302 
PLINY's natural HISTOEl. 
[Book VIII. 
fights with the serpent : it traces out the serpent's hole, and 
draws it forth by the breath of its nostrils/^ and hence it is 
that the smell of burnt stags' horn has the remarkable power 
of driving away serpents. The very best remedy for the bite 
of a serpent is the rennet of a fawn that has been killed in the 
womb of its mother. 
The stag is generally admitted to be very long lived ; some 
were captured at the end of one hundred years with the golden 
collars which Alexander the Great had put upon them, and 
which were quite concealed by the folds of the skin, in conse- 
quence of the accumulation of fat.^^ This animal is not sub- 
ject to fever, and, indeed, it is a preservative against that com- 
plaint. We know that of late some women of princely rank 
have been in the habit of eating the flesh of the stag every 
morning, and that they have arrived at an extreme old age, 
free from all fevers. It is, however, generally supposed that 
the animal must be killed by a single wound to make sure of 
it possessing this virtue. 
(33.) Of the same species is an animal, which only differs 
from the stag in having a beard and long hair about the 
shoulders : it is called tragelaphus, and is produced nowhere 
except on the banks of the Phasis.^*^ 
CHAP. 51. THE CHAMELEOIS'. 
Africa is almost the only country that does not produce^* 
Diana, who, through it, held converse with him, and instructed him how 
to act. Plutarch, Frontinus, and Valerius Maximus, also relate the story. 
5* This story, which is obviously incorrect, is mentioned by JElian, 
Anim. Nat. B. ii. c. 9 ; and is again referred to in B. xxviii. c. 42. — B. 
5^ Graguinus, Hist. Franc. B. ix. c. 3, relates a still more wonderful 
anecdote of a similar nature ; but, as Buffon remarks, such tales are with- 
out foundation, the life of the stag not being more than thirty or forty 
years. Cuvier, also, says that its life does not exceed thirty-six or forty 
years. — B. 
»6 The real nature of the tragelaphus of Pliny, and the hippelaphus, 
or horse-stag of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 1, which appear to be the 
same animal, had long remained a disputed question among naturalists, 
when, as Cuvier states, the point was decided by Alphonse Duvaucel, who 
ascertained that it was a species of stag, which inhabited the mountains of 
the north of Hindostan. — B. 
^7 And in Arabia as well, according to Diodorus Siculus, B. ii. 
58 This fact is confirmed by Cuvier, who observes, that it is the more 
remarkable that Africa should be without stags, as it abounds in gazelles of 
all forms and colours. He supposes that those travellers, who affirm that 
