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[Illustration: VIEW OF NAPLES AND MT. VESUVIUS.]
THE
BOYS' AND GIRLS'
PLINY
BEING PARTS OF PLINY'S "NATURAL HISTORY"
EDITED FOR BOYS AND GIRLS, WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY
JOHN S. WHITE, LL.D.
HEAD-MASTER BERKELEY SCHOOL
EDITOR OF "THE BOYS' AND GIRLS' PLUTARCH" AND "THE BOYS' AND GIRLS'
HERODOTUS"
WITH FIFTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
_The Knickerbocker Press_
COPYRIGHT BY
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
1885
CONTENTS.
_BOOK I._
DEDICATION.
CHAP. PAGE
Caius Plinius Secundus to his Friend Titus Vespasian 1
_BOOK II._
AN ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD AND THE ELEMENTS.
I. The Character and Form of the World 9
II. Of God 12
III. The Dimensions of the World 15
IV. Of the Stars which appear suddenly, or of Comets 16
V. The Doctrine of Hipparchus about the Stars 17
VI. Of the Stars which are Named Castor and Pollux 18
VII. Of Thunder and Lightning 19
VIII. Nature of the Earth 20
IX. Italy 25
X. The Hyperboreans 27
XI. Britannia 29
XII. Mount Atlas 30
XIII. The Island of Taprobana 31
_BOOK III._
MAN, HIS BIRTH AND HIS ORGANIZATION.
I. Man 37
II. The Wonderful Forms of Different Nations 40
III. Instances of Extraordinary Strength 49
IV. Instances of Remarkable Agility and Acuteness of Sight 50
V. Vigor of Mind, and Courage 51
VI. Men of Remarkable Genius and Wisdom 57
_BOOK IV._
THE NATURE OF TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS.
I. Elephants; their Capacity 60
II. The Combats of Elephants 66
III. The Way in which Elephants are Caught 68
IV. The Age of the Elephant, and Other Particulars 69
V. The Lion 71
VI. Wonderful Feats Performed by Lions 74
VII. Panthers and Tigers 78
VIII. The Camel 80
IX. The Rhinoceros and the Crocotta 82
X. The Animals of Æthiopia; Wild Beasts which Kill with their Eyes 84
XI. Wolves; Serpents 85
XII. The Crocodile and the Hippopotamus 88
XIII. Prognostics of Danger Derived from Animals 92
XIV. The Hyæna 93
XV. Deer 94
XVI. The Chameleon 97
XVII. Bears and their Cubs 98
XVIII. Hedgehogs 100
XIX. The Wild Boar 101
XX. Apes 102
_BOOK V._
DOMESTIC ANIMALS.
I. The Dog; Examples of its Attachment to its Master 104
II. The Horse 107
III. The Ox 112
IV. The Egyptian Apis 114
V. Sheep and their Wool 115
VI. Different Kinds of Cloths 118
VII. Goats 120
_BOOK VI._
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES.
I. Why the Largest Animals are Found in the Sea 121
II. The Forms of the Tritons and Nereids 124
III. The Balæna and the Orca 125
IV. Dolphins 127
V. The Various Kinds of Turtles 133
VI. Distribution of Aquatic Animals into Various Species 134
VII. Fishes Valued for the Table 139
VIII. Peculiar Fishes 142
IX. Bloodless Fishes 144
X. Various Kinds of Shell-Fish 151
XI. Pearls 153
XII. The Nature of the Murex and the Purple 160
XIII. Bodies which have a Third Nature, that of the Animal and Vegetable
Combined 164
XIV. The Shark 165
XV. Oyster-Beds, and Fish-Preserves 167
XVI. Land-Fishes 169
XVII. How the Fish Called the Anthias is Taken 170
XVIII. The Echeneis and the Torpedo 172
XIX. The Instincts and Peculiarities of Fishes 174
XX. Coral 176
XXI. The Various Kinds of Oysters 177
_BOOK VII._
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS.
I. The Ostrich 180
II. The Phoenix 181
III. The Eagle 182
IV. The Vulture and the Hawk 187
V. The Crow, the Raven, and the Owl 191
VI. The Woodpecker of Mars 193
VII. The Peacock and the Rooster 194
VIII. The Goose 197
IX. Cranes 198
X. Storks and Swans 199
XI. Foreign Birds which Visit Us 201
XII. Swallows 203
XIII. Birds which take their Departure from Us in Winter 204
XIV. The Nightingale 206
XV. The Halcyons: the Halcyon Days that are Favorable to Navigation 208
XVI. The Instinctive Cleverness Displayed by Birds in the Construction
of their Nests 209
XVII. The Acanthyllis and the Partridge 210
XVIII. Pigeons 213
XIX. Different Modes of Flight and Progression in Birds 215
XX. Strange and Fabulous Birds 216
XXI. The Art of Cramming Poultry.--Aviaries 224
XXII. Peculiarities of Animals 226
_BOOK VIII._
THE VARIOUS KINDS OF INSECTS.
I. The Extreme Smallness of Insects 232
II. Whether Insects Breathe, and Whether they have Blood 234
III. Bees 236
IV. The Mode in which Bees Work 238
V. The Mode of Government of the Bees 242
VI. Wasps and Hornets 244
VII. The Silk-Worm 245
VIII. Spiders 246
IX. Locusts 248
X. Ants 250
_BOOK IX._
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF METALS.
I. Gold 252
II. The Origin of Gold Rings 254
III. Coins of Gold 256
IV. Silver 260
V. Mirrors 261
VI. Instances of Immense Wealth 263
VII. Instances of Luxury in Silver Plate 265
VIII. Bronze 268
IX. Statues of Bronze 271
X. The most Celebrated Colossal Statues in the City 277
XI. Of the most Celebrated Works in Bronze, and of the Artists who
Executed them 280
XII. Iron 287
XIII. An Account of Paintings and Colors 289
XIV. The Earliest Painters 292
XV. Artists who Painted with the Pencil 296
XVI. Various other Kinds of Painting 311
XVII. The Inventors of the Art of Modelling 313
XVIII. Works in Pottery 315
XIX. Sculpture 318
XX. Obelisks 323
CONCLUSION.--Italy 326
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
View of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius _Frontispiece._
The Indian Elephant 43
African Elephant.--_Loxodonta Africana_ 66
Gambian Lion.--_Leo Gambianus_ 72
Wild Cat.--_Felis Catus_ 75
Margay.--_Leopardus Tigrinus_ 77
Jaguar.--_Leopardus Onca_ 78
Tiger.--_Tigris Regális_ 79
Camel.--_Camélus Arábicus_ 80
Giraffe.--_Giraffa Camelopárdalis_ 81
Indian Rhinoceros.--_Rhinóceros Unicornis_ 82
Keittoa, or Sloan's Rhinoceros.--_Rhinoceros Keittoa_ 83
Viper, or Adder.--_Pelias Berus_ 87
Hippopotamus, or Zeekoe.--_Hippopotamus Amphibius_ 91
Common Mouse.--_Mus Músculus_ (White, Brown and Pied Varieties) 92
Caribou.--_Larandus Rangifer_ 95
Syrian Bear, or Dubb.--_Ursus Isabellinus_ 99
Hedgehog.--_Erinaceus Europæus_ 100
Wild Boar.--_Sus Scrofa_ 101
Silvery Gibbon.--_Hylóbates Leuciscus_ 102
The Orang-Outan.--_Simia Sátyrus_ 103
Maltese Dog.--_Canis Familiáris_ 105
Thibet Dog.--_Canis Familiáris_ 106
Mustang 109
Zebra.--_Ásinus Zebra_ 110
Ass.--_Ásinus Vulgaris_ 111
Merino, or Spanish Sheep 116
Musk Ox.--_Ovibos Moschátus_ 119
Sea-Elephant.--_Morunga proboscidea_ 122
Rorqual.--_Physalus Böops_ 126
Spermaceti Whale.--_Cátodon Macrocéphalus_ 126
Dolphin.--_Delphinus Delphis_ 130
Group of Seals 135
Long-Spined Chætodon.--_Heinochus Monoceros_ 141
Filamentous Gunard.--_Pelor filamentosum_ 143
Otter.--_Lutra Vulgaris_ 171
Bald, or White-Headed Eagle.--_Haliaëtus Leucocephalus_ 183
Martial Eagle.--_Spizáëtus bellicosus_ 186
Group of Falcons 189
Stork.--_Ciconia Alba_ 200
Spotted King Fisher.--_Céryle Guttáta_ 217
Rhinoceros Hornbill.--_Búceros Rhinoceros_ 218
King Penguin.--_Aptenodytes Pennantii_ 222
Gigantic Salamander.--_Sieboldia Maxima_ 226
Hemigale.--_Hemigale Hardwickii_ 227
Group of Rodent Animals 229
The Cat.--_Felis Domestica_ 230
Merian's Opossum.--_Philander Dorsigerus_ 251
Panda, or Wah.--_Aiúlrus Fulgens_ 276
Colossus at Rhodes 279
INTRODUCTION.
In the little village of Como, in that province of Northern Italy called
by the Romans "Gaul-this-side-the-Alps," was born, twenty-three years
after the coming of our Lord, Caius Plinius Secundus, known to us by the
shorter name of "Pliny." His boyhood was spent in his native province,
but we find him in Rome in his sixteenth year attending the lectures of
Apion, the grammarian. Like Herodotus he became a great traveller for
those days, visiting Africa, Egypt and Greece, and in his twenty-third
year he served in Germany under Pomponius Secundus, by whom he was
greatly beloved, and was soon promoted to the command of a troop of
cavalry. He appears to have remained in the army, journeying about
extensively in Germany and Gaul, until he was twenty-eight years old,
when he returned to Rome and devoted himself to the study of law. But
his natural taste for literary work speedily developed itself, and,
abandoning his forensic pursuits, he set to work upon a life of his
friend Pomponius and an account of "The Wars in Germany," which filled
twenty books when completed, no part of which is now extant. In the
reign of Nero, Pliny was appointed procurator, or comptroller of the
revenue, in Nearer Spain. During his absence upon this mission his
brother-in-law, Caius Cæcilius, died, leaving one son, a boy ten years
of age, Caius Plinius Cæcilius Secundus--afterwards a famous lawyer and
the author of the "Letters"--whom he adopted immediately upon his return
from Spain, A.D. 70. To this nephew we are indebted for nearly all we
know of Pliny's personal character and mode of life, a very entertaining
description of which he gives in a letter to his friend, Baebius Macer:
"It gives me great pleasure to find you such a reader of my uncle's
works as to wish to have a complete collection of them, and to ask me
for the names of them all. I will act as index then, and you shall know
the very order in which they were written, for the studious reader likes
to know this. The first work of his was a treatise in one volume, 'On
the Use of the Dart by Cavalry;' this he wrote when in command of one of
the cavalry corps of our allied troops. It is drawn up with great care
and ingenuity. Next came 'The Life of Pomponius Secundus,' in two
volumes. Pomponius had a great affection for him, and my uncle thought
he owed this tribute to his memory. 'The History of the Wars in Germany'
was in twenty books, in which he gave an account of all the battles we
were engaged in against that nation. A dream he had while serving in the
army in Germany first suggested the design of this work to him. He
imagined that Drusus Nero, who extended his conquests very far into that
country, and there lost his life, appeared to him in his sleep, and
entreated him to rescue his memory from oblivion. Next comes a work
entitled 'The Student,' in three parts, which from their length spread
into six volumes: a work in which is discussed the earliest training and
subsequent education of the orator. His 'Questions of Latin Grammar and
Style,' in eight books, was written in the latter part of Nero's reign,
when the tyranny of the times made it dangerous to engage in literary
pursuits requiring freedom and elevation of tone. He completed the
history which Aufidius Bassus left unfinished, and added to it thirty
books. And lastly he has left thirty-seven books on _Natural History_, a
work of great compass and learning, and as full of variety as nature
herself. You will wonder how a man as busy as he was could find time to
compose so many books, and some of them, too, involving such care and
labor. But you will be still more surprised when you hear that he
pleaded at the bar for some time, that he died in his fifty-sixth year,
and that the intervening time was employed partly in the execution of
the highest official duties, and partly in attendance upon those
emperors who honored him with their friendship. But he had a quick
apprehension, marvellous power of application, and was of an exceedingly
wakeful temperament. He always began to study at midnight at the time of
the feast of Vulcan, not for the sake of good luck, but for learning's
sake; in winter generally at one in the morning, but never later than
two, and often at twelve. He was a most ready sleeper, insomuch that he
would sometimes, whilst in the midst of his studies, fall off and then
wake up again. Before day-break he used to wait upon Vespasian, who also
used his nights for transacting business in, and then proceed to execute
the orders he had received. As soon as he returned home, he gave what
time was left to study. After a short and light refreshment at noon,
agreeably to the good old custom of our ancestors, he would frequently
in the summer, if he was disengaged from business, lie down and bask in
the sun; during which time some author was read to him, while he took
notes and made extracts, for out of every book he read he made extracts;
indeed it was a maxim of his, that 'no book was so bad but some good
might be got out of it.' When this was over, he generally took a cold
bath, then some slight refreshment and a little nap. After this, as if
it had been a new day, he studied till supper-time, when a book was
again read to him, from which he would take down running notes. I
remember once when his reader had mis-pronounced a word, one of my
uncle's friends at the table made him go back to where the word was and
repeat it; upon which my uncle said to his friend, 'You understood it,
didn't you?' 'Yes,' said the other. 'Why then,' said he, 'did you make
him go over it again? We have lost more than ten lines by this
interruption.' Such an economist he was of time! In the summer he used
to rise from supper by daylight, and in winter as soon as it was dark: a
rule he observed as strictly as if it had been a law of the state. Such
was his manner of life amid the bustle and turmoil of the town: but in
the country his whole time was devoted to study, except only when in the
bath. When I say in the bath I mean while he was in the water, for all
the while he was being rubbed and wiped, he was employed either in
hearing some book read to him or in dictating himself. In going about
anywhere, as though he were disengaged from all other business, he
applied his mind wholly to that single pursuit. Always by his side was a
short-hand[1] writer, with book and tablets, who, in the winter, wore a
particular sort of warm gloves, that the sharpness of the weather might
not occasion any interruption to my uncle's studies: and for the same
reason, when in Rome, he was always carried in a chair. I recollect his
once taking me to task for walking. 'You need not,' he said, 'lose these
hours.' For he looked upon every hour as lost that was not given to
study. Through this extraordinary application he found time to compose
the several treatises I have mentioned, besides one hundred and sixty
volumes of extracts which he left me in his will, consisting of a kind
of common-place, written on both sides, in a very small hand, which
renders the collection doubly voluminous. He used himself to tell us
that when he was comptroller of the revenue in Spain, he could have sold
these manuscripts to Largius Licinus for four hundred thousand sesterces
($16,000), and then the collection was not so extensive as now. When you
consider the books he has read, and the volumes he has written, are you
not inclined to suspect that he never was engaged in public duties or
was ever in the confidence of his prince? On the other hand, when you
are told how indefatigable he was in his studies, are you not inclined
to wonder that he read and wrote no more than he did? For, on one side,
what obstacles would not the business of a court throw in his way? and
on the other, what might not such intense application effect? It amuses
me when I hear myself called a studious man, who in comparison with him
am the merest idler. But why do I mention myself, who am diverted from
these pursuits by numberless affairs both public and private? Who among
those whose whole lives are devoted to literary pursuits would not blush
and feel himself the most confirmed of sluggards by the side of him? I
see I have run out my letter farther than I had originally intended,
which was only to let you know, as you asked me, what works he had left
behind him. But I trust this will be no less acceptable to you than the
books themselves, as it may, possibly, not only excite your curiosity to
read his works, but also your emulation to copy his example, by some
attempts of a similar nature. Farewell."
In his great work of thirty-seven books upon Natural History--the only
one which has come down to us--Pliny has compiled a vast encyclopædia of
all human knowledge of his time, comprising more than _twenty thousand
subjects_, and necessitating, as he himself states, the perusal of two
thousand volumes--almost all of which have perished--the works of five
hundred authors, to which he has added countless matters derived from
his personal enquiry, experience and observation. Among his enthusiastic
admirers in modern times are the eminent naturalists, Cuvier and Buffon.
The former in less extravagant but equally appreciative terms accords to
Pliny a high place among the writers of classical antiquity. "The work
of Pliny," he says, "is one of the most precious monuments that have
come down to us from ancient times, and affords proof of an astonishing
amount of erudition in one who was a warrior and a statesman. To
appreciate with justice this vast and celebrated composition, it is
necessary to regard it in several points of view--with reference to the
plan proposed, the facts stated, and the style employed. The plan
proposed by the writer is of immense extent--it is his object to write
not simply a Natural History in our restricted sense of the term, not an
account merely, more or less detailed, of animals, plants, and minerals,
but a work which embraces astronomy, physics, geography, agriculture,
commerce, medicine, and the fine arts--and all these in addition to
natural history properly so called; while at the same time he
continually interweaves with his narrative information upon the arts
which bear relation to man considered metaphysically, and the history of
nations,--so much so indeed, that in many respects this work was the
Encyclopædia of its age. It was impossible in running over, however
cursorily, such a prodigious number of subjects, that the writer should
not have made us acquainted with a multitude of facts, which, while
remarkable in themselves, are the more precious from the circumstance
that at the present day he is the only author extant who relates them.
It is to be regretted however that the manner in which he has collected
and grouped this mass of matter, has caused it to lose some portion of
its value, from his mixture of fable with truth. But if Pliny possesses
little merit as a critic, it is far otherwise with his talent as a
writer, and the immense treasury which he opens to us of Latin terms and
forms of expression: these, from the very abundance of the subjects upon
which he treats, render his work one of the richest repositories of the
Roman language. Wherever he finds it possible to give expression to
general ideas or to philosophical views, his language assumes
considerable energy and vivacity, and his thoughts present to us a
certain novelty and boldness which tend in a very great degree to
relieve the dryness of his enumerations, and, with the majority of his
readers, excuse the insufficiency of his scientific indications. He is
always noble and serious, full of the love of justice and virtue,
detestation of cruelty and baseness, of which he had such frightful
instances before his eyes, and contempt for that unbridled luxury which
in his time had so deeply corrupted the Roman people. For these great
merits Pliny cannot be too highly praised, and despite the faults which
we are obliged to admit in him when viewed as a naturalist, we are bound
to regard him as one of the most meritorious of the Roman writers, and
among those most worthy to be reckoned in the number of the classics who
wrote after the reign of Augustus."
Among the later honors conferred upon Pliny was one which indirectly
cost him his life--his appointment by Vespasian, A.D. 74, as prefect of
the Roman fleet on the west coast of Italy. Three years later, in the
great eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and the destruction of Herculaneum and
Pompeii, he met his romantic end in the execution of his duty, the story
of which is again graphically told by the younger Pliny in two letters
to his friend Tacitus the historian:--
"Your request that I would send you an account of my uncle's death, in
order to transmit a more exact relation of it to posterity, deserves my
acknowledgments; for, if this accident shall be celebrated by your pen,
the glory of it, I am well assured, will be rendered forever
illustrious. And notwithstanding he perished by a misfortune, which, as
it involved at the same time a most beautiful country in ruins, and
destroyed so many populous cities, seems to promise him an everlasting
remembrance notwithstanding he has himself composed many and lasting
works; yet I am persuaded, the mentioning of him in your immortal
writings, will greatly contribute to render his name immortal. Happy I
esteem those to be to whom by provision of the gods has been granted the
ability either to do such actions as are worthy of being related or to
relate them in a manner worthy of being read. My uncle was at that time
with the fleet under his command at Misenum, in the Bay of Naples. On
the 24th of August, about one in the afternoon, my mother desired him to
observe a cloud which appeared of a very unusual size and shape. He had
just taken a turn in the sun, and, after bathing himself in cold water,
and making a light luncheon, had gone back to his books: he immediately
arose and went out upon a piece of rising ground, where he could get a
better sight of this very uncommon appearance. A cloud was ascending
from a mountain, afterwards found to be Vesuvius, the appearance of
which I cannot more accurately describe than by likening it to that of a
pine tree, for it shot up to a great height in the form of a very tall
trunk, spreading itself out at the top into a sort of branch. It
appeared sometimes bright and sometimes dark and spotted, according as
it was either more or less impregnated with earth and cinders.[2] This
phenomenon seemed to a man of such learning and research as my uncle
extraordinary and worth further looking into. He accordingly ordered a
light vessel to be got ready, and gave me leave, if I liked, to
accompany him. I preferred to go on with my work; and it so happened
that he had himself given me something to write out. Just as he was
coming out of the house, tablets in hand, he received a note from
Rectina, the wife of Bassus, who was in the utmost alarm at the imminent
danger which threatened her; as her villa lay at the foot of Mount
Vesuvius, there was no way of escape but by sea; she earnestly entreated
him therefore to come to her assistance. So he changed his first
intention, and what he had begun from a philosophical, he now carried
out in a noble and generous spirit. He ordered the galleys to put to
sea, and went himself on board with an intention of assisting not only
Rectina, but the several other towns which lay thickly strewn along that
beautiful coast. Hastening then to the place from which others were
fleeing in the utmost terror, he steered his course direct to the point
of danger, and with so much calmness and presence of mind as to be able
to make and dictate his observations upon all the phenomena of that
dreadful scene. He was now so close to the mountain that the cinders,
which grew thicker and hotter the nearer he approached, fell into the
ships, together with pumice-stones, and great black pieces of burning
rock: they were in danger of getting aground by the sudden retreat of
the sea, as well as from the vast fragments which rolled down from the
mountain, and obstructed all the shore. Here for a moment he stopped to
consider whether or not he should turn back; but when the pilot advised
him to do so, he exclaimed, 'Fortune favors the brave; steer to
Pomponianus.' Pomponianus was at Stabiae (now called Castelamare),
separated by a bay, which the sea, after several insensible windings,
forms with the shore. He had already sent his baggage on board the
ships, for though he was not at that time in actual danger, yet being
within sight of it, and extremely near, he determined, if it should in
the least increase, to put to sea as soon as the wind, which was blowing
dead in-shore, should go down. It was favorable, however, for carrying
my uncle to Pomponianus, whom he found in the greatest consternation: he
embraced him tenderly, encouraging and urging him to keep his spirits,
and, the more effectually to soothe his fears by seeming unconcerned
himself, ordered a bath to be got ready, bathed and sat down to supper
with great cheerfulness, or at least, what is just as heroic, with every
appearance of it. Meanwhile broad flames shone out in several places
from Mount Vesuvius, which the darkness of the night contributed to
render still brighter and clearer. My uncle, to soothe the apprehensions
of his friend, assured him that it was only the burning of the villages,
which the country people had abandoned to the flames: after this he
retired to rest, and was so little disquieted as to fall into a sound
sleep: for his breathing, which, on account of his corpulence, was
rather heavy and sonorous, was heard by the attendants outside. The
court which led to his apartment was now almost filled with stones and
ashes, and if he had continued there any longer, it would have been
impossible for him to have made his way out. So he was awakened, and
getting up, went to Pomponianus and the rest of his company, who were
feeling too anxious to think of sleep. They consulted together whether
it would be most prudent to trust to the houses, which now rocked from
side to side with frequent and violent concussions as though shaken from
their very foundations; or fly to the open fields, where the calcined
stones and cinders, though light, fell in such large showers as to
threaten destruction. In this choice of dangers they resolved for the
fields: but I must say that while the rest of the company were hurried
into this resolution by their fears, my uncle embraced it upon cool and
deliberate consideration. They tied pillows upon their heads with
napkins, and went out, and this was their whole defence against the
storm of stones that fell round them. It was now day everywhere else,
but there a deeper darkness prevailed than in the thickest night,
alleviated, however, in some degree by torches and other lights of
various kinds. They thought proper to go farther down upon the shore to
see if they might safely put out to sea, but found the waves still
running extremely high and boisterous. There my uncle, laying himself
down upon a sail-cloth, which was spread for him, called twice for some
cold water, which he drank, when immediately the flames, preceded by a
strong whiff of sulphur, dispersed the rest of the party, and obliged
him to rise. He raised himself up with the assistance of two of his
servants, and instantly fell down dead; suffocated, as I conjecture, by
the noxious vapor, having always had a weak throat, which was often
inflamed. As soon as it was light again, which was not till the third
day after this melancholy accident, his body was found untouched and
without any marks of violence upon it, in the dress in which he fell,
and looking more like a man asleep than dead. During all this time my
mother and I were at Misenum. * * * After my uncle had left us, I spent
the time in my studies until it was the hour for my bath, after which I
went to supper, and then fell into a short and uneasy sleep. A trembling
of the earth had been noticed for many days before, which did not alarm
us much, as this is quite an ordinary occurrence in Campania; but it was
so particularly violent that night that it not only shook but actually
overturned, as it would seem, everything about us. My mother rushed into
my chamber, where she found me rising in order to awaken her. We sat
down in the open court of the house, which occupied a small space
between the buildings and the sea. As I was at that time but eighteen
years of age, I know not whether I should call my behavior, in this
dangerous juncture, courage or folly; but I took up Livy, and amused
myself turning over that author, and even making extracts from him, as
if I had been perfectly at my leisure. Just then, a friend of my
uncle's, who had lately come to him from Spain, joined us, and observing
me sitting by my mother with a book in my hand, reproved her for her
calmness, and me at the same time for my careless security: nevertheless
I went on with my author. Though it was now morning, the light was still
exceedingly faint and doubtful; the buildings all around us tottered,
and though we stood upon open ground, yet as the place was narrow and
confined, it was not possible to remain without imminent danger: we
therefore resolved to quit the town. A panic-stricken crowd followed us,
and, as to a mind distracted with terror every suggestion seems more
prudent than its own, pressed on us in dense array to drive us forward
as we came out. When at a convenient distance from the house, we stopped
in the midst of a most dangerous and dreadful scene. The chariots, which
we had ordered to be drawn out, were so agitated backwards and forwards,
though upon the most level ground, that we could not keep them steady,
even by supporting them with large stones. The sea seemed to roll back
upon itself, and to be driven from its banks by the convulsive motion of
the earth; it is certain at least that the shore was considerably
enlarged, and several sea animals were left upon it. On the other side,
a dreadful black cloud, broken with rapid, zigzag flashes, revealed
behind it variously shaped masses of flame: these last were like
sheet-lightning, but much larger. Upon this our Spanish friend, whom I
mentioned above, addressing himself to my mother with great energy and
urgency, said: 'If your brother be safe, he certainly wishes you may be
so too: and if he has perished, it was his desire, no doubt, that you
might both survive him: so why do you delay your escape a moment?' 'We
could never think of our own safety,' said she, 'while we are uncertain
of his.' Upon this our friend left us, and withdrew from the danger with
the utmost precipitation. Soon afterwards, the cloud began to descend,
and cover the sea. It had already surrounded and concealed the island of
Capri and the promontory of Misenum. My mother now besought, urged, even
commanded me to make my escape at any rate, which, as I was young, I
might easily do; as for herself, she said, her age and corpulency
rendered all attempts of that sort impossible; however, she would
willingly meet death if she could have the satisfaction of seeing that
she was not the occasion of mine. But I absolutely refused to leave her,
and, taking her by the hand, compelled her to go with me. She complied
with great reluctance, and not without many reproaches to herself for
retarding my flight. The ashes now began to fall upon us, though in no
great quantity. I looked back; a dense, dark mist seemed to be following
us, spreading itself over the country like a cloud. 'Let us turn out of
the high-road,' I said, 'while we can still see, for fear that, should
we fall in the road, we should be pressed to death in the dark, by the
crowds that are following us.' We had scarcely sat down when night came
upon us, not such as we have when the sky is cloudy, or when there is no
moon, but that of a room when it is shut up, and all the lights put out.
