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[rubric] Of the manner and characteristics of the animals of these countries [/rubric]
The fox has the characteristic that it leaves
the woods and goes into the fields, and there
it pretends to be dead in order to catch
birds. When a deer wants to rejuvenate itself,
it eats a poisonous animal. If a
toad bites a man or a woman it runs the
risk of death, for it has often been seen to happen
that the spit of a man who is fasting kills
both spiders and toads if it touches them.
If a wolf and a man see each other from
a distance, the one who who is seen first
immediately becomes frightened (see note).
A wolf will steal a sheep away without hurting it,
afraid that if it cries out then he will be followed.
After he has carried the sheep back to the forest, he devours it.
If the wolf is forced to leave the sheep when he is
carrying it away, he bites it with all his
strength before it can run away. The spider
by her very nature contains in her entrails
thread for making webs. She uses the webs to
capture flies, which she then eats. When the female monkey (see note)
has two babies she loves one much more