30 History of Nature. [BooK VIII. 



wise greatly feared. At the last he came down from the 

 Tree and plucked out the Bone, while the Lion held his 

 Mouth open, and composed himself to his Conveniency : in 

 recompense of which Service, it is said, that so long as this 

 Ship lay on that Coast, the Lion furnished him with a good 

 Quantity of Food by Hunting. And on this account Elpis 

 dedicated a Temple in Samos to Liber Pater; which from 

 this Circumstance the Greeks called jt.s^v6rog A/ovutfou (of 

 Gaping Dionysius}.' 1 Can we feel surprised after this, that 

 Wild Beasts should know the Footsteps of Men, 2 when even 

 they have recourse to him alone for Hope of Succour? And 

 why did they not go to other Creatures? or who taught 

 them that the Hand of Man was ahle to cure them ? unless 

 this be the Reason, that perhaps the Power of many Evils 

 forceth even savage Beasts to seek out all means of Help. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

 Of Panthers. 



DEMETRIUS the Natural Philosopher also maketh 

 mention of as memorable a Case as the former, concerning a 

 Panther; which was desirous to meet with a Man, and 

 therefore lay in the Middle of an Highway, and suddenly 

 appeared to the Father of a certain Philinus, a Student of 

 Philosophy. The Man, through Fear, began to go back 

 again, but the Wild Beast kept rolling itself about him, very 

 plainly fawning upon him, and tossing itself so piteously, 



1 Holland has chosen to add, " or ^ar^os vuov AIOVVO-OV, the Chapel of 

 Dionysius the Saviour ;" not because there are such words in the text, 

 but because Gesner, whose edition of Pliny he appears to have used, not 

 understanding the purport of Pliny's words, has proposed to substitute 

 the latter, which he supposed to be a more intelligible reading. But in 

 no MS. of Pliny is any support afforded to this criticism of Gesner ; and 

 the conclusion of ch. xlviii. b. 7, of ^Elian, is a sufficient proof of the accu- 

 racy of the present text, as the story there given is an explanation of its 

 meaning. Wern. Club. 



2 Pliny had before remarked (Book viii. chap. 5), that the elephant 

 could recognise the footstep of a man. Wern. Club. 



