Chapter VII.

1. When bears are in flight, they drive their cubs before them, or take them up and carry them. When nearly overtaken, they climb up into trees. When they first come from their hiding place they eat the arum, as it has been already observed, and gnaw the trees as if they were cutting teeth. Many other animals also prudently provide themselves with remedies, for they say that the wild goats in Crete, when struck with an arrow, seek out the dittany, for this plant assists in working the arrow from their body.

2. And dogs, when they are ill, provide themselves with an emetic from a certain kind of grass. The panther, when it has eaten the poison called pardalianches,[225] seeks for human ordure, for this relieves it. This poison also will kill lions, the hunters, therefore, suspend ordure in a vessel from the trees, in order that the animal may not wander far from them; for the panther jumps at it and attempts to seize it, and dies before it can reach it. They say that the panther is aware that its peculiar scent is grateful to other wild animals, and that it preys upon them in concealment, and when deer approach near, it catches hinds.

3. The Egyptian ichneumons, when they see the serpent called the asp, do not attack it until they have invited others to assist. They roll themselves in mud as a protection against its blows and wounds; they first bathe in water and then roll themselves on the ground. When the crocodile gapes, the trochilus flies into its mouth, to cleanse its teeth; in this process the trochilus procures food, and the other perceives it, and does not injure it; when the crocodile wishes the trochilus to leave, it moves its neck that it may not bite the bird. When the tortoise has eaten a viper, it afterwards eats origanum; this has been observed. A person who had often seen this done, and had observed that when the tortoise had tasted the origanum it went back to the viper, gathered all the origanum, and when this was done, the tortoise died.

4. The weasel eats the herb rue before it attacks a serpent, for the smell of this herb is obnoxious to serpents. When the draco has eaten much fruit, it sucks the juice of the bitter lettuce; it has been seen to do this. When dogs are troubled with worms, they eat the green tops of corn. When the pelargus or any other bird has been wounded in flight, they feed upon marjoram, and many persons have seen the locust[226] settle upon the neck of serpents with which it was contending. The weasel also appears prudent in the way in which it attacks birds, for it kills them in the same manner as wolves kill sheep; it will fight also with serpents, and especially with those that hunt mice; for the weasel pursues the same animals.

5. Observations have been frequently made on the instinct of the hedgehog, for when the north and south winds change, those that dwell in the earth alter the position of the entrance of their burrows; those which are kept in houses alter their position from wall to wall, so that they say that in Byzantium there was a person who obtained the character of predicting the change of the weather, from observations made on the hedgehog. The ictis is about the size of a small Maltese dog; in the thickness of its hair, its appearance, its white belly, and the cunning of its disposition, it resembles the weasel; it is easily tamed; it attacks hives of bees, for it is very fond of honey; it eats birds like cats; its penis, as it has been already observed, is bony, and appears to be a remedy for stranguary in the human subject; it is administered in shavings.