362 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



(Inf. xxxi. 118) the passage where he is speaking of Antseus 

 gathering a thousand Lions as sport ; and there he is merely 

 quoting Lucan. 



Of other foreign beasts, he makes allusion to the Elephant 

 and Whale, both in speaking of the giants that rise around the 

 ninth circle in the " Inferno " (Inf. xxxi. 52), where he makes the 

 quaint remark that Nature did well to give up forming such 

 creatures as the giants ; and if she does not repent of Elephants 

 and Whales, it is because they have not the intelligence to do 

 harm ; wherein Dante shows that he does not appreciate the in- 

 telligence of the Elephant, and perhaps, Mr. Bullen would add, 

 of the " Cachalot." 



Of other foreigners, he mentions the Bear, but only in refer- 

 ence to Elisha ; the Ape and the Pelican, both in a conventional 

 way. 



Perhaps under this heading we should include his allusion 

 to the Bivero or Bevero (Inf. xvii. 22). 



Dante and Virgil have come to the margin of the eighth 

 circle, whence they are to descend on the back of Geryon to the 

 ninth. The monster, with a human head, paws, and a serpent's 

 body, came up, and thrust on shore its head and bust ; "but on 

 to the border did not drag its back." The poet compared its 

 position to that of a Beaver, '* who among the guzzling Germans 

 plants himself to wage his war" (upon the fish). Obviously 

 Dante did not know the animal intimately, and, like many an 

 Englishman of the present day, who fails to distinguish between 

 the Sewer-Rat and the Beaver's humble representative the 

 Water-Rat, accepted the common view which confused the fish- 

 eating Otter with the rodent Castor. This is clearly brought 

 out in Boccaccio's note : — *' Bevero, the male Otter : this animal 

 is very fond of fish ; therefore it takes its stand on the banks of 

 the Danube, puts its tail, which is very thick, into the water, 

 and, because there is much fat on it, an unctuous matter exudes 

 from it, by which the water is covered, as it were, with oil. To 

 this the fish come, and the Beaver turns round and takes his 

 pick of them" — a neatly concocted theory, from the way in which 

 they have seen the Beaver sitting, and the shining greasy look of 

 its tail. Had he seen a Norwegian landing fish with an oar, he 

 doubtless would have let the Biber bring the fish to land in more 



