taken out of the vat of the scourer, is used for making mattresses, ^[Note] an invention, I fancy, of the Gauls. At all events, it is by Gallic names that we distinguish the different sort of mattresses ^[Note] at the present day; but I am not well able to say at what period wool began to be employed for this purpose. Our ancestors made use of straw ^[Note] for the purpose of sleeping upon, just as they do at present when in camp. The gausapa ^[Note] has been brought into use in my father's memory, and I myself recollect the amphimalla ^[Note] and the long shaggy apron ^[Note] being introduced; but at the present day, the laticlave tunic ^[Note] is beginning to be manufactured, in imitation of the gausapa. ^[Note] Black wool will take no colour.

I shall describe the mode of dyeing the other kinds of wool when speaking of the sea-purple, ^[Note] or of the nature of various plants. ^[Note]

Varro informs us, he himself having been an eye-witness, that in the temple of Sancus, ^[Note] the wool was still preserved on the distaff and spindle of Tanaquil, ^[Note] who was also called Caia Cæ- cilia; and he says that the royal waved ^[Note] toga, formerly worn by Servius Tullius, and now in the temple of Fortune, was made by her. Hence was derived the custom, on the marriage of a young woman, of carrying in the procession a dressed distaff and a spindle, with the thread arranged upon it. Tanaquil was the first who wove the straight tunic, ^[Note] such as our young people wear with the white toga; ^[Note] newly-married women also. Waved garments were at first the most esteemed of all: after which those composed of various colours ^[Note] came into vogue. Fenestella informs us, that togas with a smooth surface, as well

as the Phryxian togas, ^[Note] began to be used in the latter part of the reign of Augustus. Thick stuffs, in the preparation of which the poppy ^[Note] was used, are of more ancient date, being mentioned by the poet Lucilius, in his lines on Torquatus. The prætexta ^[Note] had its origin among the Etrurians. I find that the trabea ^[Note] was first worn by the kings; embroidered garments are mentioned by Homer, ^[Note] and in this class originated the triumphal robes. ^[Note] The Phrygians first used the needle for this purpose, ^[Note] and hence this kind of garment obtained the name of Phrygionian. King Attalus, who also lived in Asia, invented the art of embroidering with gold, from which these garments have been called Attalic. ^[Note] Babylon was very famous for making embroidery in different colours, and hence stuffs of this kind have obtained the name of Babylonian. ^[Note] The method of weaving cloth with more than two threads was in-

vented at Alexandria; these cloths are called polymita; ^[Note] it was in Gaul that they were first divided into chequers. ^[Note] Metellus Scipio, in the accusation which he brought against Cato, ^[Note] stated that even in his time Babylonian covers for couches were selling for eight hundred thousand sesterces, and these of late, in the time of the Emperor Nero, had risen to four millions. ^[Note] The prætextæ of Servius Tullius, with which the statue of Fortune, dedicated by him, was covered, ^[Note] lasted until the death of Sejanus; and it is a remarkable fact, that, during a period of five hundred and sixty years, they had never become tattered, ^[Note] or received injury from moths. I myself have seen the fleece upon the living animal dyed purple, scarlet, and violet,—a pound and a half ^[Note] of dye being used for each,—just as though they had been produced by Nature in this form, to meet the demands of luxury.

In the sheep, it is considered a proof of its being of a very

fair breed, when the legs are short, and the belly is covered with wool; when this part is bare, they used to be called apicæ, and were looked upon as worthless. ^[Note] The tail of the Syrian sheep is a cubit in length, ^[Note] and it is upon that part that most of the wool is found. It is considered too early to castrate lambs before they are five months old. (49.) There is in Spain, and more especially in Corsica, a peculiar kind of animal called the musmon, ^[Note] not very unlike a sheep, but with a fleece which more resembles the hair of the goat than the wool of the sheep. The ancients gave the name of umbri ^[Note] to the breed between this animal and the sheep. The head of the sheep is the weakest part of all, on which account it is obliged, when it feeds, to turn away from the sun. ^[Note] The animals which are covered with wool are the most stupid of all. ^[Note] When they are afraid to enter any place, if one is only dragged into it by the horns, all the rest will follow. The longest duration of their life is ten years; but in Æthiopia it is thirteen. Goats live in that country eleven years, but in other parts of the world mostly eight years only. Both of these animals require to be covered not more than four times to ensure conception.