You might hear the shrieks of women, the screams of children, and the
shouts of men; some calling for their children, others for their
parents, others for their husbands, and seeking to recognize each other
by the voices that replied; one lamenting his own fate, another that of
his family; some wishing to die, from the very fear of dying; some
lifting their hands to the gods; but the greater part convinced that
there were now no gods at all, and that the final, endless night of
which we have heard had come upon the world.[3] Some augmented the real
terrors by others imaginary or wilfully invented. I remember some who
declared that one part of Misenum had fallen, and that another was on
fire; it was false, but they found people to believe them. It now grew
rather lighter, which we imagined to be not the forerunner of an
approaching burst of flames, as in truth it was, but the return of day:
however, the fire fell at a distance from us: then we were immersed
again in thick darkness, and a heavy shower of ashes rained upon us,
which we were obliged every now and then to stand up to shake off,
otherwise we should have been crushed and buried in the heap. I might
boast that, during all this scene of horror, not a sigh or expression of
fear escaped me, for my support was grounded in that miserable, though
mighty consolation, that all mankind were involved in the same calamity,
and that I was perishing with the world itself. At last this dreadful
darkness was dissipated by degrees, like a cloud or smoke; the real day
returned, and even the sun shone out, though with a lurid light, as when
an eclipse is coming on. Every object that presented itself to our eyes,
now extremely weakened, seemed changed, being covered deep with ashes as
with snow. We returned to Misenum, where we refreshed ourselves as well
as we could, and passed an anxious night between hope and fear; though
with a much larger share of the latter; for the earthquake still
continued, and many frenzied persons ran up and down heightening their
own and their friends' calamities by terrible predictions. However, my
mother and I, notwithstanding the danger we had passed, and that which
still threatened us, had no thoughts of leaving the place, till we could
receive some news of my uncle.
"And now, please read this narrative without any view of inserting it in
your history, of which it is not in the least worthy; indeed, you must
lay it to your own request if my account does not appear worth even the
trouble of a letter. Farewell."
In the preparation of the most interesting parts of Pliny's Natural
History for younger readers, I have had constant recourse for foot-notes
to the annotations of those devoted students of Pliny--Cuvier, Bostock,
and Ajasson, whose work can rarely be improved upon. The literal
rendering of the original Latin text has been closely followed, and in
all instances where the author's statements have proved in the light of
modern science to be erroneous (unless evidently preposterous) attention
has been called to the fact.
With this volume I reluctantly bring to completion the brief series of
classical authors best adapted for the reading of boys and girls, in the
preparation of which the greater part of my leisure hours during the
past three years has been occupied. Plutarch, Herodotus, Pliny--a trio
of illustrious names! Of how many can it be truly said, as of them, the
world is wiser and better for their living?
New York City,
_July 1, 1885_.
Natural History of Pliny.
Book I.
DEDICATION.
CAIUS PLINIUS SECUNDUS TO HIS FRIEND TITUS VESPASIAN.
This treatise on Natural History, a novel work in Roman literature,
which I have just completed, I have taken the liberty to dedicate to
you, most gracious Emperor, an appellation peculiarly suitable to you,
while, on account of his age, that of _great_ is more appropriate to
your Father;--
"For still thou ne'er wouldst quite despise
The trifles that I write;"
if I may be allowed to shelter myself under the example of Catullus, my
fellow-countryman. For he, as you know, when his napkins[4] had been
changed, expressed himself a little harshly, from his anxiety to show
his friendship for his dear little Veranius and Fabius. At the same time
this importunity of mine may effect, what you complained of my not
having done in another too forward epistle of mine; it will put upon
record, and let all the world know, with what kindness you exercise the
imperial dignity. You have had the honor of a triumph, and of the
censorship, have been six times consul, and have shared in the
tribunate; and, what is still more honorable, whilst you have held them
in conjunction with your Father, you have presided over the Equestrian
order, and been the Prefect of the Prætorians: all this you have done
for the service of the Republic, and, at the same time, have regarded me
as a fellow-soldier and a messmate. Nor has the extent of your
prosperity produced any change in you, except that it has given you the
power of doing good to the utmost of your wishes. And whilst all these
circumstances increase the veneration which other persons feel for you,
with respect to myself, they have made me so bold, as to wish to become
more familiar. You must, therefore, blame yourself for any fault of this
kind that I may commit.
But, although I have laid aside my blushes, I have not gained my object;
for you still awe me, and keep me at a distance, by the majesty of your
understanding. In no one does the force of eloquence and of tribunitian
oratory blaze out more powerfully! With what glowing language you
thunder forth the praises of your Father! How dearly you love your
Brother! How admirable is your talent for poetry! What a fertility of
genius you possess, so as to enable you to imitate your Brother! But who
is there that is bold enough to form an estimate on these points, if he
is to be judged by you, and, more especially, if you are challenged to
do so? For the case of those who merely publish their works is very
different from that of those who expressly dedicate them to you. In the
former case I might say, Emperor! why do you read these things? They are
written only for the common people, for farmers or mechanics, or for
those who have nothing else to do; why do you trouble yourself with
them? Indeed, when I undertook this work, I did not expect that you
would sit in judgment upon me; I considered your situation much too
elevated for you to descend to such an office. Besides, we possess the
right of openly rejecting the opinion of men of learning. Marcus Tullius
Cicero himself, whose genius is beyond all competition, uses this
privilege; and, remarkable as it may appear, employs an advocate in his
own defence:--"I do not write for very learned people; I do not wish my
works to be read by Manius Persius, but by Junius Congus." And if
Lucilius, who first introduced the satirical style, applied such a
remark to himself, and if Cicero thought proper to borrow it, and that
more especially in his treatise "De Republica," how much reason have I
to do so, who have such a judge to defend myself against! And by this
dedication I have deprived myself of the benefit of challenge; for it is
a very different thing whether a person has a judge given him by lot, or
whether he voluntarily selects one; and we always make more preparation
for an invited guest, than for one that comes in unexpectedly.
I am well aware, that, placed as you are in the highest station, and
gifted with the most splendid eloquence and the most accomplished mind,
even those who come to pay their respects to you, do it with a kind of
veneration: on this account I ought to be careful that what is dedicated
to you should be worthy of you. But the country people, and, indeed,
some whole nations offer milk to the Gods, and those who cannot procure
frankincense substitute in its place salted cakes; for the Gods are not
dissatisfied when they are worshipped by every one to the best of his
ability. But my temerity will appear the greater by the consideration,
that these volumes, which I dedicate to you, are of such inferior
importance. For they do not admit of the display of genius, nor, indeed,
is mine one of the highest order; they admit of no excursions, nor
orations, nor discussions, nor of any wonderful adventures to tickle the
fancy of the reader. The nature of things, and life as it actually
exists, are described in them; and often the lowest department of it; so
that, in very many cases, I am obliged to use rude and foreign, or even
barbarous terms, and these often require to be introduced by a kind of
preface. And, besides this, my road is not a beaten track, nor one which
the mind is much disposed to travel over. There is no one among us who
has ever attempted it, nor is there any one individual among the Greeks
who has treated of all the topics. Most of us seek for nothing but
amusement in our studies, while others are fond of subjects that are of
excessive subtilty, and completely involved in obscurity. My object is
to treat of all those things which the Greeks include in the
Encyclopædia, which, however, are either not generally known or are
rendered dubious from our ingenious conceits. And there are other
matters which many writers have given so much in detail that we quite
loathe them. It is, indeed, no easy task to give novelty to what is old,
and authority to what is new; brightness to what is become tarnished,
and light to what is obscure; to render what is slighted acceptable, and
what is doubtful worthy of our confidence; to give to all a natural
manner, and to each its peculiar nature. It is sufficiently honorable
and glorious to have been willing even to make the attempt, although it
should prove unsuccessful.
I have included in thirty-six books twenty thousand topics, all worthy
of attention, gained by the careful perusal of one hundred select
authors, and of about two thousand volumes, of which a few only are in
the hands of the studious, on account of the obscurity of the subjects.
To these I have made considerable additions of things, which were either
not known to my predecessors, or which have been lately discovered. Nor
can I doubt but that there still remain many things which I have
omitted; for I am a mere mortal, and one that has many occupations. I
have, therefore, been obliged to compose this work at interrupted
intervals, by night as well as by day, so that you will find that I have
not been idle even during this period. The day I devote to you, exactly
portioning out my sleep to the necessity of my health, and contenting
myself with this reward, that while we are musing on these subjects, as
Varro says, we are adding to the length of our lives; for life properly
consists in being awake.
I consider it to be courteous and to indicate an ingenuous modesty, to
acknowledge the sources whence we have derived assistance, and not to
act as most of those have done whom I have examined. For I must inform
you, that in comparing various authors with each other, I have
discovered, that some of the latest and most dignified writers have
transcribed, word for word, from former works, without making any
acknowledgment; not avowedly rivalling them, in the manner of Virgil, or
with the candor of Cicero, who, in his treatise "De Republica,"
professes to coincide in opinion with Plato, and in his Essay on
Consolation for his Daughter, says that he follows Crantor, and, in his
Offices, Panæcius; volumes, which, as you well know, ought not merely to
be always in our hands, but to be learned by heart. For it is surely the
mark of a perverted mind and a bad disposition, to prefer being caught
in a theft to returning what we have borrowed, especially when we have
acquired capital, by usurious interest.
The Greeks were wonderfully happy in their titles. One work they called
{Kêrion}, which means that it was as sweet as a honeycomb; another
{Keras Amaltheias}, or Cornu Copiæ, so that you might expect to get even
a draft of pigeon's milk from it. Then they have their Flowers, their
Muses, Magazines, Manuals, Gardens, Pictures, and Sketches, all of them
titles for which a man might be tempted even to forfeit his bail. But
when you enter upon the works, O ye Gods and Goddesses! how full of
emptiness! Our duller countrymen have merely their Antiquities, or their
Examples, or their Arts. I think one of the most humorous of them has
his Nocturnal Studies. Varro, indeed, is not much behind him, when he
calls one of his satires A Trick and a Half,[5] and another, Turning the
Tables. Diodorus was the first among the Greeks who laid aside this
trifling manner and named his history The Library. Apion, the
grammarian,--he whom Tiberius Cæsar called the Trumpeter of the World,
but would rather seem to be the Bell of the Town-Crier,--supposed that
every one to whom he inscribed any work would thence acquire
immortality. I do not regret not having given my work a more fanciful
title.
That I may not, however, appear to inveigh so completely against the
Greeks, I should wish to be considered under the same point of view with
those inventors of the arts of painting and sculpture, of whom you will
find an account in these volumes, whose works, although they are so
perfect that we are never satisfied with admiring them, are inscribed
with a temporary title, such as "Apelles, or Polycletus, was doing
this;" implying that the work was only commenced and still imperfect,
and that the artist might benefit by the criticisms that were made on it
and alter any part that required it, if he had not been prevented by
death. It is also a great mark of their modesty, that they inscribed
their works as if they were the last which they had executed, and as
still in hand at the time of their death. I think there are but three
works of art which are inscribed positively with the words "such a one
executed this;" of these I shall give an account in the proper place. In
these cases it appears, that the artist felt the most perfect
satisfaction with his work, and certainly these pieces have excited the
envy of every one.
I freely admit, that much may be added to my works; not only to this,
but to all which I have published. By this admission I hope to escape
from the carping critics, and I have the more reason to say this,
because I hear that there are certain Stoics and Logicians, and also
Epicureans (from the Grammarians I expected as much), who are virulent
against the little work I published on Grammar.[6] But I well know, that
even a woman once wrote against Theophrastus, a man so eminent for his
eloquence that he obtained from it his name, which signifies the
Divine[7] Speaker.
Because the public good requires that you should be spared as much as
possible from all trouble, I have subjoined to this epistle the contents
of each of the following books, and have used my best endeavors to
prevent your being obliged to read them all through. And this, which was
done for your benefit, will also serve the same purpose for others, so
that any one may search for what he wishes, and may know where to find
it. This has been already done among us by Valerius Soranus, in his work
which he entitled "On Mysteries."
The 1st book is the Preface of the Work, dedicated to Titus Vespasian
Cæsar.
The 2d is on the World, the Elements, and the Heavenly Bodies.
The 3d, 4th, 5th and 6th books are on Geography, in which is contained
an account of the situation of the different countries, the
inhabitants, the seas, towns, harbors, mountains, rivers, and
dimensions, and the various tribes, some of which still exist while
others have disappeared.
The 7th is on Man, and the Inventions of Man.
The 8th on the various kinds of Land Animals.
The 9th on Aquatic Animals.
The 10th on the various kinds of Birds.
The 11th on Insects.
The 12th on Odoriferous Plants.
The 13th on Exotic Trees.
The 14th on Vines.
The 15th on Fruit Trees.
The 16th on Forest Trees.
The 17th on Plants raised in nurseries or gardens.
The 18th on the nature of Fruits and the Cerealia, and the pursuits of
the Husbandman.
The 19th on Flax, Broom,[8] and Gardening.
The 20th on the Cultivated Plants that are proper for food and for
medicine.
The 21st on Flowers and Plants that are used for making Garlands.
The 22d on Garlands, and Medicines made from Plants.
The 23d on Medicines made from Wine and from cultivated Trees.
The 24th on Medicines made from Forest Trees.
The 25th on Medicines made from Wild Plants.
The 26th on New Diseases, and Medicines made, for certain Diseases, from
Plants.
The 27th on some other Plants and Medicines.
The 28th on Medicines procured from Man and from large Animals.
The 29th on Medical Authors, and on Medicines from other Animals.
The 30th on Magic, and Medicines for certain parts of the Body.
The 31st on Medicines from Aquatic Animals.
The 32d on the other properties of Aquatic Animals.
The 33d on Gold and Silver.
The 34th on Copper and Lead, and the workers of Copper.
The 35th on Painting, Colors, and Painters.
The 36th on Marbles and Stones.
The 37th on Gems.
Book II.
AN ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD AND THE ELEMENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE CHARACTER AND FORM OF THE WORLD.
The world,[9] and whatever that be which we otherwise call the heavens,
by the vault of which all things are enclosed, we must conceive to be a
Deity, to be eternal, without bounds, neither created, nor subject, at
any time, to destruction. To inquire what is beyond it is no concern of
man, nor can the human mind form any conjecture respecting it. It is
sacred, eternal, and without bounds, all in all; indeed including
everything in itself; finite, yet like what is infinite; the most
certain of all things, yet like what is uncertain, externally and
internally embracing all things in itself; it is the work of nature, and
itself constitutes nature.
To go out of this world and to search for what is beyond it would be
madness, perfect madness, as if one who is ignorant of his own
dimensions could ascertain the measure of anything else, or as if the
human mind could see what the world itself cannot contain.
That the universe has the form of a perfect globe we learn from the name
which has been uniformly given to it, as well as from numerous natural
arguments. For not only does a figure of this kind return everywhere
into itself[10] and sustain itself, also including itself, requiring no
adjustments, not sensible of either end or beginning in any of its
parts, and is best fitted for that motion, with which, as will appear
hereafter, it is continually turning round; but still more, because we
perceive it, by the evidence of the sight, to be, in every part, convex
and central, which could not be the case were it of any other figure.
The rising and the setting of the sun clearly prove, that this globe is
carried round in the space of twenty-four hours, in an eternal and
never-ceasing circuit, and with incredible swiftness. I am not able to
say, whether the sound caused by the whirling about of so great a mass
be excessive, and, therefore, far beyond what our ears can perceive,
nor, indeed, whether the resounding of so many stars, all carried along
at the same time and revolving in their orbits, may not produce a kind
of delightful harmony of incredible sweetness.[11] To us, who are in the
interior, the world appears to glide silently along, both by day and by
night.
Various circumstances in nature prove to us, that there are impressed on
the heavens innumerable figures of animals and of all kinds of objects,
and that its surface is not perfectly polished like the eggs of birds,
as some celebrated authors assert. This is evident to the eye; for, in
one part, we have the figure of a wain, in others of a bear, of a bull,
and of a letter;[12] while, in the middle of them, over our heads, there
is a white circle.
With respect to the name, I am influenced by the unanimous opinions of
all nations. For what the Greeks, from its being ornamented, have termed
{kosmos}, we, from its perfect and complete elegance, have termed
_mundus_. The name _coelum_, no doubt, refers to its being engraved, as
it were, with the stars, as Varro suggests. In confirmation of this idea
we may adduce the Zodiac, in which are twelve figures of animals;
through them it is that the sun has continued his course for so many
ages.
I do not find that any one has doubted that there are four elements. The
highest of these is supposed to be fire, and hence proceed the eyes of
so many glittering stars. The next is that spirit, which both the Greeks
and ourselves call by the same name, air.
It is by the force of this vital principle, pervading all things and
mingling with all, that the earth, together with the fourth element,
water, is balanced in the middle of space. These are mutually bound
together, each remaining in its appropriate place by the never-ceasing
revolution of the world.
Between this body and the heavens there are suspended, in this aërial
spirit, seven stars, separated by determinate spaces, which, on account
of their motion, we call planets or wandering bodies, although, in
reality, none are less so. The sun is carried along in the midst of
these, a body of great size and power, the ruler, not only of the
seasons and of the different climates, but also of the stars themselves
and of the heavens. When we consider his operations, we must regard him
as the life, or rather the mind of the universe, the chief regulator and
the God of nature; he also lends his light to the other stars. He is
most illustrious and excellent, beholding all things and hearing all
things--qualities which are ascribed to him exclusively by the prince of
poets, Homer.[13]
CHAPTER II.
OF GOD.
I consider it, therefore, an indication of human weakness to inquire
into the figure and form of God. For whatever God be, if there be any
God distinct from the world, and wherever he exists, he is all sense,
all sight, all hearing, all life, all mind, and all within himself. To
believe that there are a number of Gods, derived from the virtues and
vices of man, as Chastity, Concord, Understanding, Hope, Honor,
Clemency, and Fidelity; or, according to the opinion of Democritus, that
there are only two, Punishment and Reward, indicates still greater
folly. Human nature, weak and frail as it is, mindful of its own
infirmity, has made these divisions, so that every one might have
recourse to that which he supposed himself to stand more particularly in
need of. Hence we find different names employed by different nations;
the inferior deities are arranged in classes, and diseases and plagues
are deified, in consequence of our anxious wish to propitiate them. It
was from this cause that a temple was dedicated to Fever, at the public
expense, on the Palatine Hill, and that an altar was erected to Good
Fortune on the Esquiline. Hence we may understand how it comes to pass
that there is a greater population of the Celestials than of human
beings, since each individual makes a separate God for himself, adopting
his own Juno and his own Genius. To suppose that some gods should be old
and always gray-headed and others young and like children, some of a
dark complexion, winged, lame, produced from eggs, living and dying on
alternate days, is puerile and foolish enough. But it is the height of
impudence to imagine that they have contests and quarrels, and that
there are Gods of theft and of various crimes. To assist man is to be a
God; this is the path to eternal glory. This is the path which the Roman
nobles formerly pursued, and this is the path which is now pursued by
the greatest ruler of our age, Vespasian Augustus, he who has come to
the relief of an exhausted empire, as well as by his sons. The ancient
mode of remunerating those who deserved it was to regard them as Gods.
For the names of all the Gods, as well as of the stars that I have
mentioned above, have been derived from their services to mankind. And
with respect to Jupiter and Mercury, and the rest of the celestial
nomenclature, who does not admit that they have reference to certain
natural phenomena?
But it is ridiculous to suppose, that the great head of all things,
whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs. Can we believe, or
rather can there be any doubt, that it is not polluted by such a
disagreeable and complicated office? It is not easy to determine which
opinion would be most for the advantage of mankind, since we observe
some who have no respect for the Gods, and others who carry it to a
scandalous excess. They are slaves to foreign ceremonies; they carry on
their fingers the Gods and the monsters whom they worship;[14] they
condemn and they lay great stress on certain kinds of food; they impose
on themselves dreadful ordinances, not even sleeping quietly. They do
not marry or adopt children, or indeed do anything else, without the
sanction of their sacred rites. There are others, on the contrary, who
will cheat in the very Capitol, and will forswear themselves even by
Jupiter Tonans,[15] and while these thrive in their crimes, the others
torment themselves with their superstitions to no purpose.
Among these discordant opinions mankind have discovered for themselves a
kind of intermediate deity, by which our scepticism concerning God is
still increased. For all over the world, in all places, and at all
times, Fortune is the only god whom every one invokes; she alone is
spoken of, she alone is accused and is supposed to be guilty; she alone
is in our thoughts, is praised and blamed, and is loaded with
reproaches; wavering as she is, conceived by the generality of mankind
to be blind, wandering, inconstant, uncertain, variable, and often
favoring the unworthy. To her are referred all our losses and all our
gains, and in casting up the accounts of mortals she alone balances the
two pages of our sheet. We are so much in the power of chance, that
change itself is considered as a God, and the existence of God becomes
doubtful.
But there are others who reject this principle and assign events to the
influence of the stars, and to the laws of our nativity; they suppose
that God, once for all, issues his decrees and never afterwards
interferes. This opinion begins to gain ground, and both the learned and
the unlearned vulgar are falling into it. Hence we have the admonitions
of thunder, the warnings of oracles, the predictions of sooth-sayers,
and things too trifling to be mentioned, as sneezing and stumbling with
the feet reckoned among omens. The late Emperor Augustus relates, that
he put the left shoe on the wrong foot, the day when he was near being
assaulted by his soldiers. And such things as these so embarrass
improvident mortals, that among all of them this alone is certain, that
there is nothing certain, and that there is nothing more proud or more
wretched than man. For other animals have no care but to provide for
their subsistence, for which the spontaneous kindness of nature is
all-sufficient; and this one circumstance renders their lot more
especially preferable, that they never think about glory, or money, or
ambition, and, above all, that they never reflect on death.
The belief, however, that on these points the Gods superintend human
affairs is useful to us, as well as that the punishment of crimes,
although sometimes tardy, from the Deity being occupied with such a mass
of business, is never entirely remitted. And indeed this constitutes the
great comfort in this imperfect state of man, that even the Deity cannot
do everything. For he cannot procure death for himself, even if he
wished it, which, so numerous are the evils of life, has been granted to
man as our chief good. Nor can he make mortals immortal, or recall to
life those who are dead; nor can he effect, that he who has once lived
shall not have lived, or that he who has enjoyed honors shall not have
enjoyed them; nor has he any influence over past events but to cause
them to be forgotten. And, if we illustrate the nature of our connection
with God by a less serious argument, he cannot make twice ten not to be
twenty, and many other things of this kind.
CHAPTER III.
THE DIMENSIONS OF THE WORLD.
The stadium is equal to one hundred and twenty-five of our Roman paces,
or six hundred and twenty-five feet. Posidonius supposes that there is a
space of not less than forty stadia around the earth, whence mists,
winds and clouds proceed; beyond this he supposes that the air is pure
and liquid, consisting of uninterrupted light; from the clouded region
to the moon there is a space of two million of stadia, and thence to the
sun of five hundred million. It is in consequence of this space that the
sun, notwithstanding his immense magnitude, does not burn the earth.
Many persons have imagined that the clouds rise to the height of nine
hundred stadia. These points are not completely made out, and are
difficult to explain; but we have given the best account of them that
has been published.
CHAPTER IV.
OF THE STARS WHICH APPEAR SUDDENLY, OR OF COMETS.
A few things still remain to be said concerning the world; for stars are
suddenly formed in the heavens themselves; of these there are various
kinds.
The Greeks name these stars _comets_, we name them Crinitæ, as if shaggy
with bloody locks, and surrounded with bristles like hair. Some of them
have a mane hanging down from their lower part, like a long beard, some
vibrate like a dart with a very quick motion. It was one of this kind
which the Emperor Titus described in his very excellent poem, as having
been seen in his fifth consulship; and this was the last of these bodies
which has been observed. Some are short and pointed, of a pale color,
and shine like a sword without any rays; others of an amber color emit a
few rays from their margin only. One kind exhibits the figure of a cask,
appearing convex and emitting a smoky light; another has the appearance
of a horn; it is like the one which was visible when the Greeks fought
at Salamis. Occasionally you see one like a burning torch; and again one
like a horse's mane; the latter often has a very rapid motion, like a
circle revolving on itself. There is also a white comet, with silver
hair, so brilliant that it can scarcely be looked at, exhibiting, as it
were, the aspect of the Deity in a human form. There are some also that
are shaggy, having the appearance of a fleece, surrounded by a kind of
crown. There was one, where the appearance of a mane was changed into
that of a spear; it happened in the 109th olympiad, in the 398th year of
the City.[16] The shortest time during which any one of them has been
observed to be visible is seven days, the longest one hundred and eighty
days.
Rome is the only place in the whole world where there is a temple
dedicated to a comet--the one which was thought by the late Emperor
Augustus to be auspicious to him, from its appearing during the games
which he was celebrating in honor of Venus, not long after the death of
his father Cæsar. He expressed his joy in these terms: "During the very
time of these games of mine, a hairy star was seen during seven days, in
the part of the heavens which is under the Great Bear. It rose about the
eleventh hour of the day, was very bright, and was conspicuous in all
parts of the earth. The common people supposed the star to indicate,
that the soul of Cæsar was admitted among the immortal Gods." This is
what he proclaimed in public, but, in secret, he rejoiced at this
auspicious omen, interpreting it as produced for himself; and, to
confess the truth, it really proved a salutary omen for the world at
large.
Some persons suppose that these stars are permanent and that they move
through their proper orbits, but that they are only visible when they
recede from the sun. Others suppose that they are produced by an
accidental vapor together with the force of fire, and that, from this
circumstance, they are liable to be dissipated.
CHAPTER V.
THE DOCTRINE OF HIPPARCHUS ABOUT THE STARS.
Hipparchus, who can never be sufficiently commended, as one who more
especially proved the relation of the stars to man, and that our souls
are a portion of heaven, discovered a new star that was produced in his
own age, and, by observing its motions on the day in which it shone, he
was led to doubt whether this does not often happen, that those stars
have motion which we suppose to be fixed. And the same individual
attempted, what might seem presumptuous even in a deity, to number the
stars for posterity and to express their relations by appropriate names;
having previously devised instruments,[17] by which he might mark the
place and the magnitude of each individual star. In this way it might be
easily discovered, not only whether they were destroyed or produced, but
whether they changed their relative positions, and likewise, whether
they were increased or diminished; the heavens being thus left as an
inheritance to any one, who might be found competent to complete his
plan.
CHAPTER VI.
OF THE STARS WHICH ARE NAMED CASTOR AND POLLUX.
I have seen, during the night-watches of the soldiers, a luminous
appearance, like a star, attached to the javelins on the ramparts. They
also settle on the yard-arms and other parts of ships while sailing,
producing a kind of vocal sound, like that of birds flitting about. When
they occur singly they are mischievous, so as even to sink the vessels,
and if they strike on the lower part of the keel, setting them on fire.
