CURIOUS CREATURES. 



81 



conditioned animals resented it, and attacked Hercules 

 with fury. They were fearfully punished, and but few 

 survived. 



Pliny pooh-poohs the mythical origin of the Centaurs, 

 and says they were Thessalians, who dwelt along Mount 



Pelion, and were the first to fight on horseback. 

 Aldrovandus writes that, according to Licosthenes, there 

 were formerly found, in the regions of the Great Tam- 

 berlane, Centaurs of such a form as its upper part was 

 that of a man, with two arms resembling those of a toad, 



