54 History of Nature. [BooK VIII. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



The Cities and Nations which have been utterly destroyed by 

 small Animals. 



NOTHING is more notorious than the Fact, that much 

 Injury hath come from contemptible Creatures. M. Varro 

 writeth, That there was a Town in Spain undermined by 

 Rabbits ; and one in Thessaly, by the Moles. In Gallia, the 

 Inhabitants of one City were driven out by Frogs. In Africa, 

 the People were expelled by Locusts. Out of Gyaros, 1 an 

 Island of the Cyclades, the Inhabitants were driven away by 

 Rats and Mice. In Italy, Amyclae was destroyed by Ser- 

 pents. In Ethiopia, on this Side the Cynamolgi, there is a 

 wide Country which lieth desert, from being dispeopled by 

 Scorpions and Solpugae. 2 Theophrastus, also, reporteth, that 

 the Trerienses were forced away by Scolopendres. But let 

 us return to other Kinds of wild Beasts. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



Of the Hycena and Crocuta, and Mantichora, and Beavers, 

 and Otters. 



THE common People believe that Hyasnas 3 possess a 

 double Nature, and that every second Year they change 

 their Sex, from Males to Females, and that the latter bear 

 without the Male ; but Aristotle denieth it. Their Neck and 

 Mane is stretched out in Continuation of the Spine, and he 

 denies that it has the Power to bend without turning about 

 the whole Body. Many strange Matters besides this are 

 reported ; and above the rest, that he will counterfeit 

 Man's Speech among the Shepherds' Cottages, and will call 



1 See more of this, Lib. viii. 57 ; also, Lib. x. 65. 



2 Lib. xxii. 25, and Lib. xxix. 4. 



3 Canis Hyama.Lvsy. The Striped Hyama. This seems to be the 

 same animal that our author in the 21st chapter has named Crocuta. See 

 the note there. Wern. Club. 



