The Politics of Aristotle

by Aristotle

  41 · Of wasps, there are two kinds. Of these kinds one is wild and scarce, [25] lives on the mountains, engenders grubs not underground but on oak-trees, is larger, longer, and blacker than the other kind, is invariably speckled and furnished with a sting, and is remarkably courageous. The pain from its sting is more severe than that caused by the others, for the sting is larger, in proportion to its own larger size. These wild wasps live over into a second year, and in winter time, when oaks are in [30] course of felling, they may be seen coming out and flying away. They lie concealed during the winter, and live in the interior of logs of wood. Some of them are mother-wasps and some are workers, as with the tamer kind; and it is by observation of the tame wasps that one may learn the nature of the mothers and the workers. [628a1] For in the case of the tame wasps also there are two kinds; one consists of leaders, who are called mothers, and the other of workers. The leaders are far larger and milder-tempered than the others. The workers do not live over into a second year, [5] but all die when winter comes on; and this can be proved, for at the commencement of winter the workers become drowsy, and about the time of the winter solstice they are never seen at all. The leaders, the so-called mothers, are seen all through the [10] winter, and live in holes underground; for men when ploughing or digging in winter have often come upon mother-wasps, but never upon workers. The mode of reproduction of wasps is as follows. At the approach of summer, when the leaders have found a sheltered spot, they take to moulding their combs, and construct the so-called sphecons,—little nests containing four cells or thereabouts, and in these [15] are produced working-wasps but not mothers. When these are grown up, then they construct other larger combs upon the first, and then again in like manner others; so that by the close of autumn there are numerous large combs, in which the leader, the so-called mother, engenders no longer working-wasps but mothers. These [20] develop high up in the nest as large grubs, in cells that occur in groups of four or rather more, pretty much in the same way as the grubs of the king-bees are produced in their cells. After the birth of the working-grubs in the cells, the leaders do nothing and the workers have to supply them with nourishment; and this is clear [25] from the fact that the leaders of the working-wasps no longer fly out at this time, but rest quietly indoors. Whether the leaders of last year after engendering new leaders are killed by the new brood, and whether this occurs invariably or whether they can live for a longer time, has not been ascertained by actual observation; neither can we speak from observation as to the age attained by the mother-wasp or [30] by the wild wasps, or as to any other similar phenomenon. The mother-wasp is broad and heavy, fatter and larger than the ordinary wasp, and from its weight not very strong on the wing; these wasps cannot fly far, and for this reason they always rest inside the nest, building and managing its indoor arrangements. The so-called mother-wasps are found in most of the nests; it is a matter of doubt whether or no [628b1] they are provided with stings; in all probability, like the king-bees, they have stings, but never protrude them for offence. Of the ordinary wasps some are destitute of stings, like the drone-bees, and some are provided with them. Those unprovided [5] therewith are smaller and less spirited and never fight, while the others are big and courageous; and these latter, by some, are called males, and the stingless, females. At the approach of winter many of the wasps that have stings appear to lose them; but we have never met an eyewitness of this phenomenon. Wasps are more abundant in times of drought and in wild localities. They live underground, their [10] combs they mould out of rubbish and earth, each comb from a single origin, as if from a root. They feed on certain flowers and fruits, but for the most part on animal food. Some of the tame wasps have been observed when sexually united, but it was [15] not determined whether both, or neither, had stings, or whether one had a sting and the other had not; wild wasps have been seen under similar circumstances, when one was seen to have a sting but the case of the other was left undetermined. The wasp-grub does not appear to come into existence by parturition, for at the outset the grub is too big to be the offspring of a wasp. If you take a wasp by the feet and let [20] him buzz with his wings, wasps that have no stings will fly towards it, and wasps that have stings will not; from which fact it is inferred by some that one set are males and the other females. In the winter, wasps are found in caves, some with stings, and some without. Some build cells, small and few in number; others build [25] many and large ones. The so-called mothers are caught at the change of season, mostly on elm-trees, while gathering a substance sticky and gumlike. A large number of mother-wasps are found when in the previous year wasps have been numerous and the weather rainy; they are captured in precipitous places, or in [30] vertical clefts in the ground, and they all appear to be furnished with stings.

  42 · So much for the habits of wasps.

