68 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



nor does the wild ass in that vicinity pass over those 

 which divide Cappadocia from Cilicia. On the banks 

 of the Hellespont, the stags never pass into a strange 

 territory, and, about Arginussa, they never go beyond 

 Mount Elaphus ; those upon the mountains, too, have 

 cloven ears. In the island of Poroselene, the weasels 

 will not so much as cross a certain road. In Boeotia, 

 the moles, which were introduced at Lebadea, fly from 

 the very soil of that country, while in the neighbourhood, 

 at Orchomenus, the very same animals tear up all the 

 fields. We have seen coverlets for beds made of the 

 skin of these creatures, so that our sense of religion does 

 not prevent us from employing these ominous animals for 

 the purposes of luxury. 



" When hares have been brought to Ithaca, they die as 

 soon as ever they touch the shore, and the same is the 

 case with rabbits, on the shores of the island of Ebusus ; 

 while they abound in the vicinity, Spain namely, and 

 the Balearic isles. In Cyrene, the frogs were formerly 

 dumb, and this species still exists, although croaking 

 ones were carried over there from the Continent. At 

 the present day, even, the frogs of the island of Seriphos 

 are dumb ; but when they are carried to other places, 

 they croak ; the same thing is also said to have taken 

 place at Sicandrus, a lake of Thessaly. In Italy, the 

 bite of a shrew-mouse is venomous ; an animal which is 

 not to be found in any region beyond the Apennines. 

 In whatever country it exists, it always dies immediately 

 if it goes across the rut made by a wheel. Upon 

 Olympus, a mountain of Macedonia, there are no wolves, 

 nor yet in the isle of Crete. In this island there are 

 neither foxes nor bears, nor, indeed, any kind of baneful 

 animal, with the exception of the phalangium, a species 



