[1728] From καταβλέπω, “to look downwards.”
[1729] Ælian describes this animal more in detail, Anim. Nat. B. vii. c. 5. Cuvier thinks it probable that it is the Antelope gnu; he remarks, that it has a very peculiar and mournful appearance; Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 435; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 405.—B.
[1730] This account of the basilisk’s eye, like that of the catoblepas, is entirely devoid of foundation.—B.
[1731] Many species have certain marks on the head, which were supposed to resemble a crown.—B.
[1732] There is probably no foundation for this account of the action of the effluvium of the weasel upon the basilisk or any other species of serpent.—B.
[1733] Hence the proverbial expression applied to a person who is suddenly silent upon the entrance of another; “Lupus est tibi visus.”
[1734] Cuvier says, that the wolves of Africa are of the ordinary size, and conjectures that this remark probably applies to the chakale, or “Canis aureus” of Linnæus, which is of the colour of the wolf, and the size of the fox, and is common throughout all Africa.—B.
[1735] The opinion that men were converted into wolves by enchantment, or a preternatural agency, was at one time so generally received, as to have led to judicial processes, and the condemnation of the supposed criminal.—B. To the relator of the above story that men lose their voice on seeing a wolf, Scaliger wishes as many blows as at different times he had seen a wolf without losing his voice.
[1736] This literally means “changing the skin;” was applied by some ancient medical writers to a peculiar form of insanity, where the patient conceives himself changed into a wolf, and named λυκανθρώπια, “lycanthropy.” The word appears to have been in common use among the Romans, and to have been applied by them to any one who had undergone a remarkable change in his character and habits; in this sense it is used by Plautus, Amphitryon, Prol. l. 123, and Bacchides, A. iv. sc. 4, l. 12.—B.
[1737] It is not known who is here referred to; it is not probable that it is Fabius Pictor, the Roman historian.—B.