Book 4

1.1. So the general, learning of the enemy's preparation and the delay of his allies, decided to return again to the village from which we had set out, until the allies should arrive. A house had been set apart for me, together with Leucippe, a little above the general's lodging.

1.2. And when I had gone inside, I embraced her and was minded to play the man. But as she would not allow it, "How long," I said,

1.3. "are we to be widowed of the rites of Aphrodite? Do you not see what befalls us against all reason—shipwreck and robbers and sacrifices and slaughters? But while we are in a calm of fortune, let us make use of the moment, before something harder lays hold of us." But she said, "No, it is not lawful

1.4. "for this to happen yet. For the goddess Artemis stood over me the other day in my sleep, when I was weeping at the prospect of being slaughtered, and said, 'Do not weep now; for you will not die, since I will be your helper; and you will remain a virgin until I give you to a bridegroom; and no one shall take you

1.5. "'but Clitophon.'" I was vexed at the delay, but pleased by the hopes of the future; and when I heard the dream, I remembered that I had seen a like vision.

1.6. For on the night before I thought I saw a temple of Aphrodite, and the statue of the goddess inside; but when I came near to pray,

1.7. the doors were shut. While I was disheartened, a woman appeared to me having the form of the statue, and said, "Now it is not permitted you to enter the temple; but if you wait a little while, I will not only open it to you, but I will also make you a priest of the

1.8. "goddess." So I told Leucippe this dream and no longer attempted to force her. But reckoning over Leucippe's dream, I was not a little troubled.

2.1. Meanwhile Charmides—for that was the general's name—cast his eye upon Leucippe, having seen her from such an occasion as this. Some men had caught a river-beast worth seeing; the Egyptians call it the horse of the Nile.

2.2. And it is a horse, as the name will have it, in the belly and the feet, except that it splits its hoof into a cleft; in size it is like the largest ox; its tail is short and bare of hair;

2.3. its head is round and not small; its cheeks are near to a horse's; its nostril is gaping wide and breathes a fiery smoke as from a spring of fire; its jaw is broad, as broad as its cheek; it opens its mouth as far as the temples; and it has curved canine teeth, in shape and position like a boar's, but three times the size.

3.1. So the general called us to the sight, and Leucippe was there with us. Our eyes were upon the beast, but the general's upon Leucippe;

3.2. and at once he was captured. So wishing us to remain as long as possible, that he might gratify his eyes, he sought out windings of talk, first relating the nature of the beast, then the manner of its capture: how it is most voracious and makes a whole cornfield its food, and is caught by a trick.

3.3. For watching its haunts, they make a pit and cover it over above with reeds and earth; and beneath the contrivance of the reeds they set, down below, a wooden chamber with its doors opened up toward the roof of the pit, and lie in wait for the beast's fall;

3.4. for when it steps on, it is carried straight down, and the chamber receives it like a den, and the hunters, leaping out, at once shut the doors of the trap and so have their catch; for in sheer strength no one could master it.

3.5. For besides everything else it is most powerful, and its hide, as you see, it bears thick and will not yield to a wound of iron, but it is, so to speak, an Egyptian elephant. Indeed it appears second in strength to the Indian elephant.

4.1. And Menelaus said, "Have you, then, ever yet seen an elephant?" "Indeed I have," said Charmides, "and I have heard from those who know exactly the manner of its birth, how

4.2. "marvellous it is." "But we, to this day," said I, "have never seen one except in a painting." "I will tell you," he said, "for indeed we have leisure. Its mother carries it for a very long time; for she shapes the seed for ten years, and after such a circuit of years she bears it, when the offspring is already old.

4.3. "For this reason, I think, it grows great in form, irresistible in strength, abundant in life, slow to its end; for they say it lives longer than Hesiod's crow.

4.4. "The jaw of the elephant is such as the head of the ox. For you, on seeing it, would say its mouth had a double horn; but this is the elephant's curved tooth. And between the teeth rises up its trunk, like a trumpet both in look and in size, but obedient in all things toward the elephant.

4.5. "For it forages its pasture with it, and whatever food it finds in the way. For if it is fit fare for an elephant, it takes it at once and, folding it down toward the jaw, ministers the food to the mouth; but if it sees anything of human things, it wraps round it, gripping the prize in a circle, and lifts the whole and offers it up as a gift to its master;

4.6. "for there sits upon it an Ethiopian man, a strange kind of horseman; and it flatters him and fears him and heeds his voice and endures his whip; and its whip is an iron axe.

