John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
8711 Phaedrus fl 1st ent AD John Bartlett
| NUMBER: | 8711 |
| AUTHOR: | Phaedrus (fl. 1st cent. A.D.) |
| QUOTATION: | It has been related that dogs drink at the river Nile running along, that they may not be seized by the crocodiles. 1 |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Book i. Fable 25, 3. |
| Note 1. Pliny in his “Natural History,” book viii, sect. 148, and Ælian in his “Various Histories” relate the same fact as to the dogs drinking from the Nile. “To treat a thing as the dogs do the Nile” was a common proverb with the ancients, signifying to do it superficially. [back] |