The leopard

that is, that some tribes are called by the names of animals, such as the Banū Asad, the Banū al-Namir and the Banū Kalb and the like.

He holds this form to be a strong proof of totemism, since the sons of the tribe of al-Namir are reckoned leopards and the sons of the tribe of Kalb are reckoned dogs, as the conditions of totemism require.

and the original name may go and the by-name alone remain, the tribe being known by it — as happened with al-Anmār, which is a tribe of Nizār so nicknamed because its people were famous for the chase, as though they were leopards in springing upon the prey.

And the scorpion, the snake, the wolf and the leopard do harm only upon encounter, whereas man harms the near by striking and reviling and the far by backbiting and talebearing.

So the wolf and the leopard do harm in seeking what they need in the present, and the snake and the scorpion do harm for what they imagine they will need in the outcome, because they imagine something harmful and repel it.

In it is the greed of the dung-beetle and the pig, the ruinousness of the wolf and the leopard, the harmfulness of the scorpion and the snake, the lust of the cock and the ass, and the craving of the camel and the ox in eating;

But when, on coming into Cilicia and meeting a certain Gelasius, he set forth to him a creed which only Arius, or some genuine disciple of his, could have composed, then indeed we were the more confirmed in our separation, reckoning that neither will the Ethiopian ever change his skin, nor the leopard his spots, nor can one bred up in perverse doctrines wash off the evil of his heresy.

and another claims that he kept company with a leopard in a cave, and that he would feed it and eat along with it.

So beware, O man, of being a thicket within your own frame, holding a snake that strikes and a scorpion that stings, a leopard that tears and a camel that nurses rancour, a dog that dodges and a hare that turns coward before the truth, thorns and thistles that hurt, a lion that preys, and an ape with no portion but mimicry.

Cyrus, therefore, eagerly inquired of those who attended him what animals one ought not to approach and what animals one might pursue without fear.