Page:The Old English Physiologus.djvu/12

 Monge sindon    geond middangeard
unrīmu cynn,    [þāra] þe wē æþelu ne magon
ryhte āreccan    nē rīm witan;
þæs wīde sind    geond wor[u]l[d] innan
5 fugla and dēora    foldhrērendras,
wornas widsceope,    swā wæter bibūgeð
þisne beorhtan bōsm,    brim grymetende,
sealtȳpa geswing.   
Wē bi sumum hȳrdon
wrǣtlīc[um] gecynd[e]    wildra secgan,
10 fīrum frēamǣrne,    feorlondum on,
eard weardian,    ēðles nēotan,
æfter dūnscrafum.    Is þæt dēor Pandher
bi noman hāten,    þæs þe niþþa bear[n],

Many, yea numberless, are the tribes throughout the world whose natures we can not rightly expound nor their multitudes reckon, so immense are the swarms of birds and earth-treading animals wherever water, the roaring ocean, the surge of salt billows, encompasses the smiling bosom of earth.

We have heard about one marvelous kind of wild beast which inhabits, in lands far off, a domain renowned among men, rejoicing there in his home amid the mountain-caves. This beast is called panther, as the learned