124 ARISTOTLE'S ANHOMCEOMERIA 



footed,* that the astragaU are always in the hind legs and 

 are arranged upright in the joints, so that the front parts 

 are [inclined] outwards and the back parts inwards, and 

 that the coa are turned inwards towards each other and the 

 so called chia outwards, the "horns" being upwards.t 



Applying this description to the astragali of an animal, 

 such as a sheep, the comparatively flat narrow sides, which 

 are on the inner sides of the legs and face each other are the 

 coa, and the indented or ear-like faces are the chia. Fig. 6 

 (which is twice the natural size) shows the chion and front 

 broad face of the left astragalus of a sheep. Some say, 

 however, that the flat sides are the chia and the indented 

 sides the coa. The values usually given to the faces were 

 as follows : — Coon, six ; chion, one ; front broad face, four, 

 and back broad face, three ; the bottom face was counted 

 and not, as in the modern method of playing dice, the top 

 face. The values had no apparent connection with the 

 probabilities of the throws, e. g., in five hundred throws of a 

 sheep's astragalus, the indented side was beneath in fifty- 

 one and the flat side in forty-two throws. 



In addition to the lion and the lynx, Aristotle refers 

 specifically to the knuckle-bones of the hippopotamus, 

 camel, pig, ox, and a mythical animal, the Indian ass, 

 having solid hoofs and one horn. 



He says that the knuckle-bones of a camel are like those 

 of an ox, but ugly, and small in proportion to the size of the 

 animal, t This comparison tends to show that he saw the 

 knuckle-bones of both these animals. A camel's knuckle- 

 bones, which may be seen in the articulated skeleton at 

 University Museum, Oxford, have a marked general simi- 

 larity to those of an ox, but their lower ends are less 

 symmetrical. They are also small in proportion to the size 

 of the camel. 



It is evident why Aristotle paid so much attention to the 

 knuckle-bones. No other bones had more interest for the 

 Ancients than these. Knuckle-bones of sheep or goats 

 have been found in a tomb in Ithaca, and these and many 

 artificial ones of bronze, lead, agate, and rock-crystal may be 

 seen at the British Museum, as well as an ^ginetan vase of 

 black ware in the form of a knuckle-bone. Among the 

 terra-cottas in the Museum are a figure of a girl (C 715) 



* P. A. iv. c. 10, 690rt. t H. A. ii. c. 2, s. 10. 



I H. A. ii. c. 2, a. 5. 



