13-4 Notices of various Animal Remains 



nibus Callendar et Caldar, excurrens per Monteh et Erne- 

 vallem longo tractu ad Atholiam et Loquhabriam usque. 

 Gignere solet ea sylva boves candissimos in formam leonis 

 jubam ferentes, csotera mansuetis simillimos, verum adeo 

 feros indomitosque atque humanum refugientes consortium, 

 ut quas herbas, arboresque aut frutices humana contrectatas 

 manu senserint plurimos deinceps dies fugiant : capti autem 

 arte quapiam (quod difficilimum est) mox paulo prae msesti- 

 tia moriantur." — " Hujus autem animalis carnes esui jucun- 

 dissimse sunt, atque in primis nobilitati grata3, verum cartila- 

 ginosse. Coeterum quum tota olim silva nasci ea solerent : in 

 una tan turn nunc ejus parte reperiuntur, quse Cummirnald 

 appellator, aliis gula humana ad, internecionem redactis." 



2. Bishop Leslie, De Origine, Moribus et Rebus Gestis 

 Scotorum, Rome, 1578, p. 19, (Scotia Descriptio) : — " Ab his 

 regionibus vastissima ilia olim Caledonia sylva initium sump- 

 sit, ut qusedam locorum nomina hodie indicant." — " In Cale- 

 donia olim frequens erat sylvestris quidem bos, nunc vero 

 rarior, qui colore candissimo, jubam densam, ac demissam 

 instar leonis gestat, truculentus, ac ferus ab humano genere 

 abhorrens, ut quaecunque homines vel manibus contrectarint, 

 vel halitu perflaverint, ab iis multos post dies omnino absti- 

 nuerint." — " Ejus carnes cartilaginosse sed saporis suavissi- 

 mi. Erat is olim per illam vastissimam Caledonise sylvam 

 frequens, sed humana ingluvie jam assumptus, tribus tan turn 

 locis est reliquus, StiriviKngi, Cumernaldise, et Kincarnise." 

 And as for Boethius himself, we must remember, that though 

 perhaps a good enough authority as to anything that hap- 

 pened under his own observation, he is so credulous as to 

 believe apparently all that was told him, however extraordi- 

 nary ; so that his description of these cattle, of the purest 

 white, maned like lions, untameably wild, and fleeing the 

 very neighbourhood, or even the scent of men, and which 

 apparently he had never seen, must all be taken with a con- 

 siderable allowance, and in all probability were nothing more 

 than strayed domestic cattle, which, in the course of years, 

 had lapsed into a semiwild state. As an instance of his cre- 

 dulity, I may refer, in the words of Bellenden's Translation of 

 1553, to his account of the extraordinary animal described 



