adorned with the pourtraitures of noble champions they delight also to haue the face of Epicurus in euery chamber of the house yea and to carry the same about them vpon their rings wheresoeuer they go in the remembrance and honour of his natiuitie they doe offer sacrifice euery 20 day of the Moone and these moneth-mindes they keep as holy-daies duly which thereupon they call Icades and none so much as they who will not abide to be knowne another day by any liuely image drawne whiles they be aliue Thus it is come to passe that whiles artificers play them and sit still for want of worke noble arts by the means are decaied and perished But I maruel nothing hereat for thus it is verily and no otherwise when we haue no respect or care in the world to leaue good deeds behind vs as the Images of our minds we do neglect the liuely portraitures and similitudes also of our bodies In our forefathers daies ywis it was otherwise their hals and stately courts were not set out with images and pourtraitures after this sort there were not in them to be seene any statues or images wrought by artisan strangers none of brasse they had none of marble their Oratories Chappels were furnished with their own and their ancestors pourtraitures in wax and those liuely and expressely representing their visages these were set out and disposed in order these were the images that attended the funerals of any that was to be interred out of that stock linage Thus alwaies as any gentleman died a man should see a goodly traine of all those which were liuing of that house accompanying the corps causing also the images of their predecessors to march ranke by ranke in order according to their seuerall descents in which solemne shew the whole generation that euer was of that family represented by these images is there present ready to performe that last duty and honour to their kinsman Moreouer wheresoeuer these images stood within the ora tory and chappell before said there were lines drawne from them vpon the wall directing to the seuerall titles and inscriptions which contained their stile their dignities and honors c. As for their studies and counting houses full they were of books records and rols testifying all acts done executed by them both at home abroad during the time they were in place to beare office of state Ouer and besides those images within house resembling the bodily shape countenance there were others also without dores to wit about the portals and gates of the house which were the testimonies of braue minds valiant hearts there hung fixed the spoiles conquered and taken from the enemies which notwithstanding any sale or alienation it was not lawfull for the purchaser to pluck down in such sort as the house it self triumphed still and retained the former dignity notwithstanding it had a new lord and master and verily this was to the master and owner a great spur to valour and vertue considering that if he were not in heart courage answerable to his predecessor he could neuer come in at the gates but the house was ready to reproch and vpbraid him daily for entering into the triumph of another Extant there is vpon record an Oration or act of Messala a great Orator in his time wherin vpon a great indignation he expressely forbad that there should be intermingled one image that came from another house of the Leuini among those of his owne name and linage for feare of confounding the race of his family and ancestors The like occasion moued and inforced old Messala to put forth and publish those bookes which he had made of the descents and pedigrees of the Roman houses for that vpon a time as he passed through the gallerie belonging to Scipio Africanus his house he beheld therein his stile augmented by the addition of Salutio for that was one of his syrnames which fel vnto him by the last wil and testament of a certain rich man so called who adopted him for his owne son as being greatly discontented in his minde that so base a name as that to the shame and dishonor of the Africans should creepe into the noble family of the Scipio's But if I may speak without offence of these two Messalae it should in my conceit be some token of a noble spirit and good mind that loueth and imbraceth vertue to entitle his owne name although vntruely to the armes and images of others so long as they be noble and renowned and I hold it a greater credit so to doe than to demeane our selues so vnworthily as that no man should desire any of our armes or images And seeing that I am so far entered into this theam I must not passe ouer one new deuise and inuention come vp of late namely to dedicat and set vp in libraries the statues in gold or siluer or at leastwise in brasse of those diuine and heauenly men whose immortall spirits do speak still and euer shall in those places where their bookes are And although it bee vnpossible to recouer the true and liuely pourtraits of many of them yet we forbeare not for all that to deuise one Image or other to represent their face and personage though we are sure it be nothing like them and the want therof doth breed and kindle in vs a great desire and longing to know what visage that might bee indeed which was neuer deliuered vnto vs as it appeareth by the statue of Homer Certes in my opinion there can be no greater argument of the felicity happinesse of any man than to haue all the world euermore desirous to know What kinde of person hee was whiles he liued This inuention of erecting libraries especially here at Rome came from Asinius Pollio who by dedicating his Bibliotheque containing all the bookes that euer were written was the first that made the wits and workes of learned men a publique matter and a benefit to a Commonweale But whether the kings of Alexandria in Egypt or of Pergamus began this enterprise before who vpon a certain emulation and strife one with another went in hand to make their stately and sumptuous libraries I am not able to auouch for certain But to returne againe to our flat images and pictures that men in old time delighted much therein yea and were carried away with an ardent and extraordinary affection to them may appeare by the testimony not only of Atticus that great friend of Cicero's who set forth a book intituled A Treatise of painted images but also of M. Varro who in all his volumes whereof hee wrote a great number vpon a most thankfull and bountifull mind that he carried deuised to insert not onely the names of 700 famous and notable persons but also in some sort to set down their physiognomy resemblance of their visage not willing as it might seem that their remembrance should perish but desirous to preserue
to a resolution not onely to enter vpon this new taske but also to breake through all difficulties vntill I had brought the same if not to a full and absolute perfection yet to an end and finall conclusion Besides this naturall inclination and hope which carried mee this way other motiues there were that made saile and set mee forward I saw how diuerse men before me had dealt with this authour whiles some laboured to reforme whatsoeuer by iniurie of time was growne out of frame others did their best to translate him into their own tongue and namely the Italian and French moreoover the Title prefixed therto so vniuersall as it is to wit The Historie of the World or Reports of Nature imported no doubt that hee first penned it for the generall good of mankind Ouer and besides the Argument ensuing full of varietie furnished with discourses of all matters not appropriate to the learned only but accommodat to the rude peisant of the countrey fitted for the painefull artizan in towne and citie pertinent to the bodily health of man woman and child and in one word suiting with all sorts of people liuing in a societie and common-weale To say nothing of the precedent giuen by the authour himselfe who endited the same not with any affected phrase but sorting well with the capacitie euen of the meanest and most vnlettered who also translated a good part thereof out of the Greeke What should I alledge the example of former times wherein the like hath euermore been approued and practised Why should any man therefore take offence hereat and enuie this good to his naturall countrey which was first meant for the whole world and yet some there be so grosse as to giue out That these and such like bookes ought not to bee published in the vulgar tongue It is a shame quoth one that Liuie speaketh English as hee doth Latinists onely are to bee acquainted with him as Who would say the souldiour were to haue recourse vnto the vniuersitie for militarie skill and knowledge or the scholler to put on armes and pitch a campe What should Plinie saith another bee read in English and the mysteries couched in his bookes divulged as if the husbandman the mason carpenter goldsmith painter lapidarie and engrauer with other artificers were bound to seeke vnto great clearkes or linguists for instructions in their seuerall arts Certes such Momi as these besides their blind and erronious opinion thinke not so honourably of their natiue countrey and mother tongue as they ought who if they were so well affected that way as they should be would wish rather and endeauour by all meanes to triumph now ouer the Romans in subduing their literature vnder the dent of the English pen in requitall so the conquest sometime ouer this Island atchieued by the edge of their sword As for our speech was not Latine as common and naturall in Italie as English here with vs. And if Plinie faulted not but deserued well of the Romane name in laying abroad the riches and hidden treasures of Nature in that Dialect or Idiome which was familiar to the basest clowne why should any man be blamed for enterprising the semblable to the commoditie of that countrey in which and for which he was borne Are wee the onely nation vnder heauen vnworthie to tast of such knowledge or is our language so barbarous that it will not admit in proper tearmes a forreine phrase I honor them in my heart who hauing of late daies troden the way before mee in Plutarch Tacitus and others haue made good proofe that as the tongue in an Englishmans head is framed so flexible and obsequent that it can pronounce naturally any other language so a pen in his hand is able sufficiently to expresse Greeke Latine and Hebrew And my hope is that after mee there will arise some industrious Flavij who may at length cornicum oculos configere For if my selfe a man by profession otherwise carried away for gifts farre inferiour to many and wanting such helps as others bee furnished with haue in some sort taught those to speake English who were supposed very vntoward to bee brought vnto it what may be expected at their hands who for leisure may attend better in wit are more pregnant and being graced with the opinion of men and fauour of the time may attempt what they will and effect whatsoever they attempt with greater felicitie A painfull and tedious travaile I confesse it is neither make I doubt but many doe note mee for much follie in spending time herein and neglecting some compendious course of gathering good and pursing vp pence But when I looke backe to the example of Plinie I must of necessitie condemne both mine owne sloth and also reproue the supine negligence of these daies A courtiour he was and great favourit of the Vespasians both father and sonne an oratour besides and pleaded many causes at the barre a martiall man withall and serued often times a leader and commander in the field within the citie of Rome hee mannaged civile affaires and bare honourable offices of State Who would not thinke but each one of these places would require a whole man and yet amid these occasions wherewith he was possessed he penned Chronicles wrate Commentaries compiled Grammaticall treatises and many other volumes which at this day are vtterly lost As for the Historie of Nature now in hand which sheweth him to be an excellent Philosopher and a man accomplished in all kinds of literature the onely monument of his that hath escaped all dangers and as another Palladium beene reserued entire vnto our time wherein hee hath discoursed of all things even from the starrie heauen to the centre of the earth a man would marveile how hee could possibly either write or doe any thing else But considering the agilitie of mans spirit alwaies in motion an ardent desire to benefit posteritie which in these volumes hee hath so often protested his indefatigable studie both day and night euen to the iniurie of nature and the same continued in euerie place as well abroad as within-house in his iourney vpon the high way where his manner was to read and to indite in his ordinarie passage through the streets betweene court and home where he gaue himselfe no rest but either read or else found his notarie worke to write and for that purpose rode vsually in an easie litter with the said Notarie close by his side lesse wonder it is that hee performed his service to Prince and state according to his calling and withall deliuered vnto posteritie so many fruits of wit and learning For what is not the head of man able to compasse especially making saile with a feruent desire and resolution to see an end and besides taking the vantage of all moments and losing no time whereof hee was unus omnium parcissimus Touching his affection to search into the secrets of Nature it was that and nothing else that shortened his daies and
vnlike to theirs that will seem to dedicat it particularly and by name to a Prince so iudicious as your selfe For had I set forth this my booke simply and staied there without any personal dedication thē I might haue come vpon you said Sir what should a mightie Commander and Generall of the field as you are busie himselfe to read such matters written these treatises were to the capacitie of the vulgar people for base commons rude husbandmen and peasants of the countrie for poore artisans and in one word to gratifie them who had no other means of great emploiment nor time leisure but to studie vpon such points and nothing else What should you make your selfe a censor of this worke and verily when I made first shew of this enterprise of mine I never reckned you in the number of those iudges that should passe their sentence vpon these writings I wist full well that you were a greater person far I supposed that you would neuer abase your selfe nor stoupe so low as to read this booke of mine Ouer and besides a common case it is and incident to men of deepe learning and great conceit that otherwhiles exception may be taken against them and their iudgement reiected in this behalfe Euen M. Tullius that renowmed Orator and who for wit and learning had not his fellow taking the vantage of that libertie vseth the benefit thereof and whereat wee may well maruell maintaineth the action by an aduocate and taketh example for his defence from Lucilius for in one part of his workes thus bee saith I would not haue learned Persius to read these bookes of mine loth I am that hee should censure mee As for Laelius Decimus I am content to submit them to his opinion Now if such an one as Lucilius who was the first that durst controule the writing of others and tooke vpon him to scoffe at their imperfections had rather thus to say if Cicero tooke occasion to borrow the said speech of him for to serue his owne turne and namely in his Treatise of Politiques where he wrote of a Common-weal how much greater cause haue I to distrust my self and to decline and auoid the censure of some judge of deepe vnderstanding But cut I am from this refuge and meanes of defence in that I expressely make choise of you in this dedication of my worke for one thing it is to haue a judge either pricked by pluralitie of voices or cast vpon a man by drawing lots and a farre other thing to chuse and nominate him from all others and great difference there is between that cheare and prouision which we make for a ghest solemnely bidden and inuited and the suddaine fare and intertainement which is ready for a stranger who commeth to our house vnlooked for Cato that professed enemie of ambition vain-glory and indirect suit for offices who took as great contentment in those estates and dignities which he refused and reiected as in them which he enioied attained to this good name of vprightnesse and sinceritie that when in the hottest broile about election of Magistrates that euer was in his time they that stood therefore put into his hands their mony vpon trust as a cautionary pawne and assurance of their integritie and fidelitie that way they professed that they did it in testimony of their conceit of his equitie and innocence the chiefe and onely thing that a man is to regard in this life whereupon ensued the noble and memorable exclamation of M. Cicero who speaking of the said Cato brake out into these words Oh gentle M Portius how happy and blessed art thou whom no man was euer so hardie as to sollicite to any leaud thing or contrary to right and honestie L. Scipio surnamed Asiaticus at what time as hee appealed vnto the Tribunes of the Commons and besought their lawfull fauour among whom C. Gracchus was one a man whom hee tooke for his mortall enemie presuming vpon the goodnesse of his cause gaue out and said That his very enemies if they were his iudges could not chuse but quit him and giue sentence on his side Thus wee see how euerie man maketh him peremtorily the supreme and highest iudge of his cause whom himselfe chuseth and appealeth vnto which manner of choise the Latines call Prouocatio As for your selfe verily who are set in the most eminent chiefe place among men and otherwise endued with singular eloquence and profound knowledge no maruell is it if those that doe their dutie vnto you salute you kisse your hand and come with great respect and reuerence In which regard exceeding care aboue all things would be had that whatsoeuer is said or dedicated vnto you may beseem your person and be worth acceptation And yet the gods reject not the humble prayers of poore countrey peasants yea and of manie nations who offer nothing but milke vnto them and such as haue no Incense find grace and fauour many times with the oblation of a plaine cake made onely of Meale and salt and neuer was any man blamed yet for his deuotion to the gods so he offered according to his abilitie were the thing neuer so simple For mine owne part challenged I may be more still for this my importune and inconsiderat boldnesse in that I would seeme to present these bookes vnto you comprised of so slender stuffe and matter as they be for therein can be touched no great wit which otherwise in me was euer meane and simple neither admit they any digressions orations speeches and discourses ne yet admirable cases and variable chanses or any other occurrent either pleasant to rehearse or delectable to heare The truth is this the nature of all things in this world that is to say matters concerning our daily and ordinarie life are here deciphered and declared and that in barrein terms without any goodly shew of gay and glorious phrases and whatsoeuer I haue put downe concerne it doth the basest points thereof insomuch as for the most part I am to deliver the thing in hand either in rusticall speech or else in forraine nay in barbarous language such also as may not well be vttered but with reseruing honour to the hearers and reuerence to the readers Moreouer the way that I haue entred into hath not bin troden beforetime by other writers being indeed so strange and vncouth as a mans mind would not willingly trauell therin No Latin author among vs hath hitherto once ventured vpon the same argument no one Grecian whatsoeuer hath gone through it and handled all and no maruell for many of vs loue not to take any paines but study rather to pen matters of delight and pleasure True it is I must needs say that others haue made profession hereof but they haue done it with such subtiltie and deepenesse that all their trauels and writings by that means lie as it were dead and buried in darkenesse Now come I and take vpon me to speak of euery thing and to
especially when the occupying vse and interest thereof hath gained a man as much as the principall Now as touching the titles and inscriptions of Bookes the Greekes therein haue a wonderfull grace and great felicitie some haue intituled them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby they would giue vs to vnderstand of A sweet hony-combe * others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say The horne of plenty and store in such sort that whosoeuer readeth these goodly titles must needs hope for some great matters in such bookes and as the proverb goeth looke to drinke there or else no where a good draught of hens milke You shall haue moreouer their bookes set out with these glorious inscriptions The Muses The Pandects Enchiridion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Goodly names all and such as who would not make default of appearance in court and forfeit a recognisance or obligation to vnclaspe such books and turne ouer the leafe But let a man enter into them and reade forward Lord how little or no substance at all shall he find within the verie mids answerable to that braue shew in the front or outside thereof As for our countreymen Latines I meane and Romans they be nothing so fine and curious as the Greeks grosse are they in comparison of them in giuing titles to their books they come with their Antiquities Examples and Arts and those also be such authors as are of the most pleasant and finest inuention amongst them all Valerius who as I take it was named Antias both for that hee was a Citizen of Antium and also because the ancestors of his house were so called vvas the first that gaue to a booke of his owne making the title of Lucubratio as a man would say Candleworke or Night-studie Varro he tearmeth some of his Satyres Sesculyxes and Flexibulae Diodorus among the Greekes was the first that laied aside toyish titles and because he would giue some braue name to his Chronicles entituled it Bibliotheca i. a Librarie Apion the famous Grammarian euen hee whom Tiberius Caesar called the Cymball of the world whereas indeed hee deserued to bee named a Timbrill or Drum rather for ringing and sounding publique fame was so vain-glorious that he supposed all those immortalized vnto whom hee wrote or composed any pamphlet whatsoeuer For mine owne part although I nothing repent mee that I haue deuised no pretier Title for my Booke than plaine Naturalis Historia i. The reports of Nature without more ceremonie yet because I would not be thought altogether to course and rate the Greekes I can be content nay I am willing to bee thought in this behalfe like vnto those excellent grand masters in Greece for Painting and Imagerie whom you shall finde in these Reports of mine to haue entituled those rare and absolute peeces of worke vvhich the more wee view and looke vpon the more wee admire and wonder at for their perfection with halfe titles and vnperfect inscriptions in this manner Apelles went in hand with this Picture or Polycletus was a making this Image as if they were but begun neuer finished and laid out of their hands which was done no doubt to this end that for all the varietie and diuersitie of mens iudgements scanning of their workemanship yet the Artificer thereby had recourse to make excuse had meanes I say to craue and haue pardon for any faults and imperfections that could be found as if hee meant to haue amended any thing therein amisse or wanting in case hee had not beene cut off and preuented by death These noble workemen therefore herein shewed right great modestie that they set superscriptions vpon all their painted tables pourtraitures and personages as if they had beene the last peeces of their workemanship and themselues dissabled by vnexpected death that they could not make a finall end of any one of them for there were not knowne as I take it aboue three in all which had their absolute titles written vpon them in this forme Ille fecit i. This Apelles wrought and those pictures will I write of in place conuenient By which it appeared euidently that the said three tables were fully finished and that the workeman was so highly contented with their perfection that he feared the censure of no man No maruaile then if all three were so much enuied and admired throughout the world no marueile if euerie man desired to be master of them Now For my selfe I know full well and confesse freely that many more things may be added not to this story alone but to all my bookes that I haue put forth alreadie which I speake by the way because I would preuent and auoid those fault-finders abroad those correctors and scourgers of Homer for surely that is their very name because I hear say there be certaine Stoike Philosophers professed Logicians yea and Epicurians also for at Grammarians hands and Criticks I neuer looked for other who are with child still and trauaile vntill they be deliuered of somewhat against my bookes which I haue set forth as touching Grammer and for this ten yeares space nothing is come to light but euermore the fruit miscarieth belike before the full time as the slip of an vnperfect birth whereas in lesse space than so the verie Elephant bringeth forth her calfe be it neuer so big But this troubleth me neuer a whit for I am not ignorant that a silly woman euen an harlot and no better durst encounter Theophrastus and write a booke against him notwithstanding hee was a man of such incomparable eloquence that thereupon hee came by his diuine name Theophrastus from whence arose this prouerbe and by-word Marie then go chuse a tree to hang thy selfe And surely I cannot containe and hold my tongue but I must needs set downe the verie words of Cato Censorius so pertinent to this purpose whereby it may appeare that euen Cato himselfe a most worthy personage who wrote of militarie Discipline who had beene brought vp and trained to feats of warre vnder Great Scipio Africanus or rather indeed vnder Anniball who in the end could not endure Africanus himselfe but was able to controll him in martiall affaires and who besides hauing the conduct as L. Generall of the Romane armie atchieued the better hand ouer his enemies in the field and returned with victorie this Cato I say could not auoid such backbiters and slanderers but knowing that there would be many of them readie to purchase themselues some name and reputation by reprouing the knowledge and skill of others brake out into a certaine speech against them And what was it I know right well quoth hee in that booke aforesaid that if these writings of mine come abroad once and be published to the view of the world there will be many step forth to quarrell and cauill therewith such fellows soonest and most of all who are quite void of vertue and honestie and know not what
Celsus Nigidius Trebius Niger Pomponius Mela Manlius Sura Forreine writers King Iuba Polybius Onesicritus Isidorus Antipater Aristotle Demetrius the naturall Philosopher Democritus Theophrastus Euanthes Agrippa who wrote of the Olympionicae Hiero King Attalus King Philometer Ctesias Duris Philistus Architus Philarchus Amphilocus the Athenian Anaxipolis the Thasian Apollodorus of Lemnos Aristophanes the Milesian Antigonus the Cymaean Agathocless of Chyos Apollonicus of Pergamus Aristander of Athens Bacchus the Milesian Bion of Soli Chaereas the Athenian Diodorus of Pyreaeum Dio the Colophonian Epigenes of Rhodes Evagon of Thassus Euphranius the Athenian Hegesias of Maronea Menander of Pyreaeum Menander also of Heraclea Menecrates the Poet Androcian who wrote of Agriculture or Husbandry Aeschrion who likewise wrote of that argument Dionysius who translated Mago Diophanes who collected an Epitome or Breuiarie out of Dionisius King Archelaus and Nicander ¶ IN THE NINTH BOOKE ARE CONTAIned the Stories and Natures of Fishes and water-creatures Chap. 1. The nature of water-creatures 2. The reason why the creatures of the sea are of all other biggest 3. The monstrous beasts of the Indian sea 4. The greatest fishes and beasts in euerie part of the Ocean 5. Of Tritones Nereides and sea Elephants their shapes and formes 6. Of great Whales called Balaenae and Oreae 7. Whether fishes doe take and deliuer their breath whether they sleepe or no 8. Of Dolphins and their wonderfull properties 9. Of the Tursiones 10. Of the sea Tortoises and how they bee taken 11. Who first deuised to sliue the Tortoise shels into leaues 12. The skins and shels of the sea creatures the diuision of them into their seuerall kinds 13. Of the Seale or sea-Calfe 14. Of fishes smooth and without haire how they spawn and breed and how many sorts there be of them 15. The names and natures of many fishes 16. The presages by fishes and their variety 17. Of the Mullet and other fishes That the same fishes are not in request in all places 18. Of the Barble the sea Rauen Coracinus of Stockfish and Salmon 19. Of the Exoecetus Calamaries Lampreies c. 20. The diuision of fishes by the shapes of their bodies 21. Of Eeles 22. The manner of taking them in the lake Benacus 23. The nature of the Lamprey 24. Of flat and broad fishes 25. Of the stay-ship Echeneis and his wonderfull nature 26. The changeable nature of fishes 27. Of the fish called the Lanterne and the sea Dragon 28. Of fishes wanting bloud 29. Of the Pourcuttle the Cuttle fish the Calamarie and the fish called the Sayler or Mariner 30. The fish Ozaena and Nauplius also of Lobsters 31. Of Crabs Sea Porkespines and of the greater sort named Echinometrae 32. Of Wilkes Cockles and shell sishes 33. Of Scallops Porcellanes of the shell fish Murex and other such 34. The riches and treasures of the sea 35. Of Pearles how they be engendred and where also how they be found 36. The nature of the Purple fish and the Burrets or Murices 37. How many kinds there be of purple fishes 38. How the purple fishes be taken 39. When purple was first worne in the city of Rome 40. The price of purple clothes at Rome 41. The dying of the Amethyst colour of the Skarlet in grain and the light Skarlet Hysginus 42. Of the fish called the Nacre and his guide or keeper Pinnoteres also the intelligence of fishes and water creatures 43. Of Scolopendres sea Foxes and the fishes Glani 44. Of the fish called the sea Ram. 45. Of those things which haue a third nature beeing neither liuing creatures ne yet plants to wit of sea Nettles and Spunges 46. Of Houndfishes or sea dogs 47. Of sea fishes that haue stony shels of those that haue no sence at all of other nastie and filthie creatures 48. Of sea fishes venomous 49. The diseases incident to fishes 50. The admirall generation of Fishes 51. Item Another discourse of their generation and what fishes they bee which doe lay egges 52. The matrices or wombes of fishes 53. What fishes liue longest 54. Of Oyster pits and who did first deuise them 55. Who first inuented stewes and ponds to feed Lampreies in 56. The stewes and ponds for other shell Fishes and who brought them vp first to be vsed 57. Of fishes that haunt the land 58. The rats of Nilus 59. Of the fish called Anthias and how hee is taken 60. Of the sea starres 61. Of the fishes Dactyli and their admirable properties 62. What fishes do entertain amitie one with another and which be euer at warre In summe this Booke containeth stories notable things and obseruations to the number of 650 collected Out of Latine Authors Turanius Graccula Trogus Mecaenas Alfius Flavus Cornelius Nepos Laberius the writer of merry Epigrams Fabianus Fenestella Mutianus Aelius Stilo Statius Sebosus Melissus Seneca Cicero Macer Aemylius Messana Corvinus Trebius Niger and Nigidius Out of Forreine Writers Aristotle king Archelaus Callimachus Democritus Theophrastus Thrasyllus Hegesidemus of Cythnos and Alexander Polyhistor ¶ IN THE TENTH BOOKE ARE CONTAIned the natures and stories of Foules and flying creatures Chap. 1. The nature of Foules 2. Of the Phoenix 3. Of Aegles 4. When the Romane legions vsed the Aegle standard and other ensignes Also with what creatures Aegles maintaine fight 5. A strange and wonderfull case as touching an Aegle 6. Of the Vultures or Geires 7. Of the foule Sangualis 8. Of Faulcons and Hawkes 9. Of the Cuckow which is killed by birds of her owne kind 10. Of Kites or Puttockes 11. A diuision of birds into generall kinds 12. Of vnluckie and ominous birds the Crow the Rauen and the Like-owle 13. Of the foule that carieth fire in her mouth 14. Of the bird Clivina 15. Of many birds vnknowne 16. Of foules that flie by night 17. Of Howlets 18. Of the Wood-pecker 19. Of birds which haue clawes and crooked tallons 20. Of Peacockes and who killed them first for to be serued at the table 21. Of Cockes how they be cut of a dunghill cocke that spake 22. Of Geese who first deuised to make a daintie dish of the Goose liuer the grauie or fat of Geese called Comagenum 23. Of Cranes Storkes Swans strange foules of outlandish countries of Quailes and the bird Glotis 24. Of Swallowes and Martins of Blackbirds Thrushes and Merles of Sterlings Turtle-doues and Quoists or Ring-doues 25. Of birds that tarie with vs all the yere long of birds that be for halfe a yeare onely and others that remaine but three moneths 26. Maruellous stories of birds 27. Of birds called Seleucides 28. Of the foule Ibis 29. What birds will not abide in all places which they be that change both hew and voice also of Nightingales 30. Of Merles or Ousels 31. The time wherein birds breed lay and sit 32. Of the birds Halciones the nauigable daies that they doe shew of the Sea-guls and Cormorants 33. The industry and subtilty of birds in building their neasts of the
