 Section 17 of The Boys and Girls Pliny by Pliny the Elder. This Liberfox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Phon. Book 4 Chapter 11 Wolves, Serpents 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 if it is the first to see him. Footnote. Hence the proverbial expression applied to a person who is suddenly silent upon the entrance of another. Lupus estibi visus. You have seen a wolf. End of footnote. Africa and Egypt produce wolves of a sluggish and stunted nature. Those of the colder climates are fierce and savage. That men have been turned into wolves and again restored to their original form. 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 versipelus. Footnote. This literally means changing the skin. It was applied by some ancient medical writers to a peculiar form of insanity where the patient conceives himself changed into a wolf. End of footnote. To be used as a common form of the implication, 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 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 has changed into a wolf and associates with other animals of the same species for a space of nine years. When 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 adds that he takes his former clothes as well. It is really wonderful to what a length the credulity of the Greeks will go. End of footnote. It is rather curious to find blindly censoring others for credulity. The fact is he loses no opportunity of a hit at the Greeks to whom after all he is greatly indebted. End of footnote. There is no falsehood if ever so bare faced to which some of them cannot be found to bear testimony. So too Agriopas informs us that the Minitus, the Parasian, during a sacrifice of human victims, which the Arcadians were offering up to the Lycaean 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. 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 Rastis 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. The Amphisbena has two heads, 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 Jackulus, footnote, Lucan mentions the Jackulus, Book 9, 1, 720 and 1, 822. In the last passage he says, The Jackulus starts from the branches of trees, and it is not only to our feet that the serpent is formidable, for he even flies through the air just as though he were hauled from an engine. The neck of the asp puffs out and there is no remedy whatever against its sting except the instant excision of the affected part. This reptile, which is so deadly, is possessed of this one sense or rather affection. The male and the female are generally found together 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 never so large a 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. The ignumon however is its enemy to the very death. This hostility is the special 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 the crocodile which is no less dangerous. End of section 17 recording by phone. Section 18 of the Boys and Girls Pliny Volume 2 by Pliny the Elder. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by phone. Book 4 Chapter 12 The Crocodile and the Hippopotamus The Nile produces the crocodile a destructive codipent and equally dangerous on land and in the water. This is the only land animal that does not enjoy the use of its tongue. Footnote. The tongue of the crocodile is flat and adheres to the lower jaw so as to be incapable of motion. End of footnote. 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. Its length exceeds 18 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. There is no animal that arrives at so great a bulk as this from so small a beginning. It is armed also with claws and has a skin that is proof against all bleeds. It passes the day on land and the night in water in both instances on account of the warmth. When it has cluttered 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 to teeth and then the inside while the animals opens its jaws as wide as possible in consequence of the pleasure which it experiences from the titillation. Footnote. The water of the Nile abounds with small leeches which attach to the throat of the crocodile and as it has no means of removing them it allows the trochilus to enter its mouth for this purpose also. Footnote. It is at these moments that the ignumon seeing it fast asleep in consequence of the agreeable sensation thus produced darts down its throat like an arrow and eats away its intestines. Footnote. Although this account is sanctioned by all the ancient naturalists it is called in question by Kuvier and other modern writers. Footnote. Like the crocodile but smaller even than the ignumon is the skinkus which is also produced in the Nile and the flesh of which is the most effectual antidote against poisons. 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. Footnote. The animal here referred to was not the dolphin but the squalus centrina or spinax of Linnaeus and the footnote. 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 rain alone in its river as its peculiar domain. For all animals have a special 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 the crocodile. They are known as the tentiraitae from an island in the Nile which they inhabit. These men are of small stature but a 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 even by their voice alone 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 for it is repelled by the odor of this race of men. The site of the 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. 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 naeing of the horse and the turned up snout, the tail and the hooked teeth of the wild boar but is not so dangerous. The hide is impenetrable except when it has been soaked with water and it is used for making shields and helmets. 