300 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PL A Y 



history. Mr Edward Hulme, in his Natural History 

 Lore and Legend* notes that, 'In the books of 

 travels we occasionally have the more modern 

 and descriptive treatment ; but the main bulk of 

 the writings on animals in mediaeval times had 

 ordinarily one of two objects the healing of the 

 body, or the saving of the soul.' Hence the medical 

 writers sought for the ' virtues ' contained in animals, 

 and were far less anxious to describe the form or 

 habits of a creature than the spot at the back of 

 its eye, where lay a stone which cured rheumatism ; 

 while the clergy, borrowing from and spoiling ^sop, 

 sought for a moral from the creature's habits ; and 

 if the facts did not lend themselves readily to this 

 treatment, so much the worse for the facts. Mr 

 Hulme quotes Hippeau on St Augustine. 'L'objet 

 important pour nous, dit Saint Agustin, a propos de 

 1'aigle, qui, disait on, brise contre la pierre 1'extremite 

 de son bee devenu trop long, est de considerer la 

 signification d'un fait, et non en discuter I'authenticiteY 

 This line of thought produced the monkish * bestiaries/ 

 which gave a kind of credit derived from religion to 

 fables, which otherwise would not have been taken 

 seriously. To this class of animal myth belong the 

 greater number of beliefs in ' antipathies ' between 

 certain animals in the feud between the dragon and 



* Quaritch, London. 



