CYNEGETICA, II. 478-501 



wildly, receives him with his two-edged brazen spear 

 advanced : even so the Oryxes in that hour await 

 the charge of the wild beasts, who are self-slain by 

 their own folly. For the points of the horns glide 

 easily into their breasts, and much dark blood, pom:- 

 ing on either side from their wounds — their own blood 

 — they speedily lick with their tongues ; nor can 

 they escape if they would, but they slay one another 

 with mutual slaughter. And some countryman, a 

 herdsman or a ploughman, chancing on the two 

 corpses at his feet, with marvelHng heart wins a 

 welcome prey. 



Next in order among horned wild beasts it is meet 

 to sing the tribes of the Elephant infinite in size. 

 Those two mighty weapons in their jaws, which rise 

 hke tusks towards the heavens, others of the vulgar 

 herd call deadly teeth ; wherein they err : we are 

 pleased to name them horns " ; for so the nature of 

 horns declares to us. Not obscvu-e are the signs 

 whereby they may be distinguished. For such 

 growi;hs from the upper jaws of wild beasts as are 

 homy, spring upward : if they inchne downward, 

 they are certainly teeth .^ Of those two horns of the 

 Elephant the roots first of all spring from the head, 



ii. 12 oOros 6 'I6;3aj toi>s &56vTas Kipara rfyfiTai t<^ <f>{ie<TdoLi ftiv 

 airoiis odevirep oi Kporacpoi, irapadrp/effdai. 8i fj.r]§€vl iripi^, /xeveiv 

 S' ws l(pvaav Kal fxr], 8irep oi oSovTes, iKiriirruv etr dvacpvecrdai ' 

 iyil) S' oi' wpoffSexo/J-ac tov \6-yov. Pausan. I.e. says just the 

 reverse : Ktpara yap Kara irdv ir(plo5ov aTroyiveTai Kal aCdis 

 iK^XaaTOiVfL f<fiois, Kal tovto Aa^oi re Kal SopKades, uxrat/rajs Se 

 Kai ol eXitpavTfs veirovdaai-v. oSovs 5e ovk iariv 8ti{1 Sevrepa 

 xapeorat rdv ye ijdrj TeXfiuv' ei de 656vt(% ra Sia tov aTo/Maros 

 ^^iffXO"'''"' f ai fii) Kepara ^ffav, ttiDj Slv Kal dvf (pvovro aliOis ; 



» Pausan. v. 12 (arguing that the tusks are horns) a-ora- 

 fuois ye fiT)v twiroiS Kal iialv 17 KaroiOev 7eVi;s roin x«i'^'o5o*'Tas 

 <l>ipei, Kipara Si dvaipvbfuva opQfjiev eK yevvuv. 



99 



