132 AEISTOTLE'S ANHOMCEOMEEIA 



e.g., the gazelle, oryx, and Bubaline Antelope, and, among 

 animals which Aristotle could not have known, the polar 

 bear, and the white cattle of some parts of the Falkland 

 Islands, mentioned by Darwin,* 



The deer (Elaphos) is the only animal which casts its 

 horns annually, this taking place after it is two years old ; 

 its horns are shed about May, and its first horns are 

 straight, like pegs.f 



Although Aristotle here uses the word Elaphos in 

 the singular, he refers to more than one kind of deer. 

 Except in a few individual cases, deer shed their horns 

 annually, while the horns of oxen, sheep, goats, and such 

 antelopes as were known to him, are not shed. The 

 first horns are peg-like, as Aristotle says, but they are 

 usually shed when the young bucks are not quite two 

 years old. Further, deer usually shed their horns about 

 March. 



Aristotle says that all horned animals have four feet, 

 excepting such animals as the horned snakes which, the 

 Egyptians say, are to be found near Thebes. 1 This passage 

 recalls the statement by Herodotus, § that, near Thebes, 

 there were small harmless snakes, with two horns at the 

 upper parts of their heads. Except that Cerastes is not 

 harmless, this description might well refer to it. 



Some peculiar beliefs about snakes with " horns " are to 

 be found in some of the Greek Isles, The official notes, 

 reproduced in Folk-Lore, vol. xi. 1900, pp. 120-125, of a 

 trial in the District Court of Larnaca, on October 27th, 1899, 

 state that damages were claimed for the loss of a snake's 

 " horn " lent to the defendant. The plaintiff alleged that he 

 had extracted it from just above the right eye of a snake, 

 and that it was a white, curved, thin body, about three- 

 quarters of an inch long. It was also alleged that it 

 exercised some magic power over the human body, and that 

 water in which the " horn " had been placed was useful in 

 curing snake-bites. Commenting on this case, Mr. W. E. 

 Paton says that the snake's "horn " is known also in Cos,|| 

 and it may be mentioned that the Nose-horned Viper 

 (F. ammodytes) of central and southern Europe has a scaly 

 appendage on its nose. 



■'' Naturalist's Voyage round the World, 2nd ed. London, 1890, p. 203. 

 t H. A.u. c. 2, s. 11, ix. c. 6, s. 2. j Ibid. ii. c. 2, s. 11. 



§ ii. 74. II FolJi-Lore,\i. p. 321. 