When there are two of them they are considered auspicious, and are
thought to predict a prosperous voyage, as it is said that they drive
away that dreadful and terrific meteor named Helena. On this account
their efficacy is ascribed to Castor and Pollux, and they are invoked as
gods. They also occasionally shine round the heads of men in the
evening,[18] which is considered as predicting something very important.
But there is great uncertainty respecting the cause of all these things,
and they are concealed in the majesty of nature.
CHAPTER VII.
OF THUNDER AND LIGHTNING.
It cannot be denied, that fire proceeding from the stars which are above
the clouds, may fall on them, as we frequently observe on serene
evenings, and that the air is agitated by the impulse, as darts, when
they are hurled, whiz through the air. And when it arrives at the cloud,
a discordant kind of vapor is produced, as when hot iron is plunged into
water, and a wreath of smoke is evolved. Hence arise squalls. And if
wind or vapor be struggling in the cloud, thunder is discharged; if it
bursts out with a flame, there is a thunderbolt; if it be long in
forcing out its way, it is simply a flash of lightning. By the latter
the cloud is simply rent, by the former it is shattered. Thunder is
produced by the stroke given to the condensed air, and hence it is that
the fire darts from the chinks of the clouds. It is possible also that
the vapor, which has risen from the earth, being repelled by the stars,
may produce thunder, when it is pent up in a cloud; nature restraining
the sound whilst the vapor is struggling to escape; but when it does
escape, the sound bursting forth, as is the case with bladders that are
distended with air. It is possible also that the spirit, whatever it be,
may be kindled by friction, when it is so violently projected. It is
possible that, by the dashing of the two clouds, the lightning may flash
out, as is the case when two stones are struck against each other.
We have accounts of many different kinds of thunderbolts. Those which
are dry do not burn objects, but dissipate them; while those which are
moist do not burn, but blacken them. There is a third kind, which is
called bright lightning, of a very wonderful nature, by which casks are
emptied, without the vessels themselves being injured, or there being
any other trace left of their operation. Gold, copper, and silver are
melted, while the bags which contain them are not in the least burned,
nor even the wax seal much defaced. Among the prognostics which took
place at the time of Catiline's conspiracy, Marcus Herennius, a
magistrate of the borough of Pompeii, was struck by lightning when the
sky was without clouds.
CHAPTER VIII.
NATURE OF THE EARTH.
Next comes the earth, on which alone of all parts of nature we have
bestowed the name that implies maternal veneration. It is appropriated
to man as the heavens are to God. She receives us at our birth,
nourishes us when born, and ever afterwards supports us; lastly,
embracing us in her bosom when we are rejected by the rest of nature,
she then covers us with especial tenderness; rendered sacred to us,
inasmuch as she renders us sacred, bearing our monuments and titles,
continuing our names, and extending our memory, in opposition to the
shortness of life. In our anger we imprecate her on those who are now no
more, as if we were ignorant that she is the only being who can never be
angry with man. The water passes into showers, is concreted into hail,
swells into rivers, is precipitated in torrents; the air is condensed
into clouds, rages in squalls; but kind, mild, and indulgent earth,
always ministering to the wants of mortals, how many things do we compel
her to produce spontaneously! What odors and flowers, nutritive juices,
forms and colors! With what good faith does she render back all that has
been entrusted to her! It is the vital spirit which must bear the blame
of producing noxious animals; for the earth is constrained to receive
the seeds of them, and to support them when they are produced. The fault
lies in the evil nature which generates them. The earth will no longer
harbor a serpent after it has attacked any one, and thus she even
demands punishment in the name of those who are indifferent about it
themselves. She pours forth a profusion of medicinal plants, and is
always producing something for the use of man.
But it must be acknowledged, that everything which the earth has
produced, as a remedy for our evils, we have converted into the poison
of our lives. For do we not use iron, which we cannot do without, for
this purpose? But although this cause of mischief has been produced, we
ought not to complain; we ought not to be ungrateful to this one part of
nature. How many luxuries and how many insults does she not bear for us!
She is cast into the sea, and, in order that we may introduce seas into
her bosom, she is washed away by the waves. She is continually tortured
for her iron, her timber, stone, fire, corn, and is even much more
subservient to our luxuries than to our mere support. What indeed she
endures on her surface might be tolerated, but we penetrate also into
her bowels, digging out the veins of gold and silver, and the ores of
copper and lead; we also search for gems and certain small pebbles,
driving our trenches to a great depth. We tear out her entrails in order
to extract the gems with which we may load our fingers. How many hands
are worn down that one little joint may be ornamented! If the infernal
regions really existed, certainly these burrows of avarice and luxury
would have penetrated into them. And truly we wonder that this same
earth should have produced anything noxious! But, I suppose, the savage
beasts protect her and keep off our sacrilegious hands. For do we not
dig among serpents and handle poisonous plants along with those veins of
gold? But the Goddess shows herself more propitious to us, inasmuch as
all this wealth ends in crimes, slaughter, and war, and that, while we
drench her with our blood, we cover her with unburied bones; and being
covered with these and her anger being thus appeased, she conceals the
crimes of mortals. I consider the ignorance of her nature as one of the
evil effects of an ungrateful mind.
Every one agrees that it has the most perfect figure. We always speak of
the ball of the earth, and we admit it to be a globe bounded by the
poles. It has not indeed the form of an absolute sphere, from the number
of lofty mountains and flat plains; but if the termination of the lines
be bounded by a curve, this would compose a perfect sphere. And this we
learn from arguments drawn from the nature of things, although not from
the same considerations which we made use of with respect to the
heavens. For in these the hollow convexity everywhere bends on itself,
and leans upon the earth as its centre. Whereas the earth rises up solid
and dense, like something that swells up and is protruded outwards. The
heavens bend towards the centre, while the earth goes from the centre,
the continual rolling of the heavens about it forcing its immense globe
into the form of a sphere.
On the question whether there be antipodes there is a great contest
between the learned and the vulgar. We maintain, that there are men
dispersed over every part of the earth, that they stand with their feet
turned towards each other, that the vault of the heavens appears alike
to all of them, and that they, all of them, appear to tread equally on
the middle of the earth. If any one should ask, why those situated
opposite to us do not fall, we directly ask in return, whether those on
the opposite side do not wonder that we do not fall. But I may make a
remark, that will appear plausible even to the most unlearned, that if
the earth were of the figure of an unequal globe, like the seed of a
pine, still it may be inhabited in every part.
But of how little moment is this, when we have another miracle rising up
to our notice! The earth itself is pendent and does not fall with us; it
is doubtful whether this be from the force of the spirit which is
contained in the universe, or whether it would fall did not nature
resist, by allowing of no place where it might fall. For as the seat of
fire is nowhere but in fire, nor of water except in water, nor of air
except in air, so there is no situation for the earth except in itself,
everything else repelling it. It is indeed wonderful that it should form
a globe, when there is so much flat surface of the sea and of the
plains. And this was the opinion of Dicæarchus, a peculiarly learned
man, who measured the heights of mountains, under the direction of the
kings, and estimated Pelion, which was the highest, at one thousand two
hundred and fifty paces perpendicular, and considered this as not
affecting the round figure of the globe. But this appears to me to be
doubtful, as I well know that the summits of some of the Alps rise up by
a long space of not less than fifty thousand paces. But what the vulgar
most strenuously contend against is, to be compelled to believe that the
water is forced into a rounded figure; yet there is nothing more obvious
to the sight among the phenomena of nature. For we see everywhere, that
drops, when they hang down, assume the form of small globes, and when
they are covered with dust, or have the down of leaves spread over them,
they are observed to be completely round; and when a cup is filled, the
liquid swells up in the middle. But on account of the subtile nature of
the fluid and its inherent softness, the fact is more easily ascertained
by our reason than by our sight. And it is even more wonderful, that if
a very little fluid only be added to a cup when it is full, the
superfluous quantity runs over, whereas the contrary happens if we add a
solid body, even as much as would weigh twenty denarii. The reason of
this is, that what is dropt in raises up the fluid at the top, while
what is poured on it slides off from the projecting surface. It is from
the same cause that the land is not visible from the body of a ship when
it may be seen from the mast; and that when a vessel is receding, if any
bright object be fixed to the mast, it seems gradually to descend and
finally to become invisible. And the ocean, which we admit to be without
limits, if it had any other figure, could it cohere and exist without
falling, there being no external margin to contain it?
We must believe, that the great artist, Nature, has so arranged it, that
as the arid and dry earth cannot subsist by itself and without moisture,
nor, on the other hand, can the water subsist unless it be supported by
the earth, they are connected by a mutual union. The earth opens her
harbors, while the water pervades the whole earth, within, without, and
above; its veins running in all directions, like connecting links, and
bursting out on even the highest ridges; where, forced up by the air,
and pressed out by the weight of the earth, it shoots forth as from a
pipe, and is so far from being in danger of falling, that it bounds up
to the highest and most lofty places. Hence the reason is obvious, why
the seas are not increased by the daily accession of so many rivers.
The earth has, therefore, the whole of its globe girt, on every side, by
the sea flowing round it. And this is not a point to be investigated by
arguments, but what has been ascertained by experience.
The globe is divided into five parts, termed zones, and all that portion
is subject to severe cold and perpetual frost, which is under the two
extremities, about each of the poles, the nearer of which is called the
north, and the opposite the south, pole. The middle of the earth, over
which is the orbit of the sun, is parched and burned by the flame, and
is consumed by being so near the heat. There are only two of the zones
which are temperate, those which lie between the torrid and the frigid
zones, and these are separated from each other, in consequence of the
scorching heat of the heavenly bodies. It appears, therefore, that the
heavens take from us three parts of the earth; how much the ocean steals
is uncertain. The curve of the globe both reveals and conceals different
objects from the inhabitants of its different parts. If the earth had
been flat, everything would have been seen at the same time, from every
part of it, and the nights would not have been unequal; while the equal
intervals of twelve hours, which are now observed only in the middle of
the earth, would in that case have been the same everywhere.
Hence it is that there is not any one night and day the same, in all
parts of the earth, at the same time; the intervention of the globe
producing night, and its turning round producing day.
CHAPTER IX.
ITALY.
I am by no means unaware that I may be justly accused of ingratitude and
indolence, if I describe briefly and in a cursory manner the land which
is at once the foster-child and the parent of all lands; chosen by the
providence of the Gods to render even heaven itself more glorious,[19]
to unite the scattered empires of the earth, to bestow a polish upon
men's manners, to unite the discordant and uncouth dialects of so many
different nations by the powerful ties of one common language, to confer
the enjoyments of discourse and of civilization upon mankind, to become,
in short, the mother-country of all nations of the Earth.
But how shall I commence this undertaking? So vast is the number of
celebrated places (what man living could enumerate them all?), and so
great the renown attached to each individual nation and subject, that I
feel myself quite at a loss. The city of Rome alone, which forms a
portion of it, a face well worthy of shoulders so beauteous, how large a
work would it require for an appropriate description! And then, too, the
coast of Campania, taken singly by itself! so blest with natural
beauties and opulence, that it is evident that when nature formed it she
took a delight in accumulating all her blessings in a single spot--how
am I to do justice to it? And then the climate, with its eternal
freshness and so replete with health and vitality, the sereneness of the
weather so enchanting, the fields so fertile, the hillsides so sunny,
the thickets so free from every danger, the groves so cool and shady,
the forests with a vegetation so varying and so luxuriant, the breezes
descending from so many a mountain, the fruitfulness of its grain, its
vines, and its olives so transcendent; its flocks with fleeces so noble,
its bulls with necks so sinewy, its lakes recurring in never-ending
succession, its numerous rivers and springs which refresh it with their
waters on every side, its seas so many in number, its havens and the
bosom of its lands opening everywhere to the commerce of all the world,
and eagerly stretching forth into the very midst of the waves, for the
purpose of aiding as it were the endeavors of mortals!
For the present I forbear to speak of its genius, its manners, its men,
and the nations whom it has conquered by eloquence and force of arms.
The very Greeks themselves, a race fond in the extreme of expatiating on
their own praises, have amply given judgment in its favor, when they
named but a small part of it 'Magna Græcia.' But we must be content to
do on this occasion as we have done in our description of the heavens;
we must only touch upon some of these points, and take notice of but a
few of its stars. I only beg my readers to bear in mind that I am thus
hastening on for the purpose of giving a general description of
everything that is known to exist throughout the whole earth.
I may premise by observing that this land very much resembles in shape
an oak leaf, being much longer than it is broad; towards the top it
inclines to the left, while it terminates in the form of an Amazonian
buckler, in which the spot at the central projection is the place called
Cocinthos, while it sends forth two horns at the end of its
crescent-shaped bays, Leucopetra on the right and Lacinium on the left.
It extends in length one thousand and twenty miles, if we measure from
the foot of the Alps at Prætoria Augusta, through the city of Rome and
Capua to the town of Rhegium, which is situated on the shoulder of the
Peninsula, just at the bend of the neck as it were. Its breadth is
variable, being four hundred and ten miles between the two seas of the
far north. At about the middle, and in the vicinity of the city of Rome,
from the spot where the river Aternus flows into the Adriatic sea, to
the mouth of the Tiber, the distance is one hundred and thirty-six
miles, and a little less from Castrum-novum on the Adriatic sea to
Alsium on the Tuscan; but in no place does it exceed two hundred miles
in breadth.
CHAPTER X.
THE HYPERBOREANS.
In the far North, beyond the Riphæan[20] mountains, is the region known
by the name of Pterophoros,[21] because of the perpetual fall of snow
there, the flakes of which resemble feathers; a part of the world which
has been condemned by the decree of nature to lie immersed in thick
darkness; suited for nothing but the generation of cold, and to be the
asylum of the chilling blasts of the northern winds.
Behind these mountains, and beyond the region of the northern winds,
there dwells, if we choose to believe it, a happy race, known as the
Hyperborei,[22] a race that lives to an extreme old age, and which has
been the subject of many marvellous stories.[23] At this spot are
supposed to be the hinges upon which the world revolves, and the extreme
limits of the revolutions of the stars. Here we find light for six
months together, given by the sun in one continuous day. To these people
there is but one rising of the sun for the year, and that at the summer
solstice,[24] and but one setting, at the winter solstice. This region,
warmed by the rays of the sun, is of a most delightful temperature, and
exempt from every noxious blast. The abodes of the natives are the woods
and groves, the gods receive their worship singly and in groups, while
all discord and every kind of sickness are things utterly unknown. Death
comes upon them only when satiated with life; after a career of
feasting, in an old age sated with every luxury, they leap from a
certain rock there into the sea; and this they deem the most desirable
mode of ending existence. Some writers have placed these people, not in
Europe, but at the very verge of the shores of Asia. Others again have
placed them midway between the two suns, at the spot where it sets to
the Antipodes and rises to us; a thing however that cannot possibly be,
in consequence of the vast tract of sea which there intervenes. Those
writers who place them nowhere but under a day which lasts for six
months, state that in the morning they sow, at mid-day they reap, at
sunset they gather in the fruits of the trees, and during the night
conceal themselves in caves. Nor are we at liberty to entertain any
doubts as to the existence of this race; so many authors are there who
assert that they were in the habit of sending their first-fruits to
Delos to present them to Apollo, whom they especially worship. Virgins
used to carry them, who for many years were held in high veneration, and
received the rites of hospitality from the nations that lay on the
route; until at last, in consequence of repeated violations of good
faith, the Hyperboreans came to the determination to deposit these
offerings upon the frontiers of the people who adjoined them, and they
in their turn were to convey them on to their neighbors, and so from one
to the other, till they should have arrived at Delos. However, this
custom, even, in time fell into disuse.
CHAPTER XI.
BRITANNIA.
Opposite to the west coast of Europe is the island called Britannia, so
celebrated in the records of Greece[25] and of our own country. It is
situate to the north-west, and, with a large tract of intervening sea,
lies opposite to Germany, Gaul, and Spain, by far the greater part of
Europe. Its former name was Albion.[26] This island is distant from the
coast of the nation of the Morini,[27] at the spot where the passage
across is the shortest, fifty miles. Pytheas and Isidorus say that its
circumference is 4875 miles. It is barely thirty years since any
extensive knowledge of it was gained by the successes of the Roman arms,
and even as yet they have not penetrated beyond the vicinity of the
Caledonian[28] forest. Agrippa believes its length to be 800 miles, and
its breadth 300; he also thinks that the breadth of Hibernia is the
same, but that its length is less by 200 miles. This last island is
situated beyond Britannia, the passage across being the shortest from
the territory of the Silures,[29] a distance of thirty miles. Of the
remaining islands none is said to have a greater circumference than one
hundred and twenty-five miles. Among these there are the Orcades,[30]
forty in number, and situated within a short distance of each other, the
seven islands called Acmodæ.[31] The most remote of all that we find
mentioned is Thule,[32] in which, there is no night at the summer
solstice, when the sun is passing through the sign of Cancer, while on
the other hand at the winter solstice there is no day. Some writers are
of opinion that this state of things lasts for six whole months
together.
CHAPTER XII.
MOUNT ATLAS.
Through the nation of the Autololes lies the road to Mount Atlas, the
most fabulous locality even in Africa.
From the midst of the sands, according to the story, this mountain[33]
raises its head to the heavens; rugged and craggy on the side which
looks toward the shores of the ocean to which it has given its name,
while on that which faces the interior of Africa it is shaded by dense
groves of trees, and refreshed by flowing streams; fruits of all kinds
springing up there spontaneously to such an extent, as more than to
satiate every possible desire. Throughout the daytime, no inhabitant is
to be seen; all is silent, like that dreadful stillness which reigns in
the desert. A religious horror steals imperceptibly over the feelings of
those who approach, and they feel themselves smitten with awe at the
stupendous aspect of its summit, which reaches beyond the clouds, and
well nigh approaches the very orb of the moon. At night, they say, it
gleams with fires innumerable lighted up; it is then the scene of the
gambols of the Satyr crew, while it re-echoes with the notes of the
flute and the pipe, and the clash of drums and cymbals. All this is what
authors of high character have stated, in addition to the labors which
Hercules and Perseus there experienced. The space which intervenes
before you arrive at this mountain is immense, and the country quite
unknown.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ISLAND OF TAPROBANA.
Taprobana,[34] under the name of the "land of the Antipodes," was long
looked upon as another world: the age and the arms of Alexander the
Great were the first to give satisfactory proof that it was an island.
Onesicritus, the commander of his fleet, has informed us that the
elephants of this island are larger, and better adapted for warfare than
those of India; and from Megasthenes we learn that it is divided by a
river, and that their country is more productive of gold and pearls of
great size than even India. Eratosthenes has also given the dimensions
of this island, as being seven thousand stadia in length, and five
thousand in breadth: he states also that there are no cities, but
villages to the number of seven hundred. It begins at the Eastern sea,
and lies extended opposite to India, east and west. In former times when
the navigation was confined to vessels constructed of papyrus with the
tackle peculiar to the Nile, this island was supposed to be twenty days'
sail from the country of the Prasii,[35] but the distance has been
estimated at no more than seven days' sail,[36] reckoned at the speed
which can be attained by vessels of our construction. The sea that lies
between the island and the mainland is full of shallows, not more than
six paces in depth; but in certain channels it is of such extraordinary
depth, that no anchor has ever found a bottom. For this reason it is
that the vessels are constructed with prows at either end; so that there
may be no necessity for tacking while navigating these extremely narrow
channels. The tonnage of these vessels is three thousand amphoræ. In
traversing their seas, the people of Taprobana take no observations of
the stars, and indeed the Great Bear is not visible to them; but they
carry birds out to sea, which they let go from time to time, and so
follow their course as they make for the land. They devote only four
months in the year to the pursuits of navigation, and are particularly
careful not to trust themselves on the sea during the next hundred days
after our summer solstice, for in those seas it is at that time the
middle of winter.
So much we learn from the ancient writers; it has fallen to our lot,
however, to obtain a still more accurate knowledge of these people; for,
during the reign of the Emperor Claudius, an embassy came from even this
distant island to Rome. The circumstances under which this took place
were as follows: Annius Plocamus had farmed from the treasury the
revenues arising from the Red Sea. A certain freedman of his, while
sailing around Arabia, was carried away by a gale from the north beyond
the coast of Carmania. In the course of fifteen days he had drifted to
Hippuros, a port of Taprobana, where he was most kindly and most
hospitably received by the king; and having, after a study of six
months, become well acquainted with the language, was enabled to answer
all his enquiries relative to the Romans and their emperor. But of all
that he heard, the king was more particularly struck with surprise at
our rigid notions of justice, on ascertaining that among the coins found
on the captive, the denarii were all of equal weight, although the
different figures on them plainly showed that they had been struck in
the reigns of several emperors. By this circumstance especially, the
king was prompted to form an alliance with the Romans, and accordingly
sent to Rome an embassy, consisting of four persons, the chief of whom
was Rachias.[37]
From these persons we learned that in Taprobana there are five hundred
towns, and that there is a harbor that lies facing the south, and
adjoining the city of Palæsimundus, the most famous city in the isle,
the king's place of residence, and containing a population of two
hundred thousand. They also informed us that in the interior there is a
lake called Megisba, three hundred and seventy-five miles in
circumference, and containing islands which are fertile, though for
pasturage only. In this lake they informed us two rivers take their
rise, one of which, called Palæsimundus, flows into the harbor near the
city of that name, by three channels, the narrowest of which is five
stadia in width, the largest fifteen: while the other, Cydara by name,
takes a direction northward, towards the Indian coast. We learned also
that the nearest point of the Indian coast is a promontory known as
Coliacum,[38] distant from the island four days' sail, and that midway
between them lies the island of the Sun. They stated also that those
seas are of a deep green tint; besides which, there are numerous trees
growing at the bottom, so much so, that the rudders of the vessels
frequently break off portions of their foliage.[39] They were as much
astonished at the constellations which are visible to us, the Great Bear
and the Pleiades,[40] as though they had now beheld a new expanse of the
heavens; and they declared that in their country the moon can only be
seen above the horizon[41] from the eighth to its sixteenth day. They
also stated that Canopus, a large bright star, gives light to them by
night. But what surprised them more than anything else, was that the
shadow of their bodies was thrown towards our hemisphere.[42] They also
informed us that the side of their island which lies opposite to India
is ten thousand stadia in length, and runs in a southeasterly
direction--that beyond the Emodian Mountains they look towards[43] the
Seræ, whose acquaintance they had also made in the pursuits of commerce;
that the father of Rachias had frequently visited their country, and
that the Seræ always came to meet them on their arrival. These people,
they said, exceeded the ordinary human height, had flaxen hair, and blue
eyes, and made an uncouth sort of noise by way of talking, having no
language of their own for the purpose of communicating their thoughts.
The rest of their information relative to the Seræ was of a similar
nature to that communicated by our merchants. It was to the effect that
the merchandise on sale was left by them upon the opposite bank of a
river on their coast, and it was then removed by the natives, if they
thought proper to deal on terms of exchange. On no grounds ought luxury
with greater reason to be detested by us, than if we only transport our
thoughts to these scenes, and then reflect, what are its demands, to
what distant spots it sends in order to satisfy them, and for how mean
and how unworthy an end!
But yet Taprobana even, isolated as it is by nature from the rest of the
world, is not exempt from our vices. Gold and silver are held in esteem
even there. They have a marble which resembles tortoise-shell in
appearance; this, as well as their pearls and precious stones, is highly
valued; all our luxuries in fact, those even of the most exquisite
nature, are there carried to the very highest pitch. They asserted that
their wealth was much greater than ours, but admitted that we knew
better than they how to obtain real enjoyment from opulence.
In this island no slavery exists; they do not prolong their sleep to
day-break, nor do they sleep during any part of the day; their buildings
are only of a moderate height from the ground; the price of corn is
always the same; they have no courts of law and no litigation. Hercules
is the deity whom they worship; and their king is chosen by the people,
an aged man always, distinguished for his mild and clement disposition,
and without children. If after he has been elected king, he happens to
become the father of children, his abdication is the consequence; this
is done that there may be no danger of the sovereign power becoming
hereditary. Thirty advisers are provided for him by the people, and it
is only by the advice of the majority of them that any man is condemned
to capital punishment. Even then, the person so condemned has a right of
appealing to the people, in which case a jury consisting of seventy
persons is appointed. Should these acquit the accused, the thirty
counsellors are no longer held in any estimation, but are visited with
the greatest disgrace. The king wears the costume of Father Liber,[44]
while the rest of the people dress like the natives of Arabia. If the
king is found guilty of any offence, he is condemned to death; but no
one slays him; all turn their backs upon him, and refuse to hold any
communication or even discourse with him. Their festivals are celebrated
with the chase, the most valued sports being the pursuit of the tiger
and the elephant. The lands are carefully tilled; the vine is not
cultivated there, but of other fruits there is great abundance. They
take great delight in fishing, and especially in catching turtles;
beneath the shells of which whole families find an abode, of such vast
size are they to be found. These people look upon a hundred years as a
comparatively short life. So much have we learned respecting Taprobana.
Book III.
MAN, HIS BIRTH AND HIS ORGANIZATION.
CHAPTER I.
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 step-mother.
In the first place, she obliges him alone, of all animated beings, to
clothe 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 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 precocity. Introduced thus to the light, man has fetters and
swathings instantly put upon all his limbs,[45] 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 presage of future strength, the earliest bounty of time,
confers upon him naught but the resemblance to a quadruped.[46] 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 is 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;[47] and the monsters of the sea even, and the fishes, vent
their rage only on those of a different species. But with man,--by
Hercules! most of _his_ misfortunes are occasioned by man.[48]
What is there that does not appear marvellous, 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 effected? 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.
CHAPTER II.
THE WONDERFUL FORMS OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.
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 Læstrygones, 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 Geskleithron, 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[49] represented, 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 Aristeas of
Proconnesus.[50]
Beyond the other Scythian Anthropophagi, there is a country called
Abarimon, situated in a certain great valley of Mount Imaus, 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 routes of Alexander the
Great, that this 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 Borysthenes, according to the account of
Isigonus of Nicæa, were in the habit of drinking out of human
skulls,[51] 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 Albinoes), whose eyes are of a
sea-green color, 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 Sauromatae, who dwell ten days' journey beyond the
Borysthenes, take food only every other day. Isigonus says there are
among the Triballi and the Illyrii, some persons who have the power of
fascination with the eyes, and can even kill those on whom they fix
their gaze for any length of time, especially if their look denotes
anger.
A still more remarkable circumstance is, the fact that these persons
have two pupils in each eye. Apollonides says, that there are certain
females of this description in Scythia, who are known as Bythiæ, and
Phylarchus 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.[52] He also remarks, that the bodies of these persons
will not sink in water,[53] even though weighed down by their garments.
Cicero also, one of our own writers, makes the remark, that the glances
of all women who have a double pupil is noxious.[54]
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 Hirpi. These people
perform a yearly sacrifice to Apollo, on Mount Soracte, 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.[55]
[Illustration: THE INDIAN ELEPHANT.]
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.[56] 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 Æthiopia 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[57] is capable of affording shelter to a whole troop of horse.
The reeds here are also of such enormous length, that each portion of
them, between the joints, forms a tube, of which a boat is made that is
capable of holding three men.[58] It is a well-known fact, that many of
the people here are more than five cubits in height.[59] 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 Megasthenes, dwelling upon a mountain called Nulo, 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,[60] and clothe themselves with the skins 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 Monocoli, who
have only one leg, but are able to leap with surprising agility. The
same people are also called Sciapodæ, because they are in the habit of
lying on their backs, during the time of the extreme heat, and protect
themselves from the sun by the shade of their feet. These people, he
says, dwell not very far from the Troglodytæ; to the west of whom again
there is a tribe who are without necks, and have eyes in their
shoulders.
