Of living creatures many are the kinds Throughout the world--unnumbered, since no man Can count their multitudes, nor rightly learn The ways of their wild nature; wide they roam, These beasts and birds, as far as ocean sets A limit to the earth, embracing her And all her sunny fields with salty seas And toss of roaring billows. We have heard From men of wider lore of one wild beast, Wonderful dweller in a far-off land Renowned of men, who loves his native glens And dusky caverns. Him have wise men called * * * * * 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 * * * * * wīsfæste weras, on gewritum cȳþa[_ð_] 15 bi þām ānstapan. Sē is ǣ[_g_]hwām frēond, duguða ēstig, būtan dracan ānum; þām hē in ealle tīd andwrāð leofaþ, þurh yfla gehwylc þe hē geæfnan mæg. Ðæt is wrǣtlīc dēor, wundrum scȳne, 20 hīwa gehwylces. Swā hæleð secgað, gǣsthālge guman, þætte Iōsēphes tunece wǣre telga gehwylces blēom bregdende, þāra beorhtra gehwylc, ǣghwæs ǣnlīcra, ōþrum līxte 25 dryhta bearnum, swā þæs dēores hīw, blǣc, brigda gehwæs, beorhtra and scȳnra wundrum līxeð, þætte wrǣtlīcra ǣghwylc ōþrum, ǣnlīcra gīen and fǣgerra, frætwum blīceð, 30 symle sellīcra. Hē hafað sundorgecynd, * * * * * The panther, and in books have told of him, The solitary rover. He is kind, A bounteous friend to every living thing Save one alone, the dragon; but with him The panther ever lives at enmity, Employing every means within his power To work him evil. Fair is he, full bright And wonderful of hue. The holy scribes Tell us how Joseph's many-colored coat, Gleaming with varying dyes of every shade, Brilliant, resplendent, dazzled all men's eyes That looked upon it. So the panther's hues Shine altogether lovely, marvelous, While each fair color in its beauty glows Ever more rare and charming than the rest. His wondrous character is mild, and free * * * * * among the children of men report in their books concerning that lonely wanderer.