BOOK XIION ANIMALS
ON ANIMALS
Thehistory of zoölogical knowledge during the ten centuries from Aristotle to Isidore may be indicated with sufficient clearness by enumerating three of the works that survive. They are Aristotle’s “History of Animals”, the zoölogical part (Books VIII-XI) of Pliny’s “Natural History”, and Isidore’s “On Animals”. On the first, belonging to the fourth century B.C., Cuvier has pronounced judgment as “one of the greatest monuments that the genius of man has raised to the natural sciences”.[329]Pliny, four centuries later, is commended by Cuvier for his industry and learning, but reproached for his predilection for the fabulous, and his absolute lack of scientific order and of the scientific spirit.[330]Six centuries later a résumé of zoölogical knowledge is given in theEtymologies, which is of no value except for the information it gives of the benighted character of the medieval intellect.
Isidore’s zoölogy is shown in a better light, however, when it is compared with that of thePhysiologus,[331]hisgreat rival in this field throughout the Middle Ages. This is a collection of fabulous accounts of animals, with the moral and spiritual lessons that were drawn from them. In it the ancient science is seen in its most de-secularized form; nature knowledge is made absolutely subservient to religious teaching, and in the process actual knowledge is driven out and fable takes its place. It must be reckoned to Isidore’s credit that he resisted the temptation to give “the higher meaning”.
Chapter 1. On flocks and work animals.
1. Adam first named all living creatures, assigning a name to each in accordance with its purpose at that time, in view of the nature it was to be subject to.
2. But the nations have named all animals in their own languages. But Adam did not give those names in the language of the Greeks or Romans or any barbaric people, but in that one of all languages which existed before the flood, and is called Hebrew.
9. A sheep is a domesticated animal with soft wool, harmless and calm in disposition.
10. The wether (vervex) is so called from its strength (vires) ... or because it has a worm (vermen) in its head, and, excited by the itch of these worms, they butt one another and fight and smite one another with great fury.
17. And so these animals (Ibices), as we have said, remain among the loftiest rocks, and if ever they perceive the hostile presence of wild beast or of man they throw themselves down from the highest summits, and land unharmed on their horns.
18. [Deer] are foes of snakes, and when they feel that they are weighed down with weakness they draw snakes out from their holes by the breath of their nostrils and overcoming the deadly poison[332]they refresh themselves by eating them. They made known the plant dittany. For they eat it, and shake out the arrows that have stuck in them.
19. They give a wondering attention to the whistling sound of the Pan’s pipes. They listen sharply with up-pricked ears, not with hanging ears. If ever they swim across great rivers or seas, they lay the head on the haunch of the one in front, and following one another in turn they feel no weariness from the weight.
43. Horses have a high spirit; for they prance in the fields, they scent war, they are roused by the trumpet-sound to battle, they are roused by the voice and urged to the race, they grieve when they are beaten, they are proud when they win a victory. Certain know the enemy in battle, so that they bite the foe. Some recall their own masters, and forget obedience if their masters are changed; some allow none but their masters to mount them; when their masters are slain or are dying, many shed tears. The horse is the only creature that weeps for man and feels the emotion of grief....
Chapter 2. On beasts of prey.
5. When lions sleep, their eyes are on the watch; when they walk about they obliterate their tracks with their tails that the hunter may not find them. When a cub is born it is said to sleep for three nights and three days. Then the shaking, as itwere, of the ground where it lies, because of its father’s roaring, is said to awaken the sleeping cub.
6. Toward man the nature of the lion is kind, so that they cannot become angry unless attacked. Their pity is shown by continual examples. For they spare the fallen, they allow captives they meet to return home; they do not kill man unless very hungry.
17. The Gryphes are so called because they are winged quadrupeds. This kind of wild beast is found in the Hyperborean Mts. In every part of their body they are lions, and in wings and head are like eagles, and they are fierce enemies of horses. Moreover they tear men to pieces.
20. They say the urine [of the lynx] is changed to the hardness of a precious stone, which is calledlincurius, and by the following proof it is shown that the lynxes are conscious of this; for when they have urinated, they cover the urine with sand as well as they can, from a sort of meanness of nature, lest such a product be turned to the advantage of man.
21.Castores(beavers) are so named from castrating. For their testicles are useful for medicine and therefore when they perceive a hunter, they castrate themselves and cut away their potency by a bite. Of these Cicero speaks inScauriana: “They ransom themselves by that part of the body for which they are most sought.”
24. [The wolf] is a ravenous beast and greedy for blood, and of it the country people say that a man loses his voice if a wolf sees him first. And therefore if a person is suddenly silent, they say, “It is the wolf in the fable”. But if the wolf perceives that he has been noticed first, he lays aside his boldness....
25. ... No creature is more sagacious than dogs, for they have more understanding than other animals.
26. For they alone recognize their names, love their masters, guard their masters’ houses, risk their lives for their masters, of their own free will rush upon the prey with their master, do not abandon even their master’s dead body. And finally their nature is such that they cannot exist without men. In dogs two things are to be regarded, courage and speed.
