 Section 1 of The Boys and Girls Pliny, Volume 2. Book 3. Man, His Birth and Disorganisation. Chapter 1. Man. Remarkable as is the present state of the world, and of the countries, nations, seas, islands, and cities which it contains, the nature of the animated beings which exist upon it is hardly in any degree less worthy of our contemplation than its other features. If indeed the human mind is able to embrace the whole of so diversified a subject, our first attention is justly due to man for whose sake all other things appear to have been produced by nature, though on the other hand with so great and so severe penalties for the enjoyment of her bounteous gifts that it is far from easy to determine whether she has proved to him a kind parent or a merciless stepmother. In the first place she obliges him alone of all animated beings to close himself with the spoils of the others, while to all the rest she has given various kinds of coverings such as shells, crusts, spines, hides, fur, bristles, hair, down, feathers, scales, and fleeces. The very trunks of the trees even she has protected against the effects of heat and cold by a bark which is in some cases twofold. Man alone at the very moment of his birth cast naked upon the naked earth, she abandons to cries, to lamentations, and a thing that is the case with no other animal whatever, to tears, this too from the very moment that he enters upon existence. But as for a laughter, why, by Hercules, to laugh if but for an instant only has never been granted to man before the fortieth day from his birth, and even then it is looked upon as a miracle of percussity. Introduced thus to the light, man has fetters and swathings instantly put upon all his limbs. Footnote, we may hence conclude that the practice of swathing young infants in tight bandages prevailed at Rome in the time of Pliny as it still does in France. End of footnote. A thing that falls to the lot of none of the brutes even that are born among us. Born to such singular good fortune there on his back lies the animal which is destined to command all the others, fast bound, hand and foot, and weeping aloud. Such being the penalty which he has to pay on beginning life, and that for the sole fault of having been born. Alas, for the folly of those who can think after such a beginning as this, that they have been born for the display of vanity. The earliest pre-sage of future strength, the earliest bounty of time, confers upon him naught but the resemblance to a quadruped. Footnote. This reminds us of the terms of the riddle proposed to Oedipus by the Sphinx. What being is that which with four feet has two feet and three feet and only one voice, but its feet vary and when it has most it is weakest. To which he answered that it is man who is a quadruped in childhood, two-footed in manhood, and moving with the aid of a staff in old age. End of footnote. How soon does man gain the power of walking? How soon does he gain the faculty of speech? How soon is his mouth fitted for mastication? How long are the pulsations of the crown of his head to proclaim him the weakest of all animated beings? And then the diseases to which he is subject, the numerous remedies which he has obliged to devise against his maladies, and those thwarted every now and then by new forms and features of disease? While other animals have an instinctive knowledge of their natural powers, some of their swiftness of pace, some of their rapidity of flight, and some again of their power of swimming, man is the only one that knows nothing that can learn nothing without being taught. He can neither speak nor walk nor eat. In short he can do nothing at the prompting of nature only, but weep. For this it is that many have been of opinion that it were better not to have been born, or if born, to have been annihilated at the earliest possible moment. To man alone of all animated beings has it been given to grieve, to him alone to be guilty of luxury and excess, and that in modes innumerable. Man is the only being that is a prey to ambition, to avarice, to an immoderate desire of life, to superstition. He is the only one that troubles himself about his burial, and even what is to become of him after death. By none is life held on a tenure more frail. None are more influenced by unbridled desires for all things. None are sensible of fears more bewildering. None are actuated by rage more frantic and violent. Other animals, in fine, live at peace with those of their own kind. We only see them unite to make a stand against those of a different species. The fierceness of the lion is not expended in fighting with its own kind. The sting of the serpent is not aimed at the serpent. Footnote. This is contrary to facts now well known. End the footnote. And the monsters of the sea even, and the fishes, vent their rage only in those of a different species. But with man, by Hercules, most of his misfortunes are occasioned by man. Footnote. It was this feeling that prompted the common saying among the ancients, homo homini lupus, man to man is a wolf, and most true it is that man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands more. End the footnote. What is there that does not appear marvelous when it comes to our knowledge for the first time? How many things, too, are looked upon as quite impossible until they have been actually effectant? But it is the fact that every moment of our existence we are distrusting the power and the majesty of nature, if the mind, instead of grasping her in her entirety, considers her only in detail. Not to speak of peacocks, the spotted skins of tigers and panthers, and the rich colors of so many animals, a trifling thing apparently to speak of, but of inestimable importance when we give it due consideration, is the existence of so many languages among the various nations, so many modes of speech, so great a variety of expressions, that to another a man who is of a different country is almost the same as no man at all. And then, too, the human features and countenance, although composed of but some ten parts or a little more, are so fashioned that among so many thousands of men there are no two in existence who cannot be distinguished from one another, a result which no art could possibly have produced when confined to so limited a number of combinations. In most points, however, of this nature, I shall not be content to pledge my own credit only, but shall confirm it in preference by referring to my authorities, which shall be given on all subjects of a nature to inspire doubt. My readers, however, must make no objection to following the Greeks who have proved themselves the most careful observers, as well as of the longest standing. There are certain tribes of the Scythians, and indeed many other nations, which feed upon human flesh. This fact itself might perhaps appear incredible, did we not recollect that in the very centre of the earth in Italy and Sicily, nations formerly existed with these monstrous propensities, the Cyclopes and the Lestrigones, for example, and that very recently, on the other side of the Alps, it was the custom to offer human sacrifices after the manner of those nations, and the difference is but small between sacrificing human beings and eating them. In the vicinity also of those who dwell in the northern regions, and not far from the spot from which the north wind arises, and the place which is called its cave, and is known by the name of Gesclithon, the Arimaspi are said to exist, a nation remarkable for having but one eye and that placed in the middle of the forehead. This race is said to carry on a perpetual warfare with the griffins, a kind of monster with wings as they are commonly represented. Footnote. The figures of the griffins or griffins are found not uncommonly on the freezes and walls at Pompeii. In the east, where there were no safe places of deposit for money, it was the custom to bury it in the earth. Hence, for the purpose of scaring deep predators, the story was carefully circulated that hidden treasures were guarded by serpents and dragons. There can be little doubt that these stories, on arriving in the Western world, combined with the knowledge of the existence of gold in the Euralian chains and other mountains of the east, gave rise to the stories of the griffins and the Arimaspi. It has been suggested that the Arimaspi were no other than the modern Sermis, who dwelt on the left bank of the Middle Volga, not far from the gold districts of their Euralian range. It has been conjectured that the fabulous tales of the combats of the Arimaspi with the griffins were invented by the neighboring tribes of the Esedonis, who were anxious to throw a mystery over the origin of the gold that they might preserve the traffic in their own hands. The Altai mountains in the north of Asia contain many gold mines which are still worked as well as traces of former workings. End of footnote. For the gold which they dig out of the