Note 354 — Chapter VI · THE FINDING OF STRANGE COASTS.

Footnote 354: The sailors pursued them, but did not capture any of the males, who scrambled up the cliffs out of their reach. They captured three females, who bit and scratched so fiercely that it was useless to try to take them away. So they killed them and took their skins home to Carthage. Periplus, xviii. According to Pliny (Hist. Nat., vi. 36) these skins were hung up as a votive offering in the temple of Juno (i. e. Astarte or Ashtoreth: see Apuleius, Metamorph., xi. 257; Gesenius, Monumenta Phœnic., p. 168), where they might have been seen at any time before the Romans destroyed the city.[Back to Main Text]