GLEANINGS

FROM THE

NATURAL HISTORY

OF THE

ANCIENTS.

BY THE

Eev. W. HOUGHTON, M.A., F.L.S.

ILLUSTRATED.

Cassell, Petter, Galpin

LONDON, PARIS & NEW YORK.
[all rights reserved.]

& Co..

®0

SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, Bart.,

M.r., F.R.B , F.L.S., ETC. ETC.
WHOSE VARIED ATTAINMENTS AND HIGH SCIENTIFIC CULTURE
ARE SO WIDELY KNOWN AND APPRECIATED,

3E Btfricatc
THIS WORK.

LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS.

PAGE

thoth, lord OF letters {Egyptian) ... 14

sitting in judgment {Egyptian) 15

BABOONS CONVEYING A WICKED SOUL IN THE FORM OF A

pig back to earth {Egyptian) ... 16

apes [Egyptian) 18

ELEPHANT and monkeys, tribute of the muzri

{Assyrian) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 21

dogs {Egyptian) 27

mastiff {Assyrian) ... ... ... ... ... ... 33

clay model of hunting dog {Assyrian) ... ... ... 35

greyhounds in chase {Assyrian) 37

A fowler {Egyptian) 42

car drawn by oxen {Egyptian) ... ... ... ... 57

branding cattle {Egyptian) 59

oxen {Assyrian) 60

car drawn by oxen {Assyrian) ... ... ... ... 61

sheep and goats {Assyrian) 69

fishermen {Assyrian) ... ... ... ... ... ... 74

BLACK obelisk {Assyrian) 78

war horses {Assyrian) ... ... ... ... ... 87

king's chariot {Assyrian) 88

asses {Egyptian) ... ... ... ... ... ... 93

mule {Assyrian) ... ... ... ... ... ... 102

judgment scene {Egyptian) ... ... ... ... ... 108

geese {Egyptian) ... ... ... ... ... ... 121

hare and birds {Assyrian) ... ... ... ... ... 137

horseman surprised by A lion {Assyrian) 160

MAN attacking A lion {Assyrian) 162

hunting wild bulls {Assyrian) 174

MAN WITH OSTRICH AND GAZELLE {Egyptian) ... ... 196

netting fish {Egyptian) 222

HEMICHROMIS 223

6CARAB.2EUS {Egyptian) 244

GLEANINGS

FROM THE

Natural History of the Ancients.

PART L

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS.

The title of these lectures will, I hope,
sufficiently explain their scope and nature.
I call them Gleanings, because it is not at
all my intention to enter into so large a
field as the Natural History of the Ancients
considered as a whole. Such a work, even
were I competent to deal with it, would
require not a few lectures only, but a whole
encyclopaedic volume, were an attempt made
to give, even in abridgment, anything like a
just conception of what should be comprised
in so wide a term as the Natural History of

B

2 Natural History of the Ancients.

the Ancients. My task is a much lighter
one. I will ask you to accompany me into
some of these ancient Natural History fields,
and to listen to me while I gather up, now
from one quarter, now from another, some
ears of corn that lie scattered before me —
mere gleanings picked up almost at random,
but still gleanings which will, I hope, be
able to afford you some pleasure and in-
struction. It is always interesting to
know something of the thoughts, feelings,
opinions and customs of people who lived
in ages long since past; it is profitable also
to ourselves, lest we, living in an age
of great intellectual activity and marvellous
scientific discoveries, should be inclined to
despise in any way the honest endeavours
and well-intended labours of bygone genera-
tions.

Let me now define the limits within
which, speaking generally, I wish to confine
myself in these lectures. It is not my in-
tention to bring before }^our notice anything

Domesticated Animals.

3

relating to plants concerning which ancient
writers have discoursed. I shall keep entirely
to the animals — the zoological, not the botani-
cal department of Natural History. Then,
again, I must explain what I mean by the use
of the term " Ancients." Clearly, the word
admits of a very wide application. We know
that ancient people existed in many parts of
the world ages ago, whose implements have
been frequently, and remains occasionally,
found imbedded in the soil, together with
the remains of animals, some of which are
now extinct. These ancient inhabitants have
left us no written records, but we must not
therefore conclude that they have left us
altogether in the dark as to their habits and
customs, The various kitchen -middens in
different parts of Europe tell us often a most
interesting story; flint implements, inter-
mingled with split bones of animals of various
kinds, and with different sorts of shells, as
oysters, cockles, muscles, &c, testify to the
existence of men of a remote date, and inform
b 2

4 Natural History of the Ancients.

us what animals they used as food, how they
killed them, and how they extracted the
marrow from their bones. Clearly, therefore,
these inhabitants of a long distant past would
come, in the literal sense of the word, under
the category of " Ancients." But of these
pre-historic ancients, and of the animals known
to them, I do not propose to speak, except-
ing incidentally or by way of illustration.
Excluding these, therefore, I shall confine my
remarks to some of the animals known to the
early inhabitants of Egypt, Palestine, Assyria,
Greece, and Eome, from the oldest historic
period down to about the middle of the third
century of the Christian era. From these
fields I propose to glean and to bind together
a few zoological sheaves.

Let us first ask what are the sources of
our information ? They are principally these
four: — I. Natural History; II. Literary His-
tory • III. Figures of animals on monuments,
coins, gems, &c. ; IV. Names of animals.

I. Natural History makes us acquainted

Domesticated Animal*.

5

with the remains of animals found in pile-
dwellings and kitchen-middens, which we
know to have been associated with man; or
with animal remains, simply buried in
earth or peat, for instance, not necessarily
associated with man. The value of the
information derived from these four sources
varies according to the nature of the evidence
supplied in each case. Thus from Literary
History we may get a better idea of an
animal from a really good and full descrip-
tion than we should get from a bad figure
on a monument or coin ; and conversely, a
bad figure ma)r be better evidence as to the
identity of an animal than a bad description.
So, again, evidence supplied unconsciously by
pre -historic accounts may be more valuable to
us than descriptions of animals in Literary
History, because in the latter case the au-
thorities may make erroneous statements as
to the occurrence, for instance, of certain
animals in particular places ; whereas in the
former one — that, for instance, of the ancient

6 Natural History of the Ancients.

pile-dwellers of Switzerland — though they
have left us no written record of themselves
or their animals, have nevertheless supplied
us with interesting facts by simply throwing
away through the cabin-door into the water
the bones of the animals which had supplied
them with food with other remains. These
bones, horn-cores, teeth, &c, which have sur-
vived to the present day, tell at once their
story when placed in the hands of an ex-
perienced Palaeontologist.

II. With regard to the Literary History
portion of our subject, we have the Biblical
records of the Old and New Testaments, giving
us names of various animals known to or
mentioned by the ancient Hebrews. The
Assyrian records and bilingual lists contain the
names of animals known to the early Acca-
dians and Assyrians. The classical writers of
Greece and Eome cover a wide extent both in
time and material, and mention or discourse
of a great number of animals ; but there is
nowhere anything like an attempt to give or

Domesticated Animals,

7

to frame a zoological system, properly* so
called, with the single exception of Aristotle
among the Greeks : and even in his case we
discover, as it were, mere gleams of a system,
dawnings of science, but nothing more.
Aristotle's " History of Animals," looked at
historically, as has been well said — "looked
at with reference to the works which for
centuries succeeded it — is a stupendous effort ;
but looked at absolutely — that is to say, in
relation to the science of which it treats — it
is an ill-digested, ill-compiled mass of details,
mostly of small value, with an occasional
gleam of something better. There is, strictly
speaking, no science in it at all. There is
not even a system which might look like
science. There is not one good description.
It is not an anatomical treatise ; it is not
a descriptive zoology ; it is not a philosophy
of zoology ; it is a collection of remarks
about animals, their structure, resemblances,
differences, and habits. As a collection, it is
immense without a trace of organisation, and

8 Natural History of the Ancients.

the details themselves are rarely valuable,
often inaccurate."

Without fully endorsing these remarks of
the late Mr. Gr. H. Lewes, I must confess that,
on the whole, I agree with him. Still, Aris-
totle's " Natural History," considering the time
when he wrote, will ever remain a monument
of extraordinary diligence. He had, perhaps,
certain vague and indefinite views of classifi-
cation which, though not very exact, are
highly creditable to him ! but he did not
anticipate modern zoological science as some
writers have asserted; he brought a great
genius to bear on numerous points of zoology,
but he lacked the true method of inquiry,
careful reasoning, founded on a close and
diligent observation of a great number of
facts. He was, without doubt, one of the
greatest men that ever lived, but the asser-
tion that he " described species according to
a comprehensive and luminous method which
perhaps none of his successors have ap-
proached " is quite untrue. Well has it been

Domesticated Animals,

9

said that "those pay a very absurd homage
to antiquity who would place the pretensions
of the ancients upon an equality with those
of the moderns : for the question does not
regard the original powers of the mind, but
the amount of accumulated knowledge in
which these powers are to be exercised; and
it would indeed be extraordinary if, invert-
ing the analogy of individuals, the world
should not be wiser in its old age than it was
in its infancy."

III. The figures of animals on monu-
ments, coins, gems, bronze dishes, and vases
introduce us to several kinds, and where such
representations are well given the animals
proclaim themselves at a glance. But the
figures may be badly executed. Perhaps the
sculptor was unskilful ; perhaps he drew
from an indistinct recollection of an animal
he had only once seen, or from mere descrip-
tion given him by another person. In such
cases we may not be able to make out the
animal intended, unless there be in the animal

10 Natural History of the Ancients.

itself some very striking characteristic, which,
despite general defect of drawing, proclaims
the creature : such, for instance, as the bull-
like beast on the Assyrian black obelisk,
whose horn, though placed much too high
on its head, shows it to be intended for the
one - horned rhinoceros. In closely allied
species, where dissimilarities of external form
are only slight, and where no striking pecu-
liarity exists, figures will fail to give the
necessary information, and we must be con-
tent with ascertaining the genus, or the
family, or even the order to which an animal
belongs.

IV. Let us pass on to the fourth source
of information : that derived from words or
animals' names — from Linguistic Palaeon-
tology, to use an expression I borrow from
Professor Eolleston. Now here we often
meet with extremely valuable information
and assistance. Words, as has been well
said, are fossil thoughts, and if the names
of animals are well chosen, such fossil

Domesticated Animals,

11

thoughts may contain the nucleus of much
historical and zoological knowledge. A
good description of an animal, whether by
picture or by words, ought to give, above all,
that animal's chief characters ; it is possible
sometimes to get a fair notion of an animal
from its simple name. What an admirable
name, for instance, is " fiitter-mouse for one
of the commonest of our bats ; the Latin
porcupine is "the pig-like creature armed
with spines ; " the Greek rhinoceros is the
animal " with a horn on its nose/5 The
squirrel — in Grreek o-iclovpos, " shadow-tail " —
must clearly have sat for his name-portrait,
because when the little creature is running, the
tail is carried in a lengthened form in a line
with the axis of the body. In these few
instances, you see the name itself gives a
fair general description of each of the animals
denoted thereby, in respect of some zoological
characteristic of form. But sometimes the
name ma)^ tell us the country from which a
certain animal came — its original home, I

12 Natural History of the Ancients.

mean, speaking historically — and this kind of
information is often very important. Let me
give one or two instances by way of illustra-
tion. This method of naming animals pre-
vailed much amongst the early Accadian
inhabitants of the Babylonian plains. The
Accadian name for " horse " is read thus
into English — " The beast of burden from
the East" — i.e., Media and Armenia; the
camel is the "beast of burden from the sea."
Now I dare say you will think that to be
a very bad description, because camels are
creatures of the dry sandy plains rather than
of the sea. Nevertheless, you will imme-
diately allow that the name is perfectly
correct and well chosen, for the sea is the
Persian Gulf across which the Accadians of
the Mesopotamian valley first brought the
camel from its original home in Arabia —
history thus, by one single well-chosen ex-
pression, confirming the opinion of zoologists
that Arabia is the original home of the one-
humped camel. In Accadian, one name for

Domesticated Animals.

13

wolf means " high-land" — i.e., the mountain-
district of Elaru, though there was another
name expressing the ravenous nature of this
wild Carnivore which in English would read,
" the beast that eats like a dog/? or, in
familiar words, " the ravening wolf."

It is now quite time for me to end these
prefatory — but as I think necessary, and I
hope not uninteresting — remarks, and to speak
of some of the animals known to the ancients.
In some cases I shall be somewhat profuse,
in others brief, according as space allows or
interest attaches to my subject • and some
animals I shall be compelled to pass over
entirely. Let us first take the Simiadte, the
apes and monkeys, as known to some of the
ancients. One of the most interesting of
these animals is the Baboon (Cynocephalus
hamadryas), which held a very conspicuous
and honourable position in ancient Egyptian
theology. This species is not now found in
Egypt, but in former times it appears to have
been the only species occurring in that

14 Natural History of the Ancients.

county ; it is found now in Abyssinia and
Arabia, sometimes being seen in large groups.
Its height when erect is about four feet ; the
face is very dog-like and long ; its shoulders

are covered with dense
shaggy hair, the rest
of the body being com-
paratively smooth, re-
minding one of a
French poodle-dog; the
female is destitute of
a mane. This baboon
was sacred to Thoth,
the " Lord of Letters/'
the Egyptian Mercury :
indeed, sometimes it
appears to have acted
as deputy for the god himself, for he is
represented with the title underneath, " Thoth,
Lord of Letters." The Egyptians seem to
have looked upon this creature as one ex-
hibiting the admirable quality of justice, for
not unfrequently it is depicted seated on the

" THOTH, LORD OF LETTERS."

[Egyptian.)

Domesticated Animals. 15

top of a balance, while Thoth registers
the results of the weighing of the actions

sitting in judgment. (Egyptian.)

of the departed in the scales of justice.
Sometimes the baboon is represented in a

16 Natural History of the Ancients.

boat conveying a wicked soul from the
presence of Osiris, the judge, back to earth
once more, as in the accompanying draw-
ing ; it was especially sacred at Hermo-

BABOONS CONVEYING A WICKED SOUL IN THE FORM OF A PIG

back TO earth. {Egyptian.)

polis, though reverenced at Thebes and
other places. In the Necropolis of ancient
Egypt a spot was set apart as a cemetery
for sacred apes. On the monuments the
animal is generally represented in a sitting
posture, and its mummied remains in the
same position. On what account was the
baboon held sacred among the Egyptians ?
I know not; but it is probable this ancient
and remarkable people appreciated the docility
and intelligence exhibited by these Oynoce-

Domesticated Animals,

17

phali when trained and educated as little
ones, and honoured them accordingly. At
all events, they would not be inappropriate
animal-symbols of Egyptian wisdom which
belonged especially to Thoth, the Lord of
Letters. They were trained in ancient
Egyptian days as they are even now in Cairo,
where they are taught to amuse street people
by dancing and performing other antics to the
sound of the drum ; but, as Sir Gr. Wilkinson
humorously remarks, " constant application
of the stick shows the little respect now paid
in Egypt to the once revered emblem of
Hermes" (iv. 131). In a country south of
Abyssinia monkeys are still taught several
useful accomplishments. " Among them" —
I again quote Sir G. Wilkinson — " is that of
officiating as torch-bearers at a supper party.
Seated in a row on a raised bench, they hold
the lights until the departure of the guests,
and patiently await their own repast as a
reward for their services. Sometimes a re-
fractory subject fails in his accustomed duty,
c

18 Natural History of the Ancients,

and the harmony of the party is for a moment
disturbed, particularly if an unruly monkey
throws his lighted torch into the midst of
the unsuspecting guests ; but the stick and
privation of food is the punishment of the
offender, and it is by these persuasive argu-
ments alone that
they are prevailed
upon to perform
their duty in so
delicate an office "
(ii. p. 151).

Other monkeys,
apes. {Egyptian.) apparently some

kind of Cerco-
pithecus, sometimes occur on the monuments
as tribute to Egyptian monarchs. Speci-
mens of these monkeys were embalmed at
Thebes and other places. Juvenal says that
they were worshipped; they were, perhaps,
treated with honour and respect, but were
not deemed nearly so important, intelligent,
and sacred as the baboon.

Domesticated Animals. 19

No species of monkey has existed in a
native state in Palestine. Apes are mentioned
in the Bible as amongst the commodities im-
ported by Solomon from a foreign country.
" Once in three years came the navy of
Tarshish, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and
peacocks.5' Now here we have some notable
instances of words explaining their meaning.
The Hebrew Bible names for " ivory," "apes/'
and " peacocks " are not traceable to Hebrew
or to any other Semitic root ; koph, Hebrew
for " ape/' is the Sanskrit kapi, the Greek
Krjiros, the Latin cebus, and probably (the
initial letter being lost) our English word
"ape/9 "ivory, in Hebrew is shen kabbim"
— " tooth of elephant," habbim being the
Hebraised form of the Sanskrit ibha, " an
elephant y — the name of the peacock will be
explained by-and-by. The ivory and apes
introduced by Solomon into Palestine, there-
fore, came from India; and as " algum," or
sandal-wood, another imported article, is still
a native of the mountainous parts of Malabar
c 2

20 Natural History of the Ancients.

it is probable that this is the country whence
all Solomon's importations took place, for
the peacock was originally confined to India.
Let me now draw your attention to the
monkeys of the Assyrian monuments. On
the black obelisk of Shalmaneser there occur
figures of monkeys, together with that of the
Indian elephant. A man is leading a large
monkey; another follows, leading a similar
species, carrying at the same time another
monkey on his shoulders. These monkeys, as
an epigraph tells us, were part of the tribute of
Muzri, either in Armenia or Bactria, a country
too cold for indigenous Simiadce ; hence we
must suppose that the people of Muzri ob-
tained their specimens from India, whence
also they received the elephant. Notice the
ridiculously human appearance of the monkey
which the man is leading — a man's hands,
a man's feet, and face fringed with whiskers.
Observe also the contented look of the monkey
on the man's shoulders : his calm and placid
appearance proclaim him to be a tame monkey,

22 Natural History of the Ancients.

which very probably may be intended to repre-
sent the hoonuman of India {Presbyter entettus),
a large monkey with a long tail, held in venera-
tion in India, and easily and frequently domes-
ticated. The human-like form of a monkey,
of course, must strike every observer, and the
Assyrians embodied the idea in their name for
a monkey, which is udumu, under which form
you will readily recognise the Hebrew word
adam, cc a man and you may compare with
this the zoological expression of anthropoid
ape, as applied to species still more human
in character, as the orang, gorilla, and the
chimpanzee. It is not easy to make out the
precise species of monkeys mentioned in classi-
cal authors. Aristotle divides the Simiadce
into three tribes — the Pithecoi, Keboi, and
Cynocephaloi : the cebos is a monkey with a
tail, the pithecos is a tailless species ; the
cynocephalus is a dog-headed baboon, and
corresponds with the genus of modern zoolo-
gists. Aristotle mentions the monkeys as
uniting in their nature the characteristics of

Domesticated Animals.

23

man and four-f ooted animals ; he notices the
strong canine teeth of the cynocephalus, and
its natural ferocity of disposition ; the feet, he
says, are like great hands, and are used as
hands as well as feet ; the internal parts of
the body are like those of a man. The species
of baboon mentioned by Aristotle, Pliny, and
other authors would be the one I have already
spoken of — the Cynocephalus kamadryas. Be-
sides this baboon, other monkeys were known
to or mentioned by Greek and Boman writers.
The Bomans had pet monkeys, for which they
would give considerable sums of money. Per-
haps the Barbary Ape (Macacus innuus), the
monkey of Northern Africa and the rock of
Gibraltar, and the Green Monkey (Cercopi-
thecus sabceus), that common accompaniment
of modern street organ-grinders, would be the
kinds best known to the Bomans. Pliny
speaks of the remarkable affection which all
kinds of monkeys show towards their young
ones. " Mothers which have been tamed and
have young ones carry them about and show

24 Natural History of the Ancients.

them to all comers, and exhibit great pleasure
when they are fondled, and seem to appreciate
the kindness thus shown to them/' Hence,
he says, they often smother their offspring
with their embraces. Cicero (De Div., i. 34)
tells a story of a monkey which, on a solemn
occasion, misbehaved himself, and acted in a
manner which one might call profane. The
Spartans once sent to consult the oracle of
Zeus at Dodona, to inquire whether in a
certain battle they would be victorious. The
ambassadors arrived ; the sitetta, or vessel from
which the lots were to be drawn, was filled with
water, as was usual, and placed on the table ;
the lots — little tablets or counters of wood
(sorted) — were arranged ready for throwing
into the sacred urn ; it was a solemn occasion
Great was the anxiety of the Spartan ambas-
sadors that the shaken counters would foretell
a victory ; when, lo ! a pet monkey belonging
to the King of the Molossi jumped on the
table, upset the sacred urn with the water, as
well as the feelings of the disconcerted priest

Domesticated Animals.

25

(sacerdos), and scattered the little counters in
all directions, with all other oracular para-
phernalia, causing the greatest consternation
and disappointment ! It was a bad omen
("maximum illud portentum "), and the
sacerdos, or priest, solemnly pronounced that
the Spartans must not now deliberate about
victory, but about their own safety !

Dogs. — The dog, with its numerous do-
mesticated varieties, appears as the companion
of man from early times ; it was a domesti-
cated animal in Europe anterior to the earliest
historical records. The Egyptians had several
breeds ; some were used only for the chase,
others were house or pet dogs. The mastiff
type is seldom represented on the monuments.
This breed appears to have been introduced
into Egypt, perhaps from Ethiopia : it is very
similar to the large animal depicted on the
marble slabs of Assyria, and used by that
people for the chase. Another Egyptian
dog bears a resemblance to the Dalmatian

26 Natural History of the Ancients.

hound ; another was similar in form to the
Esquimaux. Then there was apparently a
breed wThich was especially used in the capture
of the white antelope (Fig. c, p. 27). This
dog bears some resemblance to a foxhound,
and has pendant ears, a sure sign of long
domestication ; the name of the dog is accom-
panied by the figure or determinative of an
antelope. These dogs were white, and from
a letter written by Mr. Bartlett to Mr.
Cooper, the late Secretary to the Society of
Biblical Archaeology, in 1875, it would appear
that a similar dog is still empktyed for ante-
lope hunting in North Africa. Mr. Bartlett
writes : " I was glad to hear of the ' dog of the
white antelope.' Last year I was at Ham-
burg on the arrival of a large collection of
living animals from Africa, in which collec-
tion were many gazelles and other antelopes,
together with sixteen or more giraffes. With
this lot were many attendants, who brought
with them two of the dogs used for the
capture of gazelles and other of the antelopes :

DOGS. (Egyptian.)

28 Natural History of the Ancients.

these dogs are in form like the one figured on
your paper."

Many of the dogs o£ the Egyptian monu-
ments were pied, and most have more or less
a greyhound form. The oldest dog seen on
the monuments appears, Dr. Birch informs
us, at the time of Cheops of the fourth
dynasty. In the tombs of that period (b.c.
2,300), he appears as a house-dog attached
to the chair of his master. This dog has a
cord four times encircling the neck, tied in
front; erect pointed ears and curled tail.
This breed was used both as a house-dog
and a dog of the chase. Clearly, this oldest
dog of the Egyptian monuments must be
referred to the Esquimaux type — one of
wild, wolf -like form. The ancient Egyptians
had their pet dogs, but, judging from the
figures on the monuments, these pets were
not in accord with modern European views
of canine beauty. Fig. a on p. 27 is a speci-
men: a female of black and liver colour
with short thick legs, erect ears, and pointed

Bom es tica ted A n ima Is .

29

nose ; in general form of body it resembles a
turnspit. The older breed of the dogs, held
ready to start or actually running, is con-
stantly seen in the tombs till the close of
the twelfth dynasty. This dog was indi-
genous to Egypt, is not seen brought as a
foreign animal, and has remained till the
present day. (Birch : Bib. Arch. Trans., iv.
p. 178.)

By some naturalists the dog is supposed
to have been descended from the wolf or the
jackal. Now it is worth mentioning that one
of the names which the Egyptians used for a
kind of dog was tcnsu or unsau, " wolves5' — "a
very singular one,5' as Dr. Birch remarks, " as
favouring the derivation of the dog from the
domesticated wolf." Dr. Birch gives a trans-
lation of a curious letter of a certain scribe of
the nineteenth dynasty, in which he speaks of
large packs of hounds — 200 of the kind called
uau, and 300 more unsu : a pack of 500 in all.
"They stand," he says, "daily at the door
of his house at the time of his rising out

30 Natural History of the Ancients,

of sleep. They make a breakfast when the
amphora is opened. He does not/' he con-
tinues to say, "wish to have any of the
little dogs or pups of the breed of Nahar
Hu, the royal scribe, staying in the house,
for it is an annoyance to me. Hour after
hour, every time of his going out, in his
going in the road, this dog must be kicked
and flogged, making the thongs of the whip
fall out one after another. The red long-
tailed dog goes at night into the stalls of the
hills. He is better than the long-faced dog.
He makes no delay in hunting ; his face glares
like a god, and he delights to do his work ;
the kennel where he abides he does not make
it;" that is, he does not stop anywhere in
the pursuit of his prey (p. 182). These
uau dogs, mentioned as hunting in packs with
the unsu dogs, were probably jackals which
the Egyptians domesticated and used in the
chase. The name au or au-au is probably the
animal's cry wow or bow-wow. Perhaps the
unsu portion of the pack were some wild or

Domesticated Animals.

31

semi-wild animals that sometimes associated
with, and perhaps crossed with the jackals.

The ancient Egyptians treated their dogs
well. Unlike the Hebrews, with whom the
name of dog was a term of reproach and
contempt, this people looked upon it with
veneration. The death of a dog was not
only lamented as a misfortune, but was
mourned for by every member of the house-
hold in which it occurred. (Wilkinson : And.
Egypt., iii. 33.)

Of the dog as mentioned in the Bible, I
need say but little. The question asked .
by Hazael, " Is thy servant a dog, that he
should do this thing ? 55 expresses the feeling
which the Jews entertained towards this
animal. They made no use of the dog in
the chase, nor did they employ it as a house-
dog; its only use was as a protector of
the flocks against wild beasts, and even in
this capacity it was treated with contempt, as
appears from a passage in Job, who complains :
" Now they that are younger than I have me

32, Natural History of the Ancients.

in derision, whose fathers I would have dis-
dained to have set with the dogs of my flock."

The only single instance of the dog being
treated as a companion occurs in the Book of
Tobit. Young Tobias, with a companion, is
sent by Tobit his father into Media, to re-
cover some money he had lent to Grabael.
"So they went forth both, and the young
man's dog with them" (v. 16 ; xi. 4).