bee in request at Rome 12. Obseruations of wine set downe by king Romulus 13. The ancient vsage of wine and the wines of old time 14. Of cellars for wine and the wine Opiminianum 15. Caesars liberalitie in wine and when first there were foure sorts of wine set downe 16. Of artificiall or set wines 17. Of Hydromell and Oxymell 18. Prodigious and strange kinds of wine 19. What wines might not be vsed in sacrifices and with what sorts new wines are sophisticated 20. Sundry sorts of Pitch and Rosin of the manner of sophisticating new wines of vinegre and winelees 21. Of wine cellars 22. Of auoiding drunkennesse In summe it containeth notable matters histories and obseruations 510 gathered out of Latine Authors Cornelius Valerius Virgil Celsus Cato Censorius Sarsennaes both father and sonne Scropha Varro Decimus Syllanus Fabius Pictor Trogus Hyginus Flaccus Verrius Graecinus Iulius Accius Columella Massurius Sabinus Fenestella Tergilla M. Actius Plautus Fabius Dorsennus Scaevola Aelius Atteius Capito Cotta Messalinus L. Piso Pompeius Lenaeus Fabianus Sextius Niger and Vibius Rufus Forreine Authours Hesiodus Theophrastus Aristotle Democritus king Attalus K. Philometer Architas Xenophon Amphilochus the Athenian Anaxipolis the Thasian Apollodorus the Lemnian Aristophanes the Milesian Antigonus the Cymaean Agathocles the Chian Apollonius of Pergamus Aristander of Athâ—… and likewise Batrys the Athenian Bacchius the Milesian Bion of Soli Chereas the Athenian aâ—… Cheristus likewise of Athens Diodorus of Priene Dio the Colophonian Epigenes the Rhodian Evagoras the Thasian Euphron of Athens Androcion Aescrion and Lysimachus who wrote al three of Agriculture Dionysius who translated Mago Diophanes who brought Dionysius into an Epitome Asclepiades the Physitian Onesicritus and king Iuba ¶ THE FIFTEENTH BOOKE TREATETH OF the nature of Trees fruitfull and planted in Hort-yards Chap. 1. The nature of fruitfull trees 2. Of the oyle of Olives 3. The nature of the Olive yong Olive trees 4. The nature of the oile Olive 5. The manner of husbanding Olive rowes 6. How to keepe Olives and make oile therof 7. Of artificiall oile 8. Of the dregs or Oliue cake being pressed 9. Of fruits of trees good to eat their seuerall kinds and natures 10. Of Pine nuts foure kinds 11. Of the Quince 12. Of Peaches foure sorts 13. Of Plums eleuen kindes 14. Sundry kindes of Apples and namely nine and twentie sorts 15. Of Peares and Wardens of sundrie strange deuises to graffe trees 16. Of preseruing and keeping Apples such like fruits 17. The manner how to keepe Quinces Pomgranats Peares Wardens Soruises and Grapes 18. Of Figs nine and twentie sorts 19. Of the wild Figtree of caprification or the manner how to bring Figgs to maturitie by the meanes of certaine flies 20. Of Medlars and three sorts of them 21. Foure kinds of Soruoises 22. Of the Walnut 23. Of Chestnuts eight kinds 24. Of Charobs called Siliquae of Apples of Mulberies of Graines Pippins and Kernils within the fruits also of berries 25. Of Cherries eight sorts 26. Of the Corneill fruit and Lentisk 27. Sundry sorts of juices and odours 28. Of the juices in fruits and trees of colors smells and the natures of diuerse fruits also the singularities and commendations of them 29. Of the Myrtle eleuen kinds thereof 30. Of the Lawrell or Bay-tree thirteene sorts of it In summe there be comprised in this booke of notable matters stories and obseruations 520 collected out of Latine Authours Fenestella Fabianus Virgill Cornelius Valerianus Celsus Cato Censorius Sarsennae both father and sonne Scropha Mar. Varro D. Syllanus Fabius Pictor Trogus Hyginus Flaccus Verrius Graecinus Atticus Iulius Sabinus Tergilla Cotta Messalinus Columella L. Piso Pompeius Lenaeus M. Accius Plautius Fabius Dorsenus Scaeuola Aelius Atteius Capito Sextus Niger and Vibius Rufus Forreine writers Hesiodus Aristotle Democritus king Hiero Architas king Philometor king Attalus Xenophon Amphilochus the Athenian Anaxipolis the Thasian Apollodorus of Lemnos Aristophanes the Milesian Antigonus the Cymaean Agathocles of Chios Apollodorus of Pergamus Aristander the Athenian Bacchus the Milesian Bion of Soli Chaereas of Athens and Charistus likewise the Athenian Diodorus of Priene Dion the Colophonian Epigenes the Rhodian Evagoras the Thasian Euphronius the Athenian Androcion and Aeschrion who writ both of Husbandry Dionysius that translated the books of Mago and Dionysius the Epitomist who brought them all into a Breuiarie Asclepiades and Erasistratus both Physitians Comiades who wrate as touching the confectures of wine Aristomachus Hicesius who both treated of the same matter Themison the Physition Onesicritus and king Iuba ¶ IN THE SIXTEENTH BOOKE ARE CONtained the natures of wild trees Chap. 1. Countries wherein no trees doe grow miraculous wonders of trees in the North countries 2. Of the great forrest Hircynia 3. Trees that beare mast 4. Of the Ciuick guirland and who in old time were adorned and honoured with chaplets of tree leaues 5. Of Mast thirteene kinds 6. Of Beech Mast and other sorts of Mast of Coale and the feeding of Hogs 7. Of Gals and how many things besides Mast and Acornes Mast trees do beare 8. Of Cachrys and of the Skarlet graine also of Agaricke and Corke 9. Of what trees the barke is in vsage 10. Of shindles to couer houses of the Pine-tree and the wild Pine of the Fir Pitch-tree of the Larch-tree of the Torch-tree Toeda aad the Eugh-tree 11. The manner of making sundrie sorts of Pitch and Taâ—… how the virgin pitch called Cedrium is made of the thicke stone pitch how it is made and the waies to boile rosin 12. Of the ship pitch called Zopissa of Sapium and those trees that yeeld timber good for building 13 Of the Ash tree foure kinds 14. Of the Teil or Linden tree two seuerall sorts thereof 15. Ten diuerse sorts of Maples 16. Of the knot in Maple called Bruscus and Molluscum of a kind of Fisticke tree called Staphylodendron of Box tree three sorts 17. Of the Elme foure kinds 18. The nature of trees according to their scituation and places where they grow 19. A generall diuision of trees 20. What trees neuer shed their leaues quite of the Oleander tree called Rhododendron 21. Againe what trees lose not their leaues but shew alwaies greene which be they that shed their leaues in part In what countries no trees at all doe lose their leaues 22. The nature of those trees which let fall their leaues and which haue leaues of sundry colours 23. Three sorts of Asps or Poplers of what trees the leaues do alter their for me and fashion 24. What leaues vse to turne euerie yeere the manner how to order the leaues of Date trees and to vse them Also strange and admirable things as touching leaues 25. The order and course that Nature holdeth in plants the blossomes of trees their manner of conception blouming budding and bearing fruit and in what order they put out floures 26. Of the Corneil tree the right season wherin euerie tree beareth fruit what trees bee fruitlesse and therefore
seene notwithstanding many times it hath deuoured cities and drawne into it a whole tract of ground and fields Sea coasts and maritime regions most of all other feele earthquakes Neither are the hilly countries without this calamitie for I my selfe haue known for certain that the Alps and Apenine haue often trembled In the Autumne also and Spring there happen more earthquakes than at other times like as lightnings And hereof it is that France and Egypt least of all other are shaken for that in Egypt the continuall Sommer and in France the hard Winter is against it In like manner earthquakes are more rife in the night than in the day time but the greatest vse to be in the morning and euening Toward day light there be many and if by day it is vsually about noon They fortune also to be when the Sun and Moone are eclipsed because then all tempests are asleepe and laid to rest But especially when after much raine there followes a great time of heate or after heate store of raine CHAP. LXXXj ¶ Signes of Earthquake comming SAilers also haue a certaine foreknowledge thereof and guesse not doubtfully at it namely when the waues swel suddenly without any gale of wind or when in the ship they are shocked with billowes shaking vnder them then are the things seen to quake which stand in the ship as well as those in houses and with a rustling noise giue warning before-hand The foules likewise of the aire sit not quietly without feare In the sky also there is signe thereof for there goeth before an earthquake either in day time or soon after the Sun is gon downe a thin streake or line as it were of a cloud lying out in a great length Moreouer the water in wels and pits is more thicke and troubled than ordinary casting out a stinking sent CHAP. LXXXij ¶ Remedies or helps against Earthquakes toward BVt a remedie there is for the same such as vaults and holes in many places do yeeld for they vent and breathe out the wind that was conceiued there before a thing noted in certain townes which by reason they stand hollow and haue many sinks and vaults digged to conuey away their filth are lesse shaken yea and in the same towns those parts which be pendant be the safer as is well seen in Naples where that quarter thereof which is sollid and not hollow is subiect to such casualties And in houses the arches are most safe the angles also of walls yea and those posts which in shaking will jog to and fro euery way Moreouer walls made of brick or earth take lesse harme when they be shaken in an earthquake And great difference there is in the very kinde and manner of earthquakes for the motion is diuers the safest is when houses as they rocke keep a trembling and warbling noise also when the earth seemeth to swell vp in rising and again to settle down and sink with an alternatiue motion Harmlesse it is also when houses run on end together by a contrary stroke and butt or jur one against another for the one mouing withstandeth the other The bending downward in maner of wauing and a certain rolling like to surging billowes is it that is so dangerous and doth all the mischiefe or when the whole motion beareth and forceth it selfe to one side These quakings or tremblings of the earth giue ouer when the winde is once vented out but if they continue still then they cease not vntill forty daies end yea and many times it is longer ere they stay for some of them haue lasted the space of a yeare or two CHAP. LXXXIII ¶ Monstrous Earthquakes seene neuer but once THere hapned once which I found in the books of the Tuscanes learning within the teritorie of Modena whiles L. Martius and S. Iulius were Consuls a great strange wonder of the earth for two hils encountred together charging as it were and with violence assaulting one another yea and retyring againe with a most mighty noise It fell out in the day time and between them there issued flaming fire and smoke mounting vp into the sky while a great number of Roman Gentlemen from the highway Aemylia and a multitude of seruants and passengers stood and beheld it With this conflict and running of them together all the villages vpon them were dashed and broken to pieces very much cattell that was within died therewith And this hapned the yeare before the war of our Associates which I doubt whether it were not more pernicious to the whole land of Italy than the ciuil wars It was no lesse monstrous a wonder that was knowne also in our age in the very last yeare of Nero the Emperour as we haue shewed in his acts when medows and oliue rowes notwithstanding the great publique port way lay betweene passed ouerthwart one into anothers place in the Marrucine territorie within the lands of Vectius Marcellus a gentleman of Rome Procurator vnder Nero in his affaires CHAP. LXXXIV ¶ Wonders of Earthquakes THere happen together with earthquakes deluges also and inundations of the sea being infused and entring into the earth with the same aire and wind or else receiued into the hollow receptacle as it setleth down The greatest earthquake in mans memory was that which chanced during the empire of Tiberius Caesar when twelue cities of Asia were laid leuell in one night But the earthquakes came thickest in the Punick war when in one yeare were reported to be in Rome 57. In which yeare verily when the Carthaginians and Romans fought a battell at Thrasymenus lake neither of both armies tooke notice of a great earthquake Neither is this a simple euill thing nor the danger consisteth only in the very earthquake and no more but that which it portendeth is as bad or worse Neuer abode the city of Rome any earthquake but it gaue warning thereof before hand of some strange accident and vnhappie euent following CHAP. LXXXV ¶ In what places the seas haue gone backe THe same cause is to be rendred of some new hill or piece of ground not seen before when as the said winde within the earth able to huffe vp the ground was not powerful enough to breake forth and make issue For firme land groweth not only by that which Riuers bring in as the Isles Echinades which were heaped and raised vp by the riuer Achelous and by Nilus the greater part of Egypt into which if wee beleeue Homer from the Island Pharus there was a cut by sea of a day and a nights sailing but also by the retiring and going backe of the sea as the same poet hath written of the Circeiae The like by report hapned both in the bay of Ambracia for ten miles space and also in that of the Athenians for fiue miles neere Pireaeum also at Ephesus where somtime the sea beate vpon the temple of Diana And verily if we giue eare to Herodotus it was all a sea from aboue Memphis to the Ethyopian
which lies the way to Atlas the most fabulous mountaine of all Africk For writers haue giuen out that this hill arising out of the very midst of the sea sands mounteth vp to the skie all rough ill fauored and ouergrowne on that side that lieth to the shore of the Ocean vnto which it gaue the name and yet the same is shadowie full of woods and watered with veines of spouting Springs that way which looketh to Africke with fruitfull trees of all sorts springing of the own accord and bearing one vnder another in such sort that at no time a man can want his pleasure and delight to his full contentment Moreouer that none of the inhabitants there are seene all day long all is still and silent like the fearfull horror in desert wildernesse and as men come neerer and neerer vnto it a secret deuotion ariseth in their hearts and besides this feare and horrour they are lifted vp aboue the clouds and euen close to the circle of the Moone Ouer and besides that the same hill shineth oftentimes with many flashes of fires and is hanted with the wanton lasciuious Aegipanes and Satyres whereof it is full that it resoundeth with noise of Haut-boies pipes and fifes and ringeth againe with the sound of tabers timbrels and cymbals These be the reports of great famous writers to say nothing of the labors and works both of Hercules and Perses there and to conclude that the way vnto it is exceeding great and not certainely knowne Bookes there were besides of Hanno a great captain and commander among the Carthaginians who in the time of the most flourishing state of Carthage had a charge and commission to discouer and suruey the whole compasse of Africk Him most of the Greeks as well as our countreymen following among some other fabulous stories haue written that hee also built many cities there but neither memoriall vpon record nor any token of them at all is left extant Whiles Scipio Aemylianus warred in Africk Polybius the writer of the Annales receiued of him a fleet who hauing saled about of purpose to search into that part of the world hath put thus much downe in writing that from the said mountaine West toward the forrest ful of wild beasts which Africk breedeth vnto the riuer Anatis are 485 miles And from thence to Lixus 205. Agrippa saith that Lixus is distant from the streights of Gades 112 miles Then that there is an arme of the sea called Saguti Also a towne vpon the promontory Mutelacha Riuers Subur and Sala Moreouer that the hauen Rutubis is from Lixus 313 miles And so forward to the Promontorie of the Sun The port or hauen Risardir the Gaetulians Autololes the riuer Cosenus the nation of the Scelatites and Massalians The riuers Masatal and Darat wherein Crocodiles are ingendred Then forward that there is a gulfe of 516 miles inclosed within the promontory or cape of the mountain Barce running along into the West which is called Surrentium after it the riuer Palsus beyond which are the Aethiopians Perorsi at their back are the Pharusi Vpon whom ioine the midlanders to wit the Gaetulianders But vpon the coast are the Aethyopian Daratites the riuer Bambotus ful of Crocodiles Hippopotames i. Water-horses From which he saith That there is nothing but mountains all the way as far as to that which we call Theon-Ochema The gods chariot Then in sailing nine daies and nights to the promontorie Hesperium he hath placed the mountain Atlas in mid-way thereof which by all other writers is set downe to be in the vtmost marches of Mauritania The first time that the Romans warred in Mauritania was in the time of prince Claudius Emperor at what time as Aedemon the freed seruant of king Ptolomaeus by C. Caesar slaine went about to reuenge his death for as the barbarous people retired and fled back certaine it is that the Romans came as far as to the hill Atlas And not only such Generals as had bin Consuls and were of the Senatours degree and calling who at that time managed and conducted the wars but knights also and gentlemen of Rome who from that time had gouernment and command there tooke it for an honor and glory that they had pierced and entred into Atlas Fiue Romane Colonies as wee haue said be in that prouince and by that common fame and report there may seeme to lie a thorow faire thither But that is found for the most part by daily experience most deceiueable of all things else because persons of high place and great worth when they are loath to search out narrowly into the truth of matters sticke not for shame of ignorance to giue out vntruths and neuer are men more credulous and apt to beleeue and be deceiued than when some graue personage fathereth a lie And verily I lesse maruell that they of gentlemens degree yea and those now of Senators calling haue not come to the certaine knowledge of some things there seeing they set their whole affection and mind vpon nothing but excesse and riot which how powerfull it is and forcible is seen by this most of all when forests are sought out far and neere for Iuory and Citron trees when all the rocks in Getulia are searched for Murices and Purpurae shell fishes that yeeld the purple crimson colour Howbeit the natural inhabitants of that country do write That in the sea coast 150 miles from Sala there is the riuer Asana that receiueth salt water into it but hath in it a goodly faire hauen and not far from it another fresh riuer which they call Fut from which to Dyris for that is the name in their language of Atlas by a generall consent are 200 miles with a riuer comming betweene named Vior And there the speech so goeth are to be seene the certain tokens of a ground somtimes inhabited to wit the reliques of vine yards and date tree groues Suetonius Paulinus a Consull in our time who was the first Roman leader that for certaine miles space went ouer Atlas also hath reported verily as touching the height thereof that with the rest and moreouer that the foot thereof toward the bottom stand thick and ful of tail woods with trees therein of an vnknown kinde but the heigth of them is delectable to see to smooth and euen without knots the leaues branches like Cypresse and besides the strong smell they yeeld are couered all ouer with a thinne downe of which with some help of Art fine cloath may be made such as the silk-worm doth yeeld That the top and crest thereof is couered ouer with deepe snow euen in Sommer time Moreouer that he reached vp to the pitch of it at the tenth daies end went beyond it as far as a riuer called Niger through wildernesses ful of blacke dust where otherwhiles there stood out certaine cliffes and craggie rocks as they were scortched and burnt and that those places by reason of partching heat were not habitable
famous city Alexandropolis bearing the name of Alexander the first founder CHAP. XXVI Media Mesopotamia Babylon and Seleucia REquisit now it is and needfull in this place to describe the positure and situation of the Medians kingdom and to discouer all those countries round about as farre as to the Persian sea to the end that the description of other regions hereafter to be mentioned may the better be vnderstood Wherein this first and formost is to be obserued that the kingdome of Media on the one side or other confronteth both Persis and Parthia and casting forth a crooked and winding horne as it were toward the West seemeth to enclose within that compasse both the said realmes Neuerthelesse on the East side it confineth vpon the Parthians and Caspians on the South Sittacene Susiane and Persis Westward Adiabene and Northward Armenia as for the Persians they alwaies confronted the red sea whereupon it was called the Persian gulfe Howbeit the maritime coast thereof is called Cyropolis and that part which confineth vpon Media Elymais In this realme there is a strong fort called Megala in the ascent of a steep high hill so direct vpright that a man must mount vp to it by steps and degrees and otherwise the passage is very streight and narrow And this way leadeth to Persepolis the head city of the whole kingdome which Alexander the great caused to be rased Moreouer in the frontiers of this Realme standeth the city Laodicea built by king Antiochus From whence as you turn into the East the strong fort or castle Passagarda is seated which the sages or wise men of Persia called Magi do hold and therein is the tomb of Cyrus Also the citie Ecbatana belonging to these sages which Darius the king caused to be translated to the mountaines Between the Parthians and the Arians lie out in length the Parotacenes These nations and the riuer Euphrates serue to limit and bound the seuen lower realmes abouenamed Now are we to discourse of the parts remainitg behind of Mesopotamia setting a side one point and corner thereof as also the nations of Arabia wherof we spake in the former booke This Mesopotamia was in times past belonging wholly to the Assyrians dispersed into pettie villages and burgades all saue Babylon Ninus The Macedonians were the first that after it came vnder their hands reduced it into great cities for the goodnesse and plenty of their soile and territorie For now besides the abouenamed townes it hath in it Seleucia Laodicea and Artemita likewise within the quarters of the Arabians named Aroei Mardani Antiochea and that which being founded by Nicanor gouernor of Mesopotamia is called Arabis Vpon these ioine the Arabians but well within the countrey are the Eldamarij And aboue them is the citie Bura situat vpon the riuer Pelloconta beyond which are the Salmanes and Maseans Arabians Then there joine to the Gordiaeans those who are called Aloni by whom the riuer Zerbis passeth and so discharged into Tigris Neere vnto them are the Azones and Silices mountainers together with the Orentians vpon whom confronteth the city Gaugamela on the West side Moreouer there is Sue among the rocks aboue which are the Sylici and Classitae through whom Lycus the riuer runneth out of Armenia Also toward the Southeast Absitris and the town Azochis Anon you come down into the plains champion country where you meet with these towns Diospage Positelia Stratonicea Anthemus As for the city Nicephorium as we haue already said it is seated neer to the riuer Euphrates where Alexander the great caused it to be founded for the pleasant seat of the place and the commodity of the country there adioining Of the city Apamia we haue before spoken in the description of Zeugma from which they that goe Eastward meet with a strong fortified town in old time carrying a pourprise compasse of 65 stadia called the royall pallace of their great dukes potentates named Satrapae vnto which from all quarters men resorted to pay their imposts customs and tributes but now it is come to be but a fort and castle of defence But there continue still in their entire and as flourishing state as euer the city Hebata and Oruros to which by the fortunat conduct of Pompey the Great the limits and bounds of the Roman empire were extended and is from Zeugma 250 miles Some writers report that the riuer Euphrates was diuided by a gouernor of Mesopotamia and one arme thereof brought to Gobaris euen in that place where we said it parted in twain which was done for feare lest one day or other the riuer with his violent streame should indanger the city of Babylon They affirme also that the Assyrians generally called it Armalchar which signifieth a royall riuer Vpon this new arme of the riuer aforesaid stood sometime Agrani one of the greatest towns of that region which the Persians caused to be vtterly rased and destroyed As for the city of Babylon the chiefe city of all the Chaldaean nations for a long time carried a great name ouer all the world in regard whereof all the other parts of Mesopotamia and Assyria was named Babylonia it contained within the walls 60 miles the walls were 200 foot high and 50 thick reckoning to euery foot 3 fingers bredth more than our ordinary measure Through the middest of this goodly great city passeth the riuer Euphrates a wonderfull piece of worke if a man consider both the one and the other As yet to this day the temple of Iupiter Belus there stands entire This prince was the first inuenter of Astronomie It is now decayed and lieth waste and vnpeopled for that the city Seleucia stands so neere it which hath drawne from it all resort and traffique and was to that end built by Nicator within 40 miles of it in the very confluent where the new arm of Euphrates is brought by a ditch to meet with Tigris notwithstanding it is named Babylonia a free state at this day and subiect to no man howbeit they liue after the lawes and manners of the Macedonians And by report in this city there are 600000 citisens As for the walls thereof it is said they resemble an Eagle spreading her wings and for the soile there is not a territorie in all the East parts comparable to it in fertilitie The Parthians in despight again of this city and to do the like by it as somtime was done to old Babylon built the city Ctesiphon within three miles of it in the tract called Chalonitis euen to dispeople and impouerish it which is now the head city of that kingdom But when they could do little or no good thereby to discredit the said new Babylon of late dayes Vologesus their king founded another city hard by called Vologeso Certa Moreouer other cities there are besides in Mesopotamia namely Hipparenum a city likewise of the Chaldaeans and innobled for their learning as well as Babylon scituate vpon the riuer Narragon
