They say also
that he was a shepherd, because that in the desert and high places, he
did mark the course of the moon. And they gave him also the pipe because
that the high places are blown with wind, or else because he sought out
the consonancy of figures. Prometheus also, being a wise man, sought the
course of the star, which is called the eagle in the firmament, his
nature and place; and when he was, as it were, wasted with the desire of
learning, then at last he rested, when Hercules did resolve unto him all
doubts with his wisdom.
Q. Why do not swine cry when they are carried with their snouts upwards?
A. Because that of all other beasts they bend more to the earth. They
delight in filth, and that they seek, and therefore in the sudden change
of their face, they be as it were strangers, and being amazed with so
much light do keep that silence; some say the windpipe doth close
together by reason of the straitness of it.
Q. Why do swine delight in dirt? A. As physicians do say, they are
naturally delighted with it, because they have a great liver, in which
desire it, as Aristotle saith, the wideness of their snout is the case,
for he that hath smelling which doth dissolve itself, and as it were
strive with stench.
Q. Why do many beasts when they see their friends, and a lion and a
bull beat their sides when they are angry? A.
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