4.7. "And I once saw a strange sight too. A Greek man put his head into the middle of the beast's head; and the elephant gaped and breathed all about the man within it. So I marvelled at both—at the man for his boldness and at the elephant for its kindliness.

4.8. "But the man said that he had even paid a fee to the beast; for it breathes on one almost of Indian spices, and it is a remedy for an aching head. So the elephant knows the cure and does not open its mouth for nothing, but is a quack of a physician and demands its fee first. And if you give it, it complies and grants the favour and unfolds its jaw and stays gaping as long as the man wishes. For it knows that it has sold its scent."

5.1. "And whence," I said, "comes such pleasure of fragrance to so misshapen a beast?" "Because," said Charmides, "it makes such fare its food too. For the land of the Indians is neighbour to the sun; for the Indians are the first to see the god rising, and the light settles hotter upon them, and their bodies keep the dye of the fire.

5.2. "Now among the Greeks there grows a flower of Ethiopian colour, but among the Indians it is not a flower but a leaf, such as with us are the leaves of plants, which conceals its breath and does not display its scent—either because it shrinks from boasting before those who know it, or because it grudges its pleasure to its countrymen; but if it migrates a little from its land and passes the borders, it opens the pleasure of its theft and becomes a flower instead of a leaf and puts on its scent.

5.3. "This is the black rose of the Indians. And it is food for the elephants, as grass is for our oxen. So, having been nourished on it from its first birth, the whole beast smells according to its food, and sends forth from below a most fragrant breath, which has become for it the spring of its breathing."

6.1. So when we were released from the general's talk—for one wounded cannot endure to be pressed by the fire—a little while after he sent for Menelaus, and taking his hand said, "I know you to be good for friendship from what you did for Clitophon;

6.2. "and you will find me no worse. I beg of you a favour easy for you, but to me you will be saving my life, if you grant it. Leucippe has destroyed me; do you save me. There is owed you from her a reward for saving life, and your fee shall be fifty pieces of gold for the service, and to her

6.3. "as many as she wishes." So Menelaus said, "Keep your gold and save it for those who sell their favours; but I, being a friend, will try to be useful to you." Saying this he came to me and told everything. So we took counsel as to what we must do. It seemed best to deceive him;

6.4. for to refuse outright was not without danger, lest he should even use force; and to flee was impossible, robbers being poured round everywhere, and so many soldiers being about him.

7.1. So after a little while Menelaus went off to Charmides and said, "The thing is accomplished, though at first the woman strongly refused; but as I begged and reminded her of the kindness, she consented.

7.2. "She asks one just request, that you grant her a short term of a few days, 'until I come to Alexandria; for this is a village, and what happens is in full view, and there are many witnesses.'" "It is a long while," said Charmides, "that she grants the favour.

7.3. "And in war who puts off desire? A soldier with battle in his hands—does he know whether he will live? So many are the roads of death. Beg me from Fortune my safety, and I will wait. I am now going out to a war of herdsmen; another war sits within my soul; a soldier ravages me, with a bow, with an arrow;

7.4. "I am conquered, I am filled with arrows. Call quickly, man, the healer; the wound presses. I shall kindle fire upon the enemy; love has kindled other torches against me.

7.5. "Quench first this fire, Menelaus. A fine omen before the joining of battle is an embrace of love. Let Aphrodite send me off to Ares." And Menelaus said, "But you see how it is not easy for her to escape notice here, with her husband present, and a husband, moreover, in love."

7.6. And Charmides said, "But this at least is easy—to put Clitophon out of the way." So Menelaus, seeing Charmides' eagerness, and fearing for me,

7.7. quickly invented a plausible excuse and said, "Do you wish to hear the true reason for the delay? The woman yesterday began her monthly courses, and it is not lawful to lie with a man." "Then we will wait," said Charmides, "here three or four days, for these will be enough.

7.8. "But what is permitted, ask of her: let her come into my sight and exchange words; I wish to hear her voice, to touch her hand, to handle her body; for these are the consolations of lovers. And it is permitted even to kiss her; for this her courses have not forbidden."

8.1. So when Menelaus came and reported this to me, at it I cried out that I would sooner die than look on while Leucippe's kiss was made another's. "For what," I said, "is sweeter than that?

