[256] On the other hand, Abu-Shâker, an Arab writer of the thirteenth century, makes Aristotle the material benefactor of Alexander by his present of a box in which a number of wax figures were nailed down. These were intended to represent the various kinds of armed forces that Alexander was likely to encounter. Some held leaden swords curved backwards, some spears pointed head downwards, and some bows with cut strings. All the figures were laid face downwards in the box. Aristotle bade his pupil never to let the key out of his possession, and taught him to recite certain formulæ whenever he opened the box. This is only another use of magic, for the wax, the words of power, and the position of the figures all indicate that his foes would become prostrate and unable to withstand Alexander. See Budge, _Life of Alexander the Great_ (one vol. _ed._), p. xvi. [257] See D’Arcy Thompson, _Aristotle as a Biologist_, Herbert Spencer Lecture, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1913, p. 13. [258] Athen., VIII. 50. [259] Cf. I. V. Carus, _Prodomus Faunæ Mediterranæ_, vol. II., Stuttgart, 1889-93. [260] Of the closeness of his observation may be instanced (1) the development by the cuttle fish during the breeding season of one of his arms for transference to the mantle-cavity of the female—a function of which Cuvier himself was ignorant, and which was not rediscovered till the latter end of the last century, and (2) the method of bringing forth of the shark—γαλεὸς λεῖος—which was forgotten, till Johannes Müller brought it to light. See D’Arcy Thompson, _op. cit._, pp. 19-21. [261] _British Fish: Salmonidæ_ (London, 1887), p. 19. [262] _Memories of the Months, Fourth Series_ (London, 1914), pp. 232-3. [263] The experiments conducted by Alfred Ronalds and recorded in his famous _Fly-Fisher’s Entomology_, London, 1862, had similar results. [264] “The belief, common later, that the soul of the dead was not admitted immediately to the realm of Hades, but wandered in loneliness on its confines until the body was either burned or buried, is clearly expressed only in this (Patroclus) passage, while possibly in only one other can it be assumed, in all the Homeric poems. The wish for speedy rites sprang from a simpler cause; men did not want to have the bodies of their friends, or of themselves, torn by wild beasts or vultures: nor does this even begin to show that they had inherited old beliefs with regard to the connection between the soul of the dead and the body, which this soul had once inhabited, leading to a certain treatment of the body. That in earlier times, and perhaps by many Greeks of Homer’s age, the soul was thought to maintain a species of connection with the body, and to care for it, cannot be doubted. But caution is necessary that it may not be assumed that the Greeks, who maintained certain customs, inherited also the beliefs on which those customs were originally based” (Seymour, _op. cit._, p. 462).