This supposed fact was made use of by the Early Church "to point a moral." In a Bestiary[1] of the thirteenth century, founded on a Latin Physiologus of Theobaldus, we read that the beautiful panther, having eaten his fill, goes to sleep for three days in his cave:—
"than after the thridde dai
he riseth and remeth lude so he mai
ut of his throte cumeth a smel
that ouer-cumeth haliweic
with swetnesse ic gu feie
and al that eure smelleth swete
be it drie or be it wete."
This odour entices many animals to come to him; but the dragon lies trembling in his den. Thus manipulated, the story is made to teach that Our Lord, the fair Panther, came forth from the tomb, after lying there for three days. He drew men unto Him by the sweetness of His love, the dragon (Satan), meanwhile hiding himself for fear. Great use is made of this scent by Reynard the Fox in his figment concerning the treasures of which he pretended he had been robbed.[2] "I fonde . . . in my fadres tresour . . . a combe . . . this combe myght not be too moche preysed. Hit was made of the bone of a clene noble beest, named Panthera, whiche fedeth hym bytwene the grete Inde and erthly paradyse; he is so lusty fayr and of colour that ther is no colour vnder the heuen but somme lyknes is in hym therto; he smelleth so swete that the sauour of him boteth all syknessis, and for his beaute and swete smellyng all other beestis folowe hym, for by his swete sauour they ben heled of alle sykenessis. This panthera hath a fair boon brode and thynne; whan so is that this beeste is slayn al the swete odour restid in the bone, which can not be broken, ne shal never rote ne be destroyed by fyre, by water, ne by smityng, hit is so hardy, tyht, and faste, and yet it is lyght of weyght. The swete odour of it hath grete myght, that who that smelleth it sette nought by none other luste in the world, and is easyd and quyte of alle manor of diseases and Infirmytes." Reynard's report of the effect of the odour
