36. The Salamander is so called because it is strong against fire; and amid all poisons its power is the greatest. For other [poisonous animals] strike individuals; this slays very many at the same time; for if it crawls up a tree, it infects all the fruit with poison and slays those who eat it; nay, even if it falls in a well, the power of the poison slays those who drink it. It fights against fires, and alone among living things, extinguishes them. For it lives in the midst of flames without pain and without being consumed, and not only is it not burned, but it puts the fire out.
Chapter 5. On worms.
1. A worm is a creature that as a rule comes into being without any begetting from flesh or wood or any earthy substance, although sometimes they are born from eggs, as the scorpion. Worms belong either to earth or water or air[336] or flesh or leaves or wood or clothes.
3. Sanguissuga, a water worm, is so named because it sucks blood. For it lies in wait for drinkers, and when it is carried into their throats or fastens itself anywhere, it draws the blood, and when it has taken its fill of gore, it vomits it out, to suck in again fresh blood.
Chapter 6. On fishes.
3. Certain kinds of fishes are amphibious, being so called because they have the practice of walking on land and of swimming in the water.
4. Men gave names to the beasts of the field and wild animals and birds, before the fishes, because they were seen and known first. And later, when the kinds of fishes had been learned by degrees, names were applied either from their likeness to land animals, or to suit the species, whether in regard to habits, color, shape, or sex.
6. [Fish receive their names] from sex, as the musculus (mussel) because it is the masculine of whale, for by union with the mussel it is said this monster conceives.
8. There are huge sorts of whales with bodies the size of mountains, like the whale that received Jonah, whose belly was of such magnitude that it held something like a hell, the prophet saying: “He heard me from the belly of hell”.
14. Thynni (tunnies) have a Greek name. They appear in spring-time. They come in on the right side and go out on the left. They are supposed to do this because they see more keenly with the right eye than with the left.