Natural Hiftory ' of the Ancients. 2 1 1 



But on the wolf unluckily feeing the collar round 

 his friend's neck, then, 



" He ftarts and without more ado, 

 He bids the abjeft wretch adieu. 

 * Enjoy your dainties, friend ; to me 

 The noble ft feaft is liberty. 

 The famifhed wolf upon thefe defert plains, 

 Is happier than a fawning cur in chains.' " 



Vaniere, the Jefuit, in his "Prasdium Rufticum" 

 (lib. xvi.), defcribes in poetic language the capture 

 of wolves in pitfalls, and then names a curious 

 method of capturing them, viz., by the ufe of fifh- 

 hooks : 



" Mira frande lupum capies, pifcaria celans. 

 JET& cibis ; carnes et inextricabile ferrum 

 Haufit ubi, vis nulla poteft exfolvere rubras, 

 Non ovium jam caede fuo fed fanguine fauces." 



After his fafhion, GoiTon (1579), in order to help 

 the Lord Mayor of London " to fette his hand to 

 thruft out abufes," drags in a fimilitude from wolves 

 which he muft have found in fome old author, but 

 which has efcaped us : "The Thracians, when they 

 muft paffe over frozen ftreames, fende out theyr 

 Wolues, which laying theyr eares to the yfe [ice], 

 Men for noyfe. If they hear any thing, they gather 

 that it mooues ; if it mooue, it is not congealed. 

 If it be not congealed, it muft be liquide. If it 

 be liquide, then will it yeelde ; and if it yeelde, 

 it is not good trufting it with the weight of their 

 bodyes, left they fincke. The world is fo flippery 

 that you are often inforced to pafs over yfe. 

 Therefore I humbly befeech you to try farther 



