316 
Pliny's "natural history. 
[Book XXVIII. 
as it does, and exposing the lies and frivolities of the Greeks. — 
In size, the chamseleon resembles the crocodile last mentioned, 
and only differs from it in having the back-bone arched at a 
more acute angle, and a larger tail. There is no animal, it is 
thought, more^' timid than this, a fact to which it owes its 
repeated changes of colour.^^ It has a peculiar ascendancy over 
the hawk tribe ; for, according to report, it has the power of 
attracting those birds, when flying above it, and then leaving 
them a voluntary prey for other animals. Democritus*^ asserts 
that if the head and neck of a chamseleon are burnt in a 
fire made with logs of oak, it will be productive of a storm 
attended with rain and thunder ; a result equally produced by 
burning the liver upon the tiles of a house. As to the rest of 
the magical virtues which he ascribes to this animal, we shall 
forbear to mention them, although we look upon them as un- 
founded except, indeed, in some few instances where their 
very ridiculousness sufficiently refutes his assertions. 
The right eye, he says, taken from the living animal and 
applied with goats' milk, removes diseases of the crystalline 
humours of the eyes ; and the tongue, attached to the body as 
an amulet, is an effectual preservative against the perils of 
child-birth. He asserts also that the animal itself will facilitate 
parturition, if in the house at the moment ; but if, on the 
other hand, it is brought from elsewhere, the consequences, he 
says, will be most dangerous. The tongue, he tells us, if taken 
from the animal alive, will ensure a favourable result to suits 
at law ; and the heart, attached to the body with black wool 
of the first shearing, is a good preservative against the attacks 
of quartan fever. 
He states also that the right fore-paw, attached to the left 
arm in the skin of the hyjaena, is a most effectual preserva- 
tive against robberies and alarms at night ; that the pap on 
the right side is a preventive of fright and panics ; that the 
left foot is sometimes burnt in a furnace with the plant which 
also has the name of ''chameeleon,''^^ and is then made up, with 
some unguent, into lozenges ; and that these lozenges, kept in 
5' It is a timid animal, but Pliny's authorities have exaggerated its 
timidity. 
^8 This change of colour is in reality owing to change of locality, 
A. Gellius tells the same story, B x. c. 12, 
And therefore harmleSiSi See B, xxii. c. 21. 