Among the mountainous districts of the eastern parts of India, in what
is called the country of the Catharcludi, we find the Satyr,[61] an
animal of extraordinary swiftness. These go sometimes on four feet, 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. Tauron gives the name of
Choromandæ 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 color, and their teeth
like those of the dog. Eudoxus tells us, that in the southern parts of
India, the men have feet a cubit in length; while those of the women are
so remarkably small, that they are called Struthopodes or
sparrow-footed.[62]
Megasthenes places among the Nomades of India, a people who are called
Scyritæ. These 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 Astomi, a people who have no mouths; their bodies
are rough and hairy, and they cover themselves with a down[63] plucked
from the leaves of trees. These people subsist only by breathing and by
the odors 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 odoriferous roots and flowers, and
wild apples, that they may not be without something to smell at. But an
odor, which is a little more powerful than usual, easily destroys
them.[64]
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, twenty-seven 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[65] has mentioned as being warred upon by cranes. It is said, that
they are in the habit of going down every spring to the sea-shore, in a
large body, seated on the backs of rams and goats, and armed with
arrows, and there 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 egg-shells. Aristotle says, that they dwell in
caves; but, in all other respects, he gives the same details as other
writers.
Isigonus informs us, that the Cyrni, a people of India, live to their
four hundredth year; and he is of opinion that the same is the case also
with the Æthiopian Macrobii, the Seræ, and the inhabitants of Mount
Athos. In the case of these last, it is supposed to be owing to the
flesh of vipers,[66] 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 one hundred and thirty 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 Pandore,
whose locality is in the valleys, and who live to their two hundredth
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
Macrobii, who never live beyond their fortieth year, and there is never
more than one child in a family. This circumstance is also mentioned by
Agatharchides, who states, in addition, that they live on locusts, and
are very swift of foot. Clitarchus and Megasthenes give these people the
name of Mandi, and enumerate as many as three hundred villages which
belong to them. Their women marry in the seventh year of their age, and
become old at forty.
Artemidorus states that in the island of Taprobana, life is prolonged to
an extreme length, while, at the same time, the body is exempt from
weakness. Among the Calingæ, 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 of
remarkable swiftness of foot; while there are others that have ears so
large as to cover the whole body.[67]
There is a tribe of Æthiopian Nomades dwelling on the banks of the river
Astragus, towards the north, and about twenty days' journey from the
ocean. These people are called Menismini; they live on the milk of the
animal which we call cynocephalus,[68] and rear 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 the 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 placest 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 Anacreon, the
swallowing of the stone of a raisin, or of a single hair in a draught of
milk, by which the prætor 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.
CHAPTER III.
INSTANCES OF EXTRAORDINARY STRENGTH.
Varro, speaking of persons remarkable for their strength, gives us an
account of Tributanus, a celebrated gladiator, and skilled in the use of
the Samnite arms;[69] he was a man of meagre person, but possessed of
extraordinary strength. Varro makes mention of his son also, who served
in the army of Pompey. 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. Vinnius Valens, who served
as a centurion in the prætorian 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. Varro, also, gives the following statement: "Fusius, who used
to be called the 'bumpkin Hercules,' was in the habit of carrying his
own mule; while Salvius 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 Athanatus walk across the
stage, wearing a leaden breast-plate of five hundred pounds weight,
while shod with buskins of the same weight. When Milo, the wrestler, 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.
CHAPTER IV.
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 Lacedæmon,
in two days, until Amystis, the Lacedæmonian courier, and Philonides,
the courier of Alexander the Great, ran from Sicyon to Elis in one day,
a distance of thirteen hundred and five stadia.[70] 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 Fonteius 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[71] of Homer was
written on a piece of parchment so small as to be enclosed in a
nut-shell. He makes mention also of a man who could distinguish objects
at a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles. Marcus Varro says,
that the name of this man was Strabo; and that, during the Punic war,
from Lilybæum, 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. Callicrates
used to carve ants and other small animals in ivory, so minute in size,
that other persons were unable to distinguish their individual parts.
Myrmecides also was famous in the same line;[72] 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.
CHAPTER V.
VIGOR OF MIND, AND COURAGE.
The most remarkable instance, I think, of vigor of mind in any man ever
born, was that of Cæsar, 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, too, 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 Cæsar 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 the 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 Pharsalia, and those of Scipio,
taken at Thapsus, 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 splendor of his exploits having equalled not only that of
those of Alexander the Great, but even of Hercules, and perhaps of
Father Liber[73] even. After having recovered Sicily, where he first
commenced his career as a partisan of Sylla, 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,"[74] he was decreed the honors of a triumph; and he,
though only of equestrian rank, a thing that had never occurred before,
re-entered the city in the triumphal 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 eight hundred and seventy-six 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 despatched to the shores of all the
various seas, and then to the East, whence he brought back to his
country many titles of honor, resembling therein those who conquer at
the sacred games--for, be it remembered, it is not they 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:--"Cneius Pompeius Magnus, Imperator, having brought to an
end a war of thirty years' duration, and having defeated, routed, put to
the sword, or received the submission of, twelve millions two hundred
and seventy-eight thousand men, having sunk or captured eight hundred
and forty-six vessels, having received as allies one thousand five
hundred and thirty-eight cities and fortresses, and having conquered all
the country from the Mæotis to the Red Sea, dedicates this shrine as a
votive offering due to Minerva." Such, in 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. Messala (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,
Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Syria, the Scythians, Judæa, 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 centre. If any one should
wish, on the other hand, in a similar manner, to pass in review the
exploits of Cæsar, 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 Siccius Dentatus, who was
tribune of the people in the consulship of Spurius Tarpeius and Aulus
Aterius (B.C. 454), not long after the expulsion of the kings, has very
numerous testimonies in his favor. This hero fought one hundred and
twenty battles, was eight times victorious in single combat, and was
graced with forty-five wounds in the front of the body, without one on
the back. The same man also carried off thirty-four spoils, was eighteen
times presented with the victor's spear,[75] and received twenty-five
pendants, eighty-three torcs, or golden ornaments, one hundred and sixty
bracelets, twenty-six crowns, a fisc or chest of money, ten prisoners,
and twenty oxen. He followed in the triumphal processions of nine
generals, who mainly owed their victories 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 Manlius Capitolinus 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
fore-part of his body. He saved the life of P. Servilius, the master of
the horse, receiving wounds on the same occasion in 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 effect much, fortune does
still more.
No person living, in my opinion at least, ever excelled Marcus Sergius,
although his great-grandson, Catiline, 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 invalided soldier. He
was twice taken prisoner by Hannibal, (for it was with no ordinary enemy
that he would engage,) and twice did he escape 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 Gaul. All this we learn from an oration of his, which
he delivered when, in his prætorship, his colleagues attempted to
exclude him from the sacred rites, on the ground of his infirmities.[76]
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 valor of each man has fallen.
What civic crowns did Trebia, what did the Ticinus, what did Lake
Thrasymenus afford? What crown was there to be gained at Cannæ, where it
was deemed the greatest effort of valor to have escaped from the enemy?
Other persons have been conquerors of men, no doubt, but Sergius
conquered even Fortune herself.
CHAPTER VI.
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
Pindar should be spared, at the taking of Thebes. He likewise rebuilt
Stagira, the native city of Aristotle, uniting to the extraordinary
brilliancy of his exploits this speaking testimony of his kindliness 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
Æschines, the great Athenian orator, had read to the Rhodians the speech
which he had made on the accusation of Demosthenes he then read the
defence made by Demosthenes, 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 fasces to be lowered before the door of a
learned man.
The elder Africanus ordered that the statue of Ennius 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 Varro 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 Asinius Pollio 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.[77]
But what atonement could I offer to thee, Marcus Tullius Cicero, were I
to be silent respecting thy name? or on what ground am I to pronounce
thee especially preëminent? On what, indeed, that can be more convincing
than the most abundant testimony that was offered in thy favor by the
whole Roman people? Thou speakest, and the tribes surrender the Agrarian
law, or, in other words, their very subsistence; thou advisest 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 honors: before thy genius Catiline took to flight, and it was
thou who didst proscribe Marcus Antonius. Hail, then, to thee, who wast
the first of all to receive the title of Father of thy country, who wast
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 Cæsar, once thy enemy, wrote in
testimony of thee,[78] 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!
Book IV.
THE NATURE OF TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS.
CHAPTER I.
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
a veneration for the sun and the moon.[79] It is said by some authors,
that, at the first appearance of the new moon, herds of these animals
come down from the forests of Mauritania to a river, the name of which
is Amilo; and that they there purify themselves in solemn form by
sprinkling their bodies with water; after which, having thus saluted the
heavenly body, they return to the woods, carrying before them 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 the
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. Procilius[80] 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 tight-rope,[81] 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 did they manage their steps, that they did
not so much as touch any of those who were drinking there.
It is a well-known fact,[82] 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. It is a most surprising thing also, that the elephant is
able not only to walk up the tight-rope backwards, but to come down it
as well, with the head foremost. 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."[83] Mutianus states also, that he himself was witness to the
fact, that when some elephants were being landed at Puteoli 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.[84] 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[85] having exhausted all
those in our part of the world. The youthfulness of the animal is
ascertained by the whiteness of the teeth. These animals take the
greatest care of their teeth; they pay especial attention to the point
of one of them, that it may not be found blunt when wanted for combat;
the other they employ for various purposes, such as digging up roots and
pushing forward heavy weights. When they are surrounded by the hunters,
they place those in front which have the smallest teeth, that the enemy
may think that the spoil is not worth the combat; and afterwards, when
they are weary of resistance, they break off their teeth, by dashing
them against a tree, and in this manner pay their ransom.[86]
It is a wonderful thing, that most animals are aware why it is that they
are sought after, and what it is, that, under all circumstances, they
have to guard against. When an elephant happens to meet a man in the
desert, who is merely wandering about, the animal, it is said, shows
himself both merciful and kind, and even points out the way. But the
very same animal, if he meets with the traces of a man, before he meets
the man himself, trembles in every limb, for fear of an ambush, stops
short and scents the wind, looks around him, and snorts aloud with rage;
and then, without trampling upon the object trodden upon, digs it up,
and passes it to the next one, who again passes it to the one that
follows, and so on from one to the other, till it comes to the very
last. The herd then faces about, returns, and ranges itself in order of
battle; so strongly does the 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 whelps. How has the animal acquired
this knowledge? And where has it seen him before, of whom it stands in
such dread? Doubt there can be none, that forests such as it haunts are
but little frequented by man! It is not to be wondered at, if they are
astonished at the print of a footstep before unknown; but how should
they know that there is anything that they ought to dread? And, what is
still more, why should they dread even the very sight of man, seeing
that they are so far 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 depth of the channel, by working away the bed of the river.
We learn from Antipater, that King Antiochus had two elephants, which he
employed in his wars, and to which he had given the names of celebrated
men; and that they were aware too of this mark of distinction. Cato, in
his Annals, while he has passed over in silence the names of the
generals, has given that of an elephant called Surus, which fought with
the greatest valor in the Carthaginian army, and had lost one of its
tusks. When Antiochus was sounding the ford of a river, an elephant
named Ajax, which on other occasions had always led the van, refused to
enter the stream; upon which proclamation was made, that the first rank
should belong to the one which should take the lead in passing over. One
called Patroclus hazarded the attempt, and as a reward, the king
presented it with some silver pendants, a kind of ornament with which
these animals are particularly delighted, and assigned it all the other
marks of command. Upon this, the elephant that had been degraded refused
to take its food, and so preferred death to ignominy. Indeed their sense
of shame is wonderful, and when one of them has been conquered, it flies
at the voice of the conqueror, and presents him with earth and vervain.
Nor ought we to be surprised that such an animal should be sensible of
affection: for Juba relates, that an elephant recognized, after the
lapse of many years, an old man who had been its keeper in his youth.
They would seem also to have an instinctive feeling of justice. King
Bocchus once fastened thirty elephants to the stake, with the
determination of wreaking his vengeance on them, by means of thirty
others; but though men kept sallying forth among them to goad them on,
he could not, with all his endeavors, 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 Carthaginians.[87] One hundred
and forty-two of them were conveyed to our shores upon rafts, which were
constructed on rows of hogsheads joined together. Verrius informs us,
that they fought in the Circus, and that they were slain with javelins,
for want of some better method of disposing of them; as the people
neither liked to keep them nor yet to give them to the kings.
CHAPTER II.
THE COMBATS OF ELEPHANTS.
[Illustration: AFRICAN ELEPHANT.--_Loxodonta Africana._]
There is a famous combat mentioned of a Roman with an elephant, when
Hannibal compelled our prisoners to fight against each other. The one
who had survived all the others he placed before an elephant, and
promised him his life if he should slay it; upon which the man advanced
alone into the arena, and, to the great regret of the Carthaginians,
succeeded in doing so. 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 Gætulians, 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 whirled 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 Cæsar, 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 honor, 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 Cæsar, 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 Emperors 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.
CHAPTER III.
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
pit-falls; but as soon as an elephant gets into one, the others
immediately collect boughs of trees and pile up heaps of earth, so as to
form a mound, and then endeavor with all their 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 thus enclosed by means of steep
banks and trenches, they were rendered tame by the effects of hunger; as
a proof of which, they would quietly take a branch that was extended to
them by one of the men. At the present day, when we take them for the
sake of their tusks, we throw darts at their feet, which are in general
the most tender part of their body. The Troglodytæ, who inhabit the
confines of Æthiopia, and who live entirely on the flesh of elephants
procured by the chase, climb the trees which lie near the paths through
which these animals usually pass. Here they keep a watch, and look out
for the one which comes last in the train; leaping down upon its
haunches, they seize its tail with the left hand, and fix their feet
firmly upon the left thigh. Hanging down in this manner, the man, with
his right hand, hamstrings the animal on one side, with a very sharp
hatchet. The elephant's pace being retarded by the wound, he 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 violent 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 under foot 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 side, than to their
opponents.
CHAPTER IV.
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.[88] They are
particularly sensitive to cold, which is really their greatest enemy.
The trunks and foliage of trees are their favorite 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 unaptly 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 aversion 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
horseleech, an animal which people are beginning, I find, to call almost
universally a "blood-sucker." The leech fastens upon the wind-pipe, and
produces intolerable pain.
The skin of the back is extremely hard, that of the belly is softer.
They are not covered with any kind of bristles, nor does the slender
tail furnish them with any protection from the annoyance of flies; for
vast as these animals are, they suffer greatly from them. Their skin is
reticulated, and invites these insects by the 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 folds 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 cartilaginous part of the
trunk, for no other reason, in my belief, than because it fancies itself
to be eating ivory. Tusks of enormous size are constantly to be seen in
the temples; and in the extreme parts of Africa, on the confines of
Æthiopia, they are employed as door-posts for houses.
CHAPTER V.
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, entrusted the prosecution of
this design to Aristotle, a man who held the highest rank in every
branch of learning; for which purpose he placed under his command some
thousands of men in every region of Asia and Greece, comprising all
those who followed the business of hunting, fowling, or fishing, or who
had the care of parks, herds of cattle, the breeding of bees,
fish-ponds, and aviaries, in order that no creature that was known to
exist might escape his notice. By means of the information which he
obtained from these persons, he was enabled to compose some fifty
volumes, which are deservedly esteemed, on the subject of animals; of
these I purpose to give an epitome, together with other facts with which
Aristotle was unacquainted; and I beg the kind indulgence of my readers
in their estimate of this work of mine, as by my aid they hastily travel
through all the works of nature, and through the midst of subjects with
which that most famous of all kings so ardently desired to be
acquainted.
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 paw, 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 shows mercy to the
suppliant; 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 Gætulia, was attacked by a number of lions in the
forests; upon which she summoned sufficient courage to address them, and
said that she was a woman, a fugitive, helpless creature, that she
implored the compassion of the most generous of animals, the one that
has the command of all the others, and that she was a prey unworthy of
their high repute--and by these means effectually soothed their
ferocity.[89] 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.
[Illustration: GAMBIAN LION.--_Leo Gambianus._]
The tail of the lion gives indication of the state of his feelings, just
as the ears do in the horse; for these are the distinguishing signs
which Nature has given to each of the most generous of animals. Hence it
is that, when pleased, the tail is without motion, and the animal fawns
upon those who caress him; a thing, however, that very rarely happens,
for his 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 the
breast. When his hunger is satisfied, he becomes harmless. The generous
disposition of the lion is especially manifested in time 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 whelps, it is said that she fixes her eyes steadily on the ground,
that she may not be frightened at the spears of the hunters. In all
other respects, these animals are equally free from deceit and
suspicion. They never look at an object obliquely, and they dislike
being looked at themselves in such a manner. It is generally believed,
that, when the lion is dying, he bites at the earth, and sheds tears at
his fate. 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 rouses
his anger; and as soon as he tastes their blood, he is relieved.
CHAPTER VI.
WONDERFUL FEATS PERFORMED BY LIONS.
It was formerly a very difficult matter to catch the lion, and it was
mostly done by means of pit-falls. In the reign, however, of the Emperor
Claudius, accident disclosed a method which appears almost disgraceful
to the name of such an animal; a Gætulian shepherd stopped a lion, that
was rushing furiously upon him, by merely throwing his cloak 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 Cytheris, 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.
[Illustration: WILD CAT.--_Felis Catus._]
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 mean while 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 chanced to procure in the chase. In memory of this circumstance,
Elpis consecrated a temple at Samos to Father Liber, which the Greeks,
from the circumstance above related, called "the temple {kechênotos
Dionyson}," or "temple of the open-mouthed Bacchus." Can we wonder,
after this, that the wild beasts should be able to recognize 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 some one to pass that way, when he was suddenly
perceived by the father of one Philinus, 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;
whither he was escorted by her, frisking with joy and gladness, in order
that she might more appropriately testify how grateful she was, and how
little she had given him in return; a mode of acting which is but rarely
found even among men.
[Illustration: MARGAY.--_Leopardus Tigrinus._]
Facts such as these induce us to give some credit to what Democritus
relates, who says that a man, called Thoas, was preserved in Arcadia by
a dragon. 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 to what 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.
CHAPTER VII.
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 quadrupeds 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 pard 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.
[Illustration: JAGUAR.--_Leopardus Onca._]
There was an ancient decree of the senate, which prohibited animals
being imported from Africa into Italy; but Cnæus Aufidius, the tribune
of the people, procured a law repealing this, which allowed of their
being brought over for the games of the Circus. Scaurus, in his
ædileship, was the first who sent over the parti-colored kind, one
hundred and fifty in all; after which, Pompey sent four hundred and ten,
and the late Emperor Augustus four hundred and twenty.
The same emperor was the first person who exhibited at Rome a tame tiger
on the 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 nones of May: the late Emperor Claudius exhibited four at one time.
[Illustration: TIGER.--_Tigris Regális._]
Hyrcania and India produce the tiger, an animal of tremendous swiftness,
a quality which is more especially tested when we deprive it of all its
whelps, which are always very numerous. They are seized by the hunter,
who lies in wait for them, being provided with the fleetest horse he can
possibly obtain, and which he frequently changes for a fresh one. As
soon as the female finds her lair empty--for the male takes no care
whatever of his offspring--headlong she darts forth, and traces them by
the smell. Her approach is made known by her cries, upon which the
hunter throws down one of the whelps; this she snatches up with her
teeth, and more swift, even, under the weight, returns to her lair, and
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.
CHAPTER VIII.
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 the breast, by means of which they support themselves when
reclining. Both of these species, like the ox, have no teeth in the
upper jaw. They are all of them employed as beasts of burthen, in
carrying loads on the back, and they answer the purpose of cavalry in
battle. Their speed is the same with that of the horse, but their power
of holding out in this respect is proportioned in each to its natural
strength: it will never go beyond its accustomed distance, nor will it
receive more than its usual load. The camel 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.
[Illustration: CAMEL.--_Camélus Arábicus._]
[Illustration: GIRAFFE.--_Giraffa Camelopárdalis._]
There are two other animals, which have some resemblance to the camel.
One of these is called, by the Æthiopians, the nabun. It has a neck like
that of the horse, feet and legs like those of the ox, a head like that
of the camel, and is covered with white spots upon a red ground; from
which peculiarities it has been called the cameleopard.[90] It was first
seen at Rome in the Circensian games held by Cæsar, 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.
CHAPTER IX.
THE RHINOCEROS AND THE CROCOTTA.
[Illustration: INDIAN RHINOCEROS.--_Rhinoceros Unicornis._]
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 color of box-wood.
[Illustration: KEITTOA, OR SLOAN'S RHINOCEROS.--_Rhinóceros Keittoa._]
Æthiopia produces the crocotta, 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 digest 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 leucrocotta, a
wild beast of extraordinary swiftness, the size of the wild ass, with
the legs of a stag, the neck, tail, and breast of a lion, the head of a
badger, a cloven hoof, the mouth slit up as far as the ears, and one
continuous bone instead of teeth;[91] it is said, too, that this animal
can imitate the human voice. Among the same people, there is also found
an animal called eale; it is the size of the river-horse, has the tail
of the elephant, and is of a black or tawny color. 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 position by presenting them directly or obliquely, according as
necessity may dictate. But the wild bulls which this country produces
are the fiercest of all; they are larger than our domestic bull, and
exceed all the others in swiftness; are of a tawny color, 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 eale. The hide
of this animal is as hard as flint, and effectually resists all wounds.
These creatures pursue all the other wild beasts, while they themselves
can only be taken in pitfalls, where they always perish from excess of
rage. Ctesias informs us, that among these same Æthiopians, an animal is
found, which he calls the mantichora;[92] 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 a tail ending in a sting, like that of the scorpion. Its voice
resembles the union of the sound of the flute and the trumpet; it is of
excessive swiftness, and is particularly fond of human flesh.
CHAPTER X.
THE ANIMALS OF ÆTHIOPIA; WILD BEASTS WHICH KILL WITH THEIR EYES.
Among the Hesperian Æthiopians is the fountain of Nigris, by many,
supposed to be the head of the Nile. Near this fountain, there is found
a wild beast, which is called the catoblepas; 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. Were it
not for this circumstance, it would prove the destruction of the human
race; for all who behold its eyes, fall dead upon the spot.
There is the same power also in the serpent called the basilisk.[93] It
is produced in the province of Cyrene, being not more than twelve
fingers in length. It has a white spot on the head, strongly resembling
a sort of a diadem. When it hisses, all the other serpents fly from it:
and it does not advance its body, like the others, by a succession of
folds, but moves along upright and erect upon the middle. It destroys
all shrubs, not only by its contact, but those even that it has breathed
upon; it burns up all the grass too, and breaks the stones, so
tremendous is its noxious influence. It was formerly a general belief
that if a man on horseback killed one of these animals with a spear, the
poison would run up the weapon and kill, not only the rider, but the
horse as well. To this dreadful monster the odor 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 odor,
but dies itself in this struggle of nature against its own self.
CHAPTER XI.
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.[94] 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 "Versipellis"[95] to be used as a common form of
imprecation, I will here point out its origin. Euanthes, a Grecian
author of no mean reputation, informs us that the Arcadians assert that
a member of the family of Anthus is chosen by lot, and then taken to a
certain lake in that district, where, after suspending his clothes on an
oak, he swims across the water and goes away into the desert, where he
is changed into a wolf and associates with other animals of the same
species for a space of nine years. If he has kept himself from beholding
a man during the whole of that time, he returns to the same lake, and,
after swimming across it, resumes his original form, only with the
addition of nine years in age to his former appearance. To this Fabius
adds, that he takes his former clothes as well. It is really wonderful
to what a length the credulity[96] of the Greeks will go! There is no
falsehood, if ever so barefaced, to which some of them cannot be found
to bear testimony.
So, too, Agriopas informs us that Demænetus, the Parrhasian, during a
sacrifice of human victims, which the Arcadians were offering up to the
Lycæan 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.
[Illustration: VIPER, OR ADDER.--_Pelias Berus._]
With reference to serpents, it is generally known, that they assume the
color of the soil in which they conceal themselves. The different
species of them are innumerable. The cerastes 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
amphisbæna 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 jaculus[97] darts 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 hurled 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 ichneumon,
however, is its enemy to the very death.
This hostility is the especial glory of this animal, which is also
produced in Egypt. It plunges itself repeatedly into the mud, and then
dries itself in the sun: as soon as, by these means, it has armed itself
with a sufficient number of coatings, it proceeds to the combat. Raising
its tail, and turning its back to the serpent, it receives its stings,
which are inflicted to no purpose, until at last, turning its head
sideways, and viewing its enemy, it seizes it by the throat. Not
content, however, with this victory, it conquers another creature, the
crocodile, which is no less dangerous.
CHAPTER XII.
THE CROCODILE AND THE HIPPOPOTAMUS.
The Nile produces the crocodile, a destructive quadruped, and equally
dangerous on land and in the water. This is the only land animal that
does not enjoy the use of its tongue,[98] and the only one that has the
upper jaw movable, 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 eighteen cubits. It produces eggs about the
size of those of the goose, and, by a kind of instinctive foresight,
always deposits them beyond the limit to which the river Nile rises,
when at its greatest height. 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 blows. It passes the day on
land, and the night in the water, in both instances on account of the
warmth. When it has glutted itself with fish, it goes to sleep on the
banks of the river, a portion of the food always remaining in its mouth;
upon which, a little bird, which in Egypt is known as the trochilus,
and, in Italy, as the king of the birds, for the purpose of obtaining
food, invites the crocodile to open its jaws; then, hopping to and fro,
it first cleans the outside of its mouth, next the teeth, and then the
inside, while the animal opens its jaws as wide as possible, in
consequence of the pleasure which it experiences from the
titillation.[99] It is at these moments that the ichneumon, seeing it
fast asleep in consequence of the agreeable sensation thus produced,
darts down its throat like an arrow, and eats away its intestines.[100]
Like the crocodile, but smaller even than the ichneumon, is the scincus,
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,[101] which is edged like a knife, as if for this very
purpose; and although these animals are much inferior in strength, they
contrive to destroy the crocodile by artifice, which on the other hand
attempts to drive them from their prey, and would reign alone in its
river as its peculiar domain. For all animals have an especial instinct
in this respect, and are able to know not only what is for their own
advantage, but also what is to the disadvantage of their enemies; they
fully understand the use of their own weapons, they know their
opportunity, and the weak parts of those with which they have to
contend.
The skin of the belly of the crocodile is soft and thin; aware of this,
the dolphins plunge into the water, as if in great alarm, and diving
beneath its belly, tear it open with their spines. There is a race of
men also, who are peculiarly hostile to the crocodile; they are known as
the Tentyritæ, from an island in the Nile which they inhabit. These men
are of small stature, but of wonderful presence of mind, though for this
particular object only. The crocodile is a terrible animal to those who
fly from it, while at the same time it will fly from those who pursue
it; these, however, are the only people who dare to attack it. They even
swim in the river after it, and mount its back like so many horsemen;
and just as the animal turns up its head for the purpose of biting them,
they insert a club into its mouth, holding which at each end, with the
two hands, it acts like a bit, and by these means they drive the
captured animal on shore. They also terrify the crocodile so much 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 sight 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 neighing 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.
