by Aristotle
After parturition the mare at once swallows the after-birth, and bites off the [10] growth, called the ‘hippomanes’, that is found on the forehead of the foal. This growth is somewhat smaller than a dried fig; and in shape is broad and round, and in colour black. If anyone gets possession of it before the mare, and the mare gets a smell of it, she goes wild and frantic at the smell. And it is for this reason that venders of drugs seek it out and collect it.
[15] If an ass cover a mare after the mare has been covered by a horse, the ass will destroy the previously formed embryo.
[Horse-trainers do not appoint a horse as leader to a troop, as herdsmen appoint a bull as leader to a herd, because the horse is not steady but quick-tempered and skittish.]24
23 · The ass of both sexes is capable of breeding, and sheds its first teeth, at the age of two and a half years; it sheds its second teeth within six months, its third [20] within another six months, and the fourth after the like interval. These fourth teeth are termed the marks.
A she-ass has been known to conceive when a year old, and the foal to be reared. After intercourse with the male it will discharge the sperm with its urine unless it be hindered, and for this reason it is usually beaten after such intercourse and chased about. It casts its young in the twelfth month. It usually bears but one [25] foal, and that is its natural number; occasionally however it bears twins. The ass if it cover a mare destroys, as has been said, the embryo previously begotten by the horse; but, after the mare has been covered by the ass, the horse will not spoil the embryo. The she-ass has milk in the tenth month of pregnancy. Seven days after [30] casting a foal the she-ass submits to the male, and is almost sure to conceive if put to the male on this particular day; the same result, however, is quite possible later on. If she has not given birth before losing her marks, she will not conceive or become pregnant in the whole of her remaining life. The she-ass will refuse to cast her foal [577b1] with any one looking on or in the daylight, and just before foaling she has to be led away into a dark place. If the she-ass has had young before the shedding of the marks, she will bear all her life through. The ass lives for more than thirty years, and the she-ass lives longer than the male. [5]
When there is a cross between a horse and a she-ass or a jackass and a mare, there is much greater chance of a miscarriage than where the commerce is normal. The period for gestation in the case of a cross depends on the male, and is just what it would have been if the male had had commerce with a female of his own kind. In [10] regard to size, looks, and vigour, the foal is more apt to resemble the mother. If such hybrid connexions be continued without intermittence, the female will soon go sterile; and for this reason trainers always allow of intervals between breeding [15] times. A mare will not take the ass, nor a she-ass the horse, unless the ass shall have been suckled by a mare; and for this reason they put what they call ‘mare-sucklings’ under mares. These mount the mares in the open pastures, mastering them by force as the stallions do.
24 · A mule is fitted for commerce with the female after the first shedding of [20] its teeth, and at the age of seven will impregnate effectually; and where connexion has taken place with a mare, a jennet has been known to be produced. After the seven year it has no further intercourse with the female. A female mule has been known to be impregnated, but without the impregnation being followed up by parturition. In Syrophoenicia she-mules submit to the mule and bear young; but the [25] breed, though it resembles the ordinary one, is different. The jennet is foaled by a mare when she has gone sick during gestation, and corresponds to the dwarf in the human species and to the runt in swine; and, as is the case with dwarfs, the sexual organ of the jennet is abnormally large.
The mule lives for a number of years. There are on record cases of mules living [30] to the age of eighty, as did one in Athens at the time of the building of the temple; this mule on account of its age was let go free, but continued to assist in dragging burdens, and would go side by side with the other draught-beasts and stimulate them to their work; and in consequence a public decree was passed forbidding any [578a1] corn-merchant from driving the creature away from his trays. The she-mule grows old more slowly than the mule. Some assert that the she-mule menstruates by the act of voiding her urine, and that the mule owes the prematurity of his decay to his habit of smelling at the urine. So much for the modes of generation in connexion with these animals.
[5] 25 · Breeders can distinguish between young and old quadrupeds. If, when drawn back from the jaw, the skin at once goes back to its place, the animal is [10] young; if it remains long wrinkled up, the animal is old.
