BOOK XI. Lv. 149-152 



suddenly lost their sight without any previous injury. 

 The most learned authorities state that the eyes are 

 connected with the brain by a vein ; for my own part 

 I am inclined to beUeve that they are also thus 

 connected wth the stomach : it is unquestionable 

 that a man never has an eye knocked out without 

 vomiting. There is a solemn ritual custom among 

 Roman citizens to close the eyes of the dying and 

 to open them again on the funeral pyre, custom having 

 estabUshed that it is not right for the eyes to be seen 

 by a human being at the last moment and also wrong 

 for them not to be displayed to the heavens. Man 

 is the only animal whose eyes are Uable to dis- 

 tortion, which is the origin of the family names 

 Squint-eye and BUnky. From the eyes also came the 

 name of One-eye that used to be given to persons 

 born bUnd in one eye, and that of Eyelet given to 

 persons both of whose eyes were smaU ; the One-eye 

 family ° received the name of an injury done to one 

 of them. The eyes of night-roaming animals Uke sightof 

 cats shine and flash in the dark so that one cannot a""S. 

 look at them, and those of the wild-goat and the 

 wolf gleam and shoot out Uglit ; the eyes of the sea- 

 calf and of the hyena change frequently into a thou- 

 sand colours ; moreover those of many fishes shine 

 out even in the dark, Uke oak-tree stumps when dry 

 and rotten with age. We have stated that creatures 

 that do not direct their gaze by slanting the eyes but 

 by tirrning the head round do not wink. It is re- 

 ported that the chamaeleon's eyes tui*n themselves 

 entirely round. Crabs look sideways, having their 

 eyes enclosed in a fragile sheU. Lobsters and shrimps 

 mostly have very hard eyes projecting under a 

 protection of the same kind. Creatures with hard 



527 



