umors that are said to be
in us. Since, then, different animals have different organs for
taste, and a greater or less amount of the various humors, it
can well be that they form different ideas of the same objects
as regards their taste. For just as the same food on being 53
absorbed becomes in some places veins, in other places arteries,
and in other places bones, nerves, or other tissues, showing
different power according to the difference of the parts
receiving it; just as the same water absorbed by the trees
becomes in some places bark, in other places branches, and in
other places fruit, perhaps a fig or a pomegranate, or something
else; just as the breath of the musician, one and the same 54
when blown into the flute, becomes sometimes a high tone and
sometimes a low one, and the same pressure of the hand upon the
lyre sometimes causes a deep tone and sometimes a high tone, so
it is natural to suppose that external objects are regarded
differently according to the different constitution of the
animals which perceive them. We may see this more clearly in 55
the things that are sought for and avoided by animals. For
example, myrrh appears very agreeable to men and intolerable to
beetles and bees. Oil also, which is useful to men, destroys
wasps and bees if sprinkled on them; and sea-water, while it is
unpleasant and poisonous to men if they drink it, is most
agreeable and sweet to fishes. Swine also prefer to wash in vile
filth rather than in pure clean water. Furthermore, some 56
animals eat grass and some eat herbs; some live in the woods,
others eat seeds; some are carnivorous, and others lactivorous;
some enjoy putrified food, and others fresh food; some raw food
and others that which is prepared by cooking; and in general
that which is agreeable to some is disagreeable and fatal to
others, and should be avoided by them. Thus hemlock makes the 57
quail fat, and henbane the hogs, and these, as it is known,
enjoy eating lizards; deer also eat poisonous animals, and
swallows, the cantharidae. Moreover, ants and flying ants, when
swallowed by men, cause discomfort and colic; but the bear, on
the contrary, whatever sickness he may have, becomes stronger by
devouring them. The viper is benumbed if one twig of the oak 58
touches it, as is also the bat by a leaf of the plane-tree. The
elephant flees before the ram, and the lion before the cock, and
seals from the rattl