2 Gleanings from the 



ballads put together by Peififtratus, while no 

 actual Homer ever exifted ; or, at all events, that 

 he never wrote the fragmentary verfes which were 

 thus pieced together. Interefting queftions alfo 

 arife refpecting the conformity of the Homeric 

 fauna and flora with the prefent ftate of Greece ; 

 what animals or birds have become extinct or 

 diminimed in numbers ; whether any remains of 

 the prehiftoric condition of the country are apparent 

 in the poems and the like. Unluckily the evidence 

 for thefe facts within the Homeric poems is very 

 fragmentary, and there is an utter want of authori- 

 ties with which to compare their ftatements until 

 the time of Herodotus is reached. A fplendid 

 proceflion indeed of animals fet in a beautiful 

 landfcape is prefented to our eyes in Homer, much 

 as the vifitor to an Egyptian temple gazes at the 

 painted birds, beafts, and trees on its walls. But 

 the mind muft for the moft part deal with thefe 

 reprefentations as if ifolated from all further know- 

 ledge of them. In too many cafes, too, Homer 

 only introduces his birds and animals by way of 

 fimile. They are not defcribed as a natural 

 hiftorian would depict them ; they are hinted at and 

 alluded to. So that the ftudent of Homer's 

 natural hiftory finds himfelf baffled on every fide. 



Yet a few curious facts emerge on careful in- 

 veftigation. The predominance of the lion with 

 Homer in fimiles ferves to mow that this animal 

 was familiarly known in Europe in his time. For 

 many centuries there have been no lions in this 

 continent. The three chief varieties of the animal 