mines and which these wild beasts retain and keep watch over with a singular degree of cupidity, while the Arimaspi are equally desirous to get possession of it. Many authors have corroborated this fact, among the most illustrious of whom are Herodotus and Aristaeus of Proconeces. Footnote. We have an account of the Arimaspi and of Aristaeus in Herodotus book four. End of footnote. Beyond the other Scythian Anthropophagi, there was a country called Aberimum, situated in a certain great valley of Mount Imeos, the inhabitants of which are a savage race, whose feet are turned backwards, relatively to their legs. They possess wonderful velocity and wander about indiscriminately with the wild beasts. We learn from Beeton, whose duty it was to take the measurements of the roots of Alexander the Great, that these people cannot breathe in any climate except their own, for which reason it is impossible to take them before any of the neighboring kings, nor could any of them be brought before Alexander himself. The Anthropophagi, whom we have previously mentioned as dwelling ten days' journey beyond the boristhenes, according to the account of Isigonus of Nicaea, were in the habit of drinking out of human skulls. Footnote. One of the pleasures promised to the Gothic warriors in the Paradise of Odin was to drink out of the skulls of their enemies. End of footnote. And placing the scalps with the hair attached upon their breasts like so many napkins. The same author relates that there is, in Albania, a certain race of men, the albinos, whose eyes are of a sea-green colour and who have white hair from their earliest childhood and that these people see better in the night than in the day. He states also that the Sauromatte, who dwell ten days' journey beyond the boristhenes, take food only every other day. Isigonus says there are among the Trebali and the Illiri some persons who have the power of fascination with the eyes and can even kill those on whom they fixed their gaze for any length of time, especially if they're looked in note's anger. A still more remarkable circumstance is the fact that these persons have two pupils in each eye. Apollonidus says that there are certain females of this description in Scythia, who are known as Bithie, and Filarcus states that a tribe of the Thibii in Pontus, and many other persons as well, have a double pupil in one eye and in the other the figure of a horse. Footnote. It is well known that nothing of this kind was ever observed in any human eye. End of footnote. He also remarks that the bodies of these persons will not sink in water, even though weighed down by their garments. Footnote. In all ages it has been a prevalent superstition that those endowed with magical qualities will not sink in water, encouraged, no doubt, by the cunning of those who might wish to make the charge a means of wreaking their vengeance. If they sank they were to be deemed innocent, but if they floated they were deemed guilty and handed over to the strong arm of the law. End of footnote. Cicero also, one of our own writers, makes the remark that the glances of all women who have a double pupil is noxious. Footnote. This remark is not contained in any of the works of Cicero now extant. End of footnote. Not far from the city of Rome, in the territory of the Falisci, a few families are found who are known by the name of Herpe. These people perform a yearly sacrifice to Apollo on Mount Saracti, on which occasion they walk over a burning pile of wood without even being scorched. On this account, by virtue of a decree of the Senate, they are always exempted from military service and from all other public duties. Footnote. Cuvier observes that these people probably exercised some deception, analogous to that practiced by a Spaniard who exhibited himself in Paris and professed to be incombustible, but who, eventually, was the dupe of his own quackery and paid the penalty with his life. End of footnote. Some individuals, again, are born with certain parts of the body endowed with properties of a marvellous nature. Such was the case with King Pyrrhus, the great toe of whose right foot cured diseases of the spleen merely by touching the patient. Footnote. Plotarch relates these supposed facts in his life of Pyrrhus. They remind us of the supposed efficacy of the royal touch in curing the disease turned the king's evil. End of footnote. We are also informed that this toe could not be reduced to ashes together with the other portions of his body, upon which it was placed in a coffer and preserved in a temple. India, and the region of Ethiopia more especially, abounds in wonders. In India, the largest of animals are produced. Their dogs, for example, are much bigger than those of any other country. The trees, too, are said to be of such vast height that it is impossible to send an arrow over them. This is the result of the singular fertility of the soil, the equable temperature of the atmosphere, and the abundance of water. Which, if we are to believe what is said, are such that a single fig tree, footnote, popularly known as the banyan tree, and the footnote, is capable of affording shelter to a whole troop of horse. The reeds here are also of such enormous lengths that each portion of them, between the joints, forms a tube of which a boat is made that is capable of holding three men. Footnote. The Bambos Aruninacea, or bamboo cane, is a reed or plant of the grass kind which frequently grows to the height of the tallest trees. The stem is hollow, and the parts of it between the joints are used by the natives to form their canoes. We have an account of them in Herodotus Book III. End the Footnote. It is a well-known fact that many of the people here are more than five cubits in height. Footnote. It does not appear that the stature of the Indians exceeds that of the inhabitants of the temperate zones. End the Footnote. These people, never expectorate, are subject to no pains either in the head, the teeth, or the eyes, and rarely in any other parts of the body. So well is the heat of the sun calculated to strengthen the constitution. Their philosophers, who are called gymnosophists, remain in one posture with their eyes immovably fixed upon the sun from its rising to its setting, and during the whole of the day they are accustomed to stand in the burning sands on one foot, first one and then the other. According to the account of megastinis dwelling upon a mountain called Nullo, there is a race of men who have their feet turned backwards with eight toes on each foot. On many of the mountains again there is a tribe of men who have the heads of dogs. Footnote. This account probably originated in a species of monkey, generally considered to be the baboon, with a projecting muzzle, called from this circumstance Sinocephalus, or the dog's head. This account of the Sinocephali is repeated by Aulus Gallius. It is a pity that Pliny should have adopted so many ridiculous fables on the doubtful authority of Ctesias. End the Footnote. And clothe themselves with the skin of wild beasts. Instead of speaking they bark, and furnished with claws they live by hunting and catching birds. According to the story, as given by Ctesias, the number of these people is more than a hundred and twenty thousand. He speaks also of another race of men who are known as monoculi, who have only one leg, but are able to leap with surprising agility. The same people are also called Siapodae, because they are in the habit of lying on their backs during the time of extreme heat, and protect themselves from the sun by the shade of their feet. These people, he says, dwell not very far from the troglodyte, to the west of whom again there is a tribe who are without necks and have eyes and their shoulders. Among the mountainous districts of the eastern parts of India, in what is called the country of the Katharkludae, we find the satyr. Footnote. These are the great apes, which are found in some of the oriental islands. We may suppose that this description is taken from some incorrect account of a large kind of ape, but it seems impossible to refer it to any particular species. End of footnote. An animal of extraordinary swiftness. These go sometimes on forefeet and sometimes walk erect. They have also the features of a human being. On account of their swiftness, these creatures are never to be caught, except when they are either aged or sickly. Taoron gives the name of Koromandei to a nation which dwell in the woods and have no proper voice. These people screech in a frightful manner. Their bodies are covered with hair, their eyes are of a sea-green colour, and their teeth like those of a dog. Idoxes tells us that in the southern parts of India, the men have feet acubit in length, while those of the women are so remarkably small that they are called strith of podes or sparrow-footed. Footnote. Can these be the Chinese? End of footnote. Megastinis places among the nomads of India a people who are called skirite. They have merely holes in their faces instead of nostrils and flexible feet like the body of the serpent. At the very extremity of India, on the eastern side, near the source of the river Ganges, there is the nation of the Estomai, a people who have no mouths. Their bodies are rough and hairy, and they cover themselves with a down plucked from the leaves of trees. Footnote. Either silk or cotton. End of footnote. These people subsist only by breathing and by the odours which they inhale through the nostrils. They support themselves upon neither meat nor drink. When they go upon a long journey, they only carry with them various odiferous roots and flowers and wild apples that they may not be without something to smell at, but an odour which is a little more powerful than usual easily destroys them. Footnote. Govier remarks that these accounts are not capable of any explanation being mere fables. End of footnote. Beyond these people, and at the very extremity of the mountains, the Trispithami and the Pygmies are said to exist. Two races which are but three spans in height, that is to say, 27 inches only. They enjoy a salubrious atmosphere and a perpetual spring being sheltered by the mountains from the northern blasts. It is these people that Homer has mentioned as being warred upon by cranes. Footnote. Iliad Book 3. 