8.2. "For the act of Aphrodite has both a limit and satiety, and is nothing if you take from it the kisses; but a kiss is both limitless and unsated and ever new. For three of the fairest things rise up from the mouth—the breath and the voice and the kiss.

8.3. "For with our lips we kiss one another, but from the soul comes the spring of pleasure. Believe me when I say, Menelaus—for in my troubles I will dance out the mysteries—these things alone I too have from Leucippe; she still remains a virgin; only as far as kisses is she my wife.

8.4. "And if anyone shall snatch even these from me, I cannot bear the loss; my kisses shall not be made the object of adultery." "Then," said Menelaus, "we need the best counsel, and the quickest.

8.5. "For a lover, so long as he has the hope of attaining, endures, stretching himself toward the attaining itself; but if he despairs, he turns his desire and dares, as far as he is able, to repay grief upon whatever hinders him.

8.6. "And let there be strength too, so that he may do something without suffering; then the soul's fearlessness inflames its anger the more. And the crisis of the matter presses, with its want of escape."

9.1. So while we were considering, someone ran in, all in confusion, and said that Leucippe, while walking, had suddenly fallen down and was rolling her eyes. So springing up we ran to her and saw her lying on the ground.

9.2. Going up, then, I asked what was wrong with her; but she, when she saw me, leapt up and struck me across the face, looking bloodshot; and when Menelaus too tried to lay hold of her, she struck him with her leg. So understanding that the trouble was some madness, we seized her by force and tried to master her; but she wrestled against us, caring nothing to hide what a woman wishes not to be seen.

9.3. So a great uproar arose about the tent, so that the general himself ran in and saw what was happening. At first he suspected her sickness was a pretence and a trick against himself, and he looked askance at Menelaus; but as little by little he saw the truth, he too was moved and took pity.

9.4. So they brought ropes and bound the wretched girl. But when I saw the bonds about her hands, I begged Menelaus, the crowd having now departed, saying, "Loose her, I beseech you, loose her; tender hands cannot bear a bond; leave me alone with her; I alone, embracing her, will be her bond; let her rave against me.

9.5. "For why should I live any longer? Leucippe does not know me though I am present; she lies before me bound, and I, shameless that I am, though able to loose her, will not. For this has Fortune saved us from the robbers—that you might become the plaything of madness?

9.6. "O unhappy we, when we have good fortune! We have fled the terrors at home, only to suffer shipwreck; from the sea we have come safe; from the robbers we have been delivered;

9.7. "and all to be kept for madness. I, even if you come to your senses, dearest, fear the spirit again, lest it work you some new harm. Who, then, is more luckless than we, who fear even our good fortunes? But if only you would come to your senses for me and get yourself back again, let Fortune play her games once more."

10.1. As I said this, Menelaus and his companions comforted me, saying that such sicknesses are not lasting, but often arise from the seething of youth—for the blood, everywhere young and boiling with too much vigour, often overflows the veins, and flooding round the head within drowns the breath of reason.

10.2. So they must send for physicians and apply treatment. So Menelaus went to the general and begged him to summon the physician of the camp, and he was gladly persuaded; for lovers rejoice at commands that touch their love.

10.3. And the physician came and said, "Now we will provide her sleep, that we may tame the wildness of the fever; for sleep is the remedy of all sicknesses; and afterward we will apply the rest of the treatment."

10.4. So he gave us a small drug, about the size of a vetch, and bade us dissolve it in oil and anoint the middle of her head; and he said he would prepare another for the purging of her belly.

10.5. So we did as he ordered, and she, being anointed, after a little while slept for the rest of the night until dawn. But I, lying awake the whole night, wept sitting beside her, and looking at the bonds said, "Alas, dearest, you are bound even in your sleep; you do not have even your sleep free.

10.6. "What, I wonder, are your visions? Are you at least in your senses in your sleep, or do even your dreams rave?" When she rose, she again cried out senseless things; and the physician was there and applied the rest of the treatment.

11.1. Meanwhile there came someone from the satrap of Egypt, bringing a letter to the general. The letter, as was likely, urged him on to the war; for it ordered all to take up arms at once against the herdsmen.

11.2. So setting out without delay, each at once, as fast as he could, made for his arms and was there with the captains. Then, having given them the watchword and ordered them to encamp, he was by himself; and on the next day, at daybreak, he led the army out against the enemy.

