i88 
NATURE NOTES. 
the air, cold and wet ; fire, hot and dry ; water, cold and wet. 
Similarly, men and beasts have four humours : anger, which is 
hot and drj' ; flegm, which is cold and wet ; blood, which is hot 
and wet ; melanchol)', which is cold and dry. 
But let us return to our beasts, and be it remembered that 
we are reading from a treatise written by one of the foremost 
teachers of his age, the master in the Natural Sciences of no less 
a genius than Dante, one whose portrait was thought by Giotto 
worthy to figure side by side with the divine poet himself on the 
frescoed chapel walls in the palace of the Chief IMagistrate of 
Florence. 
The crocodile is an animal with four feet and yellow in colour. It liveth in 
the river Xile, the river which floweth through the land of Egypt. It is twenty 
feet in length and armed with great teeth and claws ; and know that it hath no 
tongue. This is the only animal in the world that moveth the upper jaw ; the 
lower being fixed. And if it see a man it straightway layeth hold of him and 
eateth him up and then doth weep for him. Now when a bird named sconfilions 
desireth carrion it goeth to the crocodile and placeth itself near its mouth and 
so gently doth tickle its throat that it openeth its jaws. Then cometh another 
animal named calcatrix and entereth into its body and issueth forth at the other 
end, tearing through in such manner that the crocodile dieth thereof. And in 
that land there dwell men of small stature but so daring that they hunt the 
crocodile, which, when it once is captured, loseth all its ferocity, and becometh 
so gentle that its master may ride it and make it do whatsoever he will. 
The whale is the fish that received Jonah into its belly, even as the Old 
Testament telleth, and it seemed to him that he did descend into the jaws of 
hell, so great was the opening thereof. Now this fish riseth so high out of the 
water that its back appeareth above all the waves of the sea, and the wind 
bloweth .sand thereon and plants do grow, so that many times mariners are 
deceived, and believing it to be an island, descend thereon and fix stakes into 
the sand to cook their food. And when the whale feeleth the stakes and the 
fire it moveth uneasily away, so that they who be thereon are in evil plight and 
oft do perish. Now when the whale desireth to eat, it lieth still with its jaws 
wide agape, and a certain fish goeth forth and gathereth to itself other fishes and 
leadeth them into the whale’s mouth (for these foolish fish believe the open jaws 
of the whale to be two great rocks) and when they are led within, the decoy fish 
escapeth, and the whale swalloweth its meal. 
The section on fishes is closed with an elaborate description 
of the siren. The master then proceeds to speak of serpents, 
which in many respects are most akin to fishes. We learn that 
when serpents grow old their eyes become dim, whereupon they 
starve themselves until their skins become loose, and then drag 
themselves between two stones and tear off their old skins ; so 
they again become young and healthy. They then eat of the 
herb fennel and regain their clearness of vision. When they 
go to drink they always deposit their poison in a safe place. 
The asp bears in its head a precious jewel, and when the 
magician wants this jewel (a carbuncle) he utters a spell which 
if the asp hear, it immediately fixes one ear on the ground and 
stops up the other with its tail. 
After detailed descriptions of dragons, basilisks, and other 
strange creatures, we arrive at the birds, among which are 
classed bees. 