[Illustration: HIPPOPOTAMUS, OR ZEEKOE.--_Hippopotamus Amphibius._]
Marcus Scaurus was the first to exhibit this animal at Rome, together
with five crocodiles, at the games which he gave in his ædileship, 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 reeds which
have been newly cut; as soon as it has found a stump that is very sharp,
it presses its body against it, and so wounds one of the veins in the
thigh; and, by the flow of blood thus produced, the body, which would
otherwise have fallen into a morbid state, is relieved; after which, it
covers up the wound with mud.
CHAPTER XIII.
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 labor 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 attach the greatest faith,
but by other kinds of warnings as well. When a building is about to fall
down, all the mice desert it, 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 ear 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.
[Illustration: COMMON MOUSE.--_Mus Músculus_ (White, Brown and Pied
Varieties).]
We have accounts, too, no less remarkable, in reference even to the most
contemptible of animals. Marcus Varro informs us, that a town in Spain
was undermined by rabbits, and one in Thessaly, by mice; that the
inhabitants of a district in Gaul were driven from their country by
frogs, and a place in Africa by locusts; that the inhabitants of Gyarus,
one of the Cyclades, were driven away by mice; and the Amunclæ, in
Italy, by serpents. There is a vast desert tract on this side of the
Æthiopian Cynamolgi, the inhabitants of which were exterminated by
scorpions and venomous ants, and Theophrastus informs us, that the
people of Rhoeteum were driven away by multipede insects. But we must
now return to the other kinds of wild beasts.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE HYÆNA.
The neck of the hyæna with the mane, runs continuously into the
back-bone, so that the animal cannot bend this part without turning
round the whole 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 colors 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.
CHAPTER XV.
DEER.
The deer, although the mildest of all animals, has still its own
feelings of malignancy; when hard 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 his bow and
arrow. 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 island of Cyprus. Though they do not
see the land, they still are able to direct themselves by the smell. The
males have horns, and are the only animals that shed them every year, at
a stated time in the spring; at which period they seek out with the
greatest care the most retired places, and after losing them, remain
concealed, as though aware that they are unarmed. They also bear the
marks of their age on the horns, every year, up to the sixth,[102] a
fresh antler being added; after which period the horns are renewed in
the same state, so that by means of them their age cannot be
ascertained. Their old age, however, is indicated by their teeth, for
then they have only a few, or none at all; and we then no longer
perceive, at the base of their horns, antlers projecting from the front
of the forehead, as is usually the case with the animal when young.
[Illustration: CARIBOU.--_Larandus Rangifer._]
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,[103] the plant having taken root on them, as it would on
any piece of wood, while the animal was rubbing them against the trees.
The stag is sometimes found white, as is said to have been the case with
the hind of Sertorius, which he persuaded the nations of Spain to look
upon as having the gift of prophecy.
The stag is generally admitted to be very long lived; some were captured
at the end of one hundred years with the golden collars which Alexander
the Great had put upon them, and which were quite concealed by the folds
of the skin, in consequence of the accumulation of fat.[104]
CHAPTER XVI.
THE CHAMELEON.
Africa is almost the only country that does not produce the 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 color 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.[105] Towards the
end of the dog-days it is fierce, but at other times quite harmless. The
nature of its color, too, is very remarkable, for it is continually
changing; its eyes, its tail, and its whole body always assuming the
color of whatever object is nearest, with the exception of white and
red.[106] After death, it becomes of a pale color. 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 the lizard.
CHAPTER XVII.
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
three or four 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
fourteen days they are overcome by so deep a sleep, 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
fourteen days they sit up, and find nourishment by sucking their
fore-paws. They warm their cubs, when cold, by pressing them to the
breast, not unlike the way in which birds brood over their eggs. It is a
very astonishing thing, but Theophrastus believes it that if we preserve
the flesh of the bear, the animal being killed in its dormant state, it
will increase in bulk, even though it may have been cooked. During this
period no signs of food are to be found in the stomach of the animal,
and only a very slight quantity of liquid; there are a few drops of
blood only near the heart, but none whatever in any other part of the
body. They leave their retreat in the spring, the males being remarkably
fat: of this circumstance, however, we cannot give any satisfactory
explanation, for the sleep, during which they increase so much in bulk,
lasts, as we have already stated, only fourteen days. When they come
out, they sharpen the edges of their teeth against the young shoots of
the trees. Their eye-sight 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.[107] 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 Piso and Messala, Domitius brought into the
Circus one hundred Numidian bears, and as many Æthiopian hunters.
[Illustration: SYRIAN BEAR, OR DUBB.--_Ursus Isabellinus._]
The mice of Pontus also conceal 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 conceal themselves; but 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 fore feet as hands.
CHAPTER XVIII.
HEDGEHOGS.
Hedgehogs also lay up food for the winter; rolling themselves on apples
as they lie on the ground, they pierce some with their quills, and then
take up another in the mouth, and so carry them into the hollows of
trees. These animals also, when they conceal themselves in their holes,
afford a sure sign that the wind is about to change from north-east to
south. When they perceive the approach of the hunter, they draw in the
head and feet, and all the lower part of the body, which is covered by a
thin and defenceless down only, and then roll themselves up into the
form of a ball, so that there is no way of taking hold of them but by
their quills.
[Illustration: HEDGEHOG.--_Erinaceus Europæus._]
They force it to unroll itself, by sprinkling warm water upon it, and
then, suspended by one of its hind legs, it is left to die of hunger;
for there is no other mode of destroying it, without doing injury to its
skin. This animal is not, as many of us imagine, entirely useless to
man. If it were not for the quills which it produces, the soft fleece of
the sheep would have been given in vain to mankind; for it is by means
of its skin, that our woollen cloth is dressed. From the monopoly of
this article, great frauds and great profits have resulted; 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.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE WILD BOAR.
The flesh of the wild boar is much esteemed. Cato the Censor, 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 chine. Publius Servilius
Rullus was the first Roman who served up a whole boar at a banquet; the
father of that Rullus, who, in the consulship of Cicero, proposed the
Agrarian law. So recent is the introduction of a thing which is now in
daily use. The Annalists have taken notice of such a fact as this,
clearly as a hint to us to mend our manners; seeing that now-a-days two
or three boars are consumed, not at one entertainment, but as forming
the first course only.
[Illustration: WILD BOAR.--_Sus Scrofa._]
Fulvius 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 Hortensius. 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 bull.
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.
CHAPTER XX.
APES.
[Illustration: SILVERY GIBBON.--_Hylóbates Leuciscus._]
The different kinds of apes, which approach the nearest to the human
figure, are distinguished from each other by the tail. Their shrewdness
is quite wonderful. It is said that, imitating the hunters, they will
besmear themselves with bird-lime, and put their feet into the shoes
which, as so many snares, have been prepared for them.[108] Mucianus
says, that they have even played at chess, having, by practice, learned
to distinguish the different pieces, which are made of wax.[109] He says
that the species which have tails become quite melancholy when the moon
is on the wane, and that they leap for joy at the time of the new moon,
and adore it. Other quadrupeds also are terrified at the eclipses of the
heavenly bodies. All the species of apes manifest remarkable affection
for their offspring. Females, which have been domesticated, and have had
young ones, carry them about and 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. The callitriche 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 Æthiopia, which is its
native place.
[Illustration: THE ORANG-OUTAN.--_Simia Sátyrus._]
Book V.
DOMESTIC ANIMALS.
CHAPTER I.
THE DOG; EXAMPLES OF ITS ATTACHMENT TO ITS MASTER.
Among the animals that are domesticated with mankind have occurred many
circumstances that deserve to be known. Among these animals are more
particularly those faithful friends of man, the dog, and the horse. We
have an account of a dog that fought against a band of robbers, in
defending its master; and although it was pierced with wounds, still it
would not leave the body, from which it drove away all birds and beasts.
Another dog, in Epirus, recognized the murderer of its master, in the
midst of an assemblage of people, and, by biting and barking at him,
extorted from him a confession of his crime. A king of the Garamantes
was brought back from exile by two hundred dogs, who maintained the
combat against all his opponents. The people of Colophon and Castabala
kept troops of dogs, for the purposes of war; and these used to fight in
the front rank, and never retreat; they were the most faithful of
auxiliaries, and yet required no pay. After the defeat of the Cimbri,
their dogs defended their movable houses, which were carried upon
wagons. When Jason, the Lycian, had been slain, his dog refused to take
food, and died of famine. When the funeral pile of King Lysimachus was
lighted, his dog, to which Darius gives the name of Hyrcanus, threw
itself into the flames, and the dog of King Hiero did the same.
Philistus gives a similar account of Pyrrhus, the dog of the tyrant
Gelon.
[Illustration: MALTESE DOG.--_Canis Familiáris._]
Among ourselves, Volcatius, a man of rank, who instructed Cascellius in
the civil law, as he was riding on his Asturian jennet, towards evening,
from his country-house, was attacked by a robber, and was only saved by
his dog. The senator Cælius, too, while lying sick at Placentia, was
surprised by armed men, but received not a wound from them until they
had first killed his dog. But a more extraordinary fact than all, took
place in our own times, and is testified to by the public register of
the Roman people. In the consulship of Junius and Silius, when Titius
Sabinus was put to death together with his slaves, for the affair of
Nero, the son of Germanicus, it was found impossible to drive away a dog
which belonged to one of them from the prison; nor could it be forced
away from the body, which had been cast down the Gemitorian steps; but
there it stood howling, in the presence of vast multitudes of people;
and when some one threw a piece of bread to it, the animal carried it to
the mouth of its master. Afterwards, when the body was thrown into the
Tiber, the dog swam into the river, and endeavored to raise it out of
the water; quite a throng of people gathered to witness this instance of
an animal's fidelity.
Dogs are the only animals that are sure to know their masters; and if
they suddenly meet him as a stranger they will instantly recognize him.
They are the only animals that will answer to their names, and recognize
the voices of the family. They recollect a road along which they have
passed, however long it may be. Next to man, there is no living creature
whose memory is so retentive. By sitting down on the ground, we may
arrest their most impetuous attack, even when prompted by the most
violent rage.
[Illustration: THIBET DOG.--_Canis Familiáris._]
In daily life we have discovered many other valuable qualities in this
animal; but its intelligence and sagacity are more especially shown in
the chase. It discovers and traces out the tracks of the animal, leading
by the leash the sportsman who accompanies it straight up to the prey;
and as soon as it has perceived it, how silent it is, and how secret but
significant is the indication which it gives, first by the tail and
afterwards by the nose! Oftentimes even when worn out with old age,
blind, and feeble, they are carried by the huntsman in his arms, being
still able to point out the coverts where the game is concealed, by
snuffing with their muzzles at the wind.
Among the Gauls their packs of hounds have, each of them, one dog who
acts as the guide and leader. This dog they follow in the chase, and him
they carefully obey; for these animals have even a notion of
subordination among themselves. It is asserted that the dogs keep
running when they drink at the Nile, for fear of becoming a prey to the
voracity of the crocodile. When Alexander the Great was on his Indian
expedition, he was presented by the king of Albania with a dog of
unusual size; being greatly delighted with its noble appearance, he
ordered bears, and after them wild boars, and then deer, to be let loose
before it; but the dog lay down, and regarded them with contempt. The
noble spirit of the general became irritated by the sluggishness thus
manifested by an animal of such vast bulk, and he ordered it to be
killed. The report of this reached the king, who accordingly sent
another dog, and at the same time sent word that its powers were to be
tried, not upon small animals, but upon the lion or the elephant; adding
that he had had originally but two, and that if this one were put to
death, the race would be extinct. Alexander, without delay, procured a
lion, which in his presence was instantly torn to pieces. He then
ordered an elephant to be brought, and never was he more delighted with
any spectacle; for the dog, bristling up its hair all over the body,
began by thundering forth a loud barking, and then attacked the animal,
leaping at it first on one side and then on the other, attacking it in
the most skillful manner, and then again retreating at the opportune
moment, until at last the elephant, being rendered quite giddy by
turning round and round, fell to the earth, and made it quite re-echo
with his fall.
CHAPTER II.
THE HORSE.
King Alexander had a very remarkable horse which was called Bucephalus,
either on account of the fierceness of its aspect, or because it had the
figure of a bull's head marked on its shoulder. It is said, that he was
struck with its beauty when he was only a boy, and that it was purchased
from the stud of Philonicus, the Pharsalian, for thirteen talents. When
it was equipped with the royal trappings, it would suffer no one except
Alexander to mount it, although at other times it would allow any one to
do so. A memorable circumstance connected with it in battle is recorded
of this horse; it is said that when it was wounded in the attack upon
Thebes, it would not allow Alexander to mount any other horse. Many
other circumstances, of a similar nature, occurred respecting it; so
that when it died, the king duly performed its obsequies, and built
around its tomb a city, which he named after it.
Cæsar, the Dictator, it is said, had a horse, which would allow no one
to mount him but himself, and its forefeet were like those of a
man;[110] indeed it is thus represented in the statue before the temple
of Venus. The late Emperor Augustus also erected a tomb to his horse; on
which occasion Germanicus Cæsar wrote a poem, which still exists. There
are at Agrigentum many tombs of horses, in the form of pyramids. The
Scythian horsemen make loud boasts of the fame of their cavalry. On one
occasion, one of their chiefs was slain in single combat, and when the
conqueror came to take the spoils of the enemy, he was set upon by the
horse of his opponent, and trampled on and bitten to death.
Their docility, too, is so great, that we find it stated that the whole
of the cavalry of the Sybarite army were accustomed to perform a kind of
dance to the sound of musical instruments. These animals also foresee
battles; they lament over their masters when they have lost them, and
sometimes shed tears[111] of regret for them. When King Nicomedes was
slain, his horse put an end to its life by fasting. Phylarchus relates,
that after Centaretus, the Galatian, had slain Antiochus in battle he
took possession of his horse, and mounted it in triumph; upon which the
animal, inflamed with indignation, became quite ungovernable and threw
himself headlong down a precipice, so that they both perished together.
Philistus relates, that a horse of Dionysius once stuck fast in a
morass, but as soon as he disengaged himself, he followed the steps of
his master, with a swarm of bees, which had settled on his mane; and
that it was in consequence of this portent, that Dionysius gained
possession of the kingdom.
[Illustration: MUSTANG.]
These animals possess an intelligence which exceeds all description.
Those who have to use the javelin are well aware how the horse, by its
exertions and the supple movements of its body, aids the rider in any
difficulty he may have in throwing his weapon. They will even present to
their master the weapons collected on the ground. The horses too, that
are yoked to the chariots in the Circus, beyond a doubt display
remarkable proofs how sensible they are to encouragement and to glory.
In the Secular games, which were celebrated in the Circus, under the
Emperor Claudius, when the charioteer Corax, who belonged to the white
party,[112] was thrown from his place at the starting-post, his horses
took the lead and kept it, opposing the other chariots, overturning
them, and doing everything against the other competitors that could have
been done, had they been guided by the most skilful charioteer; and
while we quite blushed to behold the skill of man excelled by that of
the horse, they arrived the winners at the goal, after going over the
whole of the prescribed course. Our ancestors considered it as a still
more remarkable portent, that when a charioteer had been thrown from his
place, in the plebeian games of the Circus, the horses ran to the
Capitol, just as if he had been standing in the car, and went three
times round the temple there. But the greatest prodigy of all, is the
fact that the horses of Ratumenna came from Veii to Rome, with the palm
branch and chaplet, he himself having fallen from his chariot, after
having gained the victory; from which circumstance the Ratumennian gate
derived its name.
[Illustration: ZEBRA.--_Ásinus Zebra._]
When the Sarmatæ are about to undertake a long journey, they prepare
their horses for it, by making them fast the day before, during which
they give them but little to drink; by these means they are enabled to
travel on horseback, without stopping, for one hundred and fifty miles.
Some horses are known to live fifty years. The poet Virgil has very
beautifully described the points which ought more especially to be
looked for, as constituting the perfection of a horse; I myself have
also treated of the same subject, in my work on the Use of the Javelin
by Cavalry, and I find that pretty nearly all writers are agreed
respecting them. The points requisite for the Circus are somewhat
different, however; and while horses are put in training for other
purposes at only two years old, they are not admitted to the contests of
the Circus before their fifth year. We have an account of a horse having
lived to its seventy-fifth year. If a foal has lost its mother, the
other mares in the herd that have young, will take charge of the orphan.
The more spirited a horse is, the deeper does it plunge its nose into
the water while drinking.
Gallicia and Asturia, countries of Spain, produce a species of horse
which have a peculiar pace of their own, very easy for the rider, which
arises from the two legs of the same side being moved together. By
studying the nature of this step our horses have been taught the
movement, which we call ambling.
[Illustration: ASS.--_Ásinus Vulgáris._]
Marcus Varro informs us that Quintus Axius, the senator, paid for an ass
the sum of four hundred thousand sesterces (or nearly $16,000). I am not
sure whether this did not exceed the price ever given for any other
animal. It is certainly a species of animal singularly useful for
ploughing, and other farm labor. The attachment of asses to their young
is great in the extreme, but their aversion to water is still greater.
They will pass through fire to get at their foals, while the very same
animal, if the smallest stream intervenes, will tremble, and not dare so
much as to wet even its feet. In their pastures they never drink at any
but the usual watering-place, and make it their care to find some dry
path by which to get at it. They will not pass over a bridge either,
when the water can be seen between the planks beneath. Wonderful to
relate, too, if their watering-places are changed, though they should be
ever so thirsty, they will not drink without being either beaten or
caressed. They ought always to have plenty of room for sleeping; for
they are subject to various disturbances in their sleep, when they
repeatedly throw out their feet, and would immediately lame themselves
by coming in contact with any hard substance; so that it is necessary
that they should be provided with an empty space. Mæcenas was the first
person who had the young of the ass served up at his table;[113] they
were in those times much preferred to the onager or wild ass; but, since
his time, the taste has gone out of fashion.
The best wild asses are those of Phrygia and Lycaonia. Africa glories in
the wild foals which she produces, as excelling all others in the flavor
of their flesh. It appears from some Athenian records, that a mule once
lived to the age of eighty years. The people were greatly delighted with
this animal, because on one occasion, when, on the building of a temple
in the citadel (the Parthenon), it had been left behind on account of
its age, it persisted in promoting the work by accompanying and
assisting them; in consequence of which a decree was passed, that the
dealers in corn were not to drive it away from their sieves.
CHAPTER III.
THE OX.
We find it stated, that the oxen of India are of the height of camels,
and that the extremities of their horns are four feet apart. In our part
of the world the most valuable oxen are those of Epirus, owing, it is
said, to the attention paid to their breed by King Pyrrhus. He brought
them to a very large size, and descendants of this breed are to be seen
at the present day. The ox is the only animal that walks backwards while
it is feeding; among the Garamantes, they feed in no other manner.[114]
Cattle that are bred in the Alps, although very small of body, give a
great quantity of milk, and are capable of enduring much labor; they are
yoked by the horns, and not by the neck. The oxen of Syria have no
dewlap, but have a hump on the back. Those of Caria in Asia, are
unsightly in appearance, having a hump hanging over the shoulders from
the neck; and their horns are movable; they are said, however, to be
excellent workers, though those which are either black or white are
condemned as worthless for labor. Oxen must be broken when they are
three years old; after that it is too late, and before too early. The ox
is most easily broken by yoking it with a trained animal. The ox is our
closest companion, both in labor generally, and in the operations of
agriculture. Our ancestors considered it of so much value, that there is
an instance cited of a man being brought before the Roman people, on a
day appointed, and condemned, for having killed an ox, in order to humor
the whim of his wife, who said that she had never tasted tripe; and he
was driven into exile, just as though he had killed one of his own
peasants.
The bull has a proud air, a stern forehead, shaggy ears, and horns which
appear always ready, and challenging to the combat; but it is by his
fore feet that he manifests his threatening anger. As his rage
increases, he stands, lashing back his tail every now and then, and
throwing up the sand against his belly; being the only animal that
excites himself by these means. We have seen them fight at the word of
command, and shown as a public spectacle; these bulls whirled about and
then fell upon their horns, and at once were up again; then, at other
times, they would lie upon the ground and let themselves be lifted up;
they would even stand in a two-horsed chariot, while moving at a rapid
rate, like so many charioteers. The people of Thessaly invented a method
of killing bulls, by means of a man on horseback, who would ride up to
them, and seize one of the horns, and so twist their neck. Cæsar the
Dictator was the first person who exhibited this spectacle at Rome.
Bulls are selected as the very choicest of victims, and are offered up
as the most approved sacrifice for appeasing the gods. Of all the
animals that have long tails, this is the only one whose tail is not of
proportionate length at birth; and in this animal alone it continues to
grow until it reaches its heels. It is on this account, that in making
choice of a calf for a victim, due care is taken that its tail reaches
to the pastern joint; if it is shorter than this, the sacrifice is not
deemed acceptable to the gods. This fact has also been remarked, that
calves, which have been carried to the altar on men's shoulders, are not
generally acceptable to the gods, and also, if they are lame, or of a
species which is not appropriate, or if they struggle to get away from
the altar. It was a not uncommon prodigy among the ancients, for an ox
to speak; upon such a fact being announced to the senate, they were in
the habit of holding a meeting in the open air.
CHAPTER IV.
THE EGYPTIAN APIS.
In Egypt an ox is even worshipped as a deity; they call it Apis. It is
distinguished by a conspicuous white spot on the right side, in the form
of a crescent. There is a knot also under the tongue, which is called
"cantharus." This ox is not allowed to live beyond a certain number of
years; but is then destroyed by being drowned in the fountain of the
priests. They then go, amid general mourning, and seek another ox to
replace it; and the mourning is continued, with their heads shaved,
until such time as they have found one; it is not long, however, at any
time, before they meet with a successor. When one has been found, it is
brought by the priests to Memphis. There are two temples appropriated to
it, which are called thalami, and to these the people resort to learn
the auguries. According as the ox enters the one or the other of these
places, the augury is deemed favorable or unfavorable. It gives answers
to individuals, by taking food from the hand of those who consult it. It
turned away from the hand of Germanicus Cæsar, who died not long after.
It commonly lives in secret; but, when it comes forth in public, the
multitudes make way for it, and it is attended by a crowd of boys,
singing hymns in honor of it; it appears to be sensible of the adoration
thus paid to it, and to court it. These crowds, too, suddenly become
inspired, and predict future events. There is a spot in the Nile, near
Memphis, which, from its figure, they call Phiala (the goblet); here
they throw into the water a dish of gold, and another of silver, every
year upon the days on which they celebrate the birth of Apis. These days
are seven in number, and it is a remarkable thing, that during this
time, no one is ever attacked by the crocodile; on the eighth day,
however, after the sixth hour, these beasts resume all their former
ferocity.
CHAPTER V.
SHEEP AND THEIR WOOL.
Many thanks do we owe to the sheep, both for appeasing the gods, and for
giving us the use of its fleece. As oxen cultivate the fields which
yield food for man, so to sheep are we indebted for the defence of our
bodies.
There are two principal kinds of sheep, the covered and the colonic, or
common sheep; the former is the more tender animal, but the latter is
more nice about its pastures, for the covered sheep will feed even on
brambles. The best coverings for sheep are brought from Arabia.
The most esteemed wool of all is that of Apulia, and that which in Italy
is called Grecian wool, in other countries Italian. The fleeces of
Miletus hold the third rank. The Apulian wool is shorter in the hair,
and owes its high character to the cloaks that are made of it. That
which comes from the vicinity of Tarentum and Canusium is the most
celebrated; and there is a wool from Laodicea, in Asia, of a similar
quality. There is no white wool superior to that of the countries
bordering on the Padus, nor up to the present day has any wool exceeded
the price of one hundred sesterces (or about $4.00) per pound. The sheep
are not shorn in all countries; in some places it is still the custom to
pull off the wool. There are so many various colors of wool, that we
lack terms to express them all. Pollentia, in the vicinity of the Alps,
produces black fleeces of the best quality; Asia, the red fleeces; those
of Canusium are of a tawny color; and those of Tarentum have a peculiar
dark tint. The wool of Istria is much more like hair than wool, and is
not suitable for the fabrication of stuffs upon which a long nap is
required.
[Illustration: MERINO, OR SPANISH SHEEP.]
The thick, flocky wool has been esteemed for the manufacture of carpets
from the very earliest times; it is quite clear, from what we read in
Homer, that they were in use in his time.[115] Some kinds of wool are
compressed for making a felt, which, if soaked in vinegar,[116] is
capable of resisting iron even; and, what is still more, after having
gone through the last process, wool will even resist fire; the refuse,
too, when taken out of the vat of the scourer, is used for making
mattresses, an invention, I fancy, of the Gauls. At all events, it is by
Gallic names that we distinguish the various sorts of mattresses at the
present day; but I am not well able to say at what period wool began to
be employed for this purpose. Our ancestors made use of straw for the
purpose of sleeping upon, just as they do at present when in camp. The
gausapa[117] has been brought into use in my fathers memory, and I
myself recollect the amphimalla[118] and the long shaggy apron being
introduced; but at the present day, the laticlave tunic is beginning to
be manufactured, in imitation of the gausapa.[119] Black wool will take
no color.
CHAPTER VI.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF CLOTHS.
Varro informs us, as an eye-witness, that in the temple of Sancus, the
wool was still preserved on the distaff and spindle of Tanaquil,[120]
who was also called Caia Cæcilia; and he says that the royal waved (or
"watered") toga, formerly worn by Servius Tullius, and now in the temple
of Fortune, was made by her. Hence was derived the custom, on the
marriage of a young woman, of carrying in the procession a dressed
distaff and a spindle, with the thread arranged upon it. Tanaquil was
the first who wove the straight tunic, such as our young people and
newly-married women wear with the white toga. Waved garments were at
first the most esteemed of all: after which those composed of various
colors came into vogue. Fenestella informs us, that togas with a smooth
surface, as well as the Phryxian togas of crisp and crinkly wool, began
to be used in the latter part of the reign of Augustus. The
prætexta[121] had its origin among the Etrurians. I find that the
trabea[122] was first worn by the kings; embroidered garments are
mentioned by Homer,[123] and in this class originated the triumphal
robes. The Phrygians first used the needle for this purpose, and hence
this kind of garment obtained the name of Phrygian. King Attalus, who
also lived in Asia, invented the art of embroidering with gold, from
which these garments have been called Attalic. Babylon was very famous
for making embroidery in different colors, so that stuffs of this kind
have obtained the name of Babylonian. The method of weaving cloth with
more than two threads was invented at Alexandria; and in Gaul cloths
were first woven into checkered plaids. Metellus Scipio, in the
accusation which he brought against Cato, stated that even in his time
Babylonian covers for couches were selling for eight hundred thousand
sesterces, and these of late, in the time of the Emperor Nero, had risen
to four millions.[124] The prætextæ of Servius Tullius, with which the
statue of Fortune, dedicated by him, was covered, lasted until the death
of Sejanus; and it is a remarkable fact that, during a period of five
hundred and sixty years, they had never faded or received injury from
moths. I myself have seen the fleece upon the living animal dyed in
strips of three colors, purple, scarlet, and violet,--a pound and a-half
of dye being used for each,--just as though they had been produced by
Nature in this form, to meet the demands of luxury.
[Illustration: MUSK OX.--_Ovibos Moschátus._]
In the sheep, it is considered a proof of its being of a very fair
breed, when the legs are short, and the belly is covered with wool; when
this part is bare, they are looked upon as worthless. The tail of the
Syrian sheep is a cubit in length, and upon that part most of the wool
is found.
