is produced by the soil around about him as far as his tether
permits him to crawl. No creature may venture to approach within
the radius of his cord, for he seizes and demolishes whatever
comes in his reach. To kill him, one may not go near to him, the
navel-string must be severed from a distance by means of a dart,
and then he dies amid groans and moans.[143] Once upon a time a
traveller happened in the region where this animal is found. He
overheard his host consult his wife as to what to do to honor
their guest, and resolve to serve "our man," as he said. Thinking
he had fallen among cannibals, the stranger ran as fast as his
feet could carry him from his entertainer, who sought vainly to
restrain him. Afterward, he found out that there had been no
intention of regaling him with human flesh, but only with the
flesh of the strange animal called "man."[146] As the "man of the
mountain" is fixed to the ground by his navel-string, so the
barnacle-goose is grown to a tree by its bill. It is hard to say
whether it is an animal and must be slaughtered to be fit for
food, or whether it is a plant and no ritual ceremony is
necessary before eating it.[150]

Among the birds the phoenix is the most wonderful. When Eve gave
all the animals some of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the
phoenix was the only bird that refused to eat thereof, and he was
rewarded with eternal life. When he has lived a thousand years,
his body shrinks, and the feathers drop from it, until he is as
small as an egg. This is the nucleus of the new bird.[151]

The phoenix is also called "the guardian of the terrestrial
sphere." He runs with the sun on his circuit, and he spreads out
his wings and catches up the fiery rays of the sun.[152] If he