The goat occasionally brings forth as many as four at a birth; but this is rarely the case. ^[Note] It is pregnant five months,

like the sheep. Goats become barren when very fat. There is little advantage to be derived from their bringing forth before their third year, or after the fourth, when they begin to grow old. ^[Note] They are capable of generating in the seventh month, and while they are still sucking. In both sexes those that have no horns are considered the most valuable. ^[Note] A single coupling in the day is not sufficient; the second and the following ones are more effectual. They conceive in the month of November, so as to bring forth in the month of March, when the buds are bursting; this is sometimes the case with them when only one year old, and always with those of the second year; but the produce of those which are three years old is the most valuable. ^[Note] They continue to bring forth for a period of eight years. Cold produces abortion. When their eyes are surcharged, the female discharges the blood from the eye by pricking it with the point of a bulrush, and the male with the thorn of a bramble.

Mutianus relates an instance of the intelligence of this animal, of which he himself was an eye-witness. Two goats, coming from opposite directions, met on a very narrow bridge, which would not admit of either of them turning round, and in consequence of its great length, they could not safely go backwards, there being no sure footing on account of its narrowness, while at the same time an impetuous torrent was rapidly rushing beneath; accordingly, one of the animals lay down flat, while the other walked over it.

Among the males, those are the most esteemed which have flat noses and long hanging ears, ^[Note] the shoulders being covered

with very thick shaggy hair; the mark of the most valuable among the females is the having two folds ^[Note] hanging down the body from under the neck. Some of these animals have no horns; but where there are horns, the age of the animal is denoted by the number of knots on them. Those that have no horns give the most milk. ^[Note] According to Archelaus, ^[Note] they breathe, not through the nose, but the ears, ^[Note] and they are never entirely free from fever, ^[Note] from which circumstance it is, probably, that they are more animated than sheep, more ardent, and have stronger sexual passions. It is said also, that they have the power of seeing by night as well as in the day, for which reason those persons who are called Nyctalopes, ^[Note] recover the power of seeing in the evening, by eating the liver of the he-goat. In Cilicia, and in the vicinity of the Syrtes, the inhabitants shear the goat for the purpose of clothing themselves. ^[Note] It is said that the she-goats in the pastures will never look at each other at sun-set, but lie with their backs towards one another, ^[Note] while at other times of the day they lie facing each other and in family groups. They all have long hair hanging down from the chin, which is called by us aruncus. ^[Note] If any one of the flock is taken hold of and dragged by this hair, all the rest gaze on in stupid astonishment; and the same

happens when any one of them has eaten of a certain herb ^[Note] Their bite is very destructive to trees, and they make the olive barren by licking it; ^[Note] for which reason they are not sacrificed to Minerva. ^[Note]

The period for coupling the hog lasts from the return of the west wind to the vernal equinox; the proper age commences in the eighth month, indeed, in some places, in the fourth even, and continues until the eighth year ^[Note] They bring forth twice in the year, the time of gestation being four months; the number at a birth amounts to twenty even, but they cannot rear so large a number. ^[Note] Nigidius informs us, that those which are produced within ten days of the winter solstice are born with teeth. One coupling is sufficient, but it is repeated, on account of their extreme liability to abortion; the remedy for which is not to allow coupling the first time the female is in heat, nor until its ears are flaccid and pendant. The males do not generate after they are three years old. When the females become feeble from old age, they receive the males lying down. ^[Note] It is not looked upon as anything portentous when they eat their young. The young of the hog is considered in a state of purity for sacrifice when five days old, ^[Note] the lamb on the seventh day, and the calf on the thirtieth. Coruncanius asserts, that ruminant animals are not proper for

