192 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Interesting also is the pious use made of the panther. Of 

 this beast it is said : " It is the nature of the panther to live in 

 friendship with all animals except the dragon. . . . When it has 

 eaten a little it is satisfied and goes to sleep in its lair, and after 

 three days it awakes and roars with a loud voice, and out of its 

 mouth proceeds a sweet smell ; then all the beasts of the forest 

 far and near follow after it," but " this rare scent is offensive only 

 to the dragon, which hastens to flee as soon as it gets a sniff of 

 it. In like manner our Lord Jesus Christ arose out of the sleep 

 of death and drew all nations unto him through his ' sweet 

 savor.' But this same savor discomfits the dragon, that old 

 serpent which is the devil." The very curious statement regard- 

 ing the beaver is perhaps best read in the original, where it is 

 illustrated by a striking engraving. It serves to show that some 

 cathedral sculptures usually considered obscene were not so in- 

 tended. 



Of course, the domestic fowls could not escape the notice of 

 these keen interpreters of theology and science. We may take as 

 typical the following : " When the cock finds anything, it does not 

 eat it, but calls the hens together and divides it among them. In 

 like manner the preacher should distribute among his flock the 

 kernels of divine truth which he discovers in Holy Writ, picking 

 them to pieces in order that they may be more readily taken in 

 and digested." * 



Very curious are sundry long and intricate developments of 

 theory regarding various animals. One of these was evolved out 

 of the beautiful text, "As the hart panteth after the water- 

 brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." The Physiologus 

 tells us that " the hart is the foe of the dragon, which, when it 

 sees its enemy, runs away and creeps into a cleft of the rocks. 

 Then the hart goes to the stream, fills himself with water, and 

 vomits it into the cleft where the dragon is. Having thus 

 drowned the dragon, the hart tramples it under its feet ; as the 

 prophet Isaiah predicts that at the coming of Christ a man shall 

 ' go into the clefts of the rocks and into the tops of the ragged 

 rocks, for fear of the Lord.' Thus our Saviour slew with the 

 water and blood flowing from his side the great dragon, . . . and 

 taught us to contend against the hidden designs of the devil." 



A comical guasi- scientific profundity is at times mixed up 

 with these statements. Thus some commentators upon Scripture 

 declare that " the hart, in killing the dragon, inhales its poison- 

 ous breath, which produces intense thirst and consequent longing 

 for the water-brooks." 



So, too, regarding the antelope, we are told that " the antelope 



* See the curious mediseval poem given at page 162. 



