Transcription
femine sint id est nec fideles, nec perfidi sunt, sed sunt sine
dubio, de\ quibus ait Salomon: Vir duplex animo, inconstans est
in omnibus\ viis suis. De quibus ait dominus: Non potestis deo servire
et mamone.\ Hec belua lapidem in oculis tenet, nomine yeniam, quem
siquis sub lin\gua tenuerit, futura predicere creditur. Verum yena
quodcumque \ animal ter lustraverit vomere [A: movere] se non potest.
Quapropter magicam in\esse ei pronunciaverunt. In Ethiope parte
coit cum leena unde nascitur\ monstrum cui crocote nomen est. Voces
hominum et ipsi [A: ipsa] pariter effec\tat. Nunquam commutationem
orbium sed in obtutum sine mu\tatione contendit. In ore gingiva
nulla. Dens unus atque perpe\tuus qui ut nunquam retundatur, naturaliter
capsularum modo clauditur.\ De bonnacon.\ In Asia ani\mal
nas\citur quod bon\nacon di\cunt. Cui\ taurinum\ capud, ac \ deinceps\
corpus om\ne tantum\ iuba equi\na. Cornu\a autem ita multiplici
fleu [A: flexu] in se recurrentia, ut si quis in\ eo offendat non
vulneretur, sed quicquid presidii monstro illi frons\ negat, alvus
sufficiat [A: sufficit]. Nam cum in fugam vertit proluvie
citi ventris fumum egerit per longitudinem trium iugerum, cuius\
ardor quicquid attigerit adurit. Ita egerie noxia submovet insequentes\
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Translation
women, that is, neither faithful nor faithless, but are without
doubt those of whom Solomon says: 'A double-minded man is unstable
in all his ways'; (James, 1:8) of whom the Lord says: 'You cannot
serve God and mammon.' (Matthew, 6:24) This beast has a stone in
its eyes, called hyenia; anyone who keeps it under his tongue
is believed to foretell the future. It is true that if the hyena
walks three times around any animal, the animal cannot move. For
this reason men declare that the hyena has magical properties. In
a part of Ethiopia the hyena mates with the lioness; their union
produces a monster, named crocote. Like the hyena, it too produces
men's voices. It never tries to change the direction of its glance
but strives to see without changing it. It has no gums in its mouth.
Its single, continuous tooth is closed naturally like a casket so
that it is never blunted. Of the bonnacon In Asia an animal
is found which men call bonnacon. It has the head of a bull, and
thereafter its whole body is of the size of a bull's with the maned
neck of a horse. Its horns are convoluted, curling back on themselves
in such a way that if anyone comes up against it, he is not harmed.
But the protection which its forehead denies this monster is furnished
by its bowels. For when it turns to flee, it discharges fumes from
the excrement of its belly over a distance of three acres, the heat
of which sets fire to anything it touches. In this way, it drives
off its pursuers with its harmful excrement.
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