Chap. 86.] 
SALAMANDEJRS. 
545 
and it is not without some hesitation that I speak of them, al- 
though I have Aristotle and some of the officers of Alexander 
the Great for my authority. It is said that these animals ge- 
nerate hy licking one another, and not by copulation. They 
have related cases where a single female has given birth to one 
hundred and twenty young ones, and in Persia some were 
found, even pregnant themselves,*^ while yet in the womb 
of the parent. It is believed also that these animals will be- 
come pregnant on tasting salt. Hence we find that we have 
no longer any reason to wonder how such vast multitudes of 
field-mice devastate the standing corn ; though it is still a 
mystery, with reference to them, in what way it is that such 
multitudes die so suddenly ; for their dead bodies are never 
to be found, and there is not a person in existence that has ever 
dug up a mouse in a field during the winter. Multitudes of 
these animals visit Troas, and before this they have driven 
away the inhabitants in consequence of their vast numbers. 
They multiply greatly during times of drought ; it is said 
also that when they are about to die, a little worm grows in 
their head. The mice of Egypt have hard hairs, just like those 
of the hedge-hog. They walk on their hind feet, as also do those 
of the Alps. When two animals couple of difi'erent kinds, the 
union is only prolific if the time of gestation is the same in 
both. Among the oviparous quadrupeds, it is generally believed 
that the lizard brings forth by the mouth, though Aristotle 
denies the fact. These animals, too, do not sit upon their eggs, ^ 
as they forget in what place they have laid them, being utterly 
destitute of memory ; hence it is that the young ones are 
hatched spontaneously. 
CHAP. 86. (66.) SALAMAKDEliS. 
We find it stated by many authors,^^ that a serpent is pro- 
duced from the spinal marrow of a man. Many creatures, in 
fact, among the quadrupeds even, have a secret and mysterious 
origin. 
(67 ) Thus, for instance, the salamander, an animal like a 
lizard in shape, and with a body starred all over, never comes 
out except during heavy showers, and disappears the moment 
Aristotle, Hist. Anira. B. vi. c. 37, does not quite say this. He says 
that the young ones looked "as if" they were pregnant, olov Kvovra, 
48 Ovii, Met. B. xv. 1. 389, makes mention of this belief. 
VOL. II. N If 
