teamroquette:

historieofbeafts:

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Claudius Aelianus, so here are some Roman natural history highlights:

• In Egypt, whenever it rains, mice are born instantly.
• During the Olympics flies “make peace with visitors and residents alike” and disappear until the games are over.
• If a jackdaw sounds like a hawk, snow is on the way.
• Because cows can sense rain, people wearing leather jackets can sometimes predict the weather
• Whelks have a king and submit gladly to its rule. Catching the whelk king will bring good luck to any fisherman.
• Hawks are the only bird that can fly directly into the sun without suffering from its heat.
• Anyone who wishes to remain beardless should rub tuna blood on their chin.
• The left paw of a hyena can put people to sleep. The right fin of a hyena fish will cause terrible visions if placed under a sleeping person.
• To gaze at the toad is dangerous. If a man looks at it, it will stare back, locking its eyes on the man and causing him to turn so pale anyone would think he had been sick for a long time.
• “Chroniclers praise the Babylonians and Chaldeans for their knowledge of the heavens. Ants have this knowledge too.”
• If you throw a wolf vertebra among a team of horses they will immediately become unable to move.
• Beetles can be killed by perfume or rose petals.
• The spines of dead criminals become snakes.
• If you hit a lizard with a stick and then cut it in half each half will go on living, moving independently but not very well on two feet. The halves will eventually find each other and become a whole lizard again.
• Eagles never drink or rest. As soon as eaglets hatch their parents force them to stare into the sun, and if they blink they are unworthy and are thrown out of the nest.