Pliny: Natural History
haut dissimilia. sed illa Alpes, haec transmarini situs mittunt.
215LXXX. Simiarum quoque genera1 hominis figurae proxima caudis inter se distinguntur. mira sollertia: visco inungui, laqueisque calciari imitatione venantium tradunt, Mucianus et latrunculis lusisse, fictas cera nuces visu distinguere, luna cava tristes esse quibus in eo genere cauda sit, novam exultatione adorari: nam defectum siderum et 216ceterae pavent quadripedes. simiarum generi praecipua erga fetum adfectio. gestant catulos quae mansuefactae intra domos peperere. omnibus demonstrant tractarique gaudent, gratulationem intellegentibus similes; itaque magna ex parte conplectendo necant. efferatior cynocephalis natura sicut mitissima2 satyris. callitriches toto paene aspectu differunt: barba est in facie, cauda late fusa primori parte. hoc animal negatur vivere in alio quam Aethiopiae quo gignitur caelo.
217LXXXI. Et leporum plura sunt genera. in Alpibus candidi quos3 hibernis mensibus pro cibatu nivem credunt esse—certe liquescente ea rutilescunt annis omnibus—et est alioqui animal intolerandi rigoris alumnum. leporum generis sunt et quos
Book VIII
we receive from the Alps, the latter from places across the sea.
LXXX. The kinds of apes also which are closest toVarieties of the ape. the human shape are distinguished from each other by the tails. They are marvellously cunning: people say that they use bird-lime as ointment, and that they put on the nooses set to snare them as if they were shoes, in imitation of the hunters; according to Mucianus the tailed species have even been known to play at draughts, are able to distinguish at a glance sham nuts made of wax, and are depressed by the moon waning and worship the new moon with delight: and it is a fact that the other four-footed animals also are frightened by eclipses. The genus ape has a remarkable affection for its young. Tame monkeys kept in the house who bear young ones carry them about and show them to everybody, and delight in having them stroked, looking as if they understood that they are being congratulated; and as a consequence in a considerable number of cases they kill their babies by hugging them. The baboon is of a fiercer nature, just as the satyrusa is extremely gentle. The pretty-haired apeb is almost entirely different in appearance: it has a bearded face and a tail flattened out wide at the base. This animal is said to be unable to live in any other climate but that of its native country, Ethiopia.
LXXXI. There are also several kinds of hare.The hare and the rabbit. In the Alps there are white hares, which are believed to eat snow for their fodder in the winter months—at all events they turn a reddish colour every year when the snow melts—and in other ways the animal is a nurseling of the intolerable cold. The animals in