Philes, a Greek author that flourished in the time of Michael Paleologus, writes that a sheep or kid's skin, whom a wolf worried, Haedus inhumani raptus ab ore lupi, ought not at all to be worn about a man, "because it causeth palpitation of the heart," not for any fear, but a secret virtue which amulets have.

"] Such a poem, even if addressed properly, would indicate nothing more than simple admiration and a longing which is specified in the following: [Greek: Alla propine radinous, o phile, maerous.

For several hundred years it was a popular and standard book on zoölogy; and even as late as the fourteenth century, Manuel Philes, a Byzantine poet, founded upon it a poem on animals.