DANTE AS A NATUBALIST 369 



know any reason for what they do. An excellent simile to de- 

 scribe a crowd blindly following their leader, and one which he 

 repeats in slightly altered form in the " Convito," 1. 11. 



We have been speaking as yet of Sheep ; they are to be dis- 

 tinguished (Par. ix. 131) from the Goats, for which we have three 

 names — " capra," " becco " (German, Bock), and (Inf. xxxii. 15) 

 " zeba," from " zibbe," a corrupted form of the German " Ziege " ; 

 these he has watched climbing over almost impossible ways (Inf. 

 xix. 132),as one sees them inCorsica, often to one's imminent peril, 

 if one is walking on the road below, or butting each other with their 

 heads down (Inf. xxxii. 50) ("come due becchi, cozzaro in sieme ") ; 

 or quietly chewing the cud watched by their shepherd (Purg.xxvii. 

 76), "just as the Goats become quiet while ruminating, which 

 had been agile and venturesome upon the mountain tops before 

 they took their meal, resting hushed in the shade while the sun 

 is hot, watched by their shepherd, who leans upon his staff." I 

 have quoted Vernon's translation. He agrees with Longfellow in 

 translating " proterve " venturesome. I should be inclined to think 

 it was more likely a reminiscence of " hsedique petulci" of Virgil. 

 Of other cattle, we have " hue " and " toro " ; the former obviousl}'^ 

 the meek-eyed, long-horned Oxen (Purg. xxxii. 145), which it is so 

 hard to pass in a narrow street of some old Tuscan town as they 

 sway their heads from side to side beneath the yoke (Purg. 

 xii. 1) while they drag the rough carts full of wine-casks and 

 other agricultural produce. The poet gives one quaint touch 

 with regard to them (Inf. xvii. 75) when he makes the great 

 usurer Scrovigni distort his mouth, put out his tongue (" come 

 hue chi il muso lecchi"). He has nothing interesting to tell us 

 about bulls. One passage (Inf. xii. 22) is an adaptation of a 

 simile of Virgil, with regard to the sacrificial bull that reels from 

 the stroke it has received ; the other (Par. xvi. 70) tells us that a 

 blind bull falls more headlong than a blind lamb — which, though 

 true, does not add much to our knowledge. 



It is worth while to turn for a moment to Dante's reptiles 

 before considering his birds. The Frog is mentioned several 

 times. He alludes to uEsop's fable of the fight between "II Kana 

 e II Tope," the latter of which obviously comes from " talpa," and 

 originally meant " mole," but is here used for Mouse. The Frog 

 appears also in the description of Caina (Inf. xxxii. 31), and of 



