Note 1683 — BOOK VIII. THE NATURE OF THE TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS.

The text is in a state of extreme confusion here, and so hopelessly mangled, that we can only guess at the sense of it. In Sillig’s edition, which is generally followed, it runs to this effect: “Neque profugienti, cum potuisset, fera institerat et procumbens ad arborem hiatu quo terruerat miserationem quærebat. Os morsu avidiore inhæserat dentibus cruciabatque inedia, tum pœna in ipsis ejus telis suspectantem ac velut mutis precibus orantem, dum fortuitu fidens non est contra feram; multoque diutius miraculo quam metu cessatum est.” Thus paraphrased by Sillig, who devotes a long Note to it: “The lion, therefore, being tormented by hunger and excessive pain, and thus punishing himself for his greediness in his own weapons (his teeth), looked up, and besought Elpis with silent prayers, as it were, not, as he trusted to the protection fortuitously given by the branches, to show himself distrustful of a wild beast.”