Vel. Away with such deformities!
Gryn. People with turned-up noses are not less deformed. The Persians honoured eagle-nosed people on account of Cyrus, who, they say, had such a shaped nose.
Vel. The fore-arm and bend of the arm (ancon et campe) are to the arm what the ham of the knee and the knee are to the leg; thence the upper arm (lacertus) down to the hand, from the muscles of which also the legs are called muscular (lacertosa).
Gryn. Is not this the ell (cubitus) as used by those who are measuring?
Vel. Yes, and ancon is another name for it.
Gryn. Is not that the way the Roman king came by his name, Ancus?
Vel. It was by his curved elbow.
Gryn. The hand follows, the chief of all instruments. The hand is divided into fingers, thumb, forefinger, the middle or disreputable finger, the next to the smallest, and the smallest.
Vel. Why has the middle finger a bad name? What crime has it perpetrated?