The Politics of Aristotle

by Aristotle

  118 · In Thrace above Amphipolis they say that a thing happens, which is [15] wonderful and incredible to those who have not seen it; for the boys, going forth from the villages and neighbouring districts to catch little birds, take the hawks to help in catching them, and they do so in this manner:—When they have advanced to a suitable spot they call the hawks by name with a loud cry; and, when they hear the [20] boys’ voice, they come and frighten away the birds; these in terror of them take refuge in the bushes, where the boys strike them down with sticks and capture them. But what one would be most of all surprised at is this—whenever the hawks [25] themselves have seized any of the birds, they throw them down to the bird-catchers, while the boys return home, after giving some portion of all their booty to the hawks.

  119 · Another marvel also they say occurs among the Heneti: that countless myriads of jackdaws are frequently borne to their country, and eat up the corn when [30] the people have sown it. To them the Heneti offer gifts, before the birds are about to fly to the borders of the land, throwing before them seeds of all kinds of fruits. Now [842a1] if the jackdaws taste these they do not come over into their country, and the Heneti know that they will be in peace; but, if they do not taste them, the people thereupon expect an attack to be made upon them by their enemies.

  [5] 120 · In the Thracian Chalcidice, near Olynthus, they say there is a place called Cantharolethros, a little larger in size than a threshing-floor; and that when any other living creature reaches the spot it departs again; but none of the beetles [10] that come there do so; but they going round and round the place die from hunger.

  121 · Among the Thracian Cyclopes there is a little spring containing water, which in appearance indeed is pure, transparent, and like all others; but when an animal drinks of it, straightway it perishes.

  [15] 122 · Men say that in Crastonia, near the country of the Bisaltae, the hares that are captured have two livers; and that there is a certain place, about a rood in extent, into which whatever animal enters dies. There is in the same place, besides, a [20] temple of Dionysus, large and beautiful, in which, when the festival and sacrifice take place, it is said that a great blaze of fire is seen when the god is going to produce a good season, and that all those who are assembled round the sacred enclosure see it; when, however, he intends to cause unfruitfulness, this light is not seen, but darkness extends over the place, as during the other nights.

  [25] 123 · In Elis they relate that there is a certain building about eight furlongs distant from the city, in which, at the festival of Dionysus, they place three empty copper cauldrons. Having done this, they request any of the Greeks staying in the city, who wishes, to examine the vessels, and to seal the doors of the house: then, [30] when they are about to open them, they point out the seals to the citizens and strangers first of all, before they do so. They on entering find the cauldrons full of wine, but the floor and the walls uninjured, so that it is impossible to entertain a suspicion that they accomplish this by some trick. Moreover, they say that among the same people there are kites, which snatch the meat from those who carry it [842b1] through the marketplace, but do not touch the flesh of the sacred victims.

  [5] 124 · It is said that at Coronea in Boeotia moles cannot live, or dig up the ground, while the rest of Boeotia possesses a large number of them.

  125 · At Lusi in Arcadia men say there is a certain spring in which field-mice are found and dive, passing their lives in it. The same thing is said to occur likewise at Lampsacus.

  [10]126 · At Crannon in Thessaly they say there are only two crows in the city. When these have hatched their young, they depart from the place, as it appears, but leave behind as many others of their offspring.

  [15] 127 · In Apollonia, which lies near to the country of the Taulantii, they say there is bitumen obtained by digging, and pitch springing up from the earth, in the same manner as springs of water, in no respect differing from that of Macedonia, except that it is naturally blacker and thicker than that. And not far from this place [20] there is a fire burning at all times, as those who dwell in the neighbourhood assert. The burning place, it appears, is not large, but about the size of the space occupied by five couches. This spot smells of sulphur and alum, and thick grass grows around, at which one would be most surprised, and also large trees, not four cubits distant [25] from the fire. Moreover, a fire burns constantly in Lycia and near Megalopolis in the Peloponnese.

  128 · It is said also that among the Illyrians the cattle bring forth young twice in the year, and that most of them have twins, and that many goats bring forth three or four kids at a time, and some even five or more; and, besides, that they readily yield nine pints of milk. They say too that the hens do not lay merely once, as [30] among other nations, but twice or thrice in the day.

  129 · It is said that the wild oxen in Paeonia are far larger than those that are found in other nations, and that their horns contain twenty-four pints, and those of some of them even more.

  130 · Concerning the Sicilian Strait, apart from what many other writers [843a1] have written, this author states that a portentous occurrence takes place: the billows, he says, being carried with a loud whistling sound from the Tyrrhenian Sea, dash against both the promontories, that of Sicily and that of Italy, which is called [5] Rhegium, and being borne from a great sea are shut up in a narrow space; and when this occurs they raise the waves with a loud roar in mid-air to a very great height, as they dash upwards, so that the rising of the waters is visible to those who are far [10] away, not resembling the rising of the sea, but white and foaming, and similar to the sweeping movements which take place in excessively violent storms: and that sometimes the waves meet each other on both the promontories and produce a collision incredible in description, and unendurable for the eyes to behold; but at [15] other times parting, after dashing against each other, they show an abyss, so deep and horrible to those who are compelled to look on, that many are unable to restrain themselves, and fall, blinded with terror. But when the waves, after dashing on [20] either of the two places and being carried to the tops of the promontories, have descended again into the sea flowing beneath, then again with loud bellowing and great and swift eddies the sea boils up, and is lifted on high from the depths in confusion, and assumes alternately all kinds of hues, for it appears at one time dark, [25] at another blue, and often of a purplish colour: but no creeping thing can endure either to hear or to see the quick rush and length of this sea, and besides these its ebb, but all flee to the low-lying skirts of the mountains; but, when the heaving of the billows ceases, the eddies are borne on high, making such various twistings that [30] they seem to produce movements resembling the coils of presteres, or some other large snakes.

