[219] A southern constellation.
[220] Antecanis, a southern constellation, is the Little Dog, and called Antecanis in Latin, and Προκύων in Greek, because he rises before the other Dog.
[221] Pansætius, a Stoic philosopher.
[222] Mercury and Venus.
[223] The proboscis of the elephant is frequently called a hand, because it is as useful to him as one. “They breathe, drink, and smell, with what may not be improperly called a hand,” says Pliny, bk. viii. c. 10.—Davis.
[224] The passage of Aristotle’s works to which Cicero here alludes is entirely lost; but Plutarch gives a similar account.
[225] Balbus does not tell us the remedy which the panther makes use of; but Pliny is not quite so delicate: he says, excrementis hominis sibi medetur.
[226] Aristotle says they purge themselves with this herb after they fawn. Pliny says both before and after.
[227] The cuttle-fish has a bag at its neck, the black blood of which the Romans used for ink. It was called atramentum.
[228] The Euphrates is said to carry into Mesopotamia a large quantity of citrons, with which it covers the fields.