Etymologies & Works 12 part 2/4

The satyrs have a rather pleasing face, and are restless with gesticulating movements. The callitriches differ from the rest in almost their whole appearance, for they have a beard spread over the face and a broad tail. The leontophonos is a small beast, so named because when captured it is burned, and pieces of flesh sprinkled with its ash and laid at the crossings of paths kill lions, if they take even the least bit of them. The porcupine (histrix) is an animal in Africa like a hedgehog, named from the whirring of its quills, which it looses from its back and shoots out to wound the dogs pursuing it. The enhydros is a little beast so called because it dwells in the waters, and chiefly in the Nile.

If it finds a crocodile sleeping, it first rolls itself in mud, and enters through its mouth into its belly, and gnawing away all its inward parts, so kills it. The ichneumon is so named in Greek because by its scent both the wholesomeness of foods and the poisonous ones are betrayed. Of it Dracontius says (Praise of God 1.515): 'The pig-like one cuts through the force of every poison.' It is called 'suillus' (pig-like) from its bristles. It also pursues serpents; and when it fights against the asp, it raises its tail, which the asp especially begins to watch as if threatening; and when the ichneumon shifts its attack to that, the asp, deceived, is seized. It is called 'musio' (mouser) because it is deadly to mice. The common people call it 'cattus' from its catching (captura). Others say it is because it 'cattat,' that is, sees.

For it discerns so sharply that by the brilliance of its eyes it overcomes the darkness of the night. Whence 'catus' comes from the Greek, that is, 'clever,' from 'kaiesthai' (to be kindled). The ferret (furo) is named from 'furvus' (dark); whence also 'fur' (thief). For it digs out dark and hidden burrows, and casts out the prey it has found. The badger (melo) is so named either because it has a very rounded body, or because it seeks out honeycombs and constantly hunts for honey. III. ON SMALL ANIMALS. The mouse (mus) is a tiny animal; its name is Greek, but whatever is derived from it becomes Latin. Others say 'mice' because they are born from the moisture of the earth; for 'mus' means earth, whence also 'humus.' In these creatures the liver grows at the full moon, just as certain sea creatures wax, which again wane when the moon diminishes. The shrew (sorex) is a Latin word, so called because it gnaws and cuts through in the manner of a saw (serra).

The ancients used to call the shrew 'saurex,' just as they said 'clodus' for 'claudus' (lame). The weasel (mustela) is so called as if 'mus longus' (long mouse); for 'telum' (dart) is named from length. This creature, crafty in cunning, in the houses where it rears its young, moves and changes its dwelling. It also pursues serpents and mice. There are two kinds of weasels: the one is of the woodland, differing in size, which the Greeks call 'iktides'; the other roams about in houses. But those are mistaken who say that the weasel conceives through its mouth and gives birth through its ear. The shrew-mouse (mus araneus) is one by whose bite a spider (aranea) is imitated. There is in Sardinia a very small animal, of a spider's form, which is called 'solifuga,' because it flees the day. In silver mines it is very numerous, creeping about secretly, and by their heedlessness it brings destruction on those who sit down upon it.

The mole (talpa) is so called because it is condemned to perpetual blindness in darkness. For it is without eyes, always digs the earth, casts up the soil, and eats the roots beneath the crops; the Greeks call it 'asphalax.' Dormice (glires) are so named because sleep makes them fat; for we say 'gliscere' for 'to grow.' For they sleep the whole winter and lie motionless as if dead, but in summertime they revive. The hedgehog (ericius) is an animal covered with spines, named from the fact that it draws itself up when it is enclosed within its own spines, by which it is protected on every side against ambushes. For as soon as it senses anything, it first draws itself up, and turned into a ball, it gathers itself back into its own arms. There is a certain prudence in it;

for when it has cut a grape-cluster from the vine, it rolls itself over on its back upon it, and so presents it to its young. The cricket (gryllus) has its name from the sound of its voice. It walks backward, bores into the earth, and chirps at night. It is hunted by an ant tied round with a hair and cast into its hole, dust having first been blown in so that it cannot hide itself; and so it is drawn out by the ant's embraces. The ant (formica) is so named because it carries grains (micas) of grain (farris). Its skill is great; for it provides for the future, and in summer prepares what it may eat in winter; at harvest it chooses wheat and does not touch barley; when rain falls on its grain, it throws it all out.