  Hornets do not subsist by culling from flowers as bees do, but for the most part on animal food: for this reason they hover about dung; for they chase the large flies, [35] and after catching them lop off their heads and fly away with the rest of the carcases; they are furthermore fond of sweet fruits. Such is their food. They have [629a1] also leaders like bees and wasps; and their leaders are larger in proportion to themselves than are wasp-kings to wasps or bee-kings to bees. The hornet-king, like [5] the wasp-king, lives indoors. Hornets build their nests underground, scraping out the soil like ants; for neither hornets nor wasps go off in swarms as bees do, but successive generations of young keep to the same habitat, and go on enlarging their [10] nest by scraping out more and more of soil. The nest accordingly attains a great size; in fact, from a particularly prosperous nest have been removed three and even four baskets full of combs. They do not, like bees, store up food, but pass the winter in a [15] torpid condition; the greater part of them die in the winter, but it is uncertain whether that can be said of them all. In the hives of bees several kings are found and they lead off detachments in swarms, but in the hornet’s nest only one king is found. When individual hornets have strayed from their nest, they cluster on a tree and [20] construct combs, as may be often seen above-ground, and in this nest they produce a king; when the king is full-grown,18 he leads them away and settles them along with himself in a nest. With regard to their sexual unions, and the method of their reproduction, nothing is known from actual observation. Among bees both the [25] drones and the kings are stingless, and so are certain wasps, as has been said; but hornets appear to be all furnished with stings: though it would well be worth while to carry out investigation as to whether the hornet-king has a sting or not.

  [30] 43 · Bumble-bees produce their young under a stone, right on the ground, in a couple of cells or little more; in these cells is found an attempt at honey, of a poor description. The tenthredon is like the hornet, but speckled, and about as broad as a bee. Being epicures as to their food, they fly, one at a time, into kitchens and on to slices of fish and the like dainties. The tenthredon gives birth like the wasp, [629b1] underground, and is very prolific; its nest is much bigger and longer than that of the wasp. So much for the methods of working and the habits of life of the bee, the wasp, and all the other similar insects.

  [5] 44 · As regards the disposition of animals, as has been previously observed, one may detect great differences in respect to courage and timidity, as also, even among wild animals, in regard to tameness and wildness. The lion, while he is eating, is most ferocious; but when he is not hungry and has had a good meal, he is [10] quite gentle. He is totally devoid of suspicion or nervous fear, is fond of romping with animals that have been reared along with him and to whom he is accustomed, and manifests great affection towards them. In the chase, as long as he is in view, he makes no attempt to run and shows no fear, but even if he be compelled by the [15] multitude of the hunters to retreat, he withdraws deliberately, step by step, every now and then turning his head to regard his pursuers. If, however, he reach wooded cover, then he runs at full speed, until he comes to open ground, when he resumes his leisurely retreat. When, in the open, he
is forced by the number of the hunters to run while in full view, he does run at the top of his speed, but without leaping and bounding. This running of his is evenly and continuously kept up like the running of [20] a dog; but when he is in pursuit of his prey and is close behind, he makes a sudden spring upon it. The two statements made regarding him are quite true; the one that he is especially afraid of fire, as Homer pictures him in the line—‘and glowing torches, which, though fierce, he dreads,’19—and the other, that he keeps a steady eye upon the hunter who hits him, and flings himself upon him. If a hunter hit him, [25] without hurting him, then if with a bound he gets hold of him, he will do him no harm, not even with his claws, but after shaking him and giving him a fright will let him go again. They invade towns and attack human beings when they are grown old and so by reason of old age and the diseased condition of their teeth are unable to pursue their wonted prey. They live to a good old age. The lion who was captured [30] when lame, had a number of his teeth broken; which fact was regarded by some as a proof of the longevity of lions, as he could hardly have been reduced to this condition except at an advanced age. There are two species of lions, the plump, curly-maned, and the long-bodied, straight-maned; the latter kind is courageous, and the former comparatively timid; sometimes they run away with their tail between their legs, [630a1] like a dog. A lion was once seen to be on the point of attacking a boar, but to run away when the boar stiffened his bristles in defence. It is susceptible of hurt from a wound in the flank, but on any other part of its frame will endure any number of blows, and its head is especially hard. Whenever it inflicts a wound, either by its [5] teeth or its claws, there flows from the wounded parts suppurating matter, quite yellow, and not to be staunched by bandage or sponge; the treatment for such a wound is the same as that for the bite of a dog.

  The civet is fond of man’s company; it does him no harm and is not much [10] afraid of him, but it is an enemy to the dog and the lion, and consequently is not found in the same habitat with them. The little ones are best. Some say that there are two species of the animal, and some say, three; there are probably not more than three, but, as in the case with certain of the fishes, birds, and quadrupeds, this [15] animal changes in appearance with the change of season. His colour in winter is not the same as it is in summer; in summer the animal is smooth-haired, in winter he is shaggy.