CHAPTER VII.
GOATS.
Some of these animals have no horns; but where there are horns, the age
of the animal is denoted by the number of knots on them. In Cilicia, and
in the vicinity of the Syrtes, the inhabitants shear the goat for the
purpose of clothing themselves. It is said that the she goats in the
pastures will never look at each other at sun-set, but lie with their
backs towards one another, while at other times of the day they lie
facing each other and in family groups. They all have long hair hanging
down from the chin. If any one of the flock is taken hold of and dragged
by this hair, all the rest gaze on in stupid astonishment.
Mutianus relates an instance of the intelligence of this animal, of
which he himself was an eye-witness. Two goats, coming from opposite
directions, met on a very narrow bridge, which would not admit of either
of them turning round, and in consequence of its great length, they
could not safely go backwards, there being no sure footing on account of
its narrowness, while at the same time an impetuous torrent was rapidly
rushing beneath; accordingly, one of the animals lay down flat, while
the other walked over it.
Book VI.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FISHES.
CHAPTER I.
WHY THE LARGEST ANIMALS ARE FOUND IN THE SEA.
We have now given an account of the animals which we call terrestrial,
and which live as it were in a sort of society with man. Among the
remaining ones, it is well known that the birds are the smallest; we
shall therefore first describe those which inhabit the seas, rivers, and
standing waters.
Among these there are many to be found that exceed in size any of the
terrestrial animals; the evident cause of which is the superabundance of
moisture with which they are supplied. Very different is the lot of the
winged animals, whose life is passed soaring aloft in the air. But in
the seas, spread out as they are far and wide, forming an element at
once so delicate and so vivifying, many animals are to be found of
monstrous form. Hence it is that the vulgar notion may very possibly be
true, that whatever is produced in any other department of Nature, is to
be found in the sea as well; while, at the same time, many other
productions are there to be found which nowhere else exist. That there
are to be found in the sea the forms, not only of terrestrial animals,
but of inanimate objects, is easy to be understood by all who will take
the trouble to examine the grape-fish, the sword-fish, the saw-fish, and
the cucumber-fish, which last so strongly resembles the real cucumber
both in color and in smell. We shall find the less reason then to be
surprised to find that in so small an object as a shell-fish the head of
the horse is to be seen protruding from the shell.
[Illustration: SEA-ELEPHANT.--_Morunga proboscidea._]
But the largest and most numerous of all these animals are those found
in the Indian seas; among which there are balænæ, four jugera in extent,
and the pristis, two hundred cubits long: here also are found cray-fish
four cubits in length, and in the river Ganges there are to be seen eels
three hundred feet long.[125] But at sea, more especially about the time
of the solstices, these monsters are to be seen. For then in these
regions the whirlwinds blow, the rains descend, the hurricane comes
rushing down, hurled from the mountain heights, while the sea is stirred
up from the very bottom, and the monsters are driven from their depths
and rolled upwards on the crest of the billow. Once upon a time the
fleet of Alexander the Great met with such vast multitudes of tunnies,
that he was able to make head against them only by facing them in order
of battle, just as he would have done an enemy's fleet. Had the ships
not done this, but proceeded in a straggling manner, they could not
possibly have made their escape. No noises, no sounds, no blows had any
effect on these fish; by nothing short of the clash of battle were they
to be terrified, and by nothing less than their utter destruction were
they overpowered.
There is a large peninsula in the Red Sea, known by the name of Cadara:
as it projects into the deep it forms a vast gulf, which it took the
fleet of King Ptolemy twelve whole days and nights to traverse by dint
of rowing, for not a breath of wind was to be perceived. In the recesses
of this becalmed spot more particularly, the sea-monsters attain so vast
a size that they are quite unable to move. The commanders of the fleets
of Alexander the Great have related that the Gedrosi, who dwell upon the
banks of the river Arabis, are in the habit of making the doors of their
houses[126] with the jaw-bones of fishes, and raftering the roofs with
their bones, many of which were found as much as forty cubits in length.
At this place, too, the sea-monsters, just like so many cattle, were in
the habit of coming on shore, and, after feeding on the roots of shrubs,
they would return; some of them, which had the heads of horses, asses,
and bulls, found a pasture in the crops of grain.
The largest animals found in the Indian Sea are the pistrix and the
balæna; while of the Gallic Ocean the physeter, or blower, is the most
bulky inhabitant, raising itself aloft like some vast column, and, as it
towers above the sails of ships, belching forth, as it were, a deluge of
water. In the ocean of Gades there is a tree, with outspread branches so
vast, that it is supposed that it is for that reason it has never yet
entered the Straits. There are fish also found there which are called
sea-wheels, in consequence of their singular conformation; they are
divided by four spokes, the nave being guarded on every side by a couple
of eyes.
CHAPTER II.
THE FORMS OF THE TRITONS AND NEREIDS.
A deputation of persons from Olisipo (Lisbon) that had been sent for the
purpose, brought word to the Emperor Tiberius that a triton[127] had
been both seen and heard in a certain cavern, blowing a conch-shell, and
of the form under which they are usually represented. Nor is the figure
generally attributed to the nereids at all a fiction; only in them, the
portion of the body that resembles the human figure is still rough all
over with scales. For one of these creatures was seen upon the same
shores, and as it died, its plaintive murmurs were heard by the
inhabitants at a distance. The legatus of Gaul, too, wrote word to the
late Emperor Augustus that a considerable number of nereids had been
found dead upon the sea-shore. I have, too, some distinguished
informants of equestrian rank, who state that they themselves once saw
in the ocean of Gades a sea-man, which bore in every part of his body a
perfect resemblance to a human being, and that during the night he would
climb up into ships; upon which the side of the vessel where he seated
himself would instantly sink downward, and if he remained there any
considerable time, even go under water.
In the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, a subsidence of the ocean left
exposed on the shores of an island which faces the province of Lugdunum
as many as three hundred animals or more, all at once, quite marvellous
for their varied shapes and enormous size, and no less a number upon the
shores of the Santones; among the rest there were elephants and rams,
which last, however, had only a white spot to represent horns. Turranius
has also left accounts of several nereids, and he speaks of a monster
that was thrown up on the shore at Gades, the distance between the two
fins at the end of the tail of which was sixteen cubits, and its teeth
one hundred and twenty in number; the largest being nine, and the
smallest six inches in length.
Marcus Scaurus, in his ædileship, exhibited at Rome, among other
wonderful things, the bones of the monster to which Andromeda was said
to have been exposed, and which he had brought from Joppa, a city of
Judæa. These bones exceeded forty feet in length, and the ribs were
higher than those of the Indian elephant, while the back-bone was a foot
and a-half in thickness.
CHAPTER III.
THE BALÆNA AND THE ORCA.
The balæna penetrates even to our seas. It is said that they are not to
be seen in the ocean of Gades before the winter solstice, and that at
periodical seasons they retire and conceal themselves in some calm
capacious bay. This fact, however, is known to the orca, an animal which
is peculiarly hostile to the balæna, and the form of which cannot be in
any way adequately described, but as an enormous mass of flesh armed
with teeth. This animal attacks the balæna with its young, in its places
of retirement, and as they turn to defend themselves, it pierces them
just as though they had been attacked by the beak of a Liburnian galley.
The balænæ, devoid of all flexibility, without energy to defend
themselves, are well aware that their only resource is to take to flight
in the open sea and to range over the whole face of the ocean; while the
orcæ, on the other hand, do all in their power to meet them in their
flight, throw themselves in their way, and either kill them cooped up in
a narrow passage, or else drive them on a shoal, or dash them to pieces
against the rocks. When these battles are witnessed, it appears just as
though the sea were infuriated against itself; not a breath of wind may
be felt in the bay, and yet the waves by their pantings and their
repeated blows will be heaved aloft in a way which no whirlwind could
effect.
[Illustration: RORQUAL.--_Physalus Böops._]
[Illustration: SPERMACETI WHALE.--_Cátodon Macrocéphalus._]
An orca has been seen even in the port of Ostia, where it was attacked
by the Emperor Claudius. While he was constructing the harbor there, an
orca came, attracted by some hides brought from Gaul, which had happened
to fall overboard there. Feeding upon these for several days it had
quite glutted itself, and hollowed out a channel in the shoal water.
Here, the sand was thrown up by the action of the wind to such an
extent, that the creature found it quite impossible to turn round; and
while in the act of pursuing its prey, it was propelled by the waves
towards the shore, so that its back came to be perceived above the level
of the water, very much resembling in appearance the keel of a vessel
turned bottom upwards. Upon this, Cæsar ordered a great number of nets
to be extended across the mouth of the harbor, from shore to shore,
while he himself went there with the prætorian cohorts, affording a
spectacle to the Roman people; for boats assailed the monster, while the
soldiers on board showered lances upon it. I myself saw one of the boats
sunk by the water which the animal, as it respired, showered down upon
it.
CHAPTER IV.
DOLPHINS.
The swiftest not only of the sea-animals, but of all animals whatever,
is the dolphin.[128] He is more rapid in his movements than a bird, more
swift than the flight of an arrow, and were it not for the fact that his
mouth is much below his muzzle, almost, indeed, in the middle of the
belly, not a fish would be able to escape his pursuit. But Nature, in
her prudence, has thrown certain impediments in his way; for, unless he
turns and throws himself on his back, he can seize nothing, and it is
this circumstance more especially that gives proof of his extraordinary
swiftness. For, if pressed by hunger, he will follow a fish, as it flies
down, to the very bottom of the water, and then after holding his breath
thus long, will dart again to the surface to breathe, with the speed of
an arrow discharged from a bow; and often, on such occasions, he is
known to leap out of the water with such a bound, as to fly right over
the sails of a ship.
Dolphins generally go in couples. They suckle their young like the
balæna, and even carry them during the weakness of infancy; in addition
to which, they accompany them long after they are grown up, so great is
their affection for their progeny. The young ones grow very speedily,
and in ten years arrive at their full size. The dolphin lives thirty
years; a fact that has been ascertained from cutting marks on the tail,
by way of experiment. It conceals itself for thirty days, at about the
rising of the Dog-star, so effectually, that it is not known whither it
goes; a thing the more surprising as it is unable to breathe under
water. Dolphins are in the habit of darting upon the shore, for some
unknown reason. The tongue, contrary to the nature of aquatic animals in
general, is movable, being short and broad, not much unlike that of the
pig. Instead of a voice, they emit a moaning sound similar to that made
by a human being; the back is arched, and the nose turned up. For this
reason they all recognize in a most surprising manner the name of Simo,
and prefer to be called by that rather than by any other.[129]
The dolphin is an animal not only friendly to man, but a lover of music
as well; he is charmed by melodious concerts, especially by the notes of
the water-organ. He does not dread man, as though a stranger to him, but
comes to meet ships, leaps and bounds to and fro, vies with them in
swiftness, and passes them when in full sail.
In the reign of the late Emperor Augustus, a dolphin which had been
carried to the Lucrine Lake conceived a most wonderful affection for the
child of a certain poor man, who was in the habit of going that way from
Baiæ to Puteoli to school, and who used to stop there in the middle of
the day, call him by his name of Simo, and would often entice him to the
banks of the lake with pieces of bread which he carried for the purpose.
I should really have felt ashamed to mention this, had not the incident
been stated in writing in the works of Mæcenas, Fabianus, Flavius
Alfius, and many others. At whatever hour of the day he might happen to
be called by the boy, and although hidden and out of sight at the bottom
of the water, he would instantly fly to the surface, and after feeding
from his hand, would present his back for him to mount, taking care to
conceal the spiny projection of his fins in their sheath, as it were;
and so, sportively taking him up on his back, he would carry him over a
wide expanse of sea to the school at Puteoli, and in a similar manner
bring him back again. This happened for several years, until at last the
boy happened to fall ill of some malady, and died. The dolphin came
again and again to the spot as usual, with a sorrowful air and
manifesting every sign of deep affliction, until at last (a thing of
which no one felt the slightest doubt), he died purely of sorrow and
regret.
Within a few years another dolphin at Hippo Diarrhytus, on the coast of
Africa, in a similar manner used to receive his food from the hands of
various persons, present himself for their caresses, sport about among
the swimmers, and carry them on his back. On being rubbed with unguents
by Flavianus, the proconsul of Africa, he was lulled to sleep, as it
appeared, by the sensation of an odor so new to him, and floated about
just as though he had been dead. For some months after this, he
carefully avoided all intercourse with man, as though he had received
some affront or other; but at the end of that time he returned, and
afforded the same wonderful scenes as before. At last, the vexations
that were caused them by having to entertain so many influential men who
came to see this sight, compelled the people of Hippo to put the animal
to death.
Before this, there was a similar story told of a child at the city of
Iasus, for whom a dolphin was long observed to have conceived a most
ardent affection, until one day the animal eagerly following him as he
was making for the shore, was carried by the tide on the sands, and
there expired. Alexander the Great appointed this boy high-priest of
Neptune at Babylon, interpreting this extraordinary attachment as a
convincing proof of the favor of that divinity.
[Illustration: DOLPHIN.--_Delphinus Delphis._]
Hegesidemus informs us, that in the same city of Iasus there was a boy,
Hermias by name, who in a similar manner used to traverse the sea on a
dolphin's back, but that on one occasion a tempest suddenly arising, he
lost his life, and was brought back dead; upon which the dolphin, who
thus admitted that he had been the cause of his death, would not return
to the sea, but lay down upon the dry land, and there expired.
Theophrastus tells us, that the very same thing happened at Naupactus;
nor, in fact, is there any limit to similar instances. The Amphilochians
and the Tarentines have similar stories about children and dolphins; and
all these give an air of credibility to the one that is told of Arion,
the famous performer on the lyre. The mariners being on the point of
throwing him into the sea, for the purpose of taking possession of the
money he had earned, he prevailed upon them to allow him one more song,
accompanied with the music of his lyre. The melody attracted numbers of
dolphins around the ship, and, upon throwing himself into the sea, he
was taken up by one of them, and borne in safety to the shore of the
Promontory of Tænarum.[130]
There is in the province of Gallia Narbonensis and in the territory of
Nemausus a lake known by the name of Latera, where dolphins fish in
company with men. At the narrow outlet of this lake, at stated seasons
of the year innumerable multitudes of mullets make their way into the
sea, taking advantage of the turn of the tide; hence it is quite
impossible to employ nets sufficiently strong to bear so vast a weight,
even though the fish had not the instinctive shrewdness to watch their
opportunity. By a similar instinct the fish immediately make with all
speed towards the deep water which is found in a gulf in that vicinity,
and hasten to escape from the only spot that is at all convenient for
spreading the nets. As soon as the fishermen perceive this, all the
people--for great multitudes resort thither, being well aware of the
proper time, and especially desirous of sharing in the amusement--shout
as loud as they can, and summon Simo to the scene of action. The
dolphins very quickly understand that they are in requisition, as a
north-east wind speedily carries the sound to their retreats, though a
south one would somewhat retard it by carrying it in an opposite
direction. Even then however, sooner than you could have possibly
supposed, there are the dolphins, in all readiness to assist. They are
seen approaching in haste in battle array, and, immediately taking up
their position when the engagement is about to take place, they cut off
all escape to the open sea, and drive the terrified fish into shallow
water. The fishermen then throw their nets, holding them up at the sides
with forks, though the mullets with inconceivable agility instantly leap
over them; while the dolphins, on the other hand, are waiting in
readiness to receive them, and content themselves for the present with
killing them only, postponing all thoughts of eating till after they
have secured the victory. The battle waxes hot apace, and the dolphins,
pressing on with the greatest vigor, readily allow themselves to be
enclosed in the nets; but in order that the fact of their being thus
enclosed may not urge the enemy to find additional means of flight, they
glide along so stealthily among the boats and nets, or else the
swimmers, as not to leave them any opening for escape. Not one among
them attempts to make its escape by leaping, which at other times is
their favorite amusement, except when the nets are purposely lowered for
it; and even after it has come out it continues the battle, as it were,
up to the very ramparts. At last, when the capture is now completed,
they devour those among the fish which they have killed; but being well
aware that they have given too active an assistance to be repaid with
only one day's reward, they take care to wait there till the following
day, when they are filled not only with fish, but bread crumbs soaked in
wine.
The account which Mucianus gives of a similar mode of fishing in the
Iasian Gulf differs from the preceding one, in the fact that there the
dolphins make their appearance of their own accord, and do not require
to be called; they receive their share from the hands of the people,
each boat having its own particular associate among the dolphins; and
this, although the fishing is carried on at night-time by the light of
torches.
Dolphins, also, form among themselves a sort of general community. Once,
when one of them had been captured by a king of Caria and chained up in
the harbor, great multitudes of dolphins assembled at the spot, and with
signs of sorrow which could not be misunderstood, appealed to the
sympathies of the people, until at last the king ordered it to be
released. The young dolphins are always attended by a larger one, who
acts as a guardian to them; and before now, they have been seen carrying
off the body of one which had died, that it might not be devoured by the
sea-monsters.
CHAPTER V.
THE VARIOUS KINDS OF TURTLES.
The Indian Sea produces turtles of such vast size, that with the shell
of a single animal they are able to roof a habitable cottage; and among
the islands of the Red Sea, the navigation is mostly carried on in boats
formed of these shells. They are to be caught in many ways; but they are
generally taken when they have come up to the surface of the water just
before midday, a season at which they experience great delight in
floating on the calm surface, with the back entirely out of the water.
Here the delightful sensations which attend a free respiration beguile
them to such a degree, and render them so utterly regardless of their
safety, that their shell becomes so dried up by the heat of the sun,
that they are unable to descend, and, having to float against their
will, become an easy prey to the fishermen. It is said also, that they
leave the water at night for the purpose of feeding, and eat with such
avidity as to glut themselves: upon which, they become weary, and on
their return in the morning, to the sea, they fall asleep on the surface
of the water. The noise of their snoring betrays them, upon which the
fishermen stealthily swim towards the animals, three to each turtle; two
of them, in a moment, throw it on its back, while a third slings a noose
around it, as it lies face upwards, and then more men who are ready on
shore, draw it to land.
In the Phoenician Sea they are taken without the slightest difficulty,
and, at stated periods of the year, come of their own accord to the
river Eleutherus, in immense numbers. The turtle has no teeth, but the
edge of the mouth is sharp, the upper part shutting down over the lower
like the lid of a box. In the sea it lives upon shell-fish, and such is
the strength of its jaws, that it is able to break stones; when on
shore, it feeds upon herbage. The female turtle lays eggs like those of
birds, one hundred in number; these she buries on the dry land, covers
them over with earth, pats it down with her breast, and sits on them
during the night. The young are hatched in the course of a year. Some
persons are of opinion that they hatch their eggs by means of the eyes,
by merely looking at them. The Troglodytæ have turtles with horns,[131]
which resemble the branches of a lyre; they are large, but movable, and
assist the animal like so many oars while swimming. The name of this
fine but rarely-found turtle, is "chelyon;" for the rocks, from the
sharpness of their points, frighten away the Chelonophagi, while the
Troglodytæ, whose shores these animals frequent, worship them as sacred.
There are some land turtles the shells of which are used for the
purposes of art. They are found in the deserts of Africa, in the parts
where the scorched sands are more especially destitute of water, and
subsist, it is believed, upon the moisture of the dews. No other animal
is to be found there.
Carvilius Pollio, a man of prodigal habits and ingenious in inventing
the refinements of luxury, was the first to cut the shell of the
tortoise into laminæ, or thin slices, and to veneer beds and cabinets
with it.
CHAPTER VI.
DISTRIBUTION OF AQUATIC ANIMALS INTO VARIOUS SPECIES.
The integuments of the aquatic animals are many in number. Some are
covered with a hide and hair, as the sea-calf and hippopotamus, for
instance; others again, with a hide only, as the dolphin; others again,
with a shell, as the turtle; others, with a coat as hard as a stone,
like the oyster and other shell-fish; others, with a crust, such as the
cray-fish; others, with a crust and spines, like the sea-urchin; others,
with scales, as fishes in general; others, with a rough skin, as the
squatina, the skin of which is used for polishing wood and ivory;
others, with a soft skin, like the muræna; and others with none at all,
like the polypus.
[Illustration: GROUP OF SEALS.]
Of all aquatic animals the sea-calf is killed with the greatest
difficulty, unless the head is cut off at once. It makes a noise which
sounds like lowing, whence the name of "sea-calf." The animals are
susceptible, however, of training, and with their voice, as well as by
gestures, can be taught to salute the public; when called by their name,
they answer with a discordant kind of grunt.[132] No animal has a deeper
sleep than this; on dry land it creeps along as though on feet, by the
aid of what it uses as fins when in the sea. Its skin, even when
separated from the body, is said to retain a certain sensitive sympathy
with the sea, and at the reflux of the tide, the hair on it always rises
upright: in addition to which, it is said that there is in the right fin
a certain soporiferous influence, and that, if placed under the head, it
induces sleep.
There are one hundred and seventy-four species of fishes, exclusive of
the crustacea, of which there are thirty kinds.[133]
Tunnies are among the most remarkable for their size; we have found one
weighing as much as fifteen talents (1200 pounds), the breadth of its
tail being five cubits and a palm. In some of the rivers, also, there
are fish of no less size, such, for instance, as the silurus of the
Nile, the isox of the Rhine, and the attilus of the Po, which, naturally
of an inactive nature, sometimes grows so fat as to weigh a thousand
pounds, and when taken with a hook, attached to a chain, requires a yoke
of oxen to draw it on land. An extremely small fish, which is known as
the clupea, attaches itself, with a wonderful tenacity, to a certain
vein in the throat of the attilus, and destroys it by its bite. The
silurus carries devastation with it wherever it goes, attacks every
living creature, and often drags beneath the water horses as they swim.
It is also remarkable, that in the river Main of Germany, a fish that
bears a very strong resemblance to the sea-pig, requires to be drawn out
of the water by a yoke of oxen; and in the Danube, it is taken with
large hooks of iron. In the Borysthenes, also, there is said to be a
fish of enormous size, the flesh of which has no bones or spines in it,
and is remarkable for its sweetness.
In the Ganges, a river of India, there is a fish found which they call
the platanista; it has the muzzle and the tail of the dolphin, and
measures sixteen cubits in length. Statius Sebosus says, a thing that is
marvellous in no small degree, that in the same river there are fishes
found, called worms; these have two gills, and are sixty cubits in
length; they are of an azure color, and have received their name from
their peculiar conformation. These fish, he says, are of such enormous
strength, that with their teeth they seize hold of the trunks of
elephants that come to drink, and so drag them into the water.
The Black Sea is never entered by any animal that is noxious to fish,
with the exception of the sea-calf and the small dolphin. On entering,
the tunnies range along the shores to the right, and on departing, keep
to those on the left; this is supposed to arise from the fact that they
have better sight with the right eye, their powers of vision with either
being naturally very limited. In the channel of the Thracian Bosporus,
by which the Propontis is connected with the Black Sea, at the narrowest
part of the Straits which separate Europe from Asia, there is, near
Chalcedon, on the Asiatic side, a rock of remarkable whiteness, the
whole of which can be seen from the bottom of the sea. Alarmed at the
sudden appearance of this rock, the tunnies always hasten in great
numbers, and with headlong impetuosity, towards the promontory of
Byzantium, which stands exactly opposite to it, and from this
circumstance has received the name of the Golden Horn.[134] Hence it is,
that all the fishing is at Byzantium, to the great loss of Chalcedon,
although it is only separated from it by a channel a mile in width. They
wait, however, for the blowing of the north wind to leave the Black Sea
with a favorable tide, and are never taken until they have entered the
harbor of Byzantium. These fish do not move about in winter; in whatever
place they may happen to be surprised by it, there they pass the winter,
till the time of the equinox.
Manifesting a wonderful degree of delight, they will often accompany a
vessel in full sail, and may be seen from the deck following it for
hours, over a distance of several miles. If a fish-spear is thrown at
them never so many times, they are not in the slightest degree alarmed
at it. Some writers call the tunnies which follow ships in this manner,
by the name of pompili, or pilot-fish.
CHAPTER VII.
FISHES VALUED FOR THE TABLE.
At the present day, the first place in point of delicacy is given to the
scarus, the only fish that is said to ruminate, and to feed on grass and
not on other fish. It is mostly found in the Carpathian Sea, and never
of its own accord passes Lectum, a promontory of Troas. Optatus
Elipertius, the commander of the fleet under the Emperor Claudius, had
this fish brought from that locality, and dispersed in various places
off the coast between Ostia and the districts of Campania. During five
years, the greatest care was taken that those which were caught should
be returned to the sea; but since then they have been always found in
great abundance off the shores of Italy, where formerly there were none
to be taken. Thus has gluttony introduced these fish, to be a dainty
within its reach, and added a new inhabitant to the seas; so that we
ought to feel no surprise that foreign birds breed at Rome.
The fish that is next in estimation for the table is the mustela, but
that is valued only for its liver. A singular thing to tell of--the lake
of Brigantia (the modern Lake Constance), in Rhætia, lying in the midst
of the Alps, produces them to rival even those of the sea.
Of the remaining fish that are held in any degree of esteem, the mullet
is the most highly valued, as well as the most abundant of all; it is of
only a moderate size, rarely exceeds two pounds in weight, and will
never grow beyond that weight in preserves or fish-ponds. These fish are
only to be found in the Northern Ocean, exceeding two pounds in weight,
and even there in none but the more westerly parts. As for the other
kinds, the various species are numerous; some live upon sea-weed, while
others feed on the oyster, slime, and the flesh of other fish. The more
distinctive mark is a forked beard, that projects beneath the lower lip.
The lautarius, or mud-mullet, is held in the lowest esteem of all. This
last is always accompanied by another fish, known as the sargus, and
where the mullet stirs up the mud, the other finds aliment for its own
sustenance. The mullet most esteemed of all has a strong flavor of
shell-fish. The masters in gastronomy inform us, that the mullet, while
dying, assumes a variety of colors and a succession of shades, and that
the hue of the red scales, growing paler and paler, gradually changes,
more especially if it is looked at enclosed in glass.[135] Marcus
Apicus, a man who displayed a remarkable degree of ingenuity in
everything relating to luxury, was of opinion, that it was a most
excellent plan to let the mullet die in the pickle known as the "garum
of the allies"[136]--for we find that even this has found a surname--and
he proposed a prize for any one who should invent a new sauce, made from
the liver of this fish. I find it much easier to relate this fact, than
to state who it was that gained the prize.
Asinius Celer, a man of consular rank, and remarkable for his prodigal
expenditure on this fish, bought one at Rome, during the reign of the
Emperor Caligula, at the price of eight thousand sesterces.[137] A
reflection upon such a fact as this will at once lead us to turn our
thoughts to those who, making loud complaints against luxury, have
lamented that a single cook cost more money to buy than a horse; while
at the present day a cook is only to be obtained for the same sum that a
triumph would cost, and a fish is only to be purchased at what was
formerly the price for a cook! indeed, there is hardly any living being
held in higher esteem than the man who understands how, in the most
scientific fashion, to get rid of his master's property.
[Illustration: LONG-SPINED CHÆTODON.--_Heinochus monoceros._]
Licinius Mucianus relates, that in the Red Sea there was caught a mullet
eighty pounds in weight. What a price would have been paid for it by our
epicures, if it had only been found off the shores in the vicinity of
our city!