38.Musiois so called because it is a foe to mice (muribus). Common people call it cat (catus) because it catches [mice]. Others say, because it sees (catat). For it has such sharp sight that it overcomes the darkness of the night by the brightness of its eyes.
Chapter 3. On small animals.
1.Mus(mouse) is a tiny animal; it has a Greek name;[333]but any word that is derived from it becomes Latin. Others saymuresare so named because they are born from thehumor(moisture) of the earth. Formusis equivalent toterra, and from the word comeshumustoo. The liver of these creatures grows at the full moon, just as certain things that belong to the sea grow, which grow smaller again when the moon lessens.
3.Mustella(weasel) is so called, being, as it were,mus longus(long mouse); fortelum(missile) is so called from its length. This creature, somewhat wily in its disposition, moves and changes its nest in the house when it is nursing its young. It chases snakes and mice. And there are two sorts of weasels. For one is a creature of the woods, and is of a different size, which the Greeks call ἴκτιδες. The other wanders about in houses. Now they have an erroneous idea who say that the weasel conceives in its mouth, and gives birth through its ear.[334]
4. In Sardinia is a very tiny creature, spider-shaped, which is calledsolifuga, because it shuns the daylight. It is very common in silver mines, secretly creeping along, and it poisons those who unknowingly sit down on it.
8.Grillus(cricket or grasshopper) has its name from the sound of its voice. This creature walks backward, tunnels the earth, makes a loud sound at night. The ant goes hunting it, having itself lowered by a hair into its hole, first blowing the dust out, that it may not hide itself, and thus it is dragged out in the embrace of the ant.
9.Formica(ant) is so called because it carries morsels (ferat micas) of grain. Its wisdom is great. For it looks forward to the future and in summer makes ready food to be eaten in winter. At the harvest, too, it picks out wheat and refuses to touch barley. After it rains it always puts out the grain [to dry]. It is said there are ants in Ethiopia of a dog’s shape, and these dig up golden sands with their feet, and they watch them in order that no one may carry them off, and those that do seize them, they pursue till they kill.
10.Formicoleon(ant-lion) has its name for this, that it is a lion of the ants, or at least ant and lion at the same time. For it is a small creature that is very hostile to ants. It hides itself in the sand and kills the ants as they are carrying grains. And it is called lion and ant because it is, as it were, an ant to other animals, but a lion to ants.[335]
Chapter 4. On serpents.
3. The serpent has received its name because it crawls (serpit) with unnoticed steps; for it does not go with strides that are observable, but creeps on by the trifling impulses of its scales. But those that go on four feet, like lizards and newts, are called not serpents but reptiles. Now serpents are reptiles because they creep (reptant) on their belly and breast; and there are as many poisons as there are genera; as many deaths as there are species; as many dolors, as colors.
4. The dragon (draco) is the largest of all serpents and of all living things upon earth. This the Greeks call δράκοντα. And it was taken into the Latin so that it was calledDraco. And frequently being dragged from caves it rushes into the air, and the air is thrown into commotion on account of it. And it is crested, has a small face and narrow blow-holesthrough which it draws its breath and thrusts out its tongue. And it has its strength not in its teeth but in its tail, and it is dangerous for its stroke, rather than for its jaws.
5. It is harmless in the way of poison, but poison is not necessary for it to cause death, because it kills whatever it has entangled in its folds. And from it the elephant is not safe because of its size. For it lies in wait near the paths by which elephants usually go, and entangles the elephant’s legs in its folds, and kills it by strangling. It grows in Ethiopia and in India, in the very burning of perennial heat.
12. It is said that when the asp begins to feel the influence of the wizard who summons her forth with certain forms of words suited thereto, in order that he may bring her out from her hole—when the asp is unwilling to come forth, she presses one ear against the earth, and the other she closes and covers up with her tail, and so refuses to hear those magical sounds, and does not come out at the incantation.
36. The Salamander is so called because it is strong against fire; and amid all poisons its power is the greatest. For other [poisonous animals] strike individuals; this slays very many at the same time; for if it crawls up a tree, it infects all the fruit with poison and slays those who eat it; nay, even if it falls in a well, the power of the poison slays those who drink it. It fights against fires, and alone among living things, extinguishes them. For it lives in the midst of flames without pain and without being consumed, and not only is it not burned, but it puts the fire out.
Chapter 5. On worms.
1. A worm is a creature that as a rule comes into being without any begetting from flesh or wood or any earthy substance, although sometimes they are born from eggs, as the scorpion. Worms belong either to earth or water or air[336]or flesh or leaves or wood or clothes.
3.Sanguissuga, a water worm, is so named because it sucks blood. For it lies in wait for drinkers, and when it is carriedinto their throats or fastens itself anywhere, it draws the blood, and when it has taken its fill of gore, it vomits it out, to suck in again fresh blood.
Chapter 6. On fishes.
3. Certain kinds of fishes are amphibious, being so called because they have the practice of walking on land and of swimming in the water.
4. Men gave names to the beasts of the field and wild animals and birds, before the fishes, because they were seen and known first. And later, when the kinds of fishes had been learned by degrees, names were applied either from their likeness to land animals, or to suit the species, whether in regard to habits, color, shape, or sex.