1. 3-6. Their story is also referred to by Ovid and Juvenel. End of footnote. It is said that they are in the habit of going down every spring to the seashore in a large body seated on the backs of rams and goats and armed with arrows, and dare destroy the eggs and the young of those birds. That this expedition occupies them for the space of three months, and that otherwise it would be impossible for them to withstand the increasing multitudes of the cranes. Their cabins, it is said, are built of mud mixed with feathers and eggshells. Aristotle says that they dwell in caves, but in all other respects he gives the same details as other writers. Isegonus informs us that the Cerny, a people of India, lived to their 400th year, and he is of opinion that the same is the case also with the Ethiopian Macrobi, the Cere and the inhabitants of Mount Athos. In the case of these lost it is supposed to be owing to the flesh of vipers. Footnote. Pliny elsewhere speaks of the use of vipers flesh as an article of diet and gives them minute directions for its preparation. It was supposed to be peculiarly nutritive and restorative, and it has been prescribed for the same purpose by modern physicians. There is a medal in existence, probably struck by the emperor Komodus, in order to commemorate the benefit which he was supposed to have derived from the use of the flesh of vipers. And a footnote. Which they use as food, in consequence of which they are free also from all noxious animals, both in their hair and their garments. According to Onesicritus, in those parts of India where there is no shadow, the bodies of men attain a height of five cubits and two palms, and their life is prolonged to 130 years. They die without any symptoms of old age and just as if they were in the middle period of life. Ctesias mentions a tribe known by the name of Pandora, whose locality is in the valleys and who lived to their 200th year. Their hair is white in youth, and becomes black in old age. On the other hand, there are some people joining up to the country of the Macrobi, who never lived beyond their 40th year, and there is never more than one child in a family. This circumstance is also mentioned by Agatharkides, who states in addition that they live on locusts and are very swift afoot. Clatarcus and Megastinies give these people the name of Mandai and enumerate as many as 300 villages which belong to them. Their women marry in the 7th year of their age and become old at 40. Artemidorus states that in the island of Tapurbana, life is prolonged to an extreme length, while at the same time the body is exempt from weakness. Among the Kalingi, a nation also of India, the women marry at five years of age and do not live beyond their eighth year. In other places again, there are men born with long, hairy tails and a remarkable swiftness of foot, while there are others that have ears so large as to cover the whole body. Footnote. Kuvye remarks that this story must have been originally told with reference to the race of large apes and the footnote. There is a tribe of Ethiopian nomads dwelling on the banks of the river Astragas towards the north and about 20 days journey from the ocean. These people are called menisminae. They live on the milk of the animal which we called Sinocephalus. Footnote. The dog-faced ape. The baboon. End of footnote. And rare large flocks of these creatures. In the deserts of Africa, men are frequently seen to all appearance and then vanish in an instant. Nature in her ingenuity has created all these marvels in human race with others of a similar nature as so many amusements to herself, though they appear miraculous to us. But who is there that can enumerate all the things that she brings to pass each day, I may almost say each hour? As a striking evidence of her power, let it be sufficient for me to have cited whole nations in the list of her prodigies. Let us now proceed to mention some other particulars connected with man, the truth of which is universally admitted. It is a subject for pity and even for a feeling of shame when one reflects that the origin and life of the most vain of all animated beings is so frail. Thou man who places thy confidence in the strength of thy body, thou who dost embrace the gifts of fortune and look upon thyself, not only as her fosterling, but even as her own born child, thou whose mind is ever thirsting for blood, thou who, puffed up with some success or other, dost think thyself a god, by how trifling a thing might thy life have been cut short, even this very day, something still less, even may have the same effect, the puncture for instance, of the tiny sting of the serpent, or even, as befell the poet Anecrian, the swallowing of the stone of a raisin, or of a single hair in a draught of milk, by which the praetor and senator Fabius was choked, and so met his death. He only, in fact, will be able to form a just estimate of the value of life, who will always bear in mind the extreme frailty of its tenure. 3. Instances of Extraordinary Strength Verro, speaking of persons remarkable for their strength, gives us an account of Tributanas, a celebrated gladiator, and skilled in the use of the Samnite arms. Footnote, the gladiators called Samnites were armed with the peculiar scutum, or oblong shield, used by the Samnites, a grieve on the left leg, a sponger on the breast, and a helmet with a crest. End of Footnote He was a man of meager person, but possessed of extraordinary strength. Verro makes mention of his son also, who served in the army of Pompeii. He says that in all parts of his body, even in the arms and hands, there was a network of sinews extending across and across. The latter of these men, having been challenged by an enemy, vanquished him with a single finger of the right hand, and that unarmed, and then seized and dragged him to the camp. Vinius Valens, who served as a centurion in the Praetorian Guard of Augustus, was in the habit of holding up wagons laden with casks until they were emptied, and of stopping a carriage with one hand and holding it back against all the efforts of the horses to drag it forward. He performed other wonderful feats also, an account of which may still be seen inscribed on his monument. Verro also gives the following statement. Fusius, who used to be called the Bumpkin Hercules, was in the habit of carrying his own mule, while Salveus was able to mount a ladder with a weight of two hundred pounds attached to his feet, the same to his hands, and two hundred pounds on each shoulder. I myself once saw, a most marvellous display of strength, a man of the name of Athenatus walk across the stage, wearing a leaden breastplate of five hundred pounds weight, while shod with buskins of the same weight. When Milo, the restler, had once taken his stand, there was not a person who could move him from his position, and when he grasped an apple in his hand, no one could so much as open one of his fingers. End of Section 3. Recording by Phone. Section 4 of The Boys and Girls Pliny, Volume 2, by Pliny the Elder. This Liberfrux recording is in a public domain. Recording by Phone. Book 3. Chapter 4. Instances of Remarkable Agility and Acuteness of Sight. It was considered a very great thing for Philippides to run one thousand one hundred and sixty stadia, the distance between Athens and Lacodamon in two days, until Amistus, the Lacodamonian courier, and Philonidas, the courier of Alexander the Great, ran from Sisyon to Elysse in one day, a distance of thirteen hundred and five stadia. Footnote. Philippides must have gone one hundred and forty-two miles in two days, and the other