The Assyrians employed dogs for various
purposes : such as watching the house, guard-
ing the flocks, and for the chase. The only
two kinds of dog actually figured on the
monuments are the mastiff and the grey-
hound, but the bilingual lists mention several
other kinds: as the water-dog, the earth-
dog — perhaps a kind of terrier — the dog of
Elam, &c. Let me direct your attention to
this drawing of the mastiff of the Assyrian
monuments, an animal not unfrequently
represented in bas-relief, and always with
considerable artistic skill and truthfulness.
The Assyrian mastiff was probably allied to

Domesticated Animals.

33

the Indian dog known to Alexander, men-
tioned by Herodotus, Aristotle, Xenophon,
Strabo amongst the Greeks, and Pliny and

mastiff. {As8yrian.)

Solinus amongst the Latins. It was used in
the chase of the wild ass, and perhaps in that
of the lion and wild bull, though it is not so
represented in the two last cases. Assur-
banipal, son of Esarhaddon, kept a pack of

D

34 Natural History of the Ancients.

these large dogs, clay models of which are
now in the British Museum. Each dog has
his name in the cuneiform characters stamped
upon him; the names, it is probable, were
intended to express the characters of the dogs
rather than their names. The translations
run thus : — (1) " Causing evil to come forth,"
in allusion to the injury the dog meditated
for his enemies; (2) "Biting his enemies;"
(3) " Capturing enemies ; " (4) " Judge of
his running," as we say in the coursing-field
of a greyhound Ci running sly ; " (5) " Dust
of his path, giving tongue." Here we have
quite a picture of one of these muscular
mastiffs tearing away, scattering the sand in
his impetuous course, at the same time not
running mute.

Among the Bomans dogs were divided
into three classes : — (1) House dogs (Canes
vittatici) ; (2) Shepherd dogs (Canes pastorales
s. pecuarii) ; and (3) Sporting dogs (C venatici).
This last division was again subdivided into
three groups : — (1) Bugnacious dogs of war

Domestica ted A n im a Is .

35

( pugnaces or betticosi) ; (2) dogs that ran by-
scent (nare sagaces) ; and (3) swift dogs, that
ran on sight of their game {pedihis celeres).
The shepherd dogs were often provided with
spiked collars round their necks as a protec-
tion against wolves and other enemies, as is

clay model OF hunting-dog. [Assyrian.)

the St. Bernard's dog of the present day.
Speaking of the dogs used in war, Pliny says :
" The people of Colophon and Castabala kept
troops of dogs for war purposes, and these
used to fight in the first rank and never re-
treat ; they were the most faithful auxiliaries,
and yet demanded no payment " (N. H., viii.
61). The horsemen of Magnesia in the
d 2

36 Natural History of the Ancients.

Ephesian war were accompanied to the battle-
field each with a war-hound, the dogs in a
body attacking the enemy, being backed now
by the foot-soldiers, now by the cavalry, and
thus rendering great assistance. iElian, who
mentions these same Magnesian war-hounds,
tells a story of a certain soldier's dog, which
rendered so great assistance to his master at
the battle of Marathon as to be honoured
with an effigy on the same tablet with his
lord {Be Nat. An., vii. 38).

Figures of the Greyhound occur occasion-
ally among the Assyrian antiquities, as on a
bronze dish now in the British Museum.
The greyhound was not known to Xenophon,
and coursing a thing probably unheard of in
his time (b.c. 400). In the time of Arrian (born
a.d. 90) Ave find that much attention had been
given to the breeding of greyhounds, and that
the art of coursing had attained great per-
fection in his day. Here is Arrian's account
of a favourite greyhound he called Horme, i.e.,
impetuosity : — " I have myself bred a hound

Domesticated Animals.

37

whose eyes are the greyest of the grey ; a
swift, hard-working, courageous, sound-footed
dog, and in her prime a match at any time
for four hares. She is, moreover (for while I
write she is still alive), most gentle and
kindly- affectioned, and never before had any
dog such regard for myself and fellow-sports-

man Megillus ; for when not actually en-
gaged in coursing she is never far away from
one or other of us. But while I am at home
she remains within by my side, accompanies
me on going abroad, follows me to the gym-
nasium, and while I am exercising myself
there sits down near me. On my return she
runs before me, often looking back to see
whether I had turned anywhere out of the
road ; and as soon as she catches sight of me,

38 Natural History of the Ancients.

she shows symptoms of joy, and again trots
on before me. If I am going out on any
Government business she remains with my
friend, and does exactly the same towards
him ; she is the constant companion of which-
ever of us is unwell, and if she has not seen
either of us for only a short time, she jumps
up repeatedly by way of salutation, and barks
with joy as a greeting to us. At meals she
pats us with one foot and then with the other,
to put us in mind that she is to have her
share of the food. She has also many tones
of speech — more than I ever knew in any
other dog- — pointing out in her own language
whatever she wants. Having been beaten
when a puppy with a whip, if any one even
at this day does but mention a whip, she
will come up to the speaker, cowering and
begging, applying her mouth to the man's,
as if to kiss him, and jumping up, will hang
on his neck, and not let him go until she has
appeased his angry threats. Now really I do
not think I ought to hesitate to record the

Domesticated Animals,

3<>

name of this dog, that it may be left to
posterity that Xenophon the Athenian (he
means himself) had a greyhound called
Horme, of the greatest speed and intelli-
gence, and altogether supremely excellent/'*
The Gauls seemed to have paid great atten-
tion to greyhounds and coursing. Ovid calls
the greyhound Gallicics canis, " the Gallic
dog/' and gives in a few lines an admirable
description of the efforts of the dog to catch
and the hare to elude in the course. I think
it is probable that our greyhounds of to-day
have proceeded from the celebrated Keltic
breed. Arrian, like his prototype Xenophon,
was a true sportsman. " Often," he says,
" when following a course on horseback, I have
come up to the hare just as it was caught,
and have myself saved her alive ; and then,
having taken away my dog and fastened him
up, have allowed the hare to escape. And if

* " Arrian on Coursing," &c, by a Graduate of Medicine.
London : 1831 ; p. 78. A learned and excellent work. The
Greek words here are — uKUTdrr] teal cro^ccTdrr] Kai Upordrrj
" swiftest, cleverest, and most divine."

40 Natural History of the Ancients.

I have arrived too late to save her, I have
struck my head with sorrow that the dogs had
killed so good an antagonist" (p. 109).

Cats. — The transition from the dog to the
cat is natural, so now let us see what we can
learn about our familiar domestic cat. Should
you be surprised to learn that the cat was not
kept as a house or barn mouse-killer by the
ancient Greeks ? For myself I do not think
that the early Romans thus habitually em-
ployed it, though in the houses of the rich
and noble the domestic cat may have been
occasionally seen, but more in the character
of a rare and curious animal than in that of
a recognised mouse-killer. As far as we can
learn, the ancient Egyptians were the first
people to employ this generally useful animal;
with them it was a great favourite when
alive : it was honoured when dead. Hero-
dotus speaks of the great concern which the
Egyptians felt at the death of a cat : all
the inmates of the house shaved their eye-

Domesticated Animals.

41

brows in token of sorrow; but if we may
judge from this shaving process, as being any
criterion of the amount of mental suffering
inflicted, the dog was even more important
than the cat, for at the death of a dog the
whole head and body were shaved.

The domestic cat is figured on the
Egyptian monuments, and is sometimes re-
presented accompanying its master in fowling
expeditions. Sir G. Wilkinson thought that
the cat was on these occasions employed by
the Egyptians as a retriever to bring the
killed or wounded bird to the fowler. The
natural aversion which the cat has to water,
as embodied in the mediaeval Latin adage —

" Catus amat pisces, sed non vult tingere plantas " —

may be, and has actually been, overcome, and
cats have been occasionally trained to take
the water » but in the scenes depicted in And.
Egyptians, iii. 42, there is nothing to show
that cats were ever trained to take the water
like retriever dogs. In one scene a cat is

42 Natural History of the Ancients,

represented in the act of seizing a bird in a
thicket — I suspect, more in her own interests
than in those of her master; in the other

AN EGYPTIAN FOWLER.

scene a cat stands up on its hind legs, with
its fore-feet on its master's knee, the master
being in a boat in the water near a thicket ;
the cat is begging to be placed on land ap-

Domesticated Animals.

43

parently ; but surely, if the cat had been
trained to the water, it would be a very easy
thing to jump out on her own account. As
I said just now, the only people amongst the
ancients who habitually domesticated the com-
mon cat appear to have been the Egyptians,
from which country probably all the existing
varieties originally came. I do not think the
cat wras known to the early Hebrews, or to
the Assyrians, or to the Greeks, as a domestic
mouse-killer ; in India, too, as I have learned
from Professor Max Miiller, the domestic cat
is comparatively recent. There is no common
Aryan name for it as for mouse ; the ordinary
Sanskrit word for a cat is mdrjdra, from a
root meaning " to clean," in allusion to the
animal's habit of licking herself at her toilette.
The Romans, however, were acquainted with
the cat as a mouse-killer even in early
times. " In the 'Campana' tomb, Cervetri "
(see Mr. King's " Antique Gems and Rings,"
p. 273) — " which represents in its bas-
reliefs and frescoes the atrium of the old

44 Natural History of the Ancients.

Lucumon's house, its present tenant — hung
round, like the old English gentleman's hall,
with implements of war and chase, ' pikes
and bows, and old bucklers that have borne
many shrewd blows ' — painted on the ground-
line is an unmistakable Egyptian cat, with
a mouse in her mouth to make all sure. The
Tyrrhene trade with Egypt must have intro-
duced the sacred animal into the noble's
house. Again, a mosaic lately found at
Pompeii pictures to the life a splendid
Persian (?) tabby plotting against a duck
hung up in the larder." Here is evidence
that the early people, the Etruscans — to
whatever race they belonged, or whatever
language they spoke — were acquainted with
our mouse-killing cat. Of course, the Pom-
peian cat might be separated from the
Etruscan one by hundreds of years ; never-
theless, here we have evidence that the
animal was domesticated occasionally, at any
rate, by the Eomans at some time previous
to the destruction of Pompeii and Hercu-

Domesticated Animals.

45

laneum by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius
in a.d. 79. But if the domestic cat had
been a well-known and familiar house-
dweller with the Eomans, I think we must
have had definite allusion to the fact in
Latin authors. I dare say you may think
that the Latin word felts, or feles, for " cat/'
is by no means uncommon; it is, however,
of very rare occurrence. In the voluminous
writings of Cicero, felis occurs but once, and
there he is speaking of Egyptian cats {Tuse.
Disp. v. 27). Among the varied literary con-
tributions of Ovid, I believe he only men-
tions the word felis once, and there he is
alluding to a mythological felis into which
the sister of Phoebus was changed (Ovid, Met.
v. 330). But Pliny, whose date is about a
hundred years after Ovid, several times uses
the word felis ; and here and there, when he
speaks of the silent stealthiness of the feles, of
their creeping lightly towards a bird, of their
sly and patient watching, of their sudden
pounce upon a mouse, it is difficult not to

46 'Natural History of the Ancients.

believe that lie refers to the domestic animal ;
but when Pliny recommends the sprinkling
of water, in which a weasel or a felis (mus-
tela out felis) had been boiled, over seeds to
keep the mice away, who are scared by the
smell, I think felis is rather a musteline
than a feline animal.

With the ancient Greeks, however, we have
clear evidence to show that their ordinary
domesticated mouse -killer was the white-
breasted marten {Maries fo'ina), as Professor
Eolleston has abundantly shown {Cambridge
Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, 1868).
This marten was called yakr) by the ancient
Greeks. " The argument to show that our
white-breasted marten " {Must el a fo'ina) —
I quote from Rolleston's paper — " was
used for the same domestic purposes by the
ancients as the Felis domesticus is by our-
selves, may be briefly stated thus. An animal
called yak?} by Aristotle {Hist. An., ii. 3, 5 ;
vi. 30, 2 ; viii. 27, 2 ; ix. 2, 9 ; ix. 7, 4), and
repeatedly referred to by Aristophanes and

Do me si ie a ted An i m a Is .

17

other Greek writers of the best ages, is
spoken of as destroying mice, snakes, lizards,
birds, and birds' eggs ; as being the reverse
of odoriferous ; as being addicted to stealing ;
and also as being so common an animal as
to be, like our cats, a convenient scape-goat
for the blame due to the thefts of other
non- quadrupedal animals ; and, finally, as
being like in its colour and pilage to the
animal called in antithesis to it jctkrj ayplay the
wild ryaXrj, but ordinarily faris, which is a
little larger, loves honey, kills birds, and is
very susceptible of being tamed. It is im-
possible to think that any great mistake can
attach'to the interpretation of statements so
consentient, so numerous, and relating so
eminently to matters of every-day life and
constantly observable occurrence. We have
two sets of resemblances and differences de-
tailed to us as existing between two animals :
the yaXrj and the yaXi] aypla, or &w ; these
two sets of resemblances and differences are
just those which exist between our white-

48 Natural History of the Ancients.

breasted marten and our yellow-breasted
marten, and, as I believe it is impossible to
find a second pair of animals to which, this
comparison will apply, I apprehend that the
point is proved. Both the British martens
are, as I know from my own observations and
information gathered from persons in the
habit of hunting them, great destroyers of
mice, birds, and snakes." I now give a short
quotation from the " Peace " of Aristophanes,
in which you will see, as it were, a picture
of the white -breasted marten in the house
of an Athenian, the animal giving clear
indications as to what brings it to the larder.
A member of the chorus speaks and ad-
dresses his wife : — " Now, wife, roast me
three quarts of kidney-beans, and mix some
red wheat with them, and bring out the
fi^s . . . and let some one fetch the thrush
and the couple of finches ; there were also
some beestings in the larder and four pieces
of hare's flesh, unless the marten (v yaXrj) has
carried some off in the evening ; at all events,

Domesticated Animals.

49

it was making a noise within — I don't know
what about — and creating a disturbance "
(Pav., 1079, Ed. Bothe.)

To this day, it appears, the white-breasted
marten is common in all the Cyclades, and in
some of them has the old Greek name few,
which originally stood for the yellow-breasted
species, the M. abietum, or pine marten. Al-
though full-grown specimens of both these
martens are excessively wild and sly, yet when
taken young they are susceptible of great
docility ; and, as Bell remarks, " the remark-
able elegance of this animal's form, the beauty
of its fur, and the playfulness of its manners
when thoroughly reclaimed, render it one of
the most playful of pets."*

* Professor Rolleston has favoured me with the following
letter : — " In the year 1871 (July 15) I bought for ten shil-
lings, in the bazaar at Smyrna, a skin of a marten, under the
instructive name of depict, rrjs tcaAias, my old servant assuring
me that the three words, KaAia, KowdBi, and yvfx(pir(a, were all
alike names of this same animal ; /caAm, which my servant would
have proparoxyton, is of course as easily formed by corruption
of ya\9j as ' gat' is formed in Berkshire dialect out of * cat.'
The skin is in the University Museum, and testifies to the true
interpretation of the passages in classical Greek, where the

E

50 Natural History of the Ancients.

Besides the cat, the ancient Egyptians
appear to have occasionally domesticated the
Ichneumon (Herpestes ichneumon), popularly,
though erroneously, sometimes called Pha-
raoh's rat. There is no reason to doubt that
this species is the ichneumon of Aristotle,
Aelian, Strabo, and other writers, who have
recorded marvellous stories about it. Aris-
totle {Hist. An., ix. 7) says that when an
ichneumon sees a serpent, it first of all invites
other ichneumons to its assistance; all then
roll themselves in mud as a protection against
the bites of the snake. According to Dio-
dorus, Strabo, and Pliny, the ichneumon is a

word ya\jj occurs. The word w^'irCa, 'little nymph,' or
' little lady,' has been applied, I think, to the marten by the
Greeks from a recognition of those same qualities of elegance,
litheness, domesticability, and attachability, which have in-
duced us to call the cat proper by the name of ' Tabby.'
For the possession of these properties by the marten, Madame
J eannette Power gives interesting and irrefragable evidence
in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History (ser. ii., vol.
xx., p. 417; 1857). And in the north of England — as, for
example, in the lake district — the marten has often been
domesticated'; and if it is not given too much meat, and is
dieted on bread and milk as its staple food, it is found to be
as easy to deal with as a ferret similarly treated."

Domesticated Animals.

51

dreadful foe to the crocodile, which it thus
destroys : — Having rolled itself up in mud,
it watches till the crocodile sleeps, which this
creature is said to do with its mouth open !
Upon this the little creature jumps into the
gaping fauces of the Saurian, slips down its
stomach, eats its way out, escapes unhurt, and
kills its enemy !

The ichneumon is a very decided snake-
eater, and on this account it was looked upon
with great respect and veneration by the old
Egyptians. Crocodiles' eggs, too, were its
favourite food ; and as this reptile was held in
abhorrence by the people of Heracleopolis, the
ichneumon was worshipped by them. " Its
dexterity in attacking a snake," Sir Gr. Wil-
kinson writes, " is truly surprising. It seizes
the enemy at the back of the neck, as soon as
it perceives it rising to the attack : one firm
bite sufficing to destroy it " (iii. 30 ; cf .
Lucan, iv. 724).

The ichneumon is easily tamed, and is
sometimes seen in the houses of Cairo, where,
e 2

52 Natural History of the Ancients.

in its hostility to rats, it performs all the
duties of a cat ; but from its indiscriminate
fondness for eggs and poultry, and many other
requisites for the kitchen, it is generally
troublesome.

Another species (Herpestes griseus) the
Mongoose of India and Nepaul, is recorded
to have killed in about a minute and a half
as many as a dozen full-grown rats, which
were turned out in a room from which they
could not escape.

It is an old belief — unsupported, how-
ever, by any evidence whatever — that after an
ichneumon had been wounded in conflict by
the fang of a poisonous serpent, it imme-
diately has recourse to some herb, which it is
said to eat, and which, it is asserted, acts as
an antidote against the fatal effects of the
bite. The ancient Greeks and Eomans be-
lieved in similar antidotal herbs. Thus, if a
viper had been devoured by a tortoise — an act
of which no tortoise is ever guilty — the latter
took care to eat the herb origanum, and

Domesticated Animals.

53

then no injury would be done to the testu-
dinous stomach ! A weasel does not attack a
serpent without previously eating rue. The
Indian mongoose (H. griseus), so celebrated in
its combats with such deadly serpents as the
cobra, is also said to have recourse to some
curative plant after having been bitten. This
seems to have been a very old belief, for it
appears in Aryan mythology. Now in all
stories about animals, and the strange and
often impossible doings attributed to them, we
must take into account the connection that in
primitive times existed in the minds of men
between animals and natural inanimate objects :
as the sun, the moon, the clouds. Thus, the
lion, from its strength and courage, was a
symbol of the sun in the heavens ; the bull,
from its prolific capabilities in increasing its
kind, was another symbol of the sun's powerful
agency, under the influence of rain, in fer-
tilising the earth. What the bull did in the
terrestrial world, the sun did in the celestial.
This relationship of ideas may be expressed

54 Natural History of the Ancients.

by the term Mythological zoology ; bright
clouds illuminated by the sun may represent
white-fleeced flocks of sheep ; the black
scorpion, black clouds of night ; the de-
vouring wolf may ideally represent the dark
night devouring the sun ; the quail, the
returning bird that comes with spring, may
signify the returning "dawn of day." The
Sanskrit name for a quail is vartikd — i.e., the
returning bird; but the quail may be per-
sonified : and thus, in the Veda, Vartikd occurs
as one of the many beings delivered or revived
by the Asvins — i.e., by day and night.
" Vartika is swallowed, but she is delivered
by the Asvins ;" " she is delivered by the
Asvins from the mouth of the wolf." These
and other similar sayings are, as Max Muller
shows, mere legendary repetitions of the old
saying, " The dawn or the quail comes." Var-
tika is figuratively and poetically represented
as a person. Dawn is swallowed by the black
wolf of night ; but as she appears in the
morning after the night, she is said to be

Domesticated Animals.

55

delivered by day and night from the wolf of
night.

Of course, as Tylor remarks, imagination
in mythological zoology may run to wild
extremes. " No legend, no allegory, no nursery
rhyme, is safe from the Hermeneutics of a
thorough-going mythological theorist;" con-
sequently, he must look to names and their
etymological meaning as being " at once the
guide and safeguard of the mythologist."
But to return to the ichneumon and the
restoring herb. The name of this little animal
in Sanskrit is nahda, perhaps allied to the
Latin necare, " to kill :" hence the killer of
mice, snakes, &c. In Aryan mythology, a
black scorpion is bitten by a very small
ichneumon. The black scorpion signifies the
clouds of night; the small ichneumon, here
called the little golden one, probably repre-
sents the young rising sun — i.e., the morn-
ing sun scatters the vapours of night, absorb-
ing the poison of the black scorpion night;
and as the ichneumon, in its conflicts with

56 Natural History of the Ancients.

venomous serpents, receives into its system
some of the poison, it is necessary to get rid
of this virus, and therefore mention is made
of the salutary herb g audita — perhaps the
Ophioxlyon serpentinwn, so called from its
twisted root and stems, with which the
nahula cures itself of venomous bites. (Guber-
natis, ZooL Myth., ii., p. 52.) If it were pos-
sible to trace this idea to its source, it is pro-
bable that we have here also some inanimate
nature-myth at the bottom of it. Let us pass
from the mythical to the natural.

Cattle. — Different breeds of domesticated
cattle are figured on the monuments of Egypt
and Assyria. The Egyptian sculptures show
a long-horned, a short-horned, and a humped
breed ; the two former are probably mere
varieties of the common ox (Bos taurus).
The humped ox seems to be a variety of the
Bos indicus, which has a wide geographical
range, being spread over the whole of Southern
Asia, the east coast of Africa, from Abys-

Domestic a tecl An ima Is.

57

sinia to tlie Cape of Grood Hope. Another
variety is represented on the monuments at
Thebes, drawing a car with an Ethiopian
princess seated therein. These animals are
white and black in clouds, low in the legs,
with the horns hanging loose, forming small

CAR drawn by oxen. {Egyptian.)

horny hooks, nearly of equal thickness to the
point, turning freely either way, and hanging
against the cheeks. The long- horned and
the humped breeds are not now found in
Egypt, but are common in Abyssinia and
Upper Ethiopia. The humped cattle are
figured on monuments of the seventeenth
dynasty ; they belong, it is thought, to a

58 'Natural History of the Ancients.

species distinct from the Bos taurus, from
which they differ in many particulars. The
domestic cattle of the Assyrian sculptures
show a strong breed, generally of one type,
though the animals differed in length of
horn ; a hump, more or less developed, appears
on the shoulder; the horns are more thick
in proportion to their length than in the
cattle of the Egyptian monuments, and the
whole animal is more robust. Cattle formed
one of the principal animal spoils taken by
the Assyrians in 'their wars with other
nations, and beef must have been largely
consumed. Representations of killing oxen
and sheep, of the various joints, as the leg,
the loin, and shoulder, similar nearly to those
of modern England, occur on the monuments.
Amongst the ancients cattle were much used
for agricultural purposes, as ploughing, thresh-
ing, treading in the newly-sown corn, and
for drawing carts, &c. ; the horse being re-
served for hunting and war purposes. The
early Accadians appear to have derived their

60 Natural History of the Ancients.

cattle from Phoenicia, and the district between
Syria and the Euphrates ; for the Accadian
words for the domestic ox are gut and khan.
I have told you how common it was for
the Accadians to name their animals from
the countries whence they obtained them.

OXEN. (Assyrian.)

Now gut seems to point to a country called
Guti, or Grutium, between Syria and the Eu-
phrates ; whereas khar is perhaps Akharu, " the
west " — i.e., Phoenicia. An ancient Accadian
farmer's guide-book gives us specimens of
short songs with which the ox-driver beguiled
his labours as he ploughed, just as modern
farm-lads cheer their monotonous walk in the

Domes tica ted A n imals.

61

fields by whistling. Professor Sayce has
given us the following specimens : —

(1.) " Before the oxen as they march all
in the grain thou lay est thee down."

(2.) " The knees are marching, the feet
are not resting : thon hast nought of thy
own, so serve me with thy labour."

CAR DRAWN BY OXEN. (Assyria n.)

(3.) " Heifer that thou art, be yoked to
the cow ; the plough's handle is strong, the
share cuts deep ; lift it up, lift it up." (Baby-
lonian Literature, p. 59.)

The ancient Eomans paid great attention
to their cattle, which they divided into two
classes : one was kept at home for farm-work ;
the other was pastured in wooded districts

62 Natural History of the Ancients.

awav from home under the care of herdsmen,
who used to remove the cattle from cool
wooded lands — their summer quarters — to the
warmer coasts in the winter. Much care was
taken of the oxen after a day's ploughing,
similar to that bestowed on horses at the
present day. Here are Columella's instruc-
tions : — " After the ploughman has unyoked
the oxen, he must rub them well, press the
back with his hands, pull up the hide and
not allow it to stick to the body, for that
complaint is especially injurious to herds ; *
he must rub down the neck, and if they are
very warm, pour wine down their jaws ; two
sextarii {i.e., a quart) are sufficient for each
beast. They must not be tied to their stalls
before they have recovered from sweating and
blowing. They may afterwards in proper
time be fed, but it is not good to give them
much food nor the whole of their portion ;
they should be supplied with parts, and

* Compare our English expression " hide-bound."

Domesticated Animals.

63

gradually. After they have consumed their
food they must be taken to water, and en-
couraged to drink freely by whistling to
them ; they must then be taken back and
supplied with more food" (Col. ii., cap. iii.).
We may form some idea of the Roman breed
of cattle in the time of Varro, Columella, and
other Latin writers on agricultural matters
a little before the birth of Christ, from the
qualifications a good animal ought to pos-
sess in the opinion of a competent judge.
Columella's enumeration of the qualities a
good labouring ox ought to exhibit is, as he
tells us, taken from Mago the Carthaginian.
Mago's date is uncertain ; all that is known
of him is, that he wrote voluminously on
agriculture in the Punic language, that he is
frequently mentioned by Latin authors, and
always in terms of high praise : so that he
must have been a standard authority on all
farm matters. His work is said to have
opened with this recommendation: that if a
man really intended farming, he should at

64 Natural History of the Ancients.

once sell his town-house and reside altogether
in the country. So great was his reputation
at Rome, that, when Carthage was destroyed
and the libraries scattered, orders were given
to collect Mago's works, and to have them
translated from the Punic into the Latin
language. Fragments of this work have
been preserved; and I now give Mago's
opinion of the points of a good working ox : —
" The oxen that ought to be procured should
be young, square, with large limbs, high,
strong, black horns, forehead broad and curly,
ears rough, eyes and lips black, nostrils turned
up and wide, neck long and muscular, dewlap
large, reaching nearly to the knees, chest
broad, shoulders large, belly capacious, and,
as it were, filling out, flanks extended, loins
broad, back straight and even, or slightly
curved inwards (subsidente), haunches round,
legs compact and straight, but rather short
than long, knees moderate, hoofs large, tail
very long and hairy, the hair of the whole
body thick and short, the colour red or dark-

Domes ilea ted Anim a h.

