The tapir is wise as was Mithridates, as told by Housman: There was a king reigned in the East: There, when kings will sit to feast, They get their fill

The tapir is wise as was Mithridates, as told by Housman: There was a king reigned in the East: There, when kings will sit to feast, They get their fill before they think With poisoned meat and poisoned drink. He gathered all the springs to birth From the many-venomed earth; First a little, thence to more, He sampled all her killing store; And easy, smiling, seasoned sound, Sate the king when healths went round. They put arsenic in his meat And stared aghast to watch him eat; They poured strychnine in his cup And shook to see him drink it up: They shook, they stared as white's their shirt: Them it was their poison hurt. I tell the tale that I heard told. Mithridates, he died old.