Characteristics of Exotic Animals

It is the whitest, not having a spot of any other color throughout its whole body; and they say that those who sharpen their eyes should look at its horns. They tell of it remaining in the royal courts, becoming a prophet of life and death to those humans who are suffering. For they say that when some infirmity falls upon a person, they lead the unicorn before him; and if it is favorable to the sick one, the unicorn suppresses the disease for him, and it rises into the ether of the sun, and there also it disperses the disease of the man; but if it is not favorable, they know that the sufferer will die.

The unicorn is a small animal, like a mountain goat, very fierce. It has only one horn upon the summit of its head, and it is seen thus: a pure virgin is thrown before it, and it falls into her arms; and she, having gathered him up, carries him into the houses of kings. There is an animal called a castor, very gentle and quiet; and its genitals serve for healing. Being pursued for this by hunters, it cuts off its genitals and stands against those pursuing. And when others pursue, having cut itself off, it shows itself and cuts the hunters off from the path.

The myrmecoleon has a father with the face of a lion and a mother like an ant. And the father is a flesh-eater, and the mother a grain-eater, and they beget the myrmecoleon, which is of two kinds, having the face of a lion and the part behind like an ant; and being unable to eat either meat or grain, it dies. The onager is a leader of herds, and of those born weak, it crushes the genitals, and they do not produce seed.

The sea urchin is like a sphere in its body, and its back is all-centered, the centers being like the centers of the sea urchins of the seas. It travels, therefore, upon the floor of the vineyard, and it destroys the vines, and having been encircled, it moves around the vines with the spines and arrives.

The fox is a wicked creature, hunting birds through such a device. For finding a marsh, it coils itself into it, and again it covers itself very thinly with dust or chaff, and places itself upon the field with its eyes upturned, or even breathing into itself, as if having been blown by the winds to be thought dead, so that falling immediately upon it, it devours it having snatched it. The lizard, having grown old, seeks warmth, and looking toward the east into a crack in a wall, and having upturned its eyes while the sun is setting, being illuminated by the solar ray, it recovers and is restored to health. So also you, O man, when you have grown old in sins and your intellect has been blinded, seek the Sun of righteousness, so that you may be renewed in righteousness, gazing intently at him and looking up with the eyes of the soul.

But of all the beasts, the spiral dragon is most spiritual and fiery, and forms types of various shapes, and making the impulses of its course, it quickly goes wherever it wills. It is also long-lived; for it not only avoids old age, but also receives greater growth. When, therefore, it completes the appointed time of life, it consumes itself; for it does not die by its own nature to an end before fulfilling the term of life, unless it be violently destroyed by someone.

With this the tracker fights, smearing himself with mud and covering his nostrils with his beard. But indeed, toward Egypt, it also makes a shield like a cluster such as this: this one, drawing its tail spirally with much force, and the parts from the chest leaping upward toward the head, being meteoric, slender and broad-chested, and having become full of fury, it approaches, carrying its tongue with a sharp hissing; but the tracker, straightening his beard, deceives it by thrusting toward it, and drawing it in, having first broken the feet in front, comes upon it, and having humbled himself entirely, extends only his face,