LIBER X · CAPUT 72
ANIMALS WHICH LIVE ON POISONS
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
Venenis capreae et coturnices, ut diximus, pinguescunt, placidissima animalia, at serpentes ovis, spectanda quidem draconum arte: aut enim solida hauriunt, si iam fauces capiunt, quae deinde in semet convoluti frangunt intus atque ita putamina extussiunt, aut si tenerior est catulis adhuc aetas, orbe adprehensa spirae ita sensim vehementerque praestringunt, ut amputata parte ceu ferro e reliqua, quae amplexu tenetur, sorbeant. simili modo avibus devoratis solidis contentione plumam excitam revomunt.
Scorpiones terra vivunt. serpentes, cum occasio est, vinum praecipue adpetunt, cum alioqui exiguo indigeant potu; eaedem minimo et paene nullo cibo, cum adservantur inclusae, sicuti aranei quoque, alioqui suctu viventes. ideo nullum interit fame aut siti venenatum. nam neque calor iis nec sanguis nec sudor, quae aviditatem naturali sale augent. in quo genere omnia magis exitialia, si suum genus edere ante quam noceant. condit in thesauros maxillarum cibum sphingiorum et satyrorum genus, mox inde sensim ad mandendum manibus expromit, et quod formicis in annum, sollemne est his in dies vel horas.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
Roe-bucks and quails grow fat on poisons, as we have already mentioned, being themselves the most harmless of animals. Serpents will feed on eggs, and the address displayed by the dragon is quite remarkable.—For it will either swallow the egg whole, if its jaws will allow of it, and roll over and over so as to break it within, and then by coughing eject the shells: or else, if it is too young to be able to do so, it will gradually encircle the egg with its coils, and hold it so tight as to break it at the end, just, in fact, as though a piece had been cut out with a knife; then holding the remaining part in its folds, it will suck the contents. In the same manner, too, when it has swallowed a bird whole, it will make a violent effort, and vomit the feathers.
Scorpions live on earth. Serpents, when an opportunity presents itself, show an especial liking for wine, although in other respects they need but very little drink. These animals, also, when kept shut up, require but little aliment, hardly any at all, in fact. The same is the case also with spiders, which at other times live by suction. Hence it is, that no venomous animal will die of hunger or thirst; it being the fact that they have neither heat, blood, nor sweat; all which humours, from their natural saltness, increase the animal’s voracity. In this class of animals all those are the most deadly, which have eaten some of their own kind just before they inflict the wound. The sphingium and the satyr stow away food in the pouches of their cheeks, after which they will take it out piece by piece with their hands and eat it; and thus they do for a day or an hour what the ant usually does for the whole year.