65

brown, and the whole body very soft to the
touch" (Col. vi. 1).

According to Varro, cattle of a black
colour were considered the hardiest ; then the
red, then the dun, then the white, which
were thought to be more tender. From this
description, I am inclined to think that the
domestic cattle of the Carthaginians and
Eomans — which appear to have been one and
the same breed — were descended from Bos
primigenms as the original type. This species
had a wide range, and was domesticated in
Switzerland during the Neolithic period ; and
I think it probable that the domestic cattle of
the Assyrians and Accadians sprang from the
same wild breed, which, in the times of some
of the Assyrian monarchs — Tiglath Pileser
and Assur-natsirpal — were abundant in those
very districts, Syria and Phoenicia, whence
the Accadian names (already mentioned) seem
to inform us their domestic cattle came. The
description given by the Eoman agricultural
writers of the domestic breed of cattle known

66 Natural History of the Ancients,

to them, does not at all suit the species — if
a true species — Bos longifrons, which had small
horns and legs, and was altogether a less
robust breed. Bones and horn- cores of the
B. longifrons have been found in barrows in
different parts of England and Ireland, and
we know that this species, which, from its
remains having been found associated with
those of the elephant and rhinoceros, must
have existed from very early times, was
domesticated during the Eoman occupation
of this country, and that this ox was the
species which the Romans fed upon. Now
if, as has been supposed, the Eoman legions
when they invaded Britain brought their
cattle with them, then the remains of Bos
longifrons, such as the skull, horn-cores, and
bones, which have been found, ought to agree
with the descriptions of the Latin agricul-
tural writers, whose domestic cattle were
evidently a large -bodied, long-horned, broad-
headed, strong-limbed breed, which the Bos
longifrons, at least in historical times, was not.

Domesticated Animals. 67

I think that the descriptions which the
Carthaginian Mago, and the Eoman writers,
Varro, Columella, and Palladius have left us
of the domestic cattle of their time, is cor-
roborative of the opinion long ago expressed
by Cuvier, Bell, and other naturalists, that
the Bos primigenius is the original whence,
generally, our domestic breeds have descended.
Csesar's cc boves nostri," with which he con-
trasts the great Bos primigenius — the urus
which he met with in the Hercynian forest —
are, I think, to be referred to the breed cul-
tivated in Italy in his time — the cattle of
Mago and Varro, and not to the breed which
Caesar's legions found and fed upon when in
Britain — viz., the Bos longifrons. Among
the Bomans, the cattle of TJmbria, especially
those fed near the clear waters and on the
rich pastures of the Clitumnus, were con-
sidered the finest and handsomest breed in
the whole of Italy ; they were of white
colour, and on account of their beauty were
selected for sacrificial offerings on triumphal
f 2

68 Natural History of the Ancients.

and other great occasions. The cattle of
Etruria and Latium were recommended for
labour in the fields.

Sheep and Goats. — The ordinary sheep
figured on the Assyrian monuments has long
curved horns, often turned up at the tip. The
variety represented is the same which is at
present found in Palestine and the plains of
Belkah, namely, the Ovis aries appendiculata,
with white body, dark-brown head and neck,
tail of moderate length, with a thin excres-
cence at the end like a pig's tail ; then there
is the broad fat-tailed sheep, another variety
of the common sheep also found in Palestine.
This fat tail amongst the ancient Hebrews
was part of the " sacrifice of the peace-offering
made by fire unto Jehovah;" "the fat thereof,
and the whole fat tail, it shall he take off
hard by the backbone " (Lev. iii. 9). This
fat-tailed breed is the ordinary sheep of the
East — it is the Ovis orientalis of Ludolf, who
has figured this animal drawing its long fat
tail in a little cart. This variety was known

70 Natural History of the Ancients.

to Aristotle and Herodotus. The former speaks
of Syrian sheep with broad tails a cubit long ;
and Herodotus says a similar kind is found in
Arabia. The story of sheep drawing their
tails in a cart — first mentioned by Herodotus,
(iii. 113), repeated by Leo Africanus in the
fifteenth century, and again by Ludolf in the
seventeenth — has sometimes been ridiculed as
a traveller's story ; but here the old Halicar-
nassian, as in many other instances, was right
after all, and his critics are mistaken. " The
necessity of carriages," writes Dr. Russell in
his " History of Aleppo," " for the tails of the
sheep mentioned by Herodotus, Ludolphus,
and other writers, is real. I have seen some
at Aleppo, brought from Egypt, and kept as
curiosities, which agreed exactly with the
figure given by Ludolphus " (ii., p. 149). The
tail is simply a mass of fat, and in Palestine,
as we learn from Tristram, it is used for
grease, lamps, and cooking. The Arabs fry
it in slices, and esteem it a delicacy, but it is
very like fried tallow.

Domesticated Animals.

71

Of the sheep of the ancient Romans we
may get some notion from Varro and Colu-
mella. In the selection of a ram, a necessary
quality was that the fleece should be uniform
in colour, either white, black, or reddish ; but
colours in the same individual were not to
mix ; the tongue and palate were to be free
from dark spots, because such blemishes would
be inherited by the offspring; in general
appearance a ram should be noble looking and
tall, the belly well covered with wool, the tail
very long and thick in wool, forehead broad,
horns twisted inwards, but it was better to
cut them off altogether, in which case they
would be harmless, which is not the case when
the horns are erect and spreading. In severe
weather, and in cold stormy districts, it was
desirable that both rams and he-goats should
have their heads well horned, as a protection
against the weather (Col. vii. 2, 3). The
Romans divided their sheep into two classes,
like their cattle ; one was home-fed, the other
was bred in pastures away from home. They

72 Natural History of the Ancients.

had also another division — (1) Those sheep
which had their fleeces protected by skin
coverings. (2) Those not so protected. The
first division received most care, and were
more nutritiously fed, kept very clean in stone -
paved stalls ; when they were allowed to go
into the fields, care was taken to remove briars
and thorns lest the wool should be damaged or
the skin-jacket torn off; in hot weather the
covering was frequently removed, and the
wool combed and washed with wine and oil.
The sheep reared in distant pastures were in
the winter time removed to the low and
warmer districts near the coast ; in summer
they were driven to the hills of central Italy-
These flocks were often very numerous, con-
sisting sometimes of 15,000 ; they were looked
after by shepherds in the proportion of about
one to a hundred sheep. In ancient times
the fleece was torn from the sheep ; hence
you see the derivation of the Latin word
velZus, "a fleece," from the verb vello, " I
pluck." This custom was superseded in later

Domesticated Animals.

73

times by tlie shearing process (tonsura), though
it still continued to be practised, here and
there, even as late as the time of Pliny.

Whatever may be the original home of
the stock, or stocks, whence our various
domestic breeds of sheep have descended, it
is certain that they were domesticated in pre-
historic times, their remains having been
found in the Swiss lake-dwellings, together
with those of other domesticated animals, as
the goat, dog, and horse ; this breed is said to
be small and lanky, with goat-like horns,
different from any race of sheep hitherto
recognised.

There is much less uncertainty as to the
wild goat, from which the domestic varieties
have descended ; it is now generally thought
that the Paseng, or Copra cegagrus, a species
common all through Asia Minor and Persia,
extending even to Scinde, is the original
parent. The domestic goat of the Assyrian
monuments is represented with very high
horns and moderate-sized ears. This elevated

74 Natural History of the Ancients.

horn is distinctly mentioned in the Accadian
name of a goat, sik-ka, i.e., " horn-raising."
The Assyrians used the flesh of the goat,
especially of young animals, as food, and the
milk was, of course, valued. The skins were

ASSYRIAN FISHERMEN.

used as bottles for carrying water or other
fluids ; inflated with air, a number fastened
together served to float rafts ; a goat-skin
thus inflated also served as a swimming blad-
der or buoy. On the monuments may be seen
figures of Assyrian fishermen sitting in the
water crosslegged, each one riding on one of

Do m es t ica ted A n im a Is.

75

these inflated skins, with fishing-line and
baited hook, and fish swimming about them.

In parts of Egypt, as in the Mendesian
nome, the goat was sacred, and even the goat-
herds were respected, notwithstanding the ab-
horrence with which the Egyptians regarded
every denomination of shepherd ; but in some
parts of Upper Egypt the goat was sacrificed.
On the death of a he-goat all the Mendesians
went into mourning. The Egyptians made
use of goats in agriculture, for treading in the
grain after it was sown, driving whole herds
over the fields for this purpose ; cattle, sheep,
pigs, and asses were also similarly employed.
In Palestine the large-eared goat, Copra mam-
brica, with thick recurved horns, and enor-
mously developed pendent ears, is one of the
several breeds found there. This species
probably is that one to which the prophet
Amos, himself a herdman, refers in the words,
" As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of
the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear "
(iii. 12).

76 Natural History of the Ancients.

The ancient Eomans divided their goats
into two classes — (1) Those which had fine
hair and sawn-off horns. (2) Those with
shaggy hair, whose horns were allowed to
grow. A good he-goat, according to Colu-
mella, should have the following qualities : —
It should show under the lower jaw two small
warts, or flaps (verrucula), hanging from the
neck, and should have a large body, thick legs,
full and short neck, flaccid and very heavy
ears, a small thick head, and very long shiny
hair. From this description the breed would
seem to approximate the pendent-eared goat
of Syria mentioned above. The Eomans used
either to shear or pluck the hair from the
goats ; their treatment differed but little from
that of the sheep. In certain parts of Eng-
land there is a common belief amongst farmers
that goats are very healthy animals, and that
their smell is beneficial to cattle, horses, and
other animals ; consequently it is not uncom-
mon to see one or two goats pasturing with
cows in the fields, and accompanying them

Domesticated Animals.

77

as they are being driven home for milking.
Now it is curious that amongst the Romans a
contrary opinion prevailed ; there was a very
prevalent belief that goats were never alto-
gether free from fever or from a liability to
take it; and so Varro, in his instructions about
purchasing goats, says, " No sane person ex-
pects to buy sound she-goats, for they are
never without fever;" "so," he adds, "when you
go to buy, you must make your bargain in a
few such words as, 'About these she-goats,
are they in good health to-day ? Can they
drink ? Can you say they are well at present ?
Can you warrant them thus far ? ' "

Camels. — Of the two species of camel, the
one-humped Arabian, and the two-humped or
Bactrian camel, the first-named is the species
generally known to the ancients; though on
the Assyrian monuments both species are
represented. The Arabian camel is frequently
mentioned in the Bible, but, strange to say, it
is never depicted on the Egyptian monuments,

78 Natural History of the Ancients.

whether by painting or hieroglyphic writing,
but we cannot therefore say that it was un-
known to the people, for it is never safe to
build much on the basis of negative evidence.
For instance, we know that both fowls
and pigeons were from early times kept by

black obelisk. [Assyrian.)

the Egyptians, but no figure of either bird
occurs.

The camel is mentioned in the Bible
among the presents given by Abraham to
Pharaoh, and was therefore in all probability
known to the Egyptians. Arabia appears to
have been the original home of the one-
humped camel, so far as we are able to go

D o m es t icated An im a Is.

79

back historically. I have already alluded to
the Accadian name of the camel — " the beast
of burden from the sea " — i.e., the Persian
Gulf. Similar testimony as to its Arabian
home is supplied by the Hebrew Semitic
word gdmdl, which is very probably from an
Arabic root, hamal, "to bear a burden/' whence
jamal, " a camel.55 The Semitic word has
passed with the animal itself into the nume-
rous languages of Western Europe, and has
extended in a south-east direction to Hin-
dostan, where it appears under the Sanskrit
form of kramela, a word which, as Professor
Max Muller has informed me, " is a late one in
Sanskrit, formed in imitation of the Semitic
word for camel, and artificially brought in
connection with the Sanskrit root /cram, c to
step.5 55 The whole evidence, as supplied by
linguistic palaeontology, thus points to Arabia
as the camel's original home, so far as we
have to think of the animal in historic times.
I do not forget that a fossil species (Camelus
sivalensis) was discovered some years ago by

80 Natural History of the Ancients.

the late Dr. Falconer and Sir P. Cautley in
tlie Miocene tertiary deposits of the Sevalik
hills of Hindostan ; secondly, in Egypt, by
Captain Horner and Lieutenant Newbold, in
the drift of a pre -historic age. From the fossil
remains of the skull, jaws, and teeth, which
indicate an animal much larger than the
existing species now in the British Museum,
this camel seems to have been closely allied to
the Arabian animal, whose parents — speaking
palseontologically — it may have been.

In the Assyrian records camels are very
often mentioned. In Assur-banipars expe-
dition against a certain king of Arabia, we
find the occurrence of these animals in im-
mense numbers. " Camels like sheep," the
Assyrian king says that he took and dis-
tributed to his people. So great was their
number, that after a battle a camel might be
bought for half a shekel of silver only.

The camel is and long has been the subject
amongst Eastern nations of several proverbial
expressions, but I only stop to notice the one

Domesticated Animals.

81

mentioned in the New Testament as having
been spoken by Christ — " It is easier for a
camel to go through a needle's eye than for
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of
God." It is perfectly certain that the Greek
word /cdfi7i\o<; means " a camel," and nothing
but a camel. It has been said that we ought
to read at^Xo?, "a cable/' instead of kcl^Xo^,
ci a camel/' and that in that case the meta-
phor of rope and needle's eye is exact,
whereas the idea of a camel passing through
the eye of a needle is a false metaphor. Un-
fortunately for objectors to the ordinary read-
ing, there is no such Greek word as fcdpiXos,
"a cable." The scholiasts on the Wasps of
Aristophanes (1035) and Suidas are the only
authorities for the existence of such a word,
which must be rejected. Another suggested
explanation is that a small gate at Hebron
still exists, through which a loaded camel can
with difficulty pass, and that this gate, or
small arch, is called the Needle's Eye. There
is no doubt, however, that the literal meaning

G

82 Natural History of the Ancients.

is the true one. Such proverbial expressions
were common among the Jews when they
were referring to anything unusual or impos-
sible. Thus, to a person who had told some
marvellous or incredible story, it was said,
" Perhaps thou art one of the Pombeditha
(a Jewish school at Babylon) who can make
an elephant go through the eye of a needle."
Again, in the Koran, " Until the camel shall
enter the needle's eye," is an expression that
occurs, and will serve to illustrate the fore-
going remarks. The use of camels in war
is mentioned by various writers, and is de-
picted on the Assyrian monuments. When
Cyrus made war against Croesus he adopted
the following device. He took their loads off
the camel's backs, such as baggage, provisions,
&c, and mounted riders as horsemen upon
them ; these were put to form the front of his
army, then the foot-soldiers came, and then
the horse. As the armies met, the Lydian
war-horses, seeing and smelling the strange
and ugly-looking camels, took fright and

Domesticated Animals.

83

bolted : nothing could stop the terrified steeds.
The riders leaped off, and fought on foot with
determined bravery, but the army of Croesus
was conquered.

Both species of cattle are mentioned by
Aristotle. " Camels/' he says, " possess a
part peculiar to themselves, called the hump.
The Bactrian has two humps, the Arabian
one." He speaks of camels being used in
war, and says that to prevent their becoming
footsore they are shod with shoes of un-
dressed leather. Aristotle was aware of the
camel being able to go for days without water.
iC It can remain without drinking for the
space of four days, and then it drinks large
quantities."

Aristotle is entirely wrong about the den-
tition of the camel, and it is clear that he
never could have examined a camel's mouth,
for he says that this animal has not teeth in
both jaws, whereas there are in the upper jaw
the usual molars — the first premolar, however,
being placed a long way in front of the others
g 2

84 Natural History of the Ancients.

— two canines, and, exceptionally among the
Puminantia, two incisors. Pliny repeats Aris-
totle's errors.

The Horse. — Ancient records of this use-
ful animal possess more than ordinary interest.
Palseontological evidence leads us back to a
long distant past, and presents us with grada-
tions of altered structure, shown especially in
the fore and hind legs and teeth, in which
modifications are seen to have taken place in
the remains of the fossil horses which demon-
strate the extremely interesting fact that the
modern horse has descended from an equine
animal which originally possessed four or five
toes, with the corresponding metacarpal and
metatarsal bones. These remains, which have
been discovered in Europe and in America,
occur in tertiary formations of geologists, from
the more recent Pliocene downwards, through
the Miocene to the Eocene. The ordinary
splint bones of the modern horse are mere
rudiments of the metacarpal and metatarsal

Domesticated Animals.

85

bones which were more developed in the
equine animal of the later Pliocene, and to
each of which moreover was attached a finger
or toe with three joints; gradations or modi-
fications of structure in the remains of these
successive strata occur in which it is proved
that the geological ancestor of our modern
horse possessed as many as five toes, with
their corresponding wrist or ankle bones.
The most ancient historical record is very
recent indeed compared with the records of
the latest tertiary formations ; and even in the
Swiss lake-dwellings of the stone period the
remains of the horses which have been found
present no osteological differences of structure
between the animal of that period and the
horse of to-day. But we must confine our
remarks to the horse of history. Have our
domestic breeds descended from several wild
races, now everywhere extinct, or from one ?
Where was the horse's original home ? His-
torical evidence, so far as it goes, would lead
us to Media and Armenia as the birthplace.

86 Natural History of the Ancients.

The Egyptian monuments anterior to the date
of Amosis (about B.C. 1500) of the 18th
dynasty, give no representations of horses, but
it would not be safe to conclude from negative
evidence alone that the horse was not intro-
duced into Egypt anterior to the above date.
Notwithstanding the esteem in which the
horse was held by the ancient Egyptians, and
its great utility, it was not a sacred animal,
nor the emblem of any deity. The Hebrews,
from their earliest history almost down to the
time of Solomon, did not employ the horse for
any purpose, though they were well acquainted
with it, as it was extensively used by neigh-
bouring nations, as the Canaanites, Egyptians,
and Syrians. The first notice of the horse
occurs in the time of David, who defeated
Hadadezer, king of Zobah in Syria, and
reserved for himself one hundred horses.
Soon after this Solomon introduced into Judea
great numbers. Amongst the Assyrians the
horse was extensively employed. It is repre-
sented with much spirit on the Assyrian

Domesticated Animals.

87

monuments, and more frequently than any
other animal. They were used in war and in
the chase. As they are never represented
drawing carts or carrying baggage, they were
probably not used for these purposes, for

war horses. (Assyrian.)

which mules and asses were employed. The
horse of the Assyrian sculptures is a noble
animal ; the head is small, and so are the
ears ; the eye often fiery, so far as can be
expressed in cold marble, and full of life ; the
whole body compact, with well-developed

88 Natural History of the Ancients.

muscles ; pasterns rather short, and forehand
good. The horses of the Assyrian army
were a terror to the Jews, and are often
mentioned in the Bible as such. The
horses of the Assyrian monuments are of a

king's chariot. {Assyrian.)

comparatively late date, and the Assyrian
name — sum — for "a horse," which is identical
with the Hebrew, throws no light as to the
country from which the people obtained their
animals. The useful Accadian language, how-
ever, gives us a clue. We have already seen

Boniest ic cited A n im a Is .

89

that it was the custom of this Turanian race
to call animals by the names of the countries
from which they came. Now, in Accadian,
the expression for a horse is "the beast of
burden from the East/' hurra. Whether the
very early Accadians in their highland and
wooded home of Elam ever used the horse, or
what name they gave it, I do not know ; but
when they migrated southwards down into the
Mesopotamian plains, they called the horse
hurra, the animal which came from the "East,"
that is to say, from Media and Armenia.
Ezekiel mentions the importation of horses
from Armenia into Tyre. " They of the
house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with
horses, horsemen, and mules" (xxvii. 14).
Classical authors also bear testimony to the
excellent qualities and great number of the
horses of these countries, and to this day
the pastures on the hills and plains of Armenia
sustain fine breeds.

The Grreeks and Eomans — if one might
form an opinion from the Greek and Latin

90 Natural History of the Ancients.

tWo? (=lk/cos) and equus, which are both to be
referred to the Sanskrit asva, " a horse/' from
the root as, "to be swift" — probably brought
their horses with them when the}?* migrated
westerly from their original Aryan home in
Bactria. Be this, however, as it may, the
horse has been long domesticated in Europe,
and the Greeks and Bomans bred large num-
bers, and paid much attention to them. They
seldom employed horses in farm work, as we
do at the present day ; oxen took their place
in this respect ; they used them for racing,
for military service, for carrying burdens, for
draught purposes, and for hacks or roadsters.
Great care was bestowed upon them, and colts
were not broken in before their bones were
well set, and they were three years old. The
points of a good Boman horse we may learn
from Varro and Columella : — " It should have
a small head, black eyes, expanded nostrils,
short and erect ears, a smooth neck broad and
not long, a thick mane falling on the right
side, and broad chest made up of a number of

Born es t ica ted An ima Is .

91

nodular muscles, fore-arms large and straight,
sides curved, spine ample (duplex), belly con-
tracted, legs equal high and straight, knee
round and small, not bending inwards,
haunches round, hoofs hard, high and concave,
coronets round of moderate size ; the whole
body should be full, tall, erect, active in ap-
pearance, and cylindrical" (Col. vi. 29, 1, 2, 3).
Palladius — a late writer, about a.d. 350 — has
given us a list of colours which seem to have
been as various in his day as they are now.
The principal were, bay (badius), bright chest-
nut {aureus), whitish (albineas), red (russeus),
chestnut-brown (myrteus), fawn (cervinus), pale-
yellow or cream (gilbus), dappled (scidulahis) ,
white (albus), speckled (gutiatus), milk-white
(candidissimus) , black (niger), dark brown (pres-
sus), pie-bald (mistus nigro et albineo), skew-
bald (mist us albineo et badio), light grey
(spitmeus), spotted (macirfostis), dun or mouse-
coloured (murinus). Horses of one definite
colour were preferred ; still Palladius quite
allowed that — to make use of an English

92 Natural History of the Ancients.

saying — "a good horse cannot be of a bad
colour," for, he adds, " mixed colours are to
be despised unless an abundance of good
qualities excuse the fault of colour " (Pallad.
iv. 13, 4, 5).

Ass. — Asses, like horses, have been long
domesticated. Among the ancient Egyptians
they were employed as beasts of burden, for
turning mills, treading out ripe corn, and
treading in newly-sown corn. " Like those of
the present day," Sir Gr. Wilkinson says, "it
is probable that they were small, active, and
capable of bearing great fatigue ; and con-
sidering the trifling expense at which these
hardy animals were maintained, we are not
surprised to find that they were kept in great
numbers in the agricultural districts, or that
one individual had as many as 760 employed
in different parts of his estate" (iii., p. 34).
The ass was sacred to Typho, " the Evil
Being." According to Plutarch, the Coptites
had the custom of throwing an ass down a

Domesticated Animals.

93

precipice ; and the inhabitants of Busiris and

Lycopolis carried
their detestation of
it so far as never to
make use of trum-
pets, fancying that
their sound is similar
to the braying of an
ass. Even the colour
of the unfortunate
ass — which in Egypt,
as in ancient Pales-
tine, was of a redder
tint than is usual
with the domestic
ass of England — was
looked upon as indi-
cative of the Evil
Being, and any un-
happy man who was
of a ruddy com-
plexion, or had de-
cidedly red hair, was thought to be related

94 Natural History of the Ancients.

to the Evil Being (Typho). There is no
figure of the domestic ass on the Assyrian
sculptures, but it is frequently mentioned in
the records. It must have been known to the
inhabitants of Mesopotamia in early times,
before they became acquainted with the horse,
because the usual determinative prefix to de-
note a " beast of burden," stands alone —
without any additional word — as the repre-
sentative of the ass. It is " the beast of
burden," par excellence as it were. So here
the Accadian language, which has hitherto
helped us, fails to furnish any information
or clue as to the original country whence
the ass was introduced into Assyria and
Armenia.

Eour species of wild asses are known, and
naturalists are generally agreed that the
domestic ass of this and other countries has
descended from the Abyssinian species, Asinus
tceniojpus, the specific name meaning " band-
legged," in allusion to the dark bars across
the animal's legs, which the Abyssinian

Domesticated Animals.

95

species exhibits, though only in a slight
degree. We may rest satisfied with this being
the parent-form, for it is well known that the
common domestic ass very often shows, be-
sides the usual dorsal and shoulder stripes,
traces of bars across the legs, sometimes only
faint, at other times very clear and distinct.
I think that the domestic ass of the ancient
Accadians and Assyrians came originally from
Abyssinia. Thus, while the horse of the
Egyptians in Africa came from the East, its
home in Asia, the ass of the Assyrians in
Asia came to them from its south-west home
in Africa. When we remember how preva-
lent the custom among the Accadians was of
naming an animal after its home, we may
think it probable that they would have desig-
nated the ass as the " beast of burden from
the South," had they remembered its original
home. But this they have not done ; the ass
is simply " beast of burden." Hence, I think
it probable that the domestic animal found its
way from Africa to Western Asia in very early

96 Natural History of the Ancients.

times, and that neither record nor tradition as
to its original home existed in the memories of
the people when they named the ass " Beast
of Burden." Amongst the Hebrews the ass
was nsed for carrying burdens and baggage in
war, for ploughing and for riding. Whether
these animals were used for treading out corn,
as in Egypt, we cannot determine, the Biblical
records being silent; but Josephus says, "Asses
are the same with us as they are with other wise
men, viz., creatures that bear the burdens that
we lay upon them; but if they come to our
threshing-floors and eat the corn and do not
perform the duties, they receive many stripes"
(Contr. App. ii. § 7). The white asses men-
tioned in Judges v. 10, "Speak, ye that ride
on white asses," were a large and handsome
breed upon which judges and the great men
of the land used to ride. Bagdad is still
famous for its white asses, which are large and
spirited, and have an easy steady pace.

The ancient Greeks and Eomans paid a
good deal of attention to the domestic ass.

Domesticated Animals.

97

Probably in no country in the whole world
was so much care shown in breeding this
animal as in Italy. In Greece Arcadia was
celebrated, in Italy the district round Eeate,
in Sabinium, for its breeds. This latter-
named country was especially celebrated ;
animals bred there being occasionally imported
even into Arcadia. Varro, the most practical
and experienced of all the Eoman writers on
agriculture and domestic animals, held exten-
sive property at Eeate — a district about fifty
miles N.E. of Eome — and had domestic asses
of very superior stock. " He who wishes to
have a good breed/' he says, " must first of all
take care to select the sire and the dam of a
full age ; they must be strong, handsome in
every point, large in body, be descended from
a good stock, and come from those places
whence the best are procured, such as from
Arcadia and the Eeatine district." Varro
recommends that the breed should be occa-
sionally crossed with the onagri of Phrygia
and Lycaonia, which he calls "wild," but

H

98 Natural History of the Ancients.

which he says are easily tamed, and when
once domesticated never again show signs of
their wild nature. From this it is evident
that he is speaking, not of a wild race of ass
properly so called, but of a domesticated breed
which had been allowed to pasture for some
time in a wild, or semi-wild, state. The price
sometimes paid for a handsome and high-bred
domestic ass by the Eomans was enormous,
but one cannot help suspecting some error in
the numbers. As much as £500 of our
money, Varro says, a good ass has fetched in
his time, and in his own recollection, and a
team of four splendid animals was sold for
£3,300.