victims until they have two teeth. ^[Note] It has been supposed, that when a pig has lost one eye, it will not live long; ^[Note] otherwise, these animals generally live up to fifteen, or sometimes twenty years. They sometimes become mad; besides which, they are liable to other diseases, especially to quinsy ^[Note] and to scrofula. ^[Note] It is an indication that the hog is diseased, when blood is found at the root of a bristle pulled from its back, and when it holds its head on one side while walking. When the female becomes too fat, she has a deficiency of milk; the first litter is always the least numerous. Animals of this kind delight in rolling in the mud. ^[Note] The tail is curled, and it has also been remarked, that those are a more acceptable offering to the gods, whose tail is turned to the right than those which have it turned to the left. They may be fattened in sixty days, and more especially if they have been kept without food for three days before fattening. The swine is by far the most brutish of all the animals, and it has been said, and not unaptly, that life has been given them in place of salt. ^[Note] And yet it has been known, that these animals, when carried away by thieves, have recognized the voice of their keeper; and when a vessel has been under water through the inclination of one of its sides, they have had the sense to go over to the other side. The leader of the herd will even learn to go to market, and to

different houses in the city. In the wild state also, they have the sense to pass their urine in plashy places, that they may destroy all traces of them, and so lighten themselves for flight. ^[Note] The female is spayed, just as is done with the camel; after they have fasted two days, they are suspended by the hind feet, and the orifice of the womb is cut; after this operation, they fatten more quickly. ^[Note]

M. Apicius ^[Note] made the discovery, that we may employ the same artificial method of increasing the size of the liver of the sow, as of that of the goose; ^[Note] it consists in cramming them with dried figs, and when they are fat enough, they are drenched with wine mixed with honey, and immediately killed. There is no animal that affords a greater variety to the palate of the epicure; all the others have their own peculiar flavour, but the flesh of the hog has nearly fifty different flavours. Hence it is, that there are whole pages of regulations made by the cen- sors, forbidding the serving up at banquets of the belly, the kernels, ^[Note] the testicles, the womb, and the cheeks. However, notwithstanding all this, the poet Publius, ^[Note] the author of the Mimes, when he ceased to be a slave, is said to have given no entertainment without serving up the belly of a sow, to which he also gave the name of "sumen."

The flesh of the wild boar is also much esteemed. Cato,

the Censor, in his orations, strongly declaimed against the use of the brawn of the wild boar. ^[Note] The animal used to be divided into three portions, the middle part of which was laid by, ^[Note] and is called boar's chine. P. Servilius Rullus was the first Roman who served up a whole boar at a banquet; the father of that Rullus, who, in the consulship of Cicero, proposed the Agrarian law. So recent is the introduction of a thing which is now in daily use. The Annalists have taken notice of such a fact as this, clearly as a hint to us to mend our manners; seeing that now-a-days two or three boars are consumed, not at one entertainment, but as forming the first course only.

(52.) Fulvius Lupinus was the first Roman who formed parks ^[Note] for the reception of these and other wild animals: he first fed them in the territory of Tarquinii: it was not long, however, that imitators were found in L. Lucullus and Q. Hortensius. ^[Note] The wild sow brings forth once only in the year. The males are very fierce during the rutting time; they fight with each other, having first hardened their sides by rubbing them against the trees, and covered themselves with mud. The females, as is the case with animals of every kind, become more fierce just after they have brought forth. The wild boar is not capable of generating before the first year. The wild boar of India ^[Note] has two curved teeth, projecting from beneath the muzzle, a cubit in length; and the same number projecting from the forehead, like the horns of the young bull. The hair of these animals, in a wild state, is the

eclour of copper, the others are black. No species whatever of the swine is found in Arabia.