marie that was a monstrous and prodigious token and foreshewed some heauy fortune that followed after Also in the beginning of the Marsians war there was a bondwoman brought forth a Serpent In sum there be many mis-shapen monsters come that way into the world of diuers and sundry formes Claudius Caesar writeth That in Thessalie there was borne a monster called an Hippocentaure that is halfe a man and halfe a horse but it died the very same day And verily after he came to weare the diadem we our selues saw the like monster sent vnto him out of Egypt embalmed and preserued in honey Among many strange examples appearing vpon record in Chronicles we reade of a childe in Sagunt the same yeare that it was forced and rased by Anabal which so soone as it was come forth of the mothers wombe presently returned into it againe CHAP. IIII. ¶ Of the change of one Sex to another and of Twins borne IT is no lie nor fable that females may turne to be males for we haue found it recorded that in the yearely Chronicles called Annals in the yere when Publius Licinius Crassus and C. Cassius Longinus were Consuls there was in Cassinum a maid childe vnder the very hand and tuition of her parents without suspition of being a changeling became a boy and by an Ordinance of the Soothsayers called Aruspices was confined to a certain desart Island and thither conueyed Licinius Mutianus reporteth that he himselfe saw at Argos one named Arescon who before time had to name Arescusa and a married wife but afterwards in processe of time came to haue a beard and the generall parts testifying a man and thereupon wedded a wife Likewise as he saith he saw at Smyrna a boy changed into a girle I my selfe am an eye witnesse That in Africke one L. Cossicius a citisen of Tisdrita turned from a woman to be a man vpon the very mariage day who liued at the time I wrot this booke Moreouer it is obserued that if women bring twins it is great good hap if they all liue but either the mother dieth in childbed or one of the babes if not both But if it fortune that the twinnes be of both sexes the one male the other female it is ten to one if they both escape Moreouer this is well knowne that as women age sooner than men and seeme old so they grow to their maturitie more timely than men and are apt from procreation before them Last of all when a woman goeth with childe if it bee a man childe it stirreth oftner in the wombe and lieth commonly more to the right side wheras the female moueth more seldom and beareth to the left CHAP. V. ¶ The Generation of Man the time of childe-birth from seuen moneths to eleuen testified by many notable examples out of historie ALiother creatures haue a set time limited by Nature both of going with their yong and also of bringing it forth each one according to their kinde Man only is borne all times of the yeare and there is no certaine time of his abode in the wombe after conception for one commeth into the world at the seuen moneths end another at the eighth and so to the beginning of the ninth and tenth But before the seuenth moneth there is no infant euer borne that liueth And none are borne at seuen moneths end vnlesse they were conceiued either in the very change of the moone or within a day of it vnder or ouer An ordinary thing it is in Egypt for women to go with yong eight moneths and then to be deliuered And euen in Italy also now adaies children so borne liue and do well but this is against the common receiued opinion of all old writers But there is no certainty to ground vpon in all these cases for they alter diuers waies Dame Vestilia the widow of C. Herditius wife afterward to Pomponius and last of all maried to Orfitus all right worshipful citisens and of most noble houses had 4 children by her three husbands to wit Sempronius whom she bare at the seuenth moneth Suillius Rufus at the eleuenth and seuen moneths also she went with Corbulo yet they liued all and these two Iast came both to be Consuls After all these sons she bare a daughter namely Caesonia wife to the Emperor Caius Caligula at the eighth moneths end They that are borne thus in this moueth haue much ado to liue and are in great danger for forty dayes space yea and their mothers are very sickly and subiect to fall into vntimely trauell all the fourth moneth and the eighth and if they fall in labor and come before their time they die Massurius writeth that L. Papyrius the Pretor or Lord chief Iustice when a second heire in remainder made claim and put in plea for his inheritance of the goods made an award and gaue iudgement against him in the behalfe of an Infant the right heire borne after the decease of his father vpon this That the mother came in and testified how she was deliuered of that childe within thirteene moneths after the death of the Testator the reason was because there is no definite time certaine for women to go with childe CHAP. VI. ¶ Of Conceptions and signes distinguishing the sex in great bellied women before they are deliuered IF ten dayes after a woman hath had the company of a man shee feele an extraordinary ache in the head and perceiue giddinesse in the brain as if all things went round finde a dazling and mistinesse in the eies abhorring and loathing meat and withall a turning and wambling in the stomacke it is a signe that she is conceiued and beginneth to breed if she goe with a boy better coloured will she be all the time and deliuered with more ease and by the 40 day she shall feele a kinde of motion and stirring in her wombe But contrarie it falleth out in the breeding of a girle she goeth more heauily with it and findeth the burthen heauier her legs and thighes about the share will swell a little And ninetie dayes it will be before she absolutely perceiueth any mouing of the infant But be it male or female shee breeds they put her to much paine and grieuance when their haire beginneth to bud forth and euer at the full of the Moone and euen the very infants after they are borne are most amisse and farthest out of frame about that time And verily great care must be had of a woman with child all the time she goeth therewith both in her gate and in euery thing else that can be named for if women feed vpon ouer-salt and poudered meat they wil bring forth a child without nailes and if they hold not their wind in their labor longer it will be ere they be deliuered and with more difficultie Much yawning in the time of trauell is a deadly signe like as to sneese presently vpon conception threatneth abortion or a slip CHAP. VII ¶ Of the conception and generation of
Athens at what time as the citie was besieged by the Lacedaemonians god Bacchus appeared sundry times by way of vision in a dreame to Lysander their king admonishng him to suffer his delight and him whom he set most store by for to be enterred Whereupon the king made diligent enquirie who lately was departed this life in Athens and by relation of the citizens soone found it out and perceiued who it was that the foresaid god meant and so gaue them leaue to bury Sophocles in peace and to performe his funeralls without any molestation or impeachment CHAP. XXX ¶ Of Plato Ennius Virgil M. Varro and M. Cicero DEnis the tyrant borne otherwise to pride and cruelty being aduertised of the comming and arriuall of Plato that great clerke and prince of learning sent out to meet him a ship adorned with goodly ribbands and himselfe mounted vpon a charriot drawne with foure white horses receiued him as if he had bin a K. at the hauen when hee dis barked and came aland Isocrates sold one Oration that he made for 20 talents of gold Aeschines that famous oratour of Athens in his time hauing at Rhodes rehearsed that accusatorie oration which he had made against Demosthenes read withall his aduersaries defence againe by occasion wherof he was confined to Rhodes and there liued in banishment and when the Rhodians that heard it wondred thereat Nay qd Aeschines you would haue maruelled much more at it if you had heard the man himselfe pronouncing it pleading Viua voce yeelding thus as you see a notable testimony of his aduersary in the time of his aduersitie The Athenians exiled Thucidides their Generall Captaine but after he had written his Chronicle they called him home again wondring at the eloquence of the man whose vertue and prowesse they had before condemned The KK of Egypt and Macedonie gaue a singular testimony how much they honoured Menander the Comicall poet in that they sent Embassadors for him and a fleet to waft him for his more securitie but he wan vnto himselfe more fame and glory by his owne setled iudgement for that he esteemed more of his owne priuat study and following his book than of all those fauors offered vnto him from great princes Moreouer there haue bin great personages and men of high calling at Rome who haue shewed the like in token how they esteemed and regarded the learned crew of forrein nations Cn. Pompeius after he had dispatched the war against Mithridates intended to go and visit Posidonius that renowned professor of learning and when hee should enter into the mans house gaue streight commandement to his Lictors or Huishers that they should not after their ordinary maner with all others râ—…p at his dore and this great warriour vnto whom both the East and West parts of the world had submitted vailed bonet as it were and based his armes and ensignes of state which his officers carried before the verie dore of this Philosopher Cato syrnamed Censorius vpon a time when there came to Rome that noble embassage from Athens consisting of three the wisest sages among them when hee had heard Carneades speake who was one of those three gaue his opinion presently That those embassadors were to be dispatched and sent away with all speed for feare least if that man argued the case it would be an hard piece of worke to sound and find out the truth so pregnant were his reasons and so witty his discourses But Lord what a change is there now in mens manners and dispositions This Cato the renowned Censor both now and at all times else could not abide to haue any Grecian within Italy but alwaies gaue judgement to them all in generall to be expelled but after him there comes his nephew once remoued or his nephewes sonne who brought one of their Philosophers ouer with him when he had bin military Tribune or knight marshall and another likewise vpon his embassage to Cypres And verily a wonder it is and a memorable thing to consider how these two Catoes differed in another point for the former of them could not away with the Greek tongue the other that killed himselfe at Vtica esteemed it as highly But to leaue strangers let vs now speak of our own countrimen so renowned in this behalfe Scipio Africanus the elder gaue expresse order and commanded That the statue of Q. Ennius the poet should be set ouer his tomb to the end that the great name and stile of Africanus or indeed the booty rather that hee had woon and carried away from a third part of the world should in his monument vpon the reliques of his ashes be read together with the title of this poet Augustus Caesar late Emperor expressely forbad that the Poeme of Virgil should be burned notwithstanding that he by his last wil and testament on a modesty gaue order to the contrary by which means there grew more credit and authority vnto the Poet than if himself had approued and allowed his owne verses Asinius Pollio was the first that set vp a publicke Library at Rome raised of the spoile and pillage gained from the enemies In the Library of which gentleman was erected the image of M. Varro euen whiles he liued a thing that won as great honor to M. Varro in mine opinion considering that amongst those fine wits whereof a great number then flourished at Rome his hap only was to haue the garland at the hands of a noble citizen and an excellent Orator beside as that other nauall crowne gained him which Pompey the Great bestowed vpon him for his good seruice in the pyrats war Infinite examples more there are of vs Romans if a man would seeke after them and search them out for this only nation hath brought forth more excellent and accomplished men in euery kinde than all the lands besides of the whole world But what a sin should I commit if I proceeded farther and speake not of thee O M. Cicero and yet how should I possibly write of thee according to thy worthinesse would a man require a better proofe of thy condigne praises than the most honorable testimony of the whole body of that people in generall and the acts onely of thy Consulship chosen out of al other vertuous deeds throughout thy whole life Thine eloquence was the cause that all the Tribes renownced the law Agraria as touching the diuision of Lands a-among the commons albeit their greatest maintenance and nourishment consisted therein Through thy persuasion they pardoned Roscius the first author of that seditious bill and law whereby the States and degrees of the city were placed distinctly in their seats at the Theatre they were content I say and tooke it well that they were noted and pointed at for this difference in taking place and rowms which he first brought in By means of thy orations the children of proscript and outlawed persons were ashamed and abashed to sue for honorable dignities in common-weale thy witty head it was that
or crier pronounced noon when standing at the hall or chamber of the councell he beheld the Sun in that wise betweene the pulpit called Rostra and the Grecostasis which was a place where forrein embassadours gaue their attendance but when that the same sun inclined downeward from the columne named Moenia to the common gaole or prison then he gaue warning of the last quarter of the day and so pronounced But this obseruation would serue but vpon cleere daies when the sun shined and yet there was no other means to know how the day went vntill the first Punicke war Fabius Vestalis writeth that L. Papyrius Cursor 12 yeres before the war with Pyrrhus was the first that for to do the Romans a pleasure set vp a sun-dyall to know what it was a clocke vpon the temple of Quirinus at the dedication thereof when his father had vowed it before him Howbeit mine aurhor sheweth not either the reason of the making of that diall or the workman ne yet from whence it was brought nor in what writer he found it so written M. Varro reporteth that the first diall was set vp in the common market place vpon a columne neere the foresaid Rostra in the time of the first Punicke war by M. Valerius Messala the Consull presently after the taking of Catana in Sicily from whence it was brought thirty yeares after the report that goeth of the foresaid quadrant and diall of Papyrius namely in the yeare after the foundation of the city 477. And albeit the strokes and lines of this Horologe or diall agreed not fit with the houres yet were the people ruled and went by it for an hundred yeares saue one euen vntill Q. Martius Philippus who together with L. Paulus was Censor set another by it framed made more exquisitly according to Art And this piece of work among other good acts done by the Censor during his office was highly accepted of the people as a singular gift of his Yet for all this if it were a close and cloudy day wherein the Sun shone not out men knew not what it was a clocke certainly and thus it continued fiue yeres more Then at last Scipio Nasica being Censor with Laenas made the deuise first to diuide the houres both of day and night equally by water distilling and dropping out one vessell into another And this manner of Horologe or water-clocke he dedicated in the end within house and that was in the 595 yere from the building of Rome Thus you see how long it was that the people of Rome could not certainly tell how the day passed Thus much concerning the Nature of man let vs returne now to discourse of other liuing creatures and first of land-beasts THE EIGHTH BOOKE OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS CHAP. I. ¶ Of landbeasts The praise of Elephants their wit and vnderstanding PAsse we now to treat of other liuing creatures and first of land-beasts among which the Elephant is the greatest and commeth neerest in wit and capacitie to men for they vnderstand the language of that country wherin they are bred they do whatsoeuer they are commanded they remember what duties they be taught and withall take a pleasure and delight both in loue and also in glory nay more than all this they embrace goodnesse honestie prudence and equitie rare qualities I may tel you to be found in men and withal haue in religious reuerence with a kinde of deuotion not only the stars and planets but the sun and moon they also worship And in very truth writers there be who report thus much of them That when the new moon beginneth to appeare fresh and bright they come downe by whole heards to a certaine riuer named Amelus in the desarts and forests of Mauritania where after that they are washed and solemnly purified by sprinckling and dashing themselues all ouer with the water haue saluted and adored after their manner that planet they returne again into the woods chases carrying before them their yong calues that be wearied and tired Moreouer they are thought to haue a sense and vnderstanding of religion conscience in others for when they are to passe the seas into another country they wil not embarke before they be induced thereto by anoath of their gouernors and rulers That they shall returne again and seene there haue bin diuers of them being enfeebled by sicknesse for as big and huge as they be subject they are to grievous maladies to lie vpon their backs casting and flinging herbes vp toward heauen as if they had procured and set the earth to pray for them Now for their docility and aptnesse to learne any thing the king they adore they kneele before him and offer vnto him garlands and chaplets of floures and green herbes To conclude the lesser sort of them which they call Bastards serue the Indians in good stead to eare and plough their ground CHAP. II. ¶ When Elephants were put to draw first THe first time that euer they were knowne to draw at Rome was in the triumph of Pompey the Great after he had subdued Africke for then were two of them put in geeres to his triumphant chariot But long before that it is said that Father Bacchus hauing conquered India did the like when he triumphed for his conquest Howbeit in that triumph of Pompey Procilius affirmeth That coupled as they were two in one yoke they could not possibly go in at the gates of Rome In the late solemnity of tournois sword-fight at the sharp which Germanicus Caesar exhibited to gratifie the people the elephants were seen to shew pastime with leaping keeping a stir as if they danced after a rude and disorderly manner A common thing it was among them to fling weapons darts in the aire so strongly that the winds had no power against them to flourish also before hand yea and to encounter and meet together in fight like sword-fencers and to make good sport in a kinde of Moriske dance and afterwards to go on ropes and cords to carry foure together one of them laid at ease in a litter resembling the maner of women newly brought a bed last of all some of them were so nimble and well practised that they would enter into an hall or dining place where the tables were set full of guests and passe among them so gently and daintily weighing as it were their feet in their going so as they would not hurt or touch any of the company as they were drinking CHAP. III. ¶ The docilitie of Elephants THis is knowne for certaine that vpon a time there was an Elephant among the rest not so good of capacity to take out his lessons and learn that which was taught him and being beaten and beaten again for that blockish and dull head of his was found studying and conning those feats in the night which he had bin learning in the day time But one of the greatest wonders of them was
wonderfull The Mullet and the sea-Pike hate one another and be euer at deadly war likewise the Congre the Lamprey insomuch as they gnaw off one anothers taile The Lobster is so afraid of the Polype or Pourcuttell that if he spie him neere he euermore dieth for very woe The Lobsters are ready to scratch and teare the Congre the Congres again do as much for the Polype Nigidius writeth That the sea-Pike biteth off the Mullets taile and yet the same fishes in certaine set moneths are good friends and agree well enough He saith moreouer that those Mullets liue all notwithstanding their tails be so curtold On the other side there be examples of friendship among fishes besides those of whose societie and fellowship I haue already written and namely between the great whale Balaena and the little Musculus For whereas the Whale aforesaid hath no vse of his eies by reason of the heauy weight of his eie-browes that couer them the other swimmeth before him serueth him in stead of eies and lights to shew when he is neere the shelues and shallowes wherein he may be soone grounded so big and huge he is Thus much of fish Hence forward will we write of Foules THE TENTH BOOKE OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS CHAP. I. ¶ The nature of Birds and Foules IT followeth now that we should discourse of the nature of Foules And first to begin with Ostriches They are the greatest of all other foules and in manner of the nature of foure footed beasts namely those in Africke and Aethiopia for higher they be than a man sitting on horsebacke is from the ground and as they be taller than the man so are they swifter on foot than the very horse for to this end only hath Nature giuen them wings euen to help and set them forward in their running for otherwise neither flie they in the aire ne yet so much as rise mount from the ground Clouen houfs they haue like red deere and with them they fight for good they be to catch vp stones withall with their legs they whurle them back as they run away against those that chase them A wonder this is in their nature that whatsoeuer they eat and great deuourers they be of all things without difference and choise they concoct and digest it But the veriest fooles they be of all others For as high as the rest of their body is yet if they thrust their head and necke once into any shrub or bush and get it hidden they thinke then they are safe enough and that no man seeth them Now two things they doe affoord in recompence of mens pains that they take in hunting and chasing them to wit their egs which are so big that some vse them for vessels in the house and their feathers so faire that they serue for pennaches to adorne and set out their crests and morions of souldiers in the wars CHAP. II. ¶ Of the Phoenix THe birds of Aethiopia and India are for the most parr of diuerse colours and such as a man is hardly able to decipher and describe But the Phoenix of Arabia passes all others How beit I cannot tell what to make of him and first of all whether it be a tale or no that that there is neuer but one of them in all the world the same not commonly seen By report he is as big as an Aegle for colour as yellow and bright as gold namely all about the necke the rest of the bodie a deep red purple the taile azure blew intermingled with feathers among of rose carnation color and the head brauely adorned with a crest and penach finely wrought hauing a tuft and plume thereupon right faire and goodly to be seen Manilius the noble Romane Senatour right excellently seene in the best kind of learning and litterature and yet neuer taught by any was the first man of the long Robe who wrot of this bird at large most exquisitely He reporteth that neuer man was known to see him feeding that in Arabia he is held a sacred bird dedicated vnto the Sun that he liueth 660 yeares and when he groweth old and begins to decay he builds himselfe with the twigs and branches of the Canell or Cinamon and Frankincense trees and when he hath filled it with all sort of sweet Aromaticall spices yeeldeth vp his life thereupon He saith moreouer that of his bones and marrow there breedes at first as it were a little worme which afterwards prooueth to be a prettie bird And the first thing that this yong new Phoenix doth is to perform the obsequies of the former Phoenix late de ceased to translate and cary away his whole nest into the citie of the Sun neere Panchea and to bestow it full deuoutly there vpon the altar The same Manilius affirmeth that the reuolution of the great yeare so much spoken of agreeth just with the life of this bird in which yeare the stars returne againe to their first points and giue significations of times and seasons as at the beginning and withall that this yeare should begin at high noone that very day when the Sun entreth the signe Aries And by his saying the yeare of that reuolution was by him shewed when P. Licinius and M. Cornelius were consuls Cornelius Valerianus writeth That whiles Q. Plautius and Sex Papinius were Consuls the Phoenix flew into Aegypt Brought he was hither also to Rome in the time that Claudius Caesar was Censor to wit in the eight hundreth yeare from the foundation of Rome and shewed openly to be seen in a full hall and generall assembly of the people as appeareth vpon the publick records how beit no man euer made any doubt but he was a counterfeit Phoenix and no better CHAP. III. ¶ Of Aegles OFall the birds which we know the Aegles carie the price both for honor strength Six kinds there be of them The first named of the Greeks Melaenaetos and in Latin Valeria the least it is of all others and strongest withall blacke also of colour In all the whole race of the Aegles she alone nourisheth her yong birds for the rest as we shall hereafter declare doe beat them away she only crieth not nor keepeth a grumbling and huzzing as others doe and euermore converseth vpon the mountaines Of the second sort is Pygargus It keepes about townes and plaines and hath a whitish taile The third is Morphnos which Homer cals also Perâ—…nos some name it Plancus and * Anataria and she is for bignesse and strength of a second degree louing to liue about lakes and meeres Ladie Phoemonoe who was supposed said to be the daughter of Apollo hath reported that this Aegle is toothed otherwise mute as not hauing any tongue also that of all other she is the blackest and hath the longest tail With her accorcordeth Boethus likewise Subtle she is and wittie for when she hath seazed vpon Tortoises and caught them
hands long agoe the which I saw in the house of Pomponius Secundus a noble citizen of Rome and a renowmed Poet almost two hundred yeares after their death As for the writings of Cicero of Augustus late Emperour of famous memorie and of Virgill we daily see and handle them by the meanes of Paper so good and durable CHAP. XIII ¶ Of the bookes of Numa WE find many examples in stories which very directly and mightily do testifie against M. Varro as touching Papers For Cassius Hemina a most faithfull and ancient writer in the fourth booke of his Annales hath reported That one Cn. Terentius a scribe or publicke Notarie as he digged and delued in a ground which he had neare to Ianiculum light vpon a chist where in lay the bodie of Numa sometime king of Rome In the same also were found the bookes of the said king And as he affirmeth this happened in that yeare when Pub. Cornelius the sonne of Lucius surnamed Cethegus and M. Boebius sonne of Quintus surnamed Pamphilus were Consuls of Rome betweene which time and the raigne of Numa by just computation are reckoned 535 yeres He saith moreouer That those books were made of the Paper abouenamed The greater wonder it was how such kind of books should last sâ—… long especially within the earth and not putrifie The thing therefore being so strange and in manner miraculous that Paper should continue all that time I think it not amisse to set down the very words of Hemina likew I se as he deliuers them The world made a wonder quoth he how these books could possibly endure so many yeres but the party who found them yeelded this reason That within the said coffer about the mids of it there was a stone foure-square lapped all about and bound euery way with waxe candles in manner of a serecloth vpon which stone the foresaid books were laid and therefore it was as he supposed that they did not rot Moreouer the books also were embaulmed with the rosin or oile of Cedar which might be a good reason in his conceit that the moths came not to them Now these bookes contained the Philosophie and doctrine of Pythagoras and for that they treated of that Philosophical argument burnt they were by order from Q. Petilius the Pretor for that time being The same storie in effect doth C. Piso Censorinus a man who had been Censor report in the first book of his commentaries howbeit he setteth downe their number withall and saith they were fourteene in all whereof seuen treated of the Pontificall law and matters of religion and as many discoursed of Pythagoras his Philosophie But Tuditanus in the thirteeneth booke of the Annales affirmeth That they were the decretals only of Numa and contained his ordinances As for Varro himselfe he writeth in the fift booke of Humane Antiquities that they were in all but twelue And Antias in his second booke reporteth That two of them were written in Latine and contained the Pontificial diuinitie and church-matters and other twaine penned in Greeke were full of precepts in Philosophie He also affirmes in his third booke for what cause the said books by vertue of a publick decree were consumed with fire But all Historiographers agree in this That one of the Sibyls brought vnto Tarquinius the proud three books of which two were burnt by her owne selfe and the third likewise perished with fire together with the Capitol during the troubles of Sylla Ouer and besides Mutianus a man who had been thrice Consul of Rome hath left on record that of late while he was lord gouernor or Lycia he read in a certain temple an Epistle written by prince Sarpedon in Paper and bearing date from Troy And I wonder the rather at this if so be that when Homer liued and wrate his Poeme there was no land of Aegypt as now there is or why in case there was such vse of Paper then himself should write that in the very same Lycia Bellerophon had writing tables giuen him to deliuer as touching his owne death and not rather letters missiue wrot in Paper Wel howeuer that be this is certaine that there is a scarsitie otherwhiles of Paper also as well as of other commodities and this cane or reed Papyrus doth many times faile For not long since euen in the daies of Tiberius the Emperor in a dearth and want of Paper there were commissioners deputed and appointed by the Senat of Rome for the dispensing and distribution of it among the people otherwise there had been a great mutinie and tumult at Rome about Paper CHAP. XIIII ¶ Of the trees in Aethiopia AS touching Aethiopia and namely that quarter which confineth vpon Aegypt it hath in manner no trees at all of any name saue those that beare wooll or cotton concerning the nature of which trees we haue sufficiently spoken in the description of the Indians and of Arabia and yet in very truth the cotton that is brought from these trees in Aethiopia comes neerer to wool than any thing els howeuer the trees be otherwise like to the rest of that kinde and the burse or cod wherin this woollie substance lyes is greater and as big as a Pomegranat Besides these there be Date trees also like to such as we haue before described As touching other trees and especially the odoriferous woods within the Isles that lie vpon Aethiopia round about we haue said enough in the treatise of those Islands CHAP. XV. ¶ Of the trees growing in mount Atlas of Citron tables of the commendable perfections and contrariwise of the defaults thereof THe mountaine Atlas by report hath a wood in it of peculiar trees that elsewhere grow not wherof we haue already written The Mores that border vpon it are stored with abundance of Citron trees from whence commeth that excessiue expense and superfluitie about Citron tables made thereof And our dames and wiues at home by way of reuenge vse to twit vs their husbands therwith when we would seem to find fault with the costly pearls that they do weare There is at this day to be seen a board of Citron wood belonging sometimes to M. Tullius Cicero which cost him ten thousand Sesterces a strange matter considering hee was no rich man but more wonderfull if we call to mind the seueritie of that age wherein hee liued Much speech there is besides of Gallus Asinius his table sold for eleuen thousand Sesterces Moreouer there are two other which K. Iuba sold the one was prised at 15000 Sesterces and the other held little vnder Not long since there was one of them chanced to be burnt and it came with other houshold stuff but from the cottages in Mauritania which cost 140000 Sesterces a good round summe of money and the price of a faire lordship if a man would be at the cost to purchase lands so deer But the fairest and largest table of Citron wood that to this day hath beene seene came from Ptolomaee king of Mauritania
