It has a
huckle-bone like that of kine, but meagre and small in proportion to
its bulk. It is cloven-footed, and has not got teeth in both jaws; and
it is cloven footed in the following way: at the back there is a
slight cleft extending as far up as the second joint of the toes;
and in front there are small hooves on the tip of the first joint of
the toes; and a sort of web passes across the cleft, as in geese.
The foot is fleshy underneath, like that of the bear; so that, when
the animal goes to war, they protect its feet, when they get sore,
with sandals.
The legs of all quadrupeds are bony, sinewy, and fleshless; and
in point of fact such is the case with all animals that are
furnished with feet, with the exception of man. They are also
unfurnished with buttocks; and this last point is plain in an especial
degree in birds. It is the reverse with man; for there is scarcely any
part of the body in which man is so fleshy as in the buttock, the
thigh, and the calf; for the part of the leg called gastroenemia or is
fleshy.
Of blooded and viviparous quadrupeds some have the foot cloven
into many parts, as is the case with the hands and feet of man (for
some animals, by the way, are many-toed, as the lion, the dog, and the
pard); others have feet cloven in twain, and instead of nails have
hooves, as the sheep, the goat, the deer, and the hippopotamus; others
are uncloven of foot, such for instance as the solid-hooved animals,
the horse and the mule.
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