BOOK VIII,] History of Nature. 39 



another Beast, named Bale, 1 of the size of the River-Horse, 

 with the Tail of the Elephant, the Colour either black 

 or tawny (fulvus) ; his Jaws resemble those of a Boar ; 

 he hath Horns above a Cubit long, which he can fix on either 

 Side in Fight, or alter them in a formidable Manner obliquely, 

 as he sees occasion. But the most cruel are the Wild Bulls 

 of the Forest, 2 which are greater than the field Bulls ; swifter 

 than all the others ; of a tawny Colour, the Eyes bluish, 

 their Hair reversed, the Gape of their Mouth reaching to 

 their Ears ; their Horns, near them, movable ; 3 their Hide as 

 hard as a Flint, resisting every Wound ; all other Wild Beasts 

 they hunt, but these cannot be taken except in Pit-falls; and 

 in this Fierceness they die. Ctesias writeth, that there is a 

 Beast which he calleth Mantichora, 4 having three Rows of 

 Teeth, which meet together like the Teeth of a Comb ; with 

 the Face and Ears of a Man ; blue Eyes ; the Colour like 

 Blood, the Body like a Lion> and having a Tail armed with 

 a Sting like a Scorpion ; his Voice resembleth the Sound of 

 a Flute and Trumpet {Fistula et Tuba) sounded together ; 

 very swift, and before all others he desireth Man's Flesh. 

 In India there are also Oxen with solid Hoofs and a single 



1 Pliny appears to be the only author, with the exception of his 

 copyist, Solinus, who has described the animal which he here calls Bale ; 

 it is impossible to conjecture what he meant. Wern. Club. 



1 Bos Bubalus. LINN. The Buffalo. According to the accounts of 

 travellers the Buffalo still exists in a wild condition in many parts of 

 Africa, more particularly in Abyssinia, the Ethiopia of the ancients. 

 Wern. Club. 



3 This seems to be Pliny's representation of the condition of the Eale, 

 and also the wild bull. Julian says, that the Erythraean oxen have horns 

 as moveable as their ears. Book iii. ch. 34. Wern. Club. 



4 ^Elian, Book iv. c. 21, under the name of Mantichora, gives a some- 

 what lengthened description of this animal, from Ctesias, who pretended 

 to have seen it. The latter author, who is also the only authority for 

 some other very wonderful accounts of Indian animals, appears to have 

 been just such a traveller as our own Maundeville; honest, but highly 

 credulous, and trusting more to the authority of others than to his own 

 eyesight. What the creature was, to which this name was attached, could 

 only be recovered by finding the same name still in use in the East. 

 Wern. Club. 



