This page has been validated.
A BAD CHARACTER.
73
a real Cain at times. I saw one dart at an unoffending brother that was passing, and, seizing him with murderous jaws, shed out his life in a few seconds. The poor victim shot his feeble column of ink, and sank white and motionless to the bottom, as soon as the ferocious grasp was loosened. The indictment which old Ælian brings against the whole race, that they are gluttonous ("terrible fellows for their belly,"—δεινοὶ κατὰ κοιλίαν—is his phrase) and murderous, is, I am afraid, after all, not far from the truth.
