552 
PLINT's ITATUBAL HISTOEY. 
[Book X. 
cal incantations. The thos and the lion are at war mth each 
other; and, indeed, the smallest objects and the greatest just 
as much. Caterpillars will avoid a tree that is infested with 
ants. The spider, poised in its web, will throw itself on the 
head of a serpent as it lies stretched beneath the shade of the 
tree where it has built, and with its bite pierce its brain ; such 
is the shock, that the creature will hiss from time to time, and 
then, seized with vertigo, coil round and round, while it 
finds itself unable to take to flight, or so much as to break the 
web of the spider, as it hangs suspended above ; this scene 
only ends with its death. 
CHAP. 96. — INSTANCES OF AFFECTION SHOWN BY SEEPENTS. 
On the other hand, there is a strict friendship existing be- 
tween the peacock and the pigeon, the turtle-dove and the 
parrot, the blackbird and the turtle, the crow and the heron, 
all of which join in a common enmity against the fox. The 
harpe also, and the kite, unite against the triorchis. 
And then, besides, have we not seen instances of affection in 
the serpent even, that most ferocious of all animals ? We 
have already related the story that is told of a man in Arca- 
dia, who was saved by a dragon which had belonged to him, 
and of his voice being recognized by the animal. We must 
also make mention here of another marvellous story that is 
related by Phylarchus about the asp. He tells us, that in 
Egypt one of these animals, after having received its daily 
nourishment at the table of a certain person, brought forth, and 
that it so happened that the son of its entertainer was killed 
by one of its young ones ; upon which, returning to its food 
as usual, and becoming sensible of the crime, it immediately 
killed the young one, and returned to the house no more. 
CHAP. 97. (75.) — THT: sleep of animals. 
The question as to their sleep, is one that is by no means 
difficult to solve. In the land animals, it is quite evident that 
all that have eyelids sleep. With reference to aquatic animals, 
it is admitted that they also sleep, though only for short 
periods, even by those writers who entertain doubts as to the 
other animals ; and they come to this conclusion, not from any 
appearance of the eyes, for thej have no eyelids, indeed, to close, 
66 In B. viii. c. 22. 