26 · The camel carries its young for ten months, and bears but one at a time and never more; the young camel is removed from the mother when a year old. The animal lives for a long period, more than fifty years. It bears in spring-time, and [15] gives milk until the time of the next conception. Its flesh and milk are exceptionally palatable. The milk is drunk mixed with water in the proportion of either two to one or three to one.
27 · The elephant of either sex is fitted for breeding before reaching the age of twenty. The female carries her young, according to some accounts, for eighteen [20] months; according to others, for three years; and the discrepancy is due to the fact that their copulation is not easily observed. The female settles down on its rear to cast its young, and obviously suffers greatly during the process. The young one, immediately after birth, sucks the mother, not with its trunk but with the mouth; [25] and can walk about and see distinctly the moment it is born.
28 · The wild sow submits to the boar at the beginning of winter, and in the spring-time retreats for parturition to a lair in some district inaccessible to intrusion, hemmed in with sheer cliffs and chasms and overshadowed by trees. The [30] boar usually remains by the sow for thirty days. The number of the litter and the period of gestation is the same as in the case of the domesticated pig. The sound of the grunt also is similar; only that the sow grunts more, and the boar seldom. Of the wild boars such as are castrated grow to the largest size and become fiercest: to [578b1] which circumstance Homer alludes when he says:—
‘He reared against him a wild castrated boar: it was not like a corn-eating beast, but like a forest-clad promontory.’25
Wild boars become castrated owing to an itch befalling them in early life in the region of the testicles, and they squeeze out their testicles by their rubbing [5] themselves against the trunks of trees.
29 · The hind, as has been stated, submits to the stag as a rule only under compulsion, as she is unable to endure the male often owing to the rigidity of the penis. However, they do occasionally submit to the stag as the ewe submits to the [10] ram; and when they are in heat the hinds avoid one another. The stag is not constant to one particular hind, but after a while quits one and mates with others. The breeding time is after the rising of Arcturus, during the months of Boedromion and Maimacterion. The period of gestation lasts for eight months. Conception comes on [15] a few days after intercourse; and a number of hinds can be impregnated by a single male. The hind, as a rule, bears but one fawn, although instances have been known of her casting two. Out of dread of wild beasts she casts her young by the side of the high-road. The young fawn grows with rapidity. Menstruation occurs at no other time with the hind; it takes place only after parturition, and the substance is [20] phlegm-like.
The hind leads the fawn to her lair; this is her place of refuge, a cave with a single inlet, inside which she shelters herself against attack.
Fabulous stories are told concerning the longevity of the animal, but the stories [25] have never been verified, and the period of gestation and the growth in the fawn would not lead one to attribute extreme longevity to this creature.
In the mountain called Deer Mountain, which is in Arginussa in Asia Minor—the place where Alcibiades died—all the hinds have one ear split, so that, if [30] they stray to a distance, they can be recognized by this mark; and the embryo actually has the mark while yet in the womb of the m
other.
The hind has four teats like the cow. After the hinds have become pregnant, the males all segregate one by one, and in consequence of the violence of their sexual passions they keep each one to himself and dig a hole in the ground; they smell rank, [579a1] like goats, and their foreheads from getting wetted become black. In this way they pass the time until the rain falls, after which time they turn to pasture. The animal acts in this way owing to its sexual wantonness and also to its obesity; for in [5] summertime it becomes so exceptionally fat as to be unable to run: in fact at this period they can be overtaken by the hunters that pursue them on foot in the second or third run; and in consequence of the heat of the weather and their getting out of breath they always make for water. In the rutting season, the flesh of the deer is unsavoury and rank, like the flesh of the he-goat. In wintertime the deer becomes [10] thin and weak, but towards the approach of the spring he is at his best for running. When on the run the deer keeps pausing from time to time, and waits until his pursuer draws upon him, whereupon he starts off again. This habit appears due to [15] some internal pain: at all events, the gut is so slender and weak that, if you strike the animal ever so softly, it is apt to break asunder, though the hide of the animal remains sound and uninjured.
