BOOK IX. vm. 25-27 



it used to fly to him out of the depth, eat out of his 

 hand, and let him mount on its back, sheathing as it 

 were the prickles of its fin, and used to carry him when 

 mounted right across the bay to Pozzuoli to school, 

 bringing him back in similar manner, for several years, 

 until the boy died of disease, and then it used to keep 

 coming sorrowfully and hke a mourner to the 

 customary place, and itself also expired, quite un- 

 doubtedly from longing. Another dolphin in recent 

 years at Hippo Diarrhytus on the coast of Africa 

 similarly used to feed out of people's hands and allow 

 itself to be stroked, and play with swimmers and 

 carry them on its back. The Governor of Africa, 

 Flavianus, smeared it all over with perfume, and 

 the novelty of the scent apparently put it to 

 sleep : it floated hfelessly about, holding aloof from 

 human intercourse for some months as if it had 

 been driven away by the insult ; but aftervvards it 

 returned and was an object of wonder as before. 

 The expense caused to their hosts by persons of 

 oflicial position who came to see it forced the people 

 of Hippo to destroy it. Before these occurrerices a 

 similar story is told about a boy in the city of 

 lasus, with whom a dolphin was observed for a long 

 time to be in love, and while eagerly following him 

 to the shore when he was going away it grounded on 

 the sand and expired ; Alexander the Great made the 

 boy head of the priesthood of Poseidon at Babylon, 

 interpreting the dolphin's affection as a sign of the 

 deity's favour. Hegesidemus vvTites that in the same 

 city of lasus another boy also, named Hermias, while 

 riding across the sea in the same manner lost his life 

 in the waves of a sudden stomi, but was brought back 

 to the shore, and the dolphin confessing itself the 



voL. III. a 181 