one hundred and fifty miles in one day. End of footnote. In our own times too, we are fully aware that there are men in the Circus who are able to keep on running for a distance of one hundred and sixty miles, and that lately in the consulship of Phonteus and Vipstanus there was a child eight years of age who between morning and evening ran a distance of seventy-five miles. We become all the more sensible of these wonderful instances of swiftness upon reflecting that Tiberius Nero, when he made all possible haste to reach his brother Drusus, who was then sick in Germany, reached him in three stages, travelling day and night on the road. The distance of each stage was two hundred miles. Instances of acuteness of sight are to be found stated, which indeed exceed all belief. Cicero informs us that the Iliad of Homer was written on a piece of parchment so small as to be enclosed in a nutshell. Footnote. This statement must have been in some of his lost works. End of footnote. He makes mention also of a man who could distinguish objects at a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles. Marcus Vero says that the name of this man was Strabo, and that during the Punic War, from Lilibeum, the promontory of Sicily, he was in the habit of seeing the fleet come out of the harbor of Carthage at a distance of over fifty miles, and could even count the number of the vessels. Calicrates used to carve ants and other small animals in ivory so minute in size that better persons were unable to distinguish their individual parts. Mermicides also was famous in the same line. Footnote. His works in ivory were said to have been so small that they could scarcely be seen without placing them on a black surface. End of footnote. This man made of similar material, a chariot drawn by four horses, which a fly could cover with its wings, as well as a ship which might be covered by the wings of a tiny bee. End of section four, recording by phone. Section five of The Boys and Girls Pliny, volume two, by Pliny the Elder. This Liberfox recording is in the public domain. Recording by phone. Book three, chapter five. Vigor of Mind and Courage. The most remarkable instance, I think, of vigor of mind in any man ever born was that of Caesar, the dictator. I am not at present alluding to his valor and courage, nor yet his exalted genius, which was capable of embracing everything under the face of heaven, but I am speaking of that innate vigor of mind, which was so peculiar to him, and that promptness which seemed to act like a flash of lightning. We find it stated that he was able to write or read, and at the same time to dictate and listen. He could dictate to his secretaries four letters at once, and those on the most important business, and indeed if he was busy about nothing else, as many as seven. He fought as many as fifty pitched battles, being the only commander who exceeded M. Marcellus in this respect, he having fought only thirty-nine. In addition, two to the victories gained by him in the Civil Wars, one million one hundred and ninety-two thousand men were slain by him in his battles. For my own part, however, I am not going to set down as a subject for high renown what was really an outrage committed upon mankind, even though he may have been acting under the strong influence of necessity, and indeed he himself confesses as much in his omission to state the number of persons who perished by the sword in the Civil Wars. With much more justice we may award credit to Pompey the Great for having taken from the pirates no less than eight hundred and forty-six vessels. Though at the same time over and above the great qualities previously mentioned, we must with equal justice give Caesar the peculiar credit of a remarkable degree of clemency, a quality in the exercise of which, even to repentance, he excelled all other individuals whatsoever. The same person has left us one instance of magnanimity to which there is nothing that can be at all compared. While one who was an admirer of luxury might perhaps on this occasion have enumerated the spectacles which he exhibited, the treasures which he lavished away, and the magnificence of his public works, I maintain that it was a great proof and an incomparable one of an elevated mind for him to have burnt with the most scrupulous carefulness the papers of Pompey which were taken in his desk at the Battle of Farsalia and those of Scipio taken at Thapsas without so much as reading them. But now, as it belongs fully as much to the glorious renown of the Roman Empire as to the victorious career of a single individual, I shall proceed on this occasion to make mention of all the triumphs and titles of Pompey, the splendour of his exploits having equaled not only that of those of Alexander the Great, but even of Hercules, and perhaps of Father Liber even. Footnote, or Bacchus, Father Liber is the name always given to him by Pliny, and a footnote. After having recovered Sicily, where he first commenced his career as a partisan of Silla, but in behalf of the Republic, after having conquered the whole of Africa and reduced it to subjection, and after having received for his share of the spoil the title of Great, footnote, Magnus, Plutarch states that on his return from Africa Silla saluted him with the name of Magnus, which surname he ever afterwards retained. He also says that the law did not allow a triumph to be granted to anyone who was not either consul or praetor. And the footnote. He was decreed the honours of a triumph, and he, though only of equestrian rank, a thing that had never occurred before, re-entered the city in the triumphful chariot, immediately after which he hastened to the west where he left it inscribed on the trophy which he raised upon the Pyrenees, that he had by his victories reduced to subjection 876 cities from the Alps to the borders of farther Spain. After having put an end to the civil war, which indeed was the primary cause of all the foreign ones, he, though still of only equestrian rank, again entered Rome in the triumphal chariot, having thus often proved himself a general before having been a common soldier. After this he was dispatched to the shores of all the various seas, and then to the east, whence he brought back to his country many titles of honour, resembling therein those who conquer at the sacred gains, for, be it remembered, it is not day that are crowned, but their respective countries. Upon the shrine in the temple of Minerva, which he consecrated from the spoils that he had gained, are these words, Ceneus Pompeius Magnus, Imperator, having brought to an end a war of 30 years duration, and having defeated, routed, put to the sword, or received this mission of 12,278,000 men, having sunk or captured 846 vessels, having received as allies 1,538 cities and fortresses, and having conquered all the country from the Mayotes to the Red Sea, dedicates this shrine as a votive offering due to Minerva. Such, in a few words, is the sum of his exploits in the east. The following are the introductory words descriptive of the triumph, which he celebrated on the 29th and 30th of September, in the consulship of M. Piso and M. Massala, B.C. 61. After having delivered the sea coast from the pirates, and restored the seas to the people of Rome, he enjoyed a triumph over Asia, Pontus, Armenia, Paflegonia, Cappadocia, Sicilia, Syria, the Scythians, Judea, the Albanians, Iberia, the island of Crete, the Basterni, and in addition to all these, the kings Mithridates and Tigranes. The most glorious, however, of all glories resulting from these exploits was, as he himself says, in the speech which he made in public relative to his previous career, that Asia Minor, which he received as the boundary of the empire, he left as its center. If anyone should wish, on the other hand, in a similar manner, to pass and review the exploits of Caesar, who has shown himself greater still than Pompey, why then he must enumerate all the countries in the world, a task I may say, without an end. A minute inquiry by whom the greatest valor has ever been exhibited would lead to an endless discussion, especially if all the fables of the poets are to be taken for granted. Lucius Sicius Dantatus, who was tribune of the people in the consulship of Spirius Tarpeus and Aulus Aetirius, BC 454, not long after the expulsion of the kings has very numerous testimonies in his favor. This hero fought 120 battles, was eight times victorious in single combat, and was graced with 45 wounds in the front of the body without one on the back. The same man also carried off 34 spoils, was 18 times presented with the victor's spear. Footnote. When a Roman overcame an enemy with whom he had been personally engaged, he took possession of some part of his armor and dress, which might bear testimony to the victory. This was termed dysfolium. The words hastapua, or victor's spear, signify a lance without an iron head. We are told that it was given to him