It is said that in Ethiopia there are ants in the form of a dog, which dig up golden sands with their feet, which they guard lest anyone carry them off, and they pursue to death those who try to snatch them. The ant-lion (formicoleon) is so called because it is either the lion of ants or indeed both an ant and a lion at once. For it is a small animal quite hostile to ants, which hides itself in the dust and kills the ants carrying grains. It is called both lion and ant because to other animals it is as an ant, but to ants it is as a lion. IV. ON SERPENTS. The word 'anguis' (snake) is the general term for every kind of serpent that can be coiled and twisted; and hence 'anguis' because it is angular (angulosus) and never straight.

Snakes were always held by the pagans to be the guardian spirits (genii) of places, whence Persius (1.113): 'Paint two snakes: boys, the place is sacred.' The 'coluber' (snake) is so called because it haunts (colat) the shades, or because it glides into slippery courses with sinuous windings. For 'lubricum' (slippery) is said of whatever slips away while it is held, like a fish or a serpent. The serpent (serpens) received its name because it creeps (serpit) by hidden approaches, not by open steps, but crawls by the tiniest efforts of its scales. But those creatures which rest upon four feet, like lizards and newts, are called not serpents but reptiles. Serpents, however, are reptiles because they crawl on belly and breast. Of these there are as many venoms as kinds, as many destructions as species, as many pains as colors.

The dragon (draco) is the greatest of all serpents, or indeed of all living things upon the earth. The Greeks call it 'drakonta'; whence it was derived into Latin so that it is called 'draco.' It is often dragged out from caves and borne into the air, and the air is stirred up because of it. It is crested, with a small mouth and narrow pipes, through which it draws breath and thrusts out its tongue. Its strength lies not in its teeth but in its tail, and it does harm by a lash rather than by its jaws. It is harmless as to venoms, but poisons are not necessary to it for causing death, because if it binds anyone it kills him. From it not even the elephant is safe by the size of its body;

for lurking near the paths along which the elephants are wont to go, it binds their legs with its knots, and slays them by suffocation. It is born in Ethiopia and India in the very burning of continual heat. The basilisk in Greek is interpreted in Latin as 'regulus' (little king), because it is the king of serpents, so much so that those who see it flee, since it kills them by its very smell; for it slays a man even if it merely looks at him. Indeed, no flying bird passes unharmed before its gaze, but however far off it may be, it is burned up and devoured by its mouth. Yet it is overcome by weasels, which men introduce into the caves where it hides; and so at that sight it flees, and the weasel pursues and kills it. For the Parent of all things has established nothing without a remedy.

It is half a foot in length, marked with white spots. The basilisks, like scorpions, seek out dry places, and after they come to the waters, they make men hydrophobic and frenzied. The 'sibilus' (hisser) is the same as the 'regulus.' For by its hissing it kills before it bites or burns. The viper (vipera) is so called because it gives birth by force (vi parit). For when its belly groans for birth, the young, not awaiting nature's due deliverance, gnaw through its sides and burst out by force, with the death of the mother. Lucan (6.490): 'The viper's coils unite, the body broken apart.' It is said that the male, inserting its head, ejaculates its seed into the viper's mouth; but she, turned to rage from the pleasure of lust, bites off the male's head received in her mouth. So it comes about that both parents perish;

the male while mating, the female while giving birth. From the viper are made the lozenges which are called 'theriakoi' by the Greeks. The asp (aspis) is so called because by its bite it injects and scatters venoms; for the Greeks call venom 'ios,' and thence 'aspis,' because it slays by its venomous bite. Of this there are diverse kinds and species, and unequal effects for doing harm. It is said that the asp, when it begins to suffer the charmer who by certain proper songs summons it to bring it out of its cave: it, when it is unwilling to come out, presses one ear to the ground, and stops and covers the other with its tail, and thus, not hearing those magic voices, it does not come out to the enchanter. The 'dipsas,' a kind of asp, which in Latin is called 'situla' (thirst-bringer), because whomever it bites perishes of thirst.

