BOOK XI. XXX. 87-90 



emit a white poison, and he divides them into 

 nine kinds, chiefly by their colours, a superfluous 

 task, since he does not let us know which he pro- 

 nounces to be the least deadly. He says that some 

 have a pair of stings, and that the males are fiercest — 

 for he attributes couphng to these creatures — but 

 that they can be recognized by their long slender 

 shape ; and that all are poisonous at midday, when 

 they have got hot from the warmth of the sun, and 

 also that when they are thirsty they cannot have their 

 fill of drinking. It is also agreed that those with six 

 joints" in the tail are more savage— for the majority 

 have five. This curse of Africa is actually given the Locaiity oj 

 power of flight by a south wind, which supports ^<'"'''"'"''- 

 their arms when they spread them out Hke oars ; 

 Apollodorus before mentioned definitely states that 

 some possess wings. The PsylH tribe, who by im- 

 porting the poisons of all the other countries for their 

 own profit have filled Italy with foreign evils, have 

 tried to bring these creatures here also, but they 

 have proved unable to Uve this side of the cHmate 

 of Sicily.'' Nevertheless they are sometimes seen 

 in Italy, though these are harmless, and in many 

 other places, for instance in the neighbourhood of 

 Pharos in Egypt. In Sc}i;hia they kill even pigs, 

 which normally are exceptionally immune to such 

 poisons, black pigs indeed more quickly, if they 

 plunge into water. For a human victim the ashes 

 of the creatures themselves drunk in wine are thought 

 to be a cure. It is thought that to be dipped in oil 

 is a great disaster to geckoes as well as scorpions ; 

 but geckoes at least are harmless ; these too are 

 bloodless, and are shaped Hke a Hzard ; equally 

 scorpions are beHeved to do no harm whatever to 



487 



