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To lawless loves they savage beasts impel, 

 And against nature drive them to rebel. 



It is admirable to see the attiges perching on the back of fawns, 

 or partridges fanning the gazelle with their wings, or the bustard 

 pursuing the horse in play. The sargus assails the goat. But all 

 the tribes of fishes crowd around the subus, in admiration of him 

 as he swims. He makes a cruel return by devouring them, but 

 even his cruelty cannot provoke them to hostility. 



There is an animal of extraordinary ferocity and strength named 

 the Oryx. His colour is that of vernal milk, his cheeks alone 

 being black ; his chine is fat and double ; his horns lofty, black, 

 sharp, and harder than brass or iron. He is daring and intrepid, 

 fearing not the bark of the hunter's dog, the roaring of the wild 

 boar, the bellowing of the bull, nor the lion, nor panther, nor man 

 himself. The hunters often perish among the precipices in their 

 conflicts with this creature. When he sees a boar with naked 

 tusks, or a lion with serrated teeth rushing against him, he fixes 

 his horns firmly on the ground, and waits the attack with such 

 resolution, that the enemy is slain by the shock. Thus the hunter 

 receives the lion on his spear. Sometimes, however, they are both 

 slain, and become a prey to the astonished rustic. 



He ranks the elepiiant among tlie horned tribes, and by argu- 

 ments, now known to be erroneous, contends that his tusks are 

 horns. It is said that elephants converse Avith each other in articu- 

 late sounds, that they have a spirit of prophecy, and like swans 

 foretel their death; 



The Rhinoceros is not much larger than the Oryx. He elevates a 

 horn, situated a little above his no-e, of suoh strength and sharp- 

 ness, that it can perforate brass, and dissever the hardest rock. 



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