BOOK VIII. Lvi. 134-LV11. 137 



wards the ball into which they roll up can be made to 

 unroU by a sprinkle of hot water, and to fasten them 

 up by one of the hind feet kills them through starva- 

 tion when hanging : it is not possible to kill them in 

 any other way and avoid damaging the hide. The 

 animal itself is not, as most of us think, superfluous 

 for the hfe of mankind, since, if it had not spines, 

 the softness of the hides in cattle would have been 

 bestowed on mortals to no purpose : hedgehog skin 

 is used in dressing cloth for garments. Even here 

 fraud has discovered a great source of profit by 

 monopoly, nothing having been the subject of more 

 frequent legislation by the senate, and every emperor 

 without exception having been approached by com- 

 plaints from the provinces. 



LVn. The urine of two other animals also has TheUorCs- 

 remarkable properties. We are told that there is a "'^" 

 small animal called ' hon's-bane '" that only occurs 

 in regions where the hon is found, to taste of which 

 causes that mighty creature, the lord of all the other 

 four-footed animals, to expire immediately. Con- 

 sequently men burn this creature's body and sprinkle 

 it hke pearl barley on the flesh of other animals as a 

 bait for a hon, and even kill their prey with its 

 ashes : so noisome a bane it is. Therefore the hon 

 naturally hates it, and when he sees it crushes it 

 and does all he can short of biting it to kill it ; while 

 it meets the attack by spraying urine, knowing ah-eady 

 that this also is deadly to a hon. 



The water of lynxes, voided in this way when othercases 

 they are born, soUdities or dries up into drops Hke protecUon— 

 carbuncles and of a briUiant flame-colour, caUed lynx- ^^J^g^^' "^ 

 water — which is the origin of the common story that 

 this is the way in which amber is formed. The 



97 



