without dying, seeing that they are very small, and that Catoblepas stands with half its body upright the better to infect the air and those who look at it from near by? Vair, de Incant. II. 9. Dioscor. VI. 55.For this purpose it would be necessary to have the power to charm them, as did the witch of the town of Thene in Thessaly whom Aristotle mentions.
And even if that which is reported of these animals were true, we should have no warrant to draw a parallel between them and mankind. The Basilisk and the Catoblepas were born with such poison as to be able to kill with their looking, just as we know that serpents kill with their teeth, and scorpions with their tails. They are animals which God has placed in the world to punish men, for He avenges Himself in countless ways. But man is not born in the same manner. And as for wolves, there are those who flatly deny what has been said of them; Scal. Riola ad Fernel. II. 17. de abdis. rer. caus.and in any case we should hold the same opinion of them as of the Basilisk, the Catoblepas, the Scorpion and the Serpent. Yet I shall always rather believe that the fright which a man experiences on suddenly seeing a wolf freezes his limbs and nerves so that his voice becomes a hoarse whisper. De subtil. lib. 18.Cardan says that there is something inimical to man in the eyes of a wolf, which prevents his breathing, and therefore his speech.