These, of course, were highly -bred animals,
and probably, were pedigreed like our modern
race-horses and prize cattle, &c, and as with
us, perhaps, so with the luxurious Romans of
the Empire, these enormous sums were only
occasionally paid by the very rich and noble,
who did not scruple to give " a fancy price/5
however exorbitant, in order to secure the best

Domesticated Animals. 99

breed. The ordinary ass for agricultural pur-
poses was a very different animal ; it was
" rough and ready/' hardy in nature, capable
of prolonged labour, and able to " do on a
little." Coarse food, such as the leaves of
trees, prickly shrubs, and doubtless our own
familiar thistle, were sufficient for the agri-
cultural animal, whose duties were to carry
burdens, turn corn-mills, and to plough. The
term " donkey," or " ass," applied to a stupid
or an obstinate man was, doubtless, as com-
mon with the old Eomans as with ourselves,
for the expression is frequent in classical
authors. The germ of the reputation which
the ass has of being both a stupid and a
petulant animal is by some supposed to have
appeared first in Greece and Italy, and hence to
have spread into other parts of Europe ; but
Gubernatis has given reasons to prove that al-
though it was in Greece and Eome that the poor
ass was thrown completely down from his rank
in the animal kingdom, the first decree of his fall
was pronounced in his Asiatic home. {Zool.
h 2

100 Natural History of the Ancients.

Myfhol. i., p. 364.) We have already seen
that among the ancient Egyptians a similar
reputation prevailed. Of the Equidse the ass
appears to have been the first animal domesti-
cated, then followed the horse, and afterwards
— at what date it is not possible to say — the
mule.

Mules. — No mention of mules occurs in the
Bible before the time of David ; it is true that
in our English version the word occurs much
earlier, namely, in Gen. xxxvi. 24 — "This
was that Anah that found the mules in the
wilderness;" but the Hebrew word very pro-
bably denotes " hot springs," as the Vulgate
version has it. After the first half of David's
reign mules became common. Now the
Levitical law forbade the coupling together
of animals of different species (Lev. xix. 19),
consequently we must either suppose that
mules were imported, or that the Hebrews must
have become less scrupulous in the matter.
The mule is occasionally represented on the

Domesticated Animals.

101

Egyptian monuments, and it is probable that
the Egyptians bred these animals and per-
haps imported them together with horses into
Judea in the time of Solomon when a friend-
ship existed between the king of Egypt and
the Hebrew monarch, who had married the
former king's daughter. But as the mule
was known to the Hebrews before Solomon's
time — for David his father rode on one — it
seems pretty certain that the Jews first
became acquainted with these hybrids after
David's victory over Hadadezer, king of
Zobah, a district of Syria, and though no
distinct statement is made that mules were em-
ployed in the king of Zobah's army, I think
it probable they were. Now the appearance
of mules would naturally soon take place after
the introduction into the same country of the
two parents — the horse and the ass ; and as
Armenia and Media seem to be the original
home of the horse, historically speaking, and
the ass, as we have seen, was in very early
times known to the Accadian inhabitants of

102 Natural History of the Ancients.

the Mesopotamian valley, it seems probable
that in Armenia or Media the mule first
made its appearance. Ezekiel expressly tells
us that from Armenia mules were imported
into Tyre. " They of the house of Togarmah

mule. (Assyrian.)

traded in thy fairs with horses, horsemen, and
mules" (xxvii. 14). The mule of the Assy-
rian monuments shows an animal of excellent
breed, the climate of the country being well
suited to both parents ; and as these animals
were often used for riding, carrying baggage

Domesticated Animals.

103

in war and nets for deer-hunting, much
attention would be bestowed on their breed-
ing, which, judging from their so fre-
quently forming part of the spoil of con-
quered nations, must have been extensively
practised.

The Greeks and Eomans also paid con-
siderable attention to the breeding of mules ;
a good animal from Arcadia or the Eeatine
districts might be worth as much as £250 or
£300. The Eomans used the better bred
mules for drawing their carriages ; they were
generally yoked in pairs ; the commoner sort
carried pack-saddles, and were employed in
ploughing if the soil was not too stiff. The
finer breeds were removed in droves for the
summer season, from the plains of Rosea,
near Eeate, to the mountains called Gurgures,
which appear to be the high and central
regions of the Apennines. When the male
parent was an ass, the foal was called mulus ;
when a horse, the product was called hinnus ;
the former was more prized.

104 Natttral History of the Ancients.

Pigs. — Among the Egyptians the domestic
pig often formed a part of their farmyard
stock ; but, as with the Jews, it was a most
unclean animal, hateful to the sight and
touch. It is but rarely represented on the
monuments. As pigs were held in such
abomination, it may be asked for what pur-
pose did the ancient people of Egypt keep
them ? One reason seems to be that these
animals were very useful in treading in the
corn after sowing ; that they were so em-
ployed is evident, I think, from a Theban
sculpture, and from the express testimony of
Herodotus and iElian, quoting Eudoxus.

" In no country/' says Herodotus, " do
they gather their seed with so little labour ;
the husbandman waits till the river has of
its own accord spread itself over the fields,
and withdrawn again to its bed, and then
sows his plot of ground, and after sowing
turns his swine into it — the swine tread in
the corn — after which he has only to wait for
the harvest.5' Herodotus also says that pigs

Domesticated Animals.

105

were employed in threshing the grain. iElian
says that one reason why the Egyptians did
not sacrifice pigs was because they were re-
quired to tread the grain into the ground,
and thus secure it from the ravages of
numerous birds. Sir Gr. Wilkinson thinks,
however — and it would not be safe often to
differ from so excellent an authority — that
pigs were not so employed. He interprets
the Theban sculpture as representing pigs
driven on to marshy land to eat up the weeds
and roots ; but in the figures on the monu-
ment in question, a man is depicted with a
knotted whip — just like our modern dog- whip
— in his right hand, and a strong noose or
muzzle on a stick over his shoulder, driving
four bristly boars, each one being muzzled !
There is, it is true, no accompanying figure
of a seedsman scattering grain ; but when
we consider that several other animals were
employed for treading in the corn, and that
on the authority of Herodotus and Eudoxus
pigs were thus employed, I see no reason to

106 Natural History of the Ancients.

doubt the matter. The muzzled boars were
prevented from rooting up and eating the
grain; how then could they eat up weeds
or roots ? The pig was thought to have
first suggested to man the idea of plough-
ing, by rooting up the ground with its
strong snout. But, notwithstanding any use-
ful purposes the domestic pig might have
served, it was considered by the Egyptians
so singularly contaminating, that any person
who had happened even to come in contact
with it, was compelled to go immediately
into the water, even with his clothes on.
Swineherds, of course, therefore, were held in
abomination, though of pure Egyptian blood.
The only two occasions on which the pig
was sacrificed, according to Herodotus, were
on the festivals of the moon and Bacchus.
The same authority tells us that he is per-
fectly well acquainted with the reason why
the Egyptians sacrificed the pig on only these
two festivals, but that he does not think it
proper (evirpeTrearepos) to mention it. Very

Domesticated An imals.

107

naughty Egyptians after death were sup-
posed to return to earth in the form of pigs.
In a scene representing Osiris (the judge of
the dead) in the office of weighing the actions
of the good and bad, a wicked soul is seen
in the form of a pig standing in a boat,
navigated by two dog-headed baboons who
are returning to earth again. All communica-
tions with the abodes of the blessed is figu-
ratively cut off by a man with an axe in his
hand, wTho has cut away the rope which
bound the boat to the shore.

The ancient Jews, like the Egyptians,
held the pig in the greatest abhorrence ; they
had a saying, " The pig's snout resembles
ambulant dirt," while the eating of its flesh
was equivalent to forswearing the Law, and
to absolute apostacy from the faith. Even
the Hebrew word for a pig (chazir) was de-
testable, and instead of pronouncing it they
used an expression meaning " the other
thing," "the thing;" the poor pig being
something far too disgusting to mention by

Domesticated Animals.

109

name. What opinion the ancient Assyrians
held with respect to the pig it is not possible
to say ; no figure of the domestic animal
occurs on the monuments, and I am not aware
of any Assyrian word for a pig occurring in
the records.

The Greeks and Eomans, on the other
hand, fully appreciated this most useful
animal; they bred pigs largely, and ate the
flesh with relish. " There is no animal/'
says Pliny (N. H., viii. 77), " that affords a
greater variety to the palate of the epicure ;
all others have their own peculiar flavour, but
the flesh of the pig has nearly fifty different
flavours."

The Eomans in the time of Varro bred two
varieties of the pig, and divided them into
two classes ; these were the sites densce, which
had many bristles and were usually black,
and the sues glabra, which had few bristles,
were nearly smooth and generally white ; the
former were considered the most hardy. An
animal with a good-sized body, with small

110 Natural History of the Ancients.

head and legs and of one colour, was to be
preferred. Pigs were kept in herds of one
hundred or more in number, and were driven
out in the morning to the woods and fields,
where, in the season, they could find a plenti-
ful supply of acorns, beech-mast, and other
food. In hot summer weather, shade, water,
and swampy ground were necessary. The
swineherd usually carried a horn with him,
and the pigs were early taught to assemble
whenever he blew it. Varro says that " the
swineherd ought to accustom sows with little
ones (nntrices) to do all things at the sound
of his horn ; " in this way the pigs were
summoned to their meals of barley which
were spread out for them, not in a heap, but
in a continued line, so that they could more
easily feed. In the evening the swineherd
was to be careful to blow his horn so that
no losses might be sustained by the pigs
wandering too far into the woods. There
was an odd belief, mentioned by Aristotle,
re-asserted by Pliny, that if a pig loses one

Domesticated Animals.

Ill

o£ its eyes, it nearly always dies immediately.
The pig has often a curled tail, and Pliny
says that it is worth noticing whether
the tail curls to the right or to the left;
because a pig with a right-handed twist of
its tail was a more acceptable offering to the
gods than a pig with a left-handed twist !
The same chatty authority informs us that
pigs have more sense than is generally sup-
posed, for if they have been stolen and they
can hear the sound of their keeper's voice,
they will at once recognise it ; that if they
are in a vessel which is inclined to go under
water from too great weight on the one side,
they will go over to the other side to restore
the balance !

The favourite parts of a pig were the
womb {vulva) and the breast before it had
been sucked. The head, the liver, and the
abdomen were also approved of ; and sausages
were always a favourite dish. The Eomans
salted the hams, as we do ; they often im-
ported their hams and sausages — which,

11 2 Natural History of the Ancients.

however, were not made of pork alone —
from Gaul, as we now do from Westphalia
and Bologna.

It is generally agreed upon among na-
turalists, who have closely studied the subject,
that all known breeds of the domestic pig
have descended from two types — one from
the common wild boar, the Sits scrofa group ;
the other from the Chinese and Siam group,
erroneously named by Pallas Sits Indica, there
being no occurrence of this species in a wild
state in any part of India ; indeed, the wild
parent form of this Chinese group has not
yet been discovered in any country. The
Sus scrofa type has a wide geographical range,
being found in Europe, North Africa, "Western
Asia, and Hindostan. The Sus Indica type
is familiar to us, chiefly under the form and
name of the Chinese breed. " The Eoman
or Neapolitan breed " — I am now quoting
from Darwin — " the Andalusian, the Hun-
garian, and the c Krause ' swine of Nathusius,
inhabits South-eastern Europe and Turkey,

Domesticated Animals.

113

and having fine curly hair, and the small Swiss
e Bundtnerschwein ' of Rutimeyer, all agree
in their more important skull characters with
S. Indica, and, as is supposed, have all been
largely crossed with this form. Pigs of this
type have existed during a long period on
the shores of the Mediterranean, for a figure
closely resembling the existing Neapolitan
pig has been found in the buried city of
Herculaneum." {Animals and Plants under
Domestication, i., p. 67.)

Professor Busk, in a letter to Dr. Rol-
leston (Dec. 17, 1876), mentions, among
many numerous little bronze articles from
the ancient Etruscan tombs, many figures
of animals ; one in particular being a very
well-made statuette of a pig, which to
his eye very closely resembles the Berk-
shire breed, the only point in which it is
different being the comparatively large eye,
whilst the rest of the contour was quite
what we might expect to see at an ordi-
nary cattle show. The animal was repre-
I

114 Natural History of the Ancients.

sented apparently as having a close-curled
tail.*

Fowls. — There is no representation of
any fowl on the Egyptian monuments, though
they appear to have been always abundant.
The art of hatching eggs by artificial incuba-
tion was known to, and practised by, the
ancient Egyptians. The only authority, as
far as I can make out, for this practice is
Diodorus, the Sicilian, who says, " The most
wonderful thing is, that those who breed
fowls and geese — not content with the natural
production of these creatures, as among other
nations — do themselves, from an innate love
of art, increase the number of these birds
to an unspeakable extent ; for they do not
hatch them by means of the birds, but,
strange to say, they display with their own
hands such intelligence and skill that they
are not surpassed by nature's operation 99

* See a very valuable paper by Professor Polleston,
" On the Domestic Pig of Pre-historic Times in Britain "
(Trans, Lin. Soc, 1877).

Domesticated Animals. 115

(i. 74). From this account it is impossible
to say definitely what the process was. Sir Gr.
Wilkinson says that the above artificial con-
trivance has been handed down to the present
day, and is still practised by the Copts,
who hatch the eggs in an oven specially
constructed and adapted for this purpose.
The domestic fowl is nowhere mentioned in
the Old Testament ; " the fatted fowl/5 of
our English version, as supplied to Solomon's
table, being some other bird, perhaps white
geese. The earliest mention of the domestic
cock among the Greeks occurs in Theognis
(born about B.C. 570) ; he merely mentions it
once " as the awakening cock of dawn."
There is no mention of domestic fowls in the
works of Homer and Hesiod. Aristophanes
calls the cock " the Persian bird," from
which it would seem that the Greeks first
became acquainted with this bird in their
relations with the Persians. The fowl is
figured on Babylonian cylinders of the date
of the sixth or seventh century B.C.
i 2

116 Natural History of the Ancients.

The Eomans bred fowls to a great
extent. Varro says you should select those
hens which are prolific egg-layers, with plu-
mage inclining to red, wings black, toes un-
equal (imparibus diffitis*), heads large, comb
erect, bodies large, as such are better
layers. The cock should be sprightly and
muscular, have a red comb, a short beak,
full sharp eyes greyish-brown or black, red
wattle with a little white, neck variegated or
golden, short legs, long claws, tails large and
well-feathered. High - spirited birds often
crow, are pertinacious in battle, have no fear
of other animals, and fight for the hens.
Fighting cocks were the Tanagrian, Bhodian,
and Chalcidean breeds. The hens of these
were considered bad layers, and on the whole
unprofitable. White fowls were not recom-
mended, as they were thought to be more
delicate than others. Generally the Eomans
kept their poultry in a closed courtyard strewn
with sand and ashes ; there was a hen-house
# i.e., with five claws, like our Dorkings.

Domesticated Animals. 117

inside the yard, with roosting poles and nests
along projecting walls. A flock would con-
sist of two hundred or more, looked after by a
poultry keeper, or by a woman and a boy.
The art of stuffing, cramming, and fattening
for sale was extensively practised. Here is
Cato's receipt for cramming fowls and geese.
" Cram hens and geese thus : — Let the keeper
shut them up, and prepare balls of wheat or
barley-meal : let him dip them into water and
put them into the birds' mouths ; the propor-
tion to be gradually increased, a sufficiency to
be determined by the quantity of food in the
throat ; this to be done twice a day ; give
water at noon."

This cramming process was sometimes
carried on in the dark, as we learn from
Martial —

" Pascitur et dulci facilis gallina farina,
Pascitur et tenebris : ingeniosa gula est."

" The hen is easily fed on sweet meal and in darkness ;
how clever is the palate." (Ep. xiii. 62.)

Ducks were certainly domesticated long

118 Natural History of the Ancients.

after fowls. There seems to be no doubt that
the several breeds have descended from the
common wild duck {Anas boschas). The
ancient Egyptians had several ingenious
methods of catching wild ducks and other
water-fowl, but it does not appear that they
domesticated the common duck. To the Jews
also this bird was unknown, nor can I find
any allusion to it in the writings of Aristotle.
The Greeks, in the time of Aristophanes,
appear to have had ducks in a semi-domes-
ticated state. The comic poet uses the word
vyaadpLov, " little duck," as a term of endear-
ment applied by a man to a woman. Cicero
appears to speak of the half-domesticated
duck when he alludes to the custom of placing
duck's eggs under hens ; and I hope that when
Libanus, in the Asinaria of Plautus (iii. 3, 103)
asks the girl Philenium to call him, among
many other terms of warm affection, "her
little duck" {anaticula), he is not referring to
himself as a bird wholly wild! Varro and
Columella both speak of duck preserves, and

Domesticated Animals.

119

give directions for their construction under the
Greek word vrjao-orpofahv, so that the Greeks
preceded the Eomans in the domestication of
the wild duck. Still it is evident that the
ducks of Columella's time were not thoroughly
domesticated, and suffered to go about the
farm-yard like the waddling tame bird of
modern days, because instructions are given
to cover the duck enclosure at the top with a
strong net, not only to keep enemies out, but,
as is expressly stated, to keep the clucks in.

Here are Varro's recommendations how
to form a duck-preserve. " Those who wish
to have flocks of ducks, and to establish a
duck nursery (nessotrqphceum,), must, in the first
place, select, if possible, a marshy locality, in
which ducks delight. If this is not possible,
then either a natural pond must be chosen, or
an artificial one must be made with sloping
sides, that the ducks may descend step by
step. A wall of fifteen feet in height must be
built; around the whole wall, in the inside,
there must be an elevated ledge (crepido),

120 Natural History of the Ancients.

upon which covered nests {tecta cubilia) must
be placed. The margin of the pond should
have a level pavement of cement. With the
pond a channel of water (canalis) was to be
connected, and into it food was to be thrown,
because ducks like to take their food with
water. The whole wall outside was to be
made quite smooth with cement, to prevent
(feles) cats or other harmful animals gaining
admission. Over the top a net with large
meshes must be placed, lest an eagle should
fly in or the ducks themselves fly out. Wheat,
barley, grape -skins should be given as food ;
water Crustacea {ex aqua cammari) and other
aquatic creatures should also sometimes be
supplied to them. A stream of water should
be constantly flowing into and through the
pond, that it might be always fresh."
(Varro, iii. 11.) I may add that other kinds
of water-fowl besides ducks were kept in
these preserves, and that it was usual to
hatch duck-eggs under hens. Martial must
have been a very dainty feeder, for he says

Domesticated Animals. 121

that the breast and neck alone are worth
cooking.

Geese have long been domesticated. With
the Egyptians they often formed a large part

geese. (Egyptian.)

of their food. Figures of this bird are very
common on the monuments. The species
usually represented seems to be the ordinary
grey-lag, though the Egyptian goose {Anser
Egyptiacus) also appears. There seems good
evidence for believing that the Anser ferns, or

122 Natural History of the Ancients.

grey goose, is the origin from which the
domestic breeds have descended. It is the
tame goose often represented as part of the
farm-yard stock on the Egyptian monuments,
and the bird which by its vigilance saved
the Eoman capital from the Gauls ; the
goose (xnv) of Homer and other Greek
authors. The Eomans kept their geese
during the laying season in a walled yard,
which had inside stone or brick partitions for
nests. This yard was called %^o/3oovee£o^
which term, as in the case of the duck pre-
serve, shows that this method of rearing geese
had been also practised by the Greeks. The
white kind was preferred to the grey, as this
latter was thought to be more nearly allied
to the wild species. Geese-rearing, however,
was considered rather troublesome work, as
the birds would eat the corn crops and injure
the grass by their dung. G-oose eggs were
often hatched under hens. Considering the
large size of a goose's egg, only a few gos-
lings could be hatched. The feathers were

Domesticated Animals.

123

valuable, selling for about 3s. 6d. per pound.
It was customary to pluck the birds twice a
year — namely, in spring and autumn. Pliny
gives us the following information about
geese. " Our people/' he says, "only esteem
the goose for the excellence of the liver, which
grows to a large size when the bird is crammed.
When the liver is soaked in honey and milk
(lacfe midso) it is further increased in size, and
indeed it is not without good reason that it
is a moot question who first discovered such
an excellent thing — whether it was Scipio
Metellus, a man of consular rank, or Marcus
Sestius, a cotemporary and a Eoman knight.
However, there is no doubt that it was
Messalinus Cotta, a son of the orator Messala,
who first cooked the webbed feet of geese and
served them up with cocks' combs, for I must
award the palm of the kitchen to the man
who is deserving of it. This bird, wonderful
to relate, comes all the way from the Morini
(in Gaul) to Borne on its own feet : the weary
geese are placed in front, and those following

124 Natural History of the Ancients.

by a natural pressure urge them on." Pliny-
next speaks of the high esteem in which
goose-feathers were held. In endeavours to
procure them, it appears, the commanders of
the auxiliaries would dispatch whole cohorts
from their station when on guard to run after
geese, so that complaints were frequently made
at head-quarters on this account. " Luxury/'
he adds, "has come to that pitch that now-a-
days men will not rest their necks unless upon
a pillow of goose-feathers.5'

Pigeons. — The domestication of the pigeon
dates from very early times. The prophet
Isaiah apparently alludes to these birds when
he asks, " Who are these that fly as a cloud,
and as the doves to their windows?" (lx. 8).
In Egypt their domestication goes back, it is
said, as far as 3000 B.C., and even before
that time the pigeon appears in a bill of fare.
This bird is not figured on the Egyptian
monuments as part of the live-stock of the
farm-yard, but it was valued as a favourite

Domestic at eel Animals.

125

food ; " so pure and wholesome/' says Sir Gr.
Wilkinson, <c was it considered by them, that
when the country was visited by epidemic
diseases, and all things were affected by the
pestilential state of the atmosphere, they be-
lieved that those alone who contented them-
selves with pigeon-flesh were safe from the
infection " (v., p. 216). The Egyptians used
the pigeon as a carrier, as appears from a
coronation scene of the time of Eameses III.
" The king is there represented as having
assumed the pskent, or double-crown of Upper
and Lower Egypt, and a priest lets fly four
pigeons, commanding them to announce to
the South, the North, the West and the East,
that Horus, the son of Iris and Osiris, has put
on the splendid crowns of the upper and lower
country — that the King Eameses III. has put
on the two crowns " (v. 215, 216).

The Eomans, in the time of Varro, bred
enormous numbers of pigeons, as many as
5,000 sometimes occupying a single dove-cote,
which was called by the Greek name wepto-repo-

126 Natural History of the Ancients.

Tpofccov, and was lofty and large. When the
birds were required for the market, they were
for the most part confined within this build-
ing, and copiously supplied with food and
water. The Romans had a most cruel practice
of breaking the legs of young pigeons, after
they had grown their wing-feathers, to prevent
them leaving the nest ; a plentiful supply of
food was placed before the parent birds, which
would feed themselves and their young ones
nearly all the day long ; it was also customary
to cram young birds with white bread which
had been previously chewed.

Pigeons treated in these two ways would
fatten sooner than others, and become whiter.
Besides this tame breed there was another,
called agreste, or mxatile, which was wild, or
partly so ; this breed dwelt in high places, and
flew about at will; its colour was chequered
(varius), and there was no admixture of white ;
the tame kind (clementius) was generally of
a white colour, which was always preferred ;
these two breeds crossed. What is this wild

Domesticated Animals.

127

or half- wild pigeon of wliicli Varro speaks?
He must, I think, refer to the Rock pigeon,
the Columba livia, the undoubted parent of all
the various domesticated breeds, notwithstand-
ing, he says, that it has no white about it
(sine albo) ; the Columba livia has the lower
part of the back white, which will not, in this
respect, answer to Varro's description; but from
his account of its general habits it must, I
think, be this species, and the Eoman writer
must have forgotten the small patch of white
on the back.

White was the favourite colour for the
domestic pigeon in the opinion of the Romans;
a handsome pair of pure white birds of good
breed would be worth about 30s. ; very hand-
some pigeons would be worth as much as £8
a pair ; no doubt a fancy price, as we should
say, but, at any rate, this price was offered by
a buyer to L. Axius, a Roman knight (not
Cicero's and Varro's intimate friend of the
same name) for a pair of beautiful white birds ;
but Axius said he would not sell them for

128 Natural History of the Ancients.

less than 400 denarii, i.e., about £13 of our
money ! Pliny notices this " pigeon-mania "
when he says, " Many persons are insane in
their love of these birds'5 (x. 37). It was
customary for owners to convey their pigeons
in the folds of their breasts a long way from
home, and then to throw them up from
theatres and other places, so as to train them
to find their way home from great distances.
At the present time letters are fastened under
the wing of the carrier-pigeon, when the bird
is required to act as a messenger. The
Eomans tied them to the feet. During the
siege of Mutina (the modern Modena), Deci-
mus Brutus, who was shut up in the town,
held a communication with the consuls by
means of letters fastened to pigeons' feet.
cc Of what avail," Pliny asks, " were Antony's
entrenchment, and the watch of the besiegers,
and the nets stretched across the river, while
the messenger was cleaving the air? " (N. H.,
x. 37). The pigeon was employed also as a
messenger in affairs over which Cupid, rather

Domesticated Animals. 129

than Mars, presided ; we find Anacreon thus
making use of the bird as early as B.C. 500.

The Peacock is an Indian bird, from some
part of which country it was introduced into
Judea by Solomon (1 Kings x. 22). In the
Hebrew word for " peacocks/' tukklyim, we
have an interesting illustration of the simple
name revealing the animal denoted thereby.
The Septuagint and Vulgate explain the word
by Tawz/e? and pavo, " peacocks.5' The Hebrew
is a loan word ; it has been traced to the
Tamil or Malabaric togei, " the crested bird,"
a name still used in Ceylon for a peacock ;
and as the names of the other commodities
introduced with peacocks into Palestine by
Solomon — namely, apes and ivory — are not of
Semitic but of foreign origin, so it is with the
Hebrew loan word tukhiyim for "peacocks."
The names of these three things, apes, ivory,
and peacocks, show us that India was the
country from which they were introduced into
Judea. Buffon and Cuvier think that the
J

130 Natural History of the Ancients.

peacock was first introduced into Europe by-
Alexander ; but this bird was certainly known
to the Greeks before Alexander was born.
Aristotle speaks of the peacock as a well-
known bird when he says, " Some animals are
vain and jealous like the peacock" (Hist. An.,
i. 1, 15). I suspect that the Greeks first
became acquainted with the peacock in their
relations with the Persians, who may have
received their birds originally from India.
From Greece these birds gradually extended
into Italy and other parts of Europe. Among
the Romans Q. Hortensius is said to have
first introduced the peacock as an article of
food, at a banquet on the installation of an
augur. In time the rearing of pea-fowl be-
came quite an established thing, the birds
being highly prized.

