flame-farting bonnacon



‘In Asia an animal is found which men call bonnacon […] when it turns to flee, it discharges fumes from the excrement of its belly over a distance of three acres, the heat of which sets fire to anything it touches. In this way, it drives off its pursuers with its harmful excrement.’ (transl. The Aberdeen Bestiary Project)



De Natura animalium, Cambrai ca. 1270.

Douai, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 711, fol. 8r