who gained the first victory in a battle. It was also regarded as an emblem of supreme power, and as a mark of the authority which one nation claimed over another. Footnote. And received twenty-five pendants, eighty-three torques, or golden ornaments, one hundred and sixty bracelets, twenty-six crowns, a fisk, or chest of money, ten prisoners, and twenty oxen. He followed in the triumphal processions of nine generals who mainly owed their victory to his exertions. Besides all which, a thing that I look upon as the most important of all his services, he denounced to the people Titus Romilius, one of the generals of the army, at the end of his consulship, and had him convicted of having made an improper use of his authority. The military honors of Mandius Capitolinas would have been no less splendid than his, if they had not been all effaced at the close of his life. Before his seventeenth year he had gained two spoils, and was the first of equestrian rank who received a mural crown. He also gained six civic crowns, thirty-seven donations, and had twenty-three scars on the four part of his body. He saved the life of P. Servilius, the master of the horse, receiving wounds on the same occasion on the shoulders and the thigh. Besides all this, unaided, he saved the capitol when it was attacked by the Gauls, and through that the state itself, a thing that would have been the most glorious act of all if he had not so saved it in order that he might, as its king, become its master. But in all matters of this nature, although valor may affect much, fortune does still more. No person living, in my opinion at least, ever excelled Marcus Sergius, although his great grandson, Catelyn, tarnished the honors of his name. In his second campaign he lost his right hand, and in two campaigns he was wounded three and twenty times, so severely that he could scarcely use either his hands or his feet. Still, attended by a single slave, he afterwards served in many campaigns, though but an invalid soldier. He was twice taken prisoner by Hannibal, for it was with no ordinary enemy that he would engage, and twice that he escaped from his captivity, after having been kept without a single day's intermission in chains and fetters for twenty months. On four occasions he fought with his left hand alone, two horses being slain under him. He had a right hand made of iron, and attached to the stump, after which he fought a battle, and raised the siege of Cremona, defended Placentia, and took twelve of the enemy's camps in goal. All this we learn from an oration of his which he delivered when, in his praetorship, his colleagues attempted to exclude him from the sacred rites on the ground of his infirmities. Footnote. Among the Jews and other nations of antiquity it was considered an essential point for the priests to be without blemish, perfect and free from disease. End the footnote. What heaps upon heaps of crowns would he have piled up if he had only had other enemies, for in matters of this nature it is of the first importance to consider in what times the valour of each man has fallen. What civic crowns did Trebia, what did Titusinus, what did Lake Tracimanus afford? What crown was there to be gained at Cannae when it was deemed the greatest effort of valour to have escaped from the enemy? Other persons have been conquerors of men, no doubt, but Sergius conquered even fortune herself. End of section five. Recording by phone. Section six of Du Bois and Girls Pliny, volume two by Pliny de Elder. This Liberfox recording is in the public domain. Recording by phone. Book three, chapter six. Men of remarkable genius and wisdom. Among so many different pursuits and so great a variety of works and objects, who can select the palm of glory for transcendent genius? Unless, perchance, we should agree in opinion that no more brilliant genius ever existed than the Greek poet Homer, whether we look at the happy subject of his work or the excellence of its execution. For this reason it was that Alexander the Great, when he found among the spoils of Darius, the king of Persia, a casket for perfumes enriched with gold, precious stones, and pearls, covered as he was with the dust of battle, deemed it beneath a warrior to make use of unguents. And when his friends were pointing out to him its various uses, exclaimed, Nay, but by Hercules, let the casket be used for preserving the poems of Homer. That so, the most precious work of the human mind might be placed in the keeping of the richest work of art. It was the same conqueror, too, who gave directions that the descendants and house of the poet Pinder should be spared at the taking of Thebes. He likewise rebuilt Stagura, the native city of Aristotle, uniting to the extraordinary brilliancy of his exploits the speaking testimony of his kindness of disposition. Dionysius the tyrant, who otherwise manifested a natural propensity for cruelty and pride, sent a vessel crowned with garlands to meet Plato, that high priest of wisdom, and on his disembarkation received him on the shore in a chariot drawn by four white horses. Isocrates was able to sell a single oration of his for twenty thousand dollars. When Eskinus, the great Athenian orator, had read to the Rodians the speech which he had made on the accusation of Demesthanes, he then read the defense made by Demesthanes, through which he had been driven into exile among them. When they expressed their admiration of it, he exclaimed, How much more would you have admired it if you had heard him deliver it himself? A striking testimony, indeed, given in adversity to the merit of an enemy. The nobles of Rome have given their testimony in favor of foreigners, even. After Pompey had finished the war against Mithridates, he went to call at the house of Posidonius, the famous teacher of philosophy, but forbade the lictor to knock at the door as was the usual custom, and he, to whom both the Eastern and the Western world had yielded submission, ordered the fascis to be lowered before the door of a learned man. The elder Africanus ordered that the statue of Aeneas should be placed in his tomb, and that the illustrious surname which he had acquired, I may say, as his share of the spoil on the conquest of the third part of the world, should be read over his ashes along with the name of the poet. The Emperor Augustus, now deified, forbade the works of Virgil to be burnt in opposition to the modest directions to that effect which the poet had left in his will, a prohibition which was a greater compliment paid to his merit than if he himself had recommended his works. Marcus Farrow is the only man who, during his lifetime, saw his own statue erected. This was placed in the first public library that was ever built, and which was formed by a sinious polio with the spoils of our enemies. The fact of this distinction being conferred upon him by one who was in the first rank, both as an orator and a citizen, and at a time too, when there was so great a number of men distinguished for their genius, was not less honorable to him, in my opinion, than the naval crown which Pompey bestowed upon him in the war against the pirates. The instances that follow among the Romans, if I were to attempt to reckon them, would be found to be innumerable, for it is the fact that this one nation has furnished a greater number of distinguished men in every branch than all the countries of the world taken together. Footnote. Some of these are given by valourious maximus. It is very doubtful, however, if Greece did not greatly excel Rome in disrespect. End the footnote. But what atonement could I offer to thee, Mercastolia Cicero, where I to be silent respecting thy name, or on what ground am I to pronounce thee especially preeminent? On what indeed that can be more convincing than the most abundant testimony that was offered in thy favour by the whole Roman people. Thou speakest, and the tribe surrender the agrarian law, or in other words their very subsistence. Thou advises them to do so, and they pardon Roscius, the author of the law for the regulation of the theatres, and without any feelings of resentment allow a mark to be put upon themselves by allotting them an inferior seat. Thou entreatest, and the sons of proscribed men blush at having canvassed for public honours. Before thy genius, Catalene took to flight, and it was thou who didst prescribe Marcus Antonius. Hail then to thee who was the first of all to receive the title of father of thy country, who was the first of all, while wearing the toga, to merit a triumph, and who didst obtain the laurel for oratory. Great father, thou, of eloquence and of Latin literature, as the dictator Caesar, once thy enemy, wrote in testimony of thee, footnote, this remark is not found in any of Caesar's work now extant, and the footnote. Thou didst require a laurel superior to every triumph, how far greater and more glorious to have enlarged so immeasurably the boundaries of the Roman genius