Πότερα τῶν ζῴων φρονιμώτερα τὰ χερσαῖα ἢ τὰ ἔνυδρα

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İngilizce İngilizce Yunanca

16 The means by which the land hedge-hogs defend and guard themselves occasioned the proverb, Many sly tricks the subtle Reynard knows, But one the hedge-hog greater than all those. For the hedge-hog, as Ion the poet says,Fragment 38. when he spies the fox coming, Round as a pine-nut, or more sphere-like ball, Lies with his body palisaded all With pointed thorns, which all the fox’s slight Can find no way to touch, much less to bite. But the provision which the hedge-hogs make for their young ones is much more ingenious. For when autumn comes, they creep under vines, and shake off the grapes with their feet; which done they roll themselves up and down, and take them up with their prickles, so that when they creep away again, you would think it a walking cluster (and this we have looked on and seen them do); after which returning to their holes, they lay themselves down for their young ones to feed. Their holes have two openings, one to the south, the other to the north. So that when they perceive the alteration of the air, like pilots shifting their sails, they stop up that which lies to the wind and open the other. Which a certain person that lived at Cyzicus observing, took upon him from thence at any time to tell in what corner the wind would sit.