50 THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF MICHAEL SCOT 



cum partitione membrorum interiorum et apparen- 

 tium, et cum meditatione comparationum eorum, et 

 actionum eorum, et juvamentorum et nocumentorum 

 eorum, et qualiter venantur, et in quibus locis sunt, 

 et quomodo moventur de loco ad locum propter dis- 

 positionem presentis aetatis, aestatis et hiemis, et 

 unde est vita cuiuslibet eorum, scilicet modorum 

 avium, et luporum, et piscium maris et qui ambulant 

 in eo.' It seems tolerably certain that the sub- 

 stance of this prologue came from the Arabic 

 original, which must have commenced with the 

 ascription of praise to God so commonly employed 

 by Mohammedans : ' Bi-smillahi-r-rahhma'ni-r- 

 rahheem ' (In the Name of God, the Compas- 

 sionate ; the Merciful). 1 The clumsiness of the 

 Latin, which here, as in the body of the work, seems 

 to labour heavily in the track of a foreign text, 2 adds 

 force to this assumption. The hand of Scot is seen, 

 however, where the name of our Saviour has been 

 substituted for that of Allah, and also in the closing 

 words, which ring with a strong reminiscence of the 

 eighth Psalm. The churchman betrays himself here 

 as in not a few other places which might be quoted 

 from his different writings. 



By far the most interesting matter, however, 

 which offers itself for our consideration here, lies in 

 the comparison we are now to make between this 

 book and a former work of Scot, the De Physionomia. 

 This comparison, which has never before been at- 

 tempted, will throw light on both these texts, but 

 has a special value as it affords the means of dating, 



1 See Lane's Modern Egyptians, vol. i. p. 197 note. 



2 We should remember, however, the Emperor's instructions to his 

 translators: ' verborum fideliter servata virginitate.' See his circular 

 of 1230 to the Universities. Jourdain, Recherches, p. 133. 