The price of a peacock was about 30s.,
and an egg was worth 3s. As much as £500
a year is said to have been realised in this
business. Small rocky islands off the coast of
Italy were favourite breeding places. Here the

Domesticated Animals.

131

birds were in a semi-wild state, wandered about
at will, fed themselves, and reared their young
ones. Pea-fowl were also kept in covered
enclosures with grass and trees, and with
perches for roosting. The eggs were hatched
under hens, but the birds did not breed more
freely among the Romans than among us.
Varro thought three pea-chicks for each
mother bird as much as could be expected.

Parrots. — It must be a matter of con-
siderable interest to learn what our ancestors
thought of birds so wonderfully clever, imi-
tative, and amusing as parrots. This bird was
known to the Greeks by the name of pcrra/cos,
^LTTaKo^ or aiTTa/cos. Ctesias (b.c. 400) refers to
it as the "bird with a tongue and a voice like
a man" (Ind. 3). Aristotle (b.c. 384) speaks
of the parrot as "the Indian bird which is said
to have a tongue like a man, and to be most
talkative when intoxicated." Arrian (a.d. 90)
writes, " Nearchus speaks of parrots (avrraicovs)
as being quite a marvel, and as being found in
j 2

132 Natural History of the Ancients.

India, and as having a man's voice. As for
myself, although I have seen many kinds,
and am acquainted with people who know
them, I have nothing wonderful to relate "
(Ind. xv.) . From iElian (middle third century
Christian era) we learn that parrots were kept
by Indian princes in their palaces ; that they
were very abundant in that country, but that
no one ever thought of eating them, for the
Brahmans considered them sacred, and esteemed
them before all other birds, and with good
reason," for the parrot is the only creature that
speaks like a man " (N. H. xiii. 18). Ovid (b.c.
43) has a whole elegy on the death of a
favourite parrot which he had given to
Corinna, his mistress.

" The parrot, imitative bird from the
Indians, is dead ; attend the funeral rites in
flocks, 0 ye birds." The poet tells us the
colour of his bird's plumage and of the beak.
" Thou with thy plumage couldst dim the
green emerald, having thy bill tinted with the
red crocus ; but what now avails the beauty

Domesticated Animals.

133

of thy rare colour, what thy voice so clear in
imitating sounds ? There was no bird on
earth more imitative, so prettily didst thou
answer words with lisping sound ! With a
very little food thou wast satisfied ; indeed, so
fond of talking wast thou, that thou couldst
not spare thy mouth for much eating ; a nut
thy food, poppies thy sleep-inducer ; a drop
of pure water would drive away thy thirst ;
the pretty parrot is dead ; echo of human
voice, sent as a present from the ends of the
earth. The seventh day arrived, destined
to bring no morrow, and now Fate stands
with distaff empty ! And yet the words did
not quite fail in thy almost speechless mouth.
Farewell Corinna ! thy dying tongue breathed
out." Ovid buries his pet parrot at the foot
of the Elysian Hill, imagining a place where
the souls of good birds go after death. The
poet thinks of his parrot as still calling in
human tones to other birds around in the
fields of the blessed, and there we may be
content to leave her.

134 'Natural History of the Ancients.

Pliny gives us the following description
of a parrot : — There are some birds which can
imitate man's voice ; the parrot, for instance,
which can even discourse. India sends this
bird ; it has the name of Sittaces ; the body
is green all over, except that the neck has a
ring of red around it. It will salute an
emperor, and pronounce words which it has
heard spoken ; it is rendered especially merry
under the influence of wine. Its head is as
hard as its beak. "When it is being taught
to speak it is beaten on the head with an
iron rod, otherwise it is insensible to blows.
When it lights on the ground it falls on
its beak, and by resting upon it makes itself
lighter, for its feet are naturally weak"
{N. H.y x. 41).

Martial, with characteristic flattery, repre-
sents a parrot as having taught itself to salute
the Eoman Emperor Domitian : —

" Psittacus a vobis aliorum nomina discam :
Hoc didici per me dicere : Caesar ave ! "

(xiv. 73.)

Domesticated Animals.

135

" I, a parrot, may learn from you the names of other
men :

I have taught myself to say, Caesar hail ! "

" For other names your lessons may avail,
I taught myself to utter, Caesar hail ! "

Oppian calls the parrot the grass-coloured
bird, and there can be no doubt from this
expression, together with the descriptions
given by other classical writers, that the
species of parrot known to the ancient Greeks
and Eomans — the Indian green parrot with
a ringed neck and ruby beak — is the beautiful
ring parakeet, the Palceornis Alexandria al-
though, perhaps, the allied species P. torquatus
of India and Africa may sometimes be in-
cluded under the name of Psittacus.

Whether parrots from Africa were ever
introduced into Eome I cannot determine.
Pliny says that birds called parrots were first
seen at an island called Gagaudes, between
Syene and Meroe, by persons sent out on an
African expedition by Nero. In the time of
that wicked maniac-boy, with a shocking bad

136 Natural History of the Ancients,

character and an unpronounceable name, Helio-
gobalus, or Elagabalus, Eoman Emperor, a.d.
215, parrots must have been imported into
Eome in considerable numbers, if the stories
told us of that youth's feeding lions on parrots
and pheasants be true. The common grey-
parrot (Psittacus erythacus), the best talker
of all the parrot tribe, is a native of Western
Africa, and would not be known to the
ancients.

Hares and Eabbits. — The Hare best
known to the Greeks and Eomans seems
to be identical with our own, the com-
mon Lepus timidus, though the Alpine species,
L. variabilis, was occasionally brought to
Eome and placed in the Leporarium. These
hare-preserves in time were used for other
larger and fiercer animals, as wild boars and
stags, and were called Orjpiorpo^eia, " wild-
animal preserves." They occupied many
acres of land. In these enclosed parks some
of the animals became partly tame, and would

Domesticated Animals. 137

assemble in winter time, at the sound of
a horn, to receive food. The Eoman epicures'

hare and birds. {Assyrian.)

tit-bit of the hare was the shoulder. The
Greeks also were fond of hare's flesh, so that

138 Natural History of the Ancients.

they had an expression {tfiv eV iraau XcuywoL?)
" to live on hare's flesh/' which was synony-
mous with " living on all kinds of dainties."
Besides hares, rabbits in the time of Varro
were introduced into these Leporaria. But the
rabbit was quite a modern importation into
Eome and Italy ; its original home was Spain
and the Balearic Islands. In Greece there is
no ancient record of its existence either in a
wild or domesticated state ; and in Italy there
is no mention of its occurrence as a wild animal
prior to the time of Athenseus, a.d. 230, who
saw a great many specimens in his journey
from Puteoli to Naples. Pliny speaks of the
rabbit (funiculus) as an inhabitant of Spain,
and says that in the Balearic Islands it pro-
duces famine by destroying the crops. " It
is a well-known fact," he adds, "that the
inhabitants of the Balearic Islands begged of
the late Emperor Augustus the aid of a
number of soldiers to prevent the too rapid
increase of these animals. Perrets (viverra)
are much prized on account of their hunting

Domesticated Animals.

139

these animals ; they are put into the burrows
with the numerous outlets which the rabbits
form, and from which circumstance they
derive their name, and as the ferrets drive
them out they are taken above ground" {N. H.,
viii. 55). Martial (Ep. xiii. 60) says that
rabbits first taught men how to undermine
enemies' towns ; but as the rabbit had only a
local habitation for a long time, Martial's
statement is incorrect. Appius, in Varro,
gives instructions how to form a leporarium,
and speaks of three kinds of hares — the
cuniculus, or rabbit, being one of them. Two
of these kinds, he concludes, Varro already
has; "and since," he says, "you have been
so many years in Spain, I think it likely that
you have brought the third kind (the rabbit)
with you from that country " (JR. R., iii. 12).
To the ancient Egyptians, the Assyrians, and
the Jews, the rabbit was unknown ; the coney
of our English Bible is quite a different
animal.

140 Natural History of the Ancients,

Dormice (glires) were very highly esteemed
as food by the old Eomans. Small yards
were walled round in which were planted
oak-trees to supply the animals with acorns.
These preserves were called gliraria ; holes
were dug in the inside of the yard for the
dormice to breed in ; a little water was sup-
plied to them, but dry soil was necessary.
They were fattened in large jars (doliis), and
were plentifully supplied with acorns, chest-
nuts, and walnuts. In these dark places they
soon got fat. The jars were made of earthen-
ware, and were of different shapes. Varro
gives a short description of them, but his
words are obscure, and I can make no more
out from his account than the German com-
mentator Schneider could. The sleeping pro-
pensities of the dormouse are often alluded to.
Thus Martial says —

" Tota mihi dormitur hyems, et pinquior illo
Tempore sum, quo me nil nisi somnus alit."

(xiii. 59.)

" I sleep through the whole winter, and become fatter in
that time, in which nothing but sleep nourishes me."

Domesticated Animals.

141

Ammianus Marcellinus (a.d. 350, xxviii.
4), speaking of the pride of the nobles, says
that it was customary at their entertainments
to bring into the dining-room scales in which
to weigh the fish, birds, and dormice on the
table, and that they would discourse of these
things till the guests became quite wearied.
Dormice were considered articles of such
luxury that one of the Consuls, M. Scaurus,
prohibited them by a censor's edict, and, as
Pliny says, "they were banished from our
tables/' Notwithstanding this edict, how-
ever, a glirarium appears to have been an
ordinary adjunct of a Eoman gentleman's
villa. The species, so highly prized, was not
our little animal {Myoxus avettanarius), but a
larger kind, about the size of a squirrel, which
in general form it resembles. It is the fat
dormouse {Myoxus glis) common in Spain,
Italy, and the south of France. I believe
it is still eaten in some parts of Italy, but
how far the flavour depended on the inherent
good quality of the creature's flesh, or on the

142 Natural History of the Ancients.

mode in which it was cooked, I am unable
to say.

Bees. — From the importance the ancient
Egyptians attached to honey as an offering to
the gods and as an article of diet, it may be
supposed that they paid much attention to
bee-culture, though we are not able to learn
anything respecting their management from
the monuments. At present, Sir Gr. Wilkin-
son tells us, bees require great attention ;
but he adds, so few are the necessary plants
that the owners of hives often take them in
boats to various spots on the Nile in quest of
flowers. Bees are often mentioned in the
Bible either with reference to the way in
which, when angry, they make their attacks
on man and other animals, or in respect of
the much-prized honey. "A land flowing
with milk and honey," spoken of Palestine,
is an expression which testifies to the abun-
dance of bees in that land in ancient times.
Palestine, with its dry climate and abundant

Domesticated Animals. 143

•

flora, consisting in large proportions of
thymes, mints, and other aromatic labiates,
is a country admirably suited for bees, which
make their nests in the holes of the lime-
stone and other rocks. Whether or to what
extent the ancient Jews domesticated bees
and kept them in hives, it is not possible to
say. The honey which they procured would
probably be for the most part that made by
the wild bees, according to the Psalmist's ex-
pression, " With honey out of the stony rock
would I have satisfied thee."

The taking of bees' -nests by smoking
them appears to have been an ancient custom.
It is curious to observe that in a passage of
Deuteronomy, the Syriac version and an
Arabic version which Bochart saw, read,
" chased you as bees that are smoked " (Deut.
i. 44).

The Greeks and Romans paid great atten-
tion to bee-culture ; Aristotle speaks of hives
and bee-keepers ; whilst Varro, Columella, and
other Eoman writers have written at some

144 Natural History of the Ancients.

length upon bees and their management.
Among the ancients the queen was considered
a king, upon whom it was erroneously sup-
posed the chief work of the hive depended ; the
drone was not regarded as the male-bee. He
seems to have been a useless sort of personage,
making no honey, and supported by the other
bees ; the worker-bee (^e\m-a)> the king-bee
(fiaaiXevs rcov neXirrcov), and the drone (ktj^v),
though living in the same establishment, being
regarded as distinct kinds (y«"?). The drones
which were produced after the death of the
king in the cells were supposed to be very
passionate ; they were called stingers (fcevrpurol),
for the following strange reason, that though
being really destitute of stings, they had the
will, but not the power to sting. Hesiod (Op.
304) uses the epithet KoOovpos or KoXovpos, i.e.,
<c stump -tailed," of a drone. The honey-
dealers used to fumigate the hives when they
took the honey. Aristotle says that when
bees have stung anything they perish, for they
cannot withdraw the sting from the wound

Domesticated Animals.

145

without leaving in their insides but they are
frequently saved if the person stung will press
the sting from the wound ; but when the sting
is lost the bee must die. As a rule, this, I
may add, is quite true. Bees, says Aristotle,
" appear to have pleasure in noises, so that
people say they can collect them into their
hives by striking earthen vessels and making
noises." But it is very doubtful, he thinks,
whether they hear or not, and if they hear,
whether they collect together from pleasure or
from fear. He notices the fact that wasps are
injurious to bees ; the kind called merops (the
bee -eater) is another great enemy. Frogs and
toads he enumerates as injurious ; the toad,
of course, does something unusually wicked
and unnatural. He blows into the entrance
of the hive, and destroys the bees as they fly
out !

The Eomans at first placed their hives in
recesses of their villas ; subsequently they had
regular apiaries, which were very productive.
Plants and flowers, especially thyme and

K

146 Natural History of the Ancients,

cytisus, were placed near, and pure water sup-
plied. The hives were made of brick, wicker-
work, cork, bark, or baked dung ; they had
small holes for ingress and egress, and the
tops covered with a movable lid, so that the
bee-keeper could easily make inspection when
necessary. The hives were arranged in rows
of not more than three in number, one above
the other ; the lowest row was placed on a
stone flooring, about three feet from the
ground, the sides of which were coated with
smooth cement to prevent enemies climbing
up. Swarming-time was one of great anxiety
to the keepers ; a colony, after departing, was
tempted to settle on some adjacent branch,
which was rubbed with some sweet substance
to attract it ; long flights were prevented by
throwing dust upon them, or the insects were
arrested, it was supposed, by tinkling noises,
a custom which has survived to this day in
many country villages in our own country.
When a swarm, or cast, had settled on a
branch, it was at once transferred to the hive,

Domesticated Animals.

147

smoke being used to urge the bees to enter.
If two kings claimed the empire, both were
caught and examined ; the worst-looking rival
was at once destroyed. The Eomans never
sacrificed the lives of their bees for the sake of
the honey ; they smoked the insects, took off
the lid, and cut out a certain portion of the
comb. It was a common belief that a swarm
of bees could be generated from the putrid
carcase of an ox; such a swarm was called
/3o7]yevrj$} " ox-produced : 99 nor was this only a
poet's fancy, as sung by Virgil ; it was the
general belief, shared by such a practical and
matter-of-fact man as the veteran agriculturist,
Varro. Another curious notion was that in
stormy weather bees would take up in their
legs a little stone in order to preserve their
balance in the wind : the idea is as old as
Aristotle, who believed in it; Virgil, Plutarch,
and others repeat the story.

The far-famed honey from Mount Hymet-
tus, near Athens, owed its excellence to the
abundance of thyme and heather which grew,
K 2

148 Natural History of the Ancients.

and still grows there ; this honey, as I myself
know, has a most delicate aromatic flavour.
On the other hand, honey procured by bees
from certain plants, as the Azalea pontica and
Kalmia latifolia, is generally unwholesome, and,
indeed, quite poisonous. It was from the
effects of the honey obtained by bees from the
Azalea pontica that Xenophon's soldiers suffered
considerably when they were near Trebizond,
during the retreat of the ten thousand.

Snail-Preserves. — The Soman Cocldea-
rium, or snail-preserve, was a place surrounded
by water to prevent the animals crawling
away ; from this it is evident that the
edible mollusc was some terrestrial species.
A spot sheltered from the sun was to be
chosen where the dew would often lie ;
the snails required little care and food,
which they could find themselves from the
ground and from the vegetable growth on
walls. Snails were, however, sometimes fat-
tened by shutting them up in a jar, whose

Domesticated Animals.

149

sides were well smeared with boiled wine and
flour ; small holes in the jar admitted air.

The best, says Varro, came from Reate ;
they are small and white ; a large kind came
from Illyria ; but the largest of all, called soli-
tana (from the Promontorium Solis, perhaps),
came from Africa ; the shell of which would
sometimes hold as much as eighty quadrantes,
or about fifteen quarts of water ! This is also
stated by Pliny, but he is only quoting Varro.

Some of these edible terrestrial molluscs
were doubtless species of the family Helicidce.
The Helix pomatium, and several other kinds,
large and small, are to this day abundantly
used as food in Paris and other towns in
France, and in many other parts of Europe.
But what the enormous shells can be of which
Varro and Pliny speak I cannot imagine.
Pennant observes on this point : " People need
not admire the temperance of the supper of
the younger Pliny (Epist. i., xv.), which con-
sisted of only a lettuce a-piece, three snails,
two eggs, a barley-cake, sweet wine and snow,

150 Natural History of the Ancients.

in case his snails bore any proportion to those
of Herpinus,5' the first inventor of these
cochlearia.

The Piscince, or Koman fish-ponds, were of
two kinds, the one of fresh water, the other of
salt ; the former existed from early times, and
were not an unusual appendage to a farm ; the
salt-water ponds were quite modern, and were
very expensive and unprofitable, owned only
by the rich and noble, more suited to please
the eye, as Varro says, than to furnish food ;
and more likely to empty the pocket of the
proprietor than to fill it ! These piscinae were
costly to make, costly to stock, and costly to
maintain. A person of the name of Hirrus
once lent Csesar six thousand murana, and
afterwards sold his villa for about £30,000, so
well stocked were his salt-water preserves with
fish. Sometimes a piscina had several separate
divisions, or compartments (loculalce piscina),
so that different species of fish could be kept
apart. They were thought more sacred, says
Varro, than the Lydian fishes, which were

Domesticated Animals. 151

said to come out of the sea at the sound of the
flute ; no cook dare ever think of summoning
them to — sauce !* " A friend of mine/' writes
Varro, " Q. Hortensius by name, had fish-
ponds at Bauli, constructed at great cost. I
have often been with him at his residence, and
I know that whenever he wanted fish for
dinner he would send all the way to Puteoli
and buy ; he used to feed the fish with his
own hands, and would show a great deal more
anxiety if his mullets were hungry than I am
wont to do when my asses in Eosea want
feeding ! I am content with one slave to feed
my asses (that cost a lot of money), with a
moderate allowance of barley and pure water.
Hortensius employs a host of fishermen, who
are everlastingly sent out to catch heaps of
little fish for big ones to eat. If the sea was
rough, he would buy salt fish from the market
and throw them into his ponds. He would

* "Hos piscesnemo coquus in jus vocareaudet" (iii. cap. 17).
The veteran writer is here guilty of a pun, for jus means
" fish-sauce," as well as "law."

152 Natural History of the Ancients.

much rather give you one of his carriage-
mules out of his stable than a bearded mullet
from his pond ; he felt much more anxiety
about a sick fish than about a sick slave, who
was not worth a thought provided only his
fish had cold water to swim in during hot
weather." Eed mullet and mursense seem to
have been special favourites with the old
Eomans of Hortensius' stamp, those " blessed
fish-pond-gentlemen " (beati pisci?iarii), of
whom Cicero contemptuously speaks {Ad Att.
xix.). The mursena was held in great esti-
mation for the delicacy of the flesh, which is
said to be very white and of fine flavour.
This is the fish which, according to Pliny and
others, a certain Eoman knight and friend of
Augustus, one Yedius Pollio by name, used to
feed with human flesh ! This individual seems
to have been unfortunate in his slaves, who,
when waiting at table, were careless or clumsy,
breaking dishes or upsetting decanters, and
such like dining-table ware. If an unfortu-
nate servant of this time, in the employ of

Domesticated Animals.

153

Vedius Pollio, Knight, chanced to break a
piece of valuable glass or crockery, he would
have to pay the penalty by then and there
being thrown into the fish-pond.

" Whoever breaks the glass or dishes,
That man becomes the food of fishes."

(Dr. Badham, Prose Halieutics, p. 396.)

Well, on one occasion, the Emperor Au-
gustus came to sup with Vedius Pollio, where
he was, of course, sumptuously entertained.
The best " dessert service/' the richest vases,
the best wine appeared on the table. The
waiting servants conducted themselves with
propriety, and no accident happened at first ;
the fish went off swimmingly, so did the rest
of the dinner, but not so the dessert; an
unlucky servant made a slip and broke a
crystal goblet, whereupon his master ordered
the offender to be at once delivered over to
his pet mursense, in the very presence of the
Emperor. The man knew his doom; so he
fell at Augustus' feet, and begged him to

154 Natural History of the Ancients,

intercede in his behalf with his master. " He
did not care to die ; it was not altogether that ;
but he thought it hard that a man, though a
slave, should be gobbled up or nibbled to
pieces by fish ! " But Pollio would not listen
even to the Emperor ; whereupon Augustus
very properly took the matter into his own
hands. He pardoned the slave and dismissed
him, ordered all Pollio's glass and " china " to
be smashed, and his fish-ponds to be at once
filled up ! I suppose the Emperor made it up
with Pollio soon after this affair ; at any rate,
the authorities state that when Pollio died he
left a large part of his property to Augustus.
So tame would these mursense become that
they would muster at their master's call and
take food from his hand. Here is Martial's
warning to any fisherman that may meditate
a day's angling in the Baian Lake, whose fish
were sacred to Domitian : —

" From the Baian Lake, with awe
Angler, I advise, withdraw :
Lest of hallow' d blood unspilt

Domesticated Animals.

155

Thou should'st rash incur the guilt.
Sacred fishes, swimming bland
Hail their lord and lick his hand :
Hand whose greater cannot wave,
Or to sacrifice or save.
Names respective know they all
And attend their master's call.

Once a Libyan rued the deed
When he play'd the trembling reed.
Sudden light his eyes forsook,
Nor displayed the fish he took.
Now he well the hook may hate,
Clothed with so due a bait ;
"Where he, by the Baian pool,
Sits a blinded begging-fool.
Then, dear angler, still by law
Innocent, do thou withdraw.
Throwing first a simple dish,
Venerate devoted fish ! "

(Mart., Up. iv. 30 ; Elphinston.)

It was customary to deck the slimy bodies
of these eels with various ornaments. To one
gentleman of the Licinia gens the mursena
appears to have even given a name, so great
must have been his mania for fishponds in
general and mursense in particular. Horten-
sius, one of those blessed and luxurious

156 Natural History of the Ancients.

jnscinarians to whom I have already had the
pleasure of introducing you, actually shed
bitter tears when a favourite mursena died in
one of his ponds at Bauli. Another cele-
brated Boman, L. Licinius Crassus, also had
an equally tender heart, for he could not stop
his tears at the death of his fishy darling.
But if Crassus had a soft heart, he had also
a ready wTit ; for when his brother censor,
Cneius Domitius Ahenobarbus (Anglice, " Bra-
zen-beard,") twitted him in the Senate for
having cried as much at the death of an eel as
if he had lost a daughter, Crassus very cleverly
and cuttingly retorted, it was more than old
Brazen-beard had done for any one of his
three deceased wives !

Wild Animals.

157

PART II.

WILD ANIMALS.

The Lion has disappeared from various
countries where it was once found, as from
Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and from the whole
of Europe. In Egypt the lion was wor-
shipped, chiefly in the city of Leontopolis.
Being the emblem of strength, it was typical
of the Egyptian Hercules. A victorious
monarch is sometimes represented attended by
a lion. Some have supposed that the animal
was merely a symbol to express kingly power ;
others have thought a tame lion actually
accompanied the king in his expeditions.
According to Sir Gr. Wilkinson, the lion was
frequently trained and used for the chase, like
the cheetah or hunting leopard of India. Sir
Gr. Wilkinson saw two or three tame lions when
he was in^Cairo. Sir A. H. Layard tells us of
a tame lion given him by Osman Pasha at

158 Natural History of the Ancients.

Hillah; and Sir H. Kawlinson had a tame lion
for some years at Bagdad, " which was much
attached to him, and finally died at his feet,
not suffering the attendants to remove him."
It is not improbable, therefore, that the ancient
Egyptians tamed the lion and trained it for the
chase ; still the plate in vol. iii. of Sir Gr. Wil-
kinson's work, said to represent " hunting
with a lion," may simply be intended for a
huntsman who had accidentally come across
a lion in the act of slaying an antelope.
We learn from Plutarch, iElian, and others,
that the lion was a sacred animal, treated
with much care, fed with joints of meat, and
provided with comfortable and spacious dwell-
ings, especially in Leontopolis, in the Delta of
Egypt, and songs were sung to these animals
in the Egyptian language while the animals
fed. The doors of Egyptian temples were
frequently ornamented with lion heads, having
their mouths wide open. The lion was con-
sidered a type of the annual inundation of the
Nile, which rose more abundantly when the

Wild Animals.

159

sun was in the constellation Leo ; therefore it
was customary to make the water-spout heads
of fountains in the form of lion's heads. This
statement of Horapollo, not always the most
reliable authority, has been confirmed, as
many water-spouts terminating in lion's heads
still remain on the temples. No mummied
remains of lions have been discovered in
Egypt. We learn from the Bible that lions
were far from uncommon in Palestine in
ancient days. Lions' bones have been found
in the gravel of the Jordan ; and if the words
of Phocas, who travelled in Palestine at the
end of the twelfth century, are to be trusted,
lions at that time inhabited the reedy coverts
of the Jordan banks.

Lions are subject to considerable variation,
and perhaps both the long-maned and the
short-maned animals occurred in Palestine ;
though the lion with which the people would
be most familiar would probably be the short-
maned or Persian variety, one of less decided
fierceness and strength than the other, so that

Wild Animals.

161

shepherds would sometimes venture to attack
them single-handed.

