XX. WHAT IS THE REASON, THAT THE TEARS OF WILD BOARS ARE SWEET, AND THE TEARS OF THE HART SALT AND HURTFUL?
20
THE reason seems to be the heat and cold of these animals. For the hart is cold, and the boar is very hot and fiery; therefore the one flies from, the other defends himself against, his pursuers. Now when great store of heat comes to the eyes (as Homer says, with horrid bristles, and eyes darting fire), tears are sweet. Some are of Empedocles’s opinion, who thought that tears proceed from the disturbance of the blood, as whey does from the churning of milk; since therefore boar’s blood is harsh and black, and hart’s blood thin and watery, it is consentaneous that the tears, which the one sheds when excited to anger, and the other when dejected with fear, should be of the same nature.
XXI. WHY DO TAME SOWS FARROW OFTEN, SOME AT, ONE TIME AND OTHERS AT ANOTHER; AND THE WILD BUT ONCE A YEAR, AND ALL OF THEM ABOUT THE SAME TIME AT THE BEGINNING OF SUMMER, WHENCE IT IS SAID,—
21
The wild sow farrowing, that night falls no rain?
