360 A TRIAD OF MEDLEVAL MYTHS. 



engines,' as they were once called, were used, a similar belief 

 prevailed. The question to present itself is this : Was the 

 belief a mere wayward prompting of the brain founded on 

 nothing at all not even a suggestion ? or was it a distortion 

 of some slight matter of fact ? I shall soon resolve it to the 

 latter. 



As in the case of the basilisk, so here: the salamander 

 has an ancient, a mediaeval, and a modern history. The 

 Greeks and Komans believed in a certain lizard, not only 

 endowed with the modern salamandrine attribute of resisting 

 fire, but also with properties of extraordinary venom. Not 

 only was its bite considered fatal, its flesh if eaten deadly, 

 but its evil influence was supposed to extend to living things 

 it might have crawled over. Thus, if it crawled over a fruit- 

 tree in bloom or bearing, all the fruit was believed to be 

 poisoned ; and woe betide the unlucky individual who should 

 eat a herb on which a portion, be it ever so insignificant, of 

 salamandrine saliva had fallen ! 



Aristotle had firm belief in the salamander. In his his- 

 tory of animals he cites the creature by name, adducing it in 

 proof of what he believed the fact, that there was at least one 

 animal over which flame had no power. As time advanced, 

 the salamandrine attributes, in respect to flame, became still 

 more extraordinary. Thus, according to Nicander, the sala- 

 mander not only had the faculty of being absolutely imper- 

 vious to flame, but no sooner came in the presence of fire, 

 than the creature attacked it as an enemy. Dioscorides and 

 Pliny attest the preceding facts ; the latter swelling the list of 

 attributes by yet another according to him, salamanders are 

 without sex. 



This belief in salamanders having come down to mediaeval 

 times, got mingled with another, to no small degree inconse- 

 quential. It was affirmed they sucked cows and dried-up 

 their udders. A similar belief prevails in respect to hedge- 

 hogs in some parts of England to this day. Comparing this 



