322 
pltny's natural histoet. 
[Book VIII. 
CHAP, 67. MARES IMPREGNATED BY THE WIND. 
It is well known that in Lnsitania, in the vicinity pf the town 
of Olisipo^^and the river Tagus, the mares, by turning their faces 
towards the west wind as it blows, become impregnated by its 
breezes, and that the foals which are conceived in this way are re- 
markable for their extreme fleetness; but they never live beyond 
three years. Gallicia and Asturia are also countries of Spain ; 
they produce a species of horse known to us as thieldones,^ 
and when smaller, asturcones they have a peculiar and not 
common pace of their own, which is very easy, and arises from 
the two legs of the same side being moved together ;^ it is by 
studying the nature of this step that our horses have been taught 
the movement which we call ambling. Horses have very 
nearly the same diseases as men ;^ besides which, they are 
subject to an irregular action of the bladder, as, indeed, is the 
case with all beasts of burden.*^ 
CHAP. 68. (45.) THE ASS, ITS GENERATION. 
M. Varro informs us that Quintus Axius, the senator, paid 
for an ass the sum of four hundred thousand sesterces I am 
o2 Now Lisbon. See B. iv. c. 35. 
^3 The accounts given, by Phoenician navigators, of the fertility of Lnsi- 
tania, and the frequency of the mild western breezes, gave rise to the fable 
here mentioned, which has been generally received by the ancients ; and 
that not merely by the poets, as Virgil, Geor. B. iii. 1. 274, 275, but by 
practical writers, as Yarro, B. ii. c. 1, and Columella, B. vi. c. 27. Justin, 
however, B. xliv. c. 3, attributes the opinion to the great size of the horses, 
and their remarkable fleetness, from which they were said to be the sons of 
the wind. — B. 
The origin and meaning of this name is not known. — B. 
Martial describes the peculiar short, quick step of the asturco," in 
one of his Epigrams, B. xiv. Ep. 199. — B. 
" Alterno crurum explicatu glomeratio it would not be possible to 
give a literal translation, but we may judge of the meaning by the context. 
— B. He clearly alludes to a movement like our canter. 
^7 " Tolutim carpere incursus Hardouin explains this by a reference 
to Plautus, Asinaria, A. iii. sc. 3, 1. 116. Tolutim ni badizas " — " If you 
'do not amble, lifting up your feet.'' 
^8 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 24, gives an account of the diseases 
of horses. — B. 
^9 Genere veterino so called, according to Hardouin, from " vec- 
tura," " carriage," as applicable to horses, asses, and mules ; Lemaire, vol. 
iii. p. 497.— B. 
60 There is considerable difficulty in ascertaining the exact amount of 