The 'hypnalis,' a kind of asp, is so called because it kills by sleep. Cleopatra applied this to herself, and thus was released by death as if by sleep. The 'haemorrhois' asp is so named because whoever is bitten by it sweats blood, so that, with the veins dissolved, whatever there is of life is drawn out through the blood. For in Greek blood is called 'haima.' The 'prester' asp runs always with mouth open and steaming. Of it the poet thus makes mention (Lucan 9.722): 'And the greedy prester distending its smoking jaws.' Whomever it strikes is swollen up and killed by monstrous corpulence; for putrefaction follows the swelling. The 'seps,' a wasting asp, which when it has bitten a man immediately consumes him, so that he is wholly liquefied in the serpent's mouth.

The 'cerastes' is a serpent so called because it has horns on its head like a ram's; for the Greeks call horns 'kerata.' It has four little horns, by the display of which, as if by bait, it entices and destroys the creatures it has lured. For it covers its whole body with sand and gives no sign of itself, except from that part by which it captures the birds or animals it has invited. It is more flexible than other serpents, so that it seems to have no spine. The 'scytale' serpent is so called because it gleams with such variety of back that by the charm of its markings it holds back those who look; and because it is rather sluggish in crawling, those it cannot overtake it captures as they stand amazed at the wonder of it. It is of such heat that even in wintertime it sheds the skin of its glowing body.

Of it Lucan (9.717): 'And the scytale, alone even now shedding its slough amid the scattered frosts.' The 'amphisbaena' is so called because it has two heads, one in its own place, the other in the tail, running from either head, with the trailing of its body coiled. This alone of serpents commits itself to the cold, coming forth the first of all. Of it the same Lucan (9.719): 'And the amphisbaena, heavy, verging toward its twin head.' Its eyes shine like lamps. The 'enhydris' is a snake living in the water; for the Greeks call water 'hydor.' The 'hydros' is a water serpent, by which those struck swell up; some call its disease 'boa,' because it is cured by cow-dung. The 'hydra' is a dragon of many heads, such as was in the marsh of Lerna in the province of Arcadia.

In Latin this is called 'excetra,' because when one head was cut off, three heads grew forth. But this is fabulous; for it is established that the Hydra was a place vomiting forth waters that laid waste a neighboring city, in which, when one channel was stopped, many broke out: which Hercules seeing, burned up the very places, and so closed the channels of the waters. For 'hydra' is named from water (aqua). The 'chelydros' serpent, which is also 'chersydros,' as it were 'cherhydros,' because it dwells both in waters and on land; for the Greeks call land 'cherson,' and water 'hydor.' Through whatever land it glides, it makes it smoke: which Macer thus describes (8): 'Whether its foaming back exhales its venom, or the earth smokes where the foul snake glides.' And Lucan (9.711): 'And of the chelydri drawn along their smoking track.' It always walks straight;

for if it twists itself while it runs, it immediately cracks apart. The 'natrix' is a serpent that infects water with venom; for in whatever spring it may be, it mixes its venom into it. Of it Lucan (9.720): 'The natrix, defiler of water.' The 'cenchris' is a serpent that does not bend, which always makes a straight course. Of it Lucan (9.712): 'And the cenchris, ever about to glide on a straight line.' The 'parias' is a serpent which always walks on its tail and seems to make a furrow. Of it the same Lucan (9.721): 'The parias, content to furrow its path with its tail.' The 'boas' is a snake of Italy of immense bulk, which pursues herds of cattle and buffalo, and attaches itself to their milk-flowing udders and by sucking kills them; and thence from the ravaging of cattle (boves) it received the name 'boas.' The 'iaculus' is a flying serpent. Of it Lucan (9.720):

'And the flying iaculi.' For they leap up into the trees, and when some animal comes in their way, they hurl themselves upon it and slay it; whence they are also called 'iaculi' (javelins). In Arabia, moreover, there are serpents with wings, which are called 'sirenae,' which run faster than horses, but are also said even to fly; whose venom is so great that death follows the bite before pain. The 'ophites' is so called because it has the color of sand. Of it the poet (Lucan 9.714): 'The Theban ophites, painted with small spots, of one color with the parched sands, and the ammodytes indistinguishable from them.' The 'seps' is a tiny serpent, which consumes with venom not only the body but even the bones. Of it the poet thus makes mention (Lucan 9.723): 'The wasting seps, dissolving the bones together with the body.'