Lions still occur in the Euphrates valley,
in the jungles near the rivers in Babylonia,
in Susiana, and other places. In the time of
some of the Assyrian kings lion-hunting was
a favourite sport, and numerous are the repre-
sentations on the monuments now in the
British Museum of these animals. Generally
speaking, the king of beasts is admirably
depicted by the Assyrian sculptors. Now he
is represented as being on the point of spring-
ing at a horseman ; now, with spread-out feet
and exserted claws he holds in his mouth a
portion of the body of a horse ; now he is
shrinking cautiously out of a wooden box or
cage in which he had been placed ; or he is in
the agonies of death, pierced by many arrows,
vomiting his life-blood, or vainly endeavour-
ing to extract with his fore-paw a shaft that
has pierced his eyeball ; now he is seen erect
on hind-legs, turning his body round, with out-
spread paws and fierce aspect, as indignantly

L

162 Natural History of the Ancients.

remonstrating with King Assur-banipal, who
has seized the royal beast by the tail !

The Assyrian monarchs would sometimes
attack a lion single-handed, as the monuments
show. Assur-banipal says of himself : — " I,

man attacking a lion. {Assyrian.)

Assur-banipal, King of multitudes, King of
Assyria, by my might, on my two legs, a
fierce lion, which I seized behind by the ears,
in the service of Assur and Istar, goddess of
war, with my two hands I pierced." Another
epigraph states that the same king " seized a

Wild Animals.

163

lion by the tail, and beat his brains out with
a club." The Accadian name of the lion
has not, in this instance, any reference to
any particular localities for the animal ; it
means simply " great beast." The lion of the
Assyrian sculptures is the Persian or Arabian
variety of the Asiatic animal. Every one
almost is more or less familiar with the
numerous allusions to the lion in the poems
of Homer ; it is often introduced in some of
his grandest similes. I do not remember any
passage in the Iliad relating to the habits of
the lion that is not true to nature. The
animals to which Homer — whoever he was, or
wherever he lived — alludes would generally be
those of Asia Minor, though in his time lions
existed in Europe also.

Herodotus expressly mentions the existence
of lions in Thrace, in the country between the
Achelous and the Nestus (vii. 126), and
speaks of their attacks upon the camels in
the army of Xerxes. Aristotle also mentions
them, but he is evidently only repeating the
l 2

164 Natural History of the Ancients,

statement of Herodotus. The great Greek
philosopher has given a tolerably correct
account of the habits of the lion. " Man-
eaters " were known to him, and he correctly
says that when a lion gets old the teeth
become bad, and thus being unable to hunt
wild prey, he is disposed to enter villages and
to attack men and domestic cattle ; but Aris-
totle held some odd notions about the structure
of the king of beasts; as that the neck, for
instance, had only one bone in it, there being
no cervical vertebrae ; the bones are small and
slight, and are without marrow, excepting a
little in the thigh and fore-leg. The bones are
so hard that they will emit fire on percussion.

I may remark that when some of the
classical writers describe the lion as lashing
himself with his tail when angry, it has been
supposed that the claw — a small pointed horny
body occasionally found at the tip of the tail
in certain Felidce — was the instrument with
which he goaded himself on to an attack.
The classical writers, however, mention no

Wild Animals.

165

such claw. A commentator on the Iliad
appears to have been the first to speak of its
existence. As its occurrence is only excep-
tional, it can have no functional character.
The old Assyrians seem to have noticed this
horny process, which is now and then figured,
though with exaggeration, on the marble
slabs.

Hyena. — The species of hyena known to
the ancients is the striped animal, the H.
striata. It was hunted by the Egyptians, who
considered it no less a duty than an amuse-
ment to destroy such an enemy to the flocks.
It was also supposed to injure Indian corn and
other crops when pressed with hunger ; it was
sometimes caught in a large steel-trap, or shot
with bow and arrow. Sir Gr. Wilkinson men-
tions an extraordinary fancy which the Abys-
sinians have respecting the hyena. " They
affirm that a race of people who inhabit their
country, and who usually follow the trade of
blacksmiths, have the power of changing their

166 'Natural History of the Ancients.

form at pleasure, and assuming that of the
hyena" (v. 159).

Among the Greeks and Eomans also
various curious notions were entertained, as
that this animal was able to change its sex,
an absurdity corrected by Aristotle ; that its
eyes would change colour a thousand times a
day; that the pupils would sometimes turn
into stones, which had the marvellous property
of enabling a man, if he put one of these
stones under his tongue, to foretell future
events !

In Palestine the hyena was doubtless
common in ancient times as it is now, though
it is hardly ever mentioned by name in the
Hebrew Bible. " The valley of Zeboim 99
(1 Sam. xiii. 18) means " the valley of hyenas;"
and in this district Mr. Grove passed through
a wild gorge, which had the name of Shuk
ed-dubba — "the ravine of the hyena" — the
exact Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew ex-
pression.

There is another Hebrew word, occurring

Wild Animats.

167

only in the plural number (pchim), trans-
lated " doleful creatures " in our version of
Isa. xiii. 21 (see margin), which has lately
been shown to mean " hyenas." Here we
have an interesting instance of how the
Assyrian, the Hebrew, and the Accadian
words help to explain each other. The
Hebrew word, in the singular number, would
be akh, from a root meaning "to howl; " now
in the cuneiform bilingual tablets there occurs
an Assyrian name of an animal, aklm, the
same as the Hebrew, which in the Accadian
column is equated with lig-barra — i.e., " a
striped beast." Thus from the whole we get
the " howling-striped-beast," an admirable
description of the hyena.

Stag-hunting in the time of Xenophon.
— Let me endeavour to describe the method
of capturing deer as practised in the time of
Xenophon. If it savours a little of what
modern English sportsmen would regard as
poaching, we must remember that before the

168 Natural History of the Ancients,

days of gunpowder it was no easy matter to
take wild animals in a thickly- wooded country
without the adoption of various devices in
the shape of nets, pitfalls, and snares. The
wary stags, even now-a-days not easily stalked
with hound and rifle, could seldom be taken
in a fair chase where the country was covered
with woods.

A remarkable form of trap is given by
Xenophon. These traps were called in Greek
7ro8o<7TpafiaL — i.e., " foot- twisters," and very
unpleasant foot-twisters the unfortunate deer
must have found them.

Each podostrabe consisted of a circular
crown of tough yew-twigs, firmly twisted
together. In this were fixed several spikes
of yew-wood and iron alternately, the latter
being the larger. A strong noose of twisted
hemp was fixed to the circular crown, having
at the other end a clog of oak-wood with
bark still adhering. A round hole was dug
in the ground about one and a half foot deep,
equal in diameter at the top to the crown

Wild Animals.

169

of the trap, and gradually narrowing below.
Another hole was made for the clog, and a
channel for the rope. Several of these traps
were set in soft places near water, and the
deer were entrapped — but not held fast to one
spot — as they came to drink.

The Unicorn of the ancients has been a
puzzling question for generations, though
really the matter is a very simple one. The
unicorns of the Greeks and Romans — they
mention several kinds — may be dismissed
with a few words. Aristotle mentions two
animals possessing a solid hoof and a single
horn ; these he calls the Indian ass and the
oryx. By the first he is, I think, referring
to the one-horned rhinoceros, of which animal
he had heard some story from some source or
other, according to which the rhinoceros was
erroneously thought to have been some kind
of ass. The oryx may possibly be the
nylghau, a large Indian antelope, whose horns
seen at a distance in profile by some observer

170 Natural History of the Ancients.

may have appeared as one — the one horn, as
it were, covering the other. But, generally
speaking, the animal which lies at the bottom
of the numerous exaggerated and erroneous
descriptions of the unicorns of the Greeks and
Eomans, is that known as the one-horned
rhinoceros.

But it is altogether different with the
unicorn of the Bible, which is, undoubtedly,
some species of wild bull, as can be most
clearly and fully demonstrated. The unicorn
of our Authorised Version owes its origin to
the Septuagint and Vulgate, which give
fMovo/cepm and unicornis, " a unicorn/5 But
the Hebrew word rem denotes a two-horned
animal, as is certain from a passage in
Deuteronomy (xxxiii. 17), which contains a
part of Joseph's blessing : " His horns are
like the horns of a reem ; with them shall he
push the people together." Now our trans-
lators, seeing the contradiction involved in
the expression, "horns of the unicorn," have
translated the Hebrew singular noun as if it

Wild Animals.

171

were a plural ; the correct reading, however,
is given in the margin.

The two horns of the reem are the ten
thousands of Ephraim, and the thousands of
Manasseh, and represent the two tribes
springing from one — namely, Joseph, just as
two horns of an ox spring from one head.
Wherever the word reem occurs in the Bible
there is ample evidence to show that it is
a two-horned bovine animal of some kind.
The species denoted is the wild bull of the
Assyrian monuments, and here we have
not only a picture of the animal repre-
sented, but an Assyrian word, rintu, identical,
you will observe, with the Hebrew. The
Accadian name also, am-si, comes in to help
us; am denotes "an ox," and si means a
" horn " — i.e., some bovine animal that had
strong horns. The reem at one time was
common both in Palestine and Syria ; in the
later days of the Assyrian monarchs it be-
came scarce, and at length disappeared alto-
gether. We have besides the evidence

172 Natural History of the Ancients.

supplied by linguistic palaeontology, that
afforded by natural history itself. Teeth of
an extinct wild ox have been found in bone-
breccia in the Lebanon, which have been
referred to the Bos primig cuius. Literary
history confirms the former existence of these
wild cattle in the very districts where their
teeth have been discovered. Thus, in a record
of a hunting expedition of the time of Tig-
lath Pileser I. (b.c. 1120-1100), this king
is expressly stated to have hunted these
animals and killed them " opposite the
land of the Hittites and at the foot of
Lebanon."*

The species of wild cattle hunted by the
Assyrian monarch s is either the Bos primi*

# I may add that the ordinary Assyrian character, which
is known to denote some bovine animal, can be traced through
its archaic forms to its hieroglyphic origin, which is a rude

picture of a bull's head, thus — \ / with which may be

compared the usual sign fj in our almanacks for the zodiacal
Taurus. (See my paper, "On the Hieroglyphic or Picture
Origin of the Characters of the Assyrian Syllabary," Trans.
Bib. Soc, vol. vi., pt. 2.)

Wild Animals.

173

genius or some closely allied species ; it is
apparently identical with the gigantic urus,
which Caesar and the Eoman legions saw in
the forests of Belgium and Germany. The
Assyrians used to capture the calves of these
wild cattle, and bring them alive to their
royal abodes at Calah or Nineveh ; they
must have destroyed great numbers of them,
to judge from the accounts they have left on
the monuments. No figures occur on the
sculptures of the date of Assur-banipal, and,
perhaps, these wild rimi were growing scarce ;
but it is never safe to form a conclusion from
negative evidence alone. The king hunted
the wild bull in his chariot, attended by
horsemen ; the bow and arrow being the
instrument of death. Sometimes a wounded
animal, with arrows fixed in its body, would
rush at the chariot, when the king would
seize him by the horn, and with a well-directed
blow, or rather stab with a short strong sword,
pierce the marrow of the neck, and instantly
bring him to the ground.

Wild Animals.

175

Wild Boar. — There is no figure of the
wild boar on the Egyptian monuments, though
this animal must have been well known to
the people. Sir (x. Wilkinson suggests as a
reason for this omission that the wild boar
does not frequent those parts where the scenes
of the chase are laid; it being confined to
the low marshy spots about the north of the
Delta and the banks of the Lake Moeris. The
domestic pig, as we have seen, was an especial
abomination to the Egyptians ; and, without
doubt, its wild relative would have been
similarly regarded, and perhaps for this reason
it was never hunted by Egyptian sportsmen,
being an animal altogether too abominable
to have anything to do with. The Hebrews
were, no doubt, well acquainted with the wild
boar, although there is only one distinct
allusion to it in the Bible. " Thou hast
brought a vine out of Egypt; thou didst
cause it to take deep root," but now " the
boar out of the wood doth waste it."
In a country like Palestine — fca land of

176 Natural History of the Ancients,

wheat, and barley, and vines " — the damage
which wild swine would do to corn-crops
and vineyards would be most serious. The
records are silent as to whether or by what
methods the ancient Jews destroyed this
animal. To the Assyrians the wild boar
would also have been well known ; it is
rarely represented on the sculptures, and
nowhere as an animal of the chase. Figures
of a wild sow, accompanied by eight or nine
little sucking ones, occur on a slab in the
British Museum ; they are represented as
frequenting marshy places covered with tall
reeds, and are fairly drawn. Neither the
mother nor any one of her little ones have
curly tails ; the sucking pigs are shaded like
the mother, and one cannot say whether the
striped longitudinal bands of the young of
wild swine were ever noticed by the Assyrians.

Among the Greeks and Romans no sport
was more popular than the chase of the wild
boar, whose flesh often appeared at their
tables. So fierce an animal could not help

Wild Animals.

177

kindling the sportsman's ardour ; the danger
that accompanied his capture enhanced the
pleasure of the hunter, so that not all the
earnest entreaties of the Goddess of Love
could turn Adonis from his favourite sport.
Wild boars were hunted with large and
powerful dogs. The Indian, Locrian, Cretan,
and Spartan are recommended by Xenophon ;
the two former were celebrated for their power
and courage, the latter for their scenting
powers. Very strong nets were used, and
javelins were furnished with guards at the
juncture of the iron and wooden parts, in
order to prevent the stricken animal from
pushing along the handle till he reached the
hunter. Foot-traps similar to the podostrabce
used in deer-hunting were also set in places
frequented by the animals. The hunters were
to go in company for the sake of mutual
protection in so hazardous a sport. After a
boar has been killed, according to Xenophon
— who, like the worthies of classical antiquity,
generally, now and then indulged in the

M

178 Natural History of the Ancients.

fabulous — his tusks are so liot that hairs
when laid upon them actually shrivel up ;
and when he is alive they are absolutely on
fire when he is irritated, " because if this
were not so, he would not singe the tips of the
dogs' hair when they came near him."

Ovid's admirable picture of the hunt of
the Caledonian wild boar is well known. The
mighty forest rising from the plain, its trees
growing for ages, never thinned by man —

" Silva frequens trabibus quam nulla ceciderat setas,"

amid whose tangled brushwood the great wild
boar had his lair; the neighbouring valley,
with its rivulets of water and pool surrounded
by willows, sedges, rushes, and tall reeds, to
which spot Meleager and his chosen comrades
tracked the monster ; the placing of the nets,
the unleashing of the dogs, the search for foot-
tracks, the sudden rush of the wild animal
from the swampy pool, the crushing of the
brushwood by its impulse, the shout or
" view hollo " of the party as he started off,

Wild Animals.

179

the casting of javelins, the dispersion of the
dogs, are all most graphically related.

The wild boar's flesh was highly appre-
ciated by the Romans : it was usually the
chief dish of the ccena, and was served up
whole, a custom first introduced by P. Servillius
Rullus, father of him whom Cicero attacked.
The thorough gourmand pretended that he
could tell from the flavour what part of Italy
the animal came from, whether it were
Umbrian or Laurentian. The Lucanian and
the Tuscan were celebrated. The cooking of
the whole animal was rather an expensive
matter, and the gift of one to a person not
wealthy quite a " white elephant." Martial
had a present of a splendid wild boar fed on
Tuscan acorns killed by his friend Dexter,
" But, alas!" he exclaims, "my cook will
consume a mighty heap of pepper, and to the
mysterious sauce will add Falernian wine.
Gro back, 0 expensive wild boar, to your
master ! I hunger at a cheaper rate." (Ep.
vii. 27.)
m 2

180 Natural History of the Ancients.

The Elephant is represented on the Egyp-
tian monuments among the presents brought
by an Asiatic people to an Egyptian king.
The island Elephantine took its name from
this animal, which, however, never appears to
have been considered sacred. The Ptolemies,
at one time, established a hunting place for the
chase of the animal, which was valued almost
solely for the sake of the ivory. A figure of
the Asiatic elephant appears on an Assyrian
monument of the time of Shalmanezer, as part
of tribute from the Armenian Muzri, who had
themselves most likely received it from India
(see page 22). The African elephant was well
known to the Greeks and Romans. We do
not read of elephants being employed in war
before the time of Pyrrhus, who in B.C. 280
made use of these animals in the war with
Tarentum against the Eomans. We know
that the Carthaginians, also, in the time of
Hannibal (b.c. 210), and probably before, em-
ployed these animals in war. Aristotle speaks
of the docility of the elephant. He gives a

Wild Animals.

181

good account of the creature's proboscis, its
form and functions ; he notices correctly the
absence of a gall-bladder, the construction of
the feet, the great age to which it attains, the
mode adopted in hunting and taming wild
elephants, the peculiar structure of the hind
feet, which appear to bend like those of a
man. "When the Romans first saw the
elephant in the army of Pyrrhus in Lucania,
they called it the " Lucanian ox 99 — Bos Ltica
— as Lucretius tells us.

cc Next the Roeni taught the horrible Lu-
canian oxen, with lowered body and snake-
like hand, to endure the wounds of war, and
to throw into confusion the mighty ranks of
Mars/— (Be Ber. JVatura, v. 1,301). The
Romans, in the time of the Empire, intro-
duced elephants largely into their capital.
Csesar held a triumphal entry with forty
elephants attached to his car. They were
frequently exhibited at the theatres and in
other places, being trained and exercised
against the solemnity of their games in certain

182 Natural History of the Ancients.

strange positions, intricate motions, difficult
turns of the body, being taught to go, to
come, to wheel about, &c. &c. These triumph-
ing and performing elephants used by the
Romans would be the broad-eared African
species.

The Seals known to the classical writers
are the common Phoca vitidina and P. mona-
chus. Aristotle correctly says that the fins of
the seal are homologous with the feet of a
quadruped. " The seal is like a maimed quad-
ruped, for immediately beneath the scapula it
has feet like hands. They are five fingered,
and each of the fingers has three joints and a
small claw. The hind-feet are five fingered,
and each of the fingers has joints and claws
like those of the fore-feet. In shape they are
very like the tail of a fish. When the young
ones are twelve days old the mother leads
them to the water several times a day, in
order to habituate them by degrees. The
seal drags its hinder parts along, for it cannot

Wild Animals.

183

walk nor erect itself on its feet, but it con-
tracts and draws itself together. It is fleshy
and soft." And now comes a strange error
— its bones are cartilaginous. It is difficult
to kill the seal by violence unless it is struck
upon the temple, for its body is fleshy. It
has a voice like an ox. With respect to the
teeth, Aristotle correctly says, " All are sharp
pointed, showing an approximation to the race
of fishes." The docility of the seal did not
escape the notice of the Romans. Pliny ex-
pressly states that these animals are suscep-
tible of training, and with voice and gesture
can be taught to salute the public, answer-
ing with a peculiar noise (incondito fremiti*).
Sealskins were considered protectors against
lightnings. Augustus Caesar habitually feared
thunder and lightning, and at all times and in
all places he carried about with him a seal-
skin as a preventative {pro remedio).

Seals are nearly always inhabitants of salt
water. A species occurs in the Caspian Sea
that seems to be allied to the common Phoca

184 Natural History of the Ancients.

vitulina ; the water of this sea is very little
salt ; while another species is found in Lake
Baikal, whose water is wholly fresh. Hero-
dotus speaks of a race of men inhabiting the
mouths of the Araxes, who feed on raw fish
and clothe themselves with seal-skins ; this
species is clearly the seal of the Caspian Sea
(Phoca Gaspica).

The Coney of our English version is a
wrong translation of the Hebrew word sM-
plidn. The word coney is an old form for a
rabbit, being derived from the Latin cuniculus.
As we have seen, the introduction of the
rabbit into the East is of recent date, and no
rabbit was known to the ancient inhabitants
of the Bible lands. This animal — the Sha-
phdn — was by the Levitical law forbidden as
food to the Jews, because it does not divide
the hoof into two parts. The shdphdn is said
to chew the cud, which, however, it does not
do. The animal intended is allowed by all
writers to be the Hyrax Syriacus — neither a

Wild Animals.

185

rodent nor a ruminant. In outward form it
has some slight resemblance to a rabbit, ex-
cept that its ears are short and small. Zoolo-
gically, the little hyrax is classed between the
hippopotamus and the rhinoceros : it has two
incisor teeth, pointed and triangular, like
those of the hippopotamus, whilst its molars
are very similar to those of the rhinoceros ;
but though it appears to have its true affinities
with the even-toed ungulates, the genus must
be acknowledged to be a very aberrant form.
In the Book of Proverbs, among the " four
things, little upon earth, but exceeding wise,"
are enumerated these little animals. They are
truly " but a feeble folk, and have their
houses among the rocks." The hyrax, from
its habit of moving about its jaws and teeth
like hares and rabbits, led the Hebrews to
suppose that it ruminated just as sheep and
cattle do. It is not correct to say, as some
have said, that the Hebrew words translated
" chewing the cud," do not necessarily imply a
true ruminating process, because the identical

18G Natural History of the Ancients.

expression which is used for chewing the cud
in the true ruminants is used for that process
in the animal under our consideration. " And
the shaphan, because he cheweth the cud, but
doth not divide the hoof, he is unclean to
you" (Lev. x. 5). The Hebrew words are too
distinct to admit the slightest doubt as to
their full signification. The hiphil participle
maaleh, from the verb aldh, " to go," "to
ascend," literally rendered would read, " which
maketh the cud to ascend/' and shows, more-
over, that the Hebrews had a correct general
idea of the process of rumination as visible to
them in their own cattle every day of their
lives. The hyrax is not so common in Pales-
tine as formerly. It is common, however, in
some parts, as in the gorge of the Kedron, and
all down the west side of the Dead Sea.
They are timid and shy little creatures, and
this is implied in the Biblical expression of
"being exceeding wise" and on the alert when
danger threatens. When an approaching
stranger is seen by one of these animals it

Wild Animals.

187

immediately utters a scream, whereupon all
the party hurry at once into the holes of the
rocks. The hyrax does not burrow like the
rabbit and some other animals. In Arabia
Petrea these little creatures are called gannim
Israel, " Israel's sheep/' doubtless from the
hyrax frequenting the rocks of Horeb and
Sinai during the forty years' wanderings of
that people. The Germans translate the word
shwphdn by "rock badger." It is difficult to
suggest a good translation. " The stony
rocks for the hyraces " sounds awkward, and
conveys no idea to the mind of an ordinary
reader. " Eock -badger," though incorrect, is
better on the whole. Perhaps, as the English
word " coney " is now nearly obsolete as
applied to the rabbit, it would be as well to
retain the word, familiar to all from its
occurrence in our Bibles — to re-issue the coin,
but with the impress of a hyrax and not a
rabbit upon it.

Of Whales there is not much that I find

188 Natural History of the Ancients,

interesting to notice. Popularly, a whale is
looked upon as a fish ; Aristotle was not de-
ceived by a fish-like form of the body. " The
phocsena, like the dolphin, is furnished with
a blow-hole, it has no gills" (i. 8). In another
place he says, u The cetacea, as the dolphin,
seal, and whale, have mammae and milk,
and suckle their young." The dolphin
shows great attachment to its young ones,
which follow the mother for some time. " Of
all animals/' he says, "the most remarkable
in this respect is the dolphin, and some other
cetaceous water animals of this kind, as the
whale and others which have a blow-hole; for
it is not easy to place these with water
animals, or with land animals, if air-breathing
animals are land animals, and water-breathing
animals are aquatic, because these animals
share both natures, for they take in sea-water
and eject it through the blow-hole, and the
air, too, through the lungs, for they are pos-
sessed of such and breathe by means of them.
Hence it happens that when a dolphin is

Wild Animals.

189

caught in nets, it quickly dies, because it can-
not breathe. It can live a long time out of
water moaning and groaning like other air-
breathing creatures ; while sleeping it keeps
its nose out of the water, in order that it
may breathe5' (viii. 2, §3). The species of
dolphin chiefly alluded to by the Greek and
Latin writers is most likely the common
dolphin, Delphinus delphis, Lin. ; this is the
creature upon which the famous Lesbian
harpist Arion is represented being carried
across the sea from Sicily to Tenarus. The
sailors coveting Arion's riches formed a plot
to cast him into the sea ; in vain he implored
them to save his life ; he asked to mount on
the quarter-deck, and to play on the harp
before he leaped into the sea. So sweetly he
sang that dolphins were attracted to the ship,
and Arion casting himself into the sea mounted
the back of one of these animals and reached
Tenarus in safety. The figures on coins repre-
senting this ancient legend are fair likenesses
of the common dolphin.

190 Natural History of the Ancients.

Concerning the Vulture and the Pelican
I will only speak in connection of the latter
bird being fabled to feed its young with blood
from self-inflicted wounds made in its breast.
The pelican feeds its young ones with the
fishy contents of its pouch, and during the
process the red tip of the lower mandible is
pressed against its breast ; and this has been
supposed to lie at the bottom of the fable that
the bird feeds its young ones with its own
blood. This, though an ingenious explana-
tion, is altogether incorrect, because the bird,
which originally is represented as feeding its
young brood with its own blood, is not the
pelican, but a vulture or an eagle. Nor is the
fable a classical one at all. It originated with
the Egyptians apparently, who considered the
vulture a most compassionate bird. According
to Horapollo, " a vulture symbolises a merci-
ful man, because if food cannot be procured to
nourish its offspring, it opens its own thigh
and permits the young to partake of the blood,
so that they may not perish from want."

Wild Animals.

191

That the vulture was considered a most affec-
tionate bird is an idea shared by the Hebrews,
as implied by the Hebrew name (rdckdm) for a
vulture, which signifies " an affectionate bird."
Among classical authors also the love of the
vulture for its young was proverbial ; thus
Homer represents Telemachus and Ulysses
bitterly mourning as eagles or crooked-clawed
vultures lament when countrymen had robbed
their nests of their unfledged young ones (Od.
xvi. 216). And JEschylus refers to vultures,
which in their lamentations for their young,
soar high above the nests from which they
have been taken [Agam. 49). The Egyptian
fable in time was transferred from the vulture
to the pelican by the ecclesiastic fathers in
their annotations on the Scriptures. The
marvel was already sufficiently great, but in
patristic theology it was still more magnified,
for the blood of the parent pelican was sup-
posed not only to serve as food for the young,
but was also able to re- animate the dead off-
spring ! Thus Augustine, commenting on

192 Natural History of the Ancients,

Psalm cii. 5, <c I am like a pelican in the
wilderness," says, " These birds (male pelicans)
are said to kill their young offspring by blows
of their beaks, and then to bewail their death
for the space of three days. At length, how-
ever, it is said that the mother-bird inflicts a
severe wound on herself, pouring the flowing
blood over the dead young ones, which in-
stantly brings them to life." To the same
effect write Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch,
Isidorus of Seville, Epiphanius, and a host
of other writers, except that sometimes it was
the female which killed the young ones, while
the male re-animated them with his blood.
This fable was supposed to be a symbol of
Christ's love to men. In popular opinion,
however, the vulture long remained as the
original bird of the fable ; for in architectural
ornaments, and in old books of emblems, the
bird is always depicted as an eagle or vulture ;
and it would seem that the word pelican at
one time denoted an eagle, or similar bird of
prey. In an old book of emblems, entitled

Wild Animals.