11.3. Now the situation of the village was thus for them. The Nile flows down from above, out of Egyptian Thebes, being one river as far as Memphis, and a little below it—the village is named Cercasorus—it is at the end of the great stream.

11.4. From there it breaks apart over the land, and from one river three are made, two parted off on either side, and one flowing on just as it was before it parted.

11.5. But not even each of these rivers endures to flow as far as the sea, but is split off, one this way, another that, by the cities, and the divisions are greater than the rivers among the Greeks; and the water, everywhere divided, does not grow feeble, but is sailed on and drunk and used for farming.

12.1. The mighty Nile becomes all things to them—river and land and sea and lake; and the sight is a strange one: a ship together with a mattock, an oar and a plough, a rudder and a winnowing-fan, a lodging of sailors and of farmers together, of fishes together and of oxen. Where you have sailed, you plant, and what you plant, this is a sea under cultivation.

12.2. For the river has its seasons of visitation; and the Egyptian sits awaiting it and numbering its days. And the Nile does not lie, but is a river that keeps its time by an appointed term and measures out its water—a river that does not wish to be caught overdue.

12.3. And one may see the rivalry of river and land. Each contends with the other—the water, to flood so much land; the land, to make room for so sweet a sea; and both win an equal victory,

12.4. and nowhere does the vanquished appear. For the water spreads out together with the land; but about these very pastures of the herdsmen it always lies deep. For when it floods the whole land, there it makes lakes; and the lakes, even if the Nile departs, remain none the less,

12.5. holding the water and the mud of the water. Upon these the people both walk and sail, nor can any other boat sail there, save such as a single man may board; but all that is foreign to the place the mud, falling on it, masters. They have small and light boats, and a little water suffices them; and if it be quite waterless, the boatmen take up the boat on their backs and carry it,

12.6. until they come upon water. And in these lakes there are, here and there, certain islands made scattered about; some bare of buildings, planted with papyrus; and the ranks of papyrus stand apart, packed only so far as to let a single man stand by each, and this space of their packing is filled in above by the tresses of the papyrus.

12.7. So running in there they take counsel and lie in ambush and escape notice, using the papyrus for walls. And some of the islands have huts, and improvise a city walled about by the lakes.

12.8. These are the lodgings of the herdsmen. One of those near, surpassing the rest in size and in its many huts—they called it, I think, Nicochis—there all gathered together, as in the strongest place, taking courage both in numbers and in position. For a single neck of land divided it from being wholly an island; it was a stade in length, but twelve fathoms in breadth; and lakes flowed round the city on this side and that.

13.1. So when they saw the general drawing near, they contrived something of this sort. Gathering all the old men and setting upon them the suppliant rods of palm, they posted behind them the most vigorous of the young, armed with shields and spears.

13.2. And the old men were to hold up the suppliant boughs and cover with the tresses of their leaves those behind, while the followers trailed their spears flat, that they might least be seen. And if the general should be persuaded by the prayers of the old men, the spearmen were to attempt no fresh violence toward battle; but if not, to lead him on toward the city,

13.3. as though they gave themselves up to death. And when they should be in the middle of the neck of land, the old men, at a signal, were to slip away and throw down the suppliant boughs, and the armed men, running forward, were to do whatever they could.

13.4. So they came arrayed in this fashion and begged the general to respect their old age, to respect the suppliant boughs, and to take pity on the city; and they offered him privately a hundred talents of silver, and a hundred men willing to give themselves up for the city to be led to the satrap,

13.5. that he might have spoil to bring to him too. And their word was no lie, but they would have given it, had he wished to take it. But as he would not receive their words, "Then," said the old men, "if this is your decision,

13.6. "we will bear our fate. In the midst of our troubles grant us this favour: do not slay us outside the gates nor far from the city, but to our fathers' land, to the hearth of our birth, lead us; make the city our tomb. See, we lead you to your death." Hearing this, the general gave up the array of battle and bade the army advance at its ease.

14.1. Now there were watchmen of the proceedings posted far off, whom the herdsmen had set beforehand, and ordered, if they should see the enemy crossing, to cut the dam of the river and let all the water loose upon them.

14.2. For the streams of the Nile are thus. At each canal the Egyptians have a dam, that the Nile, rising before the time of need, may not flood the land. But whenever they need to water the plain, they open a little of the dam. So behind the village there was a great and broad canal of the river.

