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THE WEASEL. 
THE WEASEL. 
" Una ministrarum, media de plebe Galanthis 
Flava comas aderat, faciendis stienua jussis." Ovid. 
Galanthis, in days of yore, was lady's maid to 
Alcmeiia the mother of Hercules. She cheated 
Juno — and Juno, in revenge, changed her into a 
weasel. 
I think it probable, that Galanthis, like many, 
abigails of our own times, must have been fond of 
my lady's lavender-water bottle^ and that Juno, 
knowing this, took the opportunity of punishing 
her to some purpose, by placing in her seat of honour 
the gland which now causes her to be so very 
offensive to us. But this is mere conjecture on 
my part. I can find nothing to corroborate it in 
the pages of heathen Mythology 
Let us look into the real habits of this interesting 
little quadruped, and try to place them before the 
reader in so clear a point of view that he may be j 
able to judge for himself whether its good qualities | 
or its bad ones have the greater claim to our 
consideration and interference. | 
Our zoology calls for the labour of a Hercules i 
to clear away its collected impurities. Authors of i 
former days have sent down to us some of the ' 
most extravagant opinions concerning quadrupeds 
that can possibly be imagined ; whilst divers writers 
of the present time are so little versed in the real . 
habits of these animals, as not to know whether or 