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. Marcus Scarrus was the first to exhibit this animal at Rome together with five crocodiles at the games which he gave in his edile ship in a piece of water which had been temporarily prepared for the purpose. The hippopotamus has even been our instructor in one of the operations of medicine. When the animal has become too bulky by continued overfeeding it goes down to the banks of the river and examines the reach which has 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 a 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. End of section 18, recording by phone. Section 19 of The Boys and Girls Pliny, volume 2 by Pliny the Elder. This Liberwoks recording is in the public domain. Recording by phone. Book 4, chapter 13. Prognostics of danger derived from animals. Nature has bestowed upon many animals 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. For in fact they warn us of danger not only by their fibres and their entrails to which a large portion of mankind attached the greatest faith but by other kinds of warnings as well. When a building is about to fall down all the mice desert it 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. 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 air to the ice for the purpose of testing its thickness and 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. Marcus Farrow 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 and a place in Africa by locusts that the inhabitants of Guiaras, one of the site-lades were driven away by mice and the Amon Clay in Italy by serpents. There is a vast desert tract on this side of the Ethiopian Sinomolgi the inhabitants of which were exterminated by scorpions and venomous ants and Theophrastus informs us that the people of Rotium were driven away by multipeed insects but we must now return to the other kinds of wild beasts. End of section 19 Recording by phone Book 4 Chapter 14 The Hyena The neck of the hyena, with the mane runs continuously into the backbone so that the animal cannot bend this part without turning round the whole body. Many wonderful things are also related of the animal's body and of the animal's body. Many 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 immovable round which it has walked three times. The deer, although the mildest of all animals has still its own feelings of malignancy. When heart pressed by the hounds it flies of its own accord for refuge to man. The deer exercise the young ones in running and teach them how to take to flight leading them to precipices and showing them how to leap. When the stags 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. 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. When their ears are erect their sense of hearing is very acute but when dropped they become deaf. In other respects the deer is a simple animal which regards everything as wonderful and with a stupid astonishment. So much so 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 its bow and arrow. The deer 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 islands of Cyprus. Though they do not see the land they are still 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 and 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. They also bear the marks of their age on the horns every year up to the sixth a fresh antler being added. Footnote. Cuvier says that no antlers are added after the eighth year. And the footnote. 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 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 velvety 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. Footnote. This is mentioned by Aristotle but it is quite unfounded. Without doubt the story arose from the fact that the stag in September rubs the velvet of his horns against the trees until it hangs in strips from the antlers. These are at first greenish in colour then brown as they grow dry and fall off. End of footnote. The plant having taken root on them as it would on any piece of wood while the animals was rubbing them against the trees. The stag is sometimes found white as is said to have been the case with the hint of sartorias which he persuaded the nations of Spain to look upon as having a sea. The stag is generally admitted to be very long lived. Some were captured at the end of 100 years with the golden colours 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. Footnote. The phone remarks such tales are without foundation for 30 or 40 years. End of footnote. End of section 21 Recording by phone. Section 22 of Du Bois and Girls Pliny by Pliny the Elder. This Libervox recording is in a public domain. Recording by phone. Book 4 Chapter 16 The Chameleon Africa is almost the only country that does not produce stag, but it produces the chameleon which however 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 it can be in so small an animal. 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. 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. Footnote One of those popular errors which have descended from the ancients to our times the chameleon feeds on insects which it seizes by means of its long flexible tongue the quantity of food which it requires appears however to be small in proportion to its bulk. End of footnote Towards the end of the dog days 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. Footnote This is another of the erroneous opinions respecting the chameleon which has been very generally adopted. It forms the basis of Merrick's poem of the chameleon. The animal assumes various shades or tints but the changes depend upon internal or constitutional causes not upon any external object. End of footnote 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 it conceals itself during the winter months just like in the desert. End of section 22 Recording by phone Section 23 of To Boys and Girls Pliny Volume 2 by Pliny the Outer This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Recording by phone Book 4, Chapter 17 Bears and their Cubs The cubs of bears when first born are shapeless masses of white flesh a little larger than mice their claws alone being prominent the mother then licks them gradually into proper shape Bears hibernate during 3 or 4 months of the winter season 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 14 days they are overcome by so deep asleep that they cannot be aroused even by wounds 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 at the end of these 14 days they sit up and find nourishment by sucking their