The Book of Beasts Quotes

“The Latin name of CANIS the Dog is seen to have a Greek etymology (...) Now none is more sagacious than Dog, for he has more perception than other animals and he alone recognizes his own name. He esteems his Master highly. There are numerous breeds of dogs. Some track down the wild creatures of the woods to catch them. Others guard the flocks of sheep vigilantly against infestations of wolves. Others, the house-dogs, look after the palisade of their masters, lest it should be robbed in the night by thieves, and these will stand up for their owners to the death. They gladly dash out hunting with Master, and will even guard his body when dead, and not leave it. In sum, it is a part of their nature that they cannot live without men”
― T.H. White, The Book of Beasts: Being a Translation from a Latin Bestiary of the 12th Century

“Work is pleasant there, and from flowers and sweet herbs the foundations of the new hive are laid.

What indeed is a honey hive except a sort of camp? For these enclosures the bee-wax of the bees is laid up. What four-walled houses can show so much skill and beauty as the frame-work of their combs shows, in which small round apartments are supported by sticking one to the other? What architect taught them to fit together six-sided chambers with their sides undistinguishably equal? To suspend thin wax cells inside the walls of their tenements? To compress honey-dew and make the flower-granaries to swell with a kind of nectar?”
― T.H. White, The Book of Beasts: Being a Translation from a Latin Bestiary of the 12th Century