1 2 Gleanings Jrom the 



is named, introduces the afs: "As when a fluggim 

 afs, pafling by a cornfield, hath overborne the 

 boys, and many a cudgel has been broken round 

 his fides, but he, entering in, ravages the deep 

 crop while the boys beat him with fticks. Yet 

 their ftrength is but feeble, and hardly have they 

 driven him out when he hath taken his fill of the 

 grain." 1 Mules were apparently much efteemed. 

 There is a mention of them as being very ftrong 

 and employed in dragging heavy beams; they 

 draw Priam's chariot, having been given him as 

 illuftrious gifts by the Myfians. When Nauficaa 

 takes her garments to be wafhed by the fea-fhore, 

 they are drawn thither in a waggon by mules. 



The lift of mammals in the two great Homeric 

 poems, is completed by the hare, which is repre- 

 fented as torn by an eagle, as in the fplendid 

 chorus at the beginning of the Agamemnon of 

 jEfchylus, and by feals. A very curious pafTage 

 relates how Menelaus, thanks to the help of 

 Eidothee, daughter of Proteus, furprifed that "old 

 man of the fea " among his feals which flept around, 

 " exhaling a bitter fmell of the deeps of the fea." 

 The ftench of thefe animals is again defcribed as 

 being overpowering, until the goddefs luckily be- 

 thought herfelf of rubbing a little ambrofia under 

 the nofe of each man, which effectually removed 

 the ill favour. 3 The poet probably alluded to 

 the phoca monachus of the Mediterranean, or 

 perhaps the pboca vitulina alfo feen at times in 



1 " Iliad," xi. 557. 2 Ibid., xxiv. 277. 



3 " Odyffey," iv. 404, 436. 



