artificial, as he did suppose they were sweeter. Sweeter,do you say, said the Satrap , I fear the soil about Ba-bylon abounds in wormwood,* and tends to make thevegetables bitter and unpleasant to the taste. At lastApollonius, out of respect to the Satrap , made use ofthese words when he was taking his leave of him,—“ Ceasenot from doing good, but I say also, begin by doing good.”By this he rebuked him not only for the threat he heldout of the torture, but for the very uncivil language he atfirst uSted to him.
CHAP. XXII.
AFTER this our travellers continued their journey, andproceeding about twenty stadias, lighted on a lionessjust killed in the chase, that was one of the largest everseen in these parts. The people from the neighbouringvillages, and even the huntsmen themselves, gathering allaround, raised a loud cry as if they had beheld somethingwonderful. And indeed it was so, for when the lionesswas opened, there were found eight young ones in herbelly. It is said the lioness carries her young six months,and brings forth only three times in her life. At her firstlitter she has three, at the second, two, and if she has athird, but one, which is, I suppose, larger, and moreferocious than usual. No credit is to be given to thosewriters, who say that the young whelpsf gnaw the wombsof their mothers in order to set themselves at liberty : forI think no doubt can be entertained but that nature hasformed a mutual attachment between the parent and her