324 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



devoured a Salamander, will become poisonous to those 

 who eat its flesh ; and yet the danger is quite impercep- 

 tible by reason of any peculiarity in the smell and taste. 

 The Salamander, too, will poison either water or wine in 

 which it happens to be drowned ; and, what is more, if it 

 has only drunk thereof, the liquid becomes poisonous." 



This idea of an animal supporting life in the fire is 

 not confined to the Salamander alone, for both Aristotle 

 and Pliny aver that there is a fly which possesses this 

 accomplishment. Says the former: "In Cyprus, when 

 the manufacturers of the stone called chalcitis burn it for 

 many days in the fire, a winged creature something 

 larger than a great fly is seen walking and leaping in 

 the fire : these creatures perish when taken from the 

 fire." And the latter : " That element, also, which is 

 so destructive to matter, produces certain animals ; for 

 in the copper-smelting furnaces of Cyprus, in the very 

 midst of the fire, there is to be seen, flying about, a 

 four-footed animal with wings, the size of a large fly : 

 this creature, called the ' pyrallis/ and by some the 

 ' pyrausta.' So long as it remains in the fire it will 

 live, but if it comes out, and flies a little distance from 

 it, it will instantly die." 



Ser Marco Polo thoroughly pooh-poohs the idea of 

 the Salamander, and says it is Asbestos. Speaking of 

 the Province of Chingintalas, he says : " And you must 

 know that in the same mountain there is a vein of the 

 substance of which Salamander is made. For the real 

 truth is that the Salamander is no beast, as they allege 

 in our part of the world, but is a substance found in 

 the earth ; and I will tell you about it. 



" Everybody must be aware that it can be no animal's 

 nature to live in fire, seeing that every animal is com- 