growing in our Mediterranean sea in the red sea and in the Indian sea EVen the very sea affordeth shrubs and trees but those of the Mediterranean sea be far lesse than of other seas for the red sea and all the Levant Ocean is full of woods That which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath no other name in any language As for Alga is a word appropriate rather to weeds or sea-herbs called Reik but this Phycos is a very shrub bearing broad leaues of a green colour which some call Prason others Zoster A second kind there is of Phycos with an hairy leafe like to Fennell and groweth vpon rockes As for the former called Zoster it is found among the shelues and shallow waters not far from the shore both the one and the other appeare in the Spring and be gon in Autumne That of this kind which groweth in Candy about rocks is much vsed of dyers for the purple color and namely on the North part of that Island and among sponges for that is most commendable for this purpose A third sort there is like vnto the grasse called Coich or Dent-de-chien hauing a root full of ioynts and a stalk likewise in maner of a reed Another shrub there is in that sea called Bryon with leaues like Lettice saue onely they be more wrinkled and crumpled together but this growes more inward and farther into the sea Mary in the deep groweth both Fir and Oke to the height of a cubit Among these branches the Cockles and Muskles and such like shell fishes do settle and sticke vnto them As for that kind of sea-Oke some say it is of good vse to dye wooll withall as also that it beareth Mast or Acorns in the deep the knowledge of all which we come vnto by those that diue into the bottom of the sea and such as haue suffered shipwracke and escaped Moreouer by report there be other exceeding great trees and namely about Sycione As for the sea vine it groweth euerie where but the fig tree there is without leaues hath a red bark There be also date trees found in the sea but as little as shrubs Without Hercules pillers or the streight of Gebraltar there are shrubs to be seen bearing leaues resembling leek blades and others leaued like to the bay tree or to the herbe Thyme and both kinds being cast vp a land turne into the pumish stone But in the East parts it is a wonderous matter to thinke that so soon as euer a man is past Coptus he shall find nothing to grow in all the wildernesse but only a kind of thorne or thistle called the thirsty or dry thorne and the same but here and there in very few places whereas in the red sea whole woods do liue and namely of Baies and Oliues bearing their berries also when it raineth certaine Mushromes which no sooner be caught with the Suns heat but they turne into the pumish stone As touching the shrubs there growing they be commonly three cubits high and those so full of sea dogs and curres that a man shall hardly looke out of the ship in safety for that many times they will take hold of the very ores and assaile them The souldiers of Alexander the Great who sailed into India made report That the branches and leaues of the sea trees so long as they were vnder the water looked green but when they be taken forth presently dried with the heate of the Sun and became salt Also that about the shore they found stony rushes and reeds like vnto naturall rushes indeed Moreouer in the deep sea they light on certain little trees branched and full of boughes in colour of an Ox horne but the head or top of them was red handle them in your hand they were as brittle as glasse put them into the fire they would be red hot like iron quench them again they returned to their former colour In the same tract there be some tides so high that the sea ouer floweth and couereth the Woods growing within the Islands although there be trees in them taller than the highest Planes or Poplars And those trees beare leaues like Lawrell and floures for smel and colour resembling the Violet Their berries be like to Oliues and those of a pleasant and sweet sauor which they bring forth in the Autumne and their leaues neuer shed but continue all the yeare long The lower sort of these trees the floud couereth all and whole but the greatest beare vp their heads aboue the sea whereunto the mariners do fasten and tie their vessels at a high water but when it is ebbe at the very root Moreouer by their saying they saw other trees in the same sea with leaues euer green vpon them carying a fruit like to Lupines King Iuba reports That about the Islands of the Troglodites there groweth a shrub within the sea called Isidos Plocamos i. Isis haire resembling coral and void of leaues cut a branch of it from the stock it becomes hard changeth colour and is black if it fall it is so tender that it will breake like glasse He speaks moreouer of another called Charito-blepharon which is of great force in amatorious matters to procure loue and thereof women quoth he make them carkanets and pendant ornaments to hang about their necks To conclude he affirmes that this shrub hath a certain intelligence when a man would take hold of it and therefore waxeth as hard as an horne insomuch as it is able to turne the edge of a knife or bill that vnneth or hardly it may be cut but in case it be intrapped and drawne vp with cords without any edge toole it presently turneth to be a stone THE FOVRTEENTH BOOK OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS Containing the Treatise of Trees bearing Fruit. The Proeme THus far forth haue we discoursed of all forreine and strange trees in a manner such I meane as know not how to liue in any other places but where they naturally first did grow and which willingly go not into other countries nor can abide their soile or aire Good leaue may I now haue to write of Plants and Trees common to all lands and namely to ours of Italy which may seeme to be the very Hort-yard and naturall garden that bare them all This onely would I aduertise the Readers and Learners to remember that for this present we purpose to describe their natures and vertues onely leaving out the manner of husbandrie that belongeth vnto them albeit in their tending and keeping appeareth the greatest part of their properties and of Natures workes And verily I cannot chuse but maruell still and neuer giue ouer how it comes to passe that the remembrance yea and the verie names of some trees which antient Writers haue deliuered in their bookes should be quite gone and abolished For who would not thinke that our life should ere this haue gained much by the Maiestie of the Romane Empire haue discouered all
city side but amongst the rest this of Palaemons in that place was esteemed most cheap and lowest prised in this regard especially That he had purchased those lands which through the carelesnesse bad husbandry of the former owners lay neglected and fore-let were not of themselues thought to be of the best soile chosen and piked from among the worst But being entred once vpon those grounds as his owne liuelode and possession he set in hand to husband and manure them not so much of any good mind and affection that he had to improue and better any thing that he held but vpon a vaine glory of his own at the first whereunto he was wonderously giuen for he makes fallows of his vine-plots anew and delueth them all ouer again as he had seen Sthenelus to do with his before but what with digging stirring and medling therewith following the good example and husbandry of Sthenelus hee brought his vineyards to so good a passe within one eight yeares that the fruit of one yeares vintage was held at 400000 Sesterces and yeelded so much rent to the lord a wonderfull and miraculous thing that a ground should be so much improoued in so small a time And in very truth it was strange to see what numbers of people would run thither onely to see the huge and mighty heaps of grapes gathered in those vineyards of his and ill idle neighbors about him whose grounds yeelded no such increase attributed all to his deepe learning and that he went to it by his book had some hidden speculation aboue other men obiecting against him that he practised Art Magicke and the blacke Science But last of all Annaeas Seneca esteemed in those daies a singular clerke and a mighty great man whose ouermuch Learning and exceeding power cost him his ouerthrowing in the end one who had good skill and judgement in the world and vsed least of all others to esteeme toies and vanities brought this ferm into a greater name and credit for so far in loue was he of this possession that hee bought out Palaemon and was not ashamed to let him go away with the pricke and praise for good husbandry and to remoue him into other parts where he might shew the like cunning and in one word paid for these foresaid vineyards of his fourfold as much as they cost not aboue ten yeres before this good husbandry was bestowed vpon them Certes great pity it is that the like industry was not shewed and imploied in the territories about the hils Cecubus Setinus where no doubt it would haue well quit all the cost considering that many a time afterwards euery acre of vineyard there yeelded seuen Culei that is to say 140 Amphores of new wine one yere with another But lest any man should thinke that wee in these daies haue surpassed our ancestors in diligence as touching good husbandrie know he that the aboue named Cato hath left in writing How of an acre of vineyard there hath arisen ordinarily ten Culei of wine by the yeare Certainly these be effectuall examples and pregnant proofes that the hardy and aduenturous voiages by sea are not more aduantageous ne yet the commodities and merchandise and namely Pearls which be fet as far as the red sea and the Indian Ocean are more gainefull to the merchant than a good ferm and homestall in the countrey well tilled and carefully husbanded As touching the wines in old time Homer writes that the Maronean wine made of the grapes growing vpon the sea coasts of Africk was the best most excellent in his daies But my meaning is not to ground vpon fabulous tales variable reports as touching the excellency or antiquitie of wine True it is that Aristaeus was the first who in that very nation mingled honey with wine which must needs be a passing sweet and pleasant liquor made of two natures so singular as they be of themselues And yet to come againe to the foresaid Maronean wine the same Homer saith That to one part therof there would be but 20 parts of water and euen at this day that kind of wine continues in the said land of the same force and the strength thereof will not be conquered nor allaied For Mutianus who had bin thrice consul of Rome one of those that latest wrote of this matter found by experience being himselfe personally in that tract that euery sextar or quart of that wine would beare 8 of water who reports moreouer that the wine is of colour blacke of a fragrant sweet smell and by age comes to be fat and vnctious Moreouer the Pramnian wine which the same Homer hath so highly commended continueth yet in credit and holds the name still it comes from a vineyard in the countrey about Smyrna neere to the temple of Cybele the mother of the gods As for other wines no one kind apart excelled other One yere there was when all wines proued passing good to wit when L. Opimius was Consul at what time as C. Gracchus a Tribune of the Commons practising to sow sedition within the city among the common people was slaine for then such seasonable weather happened and so fauorable for ill fruit that they called it Coctura as a man would say the ripening time so beneficiall was the Sun to the earth and this fell out in the yere after the natiuity and foundation of the city of Rome 634. Moreouer there be some wines so durable that they haue beene knowne to last two hundred yeares and are come now by this time to the qualitie and consistence of a rough sharpe and austere kind of hony and this is the nature of all when they bee old neither are they potable alone by themselues vnlesse the water be predominant so tart they are of the lees and so musty withall that they are bitter againe Howbeit a certaine mixture there is of them in a very small quantity with other wines that giues a prety commendable tast vnto them Suppose now that according to the price of wine in those daies of Opimius euery Amphore were set but at an hundred Sesterces yet after the vsurie of six in the hundred yearly which is the ordinary proportion and a reasonable interest among citizens for the principall that lieth dead and dormant in stock by the hundred and sixtieth yere after the said Amphor was bought which fell out in the time that C. Caligula Caesar the son of Germanicus was Emperor no maruell if an ounce in measure of the same wine to wit the twelfth part of a Sextarius cost so many Sesterces for as we haue shewed by a notable example when we did set downe the life of Pomponius Secundus the Poet and the feast that he made to the sayd Prince Caligula there was not a Cyathus of that wine drawne but so much was paied for it Loe what a deale of mony lieth in these wine-cellars for keeping of wine And in very truth there is nothing
and cruell otherwise though he was now in his old age for in his youthfull daies he was giuen ouermuch to drinking of wine would delight to behold this renowned and worthy knight with great wonder and admiration For the like rare gift and commendable qualitie men think verily that C. Piso first rise and afterwards was aduanced to the Prouostship of the city of Rome by the said Tiberius namely for that in his court being now emperor he sat 2 daies and 2 nights drinking continually and neuer stirred foot from the boord And verily Drusus Caesar by report in nothing more resembled his father Tiberius than in taking his drink But to return again to noble Torquatus herein consisted his excellency That he did it according to art for this you must take withall there is an art of Drinking grounded vpon certain rules and precepts Torquatus I say drank he neuer so much was not known at any time to falter in his tongue neuer eased himself by vomiting neuer let it goe the other way vnder boord how late soeuer he sat vp at the wine ouer night he would be sure to relieue the morning watch sentinel He drunk most of any man at one entire draught before the pot went from his head and for smaller draughts besides he went before all other in number his winde he neuer tooke while the cup was at his mouth but iustly obserued the rule of drinking with one breath he was not known to spit for all this to conclude he would not leaue in the cup so much as would dash against the pauement make the least sound to bee hard a special point and precise law to preuent the deceit of those that drinke for a wager A singular glory no doubt in him and a rare felicity Tergilla challenged M. Cicero the younger son to that M. Cicero the famous Orator and reproched him to his face that ordinarily he drunk 2 gallons at once and that one time aboue the rest when he was drunke he flung a pot at M. Agrippa his head And truly this is one of the fruits and feats of drunkennesse But blame not young Cicero if in this point yet he desired to surmount him that slew his father M. Antonius I mean for he before that time strained himselfe and stroue to win the best game in this feat making profession thereof as may appeare by a booke that he compiled and set forth with this title Of his owne drunkennesse wherein hee was not ashamed to avow and justifie his excesse and enormities that way and thereby approoued as I take it vnder pretence and colour of his drunkennesse all those outrages of his all those miseries and calamities that he brought vpon the whole world This treatise he vomited and spued out a little before the battell of Actium wherein he was defeated whereby it may appeare very plainly that as he was drunken before with the bloud of citizens so still hee was the more bloud-thirsty For this is a property that necessarily followeth this vice That the more a man drinketh the more he may and is alwaies dry And herein spake to good purpose a certain Embassadour of the Scythians saying That the Parthians the more they drunke the thirstier they were As touching the nations in the West part of the world they haue their drinks also by themselues made of * corn steeped in water whereof they will drinke to the vtterance and be drunk and namely in Spaine and France where the manner of making the same is all one how soeuer they haue * diuers names and in Spain they haue devised means that these drinks Ale or Beer wil abide age continue stale In Egipt likewise they haue inuented such kind of drinks made of corn so that no part or corner of the world there is but drunkennesse reigneth And verily these liquors how soeuer they be named they vse to drinke entire as they bee and made of the very strength of Malt neuer delaying the same with water as we dowines But it may be sayd That Nature hath endowed inriched those countries with abundance of corn and therefore they may wel do it Oh how industrious we are to maintain our vices There is a deuise found would euer any man haue thought it how water also should make men drunke Two liquors there be most pleasing and acceptable to mens bodies wine within oile without Both proceed from two speciall trees howbeit of the twaine Oile is necessary and Wine may be better spared And verily men haue not bin idle in the making of good oile how beit they haue beene more addicted and giuen to make Wines for drink as may appeare by this that reckoning but the generall kinds thereof a man may find 195 sorts of wine but if a man would subdiuide and destribute those heads into their branches he should meet almost with twice as many but of Oyles there bee not so many kindes by farre Whereof we purpose to treat in the booke next following THE FIFTEENTH BOOK OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS CHAP. I. ¶ The natures of trees that beare Fruit. THere were no oliue trees grew in Italy but vpon the coast side and that within 40 miles of the sea about the 440 yere after the foundation of the city of Rome if it be true that Theophrastus saith who was one of the most famous and renowned Authors among the Greeks Fenestella writeth moreouer and affirmeth that during the raigne of Tarquinius Priscus which was much about the 183 yeare from the foundation of the city of Rome there were no Oliue trees at all to be found either in Italy Spaine or Africke whereas now at this day they are seene all Italy ouer yea and be come as far as the regions beyond the Alps euen into the mids and very heart of France and Spaine Indeed in the yeare after the foundation of Rome 505 which was when Appius Claudius the nephew of that great Appius Claudius syrnamed the Blind and L. Iunius were Consuls together a pound of the oile was sold for twelue Asses and not long after namely in the 680 yeare M. Seius the son of Lucius one of the Aediles Curule for the time beeing brought downe the market so well that a man might haue bought ten pound for one As and at that price he serued the people of Rome throughout all that yeare Lesse cause therefore a man hath to maruell hereat who knoweth how not past 22 yeares after that namely when Cn. Pompeius was the fourth time Consull Italy was able to furnish other nations and prouinces with oile of Oliues Hesiodus also who was especially addicted to the study of husbandry and of all things thought it most necessarie to be taught and published for the good of mankinde wrote thus much concerning the Oliue That neuer a man was knowne to that day for to haue gathered the fruit of that Oliue tree which himselfe had planted
againe will be but the worse for it and such are the Almond trees for where before they did beare sweet Almonds they will euer after bring bitter Moreouer you shall haue some trees that wil thriue do the better after this hard dealing namely a kind of peare tree called Phocis in the Island Chios for you haue heard by me already which trees they be that lopping and shredding is good for Most trees and in manner all except the Vine Apple tree Fig tree and Pomegranate tree will die if their stocke or bodie be clouen and some be so tender that vpon euery little wound or race that is giuen them yee shall see them to die howbeit the Figge tree and generally all such trees as breed Rosin defie all such wrongs and injuries and will abide any wound or bruse whatsoeuer That trees should die when their roots are cut away it is no maruell and yet many there bee of them that wi liue and prosper well neuerthelesse in case they be not all cut off nor the greatest master roots ne yet any of the heart or vitall roots among the rest Moreouer it is often seene that trees kill one another when they grow too thicke and that either by ouershadowing or else by robbing one another of their food and nourishment The Iuie also that with clipping and clasping bindeth trees too hard hastneth their death Misselto likewise doth them no good no more than Cytisus or the hearbe Auro which the Greekes name Alimus growing about them The nature of some plants is not to kill and destroy trees out of hand but to hurt and offend them only either with their smell or else with the mixture and intermingling of their owne iuice with their sap Thus the Radish and the Lawrell doe harme to the Vine if they grow neare vnto it for surely the Vine is thought to haue the sense of smelling and wonderfully to sent any odours and therefore it is obserued in her by experience That if shee be neare vnto Radish or Lawrell shee will turne away and withdraw her selfe backeward from them as if shee could not abide their strong breath but vtterly abhorred it as her very enemie And vpon the obseruation of this secret in Nature Androcides the Physitian deuised a medicine against drunkennesse and prescribed his patients to eat Radish if they would not be ouercome with wine Neither can the Vine away with Coleworts or the Cabbage nay it hateth generally all worts or pot-hearbs it abhorreth also the Hazell and Filberd tree in such sort as a man shal sensibly perceiue it to looke heauily and mislike if those plants aforesaid grow not farther off from it And now to conclude and knit vp this discourse would you kill a Vine out of hand lay to the root thereof nitre or salt-petre and alumne drench it with hote sea-water or doe but apply vnto it Bean cods or the shales or husks of the pulse Eruile and you shall soone see the operation and effect of a most ranke and deadly poison CHAP. XXV ¶ Of many and sundry prodigies or strange tokens and accidents about trees Also of an Oliue plot which in times past was transported all and whole from one side of an high port way to another IN this Treatise of the faults and imperfections incident to Trees me thinks I should do wel to say somwhat of the supernatural occurrences in them obserued for we haue known some of them to grow vp and prosper without any leaues at all And as there haue bin Vines and Pomegranats seen to beare fruit springing immediately from the trunke and not from branch or boughs so there haue bin vines charged with grapes and not clad with leaues and Oliues likewise had their berries hanging vpon them whole and sound notwithstanding all their leaues were shed and gon Moreouer strange wonders and miracles haue hapned about trees by meere chance and fortune for there was an Oliue once which being burnt to the very stump reuiued came again and in Boeotia certain Fig Trees notwithstanding they were eaten and gnawn most piteously with Locusts yet budded anew and put forth a fresh spring Also it hath bin marked that trees haue changed their colour from black to white And yet this is not alwayes a monstrous thing beyond naturall reason and specially in such as come of seed as wee may obserue in the Aspe which eftsoones turneth to be a Poplar Some are of opinion That the Servise Tree if it bee transplanted and come into a hoter ground than is agreeable to the nature thereof will leaue bearing and be barren But it is taken for no lesse than a monster out of kind that sweet Apples and such like fruits should proue sowre or sowre fruit turne to be sweet as also that a wilde Fig Tree should become tame or contrariwise And it is counted for an vnluckie sign if any Tree change from the better to the worse to wit if a gentle garden Oliue degenerate into the wilde and sauage if a Vine that was wont to beare white grapes haue now black vpon it and so likewise if a Fig Tree which vsed to haue white Figs chaunce afterwards to beare black And here by the way I canot forget the strange accident that befell in Laodicea where vpon the arriuall of King Xerxes a Plane tree was turned into an Oliue But if any man be desirous to know more of these and such like miracles for as much as I loue not to runne on still and make no end I refer him ouer to Aristander a Greek writer who hath compiled a whole volume and stuffed it full of such like wonders let him haue recourse also to C. Epidius a Countryman of ours whose Commentaries are full of such stuffe where he shall find also that trees sometimes spake A little before the ciuil war brake out between Iulius Caesar and Pompey the Great there was reported an ominous and fearfull sight presaging no good from out of the territory of Cumes namely That a great Tree there sunke down into the earth so deep that a very little of the top boughs was to be seen Hereupon were the propheticall books of Sibylla perused wherin it was found that this prodegie portended some great carnage of men and that the neerer that this slaughter and execution should be to Rome the greater should the bloud shed be A prodigious signe and wonder it is reputed also when trees seem to grow in places where they were not wont to be and which are not agreeable to their natures as namely on the chapâ—…ers of pillars the heads of statues or vpon altars like as to see one tree of a diuers and contrary kinde growing vpon the top of another as it befell about the city Cyzicum hard before the streit siege that was laid vnto it by Mithridates both by sea and land where a Fig tree was seen to grow vpon a Lawrel Likewise at Tralleis about the time of the foresaid ciuill war a
vnskilfull in this part of Philosophie as touching the course and order of the Starres which beeing not onely discouered but also assoiled and cleared their minds with better contentment may goe from the contemplation of heauen to the rest of Natures workes and see those things by the effects which they could not possibly foresee by their causes CHAP. XXV ¶ The times and seasons of the rising and setting of Starres digested into order as well by day as night IN the first place there offereth it selfe vnto vs one difficultie aboue the rest so intricate as hardly is it possible to resolue vpon it namely as touching the very daies of the yere how many they be in number and the reuolution of the Sunne how and when he returneth againe to to the same point For wheras some do account the solare yere to be 365 daies just others adde thereunto certaine quadrants or foure parts of day and night together to wit six houres euery yeare which beeing put together make the fourth yeare Bissextile or Leape yeare so as it is in manner impossible to assigne the certaine daies and houres of the Starres apparition or occultation Ouer and besides how obscure how darke and confused all this matter is appeareth manifestly herin That the times and seasons of the yere prefixed by ancient writers fal not out accordingly and namely in the obseruation of the winter seasons tempests by them set down for one while you shall haue them to preuent and come sooner by many daies than ordinarie which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another while to draw back and come later which they terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea and for the most part this happeneth by reason that the influence of the coelestiall starres reacheth sooner or later to the earth and therafter sheweth the effects so as the common people when they see the said foule weather past and all cleare and faire againe say then and not before That such a planet or Starre hath performed his course and is vpon the point of his Tropicke or return againe Moreouer considering that al these occurrents depend much vpon those stars which be set fixed in the firmament yet shall ye haue the Planets play their parts besides which by their motions and operations worke no small effects vpon the earth as we haue shewed before and namely causing betweene-whiles stormes of raine and haile out of course no maruell then If they trouble our heads and put vs out of our account interrupting that order of the fixed Stars vpon which we conceiued and built our hope of the faire season and our new spring And herin not we only that be men faile of our reckoning but other liuing creatures also be deceiued which naturally haue much more sense and vnderstanding of these workes of Nature than we in as much as their whole life standeth thereupon for the Summer-birds as great fore-sight as they haue of such seasons and tempests are ouer-taken and killed by Winter frosts and cold comming sooner than they looked for and before they be gone out of the countrey as also winter foules miscarrie by the hot weather of summer continuing longer than it was woont and holding on still after they be come Hereupon it is that Virgil expressely willeth vs to learne throughly the skill of the wandring Starres or Planets also and principally giueth vs warning to marke the course of that cold Planet Saturne But now to come more particularly to the signs which fore-token the Spring some there be that goe by the Butterflie and hold that their brood comming abroad is an assured token that the Spring is come for that these creatures so feeble are not able to abide any cold howbeit this was checked that very yere wherin I wrote this Book or History of Natures work for seen it was and marked very well that 3 flights of them one after another were killed with the cold weather that surprised them thrice for that they were stirring too early and came abroad ouersoon Yea and the very birds who are our guests in warm weather visited vs fiue or sixe daies before Februarie made a goodly shew of a timely Spring putting vs in good hope that al cold weather was gone howbeit there ensued a most bitter after winter streight vpon it that nipped and killed them in manner euerie one Hard and doubtfull therefore is the case that whereas first and principally we were to fetch our rule from the heauens to guide and direct vs then afterwards we should be driuen to goe by other signes and arguments meere conjecturall But aboue all the cause of this incertitude and difficultie is partly the conuexity of the cope of heauen and partly the diuerse climats obserued in the globe of the earth by meanes whereof one and the same star seemeth to rise at sundrie times in diuerse countres and appears sooner or later to some than to others and therefore the cause depending thereupon is not in all places of like validity nor sheweth the same effects alwaies at the same times And yet there is one difficultie more arising from those Authors who writing of one and the same thing haue deliuered diuers opinions according to the sundry climates wherein they were at what time as they obserued the figure and constitution of the heauens Now were there of these Astronomers three Sects to wit the Chaldaeans the Aegyptians and the Greekes To which there may be added a fourth which among vs Caesar the Dictatour first erected who obseruing the course of the Sun and taking with him also the aduise of Sosigenes a learned Mathematitian and skilfull Astronomer in his time reduced the yeare vnto the said reuolution Howbeit in this calculation of his there was found an error and short he came of the marke which he aimed at by reason that there was no Bissextile or leap yere by him inserted but after 12 yeres Now when it was obserued by this reckoning that the sun had performed his reuolution sooner than the yere turned about which before was wont to preuent the course of the Sun this error was reformed and after euery fourth yeare expired came about the Bissextile aforesaid and made al streight Sosigenes also himselfe albeit he was reputed a more curious and exquisite Mathematician than the rest yet in three seuerall treatises that he made retracting or correcting that in one booke that he had set down in another seemed euermore to write doubtfully and left the thing in as great ambiguitie vndertermined as he found it As for these writers whose names I haue alleadged prefixed in the front of this present volume now in hand they haue likewise deliuered their opinions as touching this point but hardly shal you find two of them in one the same mind Lesse maruell then if the rest haue varied one from another who may pretend for their excuse the diuers tracts and climates wherein they wrote As for those who liued
