BOOK XI. ci. 247-ciii. 250 



are crooked in beasts of prey but straight in the 

 other animals, for instanee dogs, excepting the nail 

 that in most species hangs downward from the leg. 

 All animals with feet have toes, except the elephant ; 

 for the elephants toes are unshaped and though 

 five in number yet undivided and only shghtly 

 separated, and resembUng hooves, not nails, and the 

 fore feet are larger, the joints of the hind feet being 

 short, and also an elephant's knees bend inward 

 like a man's, whereas the other animals bend the 

 knees of the hind legs in the opposite direction to 

 those of the forelegs ; for viviparous animals bend 

 their knees in front of them and the joints of the 

 hocks backwai-d. 



CII. In man the knees and elbows bend in opposite ^'"*«* «'^ 

 directions, and the same is the case with bears and 

 the monkey tribe, which are consequently not at 

 all swift. In the oviparous quadi*upeds, the crocodile 

 and the lizards, the front knees curve backward and 

 the hind knees forward, but these species have legs 

 that bend like the human thumb ; and so also have 

 the multipedes, except the hindermost legs of the 

 species that jump. Birds ciu-ve their wings forward 

 like the front legs of quadrupeds but their thigh 

 backward. 



CIII. The knees of a human being also possess a j'm'>o- 

 sort of religious sanctity in the usage of the nations. (usotiaiiom 

 Suppliants touch the knees and stretch out their ^[fb^y"^ 

 hands towards them and pray at them as at altars, 

 perhaps because they contain a cei'tain vital principle. 

 For in the actual joint of each knee, right and left, 

 on the front side there is a sort of twin hollow cavity, 

 the piercing of which, as of the throat, causes the 

 breath to flow away. There is a religious sanctity 



5S9 



