272 plint's KATURAL HISTOET. [Book VIII. 



so formidable a beast, remained stationary for some time, more 

 at last from astonishment than from fear. At length, how- 

 ever, he descended from the tree and extracted the bone, the 

 lion in the meanwhile extending his head, and aiding in the 

 operation as far as it was necessary for him to do. The story 

 goes on to say, that as long as the vessel remained off that 

 coast, the lion showed his sense of gratitude by bringing what- 

 ever he had chanced to procure in the chase. In memory of 

 this circumstance, Elpis consecrated a temple at Samos to Father 

 Liber, which the Greeks, from the circumstance above related, 

 called ''the temple xsp^^jvoVog Aiovvcrou," or "of the open-mouthed 

 Bacchus." Can we wonder, after this, that the wild beasts 

 should be able to recognize the footsteps of man,^^ when of 

 him alone of all animals they even hope for aid ? For why 

 should they not have recourse to others for assistance ? Or how 

 is it that they know that the hand of man has power to heal 

 them? Unless, perhaps, it is that the violence of pain can 

 force wild beasts even to risk every thing to obtain relief. 



(17.) Demetrius, the natural philosopher, relates an equally 

 remarkable instance, in relation to a panther.^'' The animal was 

 lying in the middle of the road, waiting for some one to pass 

 that way, when he was suddenly perceived by the father of one 



gled, that we can only guess at the sense of it. In Sillig's edition, which 

 is generally followed, it runs to this effect : "Neque profugienti, cum po- 

 tuisset, fera institerat et procumhens ad arborem hiatu quo terruerat mise- 

 rationem quaerebat. Os morsu avidiore inhaeserat dentibus cruciabatque 

 inedia, turn poena in ipsis ejus telis suspectantem ac velut mutis precibus 

 orantem, dum fortuitu fidens non est contra feram; multoque diutius 

 miraculo quam metu cessatura est." Thus paraphrased by Sillig, who 

 devotes a long Note to it : " The lion, therefore, being tormented by 

 bunffer and excessive pain, and thus punishing himself for his greediness 

 in his own weapons (his teeth), looked up, and besought Elpis with silent 

 prayers, as it were, not, as he trusted to the protection fortuitously giveo 

 by the branches, to show himself distrustful of a wild beast." 



16 This remark refers to what Pliny has related in c. 5, respecting the 

 sagacity of the elephant,— B. 



17 Cuvier remarks, that this " panthera" is not the same as the TrtivOtjp 

 of the Greeks. From the description of its spots and other cii-curastances, 

 he thinks that it was one of the African animals, known by modern natural- 

 ists as the leopard, which appear to have been confounded by the Romans 

 with the panther. The term "leopardus " is not met with until after the 

 age of Pliny ; it was supposed to be the produce of the pardus, or male 

 panther, and the lioness. — B. 



