98 THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS. [B. IV. 



anything moves while they are asleep, for they start as if 

 they were waked out of sleep. 



4. They are also taken by torchlight while asleep ; those 

 who are seeking for thynni surround them while asleep ; it is 

 evident that they can be captured from their stillness, and 

 the half-open white (of their eyes). They sleep more by 

 night than by day, so that they do not move when they are 

 struck ; they generally sleep holding by the ground, or the 

 sand, or a stone, at the bottom, concealing themselves be- 

 neath a rock, or a portion of the shore. The flat fishes 

 sleep in the sand; they are recognized by their form 

 in the sand, and are taken by striking them with a spear 

 with three points. The labrax, chrysophrys, cestreus, 

 and such-like fish are often taken with the same kind of 

 weapon while asleep in the day time, but if not taken then, 

 none of them can be captured with such a spear. 



5. The selache sleep so soundly that they may be taken 

 with the hand ; the dolphin, whale, and all that have a blow- 

 hole, sleep with this organ above the surface of the sea, so 

 that they can breathe, while gently moving their fins, and 

 some persons have even heard the dolphin snore. The ma- 

 lacia sleep in the same manner as fish, and so do the mala- 

 costraca. It is evident from the following considerations 

 that insects sleep ; for they evidently remain at rest without 

 motion ; this is particularly plain in bees, for they remain 

 quiet, and cease to hum during the night. This is also evi- 

 dent from those insects with which we are most familiar, 

 for they not only remain quiet during the night because 

 they cannot see distinctly, for all creatures with hard eyes 

 have indistinct vision, but they seem no less quiet when 

 the light of a lamp is set before them. 



6. Man sleeps the most of all animals. Infants and 

 young children do not dream at all, but dreaming begins in 

 most at about four or five years old. There have been men 

 and women who have never dreamt at all ; sometimes such 

 persons, when they have advanced in age, begin to dream ; 

 this has preceded a change in their body, either for death 

 or infirmity. This, then, is the manner of sensation, sleep 

 and wakefulue&s. 