In no species is the union with the wild animal so easy as in that of the swine; the produce of such unions was called by the ancients hybrid, ^[Note] or half savage; which appellation has also been transferred to the human race, as it was to C. Antonius, the colleague of Cicero in his consulship. Not only, however, with respect to the hog, but all other animals as well, wherever there is a tame species, there is a corresponding wild one as well; a fact which is equally true with reference to man himself, as is proved by the many races of wild men of which we have already spoken. ^[Note] There is no kind of animal, however, that is divided into a greater number of varieties than the goat. There are the capræa, ^[Note] the rupicapra or rock-goat, and the ibex, an animal of wonderful swiftness, although its head is loaded with immense horns, which bear a strong resemblance to the sheath of a sword. ^[Note] By means of these horns the animal balances itself, when it darts along the rocks, as though it had been hurled from a sling; ^[Note] more especially when it wishes to leap from one eminence to another. There are the oryges also, ^[Note] which are said to be the

only animals that have the hair the contrary way, the points being turned towards the head. There are the dama also, ^[Note] the pygargus, ^[Note] and the strepsiceros, ^[Note] besides many others which strongly resemble them. The first mentioned of these animals, ^[Note] however, dwell in the Alps; all the others are sent to us from the parts beyond sea.

The different kinds of apes, which approach the nearest to the human figure, are distinguished from each other by the tail. ^[Note] Their shrewdness is quite wonderful. It is said that, imitating the hunters, they will besmear themselves with bird-lime, and put their feet into the shoes, which, as so many snares, have been prepared for them. ^[Note] Mucianus says, that they have even played at chess, having, by practice, learned to distinguish the different pieces, which are made of wax. ^[Note]

He says that the species which have tails become quite melancholy when the moon is on the wane, and that they leap for joy at the time of the new moon, and adore it. Other quadrupeds also are terrified at the eclipses of the heavenly bodies. All the species of apes manifest remarkable affection for their offspring. Females, which have been domesticated, and have had young ones, carry them about and shew them to all comers, shew great delight when they are caressed, and appear to understand the kindness thus shewn them. Hence it is, that they very often stifle their young with their embraces. The dog's-headed ape ^[Note] is of a much fiercer nature, as is the case with the satyr. The callitriche ^[Note] has almost a totally different aspect; it has a beard on the face, and a tail, which in the first part of it is very bushy. It is said that this animal cannot live except in the climate of Æthiopia, which is its native place.

There are also numerous species of hares. Those in the Alps are white, ^[Note] and it is believed that, during the winter, they live upon snow for food; at all events, every year, as the snow melts, they acquire a reddish colour; it is, moreover, an animal which is capable of existing in the most severe climates. There is also a species of hare, in Spain, which is called the

rabbit; ^[Note] it is extremely prolific, and produces famine in the Balearic islands, by destroying the harvests. The young ones, either when cut from out of the body of the mother, or taken from the breast, without having the entrails removed, are considered a most delicate food; they are then called laurices. ^[Note] It is a well-known fact, that the inhabitants of the Balearic islands begged of the late Emperor Augustus the aid of a number of soldiers, to prevent the too rapid increase of these animals. The ferret ^[Note] is greatly esteemed for its skill in catching them. It is thrown into the burrows, with their numerous outlets, which the rabbits form, and from which circumstance they derive their name, ^[Note] and as it drives them out, they are taken above. Archelaus informs us, that in the hare, the number of cavernous receptacles in the body for the excrements always equals that of its years; ^[Note] but still the numbers are sometimes found to differ. He says also, that the same individual possesses the characteristics of the two sexes, and that it becomes pregnant just as well without the aid of the male. It is a kind provision of Nature, in making animals which are both harmless and good for food, thus prolific. The hare, which is preyed upon by all other animals, is the only one, except the dasypus, ^[Note] which is capable of superfœtation; ^[Note] while the mother is suckling one of her young, she has another in the womb covered with hair, another without any covering at all, and another which is just beginning to be formed. Attempts

have been made to form a kind of stuff of the hair of these animals; but it is not so soft as when attached to the skin, and, in consequence of the shortness of the hairs, soon falls to pieces.

