That human beings should be generated on mountains or in the air or the sea is no great wonder; for their substance and nurture and nature is the cause. But that there should be feathered creatures, called therefore the Fire-Born, generated from fire and living in it and, that they should thrive and fly about here and there – that is astonishing. 

They say the putrefying marrow from the spine of a human corpse turns into a serpent and the reptile issues forth and crawls off alive, the most savage of beings from the tamest. But the rest of a good and noble man remains unchanged, and has peace for its reward; also the spirits of such men are praised and sung by the wise. The spines of bad men, however, breed like things after death.