than those of its sway. End of Section 6. Recording by Phone. Section 7 of Du Bois and Girls Pliny, Volume 2 by Pliny the Elder. This Liberfox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Phone. Book 4. The nature of terrestrial animals. Chapter 1. Elephants, their capacity. The elephant is the largest of all the land animals, and in intelligence approaches the nearest to man. He understands the language of his country, obeys commands, and remembers all the duties which he has been taught. He 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. He has a religious respect also for the stars, and veneration for the sun and the moon. Footnote. Cuvier remarks that this account of the elephant's superior intelligence is exaggerated, it being no greater than that of the dog, if indeed equal to it. The opinion may perhaps have arisen from the dexterity with which the animal uses its trunk, but this is to be ascribed not to its own intelligence, but to the mechanical construction of the part. The Indians, from whom we presume that Pliny derived his account, have always regarded the elephant with a kind of superstitious veneration. End the footnote. It is said by some authors that at the first appearance of the new moon, herds of these animals come down from the forest of Mauritania to a river, the name of which is Amilo, and that they dare 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 the young ones which are fatigued. They are supposed to have a notion too of the differences of religion, 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, lying on their backs and throwing the grass up into the air, as if deputing the earth to intercede for them with its prayers. As a proof of their extreme docility, they pay homage to the king, fall upon their knees, and offer him the crown. The first harnessed elephants that were seen at Rome were in triumph of Pompey the Great 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. Footnote. Plutarch informs us that Pompey had resolved to have his chariot drawn by four elephants, but finding the gate too narrow, he was obliged to use horses. End the footnote. Prosilius says that those which were used at the triumph of Pompey were unable to go in harness through the gate of the city. In the exhibition of gladiators, which was given by Germanicus, 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. After this too, they walked upon the tightrope. Footnote. However ill-adapted the elephant may appear from its size and form for this feat, we have the testimony of Seneca, Suetonius, Dion Cassius, and Alien to the truth of the fact. Suetonius tells us that a horseman ascended a tightrope on an elephant's back. End the footnote. And four of them would carry a litter in which lay a fifth, who pretended to be ill. They afterwards took their places at table, reclining upon couches which were filled with people, and so nicely that they managed their steps, that they did not so much as touch any of those who were drinking there. It is a well-known fact 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. Footnote. Plutarch, in his treatise on the shrewdness of animals, tells us that this wonderful circumstance happened at Rome, but it would be curious to know in what way the elephant showed that he was conning over his lesson. End the footnote. It is a most surprising thing also that the elephant is able not only to walk up the tightrope backwards, but to come down it as well, with the head foremost. 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. Footnote. Alien informs us that he had seen an elephant write Latin characters. Hard-to-win remarks that the Greek would be autos ego tat egrepsa la fira tekelta anetika. End the footnote. Mutianus states also that he himself was witness to the fact that when some elephants were being landed at Putioli 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. Hence it is that when their tusks have fallen off, either by accident or from old age, they bury them in the earth. Footnote. Probably the great quantity of fossil ivory which has been found may have given rise to this tail. End the footnote. 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 having exhausted all those in our part of the world. Footnote. Tables and bedsteads were not only covered or veneered with ivory among the Romans, but in the later times made of the solid material as we learn from Elian and Bathaneus. End the footnote. The youthfulness of the animal is ascertained by the whiteness of the teeth. These animals take the greatest care of their teeth. They pay a special 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. Footnote. It is scarcely necessary to remark that these statements respecting the sagacity of the elephant in connection with their teeth are without foundation. End the footnote. 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 wondering 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 traces of a man before he meets the man himself, trembles in every limb for fear of an ambush, stops short and sends the wind, looks around him, and snorts aloud with rage. And then without trampling upon the object trodden upon, takes it up and passes it to the next one, who again passes it to the one that follows, and so one 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 odor, 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 welps. 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 superior 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. Elephants always move in herds. 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 depths of the channel, by working away the bed of the river. We learned 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. Cato, in his annals, while he passed over in silence the names of the generals, has given that of an elephant called Surus, which fought with the greatest valor in the Cardiganian 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, 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 forvane. Nor ought we to be surprised that such an animal should be sensible of affection, for Juba relates that an elephant recognised, after the lapse of many years, an old man who had been his keeper in his youth. They would seem also to have an instinctive feeling of justice. King Boccus 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 in the year of the city 472. They were called Lucanian oxen, because they were first seen in Lucania. Seven years after this period, they appeared at Rome in a triumph. 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 Cartaginians. Footnote. There are coins extant struck to commemorate this victory, in which there is the figure of an elephant. End of footnote. One hundred and forty-two of them were conveyed to our shores upon rafts, which were constructed on rows of hogsheads joined together. Various 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. End of section seven. Recording by phone. Section eight of the Boys and Girls Pliny, volume two, by Pliny the Elder. This Liberfolk's recording is in the public domain. Recording by phone. Book four, chapter two, The Combats of Elephants. There was 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 Cartagenaeans succeeded in doing so. 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. In the Second Consulship of Pompey, at the dedication of the Temple of Venus Victrix, twenty elephants, or as some say, seventeen, fought in the circus against a number of Gaetulians who attacked them with javelins. One of these animals fought in a most astonishing manner, for although 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 it greatly amused the spectators, for they were all round and round in the air, just as if they had been thrown up with a certain degree of skill, and not by the frantic fury of a wild beast. Another very wonderful circumstance 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 sat next to the iron gratings. It was in consequence of this circumstance that Caesar, the dictator, when he was afterwards about to exhibit a similar spectacle, had the arena surrounded with trenches of water. These were lately filled up by the Emperor Nero when he added the seats for the equestrian order. When, however, the elephants in the exhibition given by Pompey 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 his munificence displayed in their honour, the whole assembly rose up in tears and showered curses on Pompey, of which he soon afterwards became the victim. They fought also in the third consulship of the dictator Caesar, twenty of them against five hundred foot soldiers. On another occasion twenty elephants carrying towers, 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 Emperor Claudius and Nero, the last exploit that the Gladiators performed was fighting single-handed 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 those that are in the way lest it should unintentionally trample upon them. 