14.3. There the men appointed to the task, when they saw the enemy entering, quickly cut through the dam. So all happened at once: the old men in front suddenly drew apart, and the men, raising their spears, ran out; and the water was already there, and the lakes swelled, surging from every side, and the neck of land was flooded over,

14.4. and all was as a sea. So the herdsmen, falling on, ran through with their spears those in front, and the general himself, since they were unprepared and confounded by the unexpected.

14.5. And of the rest the death was beyond telling. For some, at the very first onset, perished without even moving their weapons; others got no leisure to defend themselves—for they learned and suffered at once; and some the suffering forestalled before the learning; others, in their unaccountable bewilderment, stood waiting for death; others, with but a single movement, slipped under, the river tripping them; others, even rushing to flee, were rolled into the deep of the lake and dragged under.

14.6. For those standing on the land, the water came up to the navel, so that it even knocked back their shields and bared their bellies to the wounds; but the water of the lake was everywhere over a man's head.

14.7. And one could not distinguish what was lake and what was plain, so that even the man running over the land, for fear of going wrong, was the slower in his flight, and so was quickly caught; and the man who strayed over the lake,

14.8. thinking it was land, sank under. And there were strange misfortunes—so many shipwrecks, and no ship anywhere; both things strange and unaccountable, a land-battle in the water,

14.9. and a shipwreck on the land. So they, exalted at what had been done, thought great things of themselves, believing they had conquered by courage and not by the theft of a trick. For the Egyptian, both his cowardice, where he is afraid, is enslaved, and his fighting spirit, in what he is bold, is whetted; and both are without measure, but the weaker fails in his misfortune, and the more headstrong prevails.

15.1. Now ten days had passed for Leucippe in her madness, and the sickness was not relieved. Once, then, as she slept, she let fall this word in her dreaming: "For your sake I am mad, Gorgias." So when day came, I told Menelaus what had been said, and we looked about to see whether there might be anyone in the village called Gorgias.

15.2. As we went out, a young man came up and, addressing me, said, "I have come as a saviour to you and to your wife." Astonished and thinking the man god-sent, I said, "Are you by chance Gorgias?" "No indeed," he said, "but Chaereas; for it is Gorgias who has destroyed you."

15.3. I shuddered still more and said, "What is this destruction, and who is Gorgias? For some spirit revealed him to me by night; do you become the interpreter of the divine revelations." "Gorgias was," he said, "an Egyptian soldier; but now he is no more, but has become the work of the herdsmen; and he was in love with your wife.

15.4. "Being by nature a maker of drugs, he prepared a love-philtre and persuaded the Egyptian who served you to take the drug and mix it into Leucippe's drink. But unawares he used the drug undiluted, and the love-charm turns to madness.

15.5. "These things the servant of Gorgias told me yesterday, who happened to have served with him on the campaign against the herdsmen; and Fortune saved him, as is likely, for your sakes. He asks four pieces of gold for the cure; for he has, he says, the preparation of another drug, by which he

15.6. "will undo the former." "Well, good fortune attend you for your service," I said, "and bring the man you speak of to us." So he went off, and I, going in to the Egyptian, struck him with my fist across the face, a second blow and a third, and in my agitation said, "Tell me, what have you given Leucippe, and why is she mad?" And he, in fear, told everything, just as Chaereas had related to us. So we kept him shut up under guard.

16.1. Meanwhile Chaereas came, bringing the man. So I said to them both, "Take now the four pieces of gold as the reward of your good information; but hear how I stand about the drug. You see how a drug has been the cause of the woman's present evils.

16.2. "And it is not without danger to drug over again entrails already drugged. Come, tell what this drug has in it, and prepare it in our presence; and four other pieces of gold shall be your reward, if you do so." And the man said, "You fear justly;

16.3. "but what is put in is common stuff and all edible; and I myself will taste of it as much as she takes." And at the same time he ordered someone to buy and bring each item, naming them. And when they were quickly brought, in our presence he pounded them all together, and dividing it in two, "The one part I myself

16.4. "will drink first, and the other I will give to the woman. She will sleep, surely, the whole night through when she has taken it; and toward dawn she will throw off both the sleep and the sickness." So he took the drug first himself, and bade us give the rest toward evening to drink.

16.5. "And I will go off," he said, "to sleep; for the drug wills it so." Saying this he went off, having taken the four pieces of gold from me. "The rest," I said, "I will give, if she recovers from the sickness."