called Melancoryphi ibid. Gnesios the royall Aegle 272. g Gnomon what 35. 〈◊〉 G O God what he is 3. d Gods thought to be many and how this foolish opinion first sprang 3. d. To assigne any forme to God is mans weakenesse 3. i. Plagues accounted as Gods ibid. Gods more in heauen than men in earth if they should be so many as men do feigne 3. 〈◊〉 men haue accounted beasts and other filthy things to bee Gods 3. 〈◊〉 Gods that they be married vaine it were to beleeue 3. 〈◊〉 God feigned yong and old winged and lame 3. f Gods in them are feigned adulteries haired and wars ib. Gods worne vpon fingers in rings 4. b Gods cannot do all things as to die 5. a Gods not innumerable 3. d Gods Democritus maketh two onely ibid. a God canonized here vpon earth 180. i Gold what people hath it 138. h Gold mines who discouered 188. k Gold melting trying and fining whose deuise ibid. Goats their manner of breeding 229. a. both male and female ibid. how they helpe their eie-sight 229. b. their wit ibid. male goats which be best ibid. female goats how to be chosen ibid. Goats euer in an ague 229. d. their haire in stead of wooll vsed in cloath ibid. they barke and kill trees ibid. 〈◊〉 the goats beard ibid. how they breath 229. d. they see by night ibid. they kill oliue trees by licking them onely ibid. e. Goats wilde of sundry kinds 231. c Goats not sacrificed to Minerua 229. e Goslings stung with a nettle die vpon it 301. b. greedie feeding the bane of goslings ibid. Gossampine trees bearing cotton 363. e. f Goggle eies dim-sighted 334. h G R Gray eies in the darke see better than others 334. h Graies how they escape the hunter 218. g Graines in fruit different 447. e Graine See corne Graine of three sorts esteemed by the Greekes Dracontias Strange as Selinusium 360. g Grafting how it is 517. a Grafts ought to be taken from the top of the tree ibid. g Grafts how to be taken from boughes that beare well ibid. how they are to be set ib. how they are to be thwighted ibid. not to be sharpened in the wind 518. b. they are to be set before the moone is in the full ibid. Grafting in seutcheon 519. e. f. 520. g. h. Rules to be obserued in grafting 521. c Grafts of cherrie trees how to be vsed 518. i Grafts of vines how to be vsed 519. b Grafts of wild trees will not grow in the tame 519. e Grafting more plentifull than sowing of seeds 520. k Grafts of oliues when they are to be set in dry places 522. g Grafts of oliues how they are to be vsed in Barbary ibid. h Grammarian who excellent 174. l Grapes how they are preserued from pullain 420. k Grapes that loose the belly 423. a. grapes that bind the belly ibid. Grapes Echoledes why so called ibid. Grapes de-guard 440. i Grape bunches how to be gathered for guard ibid. m Grapes of diuerse sorts 45. e Grapes how preserued 406. g Grapes dried in furnaces ib. grapes sodden in wine must ib. Grapes hanging all winter on the vine till new come 406. h Greeke grapes of Corinth 407. c Grapes Uarianae and why so called 408. g Grapes Inerticulae might be called the sober grapes ibid i Grapes of the free towne Pompeij 409. d Grapes Tiburtine ibid. oliue Grapes ibid. Grapes Vinaciolae ibid. Grapes Capciades 409. k Grapes Bucconiatis ibid. Grapes Tarrupiae ibid. Grapes Phariae ibid. Grapes Prusiniae ibid. Grapes streptos ibid. Grapes Thasiae ibid. Grapes Mariotides ibid. grapes Lageae ibid. Grapes Bimammae 410. g Grapes of Spaine ibid. h Grapes Escariae ibid. Grapes Bumasti ib. Ounce grapes 410. h Grapes Aegiptian ibid. Grapes Rhodian ibid. Market grapes ibid. Grapes Cinereae ibid. Grapes Scirpulae 416. m Grapes Aegiptian Thasia Aethalos Peuce 415. f Grashoppers how they liue 325. d. their sundry kindes ibid. d. e. they be dim-sighted 326. g. they may be reduced into three kindes ibid. they be meat to some nations ibid. when they flie ibid. they be not euery where ibid. they haue wings onely without mouth ib. f. where they be mute ibid. of Greace 344. k Greekes full of lies and vanities 207. d Griffons defend golden mines 154. h. what birds 296. k Grind-stones and whet-stones for sithes 595. c Gristles broken will not close together 345. b. more of gristles ibid. Grounds ouergrowne with bushes how to be clensed 505. b Ground how to be trenched 559. a. b to chuse ground rules infallible 505. b Grounds which are principall 504. k Ground must be bettered by sowing some graine in it 508. h Ground burned by cich-pease ibid. the Growth of man or woman 345. b G V Guarlands giuen to victors in the foure great games 457. a a Guild instituted by Romulus ouer corn fields seege 549. c Guarlands of corne-eares first knowne at Rome ibid. Guelded apples 438. l Gueldings cast not their teeth 338. h Sea-guls where they breed 287. f Gums of diuers sorts 391. c. d Gum Arabicke 424. g Gum of Iurie ibid. Gum Colophonian ibid. Gum Spagas ibid. Gum Cypryan ibid. Gut Longaon how it maketh creatures insatiable 343. b of the Guts 342. k. l. m. 343. a. b G Y Gymnosophystes certaine Philosophers of India 155. e they can looke against the Sun ibid. Gymnetes people liuing aboue a hundred yeares 147. a Gynacocratumeni people why so called 118. h H A HAdrosphaeron 364. k Hadrobolon what it is 363. a Haddocke a kinde of cod-fish 243. e Haile how it is engendred 29. b Halcyones the name of birds their hatching 287. e Haliattes 8. l Haliaetos what kinde of aegle 272. g. shee traineth her young ones to looke against the Sun ibid Halfe our time spent in sleepe 183. a Halcion daies 287. d Halciones of diuerse kinds ibid. Halciones when they breed ibid. Haliphleos a kinde of Oke 450. d. vnfortunate ibid. Hammoniacum See Ammoniacum Hanno banished for taming a Lion 203. b Haâ—… his booke and commission to suruey the compasse of Affricke 91. b Haâ—… his nauigation 33. a Hangings of exceeding great price 228. k Happie is no man in this life 176. h who was deemed most happie by the Oracle 180. h Hares admit superfoetation 303. d Harpe starre Fidicula 588. g Harrowing how it is performed 579. f Hares sleepe open eied 335. a Hard and stiffe harted folkes are accounted brutish 340. i Hardishrews if they go ouer a cart-tract streight die 244. g Hares in some places haue two liuers 341. c being then transported they lose one of them ibid. Hare will neuer be fat 344. k Hares admit superfoetation or double conception 232. k Hare the hairiest creature 347. a Hares how their age is knowne 232. i. both male and female ibid. the sea-hâ—…re a venomous fish 191. b. 264. i Hares very fruitfull 232. k Hares haire very good to make cloth ibid. Harmonie of Planets 14. k Harts shewed the vse of the
or stem which they called Magydaris And they affirme besides that it beareth leafy flat graines for the seed in color like gold which shed presently vpon the rising of the Dog-star especially if the wind be south Of which grains or seeds fallen to the ground young plants of Laserpitium vse to grow vp vnderneath that within the compasse of one yere wil thriue both in root and stem to the just and full perfection they haue writen moreouer that the vse was to dig about their roots and to lay them bare at certain times of the yeare Also that they serued not to purge cattell as is aforesaid but to cure them if they were diseased for vpon the eating thereof either they mended presently or else ended and died out of hand but few they were that miscaried in this sort As touching the former opinion of purging and scouring true it is that it agreeth well to the other Silphium or Laserpitium of Persia aforesaid Another kind there is of it named Magydaris more tender and lesse forcible and strong in operation than the former and affourdeth no such juice or liquor at all it grows about Syria and commeth not vp in all the region about Cyrenae Moreouer vpon the mount Pernassus there is great plentie found of a certaine hearbe which the inhabitants would needs haue to be Laserpitium and so they cal it wherewith indeed they are wont to abuse and sophisticat that singular and diuine plant the true Laserpitium so highly commended and of so great account and regard The principall and best triall of the true and sincere Laser is taken from the colour somewhat enclining to rednesse without breake it you shall haue it appeare white within and anone transparent If you drop water vpon it or otherwise thin spittle it will resolue and melt Much vse there is of it in many medicines for to cure mens maladies Two plants more therebe well knowne to the common sort and base multitude and to say a truth few els are acquainted with them notwithstanding they be commodities of much gaine and many a peny is gotten thereby The first is Madder in great request among diers and curriers and for to set a color vpon their wooll and leather right necessarie The best of all and most commended is our Madder of Italie principally that which groweth about villages neere vnto our citie of Rome And yet there is no country or prouince lightly but is full of it It commeth vp of the owne accord and is sowed besides of seed and set of slips in manner of Eruile Howbeit a prickie stalke it hath of the owne the same is also full of joints and knots and commonly about euery one of them it hath fiue leaues growing round in a circle The seed is red What medicinable vertues it hath and to what purpose it serueth in Physicke I will declare in place conuenient The second is that which is called in Latin Radicula i Sope-wort an hearb the juice wherof Fullers vse so much to scoure their wooll withall and wonderfull it is to see how white how pure how neat and soft it will make it Beeing set it will come vp and grow in any place but of it selfe without mans hand it groweth most in Asia and Syria among rough craggie and stony grounds The best is that which is found beyond the riuer Euphrates and that bears a stem like tall Fennell howbeit small and slender and whereof the inhabitants of the countrey there doe make a delicate dish for besides that it hath a commendable tast and much desired it giueth a pleasant colour to what meat soeuer is sodden in the pot with it It beareth a leafe like the Oliue the Greeks cal it Strution it floureth in Summer louely it is to the eie but no smel at all it hath to content the nose prickie moreouer it is like a thorne and the stalke notwithstanding couered with a soft down seed hath it none but a big root which they vse to cut shred mince small for the purposes aforesaid CHAP. IV. ¶ The manner of trimming and ordering Gardens the sorting of all those things that grow out of the Earth into their due places besides corne and plants bearing fruit IT remaineth now to treat of Gardens and the carefull diligence thereto belonging a commendable thing in it selfe and recommended vnto vs besides by our fore-fathers and auncient writers who had nothing to speake of in more account and admiration in old time than the gardens of the Hesperides of Adonis and Alcioniis as also those pendant gardens vpon tarraces and leads of houses whether they were those that Semyramis Queene of Babylon or Cyrus K. of Assyria deuised and caused to be made Of which and of their workmanship my intent is to make a discourse in some other booke Now for this present to goe no farther than Rome the Romane KK verily themselues made great store of gardens and set their minds vpon them for so we read that Tarquin surnamed the Proud the last king of Rome was in his garden when he gaue dispatch vnto that messenger that was sent from his sonne about a cruell and bloudie errand for to know his fathers aduise and pleasure as touching the citizens of Gabij In all the twelue tables throughout which contain our ancient lawes of Rome there is no mention made so much as once of a Grange or Ferm-house but euermore a garden is taken in that signification and vnder the name of Hortus i. a Garden is comprised Haeredium that is to say an Heritage or Domain and herupon grew by consequence a certain religious or rediculous superstition rather of some whom we ceremoniously to sacre and blesse their garden and hortyard dores only for to preserue them against the witchcraft and sorcerie of spightful and enuious persons And therefore they vse to set vp in gardens ridiculous and foolish images of Satyres Antiques and such like as good keepers and remedies against enuy and witchcraft howsoeuer Plautus assigneth the custodie of gardens to the protection of the goddesse Venus And euen in these our daies vnder the name of Gardens and Hortyards there goe many daintie places of pleasure within the very citie vnder the color also and title of them men are possessed of faire closes and pleasant fields yea and of proper houses with a good circuit of ground lying to them like pretie farmes and graunges in the countrey all which they tearme by the name of Gardens The inuention to haue gardens within a citie came vp first by Epicurus the doctor and master of all voluptuous idlenesse who deuised such gardens of pleasance in Athens for before his time the manner was not in any citie to dwell as it were in the countrey and so to make citie and countrey al one but all their gardens were in the villages without Certes at Rome a good garden and no more was thought a poore mans cheiuance it went I say for land and liuing The
they be transplanted but principally Leeks and Nauews nay this remouing and replanting of them is the proper cure of many sorances for from that time forward subiect they will not be to those iniuries that vse to infest them and namely Chibbols Porret or Leeks Radish Parsly Lectuce Rapes or Turneps and Cucumbers All herbs which by nature grow wild lightly haue smaller leaues and slenderer stalks in tast also they be more biting and eagre than such of that kinde as grow in gardens as wee may see in Saverie Origan and Rue Howbeit of all others the wild Dock is better than the garden Sorrell which the Latines call Rumex This garden Sorrell or soure docke is the stoutest and hardiest of all that grow for if the seed haue once taken in a place it wil by folks saying continue euer there neither can it be killed do what you will to the earth especially if it grow neere the water side If it be vsed with meats vnlesse it be taken with Ptisane or husked Barly alone it giueth a more pleasant commendable tast thereto and besides maketh it lighter of digestion The wild Dock or Sorrell is good in many medicines But that you may know how diligent and curious men haue been to search into the secrets of euerie thing I will tell you what I haue found contriued in certaine verses of a Poet namely That if a man take the round treddles of a goat and make in euery one of them a little hole putting therein the seed either of Leeks Rocket Lectuce Parsly Endiue or garden Cresses and close them vp and so put them into the ground it is wonderfull how they will prosper and what faire plants will come thereof Ouer and besides this would be noted that all herbs wild be drier and more keen than the tame of the same kind For this place requireth that I should set downe the difference also of their iuice and tasts which they yeeld and rather indeed than of Apples and such like fruits of trees The tast or smack of Saverâ—… Origan Cresses and Senvie is hot and biting of Wormwood and Centaurie bitter of Cucumber Gourds and Lectuce waterish Of Maâ—…oram it is sharp only but of Parsly Dill and Fennell sharpe and yet odorant withall Of all smacks the salt tast only is not naturall And yet otherwhiles a kinde of salt setleth like dust or in manner of roundles or circles of water vpon herbs howbeit soon it passeth away and continueth no longer than many such vanities and foolish opinions in this world As for Panax it tasteth much like pepper but Siliquastrum or Indish Pepper more than it and therfore no maruel if it were called Piperitis Libanotis smelleth like Frankincense Myrrhis of Myrrh As touching Panace sufficient hath been spoken already Libanotis commeth naturally of seed in rotten grounds lean subiect to dews it hath a root like to Alisanders differing little or nothing in smell from Frankincense The vse of it after it be one yeare old is most wholsome for the stomacke Some terme it by another name Rosemary Also Alisanders named in Greeke Smyrneum loueth to grow in the same places that Rosemary doth and the root resembleth Myrrh in tast Indish Pepper likewise delighteth to be sowed in the same maner The rest differ from others both in smell and tast as Dil. Finally so great is the diuersitie and force in things that not only one changeth the naturall taste of another but also drowneth it altogether With Parsly the Cooks know how to take away the sourenesse and bitternesse in many meats with the same also our Vintners haue a cast for to rid wine of the strong smell that is offenfiue but they let it hang in certain bags within the vessels Thus much may serue concerning garden herbs such I mean onely as be vsed in the kitchen about meats It remaineth now to speake of the chiefe work of Nature contained in them for all this while we haue discoursed of their increase and the gain that may come thereof and indeed treated we haue summarily of some plants and in generall termes But forasmuch as the true vertues and properties of each herb cannot throughly and perfectly be known but by their operations in physick I must needs conclude that therein lieth a mighty piece of work to find out that secret and diuine power lying hidden and inclosed within and such a piece of worke as I wot not whether there can be found any greater For mine own part good reason I had not to set down and anex these medicinable vertues to euery herb which were to mingle Agriculture with Physick and Physicke with Cookerie and so to make a mish-mash and confusion of all things For this I wist ful well that some men were desirous only to know what effects they had in curing maladies as a study pertinent to their profession who no doubt should haue lost a great deale of time before they had come to that which they looked for in running thorough the discourses of both the other in case wee had handled altogether But now seeing euery thing is digested ranged in their seueral ranks as well pertaining to the fields as the kitchen and the Apothecaries shop an easie matter it will be for them that are willing and so disposed to sort out each thing and fit himselfe to his owne purpose yea and ioine them all at his pleasure THE TVVENTIETH BOOKE OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS The Proeme SInce we are come thus far as to treat of the greatest and principall work of Nature we will begin from hence-forward at the very meats which men put into their mouthes and conuey into their stomacks and vrge them to confesse a truth That hitherto they haue not well knowne those ordinarie means whereby they liue And let no man in the mean time thinke this to be a simple or small piece of knowledge and learning going by the base title bare name that it caries for so he may be soon deceiued For in the pursute and discourse of this argument we shall take occasion to enter into a large field as touching the peace and war in Nature we shall handle I say a deep secret euen the naturall hatred and enmitie of dumbe deafe and senselesse creatures And verily the main point of this theame and which may rauish vs to agreater wonder admiration of the thing lieth herin That this mutual affection which the Greeks call sympathie wherupon the frame of this world dependeth and whereby the course of all things doth stand tendeth to the vse and benefit of man alone For to what end else is it that the element of Water quincheth fire For what purpose doth the Sun suck and drink vp the water as it were to coole his heat and allay his thirst and the Moon contrariwise breed humors and engender moist vapors and both Planets eclipse and abridge the light one of the other But
giue wine in drinke Vpon which treatise or book of his an infinit number there were who haue written their Commentaries As for me according to that grauity which beseemeth Romanes and to shew affection and loue to all liberall Sciences I will not discourse thereof as a Physician but with great care and diligence write so distinctly as a deputed judge or arbiter delegat to determin of mans health and the preseruation thereof To dispute and reason of euery seuerall kind were a endles peece of work and so intricat as I wot not how a man should rid himselfe out of it if he were once entred so repugnant and contrarie are the Physicians one to another in that argument To begin first with the wine of Surrentum our ancients haue held it simply for the best aboue all others But our later and more moderne writers haue made greater account of the Albane and Falerne wines In summe euery one hath iudged of the goodnesse of wine according to his owne conceit and fantasie a most vnequall course of proceeding without all reason and congruitie to pronounce definitiuely vnto al others that for best that pleased and contented his owne tast most And yet set the case and say they were all agreed and of one opinion as touching the most excellent wines How is it possible that the whole world should enioy the benefit thereof since that great lords and princes themselues haue much adoe to meet with pure and perfect wines without one sophistication or other In good faith the world is grown to this abuse that wines be bought and sold now at an higher or lower price acording to the name and bruit that goeth onely of the cellars from whence they come whereas in truth the wines were marred and corrupted at the first in the very presse or vatt presently after the vintage and grape-gathering And therefore it is that now adaies a wonderfull thing to be spoken the smallest and basest wines are of all others least sophisticate and most harmelesse Well how soeuer it be and admit the noblest kinds of wine are most subject to those bruings and sophistication which make indeed the ods that is yet those wines beforenamed to wit the Falern Albane and Surrentine do still import and carrie away the victory and prise from all the rest by the generall voice constant sentence of al writers As touching the Falerne wine it is not wholesome for the body either very new or ouer old a middle age is best and that begins when it is fifteen yeres old and not before This wine is not hurtfull to a cold stomacke but I cannot say of a hot stomack If it be taken alone and pure of it selfe in a morning and drunke fasting it doth much good to them who haue bin troubled with a long cough or vexed with a quartan ague And verily there is not a wine that stirreth the bloud and filleth the veines so much as this It staieth the laske nourisheth the body How beit generally receiued and beleeued it is That this wine dimmeth the eye sight and doth no good to the bladder and neruous parts And indeed the Albane wines agree better with the sinews And yet the sweet wines that come from the vineyards of the same tract are not so whole some to the stomack but the harsh and hard austere wines of this kind be in that regard better than the Falerne wines aboue said And in one word these Albane wines help digestion but little and in some sort stuffe and fil the stomacke But the Surrentine wines charge not the stomacke any jot nor yet fume vp in the head nay they restrain and represse the rheumaticke fluxions both of stomacke and guts As for the wines of Caecubum they bee now past date and none of them are made any more But those of Setinum that remaine still and be in some request doe mightily aid concoction and cause the meat for to digest In a word Surrentine wines haue most strength the Albane drink harder and the Falerne be more mild and nothing so piercing as the rest The Statane wines come not far behinde these aboue named As for the Signine wine out of all question it is simply the best to bind the body stop a vehement flux thus much for wines and their properties in particular It remaineth now to speake of their vertues in generall First and foremost wine maintaineth and fortifieth the strength of man engendreth good bloud and causeth a fresh and liuely colour And herein verily consisteth the principall difference betweene our temperat climat within the heart as it were and middle part of the world from those intemperat Zones on either hand And looke how much the distemperature of the two Poles worketh in the inhabitants of those parts and hardneth them to endure and support all kind of trauell so much doth this sweet and pleasant liquor of the grape enable vs to abide and suffer the like labour And because we are entred into this theame note thus much moreoner That the drinking of milke nourisheth the bones of beere and ale and such like made with corne feedeth the sinewes and neruous parts but of water maintaineth the flesh and brawnie muscles onely Which is the cause that such nations as drinke either milke ale beere c. or sheere water are nothing so ruddie of colour nor so strong and firme to vndergoe painefull trauell as those whose ordinarie familiar drink is wine And in truth as the moderat vse of wine comforteth the sinews helpeth the eyesight so the ouer liberal taking thereof offendeth the one and enfeeb leth the other Wine recreateth refresheth the stomack wine stirreth vp the appetite to meat wine allaieth sorrow care and heauinesse wine prouoketh vrin and chaseth away all chilling cold out of the body Finally wine induceth sleep and quiet repose Moreouer this good property hath wine To stay the stomack represse vom its taken into the body and without-forth applied with wooll embrued and bathed therein to dissipat and resolue all swelling apostumes Asclepiades was so addicted to the praise of wine that he bashed not to make comparisons pronounce that the power and puissance of the gods was hardly able to match and counteruaile the might and force of wine Moreouer this is to be noted that old wine will beare a greater proportion of water than new and prouoketh vrine more although it withstand and allay thirst lesse Sweet wines do not so much inebriate and ouerturne the brain as others but they flote a loft in the stomacke whereas austere and hard wines be lighter of digestion and sooner concocted The lightest and smallest wine is that which soonest commeth to his age and sheweth it most quickely The wines which by age and long keeping lay downe their verdure and become sweet are lesse hurtful to the sinews than others The grosse fattie and blacke wines are not so good for the stomack howbeit they be most nutritive for
euer hurt them afterwards As for the other Smilax or Bindweed it loueth places well toiled and husbanded wherin it vsually groweth but of no vertue it is operation the former Bindweed is that the wood wherof we said would giue a sound if it were held close to the eare Another herb there is like to this which some haue called Clematis This plant creepeth climbeth vpon trees hauing many ioints also or knots The leaues are good to mundifie the foule leprosie The seed drunk to the measure of one acetable in a hemin of water or mead maketh the belly loose The decoction thereof is giuen likewise to the same effect CHAP. XI ¶ The vertues and properties of Canes or Reeds of the Papyr reed of Ebene Oleander Sumach otherwise called Rhus Erythros Madder Allysson Sopewort or Fullers-weed Apocynon Rosemary Cachrys Sauine Selago and Samulus Also of Gummes HEretofore haue wee shewed 29 sundry kinds of Reeds all indued with their medicinable vertues and in no plants more appeareth the admirable power of dame Nature the only subject matter handled in all these books of ours For in the first place there presenteth it selfe vnto vs the root of Reeds or Canes which being bruised and applied accordingly draweth forth of the body any spills of Fearne sticking within the flesh so doth the Fearne root by the Reed And forasmuch as we haue set downe many sorts of Canes that amongst the rest which commeth out of India and Syria and whereof persumers haue so great vse in their sweet ointments and odoriferous compositions hath this property besides That if it be boiled with the grasse called Deut de Chien i. Quoich grasse or Parsley seed it is diureticall and prouoketh vrine Applied outwardly it draweth down the desired sicknesse of women Taken in drink to the weight of two oboli it cureth those who are subiect to convulsions or cramps it helpeth the liuer and the reines it is a remedy also for the dropsie As for the cough a very persume thereof will stay it and the rather if it be mixed with Rosin The root sodden in wine with Myrrh clenseth scurfe and dandruffe it healeth also the spreading vlcers running scals of the head there is a juice besides drawn from it which becommeth like to Elaterium or the juice of the wilde Cucumber Moreouer in any Reed the best and most effectual part therof is that holden to be which is next to the root The ioints also and knots be of great efficacy The Cyprian Cane is named Donax the rind whereof if it be burnt and brought into ashes is singular for to bring haire againe in places where it is shed it healeth likewise vlcers growing to putrifaction The leaues thereof are vsed to draw forth any pricks or thorns The same be of great vertue against S. Anthonies fire the shingles and such like yea against all impostumations the common and ordinary Reeds haue an extractiue or drawing faculty if they be stamped greene which is not meant of the root only but also the very substance of the reed it self which they say is of great operation The root being reduced into a liniment and applied with vineger cureth all dislocations and easeth the pains of the chine bone The same punned green and new stirreth to lust if it be drunk in wine The down or cotton growing vpon the cane if it be put into the ears causeth hardnesse of hearing There groweth in Aegypt a certain plant named Papyrus which resembleth much the Cane or Reed a thing of great vse and commodity especially when it is dry for it serueth as a spunge both to suck vp the moisture in Fistulaes and also to inlarge them For swelling as it doth it keepeth the vlcer open and maketh way for the medicines to enter accordingly by that means The paper made thereof when it is burnt is counted to be caustick The ashes of it being drunk in wine cause sleep and applied outwardly taketh away hard callosities Touching Ebene it groweth not as I haue already said so neare vnto vs as in Aegypt And albeit my meaning and purpose is not to deale with any medicinable plants growing in the strange vnknown countries of another world yet in regard of the wonderfull properties that Ebene hath I will not passe by it in silence For first and foremost the fine dust or pouder filed from it hath the name to be a singular medicine for the eies as also that the wood therof being ground vpon an hard stone together with wine cuit dispatcheth away the cloudy mist which ouercasteth the eies As for the root if it be vsed likewise and applied with water it consumeth the pin and web and other spots in the eies The same being taken with equall quantity of the herb Dragon in hony cureth the cough In sum Physitians repute and range Ebene among the medicines which be corrosiue Oleander called in Greek Rhododendros which some name Rhododaphne and others Nerion hath not bin so happy yet as to find so much as a name among the Latines A strange and maruellous quality of this plant the leaues are a very poison to all four-footed beasts and yet they serue man as a preseruatiue and counterpoison against serpents if they be taken in wine with Rue among Also sheep and goats if they chance to drink of the water wherin those leaues lay soked wil by report thereupon die Neither hath Rhus a Latine name notwithstanding it be much vsed in Physick otherwise For it is a wild plant growing of it self bearing leaues like vnto the Myrtle vpon short stalkes and branches singular for to expell any poison and worms out of the body and besides called it is the Curriers shrub for that they vse to dresse their skins with the dry leaues therof instead of pomgranat rinds Of a reddish colour it is a cubit in height a finger thick Moreouer Physitians imploy the medicins wherinto this Rhus is put for bruises likewise for the flux proceeding from a feeble stomack as also for the vlcers in the seat But the leaues stamped and incorporat with hony and so brought into a liniment or salue with vineger do heale cankerous sores such as with inflammation do eat away the flesh to the very bone Their decoction is singular to be instilled into the ears that run with filthie matter Moreouer there is made a stomaticall composition of the branches of this Rhus boiled which serueth in the same cases as the aboue-named Diamoron i. of the Mulberries but if it haue allum ioined withall it is of greater efficacy The same being brought into a liniment is passing good for the swellings in a dropsie As for the Rhus which is called Erythros i. the red it is a shrub and the seed thereof is both astringent and refrigeratiue Much vsed is the grain or seed of this Rhus in stead of salt to pouder season meats Laxatiue it is and giueth a pleasant tast to any flesh meats especially
