Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-11-19
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ERRORS NOT VULGAR.

through the Inlduic ages were Just the
reverse olyuigar they Were scholarly.
Ihry clmo of the habit, against which
Lou Bacon was never tired Of crying
out, Oh accepting things on authority
If Aristotle or PHny had said it, it
must be- true; and 50 monk after monk
copied it out and put it in his treatise,
though to test it would have been 10
reiuto it. and the means OF testing
were close At hand. This method OF
taking things on trust was the 0ane of
the old philosophy.
Get Hollands translation of the
worthy Pliny if you want an afternoons
amusement. lie will tell YOU that if
YOU cut off the tip of a dogs tail with
in forty days from its birth. it will
never so mad, and that the best of
the litter is tine wholp which gets its
eyesight last, or that which the mother
carries first into her kennel OF the
dogs faithfuness he has notable in
stances. lit has been known to throw
itself into the flames when its masters
funeral-pyre was kindled. 1t will
breed with the tiger. The Indians
cross their dogs in that way, The first
and second crosses are too savage; the
third can be trained. No matter how
lierco dog is, it will never attack YOU
if you sit down Homer says the same
thing in the Odyssey and it may be
slenced by holding TO it n brand
snatched from funeral-pyre. When
cremation was given up, this recipe
had to be modified; and for the brand
was substituted 1.-THE hand of glory"
which credulous medieval burglars
used TO carry, with the view of keep.
inc tho Watchdog quiet The most
fighting breed was the BIolossian. Il
splendid sample of which the king of
Albania gave TO Alexander the Great
when he was going to India Alex
Ander had boars, stays, and bears
slipped to it, but the dog lay motion
less; whercat tho kings anger was
reused that such a noble form should
cover so sluggish n spirit, and ho bado
the dog be killed, sending message
to the river that the gift had proved
unworthy of them both. Whereupon
another like dog was sent, with the
warning that the first dogs inaotion in
presence OF small game was not due to
suggishness, but to contempt, such
dogs being used TO be matched against
elephants and lions. AleXanderat once
tried him with lion, which he slew,
and then set him at an elephant, round
which he circled. haying loudly, and
with all his bristles erect, slipping in
and avoiding the elephants stroke
| whenever no got tho chance. AT last
the elephant grow dizzy, and. falling
down, was made y prey by its SMALL
sized antagonist. Unlike bees, and
rats, and COWS, and several other
creatures including phcasants, which
Norfolk poachers catch with peas
stepped in brandy--dogs can never be
got to drink anything stronger than
water, at least so Pliny says Honce
the Roman nickname, 'prandium cant
num- Ga dogs lunch) for n teetotal
banquet.
Strangely enough, about elephants
Plny is good deal nearer the truth
than he is about dogs. Borrowing
from Aristotle, he explains just as
accurately how they arc caught and
tanned as if he was a globe-trotter, re-
turned from Coylon. lIo is right, too,
in telling how certain natives wait up
Il tree till the last Of the herd is pass
ing under On this they drop, and
Selling its tail in thor left hand, use
the other hand in ham-stringing il.
lie records the story Of the Roman
soldier who cut of the trunk Of ono of
Pyrrhus' elephants, and 50 saved the
legion from going down the third time
before the Macedonian phalanx; and
he tolls, too, how Hannibal offered
Roman prisoner his life if he could
beat an elephant in single fight, though
i hope he is wrong in adding that the
Puuic general sent horsemen to way
lay the man when, after coming of
victorious, he had been set at liberty.
lie is certainly wrong in saying that
African elephants assembling in troops
OF fours and fves, and iuterlacing legs
and trunks, commit themselves TO the
waves and float over to the finer
pasture of Arabia; though not more
wrong than Aristotle, who says that
the elephant can not swim, but walks
across deep rivers breathing through
its uplifted trunk. a scholarly error
about elephants was that of tho vicar
of Ottery ST. Mary, father of Coleridge
the poet, who took the mammoths'
bones, so often found in tho south Of
England TO belong to elephants
brought over by the Romans, quoting
"Poly@mus' Slratagems' to the effect
that Cesar used one when forcing the
passage Of the Thames. ale does not
mention it in his Commentaries,
thinking it would detract from the
honor of his victories. 1t is remark
able, by the way, that an elephants
head and trunk are sculptured on one
OF tho capitals in Ottery st. Mary's
church. One is glad to learn from
Cicero that when Pompey had twenty
elephants hunted TO death in the circus
to delight the people, the feeling
reused was not delight, but pity; "tho
spectators thought that there was a
kinship TO man in the sagacious
creatures.
Pliny, who says that "wild rose
leaves, reduced to liniment with
BEARS grease, doth wonderfully make
haire to grow again, tells many
strange things about wolves. He be-
lieyes in tho yersipellis, turnskin, or
wehr-wolf; and he holds that a VOLTS
snout is q counter charm against all