In Libya, according to all accounts, the length of
the serpents is something appalling; sailors spin a yarn to the effect
that some crews once put ashore and saw the bones of a number of oxen,
and that they were sure that the oxen had been devoured by serpents,
for, just as they were putting out to sea, serpents came chasing their
galleys at full speed and overturned one galley and set upon the crew.
Again, lions are more numerous in Libya, and in that district of
Europe that lies between the Achelous and the Nessus; the leopard is
more abundant in Asia Minor, and is not found in Europe at all. As a
general rule, wild animals are at their wildest in Asia, at their
boldest in Europe, and most diverse in form in Libya; in fact, there
is an old saying, 'Always something fresh in Libya.'
It would appear that in that country animals of diverse
species meet, on account of the rainless climate, at the
watering-places, and there pair together; and that such pairs will
often breed if they be nearly of the same size and have periods of
gestation of the same length. For it is said that they are tamed
down in their behaviour towards each other by extremity of thirst.
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