Many writers have essayed this fabled creature, but almost all have approached the subject with diffidence, as if not quite sure of the absolute entity of the animal. Thus, Aristotle does not speak of it authoritatively:—“And the Salamander shews that it is possible for some animal substances to exist in the fire, for they say that fire is extinguished when this animal walks over it.” Pliny, on Salamanders, writes:—“We find it stated by many authors, that a serpent is produced from the spinal marrow of a man. Many creatures, in fact, among the quadrupeds even, have a secret, and mysterious origin.
“Thus, for instance, the salamander, an animal like a lizard in shape, and with a body starred all over, never comes out except during heavy showers, and disappears the moment it becomes fine. This animal is so intensely cold as to extinguish fire by its contact, in the same way that ice doth. It spits forth a milky matter from its mouth; and whatever part of the human body is touched with this, all the hair falls off, and the part assumes the appearance of leprosy.... The wild boar of Pamphylia, and the mountainous parts of Cilicia, after having
devoured a Salamander, will become poisonous to those who eat its flesh; and yet the danger is quite imperceptible by reason of any peculiarity in the smell and taste. The Salamander, too, will poison either water or wine in which it happens to be drowned; and, what is more, if it has only drunk thereof, the liquid becomes poisonous.”
This idea of an animal supporting life in the fire is not confined to the Salamander alone, for both Aristotle and Pliny aver that there is a fly which possesses this accomplishment. Says the former:—“In Cyprus, when the manufacturers of the stone called chalcitis burn it for many days in the fire, a winged creature something larger than a great fly is seen walking and leaping in the fire: these creatures perish when taken from the fire.” And the latter:—“That element, also, which is so destructive to matter, produces certain animals; for in the copper-smelting furnaces of Cyprus, in the very midst of the fire, there is to be seen, flying about, a four-footed animal with wings, the size of a large fly: this creature, called the ‘pyrallis,’ and by some the ‘pyrausta.’ So long as it remains in the fire it will live, but if it comes out, and flies a little distance from it, it will instantly die.”
Ser Marco Polo thoroughly pooh-poohs the idea of the Salamander, and says it is Asbestos. Speaking of the Province of Chingintalas, he says:—“And you must know that in the same mountain there is a vein of the substance of which Salamander is made. For the real truth is that the Salamander is no beast, as they allege in our part of the world, but is a substance found in the earth; and I will tell you about it.
“Everybody must be aware that it can be no animal’s nature to live in fire, seeing that every animal is composed
of all the four elements. Now, I, Marco Polo, had a Turkish acquaintance of the name of Zurficar, and he was a very clever fellow, and this Turk related to Messer Marco Polo how he had lived three years in that region on behalf of the Great Kaan, in order to procure those Salamanders for him. He said that the way they got them was by digging in that mountain till they found a certain vein. The substance of this vein was then taken and crushed, and, when so treated, it divides, as it were, into fibres of wool, which they set forth to dry. When dry, these fibres were pounded in a great copper mortar, and then washed, so as to remove all the earth, and to leave only the fibres, like fibres of wool. These were then spun, and made into napkins. When first made, these napkins are not very white, but by putting them in the fire for a while they come out as white as snow. And so again, whenever they become dirty they are bleached by being put in the fire.
“Now this, and nought else, is the truth about the Salamander, and the people of the country all say the same. Any other account of the matter is fabulous nonsense. And I may add that they have, at Rome, a napkin out of this stuff, which the Grand Kaan sent to the Pope, to make a wrapper, for the Holy Sudarium of Jesus Christ.”
That extremely truthful person, Benvenuto Cellini, in his thoroughly veracious autobiography, tells us the following Snake Story:—“When I was about five years old, my father happened to be in a basement-chamber of our house, where they had been washing, and where a good fire of oak-logs was still burning; he had a viol in his hand, and was playing and singing alone beside the fire.