86 
plikt's fatueal histoet. 
[Book 11. 
the consulship of Scaurus, lie who was afterwards the Prince 
of the Senate ^ 
It lightens without thunder more frequently in the night 
than in the day^. Man is the only animal that is not always 
killed by it, all other animals being killed instantly, nature 
having granted to him this mark of distinction, while so many 
other animals excel him in strength. All animals fall down 
on the opposite side to that which has been struck ; man, 
unless he be thrown down on the parts that are struck, does 
not expire. Those who are struck directly from above sink 
down immediately. When a man is struck while he is awake, 
he is found with his eyes closed ; when asleep, with them 
open. It is not considered proper that a man killed in this 
way should be burnt on the funeral pile ; our religion enjoins 
us to bury the body in the earth^. No animal is consumed 
by lightning unless after having been previously killed. 
The parts of the animal that have been wounded by light- 
ning are colder than the rest of the body. 
CHAP. 56. (55.) — OBJECTS WHICH AEE KETEE STETJCK. 
Among the productions of the earth, thunder never strikes 
the laurel^, nor does it descend more than five feet into the 
earth. Those, therefore, who are timid consider the deepest 
caves as the most safe ; or tents made of the skins of the 
animal called the sea-calf, since this is the only marine ani- 
mal which is never struck^ ; as is the case, among birds, with 
the eagle ; on this account it is represented as the bearer of 
1 " Junonis qiiippe templmn fulmine violatum ostendit non a Jove, 
non a Deis mitti fulmma." Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 354. The consulate 
of Scaurus was in the year of Rome 638. Lncan, i. 155, and Horace, 
Od. i. 2. refer to the destruction of temples at Rome by hghtning. 
2 Obviously because faint flashes are more visible in the night. 
3 We have an explanation of this peculiar opinion in TertuUian, as 
referred to by Hardouin, Lemaire. i. 355 ; " Qui de coelo tangitur, salvus 
est, ut millo igne decinerescat." 
Although it has been thought necessary by M. Fee, in the notes to 
Ajasson's trans., ii. 384, 385, to enter into a formal examination of this 
opinion of the author's, I conceive that few of our readers wiU agree with 
him in this respect. 
5 Suetonius informs us, that Augustus always wore a seal's sldn for 
this purpose j Octavius, § 90. 
