CURIOUS CREATURES. 71 



^Egithus and the Anthus, too, are at such mortal enmity 

 with each other, that it is the common belief that their 

 blood will not mingle ; and it is for this reason that they 

 have the bad repute of being employed in many magical 

 incantations. The Thos and the Lion are at war with 

 each other ; and, indeed, the smallest objects and the 

 greatest, just as much. Caterpillars will avoid a tree 

 that is infested with Ants. The Spider, poised in its 

 web, will throw itself on the head of a Serpent, as it 

 lies stretched beneath the shade of the tree where it has 

 built, and, with its bite, pierce its brain ; such is the 

 shock, that the creature will hiss from time to time, and 

 then, seized with vertigo, coil round and round, while it 

 finds itself unable to take to flight, or so much as to 

 break the web of the spider, as it hangs suspended 

 above ; this scene only ends with its death." 



THE MANTICORA. 



Of curious animals, other than Apes, depicted as having 

 some approach to the human countenance, perhaps the 

 most curious is the Manticora. It is not a parvenu ; it 

 is of ancient date, for Aristotle mentions it. Speaking 

 of the dentition of animals, he says : " None of these 

 genera have a double row of teeth. But, if we may 

 believe Ctesias, there are some which have this pecu- 

 liarity, for he mentions an Indian animal called Martichora, 

 which had three rows of teeth in each jaw ; it is as 

 large and rough as a lion, and has similar feet, but its 

 ears and face are like those of a man ; its eye is grey, 

 and its body red ; it has a tail like a land Scorpion, in 

 which there is a sting ; it darts forth the spines with 

 which it is covered, instead of hair, and it utters a noise 



