inary course of their nature, man would not be
able to live upon the earth; but as it is, when they couple with one
another and the male is in the act of generation, as he lets go from
him the seed, the female seizes hold of his neck, and fastening on to
it does not relax her hold till she has eaten it through. The male then
dies in the manner which I have said, but the female pays the penalty of
retribution for the male in this manner:--the young while they are still
in the womb take vengeance for their father by eating through their
mother, 99 and having eaten through her belly they thus make their way
out for themselves. Other serpents however, which are not hurtful to
man, produce eggs and hatch from them a very large number of offspring.
Now vipers are distributed over all the earth; but the others, which are
winged, are found in great numbers together in Arabia and in no other
land: therefore it is that they appear to be numerous.

110. This frankincense then is obtained thus by the Arabians; and cassia
is obtained as follows:--they bind up in cows'-hide and other kinds of
skins all their body and their face except only the eyes, and then go to
get the cassia. This grows in a pool not very deep, and round the pool
and in it lodge, it seems, winged beasts nearly resembling bats, and
they squeak horribly and are courageous in fight. These they must keep
off from their eyes, and so cut the cassia.

111. Cinnamon they collect in a yet more marvellous manner than this:
for where it grows and what land produces it they are not able to tell,
except only that some say (and it is a probable account) that it grows
in those regions where Dionysos was brought up; and they say that large
birds carry those dried sticks which we have learnt from the Phenicians
to call cinnamon, carry them, I say, to nests which are made of clay and
stuck on to precipitous sides of mountains, which man can find no means
of scaling. With regard to this then the Arabians practise the following
contrivance:--they divide up the limbs of the oxen and asses that die and
of their other beasts of burden, into pieces as large as convenient, and
convey them to these places, and when they have laid them down not far
from the nests, they withdraw to a distance from them: and the birds fly
down and carry the limbs 100 of the beasts of burden off to their nests;
and these are not able to bear them, but break down and fall to the
earth; and the men come up to t