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. End of section eight, recording by phone. Section nine, of the Boys and Girls Pliny, volume two, by Pliny the Elder. This Libervox recording is in a public domain. Recording by phone. Book four, chapter three, the way in which elephants are caught. In India 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 they take them in pitfalls, 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 endeavor with older might to drag him 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 this 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. Their troglodyte, who inhabit the confines of Ethiopia and who live entirely on the flesh of elephants procured by the cheese, 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 his 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 then cuts the tendons of the other ham and makes his escape, all of which is done with the very greatest celerity. Elephants of furious temper are tamed by hunger and blows, while other elephants are placed near to keep them quiet when the violet fit is upon them by means of chains. 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 underfoot, whole companies, and crush the men in their armor. The very least sound, however, of the grunting of the hog terrifies them. When wounded and panic stricken, they invariably fall back and become no less formidable for the destruction which they deal to their own sight than to their opponents. End of section 9, recording by phone. Section 10, with the Boys and Girls Pliny, volume 2, by Pliny the Elder. This slip of hooks recording is in the public domain. Recording by phone. Book 4, Chapter 4. The Age of the Elephant and Other Particulars Aristotle says that the elephant lives to the age of two hundred years, and in some instances the extraordinary age of three hundred years has been attained. The elephant is in his prime at his sixtieth year. They are especially fond of water, and wander much about streams, although they are unable to swim in consequence of their bulk. Footnote. This remark is incorrect. When the water is sufficiently deep, they swim with ease, and if the end of the trunk remains exposed to the atmosphere, they can dive below the surface, or swim with the body immersed. End of footnote. They are particularly sensitive to cold, which is really their greatest enemy. The trunks and foliage of trees are their favourite food. They throw down with a blow from their forehead, palms of exceedingly great height, and strip them of their fruit. They eat with the mouth, but they breathe and smell with the proboscis, which is not an aptly termed their hand. This they use as a drinking cup, for they suck the fluid into the cavity of the trunk, and bend the trunk into the mouth, where the water is received and swallowed in the usual manner. They have the greatest diversion to the mouse of all animals, and quite loathe their food, as it lies in the manger, if they perceive that it has been touched by one of these. They experience the greatest torture if they happen to swallow, while drinking, a horse leech, an animal which people are beginning, I find, to call almost universally a blood sucker. The leech fastens upon the windpipe 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 does the slender tail furnish them with any protection from the annoyance of flies. For fast as these animals are, they suffer greatly from them. Their skin is reticulated, and invites these insects by the odor it exhales. However, when a swarm of flies has settled on the skin, while it is extended and smooth, the elephant suddenly contracts it, and in this way the flies are crushed between the foals which are thus closed. This power serves them in place of tail, mane, and hair. Luxury has discovered a curious recommendation in this animal, having found a particularly delicate flavor in the carthaginous part of the trunk, for no other reason, in my belief, than because it fancies itself to be eating ivory. Tasks of enormous size are constantly to be seen in the temples, and in the extreme parts of Africa, on the confines of Ethiopia, they are employed as doorposts for houses. End of section 10, recording by phone. Section 11 of Du Bois and Girls Pliny, volume 2, by Pliny the Elder. This Liberfox recording is in the public domain. Recording by phone. Book 4. Chapter 5. The Lion I think that I ought here to make some further mention of Aristotle, seeing that upon these subjects I intend in a great measure to make him my guide. Alexander the Great filled with a strong desire to become acquainted with the natures of animals, and trusted 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, comprising all those who followed the business of hunting, fouling, or fishing, or who had the care of parks, herds of cattle, the breeding of bees, fishponds, 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 purposed 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. It is a remarkable fact that pards, panthers, lions, and other animals of this kind have retractile claws so that they can walk with the points of their nails concealed in a sheath in the pole, thus preventing them from becoming broken or blunted. The noble appearance of the lion is especially to be seen in the male, who has the neck and shoulders covered with a mane. The lion is the only one of all the wild beasts that chose mercy to the supplyant. After it has conquered it will spare, 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 Getulia, 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. Footnote. Although these stories of the generosity and clemency of the lion are in great measure fabulous, still the accounts of those who have had the best opportunity of becoming acquainted with the character of different animals agree in ascribing to the lion less ferocity and brutality in proportion to its size and strength than to other animals of the same family. And the footnote. There are various opinions on this point as to whether it is through some peculiar disposition of the animals 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. The tale 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 tale is without motion, and the animal fawns upon those who caress him. A thing, however, that very rarely happens, for his usual 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 situated in depressed. When his hunger is satisfied he becomes harmless. The generous disposition of the lion is especially manifested in times of danger. At the moment when despising all weapons he long defends himself solely by the great terror which he inspires, starting up 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 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 welps it is said that she fixes her eyes steadily on the ground that she may not be frightened at the spares 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 feet. 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, 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 arouses his anger, and as soon as he tastes their blood he is relieved. It was formerly a very difficult matter to catch the lion and it was mostly done by means of pitfalls. In the rain however of the emperor Claudius accident disclosed a method which appears almost disgraceful to the name of such an animal. A Gatulian shepherd stopped a lion that was rushing furiously upon him by merely throwing his cloak 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 that it could be put into chains without the least resistance. This circumstance renders what was done by Lysimachus less wonderful who strangled a lion with which he had been shut up by command of Alexander. Antony subjected lions to the yoke and was the first at Rome to harness them to his chariot 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 that generous spirits were about to be subdued. But to have himself drawn along in this manner in company with the actress Sitharis was a thing that surpassed even the 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 have been some fortuitous occurrences cited 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. There is a picture at Syracuse which bears witness to the truth of this occurrence. 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, tried by the open mouth which had caused so much terror to excite his compassion. It appeared that while he was devouring his food with too great avidity, a bone had stuck fast between his teeth and he was perishing with hunger. Elpis, although he understood his mute entreaties, did not dare to risk trusting himself to so formidable a beast, so he remained stationary for some time, more 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 to it whatever he had chance to procure in the chase. In memory of this circumstance, Elpis consecrated a temple at Samos to Father Loiber which the Greeks from the circumstance above related called the temple Kecanotos Dionison or temple of the open mouth Bacchus. Can we wonder after this that the wild beast should be able to recognise the footsteps of man 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 even wild beasts to risk everything to obtain relief. Demetrius the natural philosopher relates an equally remarkable instance in relation to a panther. The animal was lying in the middle of the road waiting for someone to pass that way when he was suddenly perceived by the father of one Felinas, an ardent lover of wisdom. 