[20] 30 · Bears, as has been previously stated, do not copulate with the male mounting the back of the female, but with the female lying down under the male. The she-bear goes with young for thirty days. She brings forth sometimes one cub, sometimes two cubs, and at most five. Of all animals the newly born cub of the she-bear is the smallest in proportion to the size of the mother; that is to say, it is larger than a mouse but smaller than a weasel. It is also smooth and blind, and its [25] legs and most of its organs are as yet inarticulate. Pairing takes place in the month of Posideon, and they hibernate until Elaphebolion; parturition takes place about the time for retiring into winter quarters; about this time the bear and the she-bear are at the fattest. After the she-bear has reared her young, she comes out of her [30] winter lair in the third month, when it is already spring. The female porcupine hibernates and goes with young the same number of days as the she-bear, and in other respects resembles this animal. When a she-bear is with young, it is a very hard task to catch her.
31 · It has already been stated that the lion and lioness copulate rearwards, and that these animals are retromingent. They do not copulate nor bring forth at all seasons indiscriminately, but once in the year only. The lioness brings forth in the [579b1] spring, generally two cubs at a time, and six at the very most; but sometimes only one. The story about the lioness discharging her womb in the act of parturition is a pure fable, and was merely invented to account for the scarcity of the animal by [5] someone who was at a loss to explain it otherwise; for the animal is a rare animal, and is not found in many countries. In fact, in the whole of Europe it is only found in the strip between the rivers Achelous and Nessus. The cubs of the lioness when newly born are exceedingly small, and can scarcely walk when two months old. The [10] Syrian lion bears cubs five times: five cubs at the first litter, then four, then three, then two, and lastly one; after this the lioness ceases to bear for the rest of her days. The lioness has no mane, but this appendage is peculiar to the lion. The lion sheds only the four so-called canines, two in the upper jaw and two in the lower; and it [15] sheds them when it is six months old.
32 · The hyena in colour resembles the wolf, but is more shaggy, and is furnished with a mane running all along the spine. What is recounted concerning its genital organs, to the effect that every hyena is furnished with the organ both of the male and the female, is untrue. The fact is that the sexual organ of the male hyena resembles the same organ in the wolf and in the dog; the part resembling the female [20] genital organ lies underneath the tail, and does to some extent resemble the female organ, but it has no duct, and the passage for the residuum comes underneath it. The female hyena has the part that resembles the organ of the female, and, as in the [25] case of the male, has it underneath her tail, unprovided with duct; and after it the passage for the residuum, and underneath this the true female genital organ. The female hyena has a womb, like all other female animals of the same kind. It is an exceedingly rare circumstance to meet with a female hyena. At least a hunter said that out of eleven hyenas he had caught, only one was a female. [30]
33 · Hares copulate in a rearward posture, as has been stated, for the animal is retromingent. They breed and bear at all seasons, superfoetate during pregnancy, and bear young every month. They do not give birth to their young ones all together at one time, but bring them forth at intervals over as many days as it may happen to be. The female is supplied with milk before parturition; and after bearing submits [580a1] immediately to the male, and is capable of conception while still suckling her young. The milk in consistency resembles sow’s milk. The young are born blind, as is the case with the greater part of the fissipeds. [5]
34 · The fox mounts the vixen in copulation, and the vixen bears young like the she-bear; in fact, her young ones are even more inarticulately formed. Before parturition she retires to sequestered places, so that it is a great rarity for a vixen to be caught while pregnant. After parturition she warms her young and gets them into shape by licking them. She bears four at most at a birth. [10]
35 · The wolf resembles the dog in regard to the time of conception and parturition, the number of the litter, and the blindness of the new-born young. The sexes couple at one special period, and the female brings forth at the beginning of the summer. There is an account given of the parturition of the she-wolf that borders on the fabulous, to the effect that she confines her lying-in to within twelve [15] particular days of the year. And they give the reason for this in the form of a myth, viz. that when they transported Leto in so many days from the land of the Hyperboreans to the island of Delos, she assumed the form of a she-wolf to escape the anger of Hera. Whether the account be correct or not26 has not yet been verified; [20] I give it merely as it is currently told. There is no truth in the current statement that the she-wolf bears only once in her lifetime.
