324 PEDIPALri — SCORPIONS. 



the otlier, and therefore when the Egyptians will describe 

 the combat of two notable enemies, they paint a crocodile 

 and a Scorpion fi<>:hting together, for ever one of theip kill- 

 eth another; but if they will decipher a speedy overthrow- 

 to one's enemy, then they })icture a crocodile; if a slow and 

 slack victory, they picture a Scorpion."^ 



"Some maintain," says Moufet, "that they (Scorpions) 

 are not bred by copulation, but by exceeding heat of the 

 sun. ^lian, /^7>. 6, de Anim. cap. 22, among whom Galen 

 must first be blamed, who in his Book de feet. form, will 

 not have nature, but chance to be the parent of Scorpions, 

 Flies, Spiders, AVorms of all sorts, and he ascribes their be- 

 ginning to the uncertain constitutions of the heavens, place, 

 matter, heat, etc."^ 



Topsel further says : " The principall of all other sub- 

 jects of their (the Scorpions') hatred are virgins and women, 

 whom they do not only desire to harm, but also when they 

 have harmed are never perfectly recovered. (Albertus) . . . 



" The lion is by the Scorpion put to flight wheresoever he 

 seeith it, for he feareth it as the enemy of his life, and there- 

 fore writeth S. Ambrose, Exiguo Scorpionis aculeo exagi- 

 talur leo, the lion is much moved at the small sting of a 

 Scorpion."^ 



Naude tells us that there is a species of Scorpions in 

 Italy, which are so domesticated as to be put between sheets 

 to cool the beds during the heat of summer.* Pliny men- 

 tions that the Scorpions of Italy are harmless.^ 



Among the curious things recorded by Pliny concerning 

 the Scorpion, the following have been selected : Some 

 writers, he says, are of opinion that the Scorpion devours 

 its offspring, and that the one among the young which is the 

 most adroit avails itself of its sole mode of escape by placing 

 itself on the back of the mother, and thus finding a place 

 where it is in safety from the tail and the sting. The one 

 that thus escapes, they say, becomes the avenger of the rest, 



1 Qua supra, p. 689, 



2 Ibid., p. 207. Topsel's Trans., p. 1051. 



3 Jbid., p. 754. 



* Andrew's Anecdotes, p. 427. 



^ Nat. Hist., xi. 25. Pliny here probably alludes to the Panorpis, 

 or Scorpion- fly, the abdomen of which terminates in a forceps, 

 which resembles the tail of the Scorpion. 



