272 
pliny's natural HISTOEY. [BookVIII. 
so formidable a beast, remained stationary for some time, more 
at last from astonishment than from fear. At length, how- 
ever, he descended from the tree and extracted the bone, the 
lion in the meanwhile extending his head, and aiding in the 
operation as far as it was necessary for him to do. The story 
goes on to say, that as long as the vessel remained off that 
coast, the lion showed his sense of gratitude by bringing what- 
ever he had chanced to procure in the chase. In memory of 
this circumstance, Elpis consecrated a temple at Samos to Eather 
Liber, which the Greeks, from the circumstance above related, 
called "the temple pcgp^^^jvoVo; A/ovu^rou,'" or **of the open-mouthed 
Bacchus." Can we wonder, after this, that the wild beasts 
should be able to recognize the footsteps of man,^^ when of 
him alone of all animals they even hope for aid ? Tor why 
should they not have recourse to others for assistance ? Or how 
is it that they know that the hand of man has power to heal 
them? Unless, perhaps, it is that the violence of pain can 
force wild beasts even to risk every thing to obtain relief. 
(17.) Demetrius, the natural philosopher, relates an equally 
remarkable instance, in relation to a panther. The animal was 
lying in the middle of the road, waiting for some one to pass 
that way, when he was suddenly perceived by the father of one 
gled, that we can only guess at the sense of it. In Sillig's edition, which 
is generally followed, it runs to this effect : *'Neque profugienti, cum po- 
tuisset, fera institerat et procumhens ad arborem hiatu quo terruerat mise- 
rationem quserebat. Os morsu avidiore inhaeserat dentibus cruciabatque 
inedia, turn poena in ipsis ejus telis suspectantem ac velut mutis precibus 
orantem, dum fortuitu fidens non est contra feram; multoque diutius 
miraculo quam metu cessatum est." Thus paraphrased by Sillig, who 
devotes a long Note to it : " The lion, therefore, being tormented by 
hunger and excessive pain, and thus punishing himself for his greediness 
in his own weapons (his teeth), looked up, and besought Elpis with silent 
prayers, as it were, not, as he trusted to the protection fortuitously given 
by the branches, to show himself distrustful of a wild beast." 
16 This remark refers to what Pliny has related in c. 5, respecting the 
sagacity of the elephant. — B. 
17 Cuvier remarks, that this " panthera" is not the same as the irdvBrjp 
of tlie Greeks. From the description of its spots and other circumstances, 
he thinks that it was one of the African animals, known by modern natural- 
ists as the leopard, which appear to have been confounded by the Eomans 
with the panther. The term ^'leopardus " is not met with until after the 
age of Pliny ; it was supposed to be the produce of the pardus, or male 
panther, and the lioness. — B. 