verily there haue been memorable examples knowne of strange accidents insuing both waies namely as often as either the vnlucky foules by their vntoward noise haue disturbed and done hurt or if at any time there haue bin error committed in the prescript prayer exorcisme for by this means it falleth out oftentimes that all on a sudden as the beast standeth there in place to be sacrificed the master veine in the liuer named the head thereof is found missing among other entrails and the heart likewise wanting or contrariwise both these to be double and appeare twain for one And euen at this day there remaineth a most notable precedent and example to all posterity in that prescript forme of exorcisme whereby the two Decij both the father and sonne betooke themselues to all the hellish furies and fiends infernall moreouer the imprecation of the vestall Nun Tuccia when shee was put to proue her virginity continueth extant vpon record by vertue of which charme she carried water in a sive without shedding one drop which happened in the yeare after the foundation of Rome city 609. And verily no longer ago than of late time in our own age we saw two Graecians to wit a man and a woman yea and some of other nations with whom in those daies wee maintained warres buried quicke within the beast-market in Rome in which maner of sacrifice whosoeuer readeth the prayer or exorcisme that is vsed and which the VVarden or Principall of the colledge of the Quindecemvirs is woont to reade and pronounce to the exorcist he would no doubt confesse that such charmes and execrations be of great importance and namely seeing they haue bin all approoved and found effectuall by the experience and euents obserued for the space of eight hundred and thirtie yeares As for our vestall virgins in these our daies we are certainely persuaded and beleeue that by the vertue of certaine spels and charmes which they haue they be able to arrest and stay any fugitiue slaue for running one foot farther prouided alwaies that they be not gone already without the pourprise and precinct of the city wals Now if this be receiued once as an vndoubted and confessed truth and if we admit that the gods do heare some praiers or be moued by any words then surely we may resolue at once of these conjectures and conclude affirmatiuely of the maine question Certes our ancestors from time to time haue euermore beleeued and deliuered such principle yea and that which of all other seemeth most incredible they haue affirmed constantly That by the power of such charmes and conjurations Thunder and Lightening might be fetched downe from aboue as I haue formerly shewed L. Piso reporteth in the first booke of his Annals or yearely Chronicles That Tullus Hostilius king of Rome was stricken dead with Lightening for that when hee went in hand to call Iupiter downe out of heauen by vertue of a sacrifice which king Numa was woont to vse in that case hee had not obserued exactly all the exorcismes and ceremoniall words contained in those bookes of king Numa but swarued somwhat from them And many other writers do testifie that by the power of words and osses the destinies and prodigies of great importance presaged to one place haue bin cleane altered and transferred to another as it was like to haue happened to the Romanes at what time as they laied the foundation of Iupiters Temple vpon the mount or rocke Tarpeius For when they digged there for the foundation of the said Temple and chanced to finde within the ground a mans head the Senate of Rome sent certaine Embassadours of purpose to the Sages and VVisards of Tuscane to know the signification of this strange sight and miraculous occurrent VVhereof Olenus Calenus who was reputed the most famous diuinor and prophet of all the Tuscanes hauing some intelligence and foreseeing the great felicity and happinesse that it imported and presaged intended by subtill interrogatiue to translate the benefit thereof to his owne native countrey of Tuscane Hauing therefore first with a staffe set out and described as it were the modell and forme of a Temple vpon the ground which lay before him hee came about the Roman Embassadors beforesaid and questioned with them in this wilie manner Is it so Romans as you say and are these your words indeed There must be a Temple here of Iupiter that most gracions and mighty god we haue light here vpon a mans head Vnto which interrogation of his the said Roman Embassadours according to the instructions which they had receiued beforehand from the VVisard or Diuinors sonne answered in this manner No not here in this very place but at Rome we say the head was found And verily our antient Chronicles doe all of them most constantly affirm that had they not been thus forewarned and taught what to say but had simply answered Yea here we haue found a head c. The fortune of the Roman State and Empire had gone quite away to the Tuscans and been established among them The same had like to haue happened a second time as we may see in the Records and Monuments of old date when as a certain chariot with foure horses made of clay and prepared for to be set vpon the louver or lantern of the said temple chanced as it lay baking in the furnace to grow into an extraordinary bignesse For the foresaid Wise men of Tuscan being asked what the said prodigy should betoken practised the like as Olenus did but the Romans being wise wary in their words saued and retained the same fortune still for the behoofe of Rome which was presaged vnto them by that happy foretoken These examples may suffice to shew prooue euidently that the vertues and significations of these signes and presages do lie in our own power and are no otherwise of force and effect but according as euery one of them is so taken and accepted True it is and held for an vndoubted principle in the Augures discipline learning That neither cursed execrations ominous and vnlucky birds nor any other presage by their flight singing and feeding can touch those persons who take no heed of them and do protest plainly that they regard them not what businesse soeuer they go about and be entering into a greater gift than which and testimony of the diuine indulgence and fauor of the gods to vs we cannot haue thus to subiect their secrets to our puissance Moreouer in the laws and ordinances of the 12 tables here at Rome are not in one place these very words to be found Qui fruges occentassit i. whosoeuer shall enchant or fore-speake any corne or fruits of the earth and in another place Quimalum carmen iâ—…cantassit i. What person soeuer vseth pernicious charmes to the hurt or mischiefe of any creature Ouer and besides Verrius Flaccus doth affirm vpon the credit of certain Authors which be alleadgeth and beleeueth That the first thing
fauour The same is good to be drunke in oxymell to the weight of two oboli for the falling sicknesse and applied in forme of a pessarie it prouoketh womens fleurs Now if you would chuse the best Crocodilea take that which is whitest brittle or easie to crumble least weighty in hand and withall swelling in manner of a leuaine if it be rubbed between the fingers The manner is to wash it as they do white lead called Cerusse Sophisticated it is with amyll or the scouring Fullers clay Tuckers earth called Cimolia but principally with the dung that sterlings meut which are of purpose caught and fed only with rice Now there is not a better thing in the world say these Magitians for the cataract than to anoint the eies with it and honey together And if a man may beleeue their words there is a soueraigne perfume made of the guts and the whole body besides for women who are sicke of the mother or otherwise diseased in the matrice if they sit ouer it whiles it smoketh In like manner it doth them good to be lapped round about with wooll that hath bin so perfumed The ashes of the Crocodiles skin as well the bigger as the lesse brought into a liniment with vineger and applied vnto those parts of the body which had need to be cut away or dismembred causeth the patient to haue no sense or feeling at all either of saw or launcer The very swoke also of the said skin burning doth the semblable The bloud of both Crocodiles mundifieth the eies and causeth them to see cleare which are annointed therewith remouing the filmes and dispatching the spots that impeach the same The very body or flesh it selfe of the Crocodile all saue head and feet is good meat sodden for those who bee troubled with the Sciatica the same cureth an old cough especially the chin-cough in children and assuageth the paine of the loins The Crocodiles haue a certaine fat in them that is depilatorie for no sooner is the hare rubbed therewith but presently it sheddeth The said fat or grease preserueth those who be anointed therewith from the danger of the Crocodiles and is excellent good to bee melted and dropped into the wounds made by their bit The Crocodiles heart wrapped within a lock of wooll which grew vpon a black sheep hath no other color medled therewith so that the said sheep were the first lambe that the dam yeaned is said to driue away quartane agues To this discourse of Crocodiles wee shall not doe amisse if we annex other beasts in some sort resembling them and which be likewise straungers as well as they And to begin with the Chamaeleon Democritus verily made so great reckoning of this beast that hee compiled one entire booke expressely of it and hath anatomized euery seuerall member thereof and certes I cannot chuse but take great pleasure therein knowing as I do by that meanes how to descicipher and deliuer abroad the loud lies of vaine Greekes This Chamaeleon for shape bignesse is much answerable to the Crocodile last named differing onely in the curbing or crookednesse of the ridge-bone and largenesse of the taile There is not a creature in the world thought more fearefull than it which is the reason of that mutability whereby it turneth into such varietie of colours howbeit of exceeding great power against all the sorts of hawkes or birds of prey for by report let them fly and soare neuer so high ouer the Chamelaeon there is an attractiue vertue that will fetch them downe so as they shall fall vpon the Chamelaeon and yeeld themselues willingly as a prey to be torne mangled and deuoured by other beasts Democritus telleth vs a tale That if one burn the head and throat of the Chamaeleon in a fire made of oken wood there will immediatly arise tempests of rainy stormes and thunder together and the liuer will do as much saith he if it burne vpon the tiles of an house As for all the other vertues which the said author ascribeth to the Chamaeleon because they smell of witch-craft and I hold them meere lies I will ouerpasse them all vnlesse they be some few for which he deserueth well to be laughed at and would indeed be reproued by no other means better namely That the right eie of this beast if it be pulled out of the head whiles it is aliue taketh away the pearl pin and web in man or womans eies so it be applied therto with goats milk The tongue likewise plucked forth quicke secureth a woman from the danger of childbirth if shee haue it bound to her body whiles shee is in trauell If there be found by chance a Chamaeleon in the house where a woman is in labor she shall soon be deliuered in safety but if such an one bee brought thither of purpose the woman is sure to die Also the Chamaeleons tongue pulled out of the head whiles the Chamaeleon is quicke promiseth good successe in iudiciall trials The heart bound within black wooll of the first shearing is a most soueraigne remedy against quartan agues The right forefoot hanged fast to the left arm within the skin of a Hyaena is singular against the perrils and dangers by theeues and robbers as also to skar away hobgoblins and night spirits In like manner whosoeuer carry about them the right pap of this beast may bee assured against al fright and feare But the left foot they vse to torrifie in an ouen with the herb called also Chamaeleon and with some conuenient ointment or liquor to make in certaine trosches wherof if a man do carry any in a box of wood about him he shal go inuisible as sayth Democritus if we were so wise as to beleeue him who affirmeth moreouer That whosoeuer hath about him the right shoulder of the Chamaeleon shall be able to ouerthrow his aduersarie at the barre and to vanquish his enemie in the field but first hee must be sure to cast away and make riddance of the strings and sinewes belonging thereto and to tread them vnder-foot As for the left shoulder I am ashamed to relate vnto what monstrous spirits hee doth consecrate it and namely how by the vertue thereof a man may cause what dreames and fantasticall illusions hee listeth yea and make those whome hee will himselfe to imagine the same apparitions As also how the right foot of the said beast driueth away all such strange visions euen as the lethargie will goe away by the meanes of the left side of this beast which lethargie was occasioned by the right Touching head-ache hee sayth plainely that the next way to cure it is to be sprinckle and wet the same with wine wherein either of the two sides were soked Take the ashes quoth hee of the left thigh or foot chuse you whether incorporate the same with the milke of a Sow and therewith annoint the feet it wil be an occasion speedily to bring the gout vpon them But of the Chamaeleons
the field A strang matter that we should so do considering how many thousands of nations there be that liue in health wel ynough without these Physicians and yet I canot say altogether without Physicke Like as the people of Rome also notwithstanding the Romanes were euer knowne to be forward ynough to entertaine all good arts and disciplines continued for the space of six hundred yeares and aboue after the foundation of their citie and knew not what a Physician meant but afterwards they did cast a great fancie to Physick also howbeit vpon some little experience thereof they were as ready to loath and condemne it as they were desirous before to haue a tast and triall of it And here I thinke it not amisse in this corrupt age of ours wherein we liue to discouer and relate certain principall examples of our ancestours worthy to be noted in this behalfe And to begin withall Cassius Haemina an ancient Historiographer doth report That the first Physician that euer came to Rome was one Archagathus the sonne of Lysanias from out of Peloponnesus which was when L. Aemylius and M. Livius were Consuls and in the yeare after the foundation of the citie of Rome 535. And this mine Author saith that he was enfraunchised free denizen of Rome and had a shop prouided for him standing in the carrefour of Acilius bought at the charges of the citie for to entertaine his patients and therin to exercise his cunning Called he was by report The vulnerarie Physician or Chirurgion wonderfull much seeking running there was after him and none more wealthie than he at his first comming But soon after when hee was knowne once to carry a cruell hand ouer his poore patients in cutting lancing dismembring and cauterizing their bodies they quickly began to alter his name and to terme him the bloudy Butcher or Slaughter-man whereupon not onely all Physitians but Physick also grew into a bad name and became odious as may appeare euidently by the monuments and books of M. Cato a worthy personage and in regard of whose vertues and commendable parts his triumph and Censorship as famous honorable as they were deserue the least part of his authority and reputation so much was there in himselfe aboue the gifts and graces of Fortune I will therefore insert in this place word for word an Epistle of his vnto his sonne Marcus touching this matter wherein he thus writeth Concerning these Greckes sonne Marcus I will write in place and time conuenient what I haue found out and knowne by them in Athens and namely that it were good to looke into their books and reade them as it were by the way but in no wise to study vpon them much and learn them throughly I haue already giuen the attempt and intend to conuince and put downe the wickedest race and most peruerse and obstinat kind of them And learne this of mee as from the mouth of a true Prophet That whensoeuer this Greekish Nation shall bring into Rome their Philosophie they will corrupt and marre all but let them send once their Physitians hither you shall see a greater wrecke and confusion thereby For I assure thee they haue complotted and sworne one to another for to murder all Barbarians by means of their Physicke And euen to effect and bring this about they will be fed also and take money to the end that both we should trust them the rather and they also haue the better meanes to worke the feat and dispatch folke with more facility As for vs it pleaseth them vsually to name vs Barbarians yea and they giue vnto vs more filthy termes than any others and mis-call vs Opiques Well remember thou once for all that I haue giuen thee warning of their Physitians and forbidden thee to be acquainted with them Now Cato who wrote this letter died in the six hundred and fifth yere after the foundation of our city when himselfe was fourscore yeres old and fiue whereby a man may see that he wanted not grounded knowledge when he deliuered this speech vnto his sonne for hee had both the practise of former times in publicke affaires and age sufficient of his owne to furnish him with experience of priuat examples What say we then to this resolution of his Are wee to judge and beleeue that hee hath condemned thereby a thing so necessary and profitable as Physicke is God forbid for himselfe setteth downe a little after what Physick and what medicines both he and his wife were acquainted with and by meanes whereof they came to be so aged as they were and those were no other verily but the vse of simples whereof wee now are in hand to treat He saith moreouer and professeth that he hath made one Treatise expressely containing certaine receits for the cure of his son and seruants and for the preseruation of their health the which I haue not omitted but dispersed here and there according to the occurrences of accidents and diseases of sundry sorts whereof I haue had some occasion to speak of and stil shall haue more wherby it is plain that our antient forefathers blamed not the thing it self I meane Physicke and medicines but the Art and cunning of Physitians who had the handling thereof And most of all they held off and were afraid to entertaine those amongst them who sought such exceeding gaines for their handie worke especially where they indangered their liues withall And that they made some account of Physicke may appeare by this that when they receiued Aesculapius as a canonized god into their Kalender they built one temple for him without the city of Rome yea and the second which in his honour they erected was scituate within the Island apart from other buildings Also at what time as by vertue of an edict all other Greeks were banished Italy Physitians were excepted and that was many a yeare after Cato his time And here by the way one word will I speake to the honour of our Romanes for their singular wisedome and prouidence namely That howsoeuer they are growne to good proofe and be accomplished in al other Arts and Professions of the Greeks yet their grauity hitherto hath bin such as they would not giue themselues to the practise of this only Science And notwithstanding the exceeding wealth that accrueth by Physicke yet very few or none of our naturall Roman citizens haue medled therewith And those also that haue betaken themselues vnto it presently haue forsaken their natiue language and gone to the Greek tongue For this opinion verily there is of this Art That if the Professors thereof handle it in their vulgar and mother tongue or otherwise in any other than Greeke all the authoritie grace and credit thereof is lost euen with those that be altogether vnlearned and know not so much as the Greek Alâ—…habet See the nature and foolish propertie of our Countreymen to haue lesse confidence and trust in those things which concerne their life and
loosenesse of the bellie And yet there is another singular remedie for the bloudy flix namely to put the meat of a raw egg in a little earthen pot that neuer was occupied and to add therto as much hony as may amount to the quantitie of the egg to the end that all be of equall proportion then within a while after to temper therewith the like measure of vinegre oile both and to beat them all together oftentimes that they may be well concorporat and vnited in one In which composition this is to be obserued That the better that euery one of these ingredients is that enter into this confection the more excellent operation and speedier remedy wil ensue therupon Others there are who in stead of oile and vinegre put in red rosin and wine according to the former rate and proportion how beit they temper the said medicine after another sort for they put in of oile only as much as the egg comes to adding thereto of the pine-tree barke two sixtie parts of a Romane denier and one sixtie part of Sumach which I called Rus and fiue oboli weight of hony with this charge That they be all boiled together and that the patient eat no other meat whatsoeuer for the space of foure hours after Many there be who to cure and ease the wringing gripes and torments of the belly taks two egs and foure cloues of Garlick which they pun and stamp together then they heat them ouer the fire in one hemine of wine and giue this mash vnto the patient to drinke To conclude because I would not willingly omit any thing that may commend egs and giue grace vnto them know thus much moreouer That the gleere or liquid white of an egg with quicke-lime maketh an excellent sement to souder or vnite any broken pieces of a glasse together besides of such strength and efficacie they are that neither a piece of wood no nor so much as any parcell of cloath wet or dipped in the white of an eg wil burn but check the violence of the fire Howbeit note that all which I haue spoken of egs is to be meant those that hens only do lay for as touching other birds egs I wil write in their due places for as much as they are not destitute of many peculier vertues and singular properties of their own Ouer besides I will not ouerpasse one kind of eggs besides which is in great name and request in France and whereof the Greeke authors haue not written a word and this is the serpents egg which the Latins call Anguinum For in Summer time yerely you shall see an infinit number of snakes gather round together into an hpape entangled and enwrapped one within another so artificially as I am not able to expresse the manner thereof by the means therfore of the froth or saliuation which they yeeld from their mouths and the humour that commeth from their bodies there is engendred the egg aforesaid The priests of France called Druidae are of opinion and so they deliuer it That these serpents when they haue thus engendred this egg do cast it vp on high into the aire by the force of their hissing which being obserued there must be one ready to latch and receiue it in the fall again before it touch the ground within the lappet of a coat of arms or soldiours cassocks They affirme also that the party who carrieth this egg away had need to be wel mounted vpon a good horse and to ride away vpon the spur for that the foresaid serpents will pursue him still and neuer giue ouer vntil they meet with some great riuer between him and them that may cut off and intercept their chase They ad moreouer and say that the onely marke to know this egg whether it be right or no is this That it will swim aloft aboue the water euen against the stream yea though it were bound and enchased with a plate of gold Ouer and besides these Druidae as all the sort of these magicians be passing cautelous and cunning to hide and couer their deceitfull fallacies do affirme That there must be a certaine speciall time of the Moones age espied when this businesse is to be gone about as if forsooth it were in the power and disposition of man to cause the moon and the serpents to accord together in this operation of engendring the egg aforesaid by their froth and saliuation I my selfe verily haue seen one of these egs and to my remembrance as big it was as an ordinary round apple the shell thereof was of a certaine gristly and cartilagineous substance and the same clasped all about as it were with many acetables or concauities representing those of the fish called a Pourcuttle which shee hath about her legs And it is the ensigne or badge that the Druidae doe carry for their armes And they hold it a soueraigne thing for to procure readie excesse vnto any princes and to win their grace and fauour as also to obtaine the vpper hand ouer an aduersarie in any sute and processe of law if one do carrie it about him But see how this vanitie and foolish persuasion hath possessed the minds of men for I am able vpon mine owne knwledge to auouch that the Emperor Claudius Caesar commanded a man of arms and gentleman of Rome descended from the Vocantians to be killed for no other reason in the whole world but because he carried one of these egs in his bosome at what time as he pleaded his cause before him in the court This winding and mutuall enfolding of these serpents one within another putting me in mind of one thing worth the obseruation That it was not for nought that forrein nations haue ordained that their Embassadors who had commission to treat of peace should carrie with them a certaine rod or mace wherein were pourtraied serpents winding and clasping round about it to signifie and shew that these creatures as sauage fell and venomous as they be otherwise and as it were made altogether of poison yet otherwhiles they accord and agree well enough together where it is furthermore to be noted that the manner was not to represent in these maces and ensignes of peace any furious serpents with crests vpon their heads As touching geese and their eggs how good and profitable they are before I enter into any discourse for my purpose is to treat of them also in this very booke I cannot chuse but for the honour due vnto the Comagenes in regard of an excellent composition by them made write first of it being of them called Comagenum for that also the principall and best of that kind was most vsed and in greatest request in Comagene which is a region belonging vnto Syria It consisteth of goose greace cinamon casia or canelle white pepper and an herbe called likewise Comagene Now for the better mixture and fermentation of these ingredients and the whole composition the vessell which containeth the same