The 'dipsas' is a serpent said to be of such smallness that when it is trodden on, it is not seen. Its venom extinguishes life before it is felt, so that the face, forestalled by death, does not even take on the sadness of one about to die. Of it the poet (Lucan 9.737): 'The dipsas, trodden with its head twisted back, bit Aulus, the standard-bearer of Tyrrhenian blood: there was scarcely any pain or sensation of the fang.' The 'salpuga' is a serpent that is not seen. The 'caecula' is so called because it is small and has no eyes. The 'centipede' (centupeda) is named from its multitude of feet. The lizard (lacertus) is a kind of reptile, so called because it has arms (bracchia). There are many kinds of lizards: such as the botrax, the salamander, the saura, the stellio. The 'botrax' is so called because it has the face of a frog; for the Greeks call a frog 'batrachon.'

The salamander is so named because it prevails against fires. Its power is the greatest among all venomous creatures; for the others strike individuals, but this one destroys many at once. For if it creeps up a tree, it infects all the fruits with venom, and kills those who eat them; and if it even falls into a well, the force of its venom kills those who drink. Fighting against fires, it alone of animals extinguishes flames; for it lives in the midst of the flames without pain and without being consumed, and not only because it is not burned, but it puts out the fire. The 'saura' is a lizard which, when it grows old, its eyes are blinded, and it enters a hole in a wall facing the East, and when the sun rises it looks toward it and is given light. The 'stellio' has its name given from its color;

for it is painted on its back with shining spots in the manner of stars (stellae). Of it Ovid (Metamorphoses 5.461): 'And it has a name suited to its color, its body starred with various spots.' It is said to be so hostile to scorpions that at the sight of it, it brings upon them dread and torpor. There are also other kinds of serpents: such as the ammodytes, the elephantia, the chamaedracontes. In short, the number of deaths is as great as the number of names. But all serpents are cold by their nature; nor do they strike except when they grow warm. For when they are cold, they touch nothing; whence their venoms do more harm by day than by night. For they grow numb in the chill of night, and rightly so, since they are cold from the nocturnal dew. For being pestilent and cold by nature, they draw into themselves the vapor of their icy body;

whence in winter they grow numb into knots, and in summer they are loosened. Hence it is that when anyone is struck by the venom of any serpent, he first becomes stupefied, and afterward, when that very poison, warmed within him, has flared up, it immediately kills the man. Venom (venenum) is so called because it goes through the veins (venae); for its pestilence, once infused, spreads through the veins, increased by the body's vital force, and drives out the soul. Whence venom cannot do harm unless it touches a man's blood. Lucan (9.614): 'The pestilence of serpents is harmful when mingled with blood.' But all venom is cold, and therefore the soul, which is fiery, flees the cold venom. In the natural goods which we see to be common to us and to irrational animals, the serpent excels by a certain liveliness of sense.

Whence it is also read in Genesis (3.1): 'Now the serpent was wiser than all the beasts of the earth.' Pliny says, if it be believed, that the head of a serpent, even if it has escaped with only two fingers' length, nonetheless lives. Whence it exposes its whole body to those striking, in defense of its head. In all snakes the sight is dull. Rarely do they look straight ahead, and not without reason, since they have their eyes not in the front but at the temples; so that they hear more quickly than they see. No animal, moreover, moves its tongue with such swiftness as the serpent, so that it seems to have a triple tongue, though it is but one. Serpents' bodies are moist, so much so that wherever they go, they mark the way with moisture.

The tracks of serpents are such that, although they seem to lack feet, they nevertheless crawl by their ribs and the efforts of their scales, which they have arranged in equal fashion from the top of the throat all the way to the bottom of the belly. For they rely on their scales as if on nails, and on their ribs as if on legs. Whence if in any part of the body from the belly to the head it is bruised by any blow, being rendered feeble it cannot maintain its course; because wherever that blow has fallen, it breaks the spine, through which the feet of the ribs and the movement of the body were carried on. Serpents, moreover, are said to live long, so much so that, having laid aside the old tunic (skin), they are said to lay aside old age and return to youth.

The 'tunics' (skins) of serpents are called 'exuviae' (sloughs), because with these, when they grow old, they strip themselves; stripped of which they return to youth. For they are called both 'exuviae' and 'induviae,' because they are stripped off (exuuntur) and put on (induuntur). Pythagoras says that from the marrow of a dead man, which is in the spine, a serpent is created; which Ovid also recounts in the books of the Metamorphoses, saying (15.398): 'There are those who believe that human marrow is changed into a snake when the spine has rotted in the closed tomb.' If this be believed, it rightly comes about that just as by a serpent comes the death of man, so also by the death of man comes the serpent. It is said, moreover, that the serpent has not dared to touch a naked man. V. ON WORMS.