Eels live eight years; they are able to survive out of water as much as
six days, when a north-east wind blows; but when the south wind
prevails, not so many. In winter, they cannot live if they are in very
shallow water, or if the water is troubled. They are taken about the
rising of the Pleiades when the rivers are turbid. These animals seek
their food at night; they are the only fish the bodies of which, when
dead, do not float upon the surface.
There is a lake called Benacus, in the territory of Verona, in Italy,
through which the river Mincius flows. At the part of it whence this
river issues, once a year, and mostly in the month of October, the lake
is troubled, evidently by the constellations of autumn, and the eels are
heaped together by the waves, and rolled on by them in such astonishing
multitudes, that single masses of them, containing more than a thousand
in number, are often taken in the chambers which are formed in the bed
of the river for that purpose.
CHAPTER VIII.
PECULIAR FISHES.
In Northern Gaul the fish called muræna has on the right jaw seven
spots, which bear a resemblance to the constellation of the Great
Dipper, and are of a gold color, shining as long as the animal is alive,
but disappearing as soon as it is dead. Vedius Pollio, a Roman of
equestrian rank, and one of the friends of the late Emperor Augustus,
found a method of exercising his cruelty by means of this animal, for he
caused such slaves as had been condemned by him, to be thrown into
preserves filled with murænæ; not that the land animals would not have
fully sufficed for this purpose, but because he could not see a man so
aptly torn to pieces all at once by any other kind of animal. It is said
that these fish are driven to madness by the taste of vinegar. Their
skin is exceedingly thin; while that of the eel, on the other hand, is
much thicker. Verrius informs us that formerly the children of the Roman
citizens, while wearing the prætexta, were flogged with eel-skins.
There is a very small fish that is in the habit of living among the
rocks, and is known as the echeneis.[138] It is believed that when this
has attached itself to the keel of a ship its progress is impeded, and
from this circumstance it takes its name.
Mucianus speaks of a murex of larger size than the purple murex with a
head that is neither rough nor round; and the shell of which is single,
and falls in folds on either side. He tells us, also, that some of these
creatures once attached themselves to a ship freighted with children of
noble birth, and that they stopped its course in full sail. Trebius
Niger says that this fish is a foot in length, and that it can retard
the course of vessels, five fingers in thickness; besides which, it has
another peculiar property--when preserved in salt, and applied, it is
able to draw up gold which has fallen into a well, however deep it may
happen to be.
[Illustration: FILAMENTOUS GUNARD.--_Pelor filamentosum._]
The only fish that builds itself a nest is the phycis: it makes it of
sea-weed, and there deposits its eggs, which it defends from the attacks
of enemies.
The sea-swallow, being able to fly, bears a strong resemblance to the
bird of that name; the sea-kite, too, flies as well.
There is a fish that comes up to the surface of the sea, known, from the
following circumstance, as the lantern-fish: thrusting from its mouth a
tongue that shines like fire, it emits a most brilliant light on calm
nights. Another fish, which, from its horns, has received its name,
raises them nearly a foot and a-half above the surface of the water. The
sea-dragon, again, if caught and thrown on the sand, works out a hole
for itself with its muzzle, with the most wonderful celerity.
CHAPTER IX.
BLOODLESS FISHES.
The varieties of fish which we shall now mention are those which have no
blood: they are of three kinds--first, those which are known as "soft;"
next, those which have thin crusts; and, lastly, those which are
enclosed in hard shells.[139] The soft fish are the loligo, the sæpia,
the polypus, and others of a similar nature. The last have the head
between the feet and the belly, and all of them have eight feet: in the
sæpia and the loligo two of these feet are very long and rough, and by
means of these they lift the food to their mouths, and attach themselves
to places in the sea, as though with an anchor; the others act as so
many arms, by means of which they seize their prey.
The loligo is also able to dart above the surface of the water, and the
scallop does the same, like an arrow as it were. In the sæpia, the male
is parti-colored, blacker than the female, and more courageous. If the
female is struck with a fish-spear, the male comes to her aid; but the
female, the instant the male is struck, takes to flight. Both of them,
as soon as they find themselves in danger of being caught, discharge a
kind of ink, and thus darkening the water, take to flight.
There are numerous kinds of polypi. The land polypus is larger than that
of the sea; they all of them use their arms as feet and hands. The
polypus has a sort of passage in the back, by which it lets in and
discharges the water, and which it shifts from side to side, sometimes
carrying it on the right, and sometimes on the left. It swims obliquely,
with the head on one side, which is of surprising hardness while the
animal is alive, being puffed out with air. In addition to this, they
have cavities dispersed throughout the claws, by means of which, through
suction, they can adhere to objects, with the head upwards, so tightly,
that they cannot be torn away. They cannot attach themselves, however,
to the bottom of the sea, and their retentive powers are weaker in the
larger ones. These are the only soft fish that come on dry land, and
then only where the surface is rugged: a smooth surface they will not
come near. They feed upon the flesh of shellfish, the shells of which
they can easily break in the embrace of their arms: their retreat may be
easily detected by the pieces of shell which lie before it. Although, in
other respects, this is looked upon as a remarkably stupid kind of
animal, so much so, that it will swim towards the hand of a man, in its
own domestic matters it manifests considerable intelligence. It carries
its prey to its home, and after eating all the flesh, throws out the
debris, and then pursues such small fish as may chance to swim towards
them. It also changes its color, according to the aspect of the place
where it is, and more especially when it is alarmed. The notion is
entirely unfounded that it gnaws its own arms; this mischance befalls it
from the congers; but it is perfectly true that its arms shoot forth
again, like the tail in the colotus and the lizard.
Among the most remarkable curiosities among all the inhabitants of the
sea is the animal which has the name of nautilus, or, as some people
call it, the pompilos. Lying with the head upwards, it rises to the
surface of the water, raising itself little by little, while, by means
of a certain conduit in its body, it discharges all the water, and this
being got rid of like so much bilge-water as it were, it finds no
difficulty in sailing along the surface. Then, extending backwards its
two front arms, it stretches out between them a membrane of marvellous
thinness, which acts as a sail spread out to the wind, while with the
rest of its arms it paddles along below, steering itself with its tail
in the middle, which acts as a rudder. Thus does it make its way along
the deep, mimicking the appearance of a light Liburnian bark; while, if
anything chances to cause it alarm, in an instant it draws in the water,
and sinks out of sight.
Belonging to the genus of polypi is the animal known as the ozæna, being
so called from the peculiarly strong smell exhaled by the head; in
consequence of which, the murænæ pursue it with the greatest eagerness.
The polypi keep themselves concealed for two months in the year; they do
not live beyond two years, and always die of consumption. I must not
omit here the observations which Lucullus, the proconsul of Bætica, made
with reference to the polypus, and which Trebius Niger, one of his
suite, has published. He says that it is remarkably fond of shell-fish,
and that these, the moment that they feel themselves touched by it,
close their valves, and cut off the feelers of the polypus, thus making
a meal at the expense of the plunderer. Shell-fish are destitute of
sight, as well as of all other sensations but those which warn them of
hunger and the approach of danger. Hence the polypus lies in ambush till
the fish opens its shell, immediately upon which, it places within it a
small pebble, taking care, at the same time, to keep it from touching
the body of the animal, lest, by making some movement, it should chance
to eject it. Having made itself thus secure, it attacks its prey, and
draws out the flesh, while the other tries to contract itself, but all
in vain, in consequence of the separation of the shell, thus effected by
the insertion of the wedge. So great is the instinctive shrewdness in
animals that are otherwise quite remarkable for their lumpish stupidity.
In addition to the above, the same author states, that no animal in
existence is more dangerous for its powers of destroying a human being
when in the water. Embracing his body, it counteracts his struggles, and
draws him under with its feelers and its numerous suckers, when, as
often is the case, it happens to make an attack upon a shipwrecked
mariner or a child. If, however, the animal is turned over, it loses all
its power; for when it is thrown upon the back, the arms open of
themselves.
The other particulars, which the same author has given, appear still
more closely to border upon the marvellous. At Carteia, in the preserves
there, a polypus was in the habit of coming from the sea to the
pickling-tubs that were left open, and devouring the fish laid in the
salt--for it is quite astonishing how eagerly all sea-animals follow the
smell of salted condiments, so that for this reason the fishermen take
care to rub the inside of the wicker fish-kipes with them.--At last, by
its repeated thefts and immoderate depredations, it drew down upon
itself the wrath of the keepers of the works. Palisades were placed
before them, but these the polypus managed to get over by the aid of a
tree, and it was only caught at last by calling in the assistance of
trained dogs, which surrounded it at night, as it was returning to its
prey; upon which, the keepers, awakened by the noise, were struck with
alarm at the novelty of the sight presented. First of all, the size of
the polypus was enormous beyond all conception; then it was covered all
over with dried brine, and exhaled a most dreadful stench. Who could
have expected to find a polypus there, or could have recognized it as
such under these circumstances? They really thought that they were
joining battle with some monster, for at one instant, it would drive off
the dogs by its horrible fumes, and lash at them with the extremities of
its feelers; while at another, it would strike them with its stronger
arms, giving blows with so many clubs, as it were; and it was only with
the greatest difficulty that it could be despatched with the aid of a
considerable number of three-pronged fish-spears. The head of this
animal was shown to Lucullus; it was in size as large as a cask of
fifteen amphoræ, and had a beard, to use the expressions of Trebius
himself, which could hardly be encircled with both arms, full of knots,
like those upon a club, and thirty feet in length; the suckers or
calicules, as large as an urn, resembled a basin in shape, while the
teeth again were of a corresponding largeness: its remains, which were
carefully preserved as a curiosity, weighed seven hundred pounds. The
same author also informs us, that specimens of the sæpia and the loligo
have been thrown up on the same shores of a size fully as large: in our
own seas the loligo is sometimes found five cubits in length, and the
sæpia, two. These animals do not live beyond two years.
Mucianus relates that he has seen, in the Propontis, another curious
resemblance to a ship in full sail. There is a shell-fish, he says, with
a keel, just like that of the vessel which we know by the name of
acatium, with the stern curving inwards, and a prow with the beak
attached. In this shell-fish there lies concealed also an animal known
as the nauplius, which bears a strong resemblance to the sæpia, and only
adopts the shell-fish as the companion of its pastimes. There are two
modes, he says, which it adopts in sailing; when the sea is calm, the
voyager hangs down its arms, and strikes the water as with a pair of
oars; but if the wind invites, it extends them, employing them by way of
a helm, and turning the mouth of the shell to the wind. The pleasure
experienced by the shell-fish is that of carrying the other, while the
amusement of the nauplius consists in steering; and thus, at the same
moment, is an instinctive joy felt by these two creatures, devoid as
they are of all sense, unless, a natural antipathy to man--for it is a
well-known fact, that to see them thus sailing along, is a bad omen, and
that it is portentous of misfortune to those who witness it.[140]
The cray-fish, which belongs to the class of bloodless animals, is
protected by a brittle crust. This creature, like the crab, keeps itself
concealed for five months. But at the beginning of spring both of them,
after the manner of snakes, throw off old age, and renew their
coverings. While other animals swim on the water, cray-fish float with a
kind of action like creeping. They move onwards, if there were nothing
to alarm them, in a straight line, extending on each side their horns,
which are rounded at the point by a ball peculiar to them; but when
alarmed, they straighten these horns, and proceed with a sidelong
motion. They use these horns when fighting with each other. The
cray-fish is the only animal that has the flesh in a pulpy state, and
not firm and solid, unless it is cooked alive in boiling water.
The cray-fish frequents rocky places, the crab spots which present a
soft surface. In winter they both choose such parts of the shore as are
exposed to the heat of the sun, in summer they withdraw to the shady
recesses of deep inlets of the sea. All fish of this kind suffer from
the cold of winter, but become fat during autumn and spring,
particularly during the full moon; for the warmth of that luminary, as
it shines in the night, renders the temperature of the weather more
moderate.
There are various kinds of crabs, known as carabi, lobsters, maiæ,
paguri, heracleotici, lions, and others of less note. The carabus
differs from other crabs, in having a tail; in Phoenicia they are called
hippoi, or horses, being of such extraordinary swiftness, that it is
impossible to overtake them. Crabs are long-lived, and have eight feet,
all of which are bent obliquely; besides which, the animal has two claws
with indented pincers. The upper part only of these forefeet is movable:
the right claw is the largest in them all. Sometimes they assemble
together in large bodies; but as they are unable to cross the mouth of
the Black Sea, they turn back again and go round by land, and the road
by which they travel is to be seen all beaten down with their
foot-marks.
The smallest crab known is the pinnotheres. It is peculiarly exposed to
danger, but its shrewdness is evinced by its concealing itself in the
shell of the oyster, removing as it grows larger, to those of a larger
size.
Crabs, when alarmed, go backwards as swiftly as when moving forwards.
They fight like rams, butting at each other with their horns. They have
a mode of curing themselves of the bites of serpents. It is said, that
while the sun is passing through the sign of Cancer, the dead bodies of
the crabs, which are lying thrown up on the shore, are transformed into
serpents.
To the same class also belongs the sea-urchin, which has spines in place
of feet; its mode of moving along is to roll like a ball, hence it is
that these animals are often found with their prickles rubbed off. Those
among them which have the longest spines of all, are known by the name
of echinometræ, while at the same time their body is the very smallest.
They are not all of them of the same glassy color; in the vicinity of
Torone they are white, with very short spines. The eggs of all of them
are bitter, and are five in number; the mouth is situate in the middle
of the body, and faces the earth. It is said that these creatures
foreknow the approach of a storm at sea, and that they take up little
stones with which they cover themselves, and so provide a sort of
ballast against their volubility, for they are very unwilling by rolling
along to wear away their prickles. As soon as seafaring persons observe
this, they at once moor their ship with several anchors.
To the same genus also belong both land and water snails, which thrust
the body forth from their abode, and extend or contract two horns. They
are without eyes,[141] and have, therefore, to feel their way, by means
of these horns.
To the same class belong the sea-scallops, which also conceal themselves
during severe frosts and great heats; as well as the onyches, which
shine in the dark like fire, and in the mouth even while being eaten.
CHAPTER X.
VARIOUS KINDS OF SHELL-FISH.
Let us now pass on to the murex and other kinds of shell-fish, which
have a stronger shell, and in which Nature, in her sportive mood, has
displayed a great variety--so many are the hues of their tints, so
numerous are their shapes, flat, concave, long, crescent-shaped, rounded
into a globe, cut through into a semi-globe, arched in the back, smooth,
rough, indented, streaked, the upper part spirally wreathed, the edge
projecting in a sharp point, the edge wreathed outwards, or else folding
inwards. And then, too, there are the various distinctions of rayed
shells, long-haired shells, wavy-haired shells, channelled shells,
pectinated shells, imbricated shells, reticulated shells, shells with
lines oblique or rectilinear, thickset shells, expanded shells, tortuous
shells, shells the valves of which are united by one small knot, shells
which are held together all along one side, shells which are open as if
in the very act of applauding, and shells which wind, resembling a
conch. The fish of this class, known as the shells of Venus, are able to
navigate the surface of the deep, and, presenting to the wind their
concave side, catch the breeze, and sail along on the surface of the
sea. Scallops are also able to leap and fly above the surface of the
water, and they sometimes employ their shell by way of a bark.
But why mention such trifles as these, when I am sensible that no
greater inroads have been made upon our morals, and no more rapid
advances have been made by luxury, than those effected through the
medium of shell-fish? Of all the elements that exist, the sea is the one
that costs the dearest to the stomach; seeing that it provides so many
kinds of meats, so many dishes, so many exquisite flavors derived from
fish, all of which are valued in proportion to the danger undergone by
those who have caught them.
But how insignificant is all this when we come to think of our purple,
our azure, and our pearls; it was not enough, forsooth, for the spoils
of the sea to be thrust down the gullet--but they must be employed as
well to adorn the hands, the ears, the head, the whole body, in fact,
and that of the men pretty nearly as much as the women. What has the sea
to do with our clothes? What is there in common between waves and
billows and a sheep's fleece? This one element ought not to receive us,
according to ordinary notions, except in a state of nakedness. Let there
be ever so strong an alliance between it and the stomach, on the score
of gluttony, still, what can it possibly have to do with the back? It is
not enough, forsooth, that we are fed upon what is acquired by perils,
but we must be clothed, too, in a similar way; so true it is, that for
all the wants of the body, that which is sought at the expense of human
life is sure to please us the most.
CHAPTER XI.
PEARLS.
The very highest position among all valuables belongs to the pearl. It
is principally the Indian Ocean that sends them to us. Across many a
sea, and over many a lengthened tract of land, scorched by the ardent
rays of a burning sun, must the pearl seeker pass, amid those monsters
so frightful and so huge which we have already described. The places
most productive of pearls are the islands of Taprobana and Stoïdis, and
Perimula, a promontory of India. But those most highly valued are found
in the vicinity of Arabia, in the Persian Gulf, which forms a part of
the Red Sea.
The origin and production of the shell-fish is not very different from
that of the shell of the oyster. When the genial season of the year
exercises its influence on the animal, it is said that, yawning, as it
were, it opens its shell, and so receives a kind of dew, by means of
which it becomes permeated; and at length small, hard bunches form in
its shell, in the shape of pearls, which vary according to the quality
of the dew. If this has been in a perfectly pure state when it flowed
into the shell, then the pearl produced is white and brilliant, but if
it was turbid, the pearl is of a clouded color also; if the sky should
happen to have been lowering when it was generated, the pearl will be of
a pallid color; from all which it is quite evident that the quality of
the pearl depends much more upon a calm state of the heavens than of the
sea, and contracts a cloudy hue, or a limpid appearance, according to
the degree of serenity of the sky in the morning.[142]
If, again, the fish is satiated in a reasonable time, then the pearl
produced increases rapidly in size. If it should happen to lighten at
the time, the animal shuts its shell, and the pearl is diminished in
size in proportion to the fast that the animal has to endure: but if, in
addition to this, it should thunder as well, then it becomes alarmed,
and closing the shell in an instant, produces what is known as a
physema, or pearl-bubble, filled with air, and bearing a resemblance to
a pearl, but in appearance only, as it is quite empty, and devoid of
body. Those which are produced in a perfectly healthy state consist of
numerous layers. It is wonderful, however, that they should be
influenced thus pleasurably, by the state of the heavens, seeing that by
the action of the sun the pearls are turned of a red color, and lose all
their whiteness, just like the human body. Those which keep their
whiteness the best are the pelagiæ, or main-sea pearls, which lie at too
great a depth to be reached by the sun's rays. Those pearls which have
one surface flat and the other spherical, opposite to the plane side,
are for that reason called tympania, or tambour-pearls. I have seen
pearls still adhering to the shell; for which reason the shells were
used as boxes for unguents.
As soon as the fish perceives the hand, it shuts its shell and covers up
its treasures, being well aware what is sought; if it happens to catch
the fingers it cuts them off with the sharp edge of the shell. No
punishment could be more justly inflicted. There are other penalties as
well, for while the greater part of the pearls are only to be found
among rocks and crags, the others which lie out in the main sea are
generally accompanied by sea-dogs.[143] And yet, for all this, the women
will not banish these gems from their ears! Some writers say, that these
animals live in communities, or swarms like bees, each of them being
governed by one remarkable for its size and venerable age; while at the
same time it is possessed of marvellous skill in taking all due
precautions against danger; the divers take special care to find these,
because when once they are taken, the others stray to and fro, and are
easily caught in their nets. When the pearl-fish are taken they are
placed under a thick layer of salt in earthen-ware vessels; as the flesh
is gradually consumed, the pearls are disengaged and fall to the bottom
of the vessel.
There is no doubt that pearls wear out with use, and will change their
color, if neglected. All their merit consists in their whiteness, large
size, roundness, polish, and weight; qualities which are not easily to
be found united in the same. Indeed no two pearls are ever found
perfectly alike; and it was from this circumstance, no doubt, that our
Roman luxury first gave them the name of "unio," or the unique gem: for
a similar name is not given them by the Greeks; nor among the barbarians
by whom they are found are they called anything else but "margaritæ."
Even in the very whiteness of the pearl there is a great difference to
be observed. Those are of a much clearer water that are found in the Red
Sea, while the Indian pearl resembles in tint the scales of the
mirror-stone, but exceeds all the others in size. The color that is most
highly prized of all is that of the alum-colored pearls. Long pearls
have their peculiar value, especially those called "elenchi," which are
of a long tapering shape, resembling our alabaster[144] boxes in form,
and ending in a full bulb. Our ladies quite glory in having these
suspended from their fingers, or two or three of them dangling from
their ears. For the purpose of ministering to these luxurious tastes,
there are various names and wearisome refinements which have been
devised by profuseness and prodigality; for after inventing these
ear-rings, they have given them the name of "crotalia," or castanet
pendants, as though quite delighted even with the rattling of the pearls
as they knock against each other; and, at the present day, the poorer
classes are affecting them, as people are in the habit of saying, that
"a pearl worn by a woman in public, is as good as a lictor walking
before her."[145] Nay, even more than this, they put them on their feet,
and that, not only on the laces of their sandals, but all over the
shoes; it is not enough to wear pearls, but they must tread upon them,
and walk with them under foot as well.
Pearls used formerly to be found in our sea, but more frequently about
the Thracian Bosporus; they were of a red color, and small, and enclosed
in a shell-fish known by the name of "myes." In Acarnania there is a
shell-fish called "pina," which produces pearls; and Juba states that on
the shores of Arabia a shell-fish is found which resembles a notched
comb, covered all over with hair like a sea-urchin, and the pearl lies
imbedded in its flesh, bearing a strong resemblance to a hailstone. No
such shell-fish, however, as these are ever brought to Rome. The
Acarnanian pearl is shapeless, rough, and of a marble hue; those are
better which are found in the vicinity of Actium.
It is quite clear that the interior of the pearl is solid, as no fall is
able to break it. Pearls are found in various places in the body of the
animal. Indeed, I have seen some which lay at the edge of the shell,
just as though in the very act of coming forth, and in some fishes as
many as four or five. Up to the present time, very few have been found
which exceeded half an ounce in weight, by more than one scruple.[146]
It is a well-ascertained fact, that in Britannia pearls are found,
though small, and of bad color; for the deified Julius Cæsar wished it
to be distinctly understood, that the breast-plate which he dedicated to
Venus Genetrix, in her temple, was made of British pearls.
I once saw Lollia Paulina, the wife of the Emperor Caligula--it was not
at any public festival, or any solemn ceremonial, but only an ordinary
wedding entertainment--covered with emeralds and pearls, which shone in
alternate layers upon her head, in her hair, in her wreaths, in her
ears, upon her neck, in her bracelets, and on her fingers, and the value
of which amounted in all to forty millions of sesterces ($1,525,000);
indeed she was prepared at once to prove the fact, by showing the
receipts and acquittances. Nor were these any presents made by a
prodigal potentate, but treasures which had descended to her from her
grandfather, and obtained by the spoliation of the provinces. Such are
the fruits of plunder and extortion! It was for this reason that Marcus
Lollius was held so infamous all over the East for the presents which he
extorted from the kings; as a result of which he was finally denied the
friendship of Caius Cæsar, and took poison; and all this was done, I
say, that his granddaughter might be seen, by the glare of lamps,
covered all over with jewels to the amount of forty millions of
sesterces! Now let a person only picture to himself, on the one hand,
what was the value of the habits worn by Curius or Fabricius in their
triumphs, let him picture to himself the objects displayed to the public
on their triumphal litters, and then, on the other hand, let him think
upon this Lollia, this one bit of a woman, the head of an empire, taking
her place at table, thus attired; would he not much rather that the
conquerors had been torn from their very chariots, than that they had
conquered for such a result as this?
Yet even these are not the most supreme evidences of luxury. There were
formerly two pearls, the largest that had been ever seen in the whole
world: Cleopatra, the last of the queens of Egypt, came into possession
of them both, by descent from the kings of the East. When Antony had
been sated by her, day after day, with the most exquisite banquets, this
queenly woman, inflated with vanity and disdainful arrogance, affected
to treat all this sumptuousness and all these vast preparations with the
greatest contempt; upon which Antony enquired what there was that could
possibly be added to such extraordinary magnificence. To this she made
answer, that on a single entertainment she would expend ten millions of
sesterces. Antony was extremely desirous to learn how that could be
done, but looked upon it as a thing quite impossible; and a wager was
the result. On the following day, upon which the matter was to be
decided, in order that she might not lose the wager, she had an
entertainment set before Antony, magnificent in every respect, though no
better than his usual repast. Upon this, Antony joked her, and enquired
what was the amount expended upon it; to which she made answer that the
banquet which he then beheld was only a trifling appendage to the real
banquet, and that she alone would consume at the meal to the ascertained
value of that amount, she herself would swallow the ten millions of
sesterces; and so ordered the second course to be served. In obedience
to her instructions, the servants placed before her a single vessel,
which was filled with vinegar, a liquid, the sharpness and strength of
which is able to dissolve pearls. At this moment she was wearing in her
ears those choicest and most unique productions of Nature; and while
Antony was waiting to see what she was going to do, taking one of them
from out of her ear, she threw it into the vinegar, and as soon as it
was melted, swallowed it. Lucius Plancus, who had been named umpire in
the wager, placed his hand upon the other at the very instant that she
was making preparations to dissolve it in a similar manner, and declared
that Antony had lost--an omen, which, in the result, was fully
confirmed. The fame of the second pearl is equal to that which attends
its fellow. After the queen, who had thus come off victorious on so
important a question, had been seized, it was cut asunder, in order that
this, the other half of the entertainment, might serve as pendants for
the ears of Venus, in the Pantheon at Rome.
Antony and Cleopatra, however, will not bear away the palm of
prodigality in this respect, and will be stripped of even this boast in
the annals of luxury. For before their time, Clodius, the son of the
tragic actor, Æsopus, had done the same at Rome; having been left by his
father heir to his ample wealth and possessions. Let not Antony then be
too proud, for all his triumvirate, since he can hardly stand in
comparison with an actor; one, too, who had no wager to induce him--a
thing which adds to the regal munificence of the act--but was merely
desirous of trying, by way of glorification to his palate, what was the
taste of pearls. As he found it to be wonderfully pleasing, that he
might not be the only one to know it, he had a pearl set before each of
his guests for him to swallow. After the surrender of Alexandria, pearls
came into common and, indeed, universal use at Rome; but they first
began to be used about the time of Sylla, though but of small size and
of little value, Fenestella says--in this, however, it is quite evident
that he is mistaken, for Ælius Stilo tells us, that it was in the time
of the Jugurthine war, that the name of "unio" was first given to pearls
of remarkable size.
CHAPTER XII.
THE NATURE OF THE MUREX AND THE PURPLE.
And yet pearls may be looked upon as pretty nearly a possession of
everlasting duration--they descend from a man to his heir, and they are
alienated from one to another just like any landed estate. But the
colors that are extracted from the murex and the "purple" fade from hour
to hour; and yet luxury, which has similarly acted as a mother to them,
has set upon them prices almost equal to those of pearls.
Purples commonly live seven years. Like the murex, they keep themselves
in concealment for thirty days, about the time of the rising of the
Dog-star; in the spring season they unite in large bodies, and by
rubbing against each other, produce a viscous saliva, from which a kind
of wax is formed. The murex does the same; but the purple has that
exquisite juice which is so greatly sought after for the purpose of
dyeing cloth, situated in the middle of the throat. This secretion
consists of a tiny drop contained in a white vein, from which the
precious liquid used for dyeing is distilled, being of the tint of a
rose somewhat inclining to black. The rest of the body is entirely
destitute of this juice. It is a great point to take the fish alive; for
when it dies, it ejects this juice. From the larger ones it is extracted
after taking off the shell; but the small fish are crushed alive,
together with the shells, upon which they eject this secretion.
