. About the
thighs and arms, which have no sense because there is little soul in the
marrow, and about the inner bones, he laid the flesh thicker. For where
the flesh is thicker there is less feeling, except in certain parts
which the Creator has made solely of flesh, as for example, the tongue.
Had the combination of solid bone and thick flesh been consistent with
acute perceptions, the Creator would have given man a sinewy and fleshy
head, and then he would have lived twice as long. But our creators were
of opinion that a shorter life which was better was preferable to a
longer which was worse, and therefore they covered the head with thin
bone, and placed the sinews at the extremity of the head round the neck,
and fastened the jawbones to them below the face. And they framed the
mouth, having teeth and tongue and lips, with a view to the necessary
and the good; for food is a necessity, and the river of speech is the
best of rivers. Still, the head could not be left a bare globe of bone
on account of the extremes of heat and cold, nor be allowed to become
dull and senseless by an overgrowth of flesh. Wherefore it was covered
by a peel or skin which met and grew by the help of the cerebral humour.
The diversity of the sutures was caused by the struggle of the food
against the courses of the soul. The skin of the head was pierced by
fire, and out of the punctures came forth a moisture, part liquid,
and part of a skinny nature, which was hardened by the pressure of the
external cold and became hair. And God gave hair to the head of man
to be a light covering, so that it might not interfere with his
perceptions. Nails were formed by combining sinew, skin, and bone, and
were made by the creators with a view to the future when, as they knew,
women and other animals who would require them would be framed out of
man.

The gods also mingled natures akin to that of man with other forms and
perceptions. Thus trees and plants were created, which were originally
wild and have been adapted by cultivation to our use. They partake of
that third kind of life which is seated between the midriff and the
navel, and is altogether passive and incapable of reflection.

When the creators had furnished all these natures for our sustenance,
they cut channels through our bodies as in a garden, watering them with
a perennial stream. Two were cut down the back, along the back bone,
where the skin and flesh meet, one on the right and the other on