17.1. So when it was time for her to drink the drug, pouring it out I prayed over it: "O child of earth, drug, O gift of Asclepius, make true your promises; prove more fortunate than I, and save me my dearest. Conquer that drug, the barbarous

17.2. "and savage." Having given these tokens to the drug, and having kissed the cup, I gave it to Leucippe to drink; and she, as the man had said, after a little while lay sleeping. And I, sitting beside her, said to her as though she heard, "Will you truly come to your senses for me? Will you ever know me again? Shall I get back that voice of yours?

17.3. "Prophesy something even now in your sleep; for yesterday too you prophesied of Gorgias justly. You are more fortunate, then, sleeping; for waking you suffer madness, but your dreams

17.4. "are in their senses." While I was talking thus, as though to Leucippe who heard me, the long-prayed-for dawn appeared at last, and Leucippe spoke, and her

17.5. voice was, "Clitophon." So springing up I came to her and asked how she was; and she seemed to know nothing of what she had done, but seeing the bonds marvelled and asked who had bound her. And I, seeing her in her senses, out of great joy loosed the bonds amid a tumult, and after this told her the whole story; and she was ashamed as she listened, and blushed, and thought she was doing those things even then.

17.6. So I revived her with comforting words, and paid the reward for the drug most gladly. For all our travelling-money was safe; for Satyrus happened to have it in his belt when we were shipwrecked, and neither he nor Menelaus had been robbed of anything they had by the pirates.

18.1. Meanwhile a greater force, coming up against the robbers from the metropolis, overpowered them and razed their whole city to the ground. And the river being freed from the outrage of the herdsmen, we made ready for the voyage to Alexandria. Chaereas too sailed with us, having now become our friend through the information about the drug.

18.2. He was by race from the island of Pharos, by trade a fisherman, and had served for pay against the herdsmen in the campaign on the ships, so that after the war he was discharged from his service.

18.3. So, since men were sailing after a long lack of navigation, everything was full, and there was much pleasure for the eye—the song of sailors, the clapping of boatmen, the dance of ships, and the whole river was a festival; the voyage was like a river keeping holiday. And I drank then for the first time of the Nile too, without the company of wine, wishing to judge the pleasure of the draught; for wine is a theft of the nature of water.

18.4. So drawing a cup of the transparent glass, I saw the water, by its whiteness, contending with the cup, and the cup being beaten; and it was sweet to drink and cold in the measure of its pleasure. For I know some of the rivers among the Greeks that even wound with their cold;

18.5. and I compared them with this river. For this reason the Egyptian, drinking it unmixed, has no fear, having no need of Dionysus. And I marvelled too at their manner of drinking. For they neither wish to draw and drink, nor do they endure cups, having a self-made cup; for their cup is the hand.

18.6. For if any of them thirst while sailing, leaning out from the ship he thrusts his face toward the river, lowers his hand into the water, and hollowing it and filling it with water, hurls the draught at his mouth and hits his mark; and the open mouth waits for the throw and receives it and closes and does not let the water fall out again.

19.1. I saw also another beast of the Nile, praised for strength above the river-horse, and its name was crocodile; it had a form between a fish and a beast at once. For it is great from head to tail, but the breadth is not in proportion to the length.

19.2. Its hide is wrinkled with scales, and the colour of its back is ashen; its belly is white; it has four feet, gently curving to the side, like a land-tortoise; its tail is long and thick and like a solid body.

19.3. For it is not laid upon it as on other beasts, but is one bone, the end of the spine and a part of the whole. And it is notched above into ruthless spines, such as are the teeth of saws.

19.4. And this serves it for a whip too in the hunt; for it strikes with it those it wrestles against and makes many wounds with a single blow. Its head is woven together with its back and is brought to one straight line—for nature has stolen away its neck—and it is grimmer than the rest of the body, and stretches for the greatest part toward the jaws, and the whole of it opens.

19.5. For at all other times, so far as the beast does not gape, it is a head; but when it gapes at its prey, it becomes all mouth. It opens the upper jaw, but keeps the lower fixed; and there is a great gap, and the opening reaches to the shoulders, and at once comes the belly.

19.6. Its teeth are many and arranged over the greatest part. And they say that they happen to be as many in number as the days the god lights up in a whole year; so great a sowing does the field of its jaws bear. And if it crosses over onto the land, you would disbelieve how great is its strength, seeing the dragging weight of its body.