In Asia the best purple is that of Tyre, in Africa that of Meninx and
the parts of Gætulia that border on the Ocean, and in Europe that of
Laconia. It is for this color that the fasces and the axes of Rome make
way in the crowd; it is this that asserts the majesty of childhood;[147]
it is this that distinguishes the senator from the man of equestrian
rank; by persons arrayed in this color are prayers addressed to
propitiate the gods; on every garment it sheds a lustre, and in the
triumphal vestment it is to be seen mingled with gold. Let us be
prepared then to excuse this frantic passion for purple, even though at
the same time we are compelled to enquire, why it is that such a high
value has been set upon the produce of this shell-fish, seeing that
while in the dye the smell of it is offensive, and the color then is
harsh, of a greenish hue, and strongly resembling that of the sea when
in a tempestuous state?
The tongue of the purple is a finger in length, and by means of this it
finds subsistence, by piercing other shell-fish, so hard is the point of
it. They die in fresh water, and in places where rivers discharge
themselves into the sea; otherwise, when taken, they will live as long
as fifty days on their saliva. All shell-fish grow very fast, purples
especially; they come to their full size at the end of a year.
Were I at this point to pass on to other subjects, luxury, no doubt,
would think itself defrauded of its due, and so accuse me of negligence;
I must therefore make my way into the very workshops, so that, just as
among articles of food the various kinds and qualities of corn are
known, all those who place the enjoyment of life in these luxuries may
have a still better acquaintance with the objects for which they live.
There are two kinds of fish that produce the purple color; the elements
in both are the same, the combinations only are different; the smaller
fish is that which is called the "buccinum," from its resemblance to the
conch by which the sound of the buccinus or trumpet is produced, and to
this circumstance it owes its name: the opening in it is round, with an
incision in the margin. The other fish is known as the "purpura," or
purple, and has a grooved and projecting muzzle, which being tubulated
on one side in the interior, forms a passage for the tongue; besides
which, the shell is studded with points up to the very apex, which are
ordinarily seven in number, and disposed in a circle; these are not
found on the buccinum, though both of them have as many spirals as they
are years old. The buccinum attaches itself only to crags, and is
gathered about rocky places.
Purples are of numerous kinds, differing only in their element and place
of abode. There is the mud purple, the sea-weed purple, both of which
are held in the very lowest esteem; the reef-purple, which is collected
on the reefs or out at sea; the color from which is still too light and
thin. Then there is the variety known as the pebble-purple, wonderfully
well adapted for dyeing; and, better than any of them, that known by the
name of "dialutensis," because of the various natures of the soil on
which it feeds. Purples are taken with a kind of osier kipe of small
size, and with large meshes; these are cast into the sea, baited with
cockles which snap at an object, just as we see mussels do, and close
the shell instantaneously. Though half dead when they are returned to
the sea, these animals come to life again, and open their shells with
avidity; upon which the purples seek them, and commence the attack, by
protruding their tongues. The cockles, on the other hand, the moment
they feel themselves pricked, shut their shells, and hold fast the
object that has wounded them: in this way, victims to their greediness,
they are drawn up to the surface hanging by the tongue.
The most favorable season for taking these fish is after the rising of
the Dog-star, or else before spring; for when they have once discharged
their waxy secretion, their juices have no consistency: this, however,
is a fact unknown in the dyers' workshops, although it is a point of
primary importance. After it is taken, the vein is extracted, of which
we have previously spoken, to which it is requisite to add salt, twenty
ounces to every hundred pounds of juice. They are then left to steep for
a period not exceeding three days, for the fresher they are, the greater
virtue there is in the liquor. It is then set to boil in vessels of tin,
and every eight thousand pounds ought to be boiled down to five hundred
pounds of dye, by the application of a moderate heat; for which purpose
the vessel is placed at the end of a long funnel, communicating with the
furnace; while thus boiling, the liquor is skimmed from time to time,
and with it the flesh, which necessarily adheres to the veins. About the
tenth day, generally, the whole contents of the cauldron are in a
liquefied state, upon which a fleece, from which the grease has been
cleansed, is plunged into it by way of making trial; but until such time
as the color is found to satisfy the wishes of those preparing it, the
liquor is still kept on the boil. The tint that inclines to red is
looked upon as inferior to that which is of a blackish hue. The wool is
left to lie in soak for five hours, and then, after carding it, it is
thrown in again, until it has fully imbibed the color of that bright
lustre, which approaches the shining crimson hue of the kermes-berry, a
tint that is particularly valued.
CHAPTER XIII.
BODIES WHICH HAVE A THIRD NATURE, THAT OF THE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE
COMBINED.
For my own part, I am strongly of opinion that there is sense existing
in those bodies which have the nature of neither animals nor vegetables,
but a third which partakes of them both:--sea-nettles and sponges, I
mean. The sea-nettle wanders to and fro by night, and at night changes
its locality. These creatures are by nature a sort of fleshy branch, and
are nurtured upon flesh. They have the power of producing a smarting
pain, just like that caused by the nettle found on land. For the purpose
of seeking its prey, it contracts and stiffens itself to the utmost
possible extent, and then, as a small fish swims past, it will suddenly
spread out its branches, and so seize and devour it. At another time it
will assume the appearance of being quite withered away, and let itself
be tossed to and fro by the waves like a piece of sea-weed, until it
happens to touch a fish. The moment it does so, the fish goes to rub
itself against a rock, to get rid of the itching; immediately upon
which, the nettle pounces upon it. By night also it is on the look-out
for scallops and sea-urchins. When it perceives a hand approaching it,
it instantly changes its color, and contracts itself; when touched it
produces a burning sensation, and if ever so short a time is afforded,
makes its escape.
Sponges grow on rocks, and feed upon shell- and other fish, and slime.
It would appear that these creatures, too, have some intelligence; for
as soon as they feel the hand about to tear them off, they contract
themselves, and are separated with much greater difficulty: they do the
same also when the waves buffet them to and fro. About Torone it is said
that they will survive after they have been detached, and that they grow
again from the roots which have been left adhering to the rock. They
leave a color like blood upon the rock from which they have been
detached, especially those which are produced in the Syrtes of Africa.
The manos is the one that grows to the largest size, but the softest of
all are those found in the vicinity of Lycia. Where the sea is deep and
calm, they are more particularly soft, while those which are found in
the Hellespont are rough, and those in the vicinity of Malea coarse.
When lying in places exposed to the sun, they become putrid: hence those
which are found in deep water are the best. While they are alive, they
are of the same blackish color that they are when saturated with water.
They adhere to the rock not by one part only, nor yet by the whole body:
and within them there are a number of empty tubes, generally four or
five in number, by means of which, it is thought, they take their food.
There are other tubes also, but these are closed at the upper extremity;
and a sort of membrane is supposed to be spread beneath the roots by
which they adhere. It is well known that sponges are very long-lived.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SHARK.
Vast numbers of sharks infest the seas in the vicinity of the sponges,
to the great peril of those who dive for them. These persons say that a
sort of dense cloud gradually thickens over their heads, bearing a
resemblance to some kind of animal like a flat-fish, and that, pressing
downward upon them, it prevents them from returning to the surface. It
is for this reason that they carry stilettos with them, very sharp at
the point, and attached to them by strings; for if they did not pierce
the object with the help of these, it could not be got rid of. This,
however, is entirely the result, in my opinion, of the darkness and
their own fears; for no person has ever yet been able to find, among
living creatures, the fish-cloud or the fish-fog, the name which they
give to this enemy of theirs.
The divers, however, have terrible combats with the sharks, which attack
with avidity the groin, the heels, and all the whiter parts of the body.
The only means of ensuring safety, is to go boldly to meet them, and so,
by taking the initiative, strike them with alarm: for in fact, this
animal is just as much frightened at man, as man is at it; and they are
on quite an equal footing when beneath the water. But the moment the
diver has reached the surface, the danger is much more imminent; for he
loses the power of boldly meeting his adversary while he is endeavoring
to make his way out of the water, and his only chance of safety is in
his companions, who draw him along by a cord that is fastened under his
shoulders. While he is engaging with the enemy, he keeps pulling this
cord with his left hand, according as there may be any sign of immediate
peril, while with the right he wields the stiletto, which he is using in
his defence. At first they draw him along at a moderate pace, but as
soon as they have got him close to the ship, if they do not whip him out
in an instant, with the greatest possible celerity, they see him snapped
asunder: and many a time, too, the diver, even when already drawn out,
is dragged from their hands, through neglecting to aid the efforts of
those who are assisting him, by rolling up his body in the shape of a
ball. The others, it is true, are in the mean time brandishing their
pronged fish-spears; but the monster has the craftiness to place himself
beneath the ship, and so wage the warfare in safety. Consequently, every
possible care is taken by the divers to look out for the approach of
this enemy.
The surest sign of safety is to see flat-fish, which never frequent the
spots where these noxious monsters are found: and for this reason the
divers call them sacred.
CHAPTER XV.
OYSTER-BEDS, AND FISH-PRESERVES.
The first person who formed artificial oyster-beds was Sergius Orata,
who established them at Baiæ, in the time of Lucius Crassus, the orator,
just before the Marsic War. This was done by him, not for the
gratification of gluttony, but as a commercial venture, and he contrived
to make a large income by this exercise of his ingenuity. He was the
first to invent hanging baths over heating furnaces, and after buying
villas and trimming them up, he would every now and then sell them
again. He, too, was the first to adjudge the preëminence for delicacy of
flavor to the oysters of Lake Lucrinus; for every kind of aquatic animal
is superior in one place to what it is in another. Thus, for instance,
the wolf-fish of the river Tiber is the best that is caught between the
two bridges, and the turbot of Ravenna is the most esteemed, the murena
of Sicily, the elops of Rhodes; the same, too, as to the other kinds,
not to go through all the items of the culinary catalogue. The British
shores had not as yet sent their supplies, at the time when Orata thus
ennobled the Lucrine oysters: at a later period, however, it was thought
worth while to fetch oysters all the way from Brundisium, at the very
extremity of Italy; and in order that there might exist no rivalry
between the two flavors, a plan has been more recently hit upon, of
feeding the oysters of Brundisium in Lake Lucrinus, famished as they
must naturally be after so long a journey.
In the same age, Lucinius Murena was the first to form preserves for
other fish; and his example was soon followed by the noble families of
the Philippi and the Hortensii. Lucullus had a mountain pierced near
Naples, at a greater outlay even than that which had been expended on
his villa, in order to admit the sea to his preserves. For this reason
Pompey gave him the name of "Xerxes in a toga."[148] After his death,
the fish in his preserves were sold for the sum of four million
sesterces ($150,000).
C. Hirrus was the first person who formed preserves for the murena; he
lent six thousand of these fishes for the triumphal banquets of Cæsar
the Dictator; on which occasion he had them duly weighed, as he declined
to receive the value of them in money or any other commodity. His villa,
which was of a very humble character in the interior, sold for four
millions of sesterces, in consequence of the valuable nature of the
stock-ponds there. Next after this, there arose a passion for individual
fish. At Bauli, in the territory of Baiæ, the orator Hortensius had some
fish-preserves, in which there was a murena to which he became so much
attached, as to be supposed to have wept on hearing of its death. It was
at the same villa that Antonia, the wife of Drusus, placed earrings upon
a murena which she had become fond of; the report of which singular
circumstance attracted many visitors to the place.
Fulvius Lupinus first formed preserves for sea-snails, in the territory
of Tarquinii, shortly before the civil war between Cæsar and Pompey. He
also carefully distinguished them by their several species, separating
them from one another. The white ones were those that are produced in
the district of Reate; those of Illyria were remarkable for the
largeness of their size; while those from Africa were the most prolific;
those, however, from the Promontory of the Sun were the most esteemed of
all. For the purpose of fattening them, he invented a mixture of boiled
wine, spelt-meal, and other substances; so that fattened periwinkles
became quite an object of gastronomy; and the art of breeding them was
brought to such a pitch of perfection, that the shell of a single animal
would hold as much as eighty quadrantes (fifteen quarts). This we learn
from Marcus Varro.
CHAPTER XVI.
LAND FISHES.
There are still some wonderful kinds of fishes which we find mentioned
by Theophrastus: he says, that when the waters subside, which have been
admitted for the purposes of irrigation in the vicinity of Babylon,
there are certain fish which remain in such holes as may contain water;
from these they come forth for the purpose of feeding, moving along with
their fins by the aid of a rapid movement of the tail. If pursued, he
says, they retreat to their holes, and when they have reached them, will
turn round and make a stand. The head is like that of the sea frog,
while the other parts are similar to those of the gobio, and they have
gills like other fish. He says also, that in the vicinity of Heraclea
and Cromna, and about the river Lycus, as well as in many parts of the
Black Sea, there is one kind of fish which frequents the waters near the
banks of the rivers, and makes holes for itself, in which it lives, even
when the water retires and the bed of the river is dry; for which reason
these fishes have to be dug out of the ground, and only show by the
movement of the body that they are still alive. He says also, that in
the vicinity of the same Heraclea, when the river Lycus ebbs, the eggs
are left in the mud, and that the fish, on being produced from these, go
forth to seek their food by means of a sort of fluttering motion,--their
gills being but very small, in consequence of which they are not in need
of water. It is in this way that eels also can live so long out of
water; and that their eggs come to maturity on dry land, like those of
the sea-tortoise. In the same regions of the Black Sea, he says, various
kinds of fishes are overtaken by the ice, the gobio more particularly,
and they only betray signs of life, by moving when they have warmth
applied by the saucepan. All these things, however, though very
remarkable, still admit of some explanation.
CHAPTER XVII.
HOW THE FISH CALLED THE ANTHIAS IS TAKEN.
It would not be right to omit what is said about the fish called
anthias, and which I find is looked upon as true by most writers. I have
already mentioned the Chelidoniæ, certain islands off the coast of Asia,
in the midst of a sea full of crags and reefs. These parts are much
frequented by this fish, which is very speedily taken by the employment
of a single method of catching it. A fisherman pushes out in a little
boat, dressed in a color resembling that of his boat; and every day, for
several days together, at the same hour, he sails over the same space,
while doing which he throws a quantity of bait into the sea. Whatever is
thrown from the boat is an object of suspicion to the fish, who keep at
a distance from what causes them so much alarm; but after this has been
repeated a considerable number of times, one of the fish, reassured by
becoming habituated to the scene, at last snaps at the bait. The
movements of this one are watched with the greatest care and attention,
for in it are centred all the hopes of the fishermen, as it is to be the
means of securing them their prey; nor is it difficult to recognize it,
seeing that for some days it is the only one that ventures to come near
the bait. At last, however, it finds some others to follow its example,
and by degrees it is better and better attended, till at last it brings
with it shoals innumerable. The older ones, at length becoming quite
accustomed to the fisherman, easily recognize him, and will even take
food from his hands. Upon this, the man throws out, a little way beyond
the tips of his fingers, a hook concealed in a bait, and smuggles them
out one by one, standing in the shadow of the boat and whipping them out
of the water with a slight jerk, that the others may not perceive it.
Meantime another fisherman is ready inside to receive them upon pieces
of cloth, in order that no floundering about or other noise may scare
the others away. It is of importance to know which has been the betrayer
of the others, and not to take it, otherwise the shoal will take to
flight, and appear no more for the future. There is a story that a
fisherman who quarrelled once with his mate, threw out a hook to one of
these leading fishes, which he easily recognized, and so captured it
with a malicious intent. But the fish was recognized in the market by
the other fisherman, against whom he had conceived this malice; who
accordingly brought an action against him for damages; and, as Mucianus
adds, he was condemned to pay them on the hearing of the case. These
anthiæ, it is said, when they see one of their number taken with a hook,
cut the line with the serrated spines which they have on the back, the
one that is held fast stretching it out as much as it can, to enable
them to cut it.
[Illustration: OTTER.--_Lutra Vulgaris._]
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE ECHENEÏS AND THE TORPEDO.
Following the proper order of things, we have now arrived at the
culminating point of the wonders manifested to us by the operations of
Nature. For what is there more unruly than the sea, with its winds, its
tornadoes, and its tempests? And yet in what department of her works has
Nature been more seconded by the ingenuity of man, than in this, by his
inventions of sails and of oars? In addition to this, we are struck with
the ineffable might displayed by the Ocean's tides, as they constantly
ebb and flow, and so regulate the currents of the sea as though they
were the waters of one vast river.
And yet all these forces, though acting in unison, and impelling in the
same direction, a single fish, and that of a very diminutive size--the
fish known as the "echeneïs"--possesses the power of counteracting.
Winds may blow and storms may rage, and yet the echeneïs controls their
fury, restrains their mighty force, and bids ships stand still in their
career; a result which no cables, no anchors, from their ponderousness
quite incapable of being weighed, could ever have produced! A fish
bridles the impetuous violence of the deep, and subdues the frantic rage
of the universe--and all this by no effort of its own, no act of
resistance on its part, no act at all, in fact, but that of adhering to
the bark! Trifling as this object would appear, it suffices to
counteract all these forces combined, and to forbid the ship to pass
onward in its way! Fleets, armed for war, pile up towers and bulwarks on
their decks, in order that, upon the deep even, men may fight from
behind ramparts as it were. But alas for human vanity!--when their
prows, beaked as they are with bronze and with iron, and armed for the
onset, can thus be arrested and riveted to the spot by a little fish, no
more than half a foot in length!
At the battle of Actium, it is said, a fish of this kind stopped the
prætorian ship[149] of Antonius in its course, at the moment that he was
hastening from ship to ship to encourage and exhort his men, and so
compelled him to leave it and go on board another. So that the fleet of
Cæsar gained the advantage in the onset, and charged with a redoubled
impetuosity. In our own time, too, one of these fish arrested the ship
of the Emperor Caius Caligula in its course, when he was returning from
Astura to Antium: and thus, as the result proved, did an insignificant
fish give presage of great events; for no sooner had the emperor
returned to Rome than he was pierced by the weapons of his own soldiers.
Nor did this sudden stoppage of the ship long remain a mystery, the
cause being perceived upon finding that, out of the whole fleet, the
emperors five-banked galley was the only one that was making no way. The
moment this was discovered, some of the sailors plunged into the sea,
and, on making search about the ship's sides, they found an echeneïs
adhering to the rudder. Upon its being shown to the emperor, he strongly
expressed his indignation[150] that such an obstacle as this should have
impeded his progress, and have rendered powerless the hearty endeavors
of four hundred men, particularly as the fish had no such power when
brought on board.
According to the persons who examined it on that occasion, and who have
seen it since, the echeneïs bears a strong resemblance to a large slug.
Some of our own authors have given this fish the Latin name of
"mora."[151]
If we had not this illustration by the agency of the echeneïs, would it
not have been quite sufficient only to cite the instance of the torpedo,
another inhabitant also of the sea, as a manifestation of the mighty
powers of Nature? From a considerable distance even, and if only touched
with the end of a spear or a staff, this fish has the property of
benumbing even the most vigorous arm, and of riveting the feet of the
runner, however swift he may be in the race.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE INSTINCTS AND PECULIARITIES OF FISHES.
The statements which Ovid has made as to the instincts of fish, in the
work[152] of his known as the "Treatise on Fishes," appear to me truly
marvellous. The scarus, for instance, when enclosed in the wicker kype,
makes no effort to escape with its head, nor does it attempt to thrust
its muzzle between the oziers; but turning its tail towards them, it
enlarges the orifices with repeated blows therefrom, and so makes its
escape backwards. Should, too, another scarus, from without, chance to
see it thus struggling within the kype, it will take the tail of the
other in its mouth, and so aid it in its efforts to escape. The lupus,
again, when surrounded with the net, furrows the sand with its tail, and
so conceals itself, until the net has passed over it. The muræna,
trusting in the slippery smoothness of its rounded back, boldly faces
the meshes of the net, and by repeatedly wriggling its body, makes its
escape. The polyp makes for the hooks, and without swallowing the bait,
clasps it with its feelers; nor does it quit its hold until it has eaten
off the bait, or perceives itself being drawn out of the water by the
rod.
The mullet, too, is aware that within the bait there is a hook
concealed, and is on its guard against the ambush; still, however, so
great is its voracity, that it beats the hook with its tail, and strikes
away from it the bait. The lupus, again, shows less foresight and
address, but repentance at its imprudence arms it with mighty strength;
for, when caught by the hook, it flounders from side to side, and so
widens the wound, till at last the insidious hook falls from its mouth.
The muræna not only swallows the hook, but catches at the line with its
teeth, and so gnaws it asunder. The anthias, Ovid says, the moment it
finds itself caught by the hook, turns its body with its back downwards,
upon which there is a sharp knife-like fin, and so cuts the line
asunder.
Trebius Niger informs us that whenever the loligo is seen darting above
the surface of the water, it portends a change of weather: that the
xiphias, or, in other words, the sword-fish, has a sharp-pointed muzzle,
with which it is able to pierce the sides of a ship and send it to the
bottom: instances of which have been known near Cotte, a place in
Mauritania, not far from the river Lixus. He says, too, that the loligo
sometimes darts above the surface, in such vast numbers, as to sink the
ships upon which they fall.
At many of the country-seats belonging to the Emperor the fish eat[153]
from the hand. In the fountain of Jupiter at Labranda, there are eels
which eat from the hand, and wear earrings.[154]
At Myra, too, in Lycia, the fish in the Fountain of Apollo, known as
Surium, appear and give oracular presages, when thrice summoned by the
sound of a flute. If they seize the flesh thrown to them with avidity,
it is a good omen for the person who consults them; but if, on the other
hand, they flap at it with their tails, it is considered an evil
presage. At Hierapolis,[155] in Syria, the fish in the Lake of Venus
obey the voice of the officers of the temple: bedecked with ornaments of
gold, they come at their call, fawn upon them while they are scratched,
and open their mouths so wide as to admit of the insertion of the hand.
CHAPTER XX.
CORAL.
In the same degree that people in our part of the world set a value upon
the pearls of India do the people of India prize coral: it being the
prevailing taste in each nation respectively that constitutes the value
of things. Coral is produced in the Red Sea also, but of a more swarthy
hue than ours. It is to be found also in the Persian Gulf, where it is
known by the name of "iace." But the most highly-esteemed of all, is
that produced in the vicinity of the islands called Stoechades, in the
Gallic Gulf, and near the Æolian Islands and the town of Drepana in the
Sea of Sicily. Coral is to be found growing, too, at Erythræ, where it
is intensely red, but soft, and consequently little valued.
Its form is that of a shrub,[156] and its color green: its berries are
white and soft while under water, but the moment they are removed from
it, they become hard and red, resembling the berries of cultivated
cornel in size and appearance. They say that, while alive, if it is only
touched by a person, it will immediately become as hard as stone; and
hence it is that the greatest pains are taken to prevent this, by
tearing it up from the bottom with nets, or else cutting it short with a
sharp-edged instrument of iron: from which last circumstance it is
generally supposed to have received its name of "curalium."[157] The
reddest coral and the most branchy is held in the highest esteem; but,
at the same time, it must not be rough or hard like stone; nor yet, on
the other hand, should it be full of holes or hollow.
The berries of coral are no less esteemed by the men in India than are
the pearls of that country by the ladies among us; their soothsayers,
too, and diviners look upon coral as an amulet endowed with sacred
properties, and a sure preservative against all dangers: hence it is
that they equally value it as an ornament and as an object of devotion.
Before it was known in what estimation coral was held by the people of
India, the Gauls were in the habit of adorning their swords, shields,
and helmets with it; but at the present day, owing to the value set upon
it as an article of exportation, it has become so extremely rare, that
it is seldom to be seen even in the regions that produce it. Branches of
coral, hung at the neck of infants, are thought to act as a preservative
against danger. Calcined, pulverized, and taken in wine, or, if there
are symptoms of fever, in water, it acts as a soporific. It resists the
action of fire a considerable time before it is calcined.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE VARIOUS KINDS OF OYSTERS.
The palm has been awarded to oysters at our tables as a most exquisite
dish. Oysters love fresh water and spots where numerous rivers discharge
themselves into the sea. Generally speaking, they increase in size with
the increase of the moon, but it is at the beginning of summer, more
particularly, and when the rays of the sun penetrate the shallow waters,
that they are swollen with an abundance of milk.[158]
Oysters are of various colors; in Spain they are red, in Illyricum of a
tawny hue, and at Circeii black, both in meat and shell. But in every
country, those oysters are the most highly esteemed that are compact
without being slimy from their secretions, and are remarkable more for
their thickness than their breadth. They should never be taken in either
muddy or sandy spots, but from a firm, hard bottom; the meat should be
compressed, and not of a fleshy consistence; and the oyster should be
free from fringed edges, and lying wholly in the cavity of the shell.
Persons of experience in these matters add another characteristic; a
fine purple thread, they say, should run round the margins of the beard,
this being looked upon as a sign of superior quality, and obtaining for
them their name of "calliblephara."[159]
Oysters are all the better for travelling and being removed to new
waters; thus, for example, the oysters of Brundisium, it is thought,
when fed in the waters of Avernus, both retain their own native juices
and acquire the flavor of those of Lake Lucrinus. Mucianus, who is
really a connoisseur, says:--"The oysters of Cyzicus are larger than
those of Lake Lucrinus, fresher than those of the British coasts,[160]
sweeter than those of Medulæ, more tasty than those of Ephesus, more
plump than those of Lucas, less slimy than those of Coryphas, more
delicate than those of Istria, and whiter than those of Circeii." For
all this, however, it is a fact well ascertained that there are no
oysters fresher or more delicate than those of Circeii, last mentioned.
According to the historians of the expedition of Alexander, there were
oysters found in the Indian Sea a foot in diameter:[161] among
ourselves, too, the nomenclature of some spendthrift and gourmand has
found for certain oysters the name of "tridacna,"[162] wishing it to be
understood thereby, that they are so large as to require three bites in
eating them. We will take the present opportunity of stating all the
medicinal properties that are attributed to oysters. They are singularly
refreshing[163] to the stomach, and tend to restore the appetite.
Luxury, too, has imparted to them an additional coolness by burying them
in snow, thus making a medley of the produce of the tops of mountains
and the bottom of the sea. Calcined oyster-shells, mixed with honey, are
good sprinkled upon burns, and are highly esteemed as a dentifrice.
Book VII.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS.
CHAPTER I.
THE OSTRICH.
The history of birds follows next, the very largest of which, and indeed
almost approaching to the nature of quadrupeds, is the ostrich of Africa
or Æthiopia. This bird exceeds in height a man sitting on horseback, and
can surpass him in swiftness, as wings have been given to aid it in
running; in other respects ostriches cannot be considered as birds, and
do not raise themselves from the earth. They have cloven talons, very
similar to the hoof of the stag; with these they fight, and they also
employ them in seizing stones for the purpose of throwing at those who
pursue them.[164] They have the marvellous property of being able to
digest every substance without distinction, but their stupidity is no
less remarkable; for although the rest of their body is so large, they
imagine, when they have thrust their head and neck into a bush, that the
whole of the body is concealed. Their eggs are prized on account of
their large size, and are employed as vessels for certain purposes,
while the feathers of the wing and tail are used as ornaments for the
crest and helmet of the warrior.