88 
PLINY'S NATURAL HISTOET. 
[Book XL 
wards, and that of the hind-log forwards ; their thighs are 
placed on them obliquely, in a similar manner to a man's 
thumb; which is the case also with the multipede insects, the 
hind-legs only excepted of such as leap. Birds, like quadru- 
peds, have the joints of the wings bending forwards, but those 
of the legs backwards. 
CHAP. 103. PAETS OF THE HUMAN BODY TO WHICH CERTAIN 
RELIGIOUS IDEAS ARE ATTACHED. 
In accordance with the usages of various nations, certain 
religious ideas have been attached to the knees. It is the 
knees that suppliants clasp, and it is to these that they extend 
their hands ; it is the knees that they worship like so many 
altars, as it were ; perhaps, because in them is centred the 
vital strength. For in the joint of either knee, the right 
as well as the left, there is on the fore- side of each a certain 
empty space, which bears a strong resemblance to a mouth, and 
through which, like the throat, if it is once pierced, the vital 
powers escape.^''' There are also certain religious ideas at- 
tached to other parts of the body, as is testified in raising the 
baciv of the right hand to the lips, and extending it as a token 
of good faith. It was the custom of the ancient Greeks, when 
in the act of supplication, to touch the chin. The seat of the 
memory lies in the lower part of the ear, which we touch 
when we summon a witness to depose upon memory to an 
arrest.'^^ The seat, too, of ITemesis^^ lies behind the right ear, a 
goddess which has never yet found a Latin name, no, not in the 
Capitol even. It is to this part that we apply the finger next 
the little finger, after touching the mouth with it, when we 
silently ask pardon of the gods for having let slip an indiscreet 
word. 
CHAP. 104. VARICOSE VEINS. 
Men only, in general, have varicose veins in the legs, wo- 
men but very rarely. We are informed by Oppius, that 
3"^ Though wounds in the knee are highly dangerous, death does not ne- 
cessarily ensue. 
28 Of another person, who had thus forfeited his bail. It was the cus- 
tom to touch the ear of the attesting witness. 
•^^ The goddess of retribution. See B. xxviii. c. 5, where he makes fur- 
ther mention of her statue in the Capitol. 
