B. VIII.] THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS. 207 



2. Herds of cattle suffer less when moved in frost than 

 in anow, They grow if they are deprived for a long time 

 of sexual intercourse ; wherefore the herdsmen in Epirus 

 keep the Pyrrhic cattle, as they are called, for nine years 

 without sexual intercourse, in order that they may grow. 

 They call such cows apotauri. The number of these crea- 

 tures reaches four hundred, and they are the property of 

 the king. They will not live in any other country, though 

 the attempt has been made. 



CHAPTER X. 



1. THE horse, mule, and ass feed upon fruit and grass, but 

 they fatten especially on drinking, so that beasts of burden 

 enjoy their food in proportion to the quantity of water 

 which they drink, and the less difficulty there is of obtain- 

 ing drink, the more they profit by abundance of grass. 

 When the mare is in foal, green food causes her hair to be 

 fine, but when it contains hard knots it is not wholesome. 

 The first crop of Medic grass is not good, nor if any stinking 

 water has come near it, for it gives it a bad smell. Oxen 

 require pure water to drink, but horses in this respect re- 

 semble camels. The camel prefers water that is dirty and 

 thick ; nor will it drink from a stream before it has dis- 

 turbed the water. It can remain without drinking four 

 days, after which it drinks a great quantity. 



CHAPTER XI. 



1. THE elephant can eat more than nine Macedonian me- 

 dimni at one meal, but so much food at once is dangerous ; 

 it should not have altogether more than six or seven me- 

 dimni, or five medimni of bread, and five mares of wine, 

 the maris measures six cotyla3. An elephant has been known 

 to drink as much as fourteen Macedonian measures at once, 

 and eight more again in the evening. Many camels live 

 thirty years, and some much more, for they have been known 

 to live an hundred years. Some say that the elephant 

 lives two hundred, and others three hundred years. 



CHAPTER XII. 



1. SHEEP and goats live upon grass. Sheep pasture for a 

 long while in one place without leaving it, but goata change 



