214044_The_Essa ... rd_Of_Montaigne_Vol_II.pdf - OUDL Home

THE SECOND BOOKE 137
Ipse eqo, nam memini, Troiani tempore belli
Panthoides Euphotbus eram. 1
When Troy was won, I, as I call to mind,
Euphorbus was, and Pauthus Sonne by kind.
As touching that alliance betweene us and beasts, I
make no great accompt of it, nor do I greatly admit it,
neither of that which divers Nations, and namely of the
most ancient and noble, who have not onely received
beasts into their societie and companie, but allowed
them a place farre above themselves; sometimes
deeming them to be familiars and favored of their
Gods, and holding them in a certaine awfull respect
and reverence more than humane, and others acknowledging
no other God nor no other Divinity than they.
Be/luoe' a barbaris propter beneficium consecrate:²
' Beasts by the Barbarians were made sacred for some
benefit. '
crocodilon adorat
Pars hoec, illa pavet saturam serpentibus Ibin,
Effigies sdcri hic nitet aurea Corcopitheci.³
This Country doth the Crocodile adore,
That feares the Storke glutted with Serpents gore,
The sacred Babion here,
In gold shape doth appeare.
—— hic piscem fluminis, illic
Oppida tota canem venerantui . 4
A fish here whole Townes reverence most,
A dog they honour in that coast.
And the very same interpretation that Plutarke
giveth unto this error, which is very well taken, is also
honourable for them. For, he saith, that (for example
sake) it was neither the Cat nor the Oxe that the
AEgyptians adored, but that in those beasts they
worshipped some image of divine faculties. In this
patience and utility, and in that vivacity, or as our
neighbours the Burgundians with all Germany the
impatience to see themselves shut up: Whereby they
1 OVID. Metam. 1. xv. 160. ² CIC. Nat. Deor. 1. i. c. 36.
² JCVEN. Sat. xv. 2. 4 Ibid. 7.