  45 · The bison is found in Paeonia on Mount Messapium, which separates Paeonia from Maedica; and the Paeonians call it the monapos. It is the size of a [20] bull, but stouter in build than the ox—for it is not long in the body; its skin, stretched tight on a frame, would give sitting room for seven people. In general it resembles the ox in appearance, except that it has a mane that reaches down to the point of the shoulder, as that of the horse; but the hair in its mane is softer than the [25] hair in the horse’s mane, and clings more closely. The colour is brown-yellow; the mane reaches down to the eyes, and is deep and thick. The colour of the hair is midway between red and ash-grey, like that of the so-called chestnut horse; it is [30] rough on top, woolly underneath. The animal is not found either very black or very red. It has the bellow of a bull. Its horns are crooked, turned inwards toward each other and useless for purposes of self-defence; they are a span broad, or a little more, and in volume each horn would hold about three pints of liquid; the black colour of the horn is beautiful and bright. The tuft of hair on the forehead reaches down to [630b1] the eyes, so that the animal sees objects on either flank better than objects right in front. It has no upper teeth, as is the case also with cattle and all other horned animals. Its legs are hairy; it is cloven-footed, and the tail, which resembles that of the ox, seems not big enough for the size of its body. It tosses up dust and digs the [5] ground like the bull. It skin is impervious to blows. Owing to the savour of its flesh it is sought for in the chase. When it is wounded it runs away, and stops only when thoroughly exhausted. It defends itself against an assailant by kicking and [10] projecting its excrement to a distance of eight yards; this device it can easily adopt over and over again, and the excrement is so pungent that the hair of hunting-dogs is burnt off by it. It is only when the animal is disturbed or alarmed that the dung has this property; when the animal is undisturbed it has no blistering effect. So [15] much for the shape and habits of the animal. When the season comes for parturition the mothers give birth to their young in troops upon the mountains. Before dropping their young they scatter their dung about the place, making a kind of circular rampart around them; for the animal has the faculty of ejecting excrement in most extraordinary quantities.

  46 · Of all wild animals the most easily tamed and the gentlest is the [20] elephant. It can be taught a number of things, and it understands them; as, for instance, it can be taught to kneel in presence of the king. It is very sensitive, and possessed of an intelligence superior to that of other animals. When the male has had sexual union with the female, and the female has conceived, the male has no further intercourse with her.

  Some say that the elephant lives for two hundred years; others, for one hundred [25] and twenty; that the female lives nearly as long as the male; that they reach their prime about the age of sixty, and that they are sensitive to inclement weather and frost. The elephant is found by the banks of rivers, but he is not a river animal; he can make his way through water, as long as the tip of his trunk can be above the [30] surface, for he blows with his trunk and breathes through it. The animal is a poor swimmer owing to the heavy weight of his body.

  47 · The male camel declines intercourse with its mother; if his keeper tries compulsion, he evinces disinclination. On one occasion, when there was no stallion at hand, the keeper covered over the mother and put her foal to her; but, when after the intercourse20 the wrapping had been removed, though the operation was [631a1] completed, still by and by he bit his keeper to death. A story goes that the king of Scythia had a highly-bred mare, and that all her foals were splendid; that wishing to mate the best of the young males with the mother,21 he had him brought to the stall for the purpose; that the young horse declined; that, after the mother’s head had [5] been concealed in a wrapper he, in ignorance, had intercourse; and that, when immediately afterwards the wrapper was removed and the head of the mare was rendered visible, the young horse ran away and hurled himself down a precipice.

  48 · Among the sea-fishes many stories are told about the dolphin, [10] indicative of his gentle and kindly nature, and of manifestations of passionate attachment to boys, in and about Tarentum, Caria, and other places. The story goes that, after a dolphin had been caught and wounded off the coast of Caria, a shoal of dolphins came into the harbour and stopped there until the fisherman let his captive go free; whereupon the shoal departed. A shoal of young dolphins is always, by way [15] of protection, followed by a large one. On one occasion a shoal of dolphins, large and small, was seen, and certain of them, going at a little distance away, appeared swimming in underneath a little dead dolphin when it was sinking, and supporting it on their backs, trying out of compassion to prevent its being devoured by some other [20] beast. Incredible stories are told regarding the rapidity of movement of this creature. It appears to be the fleetest of all animals, marine and terrestrial, and it can leap over the masts of large vessels. This is chiefly manifested when they are pursuing a fish for food; then, if the fish endeavours to escape, they pursue him in [25] their hunger down to deep waters; but, when the return swim is getting too long, they hold in their breath, as though calculating the length of it, and then draw themselves together and shoot up like arrows, trying to make the long ascent rapidly in order to breathe, and in the effort they spring right over a ship’s masts if a ship be [30] in the vicinity. This same phenomenon is observed in divers, when they have plunged into deep water; that is, they pull themselves together and rise with a speed proportional to their strength. Dolphins live together in pairs, male and female. It is [631b1] not known for what reason they run themselves aground on dry land; at all events, it is said that they d
o so at times, and for no reason.