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The ninth book treats of fishes, crabs, sea-urchins, mollusca, and other marine animals, including not only turtles and cetacea, but also mermaids, tritons, and other fabulous creatures. These he arranges in no definite order, although he proposes a kind of classification founded on the covering or skin; some, as seals and hippopotami, having a skin and hair; others skin only, as the dolphin; while the tortoises are covered with a substance resembling bark; oysters and other shells with a substance as hard as flint; echini with crusts and prickles; fishes with scales; sharks with a rough skin fit for polishing wood; lampreys with a soft skin; and polypi with none at all.[Pg 93]

As might be expected, many wonderful tales are related of the dolphin, which was a special favourite with the ancients, on account of its supposed attachment to the human species. One of these animals, if we may credit Pliny and his authorities, carried a boy daily to school and home again, from Baianum to Puteoli; another, who used to mount a child on his back, having one day suffered him to be drowned, brought back his body, and out of grief thrust himself ashore, where he of course died; and, lastly, a king of Caria having caught a dolphin, and kept him prisoner within the harbour, a whole multitude of the same species came to beg his release, and remained until their prayer was granted.

The most interesting chapters in this book are those on pearls and the shell-fish that furnished the purple dye so highly esteemed by the Romans. This oyster, he says, which is the mother-of-pearl, at a certain season of the year, gapes and receives one or more drops of a kind of dew, which are ultimately converted into pearls. According to the nature of this dew, or the state of the weather at the time of its being received, the pearl is dusky or white, dull or possessed of a brilliant lustre. These ornaments were very highly esteemed in Pliny's days. The ladies wore them dangling at their fingers and ears, took great delight in hearing them rattle, and not only appended them to their upper garments, but even embroidered their buskins with them. It will not suffice them, says he, nor serve their turn, to carry pearls about them, but they must tread upon pearls, go among pearls, and walk as it were on a pavement of pearls. Lollia Paulina, the wife of Caligula, was seen by him,[Pg 94] on an ordinary occasion, ornamented with emeralds and pearls, which she valued at forty millions of sestertii (about £300,000).

The two finest specimens ever seen were in the possession of the celebrated Cleopatra, who, on being sumptuously feasted by Mark Antony, derided him for the meanness of his entertainment; and on his demanding how she could go beyond him in such a matter, answered that she would spend upon him in one supper ten millions of sestertii. Antony, conceiving it impossible for her to make good her boast, laid a great wager with her about it. When the supper came, although it was such as to befit the condition of the hostess and guests, it presented no extraordinary appearance; so that Antony jeered the queen on the subject, asking by way of mockery a sight of the bill of fare; whereupon she affirmed, that what had as yet been brought to table was not to be reckoned in the count, but that even her own part of the supper should cost sixty millions. She then ordered the second service to be brought in. The servants placed before her a cruet of vinegar, and she put into it one of the pearls which were appended to her ears. When it was dissolved, she took up the vessel, and drank its contents; on which Lucius Plancus declared that she had gained the wager. Afterwards, when Cleopatra was taken prisoner and deprived of her royal estate, the other pearl was cut into two, and affixed to the ears of the statue of Venus in the Pantheon at Rome.

The tenth book speaks of birds, beginning with the larger species, and concluding with remarks on generation, the food of animals, and other circumstances[Pg 95] of a general nature. He believes that the spinal marrow of a man, as many persons have asserted, may turn into a snake; that salamanders, eels, and oysters, are neither male nor female; and that young vipers make their way through the sides of their mother. His History of Birds is extremely meagre and incorrect; but many amusing particulars are related by him, of which we select two examples.

In the days of Tiberius Cæsar, a young raven that had been hatched in a nest upon the temple of Castor and Pollux took her first flight into a shoemaker's shop just opposite. The master of the booth was well pleased to receive the guest, especially as it had come from so sacred a place, and took great care of it. In a short time the winged visitor began to speak, and every morning flew to the top of the rostra, where, turning to the open forum, he saluted the emperor, and after him Germanicus and Drusus, the young princes, each by his name, and after them the people that passed by. This he continued to do for many years, till another shoemaker, either envying his neighbour the possession of so rare a prize, or enraged at the bird for muting on his shoes, killed him. At this rash proceeding, the people were so indignant that they drove the ungenerous mechanic out of the street, and afterwards murdered him. The body of the raven was solemnly interred in a field two miles from the city, to which it was carried by two blacks, with musicians playing before, and a great crowd following. In such esteem, says Pliny, did the people of Rome hold this wit and aptness to learn in a bird, that they thought it a sufficient cause for ordering a sumptuous funeral, and even for putting a man to death,[Pg 96] in that very city where many brave and noble persons have died without having their obsequies solemnized, and which afforded not one individual to revenge the undeserved death of the renowned Scipio Æmilianus, after he had conquered both Carthage and Numantia.

Cocks, he says, which are our sentinels by night, and destined by nature to rouse us from sleep and call us up to our work, have also, like the peacock, a sense of glory, and a love of approbation. They are astronomers too, and know the course of the stars; they divide the day by their crowing which is performed at the end of every three hours; they go to roost when the sun sets, and before he rises again they warn us of the approach of day by clapping their wings and crowing. They are rulers in their own community, whether consisting of other males or females. Their sovereignty is obtained by combat, as if they knew that they had weapons on their heels for the purpose, and the battle is often protracted until one is killed. The conqueror proclaims his victory by crowing, while the vanquished hides his head in silence, although it goes hard with him to be beaten. Not only are these fighting cocks thus high-minded, but even the common dunghill kind are equally proud, marching in a stately manner, their neck erect, with a comb on the head like the crest of a soldier's helmet. There is no other bird that so often looks aloft to the sun and sky, and as he moves he carries his tail in an arched form. Even the lion, the most courageous of animals, stands in awe of the cock. Some of these birds are made for nothing else than fighting, and are never satisfied unless when engaged in a quarrel; and to them the emperors[Pg 97] and nobles of Rome do not disdain to give honour. The best breeds are from Rhodes, Tenagra, Melos, and Chalcis. These birds rule our rulers, nor is there a great man in Rome that dare open or shut the door of his house before he knows their good pleasure; even the sovereign, in all the majesty of the empire, with the insignia of office, neither sets forward nor recedes without their direction. They give orders to armies to advance to battle, or command them to keep within the camp. They supplied the signal and foretold the issue of all the famous fields, in which the Romans achieved their victories in all parts of the world. In a word, they command the greatest commanders of all nations, and, small as they are, prove as acceptable to the gods in sacrifice as the largest and fattest oxen. Their crowing out of time is portentous, and it is well known that, by once crowing all night long, they foretold to the Bœotians the noble victory which that people achieved over the Lacedemonians, for this result was expected, as these birds never crow when beaten. When converted into capons, they cease to crow; but in this state they become sooner fat. At Pergamus there is a solemn cock-fight every year. It is recorded that, within the territory of Ariminum, in the year when Marcus Lepidus and Quintus Catulus were consuls, a dunghill-cock, belonging to one Galerius, spoke; but, as far as Pliny could learn, the like never happened again.