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 even in a panther. 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, whether 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 even among men. Facts such as these induce us to give some credit to what democratus relates, who says that a man called Thoas was preserved in Arcadia by a dragon. 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 it taken away and left 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 Thoas has been said, respecting infants that have been exposed and nourished by the milk of wild beasts, 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. End of section 12, recording by phone. Section 13 of Du Bois and Girls Pliny Volume 2 by Pliny the Elder. This Liberfox recording is in the public domain. Recording by phone. Book 4, Chapter 7. Panthers and Tigers. The panther and the tiger are nearly the only animals that are remarkable for a skin distinguished by the variety of its spots, whereas others have them of a single color, 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 quadruplets are terrified by the fierceness of their aspect, for which reason the creature conceals its head and then springs unexpectedly upon its prey. 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 and part to all the numerous species of this animal, which are very common in Africa and Syria. Some writers distinguish the panther as being remarkable for its whiteness, and 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 Caneus Ophidius, the Tribune of the People, procured a law of repealiness, which allowed if they're being brought over for the games of the circus. Scorus, in his Eddiles ship, was the first who sent over the party-coloured kind, 150 in all, after which Pompey sent 410 and the late Emperor Augustus 420. The same emperor was the first person who exhibited at Rome a tame tiger on a stage. This was in the consulship of Tubero and Fabius Maximus at the dedication of the theatre of Marcellus on the fourth day before the Nuns of May. The late Emperor Claudius exhibited four at one time. Hercania and India produced a tiger, an animal of tremendous swiftness, a quality which is more especially tested when we deprive it of all its welps, 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 welps. This she snatches up with her teeth, and more swift even, under the weight, returns to her lair, and sets out in pursuit again. This she continues to do until the hunter has reached his vessel, while the animal vainly vents her fury upon the shore. End of Section 13, Recording by Phone. Section 14 of the Boys and Girls Pliny, Volume 2 by Pliny the Elder. This Liberfolk's recording is in a public domain. Recording by Phone. Book 4, Chapter 8, The Camel. Camels are found feeding in herds in the east. Of these there are two different kinds, the Bactrian and the Arabian, the former kind having two humps on the back, the latter only one. They have also another hump under depressed, by means of which they support themselves when reclining. Both of these species, like the orcs, have no teeth in the upper jaw. They are all of them employed as beasts of birthing 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 disrespect 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 can endure thirst for four days, 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. There are two other animals which have some resemblance to the Camel. One of these is called, by the Ethiopians, the nablin. It has a neck like that of the horse, feet and legs like those of the orcs, a head like that of the camel, and discovered with white spots upon a red ground, from which peculiarities it has been called the camel leopard. Footnote. The description of the giraffe, here given, is sufficiently correct, but we have a more minute account of it by Dion Cassius, Book 43. In the time of the Emperor Gordian, ten of these animals were exhibited at Rome at once, a remarkable fact when we bear in mind that so few have ever been imported into Europe or America. The giraffe is figured in the mosaic at Prenesti, and under it is inscribed its name, Nabi. It has been found that the giraffe is unable to bear the winters of Europe and the United States. End of footnote. It was first seen at Rome in the Cersensian games held by Caesar, the dictator. Since that time too, it has been occasionally seen. It is remarkable for the singularity of its appearance, and from its very wild disposition it has obtained the name of the wild sheep. End of section 14. Recording by phone. Section 15 of the Boys and Girls Pliny, volume 2 by Pliny the Elder. This Liberfox recording is in a public domain. Recording by phone. Book 4, chapter 9. The Rhinoceros and the Crocota. At the games of Pompey, the Rhinoceros, an animal which has a single horn projecting from the nose, was also exhibited. It has been frequently seen since then. This is a natural born enemy of the elephant. 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 boxwood. Ethiopia produces the Crocota, an animal which looks as though it were a cross between the wolf and the dog, for it can break anything with its teeth, and instantly on swallowing it digests it with its stomach. Monkeys too, with black heads, the hair of the ass, and a voice quite unlike that of any other animal. And there are oxen, like those of India, some with one horn, and others with three. The Lucrocota, 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 slid up as far as the ears, and one continuous bone instead of teeth. Footnote. It seems impossible to identify Pliny's description with any known animal, and it is not unlikely that he has confused the accounts of authors who were speaking of different animals. Some of the characteristics of the Lucrocota agree with those of the Indian Antelope, while others seem to resemble those of the Hyena. And a footnote. It is said too that this animal can imitate the human voice. Among the same people there is also found an animal called eel. It is the size of the river horse, has the tail of an elephant, and is of a black or tawny collar. It has also the jaws of the wild boar, and horns that are movable, and more than a cubit in length, so that in fighting it can employ them alternately, and vary their positions by presenting them directly or obliquely, according as necessity may dictate. But the wild boars which this country produces are the fiercest of all. They are larger than our domestic boar, and exceed all the others in swiftness, or of a tawny collar with azure eyes, and the hair turned the contrary way. While the jaws open as far as the ears, and the horns are as movable as those of the eel, the height 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 excessive rage. Ctesias informs us that among these same Ethiopians an animal is found, which he calls the manticora. Footnote. It has been conjectured that Ctesias took his description from the hieroglyphic figures in his time, probably common in the east, and still found in the ruins of Nineveh and Persepolis, and the footnote. 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 color of blood, has the body of the lion, and the 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. End of section 15. Recording by phone. Section 16 of Du Bois and Girls Pliny, volume 2 by Pliny the Elder. This Liberfox recording is in the public domain. Recording by phone. Book 4. Chapter 10. The Animals of Ethiopia. Wild beasts which kill with their eyes. Among the Hesperian Ethiopians is the fountain of Negris, by many supposed to be the head of the Nile. Near this fountain there is found a wild beast which is called the catobopas, an animal of moderate size, but its head is remarkably heavy, and it only carries it with the greatest difficulty, being always bent down towards the earth. Where 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. There is the same power also in the serpent called the basilisk. Footnote. This account of the basilisk's eye, like that of the catobopas, is entirely devoid of foundation. End of footnote. It is produced in the province of Cyrene, being not more than 12 fingers in length. It has a white spot on the head, strongly resembling a sort of a diadem. 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 erects 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 odour 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. End of section 16, recording by phone.