PLINY THE ELDER. 



89 



hurt, if he chaunce to catch him, hee all to touzeth, 

 shaketh, tosseth, and turneth him lying along at his 

 feet, but doth him no harme at all besides. When 

 the lionesse fighteth for her young whelpes, by re- 

 port, she setteth her eies wistly and entirely upon 

 the ground, because she would not be aflfrighted at 

 the sight of the chasing-staves of the hunters. Lions 

 are nothing at all craftie and fraudulent, neither be 

 they suspicious : they never look askew, but alwaies 

 cast their eie directly forward, and they love not 

 that any man should in that sort looke side-long 

 upon them. It is constantly beleeved, that when 

 they lie a dying they bite the earth, and in their 

 very death shed teares. This creature, so noble as 

 he is, and withall so cruell and fell, trembleth and 

 quaketh to heare the noise of cartwheeles, or to see 

 them turne about; nay he cannot abide of all 

 things charriots when they be void and emptie : 

 frighted he is with the cocks comb, and his crow- 

 ing much more, but most of all with the sight of 

 fire. The lion is never sick but of the peevishnes 

 of his stomacke, loathing all meat : and then the 

 way to cure him, is to tie unto him certain shee 

 apes, which with their wanton mocking and making 

 mowes at him, may move his patience and drive 

 him for the verie indignitie of their malapert sauci- 

 nesse, into a fit of madnesse ; and then, so soone as 

 he hath tasted their blood, he is perfectly well againe : 

 and this is the onely remedie. 



''Q. Sccevola the sonne of Publius, was the first at 

 Rome that in his Curule ^Edileship exhibited a fight 

 and combat of many lions togither, for to shew the 

 people pastime and pleasure : but L. Sylla, who after- 

 wards was Dictatour, was the first of all others that in 