193

" A Choice of Emblems and other Devices/5 by
Geffery Whitney, 1586, there is a woodcut of
an eagle piercing her breast with her hooked
beak, in a nest surrounded by her young ones,
whose mouths are open to receive the blood
which issues from the parent's body. Under-
neath the woodcut are the following lines : —

" The pellican, for/to revive her younge,
Doth pierce her breast, and geve them of her blood.
Then searche your breste, and as you have with tonge,
"With penne proceed to doe our country good :
Your zeal is great, your learning is profounde,
Then help our wantes with that you doe abounde." *

The Greek writers employ the word Trekeicav,
or ireKwclvos, generally to denote the web-
footed pouched bird, but the derivation from
TrekeicdcQ, " to hew with an ax/5 shows that
some other bird was originally signified by it,
and this bird, we learn from Aristophanes, was
a " woodpecker," the clever joiner bird, which
with its bill hewed out the gates of Cloud-

* A figure of the "life-rendering pelican" feeding her
young ones with her own blood may be seen in Knight's
Shakspere, Yol. YL, p. 154.
N

194 "Natural History of the Ancients.

cuckoo-town {Aves, 1155). Whether our word
" pelican" was ever used by any ^arly English
writers to denote an eagle, or any other bird
except the real pelican, I cannot say. But in
the epigraph just quoted it would appear that
it was thus occasionally employed. The picture
representing an eagle, and the word a pelican,
was a puzzle to Sir Thomas Browne. " In
every place/' he says, "we meet with the
picture of the pelican opening her breast with
her bill and feeding her young ones with the
blood distilled from her." He then says these
pictures " contain many improprieties, dis-
agreeing almost in all things from the true
and proper description;" the pelican exceeds
the magnitude of a swan, the bird of the
pictures is described as of the bigness of a
hen, as having divided claws, those of the
pelican are fin-footed ; lastly, there is one
part omitted more remarkable than any other,
that is the chowle, or crop, adhering under the
lower side of the bill, and so descending by
the throat ; a bag, or sachel, very observable,

Wild Animals.

195

and of a capacity almost beyond credit "
[Vulg. Errors, vol. ii., p. 1, Bohn's Edn.).

The Ostrich was hunted by the Egyptians
for the sake of its plumes, which were highly
prized for ornamental purposes, and also be-
cause an ostrich's feather had a religious sig-
nification ; it was an emblem of truth, and is
occasionally represented as placed in the scales
of Justice, being weighed against the actions
of a departed soul in the presence of Osiris.
The eggs, moreover, were in request for orna-
mental or religious purposes ; to what definite
purpose ostrich eggs were employed by the
ancient Egyptians is unknown : they are still
suspended in Coptic churches ; and the Arabs
of Palestine use them for the decoration of
graves. The ostrich was well known to the
Jews, and is often mentioned in the Bible.
The character of cruelty is attached to this
bird in the Book of Job and in the Lamenta-
tions. " The daughter of my people is become
cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness." In
n 2

196 Natural History of the Ancients.

Job xxxix. 13 our translation is in fault; the
verse should be rendered thus — " The wing of
the ostrich moveth joyously, but has she the
plume and feather of the stork?" Here the
ostrich is instanced as the very opposite in

character to the
stork, which was
proverbially cele-
brated for its affec-
tion to its young.
How unlike to the
cruel ostrich, which
leaves her eggs in
the earth, and is
hardened against

MAN WITH OSTRICH AND GAZELLE. J^r VOUnO* OneS !

[Egyptian.) ^

Stupidity and want
of affection have long been attributed to the
ostrich by the Orientals. The Arabs have a
proverb, " stupid as an ostrich/' and they give
the following reasons for their belief : — The
ostrich will swallow iron and stones. When the
bird is hunted it thrusts its head into a bush,

Wild Animals.

197

and imagines that the hunter does not see it.
It neglects its eggs. It has a small head and
few brains. It is well known that the bird
swallows stones and other hard substances to
aid its digestion ; its voracity is not always
discriminating, as it will swallow wood, cord-
age, nails, glass, and other substances ; the
hard date-stones — one of the hardest of veget-
able productions — are a welcome and efficient
digester. According to Shaw, who witnessed
the fact, a bird once swallowed several leaden
bullets hot from the mould. The character
of cruelty attributed to the ostrich is accounted
for in this way : the ostrich is polygamous ;
the nest, which is a hole scratched in the sand,
is filled promiscuously by several hens ; the
eggs are then covered over about a foot deep,
and left to the heat of the sun, which in the
day time acts as an incubator. During the
night the parent birds share in the incubation.
This, however, is the case only in tropical
countries. The ostriches known to the Jews
would be those of Syria, Egypt, and North

198 Natural History of the Ancients,

Africa, where the parent birds frequently in-
cubate during the day. How, then, can it be
said that the bird forgets that the foot may
crush the eggs when they are covered a foot
deep or more by the sand ? In this way :
besides the eggs destined for hatching, which
are deposited in the nest, the ostrich lays
other eggs, not in the nest, but near it, to all
appearance forsaken. Clearly, therefore, these
are the eggs which a foot may crush, mentioned
in the Book of Job. What purpose do these
supernumerary eggs serve ? They are intended
for the nourishment of the newly-hatched
young ones, which in barren districts would at
first find difficulty in procuring food. This
opinion is confirmed by the statement of Arabs
and other eye-witnesses. Figures of the
ostrich occur on the Assyrian monuments,
upon cylinders and utensils ; there is no mis-
take about the bird denoted, though the
drawings are grotesque ; indeed, the Assyrian
artists are far from happy in their delineation
of bird-life generally.

Wild Animals.

199

The Greek and Eoman writers frequently
mention the ostrich as inhabiting some of the
countries in which it is still found. "What
time it became known to the Greeks as an
imported bird from Africa I am unable to de-
termine. Aristotle's account would lead us to
believe that he had seen the bird ; here is his
description of the Libyan bird : — " It is partly
a bird, and partly a quadruped; it is not a
quadruped, because it has wings ; and it is not
a bird, because it does not fly in mid-air, its
wings are more like hair than feathers, and
useless for flight. Moreover, like a quadruped
it has upper eyelashes, and is bare about the
head and upper parts of the neck, so that the
eyelashes appear very hairy ; like a bird it is
furnished with feathers below, and like a bird
it is a biped, but its feet are bisulcous like a
quadruped, for it has no toes, but claws; the
reason for this is that it has not the magnitude
of a bird, but of a quadruped ; for it is neces-
sary that the body of birds should be the least,
for it is not easy for a great bulk of body to be

200 Natural History of the Ancients,

moved in mid-air " {Parts of Anim., iv. 14).
Pliny repeats some of the remarks of Aristotle,
but adds that the ostrich uses its bi-cleft foot
for seizing stones to throw at pursuers in its
course, that it has the extraordinary power of
being able to digest almost any substance,
that its stupidity is shown in thrusting its
head and neck into a bush and imagining that
its whole body is concealed. On this point
Diodorus Siculus differs from Pliny and others ;
he says it is a wise precaution, because its
head being the weakest and most vital part
needs protection. Ostrich egg-shells were used
by the Eomans as vessels for certain purposes ;
the feathers of the wing and tail played a part
in decorating the helmets of soldiers. Ostriches
must have been imported into Rome at the
latter end of the empire in great numbers,
if iElius Lampridius is to be credited, who
asserts that Elagabalus once served up
at table the heads of 600 ostriches, whose
brains appear to have been considered a
delicacy.

Wild Animals.

201

The Crane was a bird in great favour with
the Greeks and Komans, both on account of its
migratory habits, by which it reminded them
of the time of the year and the work necessary
to be done in the field, and also for the delicacy
of its flesh as an article of diet. Homer is the
earliest Greek author who mentions the crane —
" So when inclement winters vex the plain
With piercing frosts, or thick descending rain,
To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly
With noise and order through the mid-way sky."

(Pope's Homer, iii. 5.)

Hesiod {Op. et Dies, 446) reminds the
farmer that the migratory cranes proclaim the
ploughing season to have come — " Mark when
from on high among the clouds you shall have
heard the voice of the crane uttering its annual
cry, which both brings the signal for plough-
ing and indicates rainy winter." Homer, in
the passage just quoted, mentions the destruc-
tion which the cranes cause to a pigmy race,
which was supposed to inhabit a district in
Upper Egypt. These birds sometimes descend
from their lofty aerial flights and alight on

202 Natural History of the Ancients.

newly-sown corn-fields. Aristotle, like Homer,
after speaking of the cranes, mentions the
pygmies. He says — <c The cranes travel from
Scythia to the marshes in the higher parts of
Egypt. Here dwell the pygmies, and this is
no fable, for there is, as it is said, a race of
dwarfs, both men and horses, which lead the
life of troglodytes/' I suppose it was believed
that these little men, when they came to drive
off the cranes from their corn-fields, were
gobbled up by the birds. The story that the
cranes in their migratory flights " from one
end of the earth to the other " swallow a
stone to balance themselves in the wind, which
stone, when procured by any one, was said to
be useful as a touchstone for gold, Aristotle
at once regards as a pure fiction.

Cicero mentions Aristotle as recording a
wonderful thing about the mode of flight
adopted by a flock of cranes. He says that
these birds, in their migratory flight over the
sea, assume the form of a triangle, the apex of
which keeps off the wind from the two flanks,

Wild Animals.

203

making their course through the air easier;
the base of the triangle is helped by the wind,
as in the case of a ship ; these last cranes place
their heads and necks on the back of those
flying before them ; but as the leader is unable
to rest in this way, having no prop for his
head, he flies to the rear and rests : to his
place succeeds one of those who have rested ;
the same changes taking place throughout the
entire aerial course (Be Nat. Deor., ii. 49). It
is well known that some flights of birds often
assume a wedge-shaped form ; cranes are said
to fly in long lines and in clouds, by those
who have been eye-witnesses of their migra-
tory flights ; perhaps they, like some other
birds, occasionally assume a V-shaped form ;
the rest is pure fiction. The V form of the
crane's flight is alluded to by Martial (Ep.
xiii. 75), who says —

" You will disturb the ranks, and the letter will not fiy
entire, if you destroy a single bird of Palamedes."

" Turbabis versus, nec littera tota volabit,
Unam perdideris si .Palamedis avem."

204 Natural History of the Ancients.

The Greeks appear to have kept cranes with
other birds in enclosures, where they were
probably fattened for the table. The guest in
Plato's Politicus, addressing Socrates, jun.,
says, <c You have, at all events, heard, and you
believe in the feeding of cranes, yepavofiorLa, and
of geese, although you have never wandered
about the plains of Thessaly" (264 C, ed.
Stallbaum). Seius possessed a country seat
with an attached park, in which he kept large
flocks of geese, fowls, pigeons, cranes, and
peacocks (Varro, III. ii. 14). Horace speaks
of the limbs of a crane sprinkled with salt and
bread-crumbs among the articles of food at
the entertainment given by Nasidienus (Sat.
ii. 8, 87).

The sacred Ibis (Ibis religiosa) is a curious
and interesting bird ; it was sacred to Thoth,
lord of letters, who is sometimes represented
with the head of this bird. So sacred was the
ibis considered by the Egyptians, that if any
person wilfully killed it he was put to death ;
if he killed it accidentally, upon true repent-

Wild Animals.

205

ance and the payment of a fine, he was not
punished. On what account was the ibis held
so sacred among the Egyptians ? The alleged
cause that this bird benefits mankind by de-
vouring serpents can have no foundation in
fact ; this species, as well as the North African
species, Ibis falcifielfas, the Grlossy Ibis, has a
curved, slender, and feeble bill, and is unable
to kill serpents, except they be of the youngest
and smallest kinds. Cuvier found a few
remains of a snake in an embalmed ibis, it is
true, but the bird does not feed on snakes, but
on worms, small molluscs, the larvae of insects,
little fish, and Crustacea. Be the cause of its
sacredness what it may, all Egypt acknow-
ledged its divine character ; and there is no
other animal of which so many mummies have
been found. Sometimes the ibis was wrapped in
linen bandages, sometimes they were placed in
earthenware vases, or in wooden or stone cases.
"At Memphis," says Mr. Pettigrew, "there
are thousands of the embalmed ibis, but they
are generally badly preserved." So great was

206 Natural History of the Ancients,

the respect shown to these birds that the
Egyptians preserved even the fragments of
their bodies, while the eggs of the bird have
been found preserved in the tombs dedicated
to this bird {Hist, of Egypt. Mummies, p. 208).

M. Savigny connects the appearance of
the ibis with the rise of the Nile and the
consequent fertility of the earth, and thinks
that hence the first motives for the veneration
of the bird arose. Is not this a probable
reason ? The ibis, appearing synchronously
with the rising of the river, and increasing
in numbers as the waters overflow, would
be looked upon as a wise, prescient, and
devout bird ; clever in foretelling the Nile's
periodic overflow of its waters. Hence we
see, I think, why it was especially sacred to
Thoth, the Egyptian Mercury, lord of letters
and god of wisdom ; hence the reason for
the mummied form of the bird, which " when
viewed in a particular position, sitting with
its neck bent forwards and its head concealed
under its wing, resembles the form of a heart "

Wild Animals.

207

{Hist, of Mummies, p. 205). Now the heart
with the Egyptians was the seat of intellect,
and Thoth was the god of intellect ; and as
the ibis was regarded a wise and clever bird,
its mummied form was made to take the
shape of the heart. The same idea of wisdom
attaching to the ibis will be found in the
mummied forms which have been found in a
human form or attitude.

There are several allusions to the ibis in
Greek and Eoman writers, but nearly always
they refer to this bird only as known to
the Egyptians.

The Hoopoe is the bird denoted by the
Hebrew word duMphdth, which is rendered
" lapwing " in our version ; it occurs only
in the list of birds forbidden to be used
as food by the ancient Jews. (See Lev. xi.
19; Deut. xiv. 18.) This bird has a charac-
teristic fan- shaped crest on the top of its
head ; it is figured on the Egyptian monu-
ments. Horapollo says that when the

208 Natural History of the Ancients.

Egyptians wished to represent the quality of
gratitude, tliey delineated a hoopoe, because
this is the only dumb animal, which, after it
has been brought up by its parents, repays
their kindness to them when old ; for it
makes a nest in the place where it was reared,
and trims their wings and brings them food,
till the old birds acquire a new plumage and
are able to look after themselves. On this
account the hoopoe has been honoured by
being placed as an ornament on the sceptres
of the gods. It does not, however, appear
that the hoopoe was considered sacred. So
prettily-coloured and peculiar a bird as the
hoopoe, and in some respects so quaint in its
habits, could not fail to attract attention.
The Arabs have a superstitious reverence for
it, as they believe it to possess marvellous
medicinal properties, calling it "the doctor."
The bird's head, we are told, "is an indis-
pensable ingredient in all charms, and in the
practice of witchcraft." One fable told of
this bird can be traced to a peculiar habit

Wild Animals.

209

of the bird. The Arabs say that it is a
betrayer of secrets, and that it is able to point
out underground wells and fountains. Now
the hoopoe, when it settles on the ground, has
a strange and portentous-looking habit of
bending the head downwards till the point
of the beak touches the ground, raising and
depressing its crest in a most mysterious
manner at the same time. Hence, probably,
arose the Arabic fable. This habit of in-
specting probably suggested its Greek name
ezro^r, or e7T07TT^9, " an overseer," " inspector."
The hoopoe feeds on worms and insect-larvae.
In Palestine it is migratory, returning in
the spring ; in Egypt, where it is very com-
mon, it is resident throughout the year ; it
is often to be seen on dunghills searching
for food. The ancient classical writers
call the hoopoe the " bird of the rocks
and of mountains." When Euelpides and
Pistheterus, the two lawsuit- wearied citizens
of Athens, in the comedy of the Birds of
Aristophanes, are on their search for epops,
o

210 'Natural History of the Ancients.

king of birds, they are led through a wild
tract till they come to rocks and hills where
epops sits in royal state. Dr. Tristram found
the hoopoe tolerably common in all parts of
Palestine, and most abundant in woods and
near rocky watercourses ; it also resorts to
soft marshy places. It makes a nest in rocks
and holes of walls. In size it resembles a
thrush ; it occasionally visits this country,
and if unmolested, it would probably favour
us with more frequent appearances.

Various species of HirundinidcB, or swal-
lows, were known to the ancient Greeks and
Eomans ; the small-footed swift is the apous
of Aristotle, called also the cypsellus, very
like the chelidbn, or " swallow," only that its
feet are covered with feathers. Our proverb,
that "one swallow does not make a summer,
nor one fine day," is as old as Aristotle, who
uses this identical expression, pta ydp %eXt8ft>z/

eap ov nroiei, ovSe fjula rj/juepa. {JEth. Nic. i. 6, 19 ;

ed. Bekker.) Aristotle thought that swal-
lows did not always migrate, but that in

Wild Animals. £11

the winter-time they concealed themselves
in hollow places where they had been seen,
stripped of their feathers — a notion once
entertained by Linnaeus and others, but now
exploded. The swallow is a common figure
on Egyptian monuments ; it sometimes sig-
nifies "great" or "valuable;" it has been
found embalmed in the tombs of Thebes,
but it was not regarded as a sacred bird.
Another small bird resembling a swallow,
only that the tail is not forked, is still
more common on the Egyptian monuments ;
it is a usual determinative for "littleness/'
"disaster," or "painful circumstance." Cham-
pollion referred this bird to a sparrow. Sir
Gr. Wilkinson thinks it is a "wagtail," and
states that this bird is " still called in Egypt
aboo fussdd, 6 the father of corruption,5 as
if in memorial of the hieroglyphic character
assigned to it by the ancient Egyptians "
(v. 214). The figures on the monuments are,
however, more like sparrows ; and I believe that
Champollion is correct. I think also we may
o 2

212 Natural History of the Ancients.

see the connection of the ideas of littleness
and disaster implied in the determinative, in
the fact that sparrows and other small inses-
sorial birds do a great deal of mischief to
newly-sown grain, as well as to ripe corn.
Hence arose the necessity of covering the
seed in the ground directly after it was sown,
which, as we have seen, was extensively prac-
tised in Egypt by driving various animals
over the newly-sown fields.

The swallow is mentioned, together with
the dove and the raven, on the British Museum
tablet, which gives an account of the Chaldean
Deluge ; these birds the Chaldean Noah sent
out of his ship. He says : —

" On the seventh day, in the course of it
I sent forth a dove — it left ;
The dove went and turned about,
A resting-place it did not settle upon, and it
returned.

I caused to go forth a swallow — it left ;
The swallow went and turned about,
A resting-place it did not settle upon, and it
returned.

I caused to go forth a raven — it left ;

Wild Animals.

213

The raven went, and the corpses which were
On the water it saw, and

It ate, it swam, it wandered about, and did not
return."

The swallow here is called in the Accadian
language nam-Mu, " the destiny bird ; " the
common swift has been seen in Armenia (on
a mountain of which country the Chaldean
ship rested) in numbers from May till Sep-
tember ; and perhaps this bird, so punctual
in its arrivals and leavings, may be more
especially intended by the " destiny-bird " of
the old Accadians, which was so called from
its periodic migrations.

The Cuckoo seems always everywhere to
have received its name from its characteristic
note. Even the old Accadians appear to have
called the bird the Mu-u-ku. I suspect the
Greek word k6kkv%9 which has a harsher sound
than our " cuckoo," was given to the bird first
by some one who heard its note when close
at hand ; for when near the note has a decided
guttural tone, about the last syllable, which

214 Natural History of the Ancients.

tone is lost to the ear at a distance. Aris-
totle's observations on the habits of the cuckoo
are partly correct and partly fabulous. " The
cuckoo/5 he writes, " is said by some persons
to be a changed hawk, because the hawk which
it resembles disappears when the cuckoo comes,
and indeed very few hawks of any kind can
be seen during the period in which the cuckoo
sings, except for a few days. The cuckoo is
seen for a short time in the summer, and
disappears in winter. But the hawk has
crooked talons which the cuckoo has not, nor
does it resemble the hawk in the form of the
head; but in both these respects it is more
like the pigeon than the hawk, which it
resembles in nothing but its colour ; the
markings, however, upon the hawk are like
lines, while the cuckoo is spotted. Its size
and manner of flight is like that of the
smallest kind of hawk, which generally dis-
appears during the season in which the cuckoo
is seen. They say that no one has ever seen
the young of the cuckoo. It does, however,

Wild Animals.

215

lay eggs, but it makes no nest ; but some-
times it lays its eggs in the nests of small
birds, and devours their eggs, especially in
the nests of wood pigeons (<f>aTT&v). Some-
times it lays two, but usually only one egg ;
it lays also in the nest of the hypolais, which
hatches and brings it up. At this season it
is particularly fat and sweet-fleshed. Young
hawks also are very sweet and fat." Various
opinions as to the singular habits of the cuckoo
prevailed in Aristotle's time.

" Some people say that when the young
cuckoo grows it ejects from the nest the other
young birds, which thus perish; others say
that the foster-parent kills her young ones
and feeds the young cuckoo with their flesh,
because the beauty of the young cuckoo makes
her despise her own offspring. Some again
say that the old cuckoo comes and devours the
young of the sitting bird (wroSegafievris opvidos) •
others maintain that from the great size of the
young cuckoo it is the first to get the proffered
food, so that the other young birds die of

216 Natural History of the Ancients.

starvation ; others say that the young cuckoo
being the strongest kills every other bird that
is nourished up with it."

So much for other people's opinions. Now
what was the philosopher's own notion to
account for the singular and exceptional habits
of the cuckoo? "The bird appears to act
prudently in the matter of having young ones,
for it is quite aware of its own cowardice, and
that it cannot render them assistance ; on this
account it brings up its young ones supposi-
titiously, that they may be preserved ; in
cowardice the cuckoo surpasses all other birds,
for when it is pecked by little birds it flies
away from them." I need not say that this
is mere conjecture, and far from the true
reason. The turning out of the young right-
ful owners of the nest by the young cuckoo is
not intentional on the part of the foster child ;
as it grows larger than the other young ones,
it naturally takes up more space, and soon
fills a large part of the centre of the nest ; the
other smaller ones are pushed, of necessity, to

Wild Animals.

217

the sides, and often find themselves on the
hollow back of the young cuckoo ; and when-
ever the latter raises himself on his legs, he
lifts up the young one, who is thrown off its
back completely out of the nest. The reason
for the cuckoo's non-incubation of its own
eggs seems to lie in the fact of the necessity
of a short sojourn in this country. A cuckoo
seldom arrives before the middle of April ;
the ovaries are not sufficiently developed for
the production of an egg till about a month
after the bird's arrival — this would bring the
first egg to the middle of May. The eggs
are said to be laid at intervals of some days.
The period of incubation lasts fourteen days ;
the young cuckoo requires twenty-one days in
its nest before it is able to leave it, and after
it has left it and is able to fly it continues to
be fed for about five weeks by the foster
parents. Now, the old birds leave this
country generally about the second week in
July, though sometimes they remain till the
end of that month. The young birds remain

218 Natural History of the Ancients.

till September. This being the case, "not a
single nestling," as Dr. Jenner observes, "would
be fit to provide for itself before its parent
would be instinctively directed to seek a new
residence, and be thus compelled to abandon
its young one." The question, however, after
all, is a difficult one : why cannot the old
cuckoos remain in this country till September,
and then with their respective families all
migrate simultaneously ? Of course, the answer
is, it is not their habit.

Of that curious fish the Silurus, or Sheat-
fish of the Danube, Wolga, and other rivers —
I mean the gigantic Silurus giants, Lin. — I shall
say but little. It grows to an enormous size,
80, 90, and 120 pounds in weight, and is said
sometimes to measure eight feet in length.
According to iElian, the following curious
mode of fishing for these great siluri was some-
times employed by the ancient Mysian inhabi-
tants of Scythia and the Danubian districts : —

"An Istrian fisherman drives a pair of

Wild Animals.

219

oxen down to the river-bank, not, however,
for the purpose of ploughing. ... If a
pair of horses are at hand, the fisherman
makes use of horses ; and with the yoke on
his shoulders, down he goes and takes his
station at a spot which he thinks will make a
convenient seat for himself, and be a good
place for sport. He fastens one end of the
fishing-rope, which is very strong and suit-
able, to the middle of the yoke, and supplies
the oxen, or the horses, as the case may be,
with sufficient food, and the animals take
their fill. To the other end of the rope he
fastens a very strong and sharp hook, baited
with the lungs of a wild bull ; this he throws
into the water as a lure — a very sweet lure
— to the Istrian silurus, having previously
fastened a piece of lead of sufficient size to the
rope near the place where the hook is bound
on, for the purpose of regulating its position
in the water. When the fish perceives the
bait of bull's-flesh, he immediately rushes at
the prey, and meeting with what he so dearly

220 Natural History of the Ancients.

loves, opens wide his great jaws and greedily
swallows the dreadful bait ; then the glutton,
at first turning himself round with pleasure,
soon finds that he has been pierced unawares
with the hook, and being eager to escape from
the calamity, shakes the rope with the greatest
violence. The fisherman observes this, and
is filled with delight ; he jumps from his seat,
and, now in the character of a fisherman, now
in that of a ploughman, like an actor who
changes his mask in a play, he urges on his
oxen or horses, and a mighty contest takes
place between the monster (^to?) and the
yoked animals; for the creature, foster-child
of the Ister, draws downwards with all his
might, while the yoked animals pull the rope
in an opposite direction. The fish is beaten
by the united efforts of two, gives in, and is
hauled on to the bank."

The Fish of the Sea of Galilee. — It
must be of some interest to all persons to
know something of the fishes which Christ

Wild Animals.

221

and his apostles so often saw as a glittering
spoil — the reward of their night's labour, —
either on the shore of the Gralilean lake, or
in the boats that occupied its waters. What
sorts were eaten? What species presented
themselves ? What were the good, carefully
put away for food ; what the bad, which were
cast away? It is only within the last ten
years or so that zoologists have learned any
thing of consequence with respect to the
fishes of the Holy Land. Dr. Tristram, in
1863, organised an expedition to Palestine,
and amongst other Natural History objects
brought home were many well-preserved
specimens of fish, fifteen distinct species, three
of which were new to science, while eight of
these were added to the fauna of Palestine.
The Sea of Galilee is now, as in the time of
Christ, an extraordinary piece of water for
the multitudes of fishes that swim in its
depths or sport on its surface. As Dr. Tris-
tram and his party were walking along near
the lake, they had an opportunity of watching

222 Natural History of the Ancients.

the mode of fishing as it is now carried on.
" An old Arab sat on a long cliff, and threw
poisoned crumbs of bread as far as he could
reach, which the fish seized, and turning over
dead, were washed ashore, and collected for the
market." The shoals are described as being

netting fish. [Egyptian.)

marvellous, representing black masses of many
hundred yards long, with the back fins pro-
jecting out of the water as thickly as they
could pack. No wonder that any net should
break which enclosed such a shoal.

