122 History of Nature. [BOOK IX. 



ness, but rare ; for the exceeding sharp Rocks terrify the 

 Chelonophagi. But the Trogloditae, to whom these Tortoises 

 swim, worship them as sacred. 



There are also Land-Tortoises, which, on Account of the 

 Works that are made of them, are called Cheisinae; they are 

 found in the Deserts of Africa, and principally in that part 

 which is gloomy from the dry Sands ; and they are believed to 

 live upon the moist Dew. And, in Truth, no other living 

 Creature is found there. 



CHAPTER XL 

 Who first set on Foot the cleaving of Tortoise- Shells. 



THE first Man that invented the cutting of the Shells of 

 Tortoises into thin Plates, and with them to cover Beds, and 

 Cupboards, was Carbilius Pollio? who was very ingenious 

 and inventive in the Instruments of Luxury. 



CHAPTER XII. 

 The Arrangement of Water Animals into their several Kinds. 



THE Coverings of Creatures that live in the Water are of 

 many Sorts ; for some are clothed with a Skin and Hair, as 

 Seals and Hippopotami. Others have only a bare Skin, 



1 On this passage Mr. Bruce remarks, that the Romans seem to have 

 been ignorant of the art, as practised by the Arabians and Egyptians, of 

 separating the laminae by fire placed inside the empty shell. Martial 

 says, " Beds were inlaid with it ; " and the immense use made of it by the 

 Romans is shown by what Velleius Paterculus says, " that when Alex- 

 andria was taken by Julius Caesar, the warehouses were so full of it, that 

 he proposed making it a principal ornament of his triumph." See 

 B. xxxii. c. 4. The comparison which Pliny makes (c. 10) of the size of 

 the shell of a tortoise to a cymba or boat, ^Elian refers to a scapha, the 

 origin of the English word "skiff"; and he represents it as capable of 

 holding ten medimni, or sixty bushels : in another place (B. xii. c. 41) he 

 compares it to a barrel that would hold twenty amphorae, or one hundred 

 and eighty gallons. Each shell (B. x. c, 17) is said to be fifteen cubits 

 in size ; which, not to exceed the bounds of probability, must be under- 

 stood as square cubits. He says that the Land-Tortoises of India were 

 fat and sweet, and those of the sea, bitter. Wern. Club. 