forepaws they warm their cubs when cold by pressing them to the breast not unlike the way in which birds breed 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 during this period no signs of food are to be found in the stomach of the animal there is a large quantity of liquid there are a few drops of blood only near the heart but none whatever in any other part of the body 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 loss as we have already stated only 14 days when they come out they sharpen the edges of their teeth against the young shoots of the trees their eyesight is dull for which reason 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 footnote this is of course without foundation the honey being the sole object salt and the footnote the head of the bear is extremely weak whereas in the lion it is remarkable for its strength on this account probably 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 these animals walk on two feet and climb down trees backwards 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 recorded in our annals that in the consulship of paizo and mesala the mitius brought into the circus 100 Numidian bears and as many Ethiopian hunters the mice of Pontus also concealed themselves during the winter but only the white ones 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 the marmot which are the same size as badgers also concealed themselves they first carry a store of provisions into their retreat there is a similar animal also in Egypt which sits in the same way upon its haunches and walks on two feet using the four feet as hands end of section 23 recording by phone section 24 of the Boys and Girls Pliny volume 2 by Pliny the Elder this libravox recording of Lyctomy recording by phone Book 4 chapter 18 Hedgehogs hedgehogs also lay up food for the winter rolling themselves on apples as they lie on the ground they pierce them with their quills and then take up another in the mouth and so carry them in the hollows of trees these animals also when they conceal themselves in their holes it's your sign that the wind is about to change from northeast to south 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 defenseless down only and then roll themselves up into the form of a bowl so that there is no way of taking hold of them but by their quills they force it to unroll itself by sprinkling warm water upon it and then suspend it 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 the woolen cloth is dressed from the monopoly of this article great frauds and great profits have resulted 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 end of section 24 recording by phone section 25 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 19 The Wild Boar the flesh of the wild boar is much esteemed Kato the Sensor in his orations strongly declaimed against the use of the brawn of the wild boar the animal used to be divided into three portions the middle part of which was laid by and is called boar's chime Publius Servilius Rullus was the first Roman who served a whole boar at the 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 analysts have taken notice of such a fact this clearly as a hint to us to mend our manners seeing that nowadays two or three boars are consumed not at one entertainment but as forming the first course only Silvius Lupinus was the first Roman who formed parks for the reception of these and other wild animals he first fed them in the territory of Tarquinii it was not long however before imitators were found in Lucullus and Tortensius the wild boar of India 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 boar the hair of these animals in a wild state is the color of copper the others are black no species whatever of the swine is found in Arabia end of section 25 recording by phone section 26 of Du Bois and Girls Pliny volume 2 by Pliny the Elder this Liberfox recording is in a public domain recording by phone book 4 chapter 20 apes the different kinds of apes which approach the nearest to the human figure are distinguished from each other by detail their shrewdness is quite wonderful it is said that imitating the hunters they will be smear themselves with bird line and put their feet into the shoes which as so many snares have been prepared for them footnote we learn from Strabo in the in history book 15 that in catching the monkey the hunters took advantage of the propensity of these animals to imitate any action they see performed two modes he says are employed in taking this animal as by nature it is taught to imitate every action and to take to flight by climbing up trees when the hunter see an ape sitting on a tree they place within sight of it a dish full of water with which they rub their eyes and then slightly substituting another in its place full of bird line for tire and keep upon the watch the animal comes down from the tree and drops its eyes with the bird line in consequence of which the eyelids stick together and it is unable to escape Elian also says history of animals book 17 chapter 25 that the hunters pretend to put on their shoes and then substitute in their place shoes of lead the animal attempts to imitate them and the shoes being so contrived when it has once got them on it finds itself unable to take them off or to move and is consequently taken end of footnote museumis says that they even have played a chess having by practice learned to distinguish the different pieces which are made of wax footnote it is said that the emperor Charles V had a monkey that played chess with him end of footnote 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 are also 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 show them to all comers show great delight when they are caressed and appear to understand the kindness thus shown them hence it is that they very often stifle their young with their embraces the dog-headed ape is of a much fiercer nature as is the case with the satyr tally-tree or fine-haired monkey 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 Ethiopia which is its native place end of section 26 recording by phone end of Du Bois and Girls Pliny volume 2 by Pliny the Elder