CHAPTER THE LAST. 413 



pleasure in pursuing. Hence, therefore, such are pro- 

 tected from being molested by an ignoble hand. Now 

 as soon as a person or thing is hedged about by privi- 

 lege, as soon as a halo is thrown round either, an un- 

 usual interest is at once excited, and with it comes vul- 

 gar curiosity. When this is the case, be sure that Fable 

 will henceforth have more to tell than Truth. We may 

 suppose too that the wonderful tales which thus grow 

 current, are rather grateful than otherwise to the pride 

 of him for whom alone such marvellous animals are re- 

 served. 



"The stag," so writes Isidorus, "is the foe of ser- 

 pents ; and when he is old and sick, he goeth before the 

 serpent's hole, blows and respires therein, so that the ser- 

 pent may creep out, which then he presently stampeth 

 on with his feet and devoureth. And he goeth straight- 

 way to the water and drinks, so that the poison may 

 spread through his whole body • and as soon as he feel- 

 eth the poison, he cbmmenceth running hither and thi- 

 ther in such wise that he getteth warm and fain would 

 sweat, and hereupon he is so purged and purified by the 

 oper|g.ion of Nature, that he retaineth nothing more in 

 his tody, and so becometh renewed and young again, 

 and changes his old hair. Music he loveth much, and 

 is well pleased and joyful when he heareth a piping or 

 the sound of a flute, or any gentle song. 



" A stone is to be found in the deer after she hath 

 dropped her calf: she did eat it before to assist the 

 birth. The stag liveth to be one hundred years old. 

 Three hundred years after Caesar's death one was found 

 with a golden collar round its neck, and graven thereon 

 ' Csesar me fecit.' The stag hath a large heart, and a 

 bone therein. The stag is ashamed when he is without 

 his horn.""* 



* Abraham Santa Clara, who turned every natural fact as well as 



