Now when this kingdom had attained perfection, and the influence of the ‘Fathers’ of the upper world had worked on the ‘Mothers’*

below, and these had assumed a finer temper, and the interspace between the air and the fire became involved, and a finer offspring resulted, the mani­festation of the animal world took place. This took to itself the faculties possessed by the vegetable kingdom, and added thereunto two others, one the faculty of discovery, which is called the ‘Perceptive Faculty’ (Mudrika), whereby the animal discerns things; the second the power of voluntary movement, by the help of which the animal moves auto­matically, approaching that which is agreeable to it and retreating from that which is offensive to it; and this is called the ‘Motor Faculty’ (Muḥarrika).

Now the Perceptive Faculty is subdivided into ten branches, five of which are called the External Senses and five the Internal Senses. The former are Touch, Taste, Hearing, Sight, and Smell. Now Touch is a sense distributed throughout the flesh and skin of the animal, so that the nerves perceive and discern anything which touches it, such as dryness and moisture, heat and cold, roughness and smoothness, harsh­ness and softness. Taste is a sense located in that nerve which is distributed over the surface of the tongue, which apprehends tastes and dissolved flavours from those bodies which come in contact with it; and it is this sense which discriminates between sweet and bitter, sharp and sour, and the like of these. Hearing is a sense located in the nerve which is distributed about the auditory meatus, so that it detects any sound which is discharged against it by undulations of the air compressed between two impinging bodies, that is to say, two bodies brought into contact with one another, by the impact of which the air is thrown into waves and becomes the cause of sound, inasmuch as it acts upon the air which is stationary in the auditory meatus, comes into contact with it, reaches this nerve, and gives rise to the sensation of hearing. Sight is a faculty located in two nerve-bulbs, which discerns images projected on the crystalline humour, whether of figures or solid bodies, variously coloured by the medium of a translucent substance which subsists between it and the surfaces of reflecting bodies. Smell is a faculty located in a protuberance situated in the fore part of the brain and resembling the nipple of the female breast, which apprehends what the air inhaled brings to it of odours mingled with the vapours wafted by air-currents, or what is impressed upon it by diffusion from the odorific body.

The Five Internal Senses.*

Now as to the Internal Senses, some are such as perceive sense-impressions, while others are such as apprehend ideas. The first is the ‘Composite Sense’ (Ḥiss-i-mushtarika), which is a faculty located in the anterior ventricles of the brain, and receptive into itself of any image apprehended by the external senses, or impressed upon them for communication to it, such perception being apprehended only when received by it. The second is the Imagination (Khayál), a faculty located in the posterior ventricles of the second convolution of the brain, which preserves what the Composite Sense has appre­hended from the external senses, so that this remains in it after the subsidence of the sense-impressions. The third is the ‘Imaginative Faculty’ (Mutakhayyila), thus called when animals are under discussion, but, in the case of the human soul, named the ‘Cogitative Faculty’ (Mutafakkira). This is a faculty located in the middle ventricle of the brain, whose function it is to co-ordinate with one another, and to preserve, those particular percepts which are stored in the Imagination, and to keep them distinct from one another by the control of thought. The fourth is the ‘Apprehensive Faculty’ (Wáhima), which is a faculty located in the extremity of the middle ventricle of the brain. Its function is to discover the supra-sensual ideas existing in particular percepts. By it the kid distinguishes between its dam and a wolf, and the child between a piece of rope and a serpent. The fifth is the ‘Retentive Faculty’ (Ḥáfidha), also called the ‘Memory’ (Dhákira), which is a faculty located in the posterior ventricle of the brain. It preserves those supra­sensual ideas discovered by the Apprehension; between which and itself the same relation subsists as between the Imagination and the Composite Sense, though the latter preserves forms and the former ideas.

Now all these are the servants of the Animal Soul, a substance having its well-spring in the heart, which, when it acts in the heart, is called the Animal Spirit, but when in the brain, the Psychic Spirit, and when in the liver, the Natural Spirit. It is a subtle vapour which rises from the blood, diffuses itself to the remotest arteries, and resembles the sun in luminosity. Every animal which possesses these Perceptive and Motor faculties, and these ten subordinate faculties derived therefrom, is called a perfect animal; but if any faculty is lacking in it, defective. Thus the snake has no ears, the ant no eyes, and these two are called deaf and blind; but none is more defective than the maggot, which is a red worm found in the mud of streams,*

called therefore gil-khwára (‘mud-eater’), but in Transoxania Za'ák-kirma (?).*

This is the lowest animal, while the highest is the satyr (nasnás),*

a creature inhabiting the plains of Turkistán, of erect carriage, of vertical stature, with wide flat nails. It cherishes a great affection for men; wherever it sees them, it halts on their path and examines them attentively; and when it finds a solitary man, it carries him off; nay, it is even said that it will conceive from him. This, after mankind, is the highest of animals, inasmuch as in several respects it resembles man; first, in its erect stature; secondly, in the breadth of its nails and in the hair of its head.