As for
his part, having taken a supper of coarse black bread and roasted
acorns, he sought shelter for the night in the thick branches of a
large oak-tree.
Now poor Bladud was not aware that, guided by superior Wisdom, he had,
unknown to himself, approached a spot wherein there existed a
remarkable natural peculiarity. This was no other than some warm,
springs of salt water, which ooze out of the earth, and possess certain
medicinal properties which have the effect of curing various diseases,
and on which account they are sought by afflicted persons even to the
present day.
III.
Bladud awoke with the first beams of morning, and discovered his
grunting charge still actively wallowing in the oozy bed in which they
had taken such unaccountable delight on the preceding day.
Bladud, however, who was accustomed to reason and to reflect on
everything he saw, had often observed that the natural instinct of
animals prompted them to do such things as were most beneficial to
them. He had noticed that cats and dogs, when sick, had recourse to
certain herbs and grasses, which proved effectual remedies for the
malady under which they labored; and he thought it possible that pigs
might be endowed with a similar faculty of discovering an antidote for
disease.
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