128 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



he breaths not, and that his tongue hangs forth of his 

 mouth, they think he is dead ; but so soon as they 

 descend, he draws them to him and devours them. 



"Again, when he sees that he cannot conquer the 

 Urchin, for his prickles, he lays him on his back, and so 

 rends the soft part of his body. Sometimes fearing the 

 multitude of wasps, he counterfeits and hides himself, 

 his tail hanging out : and when he sees that they are all 

 busie, and entangled in his thick tail, he comes forth, 

 and rubs them against a stone or Tree, and kills them 

 and eats them. The same trick, almost, he useth, when 

 he lyes in wait for crabs and small fish, running about 

 the bank, and he lets down his tail into the water, they 

 admire at it, and run to it, and are taken in his fur, and 

 pull'd out. Moreover, when he hath fleas, he makes a 

 little bundle of soft hay wrapt in hair, and holds it in 

 his mouth ; then he goes by degrees into the water, 

 beginning with his tail, that the fleas fearing the water, 

 will run up all his body till they come at his head : then 

 he dips in his head, that they may leap into the hay ; 

 when this is done, he leaves the hay in the water, and 

 swims forth. 



" But when he is hungry, he will counterfeit to play 

 with the Hare, which he presently catcheth and devoureth, 

 unlesse the Hare escape by flight, as he often doth. 

 Sometimes he also escapes from the dogs by barking, 

 faigning himself to be a dog, but more surely when he 

 hangs by a bough, and makes the dogs hunt in vain to 

 find his footing. He is also wont to deceive the Hunter 

 and his dogs, when he runs among a herd of Goats, 

 and goes for one of them, leaping upon the Goat's 

 back, that he may sooner escape by the running of the 

 Goat, by reason of the hatefull Rider on his back. The 