A worm (vermis) is an animal that is for the most part generated from flesh, or from wood, or from any earthly thing without any copulation; although sometimes they are also born from eggs, like the scorpion. Worms, moreover, are either of the earth, or of the water, or of the air, or of flesh, or of leaves, or of wood, or of garments. The spider (aranea) is a worm of the air, named from the nourishment of the air; which with a tiny body draws out long threads, and ever intent on its web never ceases to labor, sustaining a perpetual suspension in its own craft. The leech (sanguisuga) is a water worm, so called because it sucks blood (sanguinem sugit). For it lies in wait for those drinking, and when it slips into the throat or wherever it clings, it drinks the blood;

and when it is soaked with too much gore, it vomits up what it has drunk, so as to suck fresh blood anew. The scorpion (scorpio) is an earthly worm, which is rather ascribed to worms, not to serpents; an animal armed with a sting, and named in Greek from this, because it stabs with its tail and diffuses venom by an arched wound. It is proper to the scorpion, moreover, that it does not strike the palm of the hand. The cantharis (blister-beetle) is an earthly worm which, as soon as it is applied to the human body, by its burning makes blisters full of fluid. The 'multipes' (many-foot) is an earthly worm, named from its multitude of feet, which when touched rolls itself up into a ball. It is born under stones from moisture and earth. The 'limax' (slug) is a worm of the slime (limus), so called because it is born in slime or from slime; whence also it is ever held to be filthy and unclean.

The silkworm (bombyx) is a worm of leaves, from whose weaving the silk fabric (bombycinum) is made. It is called by this name because it is emptied while it produces its threads, and only air remains within it. The caterpillar (eruca) is a worm of leaves wrapped in a cabbage-plant or in a vine-tendril, named from gnawing (erodere). Of it Plautus makes mention (Cistellaria 728): 'Imitating a worthless and mischievous beast, wrapped in a vine-tendril, it entangles itself.' Likewise it does not fly away like the locust, so as to run this way and that scattering half-eaten crops, but it remains on the doomed produce and with slow gliding and sluggish bites consumes the whole. The Greeks call the worms of wood 'teredones,' because they eat by rubbing (terere). These we call 'termites.' For thus among the Latins are called the worms of wood, which trees felled at an unsuitable time produce.

The moth (tinea) is a worm of garments, so called because it holds fast (teneat), and settles in to that extent to which it gnaws away. Hence also 'pertinax' (stubborn), because it presses again and again upon the same thing. Worms of flesh: the hemicranius, the lumbricus (roundworm), the ascarides, the costi, the lice (peduculi), the fleas (pulices), the nits (lendes), the tarmus, the ricinus (tick), the usia, the cimex (bug). The 'hemicranius' is called a worm of the head. The 'lumbricus' is a worm of the intestines, so called as if 'lumbicus,' because it slips (labitur), or because it is in the loins (lumbi). The ascarides. The costi. The lice (peduculi) are worms of the skin, named from the feet (pedes). Whence also those are called 'peduculosi' (lousy) in whom lice swarm on the body. The fleas (pulices) are so called because they are nourished chiefly from dust (pulvis). The nits (lendes). The 'tarmus' is a worm of lard. The 'ricinus' is a worm of the dog, so called because it clings in the ears of dogs; for 'kyon' in Greek is a dog.

The 'usia' is a worm of the pig, so called because it burns (urit); for where it has bitten, the place burns so much that blisters form there. The bug (cimex) is named from its likeness to a certain herb, whose stench it has. Properly, however, the worm (vermis) is born in putrid flesh; the moth (tinea) in garments; the caterpillar (eruca) in cabbage; the teredo in wood; the tarmus in lard. The worm crawls not, like the serpent, by open steps or by the efforts of scales, because it has no rigidity of spine, as the snake does, but by stretching out step by step the contracted parts of its little body in a straight line, and by contracting the parts stretched out, it unfolds its motion, and thus, being set in motion, it glides along. VI. ON FISHES. Fishes (pisces) are so called, whence also 'pecus' (livestock), namely from feeding (pascere). These which swim are called reptiles for this reason, because they have the appearance and nature of crawling;

although they plunge themselves into the deep, yet in swimming they crawl. Whence David also says (Psalm 104.25): 'This great and wide sea; there are reptiles, of which there is no number.' Amphibians (amphibia) are certain kinds of fishes, so called because they have the use of walking on land and the function of swimming in the waters. For 'amphi' in Greek means 'both,' that is, because they live both in the waters and on land: such as seals, crocodiles, hippopotami, that is, river-horses. Men imposed names on cattle and beasts and birds before they did on fishes, because these were seen and known first.