6. [Fish receive their names] from sex, as themusculus(mussel) because it is the masculine of whale, for by union with the mussel it is said this monster conceives.
8. There are huge sorts of whales with bodies the size of mountains, like the whale that received Jonah, whose belly was of such magnitude that it held something like a hell, the prophet saying: “He heard me from the belly of hell”.
14.Thynni(tunnies) have a Greek name. They appear in spring-time. They come in on the right side and go out on the left. They are supposed to do this because they see more keenly with the right eye than with the left.
25.Mullus, so called because it ismollis(soft) and most tender, by eating which they relate that lust is held in check and that the keenness of the sight is dimmed; moreover men who have often eaten it have a fishy smell. The killing of a mullet in wine brings a distaste for wine to those who have drunk thereof.
34.Echeneis, a small fish, half-a-foot long, took its name because it holds a ship[337]back by clinging to it. Though the winds rush and the gusts rage it is seen nevertheless that the ship stands still as if rooted in the sea, and does not move, not because the fish holds it back but merely because it clings to it.
35. The uranoscope is so called from an eye which it has in its head, by which it always looks upward.
41. The likeness of the eel (anguilla) to the snake (anguis) has given it its name. Its origin is in mud. Whence whensoever it is taken, it is so slippery that the more determinedly one squeezes it the quicker it slips away. They say, too, that a river of the east, the Ganges, produces them three hundred feet long. If an eel is killed in wine they who drink of it have a loathing for wine.
43. Lamprey (muraena) the Greeks term μύραινα, because it coils itself in circles. They say that this fish is of the female sex only, and that it conceives from the serpent. On this account it is enticed by the fishermen by hissing like a serpent, and it is taken. It is killed with difficulty by the stroke of a club but at once by that of a ferule. It is certain that it has its life in its tail, for if the head is struck it is hard to kill it, but when its tail is struck it dies at once.
53. Mussels (musculi) as we have said before are shell-fish, and oysters conceive from their milk, and they are calledmusculias if it weremasculi.
56. Certain relate what is incredible, that ships go more slowly if they carry a tortoise’s right foot.
Chapter 7. On birds.
3. Birds (aves) are so called because they have no definite roads (viae) but speed hither and thither through pathless (avia) ways.
9. Many names of birds were evidently made up from the sound of their cry, asgrus,corvus,cygnus,pavo,ulula,cuculus,graculus, and so on. For the variety of their cry told men what they were to be called.
10. The eagle (aquila) is so called from its sharpness (acumine) of sight. For it is said to possess such power of vision that when it is borne over the sea with motionless wing and is not visible to human sight, even from such a lofty place it sees the fishes swim, and descending like a missile from an engine it seizes its booty and flies with it to the shore.
11. It is also said not to lower its gaze from the rays of thesun, and for this reason it lifts its young ones in its talons and exposes them to the rays of the sun, and keeps as worthy of its kind those which it sees keep a motionless gaze, and drops down as degenerate whatever ones it sees turning their gaze downward.
18. The swan (cygnus) is so called from singing, because it pours forth sweet song in modulated tones. And it sings sweetly for the reason that it has a long curving neck, and it must needs be that the voice, struggling out by a long and winding way, should utter various notes.
19. They say that in the Hyperborean regions when cithara players lead, many swans fly up and sing very harmoniously.
44. The crow (cornix), a bird full of years, has a Greek name[338]among the Latins, and augurs say it increases a man’s anxieties by the tokens it gives, that it reveals ambushes, and foretells the future. It is great wickedness to believe this, that God entrusts his counsels to crows.
66. To the hoopoe (upupa) the Greeks give its name because it attends to (consideret) human excrements and feeds on stinking filth, a most foul bird, helmeted with upstanding crests, always lingering at graves and human excrements. And whoever anoints himself with its blood, on going to sleep will see demons choking him.
67.Tuci, which is the name the Spaniards give to cuckoos (cuculi), were evidently named from their peculiar cry. These have a time for coming, perched on the shoulders of kites because of their short and weak flights, in order that they may not grow weary and fail in the long spaces of the air. Their saliva produces grasshoppers. [The cuckoo] eats the eggs it finds in the sparrow’s nest, and substitutes its own, which the sparrow receives and sets on and cares for.
79. All kinds of flying things are born twice. For first the eggs are born, then by the heat of the mother’s body they are formed and given life.
Chapter 8. On small winged creatures.
1. Bees (apes) are so called because they hold to one another by the feet, or it may be because they are born without feet (pes). For it is only later on that they get feet and wings. These are skilful in the business of producing honey, they dwell in homes allotted to them, they arrange their dwellings with a skill that makes no mistake, they store the hive from various flowers, and forming their wax-cells, they fill the camp with unnumbered young, and they have an army and kings, they make wars, flee from smoke, and are enraged by noise.
2. A good many have proved by experiment that these spring from the carcasses of cattle. For in order to create them the flesh of slain calves is beaten, in order that worms may be created from the rotten gore, and these afterward turn to bees. In a correct sense bees (apes) are so called because they spring frombovesas hornets from horses, drones from mules, wasps from asses.