booke of the said Poësie this Hermippus I say reports That one Azonaces taught Zoroastres Art Magick which master of his liued 5000 yeres before the war of Troy Certes I cannot chuse but maruell much first That this Science and the memoriall thereof should so long continue and the Commentaries treating of it not miscary and be lost all the while during such a world of years considering besides that neither it was ordinarily practised and continued by tradition from age to age nor the successors in that facultie were professors of the greatest name and renowned by any writings For what one is there thinke you among so many thousands that hath any knowledge so much as by bare heare-say of those who are named for the only Magitians in their time to wit Apuscorus Zaratus Medians Marmaridius of Babylon Hippocus the Arabian and Zarmocenidas of Assyria For bookes haue we none extant of their writing nor any monuments which beare record and giue testimonie of such clerks But the greatest wonder of all is this that Homer the Poet in his Ilias a poem composed purposedly of the Trojan war hath not so much as one word of Magick and yet in his Odyssaea where he discourseth of the aduentures trauels fortunes of prince Vlysses such a do and stirre there is with it as if the whole work consisted of nothing else but magicke For what is meant by the variable transformations of Proteus or by the songs of the Meremaids whereof he writeth so much but that the one was a great sorcerer the other famous witches or Inchantresses As for that which he relateth of lady Circe how shee wrought her feats by conjuration only and raising vp infernal spirits surely it sauoreth of art Magick and nothing else I musē much also that after Homers time there is no writer maketh mention how this art arriued at Telmessus a city in the marches of Lycia wholly addicted to religion so famous for the colledge of priests and soothsayers there or at what time it made a voiage and passed ouer into Thessaly where it reigned so rife and was so vsually practised in euery towne city that with vs here in these parts of the world it tooke the denomination of that countrey and retained the same a long time notwithstanding that the word Magicke indeed was appropriate vnto a strange and far remote Nation And verily considering how about the time of the war and destruction of Troy there was no other physick in vse but that which Chiron the Surgeon practised and that during the heat and bloudy wars only it seemeth very strange and wonderfull to me That the nation of Thessaly and the natiue country of Achilles and Chiron should become so famous for magick insomuch as Menander also a Poet by all mens iudgement so framed by nature for deep learning and excellent literature as that he had no concurrent in his time that came neere vnto him entituled one of his Comoedies Thessalica wherein he deciphered and depainted liuely vnto vs the whole order and manner of witches with all their charmes and incantations by the vertue wherof they would seem to pull the Moon down from heauen I would haue thought that Orpheus soon after and in the age next insuing had brought in first these superstitious ceremonies by reason of the propinquity and neighborhood of that region and that he proceeded therewith to the aduancement of physick but for one thing which plucketh me back namely that Thrace his naturall country and the place of his birth was altogether ignorant of Magick and knew not what it meant But as far as euer I could finde the first that is recorded to haue commented and written of this art was Osthanes who accompanied Xerxes K. of the Persians in that voiage and expedition which in warlike manner he made into Greece and to say a truth he it was that sowed the seeds of this monstrous Art and infected therewith by the way all parts of the world wheresoeuer he went and came Howbeit those Authors and historiographers who haue searched more neerly into the matter set down another Zoroastres born in the Isle Proconnesus who wrote somewhat before Osthanes of that argument neuerthelesse this is held for certain That Osthanes was the man who most of all other set the Greeke nations not onely in a hot desire but also in a madding fit and inraged as it were after Magick And yet I must needs say that I haue obserued that not only at first but also from time to time the grea test name that went of learned men and great philosophers for their singular skil and profound knowledge arose from the opinion that was of their insight in this Science Certain it is that Pythagoras Empedocles Democritus and Plato were so far in loūe therewith that for to attaine the knowledge thereof they vndertooke many voiages and journies ouer sea and land as exiled and banished persons wandring from place to place more like trauellers than students and beeing returned againe into their owne countries this Art they blazed abroad and highly praised this they held as a secret and diuine mysterie As for Democritus he raised a great name of Apollonices Captidenes and Dardanus of Phoenicia as well by the Books of Dardanus his master which he fetched from out of his sepulchre where they were bestowed as also by publishing commentaries of his owne which were extracts and draughts out of those authors and their writings which afterwards receiued and learned by others so passed from hand to hand and were so deeply ingrauen and imprinted in the minds and memories of men that I assure you I wonder at nothing in the world so much for so full they are of lyes so little or no truth godlinesse and honesty is contained in them that men of judgement and vnderstanding who approue and esteem his other Books of Philosophie will not beleeve that these workes were of Democritus his making howbeit this is but a vaine conceit and persuasion of theirs for well it is knowne confessed that Democritus led away an infinite number of people by this means no man so much filling their heads with many faire promises and the sweet impression thereof rauished their sprits after this Art Moreouer there is yet one point more whereat I wonder as much as at any other to wit that these two professions Physicke I mean and Magick flourished both together in one age and shewed themselues in their greatest glory which was about the Peloponnesiack war in Greece 300 yeares after the foundation of our citie of Rome at what time as Hippocrates professed the one and Democritus for his part published the other Now there is another faction as it were of Magitians which tooke the first foundation from Moses Iamnes and Iotapes Iewes but many thousands of yeares after Zoroastres and yet the Cyprian Magicke is later than so by as many yeres But to come againe vnto
our Magicke abouesaid there was a second Osthanes in the daies of K. Alexander the Great who by reason that he attended vpon him in his train during his journies and voiages that he made was himself in great reputation abroad and by meanes thereof gaue no small credit and authoritie to his profession for that hee had opportunity thereby as no man need to doubt to trauell and compasse the globe of the earth and so to spread and divulge this learning in all parts And verily that this doctrine hath bin heretofore receiued in some nations of Italy it appeareth as well by good euidences and records extant at this day in the body of our Law written in the 12 Tables as by other arguments and testimonies which I haue alledged in the former Booke Certes in the 657 yeare after the foundation of Rome citie and not before which fell out to be when Cn. Cornelius Lepidus and P. Licinius Crassus were Consuls there passed a decree and act of the Senat forbidding expressely the killing of mankinde for sacrifice whereby we may euidently see that vntill this inhibition or restraint came forth our progenitors and ancestours were giuen to those inhumane and monstrous sacrifices No question there is verily but that this Art of Magicke was professed in France and continued vntill our daies for no longer is it agoe than since the time of Tiberius Caesar that their Druidae the Priests and Wisemen of France were by his authority put down together with all the pack of such Physitians prophets wizards But what should I discourse any longer in this wise of that Art which hath passed ouer the wide ocean also gone as far as any land is to be seene even to the vtmost bounds of the earth and beyond which there is nothing to be discouered but a vast prospect of Aire and Water And verily in Brittaine at this day it is highly honored where the people are so wholly deuoted vnto it with all reuerence and religious obseruation of ceremonies that a man would think the Persians first learned all their Magick from them See how this Art and the practise thereof is spread ouer the face of the whole earth and how those nations were conformable enough to the rest of the world in giuing entertainment thereto who in all other respects are far different diuided from them yea and in manner altogether vnknowne to them In which regard the benefit is inestimable that the world hath receiued by the great prouidence of our Romanes who haue abolished these monstrous and abhominable Arts which vnder the shew of religion murdred men for sacrifices to please the gods and vnder the colour of Physicke prescribed the flesh to bee eaten as most wholsome meat CHAP. II. ¶ The sundry kinds of Magicke The execrable acts of Nero and the detestation of Magitians MAgicke may be practised after diuers sorts according as Osthanes hath set downe in writing for it worketh by the means of Water Globes or Balls Aire Starres Fire-lights Basons and Axes yea and many other means there bee that promise the foreknowledge of things to come besides the raising vp and conjuring of ghosts departed the conference also with Familiars and spirits infernall And all these were found out in our daies to be no better than vanities false illusions and that by the Emperor Nero and yet was he neuer more addicted to play vpon the cythern nor took greater pleasure to hear sing tragicall songs than to study art Magick and no maruell if he were giuen to such strange courses hauing wealth world at wil and his fortunes besides attended vpon accompanied with many deep corruptions of the mind But amid those manifold vices whereunto he had betaken and sold himselfe a principall desire he had to haue the gods forsooth and familiar spirits at his command thinking that if he could haue attained once to that hee had then climbed vp to the highest point and pitch of magnanimity Neuer was there man that studied harder and followed any Art more earnestly than he did Magick Riches he had enough vnder his hands and power he wanted not to execute what he would his wit was quicke and pregnant to apprehend and learn any thing ouer and besides other means that he practised to bring about this desseine of his which were so intollerable that the world could not indure them and yet he gaue it ouer in the end without effect an vndoubted peremptory argument to conuince the vanity of this Art when such an one as Nero rejected it But would to God he had conferred with familiars spirits yea taken counsel of all the diuels in hell for to be resolued of those suspitions which were gotten into his head rather than giuen commission as he did to the professed bawds and common harlots in stinking stewes and brothell houses for to make inquisition from house to house after those whom he had in jealousie Certes no bloudy and detestable sacrifices how inhumane and barbarous soeuer he could haue performed but they had beene far more easie and tollerable than those cruel imaginations which he conceiued and wherupon he murdered most piteously so many good citizens filled Rome with their restlesse ghosts But to return again to Art Magick which Nero would so fain haue learned what might be the reason that he could not reach vnto it Surely these Magitians are not without their shifts meanes of euasion to saue the credit of their art if haply they misse and come short at any time of their purpose for otherwhiles they beare vs in hand that ghosts and spirits will not appeare nor yeeld any seruice to those persons who are freckled full of pimples and haply Nero the Emperor was such an one As for his lims otherwise he had them all sound they were besides the set daies and times fit for this practise and prescribed by Magitians he might chuse at his good will pleasure Moreouer an easie matter it was for him to meet with sheep cole black such as had not a speck of white or any other colour for him I say who when he list could sacrifice men and took greatest delight in those sacrifices furthermore he had about him Tyridates the K. of Armenia a great Magitian to giue him instructions This prince Tyridates being vanquished and subdued by the Romane captains vnder Nero and forced by their capitulations to present himselfe personally at Rome for to do homage vnto the Emperour trauelled thither all the way by land which was a sore charge to the countries prouinces through which he passed bringing with him as he did the whole pompe and train for the triumph ouer Armenia and himselfe came vnto Caesar. And why would not this Tyridates passe the seas and saile ouer into Italy the nearest and most expedit way Forsooth so precise he was that he
were there any golden rings in vse and request about the time of the Trojane war for sure I am that the Poet Homer maketh no mention of them at all who otherwise speaketh of the brauery and rich attire of those times And when he talketh of writing tablets sent ordinarily in stead of letters missiue when he writeth of cloths and apparels bestowed in chists and coffers when he telleth vs of vessels as well gold as siluer plate he saith they were all bound and trussed fast with some sure knot and not sealed vp with any mark of a ring as the order is in these daies Moreouer when he reporteth of any challenge made by the enemy to single fight and sheweth how the captains fel to cast their seuerall lots for the choise of them which should performe the combat this was neuer done by the signet of rings but by some other especiall marks that euery one made Also when he taketh occasion to speak of the workmanship of the gods he rehearseth buckles clasps and buttons of gold other jewels and ornaments also belonging to the attire of women as eare-rings and such like of their making which at the beginning were commonly made but he speaketh not one word of golden rings And verily in my conceit whosoeuer began first to weare these rings did it couertly by little and little putting them vpon the fingers of the left hand the better to hide them as if they were ashamed to haue them openly seene whereas if they might haue auowed the honouring of their fingers by that ornament they should haue shewed them at the first vpon the right hand Now if any man object and say that the wearing them on the right hand might be some impeachment to a soldier for vsing his offensiue weapon which he beareth in that hand I alledge again that the hinderance was more in the left hand which serueth to hold and manage the targuet or buckler defensiue I reade in the same Poet Homer aforesaid that men vsed to plait bind vp the tresses of their haire with gold and therefore I wot not well whether men or women first began the manner of such braiding the locks of the haire As touching gold laid vp for treasure little was there of it at Rome for a long time for surely when the city was taken sacked by the Gauls and that the Romans were to buy redeem their peace for a sum of mony there could not be made in all Rome aboue one thousand pound weight of gold Neither am I ignorant that in the third Consulship of Cn. Pompeius there was embezeled and stolne 2000 pound weight of gold out of the throne or shrine of Iupiter within the Capitoll which had bin there bestowed and laid vp by Camillus whereupon many men haue thought that there was 2000 pound weight of gold gathered for the ransome of the city But surely looke what ouerplus and surcrease there was aboue the foresaid weight of one thousand pound it was of the very booty and pillage of the French and taken out of the temples and chappels in that part of the city whereof they were masters Moreouer that the Gaules themselues were wont to goe to the wars brauely set out and inriched with gold it appeareth by this one example of Torquatus who slew a Gaule in combat and tooke from him a massie collar of gold Apparant it is therefore that all the gold as well that of the Gaules as that which came from the temples abouesaid amounted to the said sum and no higher to the light and knowledge whereof we come by meanes of reuelation from Augurie which gaue vs to vnderstand that Iupiter Capitolinus had rendered againe the foresaid sum in duple proportions And here by the way there commeth to my remembrance another thing not impertinent to this place considering I am to treat againe of rings when the sexton or keeper of this cell was apprehended and the question demanded What was become of the treasure aforesaid of 2000 pound which Iupiter had in custody and which now was out of the way and gone Hee tooke the stone that was in the collar of his ring which he ware crackt it between his teeth and presently dyed therupon wherby the truth was not bewraied and reuealed as touching the theefe that robbed the said treasure Wel reckon the most that can be surely there was not aboue 2000 pound weight of gold to be had in Rome when the city was lost which was in the 364 yere after the first foundation therof at what time as appeareth by the rols of the Subsidie booke there were in Rome to the number of 152580 free citizens And what was 2000 pound in proportion to such a multitude of people Three hundred and seuen yeres after when the temple of the Capitoll was on fire all the gold to be found therein as also in al the other chappels and shrines arose to thirteen thousand pound weight which C. Marius the yonger seized vpon and conueied away to the city Praeneste And all the same was recouered againe and brought backe againe by Sylla his enemy who vnder that title carried it in triumph besides seuen thousand pound weight of siluer which he raised out of the spoile of Marius And yet neuerthelesse the day before hee had caused to be carried in a pompe of triumph fifteene thousand pound weight of gold and one hundred and fifteene thousand pound of siluer which came of the rest of the pillage gotten by that victorie of his But to returne againe vnto our discourse of gold rings I doe not read that they were ordinarily vsed before the daies of Cn. Flavius the sonne of Annius This Flavius beeing otherwise a man of mean and base parentage as whose grandsire by the fathers side had bin no better than a slaue infranchised howbeit hauing a pregnant wit of his own brought vp daily vnder a good schoolmaster Appius Claudius sirnamed the Blind whom he serued as his Scribe Clerke or Secretarie he grew into inward credit and fauor with his master that for his better aduancement he opened vnto him the whole course of dayes pleadable and not pleadable exhorting and persuading him withal to publish that secret and mysterie to the view knowledge of the whole city which the said Flavius after much conference and consultation had with Appius did and effected accordingly wherupon he became so gratious with the whole body of the people who were alwaies before wont to hang euery day vpon the lips of some few of the chief principal Senators for to haue the information and knowledge of the said daies that in the end a bil promulged by him passed by generall assent of them all for to be created Aedile Curule together Q. Annicius of Praeneste who not many years before had bin a professed enemy and born armes against the Romanes without any regard had in this election either of C. Petilius or Domitius who were nobly born
had two Coss. to their fathers who notwithstanding stood for the said dignitie and honorable place Nay more This Flavius had a speciall grace besides granted To be at the same time one of the Tribunes also or Prouosts of the Comminaltie At which indignitie the Senat took such disdaine and chafed so for despight and anger that as we reade in the antient Annals and Chronicles of our city there was not one Senator of them all but laid away his golden rings and gaue vp his place Many are of opinion although they be farre deceiued that the knights and men of arms also did the semblable and left off their rings the same time And this likewise goeth currant and is generally receiued That they cast aside the caparisons and trappings of their bard horses for these be the two badges or markes which cause them to be called Equites as one would say knights men of arms or horsmen True it is besides that in some annals we find it recorded that it was the nobility only of Rome that gaue ouer their gold rings and not generally the whole body of the Senat. Wel how soeuer it was this hapned when P. Sempronius Longus and L. Sulpitius were Consuls But Flavius abouesaid seeing what trouble and discontentment was risen hereupon throughout the city vowed to erect and build a temple in the honor of Concord if he could reconcile the estate of the Senat and the order of the gentlemen again to the common people And seeing that he could not be furnished with mony out of the common treasure of the city for defraying of charges requisit to this piece of work he made means to haue certaine extreme vsurers condemned to pay good round sums of mony with these fines a little chappell he caused to be made all of brasse and reared it in the place appointed for Embassadors out of strange countries to wait and giue attendance in called Graecostasis the which was at the head of the publique grand place or hal of assemblies called Comitium where in a table of brasse he tooke order there should be cut and engrauen the veritie of the dedication of the said temple which was 104 yeres after the temple in the Capitol was dedicated and in the 448 yere from the foundation of the city This is the first and most antient euidence that may be collected out of all the antiquities of Rome now extant as touching the vsage and wearing of Rings Another testimonie we haue thereof in the second Punicke War which implieth that rings in those daies were vsed more ordinarily as wel by commons as gentlemen and Nobles for otherwise if they had not bin so vsually worn as wel by one as another Annibal could neuer haue sent to Carthage those three Modij of rings which were pluckt from the fingers of those Romans who were slain in the battell of Cannae Moreouer the Chronicles beare witnesse that the great quarrell betweene Caepio and Drusus from which arose the sociall war of the Marsians and the ruin of the state grew by occasion of a ring sold in portsale which both of them would haue had the one as well as the other Neither at that time verily did all Senators weare gold rings for known it hath bin within the remembrance of our grandfathers that many of them and such as beare the Pretorship in their old age and to their very dying day neuer wore any other rings but of iron The same doth Fenestella report of Calphurnius and of Manilius also who was Lieutenant vnder Caius Marius in the war against King Tugurtha And many other historians affirme the like of L. Fusidius him I meane vnto whome Scaurus dedicated that Booke which he compiled of his Life There is a whole house or family at Rome of Quintij wherein by antient custome and order there was neuer any known so much as the very women to weare any gold about them And euen at this day the greater part of those nations and people who liue vnder the empire of Rome know not what these rings mean All the countries of the East throughout and Egypt generally at this time content themselues with simple writings and bare scripts without any seale or signe manuel set vnto them But so far off are we in these daies from keeping vs to the plain hoop rings of our ancestors that as in all things els so in them also we loue to change and alter euery day so giuen we are to excesse and superfluitie for now many must haue curiously set in their rings pretions stones of excellent beautie and most exquisit brightnesse and vnlesse their fingers be charged and loden again with the riches and reuenues of a good lordship they are not adorned and decked to their mind But I purpose more fully to speake hereof in my treatise of gems and pretious stones Others again wil haue in their rings and stones sundry figures and portraitures as they list themselues engrauen that as there be some rings costly for the matter so others again should be as pretious for the workmanship Yee shall haue many of these wantons and delicate persons make conscience forsooth to cut and engraue some of their pretious stones for hurting them and to shew that their rings serue for somewhat else than to seale and signe withall doe set the said stones whole and entire as they be And diuers there are who will not enclose the stone with gold on the inside of the colet which is hidden with the finger to the end forsooth that it may touch the naked skin and be seene through And such an opinion they haue of these stones that gold is worth nothing in comparison of many thousands of them now in vse and request Contrariwise many there are who will haue no stone at all in their rings but make them all of massiue gold and therewith do seale a deuise that came vp in the time of Claudius Caesar the Emperor Furthermore in these our daies some slaues set iron within a collet of gold in stead of a stone and others again hauing their rings of iron yet they adorn and set them out with the most pure and fine gold that may be had This licence no doubt and libertie of wearing rings in this order began first in Samothrace as may appeare by the name of such rings which therefore are called Samothracia Now to come again to our golden rings The manner was in old time to weare rings but vpon one finger onely and namely that which is the fourth or next to the little finger as we may see in the statues of Numa and Servius Tullius Kings of Rome but afterward they began to honour the fore-finger which is next vnto the thumbe with a ring according to the manner which we see in the images of the gods and in processe of time they took pleasure to weare them vpon the least finger of all and it is said that in France and Brittaine they vsed them
aboue those before rehearsed there be other sorts of earth hauing a property by themselues which I haue named heretofore but in this place I am to set downe their nature and vertues also There is a kind of earth comming out of the Isle Galata and about Clupea in Affricke which killeth scorpions like as the Balearike and Ebusitane earth is the death of other serpents THE XXXVI BOOKE OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS The Proem CHAP. I. ¶ The natures and properties of Stones The excessiue expence in columnes and buildings of Marble IT remaines now to write of the nature of stones that is to say the principal point of all enormious abuses and the very height of wastful superfluities yea though we should keep silence and say nothing either of precious stones and Amber or of Chrystall and Cassidonie For all things els which we haue handled heretofore euen to this Booke may seem in some sort to haue been made for man but as for mountaines Nature had framed them for her owne selfe partly to strengthen as it were certaine ioints within the veines and bowels of the earth partly to â—…ame the violence of great riuers to break the force of surging waues and inundations of the sea and in one word by that substance and matter whereof they stand which of all others is most hard to restraine and keep within bounds that vnruly element of the water And yet notwithstanding for our wanton pleasures and nothing els we cut and hew we load and carry away those huge hils and inaccessible rockes which otherwise to passe only ouer was thought a wonder Our Ancestors in times past reputed it a miracle and in manner prodigious that first Annibal and afterwards the Cimbrians surmounted the Alps but now euen the same mountains wee pierce through with picke-axe and mattocke for to get out thereof a thousand sorts of marble wee cleaue the capes and promontories we lay them open for the sea to let it in downe we goe with their heads as if wee would lay the whole world euen and make all leuell The mightie mountains set as limits to bound the frontiers of diuers countries and to separate one Nation from another those wee transport and carrie from their natiue seat ships wee build of purpose for to fraught with marble the cliffes and tops of high hills they carrie too and fro amid the waues and billowes of the sea and neuer feare the danger of that most fell and cruell element wherein verily wee surpasse the madnesse and vanitie of those who search as high as the clouds for a cup to drink our water cold and hollow the rocks that in manner touch the heauen and all to drink out of yce Now let euery man thinke with himselfe what excessiue prices of these stones hee shall heare anone and what monstrous pieces and masses he seeth drawne and carried both by land and sea let him consider withall how much more faire and happy a life many a man should haue without all this and how many cannot chuse but die for it whensoeuer they go about to doe or if I should speake more truely to suffer this enterprise also for what vse else or pleasure rather but onely that they might lie in beds and chambers of stones that forsooth are spotted as if they neuer regarded how the darknesse of the night bereaueth the one halfe of each mans life of these delights and ioies When I ponder and weigh these things in my mind I must needs think great shame impute a great fault to our forefathers that liued long sinceÌ„ blush in their behalfe Lawes were enacted and prohibitions published by the Censors and those remaining vpon record forbidding expressely That neither the kernelly part of a Bores neck nor dormice other smaller matters than these to be spoken of should be serued vp to the boord at great feasts but as touching the restraint of bringing in marble or of sailing into forraine parts for the same there was no act or statute ordained CHAP. II. ¶ Who was the first that shewed Marble stones in Columnes or any publicke workes at Rome BVt some man haply might reply againe vpon me and say what need was there of any such ordinance considering there was no marble in those daies brought in from strange countries Vnto whom I answer That it is a meere vntruth for euen our progenitors of whom I speak saw well enough how in that yere when M. Scaurus was Aedile there were not fewer than 360 pillars of marble transported to Rome for the front and stage of a Theater which was to continue a small while and scarcely to be vsed one moneth to an end and yet no law there was to checke and controule him for it But it may be inferred againe the Magistrats winked hereat because he did all this for a publicke pleasure to the whole citie during the plaies exhibited by him in his Aedileship marrie that is it that I would haue What reason I pray you had they so to doe By what means more doe abuses and inormities creepe into a citie or state than by a publicke president giuen for I assure you it was nothing else but such examples at the first that brought those other things I meane yvorie gold jewels and precious stones to be vsed by priuat persons so commonly as they be in their houses plate and ornaments And what haue we left and reserued at all for the very gods to haue since that we lay so much vpon our selues but say that in those daies they did tolerat this excesse in Scaurus because of the pastimes he did exhibite to the whole city What were they silent also and made no words when the said Scaurus caused the biggest of all these columnes yea those that were fortie foot high within twain and the same of Lucullean black marble to be erected and placed in the court before his owne house in mount Palatine And least any man should say that this is done in secret and hucker mucker know he That when these pillars were to be carried vp into the mount Palatine where his house stood the Bailife that had the charge of the publick sinkes vaulted vnder the ground dealt with Scaurus for good securitie yea and demanded cautions and sureties for satisfying of all harmes and dammages that might be occasioned by their carriage so huge and heauie they were Considering then this bad example so prejudiciall to all good manners and so hurtful to posterity had it not bin better for the city to haue cut off these superfluities by wholsome laws and edicts than thus to permit such huge and proud pillars to be carried vnto a priuat house vp into the Palatine mount euen vnder the nose of the gods whose images were but of earth and hard by their temples that had for their couers and louvers no better than such as were made of potters cley CHAP. III. ¶ The first man who had