But afterward, as the kinds of fishes gradually became known, names were established for them either from a likeness to land animals, or from their own appearance or habits, or from color, or from shape, or from sex. From a likeness to land creatures: such as the frog-fishes and calf-fishes and lion-fishes and the black merli (blackbird-fishes) and the peacock-fishes painted with diverse color, marked on back and neck, and the thrush-fishes speckled with white, and the rest which have claimed for themselves names according to the appearance of land animals. From the habits of land creatures: such as the dog-fishes in the sea, named from the dogs on land, because they bite; and the wolf-fishes, because with wicked voracity they pursue others. From color: such as the shade-fishes (umbrae), because they are of the color of shadow; and the gilt-heads (auratae), because they have the color of gold on their head; and the varii (trout) from their variegation, which the common people call 'tructae' (trout). From shape:

such as the 'orbis' (globe-fish), because it is round and consists entirely in its head; and the 'solea' (sole), because it is like the soles of footwear (soleae). From sex: such as the 'musculus' (mussel/male-fish), because it is the male of the whale (ballaena); for by its mating this monster is said to conceive. Hence also the 'musculi' of snails, by whose milt oysters conceive. Whales (ballaenae), moreover, are beasts of immense size, named from emitting and pouring out (emittere) waters; for beyond all other beasts of the sea they cast up the waves higher; for 'ballein' in Greek means 'to emit.' The 'cete' are so called from 'to ketos kai ta kete,' that is, on account of their hugeness. For they are enormous kinds of monsters and bodies equal to mountains; such as the whale that received Jonah, whose belly was of such magnitude that it took on the likeness of hell, as the Prophet says (Jonah 2.3):

'He heard me out of the belly of hell.' The sea-horses (equi marini), because in their front part they are horses, but in their hinder part are resolved into a fish. The 'bocas,' they say, are sea-oxen (boves marini), as it were 'boacae.' The 'caerulei' (sea-blue fishes) are named from their color; for 'caeruleum' is green mixed with black, as the sea is. The dolphins (delphines) have a definite name, because they follow the voices of men, or because they gather together in a school at the sound of music (symphonia). Nothing in the sea is swifter than these; for they often, leaping, fly over ships. But when they play before the waves and strike themselves with a headlong leap upon the masses of the billows, they seem to signify storms. These are properly called 'simones.' There is also a kind of dolphin in the Nile with a saw-toothed back, which kill crocodiles by cutting the soft parts of their bellies.

Sea-pigs (porci marini), which are commonly called 'suilli,' because while they seek food, they root the earth under the waters in the manner of a pig. For about the throat they have the function of a mouth, and unless they plunge their snout into the sands, they do not gather their food. The 'corvi' (raven-fishes) are named from the voice of the heart, because they grunt in the breast, and betrayed by their own voice, they are caught. The tunnies (thynni) have a Greek name. These enter in the springtime, entering by the right side, and go out by the left. This is believed to be because they see more sharply with their right eyes than with their left. The sword-fish (gladius) is so called because it has a pointed snout: for this reason it sinks ships that have been pierced through. The saw-fish (serra) is so named because it has a serrated crest, and swimming beneath, it cuts the ship. The scorpion-fish (scorpio) is so called because it wounds when it is lifted by hand.

They relate that if ten crabs are tied up with a bundle of basil, all the scorpions that are there gather to that place. The 'aranea' (weever) is a kind of fish, so called because it strikes with its sting (aere); for it has stingers with which it strikes. The crocodile (crocodillus), named from its saffron color (croceus), is born in the Nile, a four-footed animal strong on land and in the waters, for the most part twenty cubits in length, armed with a monstrousness of teeth and claws, and with such hardness of skin that it repels the blows even of strong stones from its back. By night it rests in the waters, by day on land. It cherishes its eggs on the land: male and female keep watch by turns. Certain fishes, having a serrated crest, kill it by cutting through the soft parts of its belly.