262 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°d S. VIII. Oct. 1. '59. 



(lited among the ancients, of its producing its 

 young by the mouth. 



A similar tale is related by Antoninus Libe- 

 ralis, c. 29., from the Metamorphoses of Nicander, 

 a poem in hexameter verse by the author of the 

 extant Theriaca and Alexipharmaca, who flou- 

 rished 185—135 B.C. According to this version 

 it is the Fates and Ilithyia who retard the birth 

 of Hercules, and the Theban woman who deceives 

 them is named Galinthias. The latter is punished 

 by her conversion into a deceitful weasel, which 

 lives in a hole, and which produces its young, in 

 an unnatural manner, by the throat. 



Other discrepant versions of the story occur in 

 JElian, Nat. An. xii. 5., where it is said that the 

 Tiiebans worshipped the weasel, either because it 

 had been the nurse of Hercules, or because, by 

 running before Alcmena, when she was in the 

 pains of labour, it accelerated the birth of Her- 

 cules. The malicious character and unnatural 

 habits of the jaKri are further alluded to in 

 iElian, N. A. xv. 11. Aristotle, Gen. An. iii. 6. 

 mentions with contempt the popular error that 

 the weasel produces its young by the mouth ; he 

 attributes it to the fact that the young of the 

 weasel are very small, and that It is in the habit 

 of carrying them in its mouth. A similar error 

 was prevalent In antiquity, that the goat breathed 

 through its ears. (Aristot. Hist. An. i. II.; iElian, 

 Nut. An. i. 53.) 



In Latin, mnstela is properly a weasel, a feles a 

 cat ; but these names seem sometimes to be used 

 indiscriminately. The confusion was the more 

 natural as feles originally signified only a thief, 

 being derived from the Greek ^XrjT-ns. Thus in 

 Plaut. Pers. iv. 9. 14. the leno Is called " scelesta 

 feles vlrginaria," and again, " feles virginalis," in 

 Rud. iii. 4. 43. 



Pliny, xxix. 16., says that there are two sorts 

 of mustela, the wild and the tame. The wild is of 

 large size, and is called 'iktu by the Greeks. That 

 which wanders about our houses, and (according 

 to Cicero) removes its yoxing every day, destroys 

 serpents. Alost of this passage is transcribed by 

 Isid. Orig. xii. 3. 3. The enmity of mustelce and 

 serpents is mentioned likewise by Pliny, x. 95. 



Plautus, Stick. Iii. 2. 6., describes a mustela as 

 catching a mouse In the open air : — 



" Auspicio hodie optumo exivi foras : 

 Mustek murem abstulit praeter pedes." 



Palladius, a writer of the fourth century, in his 

 work on agriculture, in giving directions respect- 

 ing the cultivation of the carduus, says, " Contra 

 talpas prodest catos frequenter habere In mediis 

 carduetis. Mustelas habent plerique mansuetas," 

 iv. 9. 4. 



The stealthy habits of the feles in surprising 

 birds and mice, likewise Its habit of covering Its 

 excrements with earth, are described by Pliny? x. 

 94., where the cat is meant. Varro, R. R. iii. 11., 



directs that a receptacle for ducks should be so 

 constructed that a feles or any other animal may 

 not creep into It. Columella, viii. 15., gives simi- 

 lar instructions, but mentions the vipera as well 

 as the feles. Here, as the commentators remark, 

 a polecat or other animal of the weasel tribe is 

 signified. 



The use of these words in the ancient fabulists 

 will throw light on their meaning. 



In Babrlus, Fah. 17., an aXxovpos, laying snares 

 for the poultry, hangs himself from a peg, and 

 pretends to be a bag of flour ; the cock discovers 

 the trick. A fuller version of this fable is given 

 in ^sop. Fab. 28. ed. Coraes, where the ai\ovpos 

 Is described as using the same stratagem against 

 the mice. In Phgedrus, Iv. 2. it is however told 

 of the mustela and the mice. 



In Babr. Fah. 121. an aiAoupos pretends to be a 

 physician, and visits a sick hen ; in ^sop, Fah. 6. 

 an aiKovpos catches, kills, and eats a cock. 



In Babr. Fob. 27. a man traps a yaKt], and is 

 about to drown it. The animal begs its life, on 

 the ground of having done service by killing mice 

 and lizards. But the man retorts that it has 

 strangled the hens, and opened the meat-chest : so 

 It must die. In Phasdr. I, 21. the same fable is 

 told of the mustela. 



In Babr. Fab. 31. a perpetual war Is described 

 as existing between yoXal and mice, the former 

 preying upon the latter. The same fable recurs 

 in Phajdr. iv. 6. with mustelce and mures. 



Babr. Fab. 32. a yaKn, metamorphosed Into a 

 woman, runs after a mouse. The same word is 

 repeated in the Greek prose versions of the fable. 

 In La Fontaine, It is " La chatte metamorphosee 

 en femme." 



wiEsop, Fab. 109. Cor. a bat caught by a laA.^ 

 implores to be released; to which the yaKrt answers 

 that he is the natural enemy of all winged ani- 

 mals. The bat replies that he is not a bird, but a 

 mouse. Being caught by another yaXri, who says 

 that he is the enemy of mice, the bat replies that 

 he is a bat, not a mouse. 



iEsop, JFah. 261. Cor., a snake and a yaXri lived 

 together in a house, and fought against one an- 

 other. The mice rejoiced at the enmity, and came 

 out to sec them do battle ; whereupon the com- 

 batants turned upon the mice. This fable alludes 

 to the supposed enmity of the weasel and the 

 snake, mentioned by Plin. ubi sup. ; Aristot., H. 

 A. ix. 5. ; iElian, iV. A. iv. 14. 



.SJsop, Fab. 291. Cor., the yaKri complains that 

 he Is not allowed by his master to use his voice, 

 like the parrot ; but if he makes a sound, he is 

 chlded and driven away. 



In the fable o^ aguila, feles, and aper, In Phajdr. 

 II. 4., the feles breeds in a cavity at the foot of a 

 tree, and climbs up the tree to the eagle. 



From these passages it appears that the ancients 

 were in the habit of keeping some animal of the 



