"Demostratus lyncurium vocat et fieri ex urina lyncum bestiarum, e maribus fulvum et igneum, e feminis languidius atque candidum; alios id dicere langurium et esse in Italia bestias languros. Zenothemis langas vocat easdem et circa Padum its vitam adsignat, Sudines arborem, quae gignat in Liguria, vocari lynca. in eadem sententia et Metrodorus fuit."1** (Demostratus calls it lyncurium and says that it originates from the urine of the animal known as the lynx, that of the male being reddish and fiery, that of the female rather pale and even white; others call it langurium, there being in Italy animals known as languri. Zenothemis calls them langae, and assigns the region of the Po River as their habitat. Sudines says that the tree which produces it in Liguria is called the lynx. Metrodorus also was of the same opinion.)
Perhaps the most curious elaboration of the story was the belief that the lynx hid its urine because it did not wish men to possess the valuable stone formed from it.185 Pliny mentions this strange belief in two passages,186 one of which has already been quoted. It is also mentioned in section 76 of the pseudo-Aristotelian work De Mirabilibus Auscultationibus. The passage reads as follows: και την λνγκα δε φασι τό ονρον κατακαλνπτβιν δια τό προς άλλα τε χρηο-ιμον είναι και τας σφραγίδας. (They say that the lynx also covers up its urine because it is useful for seals and other purposes.) Though Theophrastus says nothing about this curious belief in his account of the story in this treatise, it must have been current in his day, since he takes the trouble to refute it in the fragment quoted by Photius, which contains various examples of envy or jealousy felt by animals toward men. The pertinent passage reads as follows: και ή λνγζ κατακρνπτει τό ονρον οτι προς τα? σφραγίδα? και προς αλλάς χρείας επιτήδειοι*, αλλ' δτι μβν ον δια φθόνον ταύτα ποιεί τά ζωα αλλ' oi άνθρωποι έκ της ιδία? νπολήψβως ταντην αντοΐς πβριήψαν την αίτίαν παντί δτ}λοι\187 (And the lynx conceals the urine because it is suitable for seals and other purposes. But it is obvious to everyone that animals do not do this from envy, but that men have brought this charge against them because of their own prejudice.) This passage, though confirming the belief of Theophrastus that lyngourion was formed
18* XXXVII, 34.
185 Plutarch (Moralia, 962F, De sollertia animalium) seems to hint at this belief, though he merely says that lynxes conceal lyngourion. 18eVHI, 137; XXXVII, 52. 187 Text of Wimmer, Theophrasti Eresii Opera (Teubner ed.), HI, fr. CLXXV, 10-14.
