Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/397

Rh know any reason for what they do. An excellent simile to describe a crowd blindly following their leader, and one which he repeats in slightly altered form in the "Convito," 1. 11.

We have been speaking as yet of Sheep; they are to be distinguished (Par. ix. 131) from the Goats, for which we have three names—"capra," "becco" (German, Bock), and (Inf. xxxii. 15) "zeba," from "zibbe," a corrupted form of the German "Ziege"; these he has watched climbing over almost impossible ways (Inf. xix. 132), as one sees them in Corsica, often to one's imminent peril, if one is walking on the road below, or butting each other with their heads down (Inf. xxxii. 50) ("come due becchi, cozzaro in sieme"); or quietly chewing the cud watched by their shepherd (Purg.xxvii. 76), "just as the Goats become quiet while ruminating, which had been agile and venturesome upon the mountain tops before they took their meal, resting hushed in the shade while the sun is hot, watched by their shepherd, who leans upon his staff." I have quoted Vernon's translation. He agrees with Longfellow in translating "proterve" venturesome. I should be inclined to think it was more likely a reminiscence of "hædique petulci" of Virgil. Of other cattle, we have "bue" and "toro"; the former obviously the meek-eyed, long-horned Oxen (Purg. xxxii. 145), which it is so hard to pass in a narrow street of some old Tuscan town as they sway their heads from side to side beneath the yoke (Purg. xii. 1) while they drag the rough carts full of wine-casks and other agricultural produce. The poet gives one quaint touch with regard to them (Inf. xvii. 75) when he makes the great usurer Scrovigni distort his mouth, put out his tongue (" come hue chi il muso lecchi"). He has nothing interesting to tell us about bulls. One passage (Inf. xii. 22) is an adaptation of a simile of Virgil, with regard to the sacrificial bull that reels from the stroke it has received; the other (Par. xvi. 70) tells us that a blind bull falls more headlong than a blind lamb—which, though true, does not add much to our knowledge.

It is worth while to turn for a moment to Dante's reptiles before considering his birds. The Frog is mentioned several times. He alludes to Æsop's fable of the fight between "Il Rana e Il Tope," the latter of which obviously comes from "talpa," and originally meant "mole," but is here used for Mouse. The Frog appears also in the description of Caina (Inf. xxxii. 31), and of