Chalcosmaragdos that comes out of the Isle Cyprus which hath in it certain veins of brasse that trouble the green colour Theophrastus reporteth that he hath read in the books and records of the Aegyptians That a king of Babylon sent as a present to one of their kings one entire Emeraud foure cubits long and three broad Also that there had bin within the temple of Iupiter among them an Obeliske made of foure Emerauds which obelisk notwithstanding was forty cubits long caried in bredth four cubits in some places and two in others He addeth moreouer that while he wrot his historie there was at Tyros within the temple of Hercules a pillar standing of one Emeraud vnlesse haply it were some bastard Emeraud for such quoth he are found and namely in Cyprus there was seen naturally growing a stone whereof the one halfe was a plaine Emeraud the other a Iasper as if the humor had not bin fully transformed and conuerted into an Emeraud Apion the Grammarian syrnamed Plistonices wrot not long before who hath left recorded That there remained still within the labyrinth of Aegypt the gyant-like image of their god Serapis nine cubits tall and of one entire Emeraud Moreouer many are of opinion that Berils are of the same nature that the Emeraud or at leastwise very like from India they come as from their natiue place for seldome are they to be found elsewhere lapidaries by their art and cunning know how to cut them into six angles and to polish them smooth for otherwise their lustre which is but sad would be dull and dead indeed vnlesse it were quickned and reuiued by the repercussion of these angles for be they polished neuer so much any other way yet haue they not that liuely glosse which those six faces giue them Of these Beryls those are best esteemed which carry a sea-water greene and resemble the greennesse of the sea when it is cleare Next to them are those called Chrysoberylli these be somewhat paler and their lustre tendeth to the colour of gold A third kind there is approaching neere to this but that it is more pale howsoeuer some do think it is no kind of Beril but a gem by it self and this they call Chrysoprasos In a fourth degree are placed the Berils named Hyacinthizontes because they incline somwhat to the Iacinth And in a fift such as are much of a sky colour wherupon they are named Aëroides After them be the Beryls Cerini for that they seem like wax then the Oleagini that is to say of an oile colour And in the last place bee the Crystalline which are white and come very neere to crystals All the sort of these Beryl stones haue these faults to wit white hairy streaks or lines in them yea and other filthy ordure being of themselues without these imperfections apt to shed their colour which soon fadeth The Indians take a wonderfull pleasure in long Beryls and commend them for the only stones gems in the world as if they cared not to be set in gold but chose rather to be worne without it and in truth in that regard their maner is to bore holes through them and then to file them vp into chains and collars with haires of elephants howbeit when they meet with some excellent Beryls indeed which are come to their absolute goodnesse and perfection they think it not good to pierce such but presently they tip them with gold that is to say they set vnto their heads certain knobs in maner of bosses which comprehend and inclose the same And in very truth they delight to cut their Berils into long rolls or pillastres in manner of cylindres rather than after the maner of other gems because their principal grace and commendation lies in their length Some are of opinion that the Beryl groweth naturally cornered and with many faces and they hold those Beryls to be richest which being bored through along haue their white pith taken forth for to giue them a better lustre of gold put vnto them by the reuerberation wherof the ouermuch perspicuitie of the stone may seem more corpulent and in some sort corrected Ouer and aboue the faults already noted subiect they are also to those imperfections which be incident to the Emerauds yea and besides to certain specks called Pterygiae It is thought that Beryls be found likewise in these parts of the world to wit about the kingdome of Pontus As for the Indians after that crystall was once found out they deuised to sophisticat and falsifie other gems therewith but Beryls especially CHAP. VI. ¶ Of the pretious stone Opalus and all the sundry kindes The faults in them and the means to try which be good Also diuers sorts of other gems and pretious stones THe stones called Opales differ little or nothing otherwhile from Beryls and yet the same somtimes are nothing at all like them neither is there a gem that they will giue place to vnlesse it be the Emeraud India is the only mother of them lapidaries therfore those who haue written books of pretious stones haue giuen vnto them the name and glory of greatest price but especially for the difficultie in finding them out and chusing them which is inenarrable for in the Opal you shal see the burning fire of the Carbuncle or Ruby the glorious purple of the Amethyst the greene sea of the Emeraud and all glittering together mixed after an incredible manner Some Opals cary such a resplendant lustre with them that they are able to match the brauest and richest colours of painters others represent the flaming fire of brimstone yea and the bright blaze of burning oile The Opal is ordinarily as big as a filberd Nuâ—… And here comes to my mind an historie among vs as touching the Opal worth remembrance for there is at this day to be seene one of these Opals for the which gem Marcus Antonius proscribed and outlawed one Nonius a Senator of Rome the sonne of that Struma Nonius at whom the stomack of Catullus the Poet did rise so much seeing him as he did sit in a stately chaire of Ivory called Curulis and grandfather to that Servilius Nonianus whom I my selfe haue seene Consul Now the said Senator when he was driuen to fly vpon this proscription took no more of all the goods which he had but onely a ring wherein this Opall was set which as it is well known had bin valued somtime at 20000 Sesterces But as the cruell and inordinate appetite of Antony who for a jewell onely outlawed and banished a Roman Senator was wonderfull on the one side so the peeuishnesse and contumacie of Nonius was as strange on the other side who was so far in loue with that gem which cost him his proscription and rather than to part with it suffered himselfe to be turned out of house and home and yet the very wild beasts are better aduised than so who are content to bite off those parts of their bodies
m Epinyctides accidents to the eyes how to be helped 438. l. m Epinyctides how Plinie taketh it 42. l. what is meant thereby mother writers ibid. Epithymum what hearbe 250. l. the true description ibid. m. E Q Equisetum an hearbe 263. b E R Eranthemon what hearb 125. d why so called ibid. Erasistratus a Physician 68. g. he condemned Opium ibid. he altered the course of the former Physicke 344. h. how much mony he receiued for one cure ibid. Eretria a white earth seruing for painters colour 518. k why so called 329. f. the vse in Physicke ibid. two kindes thereof 559. e. how the good is knowne ibid. Erigonus a painter 550. k. how he came by knowledge ibid. Erineos the name of the wild figtree in Greeke 169. b. the name also of an hearbe ib. the description of the hearbe ibid. c. the vertues ib. Eriphia a strange hearbe 204. l. the description ibid. how it tooke that name ibid. the vse thereof in Physicke ib. Eristalis a pretious stone 626. k Erith an hearbe 274. i. the sundry names it hath ibid. why called Philanthropos ib. the vertues medicinable ib. Erithales one of the names of the lesse Housleeke 237. c Erotylos a pretious stone 626. k. called likewise Amphicome and Hieromnemon ibid. what Earth is like by the leere to haue water within 409. b what not ibid. c. d in what place Earth turneth in time to be a stone 554. l. m the bountie of the Earth inenarrable 553. b Erthen workes and vessels both in diuine and ciuile vses also infinit 553. b. c. of great price ibid. d. e Erth pure will not flame 472. b Erth medicinable how to washed and prepared 559. e Erthquakes as they discouer springs so they swallow them vp 411. a Erth-wormes medicinable and therefore preserued 361. d Eruile the Pulse what vertues in Physicke it hath 143. b the discommodities thereof ibid. d Erynge a soueraigne hearbe against all poysons and serpents 118. m. the description 119. a. b Erysisceptron what plant 195. b. the sundry names of 〈◊〉 ib. the medicinable vertxes wherewith it is endued ibid. c Erythini fishes hauing a propertie to stay the Laske 443. e E S Esopus what hearbe 45. b Esubopes a kinde of the Colchians rich and sumptuous both in siluer and gold 464. i E T E the what they be 541. d E V Euax a K. of Arabia who wrote of hearbes 210. g Euclia what hearbe 231. f. the effects thereof according to the Magicians ibid. Eucnemos Amazon an image 503. a. why so called ib. why esteemed so much by Nero the Emperour ibid. Eudemus a Physician 347. e. ouer familiar with Liuia the princesse wife to Drusus Caesar ibid. Eudoxus a painter and Imageur in brasse 549. e Euenor a writer in Physicke 112. l Euenor a Painter 534. g. father and master to noble Parasius the Painter ibid. Eugalacton an hearbe See Glaux Eulaeus a riuer out of which the kings of Persia vse to drinke 406. l Eumarus a famous Painter 533. a. he first distinguished male from female ibid. Eumeces a pretious stone 626. k Eumetres a pretious stone 626 l. called also Belus gem ibid. Eunicus an excellent grauer 483. e Eunuchion a kinde of Lectuce 24. k. why so called ibid. Eupatoria the hearbe otherwise called Agrimonie 220. k the reason of the name ibid. the description and vertues ibid. k. l Eupetalos a pretious stone 626. l Euphorbia an hearbe 222. k. why so called ibid. commended by king Iuba in one entire booke ibid. l. the description ibid. where it groweth naturally 269. d Euphorbium the iuice of the hearbe Euphorbia 222. l. the manner of gathering it ibid. how it is sophisticated 223. a. Euphorbus a Physician brother to Antonius Musa the Physician 222. k Euphranor an excellent Imageur 502. g. his workes ibid. he was besides a cunning Painter 547. c. he excelled in Symetries whereof he wrote bookes ibid. his imperfection ibid. his workes ibid. Euphrosynon an hearbe See Buglossos Eupompus a cunning Painter 537. a. his workes ibid. of great authoritie ibid. Eureos a pretious stone 626. l Euripice a kinde of rish 101. e. the properties which it hath ibid. Eurotas the riuer represented in brasse 502. h. the praise of the workeman thereof ibid. Eurotias a pretious stone 626. l Eusebes a pretious stone ibid. Euthycrates sonne to Lysippus a singular Imageur 499. f wherein he excelled ibid. his workes ibid. Eutomon what hearbe 217. e Eutychides an imageur famous for the riuer Eurotus of his pourtraying 502. h Eutichides a painter 549. f E X Exacos an hearbe See Centaurie the lesse Exagon one of the Ophiagenes 299. a. not hurt by serpents but licked by them ibid. Exchange and bartering ware for ware the old manner of merchandise 454. l Excrements of mans bodie medicinable 302. m Excrements of mans bellie a counterpoyson 270. k Excrements of a sheepe baliered about their tailes 351. b the medicinable properties thereof ibid. Excrescence of proud and ranke flesh how to be taken away and repressed 146. l. 158. k. 165. a. d. 167. a. 177. f. 264 k 265. a. 273. e. 338. i. 447. e. 474. i. Execrations bannings and cursings in a forme of words thought to be of force 296. i Exedum what hearbe 206. g. the effects that it hath ibid. Exercise of the bodie maketh much for health 303. d Extrebenus a pretious stone 626. k Exorcismes beleeued to be auaileable 294. l Exorcismes and praiers interrupted by vnluckie birds Dicae 295. a Exorcisme of the Decij ibid. Expensa what the word signifieth 462. g Experience the first ground and foundation of Physicke 242 m. Exsiccatiue medicines 178 h k. 249 d f. 264 m. 286 k 320 m. 418 k. l. 421. e. 423 e. 471 e. 475 a. 506 m 511. f. 516 h. 529 b d. f. 558 l. 559 d. 588 m. 591. c See more in Desiccatiue Extractiue medicines 595. c. See more in Drawing Exulceration by extreame cold or burning how cured 432. g. Exulceration of the bellie how to be helped 168 h. 318. g See Dysenterie Exulceratiue medicines and raising blisters 149 d. See Causticke F A FAbianus a writer in Physicke 303. e Fabius Cunctator honoured with a grasse Coronet and why 116. m. saluted by the name of Father by the regiment of Minutius 117. a Fabricius a patron of frugalitie 483. c Faco rough and blistered with Sunne-burning how to be cured 366. k Face broken out by what meanes healed 422. k. how to be cleansed from freckles and pimples 440. m. how to looke full faire and plumbe 440. m. 441. a. b. how to be rid from spots and Lentils ibid. b Faint cold sweats how to be remedied 48. h. 49. f. 52. k 58. g. 313. d. See more in sweats Diaphoreticall Faintings about the heart how to be helped 134. l. 155. d See Swouning Falernum a kinde of Amber 608. i. why so called ibid. Falling sickenesse detected by the fume of Brimstone 556. k by a perfume of Bitumen 557. e. by the fume of
f Herberie in old time yeelded a reuenue to the state of Rome 12. g. how we come to the knowledge of Herbs 211. e Herbarists their maliciousnesse 105. e. f Herbs written of after diuerse sorts 210. h Herbs are of mightie operation and yet the opinion of them is greater 211. c Pythagoras wrote of Herbs and attributed their inuention to the Gods 211. a Herbs growing vpon statues 205. b. of what effects such are ibid. Herbs some will continue longer than others 291. e Herbs haue eternised the names of the inuentors 208. m 213. a. M Cato the first Roman who wrote of Herbs 209. b C. Valgius wrote of Herbs and dedicated his book to Augustus Caesar. 209 c Pompeius Lenaeus wrote of Herbs ibid. Herbs pourtraied in colours giue no great light to the readers 210. g. h Herculaneae certaine pismires medicinable to scoure the skin 377. d Herculaneus a riueret about Rome 408. h Hercules the patron of the Carthaginians why his image standeth at Rome vpon the bare ground without a Piedstail 570. g Hercules Triumphalis an image at Rome why so called 493. f. Hercules Oeteus of brasse in what habit and countenance pourtiaied 504. m. 505. a three titles thereupon 505. a. vnknowne who was the workeman thereof 504. m Hercules his statue of yron and steele wherefore 414. g Hermerotes what images 569. b Hermesias what composition 204. h the wonderfull operation thereof ibid. Hermippus a writer 372. h. he commented vpon the Poeme of Zoroastres concerning magicke 372. l Hermodorus honored with a statue erected vpon a columne at Rome for translating the lawes of the twelue tables 491. c. Herophilus a singular Physician he cured altogether with simples 242. k. he first searched into the causes of diseases 243. b. his Apothegme as touching the operation of white Ellebore 219. b. he altered the course of the fosmer Physicke 344. i. he obserued the pulses ibid. Herpes a running cancerous sore called if some a Wolfe 394 h. Herpes a worme soueraigne for the sore of that name 394. g Hert fainting how to be relieued 37. d. 60. h. 238. m Hertlesse how to berecouered 136. g Hert trembling and beating how cured 312. i See more in trembling Hesperis the herb why so called 87. c H I Hiberis an hearb and deuised name by Seruilius Danocrates 224. k. the description ibid. the vertues in Physicke ib. how to be vsed ibid. l Hibiscum or Hibiscus what herb it is 40. h. the medicines that it doth affourd ibid. Hicesius a Physician and writer 41. b. 123. a Hieracia what hearb 45. d. why so called ibid. Hieracites a pretious stone 627. d. the description ibid. Hieracium a collyrie or composition 508. m. the vertues medicinable thereof 509. a Hierobotane an hearb See Veruaine High-taper See Lungwort Hicket or Hocquet See Yex Hickway a bird enuious to the gathering of Paeonie 214. i 282. l. Hills some admit raine and are greene with woods on the North side some one the South side onely and others all ouer 408. k Hinds not enuious to mankinde but doe shew vs medicinable hearbs 255. c they haue a stone in their excrements or wombe that is medicinable 339. c bones found in the heart and wombe of an Hind medicinable ibid. Hippace what it is 318. l Hippace another thing 331. c Hippiades certaine images resembling women 569. c Hippice what hearb 223. f Hippocrates the Physician 71. b. when and where hee flourished 343. f. the first Clinicke Physician 344 g he first reduced Physicke into an Art 242. i. he dealt onely with simples 242. i Hippocus a Magician 372. i Hippolytus raised from death by Aesculapius 343. e Hippomanes a venomous thing 326. l Hippomarathrum what kinde of Fennell 77. c Hipponax the Poet how he was abused by Anthermus and Bupalus 564. m. how he was reuenged of them ibid. Hippope an hearbe described 121. a. the reason of the name ibid. Hippophaeon See Epithymum Hippophaston 283. e. the description ibid. Hippophyes an hearbe described 120. m. the reason of the name 121. a Hippuris See Equisetum the Greeke writers varie much about the name of this hearbe 263. c. why it is called Anabasis ibid. H O Hogs greace how to be prepared and tried 320. i See Greace Holcus an hearbe 283. d the description ib. the vertues ib. why it is called Aristida ibid. Holland fine linnen made in old time 2. l Holme oke what vertues it affourdeth in Physicke 177. d the graine of Holme oke medicinable ibid. e Holcchrysos an hearbe the vertues 106. i Holoscâ—…os a kinde of rush 100. k Holosphyratun what kinde of Image 470. g Holosteon an hearbe 283. d. why so called ibid. the description ibid. Homer the Poet Prince of learning and father of antiquities 210. l Honey commended and compared with Laser 135. c Honey when and where it is venomous 94. g how to be discerned from that which is wholesome 94. h what symptomes happen to them that eat of this honey 94. i. the present remedies of this kind of poysonous hony 94. i. 362. k. 433. d. the singular properties that honey hath 135. d. the discommodities of honey 135. e Honey called Maenomenon and why 94. k Honey of Carina medicinable 95. b Honey-combes their vertues 137. b Honey-combs wholesome and hurtfull in one and the same hiue 94. l a glut or surfet of Honey how to be helped 433. e Honey wherein Bees haue been extinct ar stifled medicinable 362. k Hoplitides what pictures 536. g Horatius Cocles his statue erected vpon a columne at Rome for making good the bridge against king Porsena 491. c Horehound an herbe 74. m. the sundry names that it hath ibid. the iuice of Horehound of what vertue it is and how to be vsed 75. a Horehound to be taken warily for danger of exulceration of reins or bladder 75. c Horehound of two sorts ibid. stinking Horehound 272. g. the sundry names description and vertue 278. h Hormesion a louely pretious stone 627. e. the description ib. Horminodes a pretious stone 627. d. the reason of the name ibid. the description ibid. Horminum a kinde of graine or corne described 144. k. the vertues that it hath ibid. Hornets sting what remedies therefore 40. h. 56 m. 75. f 110. l. 153 b. 166. l. 173. a. 361. d. 418. m. Horsetaile an hearbe 263. b. the vertue that it hath in wasting the swelled spleene ibid. Horses haue agues and how to be cured 260. k Horse dung greene burnt into ashes medicinable 325. e Horse-flesh and horse-dung aduerse to serpents 322 k Horses how they shall neuer tire 341. c wild Horses are medicinable and more than tame 323. b Horses loden with fruit are soone wearie 176. h. what remedie ibid. riuer-Horse taught vs the feat of Phlebotomie or Bloud-letting 316. k. he yeeldeth many medicines ibid. his bloud Painters vse 316. l sea Horse Hippocampe medicinable 436. h. 437. f. 440. l haw in Horse eyes how to be cured 438. l. See Eyes Horses and mares
waxes old and loses the strength Of late daies there was an herbe found in Thracia the leaues wherof differ in nothing from the Indian Nard As for the grape of Amomum which now is in vse and much occupied some say it groweth vpon a wilde vine in India Others haue thought that it commeth from a shrubbe like Myrtle carieth not aboue a hand-bredth or 4 inches in height Plucked it is together with the root and gently must be laid and couched in bunches by handfuls for if great heed be not taken it will soone burst and breake The best Amomum and most commendable is that which carrieth leaues like to those of the Pomegranate without riuels and wrinckles and besides of a red colour The next in goodnesse is that which is pale The greene or grasse coloured is not all out so good but the worst of all is white and that colour comes by age and long keeping a pound of these grapes intire and whole in the cluster is worth 60 Roman deniers But if they be crumbled and broken it will cost but 48. This Amomum groweth likewise in a part of Armenia named Otene also in the kingdomes of Media and Pontus It is sophisticated with the leaues of the Pomgranate and with some other liquid gum besides that it may hang vnited together and roll round into the forme of grapes Now as touching that which is called Amomis it is lesse full of veins and nothing so sweet smelling but harder than Amomum whereby it appeareth that it is either a diuers plant from it or els if it be the same it is gathered before it be full ripe Cardamomum is like to these aboue rehearsed both in name and also in making and ferme but it bears a longer graine for seed The maner also of gathering and cutting it downe in Arabia is the same Foure kinds there be of it The first is most green and fatty withal hauing foure sharp corners and if a man rub it between his fingers he shal find it very tough and stubborne and this is most esteemed of all the other The next to it is somwhat reddish but inclining to a whitish colour A third sort is shorter lesser and blacker than the rest Howbeit the worst is that which hath sundry colours is pliable and gentle in the rubbing and smelleth but a little The true Cardamomum ought to come neare in resemblance to Costus And it grows in Media A pound of the best will cost 12 deniers The great affinitie or kinred rather in name that Cinnamon hath with these spices before rehearsed might induce me to write therof in one suit euen in this place but that more meet it is to shew first the riches of Arabia and to set down the causes why that country should be syrnamed Happy and Blessed Wee will begin therefore with the chiefe commodities thereof namely Frankincense and Myrrhe and yet Myrrhe is found as wel in the Troglodites country as in Arabia CHAP. XIV ¶ Of Happy Arabia that yeeldeth plenty of Frankincense THere is no region in the whole world that bringeth forth frankincense but Arabia and yet is it not to be found in al parts therof but in that quarter only of the Atramites Now these Atramites inhabit the very heart of Arabia and are a county of the Sabaei The capitall city of the whole kingdom is called Sabota seated vpon a high mountain from whence vnto Saba the only country that yeelds such plenty of the said incense it is about 8 daies journey As for Saba which in the Greek tongue signifieth a secret mysterie it regards the Sunne rising in Summer or the North-East enclosed on euery side with rockes inaccessible and on the right hand it is defended with high cliffes and crags that beare into the sea The soile of this territorie by report is reddish inclining to white The forrests that carry these Incense treesly in length 20 Schaenes and beare in bredth half as much Now that which we cal Schaenus according to the calculation of Eratosthenes contains forty stadia that is to say fiue miles how soeuer some haue allowed but 32 stadia to euery Schaenus The quarter wherein these trees grow is full of high hills howbeit go down into the plains and valley beneath you shall haue plenty of the same trees which come vp of their own accord and were neuer planted The earth is fat and standeth much vpon a strong clay as all writers do agree Few Springs are there to be found and those that be are full of Nitre There is another tract by it selfe confronting this country wherein the Minaeans do inhabit and through them there is a narrow passage whereby the frankincense is transported into other parts These were their first neighbours that did traffique with them for their Incense and found a vent for it and euen so they doe still at this day whereupon the frankincense it selfe is called of their name Minaeum Setting these people of the Sabeans aside there be no Arabians that see an Incense tree from one end of the yere to another neither are all these permitted to haue a sight of those trees For the common voice is that there be not aboue 3000 families which can claime and challenge by right of succession that priuiledge to gather incense And therefore all the race of them is called Sacred and Holy for looke when they go about either cutting and slitting the trees or gathering the Incense they must not that day come neere a woman to know her carnally nay they must not be at any funerals nor approch a dead corps for being polluted By which religion and ceremonious obseruation the price is raised and the incense is the dearer Some say these people haue equall liberty in common to go into these Woods for their commodities when they will but others affirme that they be diuided into companies and take their turns by yeares As concerning the very tree I could neuer know yet the perfect description of it We haue waged warres in Arabia and our Roman armie haue entred a great way into that country C. Caesar the adopted son of Augustus wan great honour and glory from thence and yet verily to my knowledge there was neuer any Latine Author that hath put down in writing the form and fashion of the tree that carrieth incense As for the Greeke Writers their bookes doe vary and differ in that point Some giue out that it hath leaues like to a Peare tree only they be somewhat lesse and when they come forth they be of a grasse green colour Others say that they resemble the Lentiske tree and are somwhat reddish There be again who write that it is the very Terebints and none else that giueth the Frankincense of which opinion king Antigonus was who had one of these shrubs brought vnto him King Iuba in those books which he wrot and sent to C. Caesar son to the Emperor Augustus who was inflamed with an ardent desire to
make a voiage into Arabia for the great fame that went thereof saith That the tree which beares Frankincense hath a trunke or body writhen about and putteth forth boughes and branches like for all the world to the Maple of Pontus Item that it yeeldeth a iuice or liquour as doth the Almond tree and such are seene commonly in Carmania as also those in Egypt which were planted by the carefull industrie of the Ptolomees Kings there Howeuer it be this is receiued for certaine that it hath the very barke of a Bay tree Some also haue said that the leaues be as like And verily such kind of trees were they which were seen at Sardis for the Kings of Asia likewise were at the cost and labor to transplant them and desirous to haue them grow in Lydia The Embassadours who in my time came out of Arabia to Rome haue made all that was deliuered as touching these trees more doubtfull and vncertaine than before A strange matter and wonderfull indeed considering that twigges and branches of the Incense tree haue passed betweene by the veiw of which impes we may judge what the Mother is namely euen and round in the bodie without knot or knar and from thence she putteth out shoots They vsed in old time to gather the Incense but once a yere as hauing little vent and small returne and lesse occasion to sell than now adaies but now since euery man calleth for it they feeling the sweetnesse of the gaine make a double vintage as it were of it in one yere The first and indeed the kindly season falls about the hottest daies of the Summer at what time as the Dog daies begin for then they cut the Tree where they see the bark to be fullest of liquor and wheras they perceiue it to be thinnest and strut out most They make a gash or slit only to giue more libertie but nothing do they pare or cut cleane away The wound or incision is no sooner made but out there gusheth a fat some or froth this soone congeales and growes to be hard and where the place will giue them leaue they receiue it in a quilt or mat made of Date tree twigs plaited and wound one within another wicker-wise For elsewhere the floore all about is paued smooth and rammed downe hard The former way is the better to gather the purer and clearer Frankincense but that which falleth vpon the bare ground prooues the weightier That which remaines behind and stickes to the Tree is parted and scraped off with kniues or such like yron tooles and therefore no maruell if it be ful of shauings of the bark The whole wood or forrest is diuided into certaine portions and euery man knowes his owne part nay there is not one of them will offer wrong vnto another and encroch vpon his neighbors They need not to set any keepers to look vnto those Trees that be cut for no man will rob from his fellow if he might so just and true they be in Arabia But beleeue me at Alexandria where Frankincense is tried refined and made for sale men canot look surely ynough to their shops and work-houses but they will be robbed The workeman that is emploied about it is all naked saue that he hath a paire of trouses or breeches to couer his shame and those are sowed vp and sealed too for feare of thrusting any into them Hood-winked he is sure ynough for seeing the way to and fro and hath a thicke coife or maske about his head for doubt that he should bestow any in mouth or eares And when these workmen be let forth againe they be stripped starke naked as euer they were borne and sent away Whereby we may see that the rigor of justice canot strike so great feare into our theeues here and make vs so secure to keepe our owne as among the Sabaeans the bare reuerence and religion of those woods But to returne againe to our former cuts That Incense which was let out in Summer they leaue there vnder the Tree vntil the Autumne and then they come and gather it And this is most pure cleane and white A second Vintage and gathering there is in the Spring against which time they cut the bark before in the Winter and suffer it to run out vntil the Spring This comes forth red and is nothing comparable to the former The better is called Carpheotum the worse Dathiathum Moreouer some say that the gum which issueth out of the young trees is the whiter but that which comes from the old is more odoriferous There be others also of opinion that the better Incense is in the Islands But King Iuba doth auouch constantly that there is none at all in the Islands That which is round like vnto a drop and so hangeth we call the male Incense wheras in other things lightly we name the male but where there is a female But folk haue a religious ceremonie in it not to vse so much as the tearme of the other sexe in giuing denomination to Frankincense Howbeit some say that it was called the Male for a resemblance that it hath to cullions or stones In very truth that is held for the cheife and best simply which is fashioned like to the nipples or tears that giue milk standing thick one by another to wit when the former drop that distilled hath another presently followeth after and so consequently more vnto them and they all seeme to hang together like bigs I read that euery one of these were wont to make a good handfull namely when men were not so hasty eager to carry it away but would giue it time and leisure to drop softly When it is gathered in this sort the Greeks vse to call it Stagonias and Atomus but the lesser goblets they name Orobias As for the small crums or fragments which fall off by shaking wee called Manna i. Thuris And yet there be found at this day drops of Incense that weigh the third part of a pound that is to say about * 39 Roman deniers It happened on a time that king Alexander the Great being then but a very little child made no spare of Incense but cast still vpon the altar without all measure when he offered sacrifice Whereupon Leonides his tutor and schoole-maister by way of a light reproofe said vnto him thus Sir you should in that maner burne Incense when you haue once conquered those nations where there growes Incense Which rebuke and checke of his tooke so deep a print in Alexanders heart and so well he carried it in memorie that after he had indeed made conquest of Arabia he sent vnto the said Leonides his Tutor a ship ful fraught and charged with Incense willing him not to spare but liberally to bestow vpon the gods when hee sacrificed To returne againe to our historie When the Incense is gathered as is beforesaid conueighed it is to Sabota vpon Cammels backs and at one gate set open for that purpose