Читать книгу The Natural History of Pliny (Vol. 1-6) - Pliny the Elder - Страница 393

Table of Contents

There are two species of lions; in the one the body is shorter and more compact, and the mane more crisp and curly;1667 these are more timid than those with a longer body and straight hair, which, in fact, have no fear of wounds. The males raise the leg like the dog, when they pass their urine;1668 which has a most disagreeable odour, the same being the case too with their breath. They seldom drink, and only take food every other day;1669 when they have gorged themselves, they will sometimes go without food for three days. They swallow their food whole, without mastication, so far as they are able; and when they have taken more than the stomach can possibly receive, they extract part of it by thrusting their claws into the throat; the same too, if, when full, they have occasion to take to flight. That they are very long-lived is proved by the fact, that many of them are found without teeth. Polybius,1670 the companion of Æmilianus, tells us, that when they become aged they will attack men, as they have no longer sufficient strength for the pursuit of wild beasts. It is then that they lay siege to the cities of Africa; and for this reason it was, that he, as well as Scipio, had seen some of them hung upon a cross; it being supposed that others, through dread of a similar punishment, might be deterred from committing the like outrages.