DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1035#0419
378 DWARFS. [Chap. VI.
grottoes, is that of admitting dwarfs and deformed
persons into the suite of the grandees; and these,
as well as buffoons, were introduced at a later
epoch, into different countries of Europe, in imita-
tion of an usage common from the earliest times
throughout the East.*
In one of these catacombs is a Greek alphabet,
whose letters are transposed in various ways, evi-
dently by a person teaching a boy Greek : and who
appears to have found these cool recesses as well
suited for the resort of himself and pupils as any
stoa or grove of Academus. The same recom-
mendation has at the present day induced the ser-
pents of the neighbourhood to retire to their shade,
and the traveller will do well to enter them care-
fully, and look for the tracks of the deadly coluber,!
* Dwarfs were introduced at Rome even before the time of the
emperors. Marc Antony had them, and subsequently Tiberius
and Domitian. The latter kept a band of dwarf gladiators-
Alexander Severus banished this custom, but it was revived in the
middle ages. Francis I. had several; and they were common at
other continental courts, as well as in England.
t It only differs from the horned snake of the Thebaid, the
cerastes of Pliny, by the absence of the homs. Its form and
habits are similar. Conf. Plin. viii. c. 23, " corpore occultato."
The Turks believe that serpents may be produced from human
hair; Pliny says, " Many believe they spring from the marrow of
the human spine." Lib. x. c. 66. The number of snakes in
Egypt suggested the expediency of rendering divine honours to
the Ibis; and a similar respect for birds of the same order was
observed in other countries. " Honor iis (ciconiis) serpentium
exitio tantus, ut in Thessalia capitale fuerit occidisse."—Plin. x.
c. 23.
grottoes, is that of admitting dwarfs and deformed
persons into the suite of the grandees; and these,
as well as buffoons, were introduced at a later
epoch, into different countries of Europe, in imita-
tion of an usage common from the earliest times
throughout the East.*
In one of these catacombs is a Greek alphabet,
whose letters are transposed in various ways, evi-
dently by a person teaching a boy Greek : and who
appears to have found these cool recesses as well
suited for the resort of himself and pupils as any
stoa or grove of Academus. The same recom-
mendation has at the present day induced the ser-
pents of the neighbourhood to retire to their shade,
and the traveller will do well to enter them care-
fully, and look for the tracks of the deadly coluber,!
* Dwarfs were introduced at Rome even before the time of the
emperors. Marc Antony had them, and subsequently Tiberius
and Domitian. The latter kept a band of dwarf gladiators-
Alexander Severus banished this custom, but it was revived in the
middle ages. Francis I. had several; and they were common at
other continental courts, as well as in England.
t It only differs from the horned snake of the Thebaid, the
cerastes of Pliny, by the absence of the homs. Its form and
habits are similar. Conf. Plin. viii. c. 23, " corpore occultato."
The Turks believe that serpents may be produced from human
hair; Pliny says, " Many believe they spring from the marrow of
the human spine." Lib. x. c. 66. The number of snakes in
Egypt suggested the expediency of rendering divine honours to
the Ibis; and a similar respect for birds of the same order was
observed in other countries. " Honor iis (ciconiis) serpentium
exitio tantus, ut in Thessalia capitale fuerit occidisse."—Plin. x.
c. 23.