We may see this more clearly in 55
the things that are sought for and avoided by animals. For
example, myrrh appears very agreeable to men and intolerable to
beetles and bees. Oil also, which is useful to men, destroys
wasps and bees if sprinkled on them; and sea-water, while it is
unpleasant and poisonous to men if they drink it, is most
agreeable and sweet to fishes. Swine also prefer to wash in vile
filth rather than in pure clean water. Furthermore, some 56
animals eat grass and some eat herbs; some live in the woods,
others eat seeds; some are carnivorous, and others lactivorous;
some enjoy putrified food, and others fresh food; some raw food
and others that which is prepared by cooking; and in general
that which is agreeable to some is disagreeable and fatal to
others, and should be avoided by them. Thus hemlock makes the 57
quail fat, and henbane the hogs, and these, as it is known,
enjoy eating lizards; deer also eat poisonous animals, and
swallows, the cantharidae. Moreover, ants and flying ants, when
swallowed by men, cause discomfort and colic; but the bear, on
the contrary, whatever sickness he may have, becomes stronger by
devouring them. The viper is benumbed if one twig of the oak 58
touches it, as is also the bat by a leaf of the plane-tree. The
elephant flees before the ram, and the lion before the cock, and
seals from the rattling of beans that are being pounded, and the
tiger from the sound of the drum.
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