316 PLINT's TfATUKAL HISTORY. [Book XXVIII. 



as it does, and exposing the lies and frivolities of the Greeks. — 

 In size, the chamseleon resembles the crocodile last mentioned, 

 and only differs from it in having the back-bone arched at a 

 more acute angle, and a larger tail. There is no animal, it is 

 thought, more" timid than this, a fact to which it owes its 

 repeated changes of colour.^^ It has a peculiar ascendancy over 

 the hawk tribe ; for, according to report, it has the power of 

 attracting those birds, when flying above it, and then leaving 

 them a voluntary prey for other animals. Democritus^^ asserts 

 that if the head and neck of a chamaeleon are burnt in a 

 fire made with logs of oak, it will be productive of a storm 

 attended with rain and thunder ; a result equally produced by 

 burning the liver upon the tiles of a house. As to the rest of 

 the magical virtues which he ascribes to this animal, we shall 

 forbear to mention them, although we look upon them as un- 

 founded f^ except, indeed, in some few instances where their 

 very ridiculousness sufficiently refutes his assertions. 



The right eye, he says, taken from the living animal and 

 applied with goats' milk, removes diseases of the crystalline 

 humours of the eyes ; and the tongue, attached to the body as 

 an amulet, is an effectual preservative against the perils of 

 child-birth. He asserts also that the animal itself will facilitate 

 parturition, if in the house at the moment ; but if, on the 

 other hand, it is brought from elsewhere, the consequences, he 

 says, will be most dangerous. The tongue, he tells us, if taken 

 from the animal alive, will ensure a favourable result to suits 

 at law : and the heart, attached to the body with black wool 

 of the first shearing, is a good preservative against the attacks 

 of quartan fever. 



He states also that the right fore-paw, attached to the left 

 arm in the skin of the hyaena, is a most effectual preserva- 

 tive against robberies and alarms at night ; that the pap on 

 the right side is a preventive of fright and panics; that the 

 left foot is sometimes burnt in a furnace with the plant which 

 also has the name of " chamaeleon, "^^ and is then made up, with 

 some unguent, into lozenges ; and that these lozenges, kept in 



^^ It is a timid animal, but Pliny's authorities have exaggerated its 

 timidity, 



^ This change of colour is in reality owing to change of locality. 



5' A. Gellius tells the same story, B x. c. 12. 



^ And therefore harmless^ ^^ See B. xsii. c. 21. 