The following fish are known to be inha-
bitants of the Sea of Galilee : — Three species
of Chromis, one of which is identical with the
Nile species, C. Nilotica ; one Hemichromis ;

Wild Animals.

223

three species of barbel, Barbus longiceps, B.
Beddomii, and B. canis; one fish, very similar to
a barbel, called Capoeta damascina, which is
found all over the country ; one belonging to
the Silnroid family, the Clarias macr acanthus,
and two species of loach. It is probable that

HEMICHROMIS.

other species occur. Dr. Giinther has ob-
served that wherever in Africa the Clarias is
found it is accompanied by fish of a very dif-
ferent appearance — viz., Cltromis and its allies.
Now, singularly enough, these two fishes are
also associated in the Holy Land. These
chromids are otherwise exclusively African,
nor is there any European fish to which they
can be compared. They are broad oval fish,

224 Natural History of the Ancients.

reminding one somewhat of our common
bream, only much thicker, and they have
very large scales. There is a peculiarity in
the chromids which does not occur in any
other known fish — the lateral line is inter-
rupted on the posterior part of its course.
Chromis Nilotica is very abundant in the Lake
of Galilee ; it is greenish olive in colour, of
shining silvery hue ; it attains to a length of
sixteen inches. Two species of barbel — the
long-snouted and the large-scaled — appear to
be common fish in the Jordan and Lake of
Galilee : in size and weight they are about
the same as our common barbel. The Clarias
is an ugly, eel-shaped fish, one of the Siluridse
or Sheat-fish family. This genus is found in
Africa and tropical Asia only. The species of
the Galilean Lake is identical with that found
in the Nile. It is described by Giinther as
a long, scaleless, eel-like fish, of black colour,
with a many-rayed fin extending along the
whole length of its back, and another from
the vent to the tail ; its broad mouth is sur-

Wild Animals.

225

rounded by eight long barbels, and the fins at
the throat are armed with a spine. It lives
on the bottom, lying concealed in muddy
places overgrown with weeds, and watching
for its prey, which chiefly consists of other
small fishes, thus resembling much the eel in
habit as in appearance. It is known to grow
to the size of twenty inches, and probably it
attains a much greater size. It is common in
the Lake of Gralilee.

I come now to answer the question
— What kinds of these Galilean fish were
eaten by our Lord and his disciples, and
what were the " bad " fish of one of his
parables which were " thrown away'5 ? Do
you remember Baphael's cartoon representing
the miraculous draught of fishes ? Most of
the fishes drawn are mere nondescripts, piscine
forms of the great painter's fancy; but two
are evidently of the skate or ray family, never
found in fresh water, and fish " quite out of
water" in this case. The fish that would con-
stitute the edible kinds in the time of Christ
p

226 Natural History of the Ancients.

and his apostles would be principally, per-
haps, chromids and barbels, as these fish are
extremely abundant in one or other of the
species.

But what are the " bad " fish of the
parable ? " The Kingdom of Heaven is like
unto a net that was cast into the sea, and
gathered of every kind ; which, when it was
full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and
gathered the good into vessels, but cast the
bad away" (Matt. xiii. 47, 48). Now the
epithet which is rightly translated " bad " in
our version is in the Greek aairpd, which more
definitely means " putrid." But putrid fish
would seldom, if ever, be drawn to land by
the nets, nor would the separation of such
fish have required so much care as is implied
in the expression " sat down and gathered or
sorted." The epithet crairpos was the ordi-
nary one used by the Greeks to express a
badly-cured silurus ; aairpo^ atXovpos, " a stink-
ing silurus," is a very frequent expression,
made use of by Athenseus and the Greek

Wild Animals.

parodists cited by him ; it is the " half of a
stinking silurus," mentioned by Juvenal. It
appears that the Eomans used to import large
quantities of siluri from Egypt, and as the
Galilean species is identical with the one
common in the Nile, this species would be
one of them. These fish, often hastily and
carelessly prepared, and hawked about the
streets of Eome. and other towns in the hot
summer months, would merit the epithet
applied to them ; and as these fish were con-
sidered cheap and inferior food, eaten only by
the hungry lower orders, the epithet of cranrpbs,
originally bestowed on these semi-putrid salted
siluri, was afterwards used, almost proverbially,
for any silurus, dead or alive. The Jewish
law forbade as food all scaleless fish. On this
account, then, the Siluridce were excluded,
being without scales, and when taken in a net
they were picked out and thrown away.*

* A friend has supplied me with a very apt illustration of
the Greek term <ravp6s as applied to fresh fish of an inferior
quality. Our English word " offal," meaning generally that
which is " bad," " carrion," or " refuse," is among fishmongers

p 2

228 Natural History of the Ancients.

The Angler-fish {Lophius piscatorius), Sea-
Devil, or Wide-gab, has received its first name
from its habits. On the head are two slender
filaments ; the anterior one at its base is formed
into a ring, which is beautifully articulated to
another ring-like process near the nose : by
this means motion in every direction is pos-
sible. The second filament has a motion more
limited, being apparently one capable of being
brought backwards or forwards. Now these
filaments are well supplied with nerves, and
this is the use to which they are applied :
The fish partly buries itself in the mud or
sand at the bottom of the water, or, keeping
close to the ground, it stirs up the mud by its
broad pectoral fins, and is hidden by the tur-
bidity of the water ; then it waves these two
filaments about by way of a tempting bait,
and small fishes being attracted, either by

of modern England applied to fish which are perfectly whole-
some, but of inferior quality. Thus skate, flukes, and even
haddock, are in the trade technically termed offal, in contra-
distinction to soles, salmon, turbot, and other fish which are
more highly esteemed for food. I think this a very happy
illustration of the use of the Greek word a-awpos.

Wild Animals.

229

curiosity or by hunger, approach, and touch-
ing one of these fishing lines, immediately
become a prey, and rapidly disappear down
the enormous jaws of the angler-fish. Aris-
totle thus speaks of this fish under the name
of Batrachus, the "frog-fish." "Marine
animals, too, have many artful ways of pro-
curing their food, for the stories that are told
of the Batrachus, also called ' The Fisher,' are
true. The batrachus has appendages above
its eyes, like a hair, with a round extremity
like a bait. It buries itself in the sand or
mud, and raises these appendages above the
surface, and when the small fish strikes them
it draws them down till it brings the fish
within reach of its mouth." This latter asser-
tion is erroneous, as the fish does not draw its
bait into its mouth, like the common hydra
of our ponds, by means of these filaments:
The fish, when aware of the presence of its
prey, suddenly springs from its lair and seizes
its victim.

Eels were held in high repute by the

230 Natural History of the Ancients.

ancient Greeks and Romans as a delicious
article of food. The Egyptians did not eat
them ; they paid the slimy creature a greater
compliment, by enrolling it among their gods.
Antiphanes (jn. Athenaus, vii. 55, ed. Dindorf)
ridicules the Egyptians for the honour they
paid to eels, and contrasts the value of the
gods with the high price asked for this fish in
the market at Athens. "In other respects
men say that the Egyptians are clever, in that
they esteem the eel to be equal to a god ; but
they are far more valuable than the gods, for
we can propitiate them by prayer, but as for
eels, we must spend twelve drachmas or more
merely to get a smell at them." Another
writer quoted by Athenseus (the Athenian
comic poet Anexandrides) thus very amusingly
contrasts the manners of the Egyptians with
those of his fellow-countrymen : — " I never
could associate with you, for neither do our
laws or customs agree with yours, but differ
widely. You worship an ox, but I sacrifice
him to the gods ; you esteem an eel as the

Wild Animals.

231

greatest deity, we think him by far the best of
all fish food ; you don't eat pork, I am par-
ticularly fond of it ; you worship a dog, I beat
him if I ever catch him devouring my victuals ;
you weep at the sight of a sick cat ! I with the
greatest pleasure kill it and skin it ; a shrew-
mouse in your opinion is good for something,
he is good for nothing in mine." *

The Greeks carried their partiality for the
eel to a ridiculous excess. Now the eel is
invoked as the goddess of pleasure, as the
white-armed goddess, in allusion to the white-
ness of the flesh ; now as the Helen of the
dinner-table, because every guest strove, like
Paris, to supplant his neighbour and keep her
for himself. Lake Copais, and the river
Strymon, and Sicily, all produced most ex-
cellent eels. I may mention that Lake
Copais (now Topolias) is still famous for its
eels. The Greeks in the time of Aristophanes,
and perhaps before his time and after, used to
serve up their eels with beetroot, but some-

* hvvarai nap' vfxiv fxeyaXri, Trap ifiol 5e 7' ov.

232 Natural History of the Ancients.

times they were simply boiled in salt and
water, and served up with marjoram and other
kitchen herbs. Eubulus, in Athenmis, says :

" Then there came,
Those natives of the lake, the holy eels,
Boeotian goddesses, all clothed in beet."

Eels were captured in wicker baskets with
narrow necks, as with ourselves; sometimes
they were decoyed into earthenware vessels
covered with colander- shaped lids, the vessels
being baited with bits of cuttle-fish or other
tempting morsels ; the Romans kept them in
their vivaria ready for the table when wanted.
Eels were sometimes caught by stirring up
the mud of the ponds or lakes in which they
lived ; hence arose the Greek proverb, ey^eXeW
0r)pa<r0ai} " to fish for eels," " to fish in muddy
waters/' which had the political meaning of
disturbing a state for the sake of gain ; hence
in Aristophanes {Eq. 864) the sausage-seller
addresses Cleon : " Yes, it is with you as with
eel-catchers : when the lake is still, they
take nothing ; but if they stir the mud, they

Wild Animals.

233

capture : so do you when you disturb the
state."

The procreation of eels has long been a
puzzling question. Aristotle, after asserting
that they are not produced from eggs, or, as
some have stated, from the metamorphosis of
intestinal worms into young eels, gives us
his notion about the true mode of genera-
tion. " They are produced," he says, cc from
what are called the entrails of the earth (eVc
t&v fcaXovfjbevcov yrjs evrepwv), which exist spon-
taneously in mud and wet earth. Some have
been observed to make their escape from these
things, and others have been apparent in them
on being dissected. Such things are produced
in the sea, and in rivers where there is much
putrefaction" {Hist, An. vi. 15, § 2). Aris-
totle thought there was no difference of sex
in the eel. He speaks, however, correctly of
the eel migrating to the sea, of its nocturnal
habits, of its dislike to great cold, and of its
love of pure fresh water. Pliny's notion as to
their generation was as absurd as Aristotle's —

234 'Natural History of the Ancients.

" They rub themselves against rocks, and their
scrapings come to life ; they have no other
mode of propagation."

The electrical properties of the Torpedo, or
Numb-fish, the Electric Eay, were in effect
known to the ancients. By the Greeks it
was called by the appropriate name of narke
(vdptcr)), "the benumbing fish.55 Thus Meno,
in Plato, accuses Socrates of resembling " both
in form and other respects, the broad
marine narke, for this fish benumbs the man
who approaches and touches it ; and you
appear to have done to me the same thing;
for in truth I am benumbed, both in mind
and mouth, and I don't know how to answer
you.55 Aristotle rightly says — "The narke
stupefies any fish it may desire to master by
the peculiar force which it has in its body,
and then takes and feeds on it ; it lies con-
cealed in mud and sand, and captures the
fishes as they swim over it, after it has be-
numbed them : of this fact many persons have
been witnesses. The narke has also benumbed

Wild Animals.

235

men." According to Dioscorides and Galen,
the shock of the torpedo was good for reliev-
ing chronic headaches. A cotemporary of
Dioscorides recommends a person suffering
from gont in the feet to stand bare legs in
the shore and apply the torpedo ! Two species
inhabit the Mediterranean, the Torpedo narke
and T. marmorata ; the latter species some-
times occurs on the British coasts.

The Fish called Scarus by the Ancient
Greeks and Eomans. — Eumination, or the
power which certain animals possess of casting
up small portions of food from the stomach
into the mouth for re -mastication, is nor-
mally confined to ruminant mammalia, as to
camels, deer, sheep, cattle, &c. I say nor-
mally, because abnormal rumination has been
known to occur in other animals, as in some
species of kangaroo, according to Professor
Owens observations. But it appears that
normal rumination is not confined to the
mammalia alone ; certain families of the class
Pisces possess a power identical with rumina-

236 Natural History of the Ancients.

tion, a fact established by our great anatomist
just mentioned. Every fisherman is aware of
the sharp and numerous grasping teeth pos-
sessed by the pike, for instance ; and every
fisherman knows that he may confidently
introduce his finger into the soft leather-like
mouth of the carp, which is without these
sharp grasping teeth, without being bitten.
But the carp, tench, roach, and other leather-
mouthed fishes possess grinding throat-teeth,
whose office it is to chew the swallowed
vegetable food which enters so largely into
their diet.

In connection with a true rumination pro-
cess in certain herbivorous fish it is very
curious to notice that Aristotle mentions a
certain fish called scams, which, he says, is
the " only one which appears to ruminate like
quadrupeds." This statement has generally
been set down as a simple myth and very
absurd. What is the fish known to Aristotle
as the scarus? I think there is little doubt
that it is the Scams cretensis, still found in

Wild Animals.

237

the Mediterranean, a fish noticed by Spratt
and Forbes as occurring in the iEgean and
Carpathian waters, abundant on the Lycian
shores, and still called by its ancient name.
The scarus is one of the " Parrot-fishes," so
called from the shape of the mouth; its
anterior teeth are soldered together, and the
whole, as Owen remarks, peculiarly " adapted
to the habits and exigencies of a tribe of
fishes which browse upon the lithophytes,
that clothe, as with a richly-tinted carpet,
the bottom of the sea, just as the ruminant
quadrupeds crop the herbage of the dry land."
It is probable that the scarus does return
portions of the hard coralline contents of its
stomach for trituration by the masticatory
pharyngeal teeth. But what led Aristotle
to affirm that the scarus was the only rumi-
nating fish, though certain species of the
Cyprinidce were known to him, I know not.
He may be only repeating, as he often did,
a hearsay story; or he may have been led
to the belief from an examination of the

238 Natter al History of the Ancients.

mouth and teeth of the scarus, and from the
chalky pulp of the intestines, to which the
bitten-off coral had been reduced by the action
of the throat-teeth. Whether the scarus is a '
normally ruminating fish like the carp has
never, I believe, been proved ; but analogies
from the nature of its teeth and food are in
favour of an afhrmatory answer. Be this as
it may, the ruminating properties of the
scarus, whether originating from Aristotle,
or merely re-asserted by the philosopher,
are repeated by iElian, Pliny, Ovid, Oppian,
and others. The ancient Greeks cooked
scari as modern cooks do red mullet, with
their insides undrawn ; in this way it was
reckoned a delicious dish, but the scarus other-
wise made ready for table was poor food.
I may mention that this mode of cooking
scari would favour the idea that the fish
ruminates, for otherwise the hard gritty con-
tents of the intestinal tract would never have
suggested that mode of cooking.

The Crocodile and the Plover. — The

Wild Animals.

239

story which Herodotus tells of a little bird,
which he calls a trochilus, entering the mouth
of a crocodile and picking out the leeches, is
not so " contrary to all reason " as some
writers have asserted. These are Herodotus'
words : — "As the crocodile lives chiefly in the
river, it has the inside of its mouth constantly
covered with leeches ; hence it happens that
while all the other birds and beasts avoid it,
with the trochilus it lives at peace, since it
owes much to that bird ; for the crocodile,
when he leaves the water and comes out upon
the land, is in the habit of lying with his
mouth wide open, facing the western breeze : at
such times the trochilus goes into his mouth
and devours the leeches. This benefits the
crocodile, who is pleased, and takes care not
to hurt the trochilus " (ii. p. 97, Bawlinson's
Herod.). Aristotle simply gives Herodotus'
account, adding that the crocodile moves its
neck when it wishes to shut its mouth, so as
to warn the bird to avoid the danger. For a
long time this story was put down as one of

240 Natural History of the Ancients.

the old Greek historian's myths, without a
particle of fact at the bottom of it. M.
Geoffroy St. Hilaire, however, an eminent
French naturalist, confirms the truth of the
story as told by Herodotus, but says that the
creatures which the Egyptian-plover picks out
of the crocodile's mouth are gnat-like insects
and not leeches. " During his long-residence
in Egypt, St. Hilaire had repeated occasions
to ascertain that the story of Herodotus,
though correct in substance, was inexact only
in some particular details. It is perfectly
true that a little bird does exist, which flies
incessantly from place to place, searching
everywhere, even in the crocodile's mouth,
for the insects, which form the principal part
of its nourishment. This bird is seen every-
where on the banks of the Nile ; and Geoffroy
having succeeded in procuring one, recognised
it as belonging to a species already described
by Hasselquist, under the name of Gharadrius
JEgyptius. ... If the trochilus is in
reality the little plover, the animals described

Wild Animals.

241

by Herodotus under the name of bdellce
cannot be c leeches/ but a very small insect
of that species, which swarms in those damp
and warm regions, known by the name of
gnats in Europe. Myriads of these insects
dance upon the borders of the Nile, and
when the crocodile reposes on the land he is
attacked by their innumerable swarms. His
mouth is not so hermetically sealed as to pre-
vent them introducing themselves ; and they
penetrate in such vast numbers that the inner
surface of his palate, which is naturally of
a bright yellow, appears to be covered with
a brownish-black crust. All these sucking
insects drive their stings into the orifice of
the glands, which are numerous in the mouth
of the crocodile. It is then that the little
plover, who follows him everywhere, comes
to his succour, and delivers him from these
troublesome enemies ; and that without
danger to himself, for the crocodile is always
careful, when he is going to shut his mouth,
to make some motion which warns the little

242 Natural History of the Ancients.

bird to fly away." (See Edinb. Journal of
Science, Vol. IX., p. 68—72, 1828.)

So far Geoffroy St. Hilaire. That there
is some kind of understanding between this
little bird and the great saurian of the Nile,
and that they are frequently seen together as
friends, are facts which have been witnessed
by modern travellers and naturalists. Thus
Mr. Curzon writes : — " The bird was walking
up and down close to the crocodile's nose. I
suppose I moved, for suddenly he saw me,
and instead of flying away, as any respectable
bird would have done, he jumped up about a
foot from the ground, screamed ' Zic-zac ! 9
' zic-zac ! ' with all the powers of his voice,
and dashed himself against the crocodile's
face two or three times. The great beast
started up, dived into the water, and dis-
appeared. The zic-zac to my increased ad-
miration— proud apparently of having saved
his friend — remained walking up and down,
uttering his cry, as I thought, with an
exulting voice, and standing every now and

Wild Animals. 243

then on the tips of his toes in a conceited
manner, which made me justly angry with
his impertinence." Mr. Curzon waited for
some time to see if the crocodile would put
in an appearance again; but as he did not
do so, he threw a clod of earth at the little
bird, and came away. The bird in question
is the black-headed plover, the Pluvianus
JEgyptius of Linnseus, of which bird Mr. E.
C. Taylor, in his Ornithological Reminiscences
of Egypt {Ibis., Vol. I., p. 52) says — " As a
matter of fact, I seldom saw a crocodile on
land without seeing a Pluvianus JEgyptius
near him." As to the creatures which the
bird finds in the crocodile's mouth, they may
be both gnat-like insects as noticed by Gr.
St. Hilaire, or some kind of leech as asserted
by Herodotus. Those who in this country
have witnessed, as I have myself, the occur-
rence of great numbers of small leeches, such
as Glossiphonice and Piscicolce, adhering to the
bodies and the insides of the mouths of fishes
in an unhealthy state, will see no difficulty
Q 3

244 Natural History of the Ancients.

in accepting the record of Herodotus as it
stands ; for the Greek word he uses means
" leeches " and not " insects."

The ScARABiEUS, or Ateuchus sacer of

SCARABJEUS. {Egyptian.)

modern entomologists, is the well-known
Lamellicorn beetle, the most celebrated of all
insects, held in high veneration by the ancient
Egyptians, and more frequently found carved
out of various materials than any other
Egyptian antiquity. The antiquity of the

Wild Animals.

245

worship of this beetle is great. There is a
steatite scarabaeus in the British Museum
which bears the cartouche of Cheops (b.c.
2300), and which, as Mr. King says, " may
dispute with the Assyrian cylinders the claim
of being the earliest productions of the glyptic
art" {Antique Gems and Rings,]). 97). This
insect was looked upon as an emblem of the
sun. The mode in which it provides for the
security and development of its eggs is very
remarkable. At the proper season of the
year the female collects a sufficient quantity
of dung, in the centre of which she deposits
an egg; she then rolls the ball about till it
assumes more or less a globular form. After
this she turns her back to the ball, and with
her hind legs pushes it backwards. The
insect is black, about an inch long, and the
ball containing the egg is somewhat larger
than the insect itself ; she shows great attach-
ment to her globular treasure, the destined
cradle of an infant beetle larva. This peculiar
habit of the scarab-beetle, in forming a globu-

246 Natural History of the Ancients.

lar nidus for the development and sustenance
of her young, must have been very early
observed by the ancient Egyptians, and no
doubt one of the reasons why it was accounted
sacred. There is hardly any symbolical figure
so often represented in Egyptian sculpture
as this beetle, and it is frequently represented
with the ball between its fore-legs, which
seems to have been considered a symbol of
the sun. It was also supposed to be a type
of spring, of fecundity, and of the Egyptian
month anterior to the rising of the Nile, as
it appears in that season of the year which
immediately precedes the inundation. It
would not be worth while to examine the
various reasons, often very fanciful, which
ancient authors have given for the worship of
the scarabseus among the Egyptians ; it was
either a symbol of the world, or the sun, the
moon, of Pthah the creative power, of spring,
fecundity, &c, &c. Perhaps this insect's
habit of forming balls of dung as depositories
for its eggs was looked upon as a symbol of

Wild Animals. 247

#

the sun's creative power, and this is the
main idea involved. " The manufacture of
these scarabaei in such countless profusion,
coupled with the circumstance of the majority
of them bearing the royal superscription
alone, utterly precluding the explanation that
they were all signets and nothing more,55 is
accounted for by the theory that they were
circulated as tokens of value, being in fact
the " small change 5' of the days of the
Pharaohs. Mr. King, quoting Plato, who
says, — " In Ethiopia they use engraved stones
instead of money,55 reminds us that "the
Egyptians had no coinage whatever before
the Macedonian Conquest (b.c. 332) ; large
sums were paid in gold and silver bars bent
up into rings of a certain weight, as still
used in Senaar; but the high civilisation of
the inhabitants must have rendered some
representative of smaller values absolutely
indispensable for the wants of daily life.
Hence we find scarabaei scattered so profusely
amongst the bandages of the mummies, un-

248 Natural History of the Ancients.

strung and unset; perhaps the fee for the
door-keepers of the other world answering
to Charon's obelus amongst the Greeks " (p.
100).

Hermit-Crab . — Every visitor to the sea-
side, who is in the habit of using his eyes, must
be familiar with that curious occupant of empty
univalve shells, popularly called the "soldier,"
or "hermit-crab," the drollest of the droll order
of Stalk-eyed Crustacea. There are several
species, of which the Pagurus Prideuxii is one
of the most common. All the species, which
have very soft abdomens and need protection,
inhabit the unoccupied shells of one-valved
molluscs. Aristotle calls the "hermit-crab"
a carcinium, and says " it resembles both Crus-
tacea and molluscous animals; in nature it
is like a crab, but from the fact of its living
in a shell it resembles a mollusc. Below the
throat the whole creature is soft, and when
laid open is yellow within ; it is not united
with the shell, but is easily liberated from it."

Wild Animals.

249

The truth of this latter assertion was a matter
of controversy among naturalists in the early
part of last century. The great Dutch
authority, Swammerdam, said Aristotle was
wrong, that a muscular attachment connected
the crustacean to its house, and that the
occupant was the natural and rightful owner
of the shell. But though old Eondeletius
and others before him had previously certified
to the truth of Aristotle's narrations, the
faith of many, such as the French commen-
tator Camus, was shaken by Swammerdam's
positive statement and reputation. There
can be no doubt that the small-framed, thin-
legged, lisping pupil of Plato, notwithstanding
his conspicuous dress and the rings on his
delicate fingers, was not unfrequently found
by his fellow-disciples at Athens, or his
friends in Macedonia, busily dissecting and
examining some fish, cephalopod, or crustacean;
but that Aristotle borrowed largely from other
sources is unquestionable, and it is seldom
possible to discover how far his descriptions,

250 Natural History of the Ancients.

even of common animals, are the result of
his own observation. He does not hesitate
to quote names of writers whose theories or
statements he opposes ; thus Herodotus is
"the mythologist," and Ctesias "utterly un-
worthy of credit."

Nevertheless Aristotle's History of Animals
will always remain a monument of wonderful
diligence and mental vigour, and it must not
be forgotten that the great Greek philosopher
is the only author amongst the ancient Greeks
and Eomans whose natural history writings
show any approximation at all to the idea of
a zoological system. Zoological science, like
other sciences, is in its nature progressive. A
Cuvier was not possible in Aristotle's time,
nor was a Darwin possible in that of Cuvier.
Among many great men who, at different
ages, have directed their minds to zoological
questions, especial mention may be made of
Aristotle, Cuvier, and Darwin, of whom the
greatest is Darwin.

INDEX.

PAGE

Angler Fish

228

Ass

92

Baboons ...

" ... 13

Bees ... ... ...

142

Boar, Wild

175

Camel

77

Cats ...

40

Cattle >

56

Coney ...

184

Crane

201

Crocodile ...

238

Cuckoo

213

Dogs

25

Dormice

140

Ducks

117

Eels

229

Elephant

180

Eish of Sea of Galilee

220

Eowls

114

Geese ...

121

Goats

... 68

Hares

136

Hermit Crab

248

Hoopoe

207

Horse

... 84

Hyaena

165

Ibis

204

252

Index.

Ichneumon ... ... * ...

... 50

Lion ...

157

Marten

... 46

Monkeys ...

... 13

Mules

100

Ostrich

195

Oxen

56

Parrots

131

Peacock ...

129

Pelican

.. 190

Pigeons

124

Pigs

104

Plover

239, 243

Rabbits

... * 136

Scarabaeus

244

Scarus

... 235

Seals

182

Sheep

68

Silurus

218

Snails: Preserves

148

Stag-hunting ... ... ... '

167

Swallows ...

210

Torpedo Fish

234

Unicorn ...

169

Vulture

190

Whales

187

Wild Asses

94

Wild Boar

175

Wild Goats

... 73

Casbill, Petter, Galpin & Co., Belle Sauvage Works, London.

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