Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/120

 86 PLINT's FATrRAL HISTOET. [Book II. the consulsliip of Scaurus, he who was afterwards the Prinoe of the Senate ^ It lightens without thunder more frequently in the night than in the day^. Man is the only animal that is not always killed by it, all other animals being killed instantly, nature having granted to him this mark of distinction, while so many other animals excel him in strength. All animals fall down on the opposite side to that which has been struck ; man, unless he be thrown down on the parts that are struck, does not expire. Those who are struck directly from above sink down immediately. When a man is struck while he is awake, he is found with his eyes closed ; when asleep, with them open. It is not considered proper that a man killed in this way should be burnt on the funeral pile ; our religion enjoins us to bury the body in the earth ^. No animal is consumed by lightning unless after having been previously killed. The parts of the animal that have been wounded by light- ning are colder than the rest of the body. CHAP. 56. (55.) OBJECTS. WHICH AEE NEVER STRTJCK. Among the productions of the earth, thunder never strikes the laurel^, nor does it descend more than five feet into the earth. Those, therefore, who are timid consider the deepest caves as the most safe ; or tents made of the skins of the animal called the sea-calf, since this is the only marine ani- mal which is never struck^ ; as is the case, among birds, with the eagle ; on this account it is represented as the bearer of ^ " Jiinonis qiiippe templum fulmine violatum ostendit non a Jove, non a Deis mitti fulmina." Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 354. The consulate of Scaurus was in the year of Rome 638. Lucan, i. 155, and Horace, Od. i. 2. refer to the destruction of temples at Eome by Ughtning. 2 Obviously because faint flashes are more visible in the night. 3 We have an explanation of this pecuhar opinion in TertulHan, as referred to by Hardouin, Lemaire. i. 355 ; " Qui de coelo tangittir, salvus est, ut nullo igne decinerescat." ^ Although it has been thought necessary by M. Fee, in the notes to Ajasson's trans., ii. 384, 385, to enter into a formal examination of this opinion of the author's, I conceive that few of our readers will agree with hun in tliis respect. this purpose ; Octavius, § 90.
 * Suetonius informs us, that Augustus always wore a seal's skin for