Hares are seldom tamed, and yet they cannot properly be called wild animals; indeed, there are many species of them which are neither tame nor wild, but of a sort of intermediate nature; of the same kind there are among the winged animals, swallows and bees, and among the sea animals, the dolphin.

(57.) Many persons have placed that inhabitant of our houses, the mouse, in this class also; an animal which is not to be despised, for the portents which it has afforded, even in relation to public events. By gnawing the silver shields at Lanuvium, ^[Note] mice prognosticated the Marsian war; and the death of our general, Carbo, at Clusium, ^[Note] by gnawing the latchets with which he fastened his shoes. ^[Note] There are many species of this animal in the territory of Cyrenaica; some of them with a wide, others with a projecting, forehead, and some again with bristling hair, like the hedgehog. ^[Note] We are informed by Theophrastus, that after the mice had driven the inhabitants of Gyara ^[Note] from their island, they even gnawed the iron; which they also do, by a kind of natural instinct, in the iron forges among the Chalybes. In gold mines, too, their

stomachs are opened for this purpose, and some of the metal is always to be found there, which they have pilfered, ^[Note] so great a delight do they take in stealing! We learn from our Annals, also, that at the siege of Casilinum, ^[Note] by Hannibal, a mouse was sold for two hundred denarii, ^[Note] and that the person who sold it perished with hunger, while the purchaser survived. To be visited by white mice is considered as indicative of a fortunate event; but our Annals are full of instances in which the singing ^[Note] of a mouse has interrupted the auspices. ^[Note] Nigidius informs us, that the field-mouse conceals itself during winter: this is also said to be the case with the dormouse, which the regulations of the censors, and of M. Scaurus, the chief of the senate, when he was consul, ^[Note] have banished from our tables, ^[Note] no lebs than shell-fish and birds, which are brought from a foreign country. The dormouse is also a half-wild animal, and the same person ^[Note] made warrens for them in large casks, who first formed parks for wild boars. In relation to this subject, it has been remarked that dormice will not mate, unless they happen to be natives of the same forest; and that if those are put together that are brought from different rivers or mountains, they will fight and destroy each other. These animals nourish their parents, when worn out with old age, with a singular degree of affection. This old age of theirs is put an

end to by their winter's rest, when they conceal themselves and sleep; they are young again by the summer. The field-mouse ^[Note] also enjoys a similar repose.

It is a remarkable fact, that nature has not only assigned different countries to different animals, but that even in the same country, it has denied certain species to peculiar localities. ^[Note] In Italy the dormouse is found in one part only, the Messian forest. ^[Note] In Lycia the gazelle never passes beyond the mountains which border upon Syria; ^[Note] nor does the wild ass in that vicinity pass over those which divide Cappadocia from Cilicia. On the banks of the Hellespont, the stags never pass into a strange territory, and about Arginussa ^[Note] they never go beyond Mount Elaphus; those upon that mountain, too, have cloven ears. In the island of Poroselene, ^[Note] the weasels will not so much as cross a certain road. In Bœotia, the moles, which were introduced at Lebadea, fly from the very soil of that country, while in the neighbourhood, at Orchomenus, the very same animals tear up all the fields. We have seen coverlets for beds made of the skins of these creatures, so that our sense of religion does not prevent us from employing these ominous animals for the purposes of luxury. When hares have been brought to Ithaca, they die as soon as ever they touch the shore, and the same is the case with rabbits, on the shores of the island of Ebusus; ^[Note] while they abound in the vicinity,