  131 · Men say that, while the Athenians were building the temple of [843b1] Demeter at Eleusis, a brazen pillar was found surrounded with rocks, on which had been inscribed—‘This is the tomb of Deïope’, whom some state to have been the wife of Musaeus, others the mother of Triptolemus. [5]

  132 · In one of the islands, called the islands of Aeolus, they say that a large number of palm-trees grow, whence it is also called ‘Palm-island’; therefore that could not be true which is asserted by Callisthenes, that the tree received its name from the Phoenicians, who inhabited the sea-coast of Syria. But some state that the [10] Phoenicians themselves received this name from the Greeks, because they, first of all sailing over the sea, slew and murdered all, wherever they landed. And moreover in the dialect of the Perrhaebians the verb ‘phoenixai’ means ‘to stain with blood’.

  [15] 133 · In what is called the Aeniac district, in the neighbourhood of the city named Hypate, an old pillar is said to have been discovered; and the Aenianians, wishing to know to whom it belonged, as it had an inscription in ancient characters, sent certain persons to take it to Athens. But as they were proceeding through [20] Boeotia, and were communicating to some of their guest friends the object of their journey, it is said that they were conducted into the so-called
Ismenium at Thebes; for there the meaning of the inscription could be most easily discovered, they said, adding that there were in that place some ancient dedicatory offerings having the forms of the letters similar to those of the one in question: whence they say that, [25] having found an explanation of the objects of their inquiry, from what was already known to them, they copied down the following lines:—

  I Heracles offered the grove to the beaming goddess Cythera,

  When I had Geryon’s herds, and Erytheia for spoil;

  For with desire for her the goddess had vanquished my heart.

  [30] But here my wife Erythe brings forth Erython as her offspring,

  Nymph-born maid Erythe, to whom I yielded the plain,

  Sacred memorial of love under the shade of the beech.

  [844a1] With this inscription both that place corresponded, being called Erythus, and also the fact that it was from there, and not from Erytheia, that he drove away the cows; for they say that nowhere either in the parts of Libya or Iberia is the name of [5] Erytheia to be found.

  134 · In the city called Utica in Libya, which is situated, as they say, on the gulf between the promontory of Hermes and that of Hippos, and about two hundred [10] furlongs beyond Carthage (now Utica also is said to have been founded by Phoenicians two hundred and eighty-seven years before Carthage itself, as is recorded in the Phoenician histories), men state that salt is obtained by digging at a depth of eighteen feet, in appearance white and not solid, but resembling the most sticky gum; and that when brought into the sun it hardens, and becomes like Parian [15] marble; and they say that from it are carved figures of animals, and utensils besides.

  135 · It is said that those of the Phoenicians who first sailed to Tartessus, after importing to that place oil, and other small wares of maritime commerce, obtained for their return cargo so great a quantity of silver, that they were no longer able to keep or receive it, but were forced, when sailing away from those parts, to [20] make of silver not only all the other articles which they used, but also all their anchors.

  136 · They say that the Phoenicians who inhabit the city called Gades, when they sail outside the Pillars of Heracles under an easterly wind for four days, [25] arrive at certain desolate places, full of rushes and seaweed, and that these places are not covered with water, whenever there is an ebb, but, whenever there is a flood, they are overflowed, and in these there is found an exceeding great number of tunnies, of a size and thickness surpassing belief, when they are stranded. These [30] they salt, pack up in vessels, and convey to Carthage. They are the only fish which the Carthaginians do not export; on account of their excellence for food, they consume them themselves.

  137 · In the district of Pedasa in Caria a sacrifice is celebrated in honour of Zeus, at which they send in the procession a she-goat, with regard to which they say [844b1] that a marvellous thing occurs; for while it proceeds from Pedasa a distance of seventy furlongs, through a dense crowd of people looking on, it is neither disturbed in its progress, nor is turned out of the way, but, being tied with a rope, advances [5] before the man who holds the priesthood.

  What is wonderful is that two crows stay continually about the temple of Zeus, while no other approaches the spot, and that one of them has the front part of its neck white.

  138 · In the country of those Illyrians who are called Ardiaei, near the [10] boundaries separating them from the Antariates, they say there is a great mountain, and near this is a valley, from which water springs up, not at every season, but during the spring, in great abundance, which the people take, and keep during the day in a cellar, but during the night they set it in the open air. And, after they have done this for five or six days, the water congeals, and becomes the most [15] excellent salt, which they preserve especially for the sake of the cattle: for salt is not imported to them, because they live at a distance from the sea, and have no intercourse with others. They have therefore most need of it for their cattle; for they [20] supply them with salt twice in the year; but if they fail to do this, the result is that most of their cattle perish.