The cat and the ichneumon bear as many young as the dog, and live on the [25] same food; they live about six years. The cubs of the panther are born blind like those of the wolf, and the female bears four at the most at one birth. The particulars of conception are the same for the jackal as for the dog; the cubs of the animal are born blind, and the female bears two, or three, or four at a birth. It is long in the body and low in stature; but27 notwithstanding the shortness of its legs it is [30] exceptionally fleet of foot, owing to the suppleness of its frame and its capacity for leaping. [580b1]
36 · There is found in Syria a so-called mule. It is not the same as the cross between the horse and ass, but resembles it just as a wild ass resembles the domesticated congener, and derives its name from the resemblance. Like the wild [5] ass, this wild mule is remarkable for its speed. The animals of this species interbreed with one another; and a proof of this statement may be gathered from the fact that a certain number of them were brought into Phrygia in the time of Pharnaces, the father of Pharnabazus, and the animal is there still. There are three now, but there were originally nine, so they say.
[10] 37 · The phenomena of generation in regard to the mouse are the most astonishing both for the number of the young and for the rapidity. On one occasion a she-mouse in a state of pregnancy was shut up by accident in a jar containing millet-seed, and after a little while the lid of the jar was removed and one hundred and twenty mice were found inside it.
The way in which mice in country places appear in enormous numbers and [15] disappear is puzzling. In many places their number is so incalculable that but very little of the corn-crop is left; and so rapid is their mode of proceeding that sometimes a small farmer will one day observe that it is time for reaping, and on the following [20] morning, when he takes his reapers afield, he finds his entire crop devoured. Their disappearance is unaccountable: in a few days not a mouse will there be
to be seen. And yet in the time before these few days men fail to keep down their numbers by fumigating and unearthing them, or by hunting them and turning in swine upon [25] them; for pigs root up the mouse-holes. Foxes also hunt them, and the wild ferrets in particular destroy them, but they make no way against the prolific qualities of the animal and the rapidity of its breeding. When they attack, nothing succeeds in thinning them down except the rain; and then they disappear rapidly.
[30] In a certain district of Persia when a female mouse is dissected the female embryos appear to be pregnant. Some people assert, and positively assert, that a [581a1] female mouse by licking salt can become pregnant without the intervention of the male.
Mice in Egypt are covered with bristles like the hedgehog. There is also a different breed of mice that walk on their two hind-legs; their front legs are small [5] and their hind-legs long; the breed is exceedingly numerous. There are many other breeds of mice.
BOOK VII
1 · As to man’s growth, first within his mother’s womb and afterward to old age, the course of nature, in so far as man is specially concerned, is after the [10] following manner. The difference of male and female and of their respective organs has been dealt with earlier. When twice seven years old, in the most of cases, the male begins to engender seed; and at the same time hair appears upon the pubes, in like manner, so Alcmaeon of Croton remarks, as plants first blossom and then seed. [15] About the same time, the voice begins to alter, getting harsher and more uneven, neither shrill as formerly nor deep as afterward, nor yet of any even tone, but like an instrument whose strings are frayed and out of tune—they say his voice is ‘breaking’. Now this breaking of the voice is the more apparent in those who are making trial of their sexual powers; for in those who are prone to lustfulness the [20] voice turns into the voice of a man, but not so in the continent. For if a lad strives diligently to hinder his voice from breaking, as some do of those who devote themselves to music, the voice lasts a long while unbroken and may even persist with little change. And the breasts swell and likewise the private parts, altering in size [25] and shape. (And at this time of life those who try by friction to provoke emission of seed are apt to experience pain as well as pleasure.) At the same age in the female, the breasts swell and the so-called menstrual fluids commence to flow; and this fluid [581b1] resembles fresh blood. The ‘whites’ occur even in very young children, more especially if their diet be largely of a fluid nature; and this malady causes arrest of growth and loss of flesh. In the majority of cases menstruation begins by the time [5] the breasts have grown to the height of two fingers’ breadth. In girls, too, about this time the voice changes to a deeper note; for while in general the woman’s voice is higher than the man’s, so also the voices of girls are pitched in a higher key than the elder women’s, just as the boy’s are higher than the men’s; and the girls’ voices are [10] shriller than the boys’, and a maid’s flute is tuned sharper than a lad’s.