Spain namely, and the Balearic isles. In Cyrene, the frogs were formerly dumb, and this species still exists, although croaking ones were carried over there from the continent. At the present day, even, the frogs in the island of Seriphos are dumb; but when they are carried to other places, they croak; the same thing is also said to have taken place at Sicandrus, a lake of Thessaly. ^[Note] In Italy, the bite of the shrew-mouse ^[Note] is venomous; an animal which is not to be found in any region beyond the Apennines. In whatever country it exists, it always dies immediately if it goes across the rut made by a wheel. Upon Olympus, a mountain of Macedonia, there are no wolves, nor yet in the isle of Crete. ^[Note] In this island there are neither foxes, nor bears, nor, indeed, any kind of baneful animal, ^[Note] with the exception of the phalangium, a species of spider, of which I shall speak in its appropriate place. ^[Note] It is a thing still more remarkable, that in this island there are no stags, except in the district of Cydon; ^[Note] the same is the case with the wild boar, the woodcock, ^[Note] and the hedgehog. In Africa, there are neither wild boars, stags, deer, nor bears.

Besides this, there are certain animals, which are harmless to the natives of the country, but destroy strangers; such are

the little serpents at Tirynthus, ^[Note] which are said to spring from out of the earth. In Syria, also, and especially on the banks of the Euphrates, the serpents never attack the Syrians when they are asleep, and even if they happen to bite a native who treads upon them, their venom is not felt; but to persons of any other country they are extremely hostile, and fiercely attack them, causing a death attended with great torture. On this account, the Syrians never kill them. On the contrary, on Latmos, a mountain ^[Note] of Caria, as Aristotle tells us, strangers are not injured by the scorpions, while the natives are killed by them. But I must now give an account of other animals as well, and of the productions of the earth. ^[Note]

SUMMARY.—Remarkable events, narratives, and observations, seven hundred and eighty-seven.

ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Mucianus, ^[Note] Procilius, ^[Note] Verrius Flaccus, ^[Note] L. Piso, ^[Note] Cornelius Valerianus, ^[Note] Cato the Censor, ^[Note] Fenestclla, ^[Note] Trogus, ^[Note] the Register of the Triumphs, ^[Note] Columella, ^[Note]

Virgil, ^[Note] Varro, ^[Note] Lucilius, ^[Note] Metellus Scipio, ^[Note] Cornelius Cel- sus, ^[Note] Nigidius, ^[Note] Trebius Niger, ^[Note] Pomponius Mela, ^[Note] Mamilius Sura. ^[Note]

FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.—King Juba, ^[Note] Polybius, ^[Note] Herodotus, ^[Note] Antipater, ^[Note] Aristotle, ^[Note] Demetrius ^[Note] the physician, Democritus, ^[Note] Theophrastus, ^[Note] Euanthes, ^[Note] Agriopas, ^[Note] who wrote

the "Olympionicæ," King Hiero, ^[Note] King Attalus ^[Note] Philometor, Ctesias, ^[Note] Duris, ^[Note] Philistus, ^[Note] Archytas, ^[Note] Phylarchus, ^[Note] Amphilochus ^[Note] of Athens, Anaxapolis ^[Note] the Thasian, Apollodorus ^[Note] of Lemnos, Aristophanes ^[Note] the Milesian, Antigonus ^[Note] the Cumæan, Agathocles ^[Note] of Chios, Apollonius ^[Note] of Pergamus, Aris-

tander ^[Note] of Athens, Bacchius ^[Note] of Miletus, Bion ^[Note] of Soli, Chiæreas ^[Note] the Athenian, Diodorus ^[Note] of Priene, Dion ^[Note] the Colophonian, Epigenes ^[Note] the Rhodian, Euagon ^[Note] of Thasos, Euphronius ^[Note] of Athens, Hegesias ^[Note] of Maronea, the Menanders ^[Note] of Priene and of Heraclea, Menecrates ^[Note] the poet, Androtion ^[Note] who wrote on Agriculture, Æschrion ^[Note] who wrote on Agriculture, Lysimachus ^[Note] who wrote on Agriculture, Dionysius ^[Note] who translated Mago, Diophanes ^[Note] who made an epitome of the work of Dionysius, King Archelaus, ^[Note] Nicander. ^[Note]