PLINY'S NATITllAL HISTORY. [BooTi XI. 
upwards. Apollodoriis informs us, that the poison which 
they secrete is of a white colour, and he has divided them into 
nine classes, distinguished mostly hy their colours — to very 
little purpose, however, for it is impossible to understand 1 
which among these it is that he has pronounced to be the 
least dangerous. He says, also, that some of them have a 
double sting, atid that the males — for he asserts that they are 
engendered by the union of the sexes — are the most dangerous. 
These may easily be known, he says, by their slender form 
and greater length. He states, also, that they all of them have 
venom in the middle of the day, when they have been warmed 
by the heat of the sun, as, also, when they are thirsty — their | 
thirst, indeed, can never be quenched. It is an ascertained 
fact, that those which have seven joints in the tail are the 
most^^ deadly ; the greater part, however, have but six. j 
For this pest of Africa, the southern winds have provided 
means of flight as well, for as the breeze bears them along, 
they extend their arms and ply them like so many oars in I 
their flight; the same ApoUodor lis, however, asserts that there j 
are some which really have wings. The Psylli, who for their j 
own profit have been in the habit of importing the poisons of ! 
other lands among us, and have thus filled Italy with the pests ' 
which belong to other regions, have made attempts to import 
the flying scorpion as well, but it has been found that it 
cannot live farther north than the latitude of Sicily. How- \ 
ever, they^^ are sometimes to be seen in Italy, but are quite \ 
harmless there ; they are found, also, in many other places, the : 
vicinity of Pharos, in Egypt, for instance. In Scythia, the i 
scorpion is able to kill the swine even with its sting, an animal | 
which, in general, is proof against poisons of this kind in a j 
remarkable degree. "When stung, those swine which are black | 
die more speedily than others, and more particularly if they ; 
happen to throw themselves into the water. When a person 
has been stung, it is generally supposed that he may be cured 
by drinking the ashes of the scorpion^^ mixed with wine. It 
^2 Cuvier seems to regard this as fanciful : he says that the instances of 
seven joints are but rarely to be met with. 
93 There are no winged scorpions. Cuvier thinks that he may possihiy 
allude to the panorpis, or scorpion-fly, the abdomen of which terminates 
in a forceps, which resembles the tail of the scorpion. 
9* Probably the panorpis. 
95 See B. xxix. c. 29. 