  139 · In Argos they say there is a species of locust which is called the scorpion-fighter; for, as soon as it sees a scorpion, it attacks him, and likewise the [25] scorpion attacks it. It chirps as it goes round him in a circle. The other, they say, raises his sting, and turns it round against his adversary in the same spot; then he gradually lets his sting drop, and at last stretches himself out altogether on the ground, while the locust runs round him. At last the locust approaches and devours him. They say that it is good to eat the locust as an antidote against the scorpion’s [30] sting.

  140 · They say that the wasps in Naxos, when they have tasted the flesh of the viper (and its flesh, as it appears, is agreeable to them), and when they have afterwards stung any one, inflict so much pain, that their sting seems more dangerous than that of the vipers.

  [845a1] 141 · They say that the Scythian poison, in which that people dips its arrows, is procured from the viper. The Scythians, it would appear, watch those that are just bringing forth young, and take them, and allow them to putrefy for some days. But when the whole mass appears to them to have become sufficiently rotten, [5] they pour human blood into a little pot, and, after covering it with a lid, bury it in a dung-hill. And when this likewise has putrefied, they mix the sediment, which is of a watery nature, with the corrupted blood of the viper, and thus make it a deadly poison.

  [10] 142 · At Curium in Cyprus they say there is a species of snake, which has similar power to that of the asp in Egypt, except that, if it bites in the winter, it produces no effect, whether from some other reason, or because when congealed with cold the reptile loses its power of movement, and becomes completely powerless, unless it be warmed.

  [15] 143 · In Ceos they say there is a species of wild pear of such a kind that, if any one be wounded by its thorn, he dies.

  144 · In Mysia they say there is a white species of bears, which, when they are hunted, emit a breath of such a kind as to rot the flesh of the dogs, and likewise of other wild beasts, and render them unfit for food. But, if any one approaches [20] them with violence, they discharge, it appears, from the mouth a very great quantity of phlegm, which the animal blows upon the faces of the dogs, and of the men as well, so as to choke and blind them.

  145 · In Arabia they say there is a certain kind of hyaena, which, when it [25] sees some wild beast, before being itself seen, or steps on the shadow of a man, produces speechlessness, and fixes them to the spot in such a way that they cannot move their body; and it is said that they do this in the case of dogs also.

  146 · In Syria they say there is an animal, which is called the lion-killer; for the lion, it seems, dies, whenever he eats any of it. He does not indeed do this [30] willingly, but rather flees from the animal; but when the hunters, having caught and roasted it, sprinkle it, like white meal, over some other animal, they say that the lion, after tasting it, dies on the spot. This animal injures the lion even by making water upon it.

  147 · It is said also that vultures die from the smell of unguents, if any one [845b1] anoints them, or gives them something smeared with an unguent to eat: likewise they say that beetles also die from the smell of roses.

  148 · They say that both in Sicily and Italy the star-lizards have a deadly [5] bite, and not like those among ourselves a weak and soft bite: moreover that there is a sort of mouse, which flies at people, and, when it bites, causes them to die.

  149 · In Mesopotamia, a region of Syria, and at Istrus, they say that there are certain little snakes, which do not bite the people of the country, but do great [10] injury to strangers.

  150 · At the Euphrates they say that this especially happens; for that many are seen about the edges of the river, swimming also towards either bank; so that while seen in the evening on this side, at daybreak they appear on the other side; and that they refrain from biting such of the Syrians as are taking their repose, but do not spare the Greeks. [15]

 
151 · In Thessaly they say that the snake which is called sacred destroys all persons, not merely if it bites, but even if it touches them; and so when it appears (but it appears rarely), and they hear its voice, both serpents and vipers, and all the [20] other wild beasts flee. It is not large, but of a moderate size. In the city of Tenos in Thessaly they say it was once destroyed by a woman, and that its death happened in the following manner:—The woman, having described a circle and put the charms in it, entered into the circle, herself and her son, and then imitated the hissing of the [25] beast; it answered the sound of her voice and approached; but, while it was hissing, the woman fell asleep, and the more profoundly, the closer it approached, so that she could not overcome the power of sleep: but her son, sitting beside her, aroused her by striking her, as she had bidden him to do, saying that, if she fell asleep, both [30] she and he would perish, whereas if she used force, and drew the animal towards her, they would be saved. But the snake, when it came up to the circle, immediately withered away.

  152 · It is said that near Tyana there is water sacred to Zeus Horcios—they call it Asbamaeon—whose spring rises very cold, but boils up like caldrons. This [846a1] water is sweet and propitious to those who observe their oaths; but punishment follows on the heels of the perjured; for it falls upon their eyes, hands, and feet, and they are seized with dropsies and consumptions; and it is not even possible to get away beforehand, but they are held on the spot, and lament beside the water, [5] confessing the perjuries they have committed.