PLINY: NATURAL HISTORY 



BOOK XII 



I. SucH are the generic and specific characteristics 

 of all the animals about wliich it has been possible to 

 obtain information. It remains to describe the things 

 produced by the earth or dug up from it — these al^^o 

 not being devoid of vital spirit, since nothing hves 

 without it — and not to pass over in silence any of the 

 works of nature. 



The riches of earth's bounty vvere for a lon^ time '^^^^^J 



, . , , , , 1 /• * 1 introdnctoTii 



hidden, and the trees and lorests were supposed to remarks. ' 

 be the supreme gift bestowed by her on man. These 

 first provided him with food, their fohage carpeted 

 his cave and their bark served him for raiment ; there 

 are still races which practise this mode of hfe. This 

 inspires us with ever greater and greater wonder that 

 starting from these beginnings man has come to 

 quarry the mountains for marbles, to go as far as 

 China for raiment, and to explore the depths of the 

 Red Sea for the pearl and the bowels of the earth for 

 the emerald. For this purpose has been devised the 

 fashion of making wounds in the ears, because for- 

 sooth it was not enough for jewels to be worn on 

 the hands and neck and hair without making them 

 even pierce through the body. Consequently it 

 will be weh to follow the biological order and to speak 



