angry and much repined at the sturdy stomacks of the Grecians adding that the Greeks did defend themselves as valiantly and endured the shock and assault of their enemies as ever Wasps or Bees would in defence of their children or issue in these Verses following Non enim ego putavi heroas Achivos Sustentaturos nostrum robur manus invictas Illi autem quasi vespae acres atque apes Quae nidos faciunt ad viam pulverulemam Neque deserunt cavam domum sed expectantes Viros vendiores pugnant pro filiis That is to say I did not think our noble Grecian Lords could bear Our force and with unconquered hands maintain Our right but they like Wasps and Bees devoid of fear Which by high-wayes their houses use to frame De not forsake their hollow dusty homes What ere they be that come to hunt them out Fighting with valor not fearfully like Drones To rid their young ones both from death and doubt Besides this they further build for them very large dwellings with Chambers and floors in a round and orbicular form with rooms one above another finely and wittily compacted so that there is space enough of ingresse and regresse and very defensible against all windes and weather and yet their nests or houses are not all made after one fashion but very different some of them representing a Harp some made much after the fashion of a Pear a Toadstool a Bottle or budget of Leather and some like a standing Cup with handles Some affirm that the matter of their Combes is confused rude and ilfavouredly heaped up full of bark and sand but I could never as yet see it otherwise then light slender and thin like paper dry transparent gummy and thin as though it were thin leaves of gold shaken very easily hither and thither with the winde and rising many times from the foot or foundation very small and broad above like unto a Top. The place of this their building is divers and much different for some respects For if they have lost their Duke or principall Leader then do they make them nests of clay in the high holes of walls and hollow Trees and as some say although hitherto I could never see it they make Wax there also But in case they have a Generall or Duke then they make their nests under the earth their Cells or Chambers being formed with six angles or corners much like unto Bees They make their Combes round much after the fashion of a broad Toad-stool from whose centers there goeth forth as it were a short stalk or tying by which the Comb cleaveth and is fastened hard to the earth or some tree or peradventure to some other Combe They have such a tender care over their females especially at such time as they are great with young and suffer them so much to have their own wills as they will neither permit them to take any pains abroad for their living nor yet to seek for their meat at home But the males flying about like good Purveyers bring all home to their own dwellings thereby as it were strictly enjoyning the females to keep themselves within doors All which fore-cited particulars if a man would duly enter into consideration of them he must needs confesse will he nill he the admirable industry diligence wit prudence Art sweat and labour that is in these poor vermine Their naturall inclination to anger and the hasty fumishness of Wasps not only Cocks which do scratch and scrape up with their spurs their nests do finde implacable but even all other disturbers and provokers From whence I take it that proverb hath sprung Spekian erithizein which the Latines as Plautus almost in the same sense useth Irritare Crabrones For Crabro among the Poets is used sometimes for a Hornet and otherwhiles for a Wasp In like manner Clemens Alexandrinus Stromaton 2. when he would expresse and declare the foulness and abominable hurt of such sins that do lie in wait as it were to deceive and watch to do displeasure to the life of man hath these words Houtoi gar inquit oi antagonistai pacheis 〈◊〉 Olumpicoi sphecon hos eipein eisi drimuterai kai malista hedone That is these fat dull grosse and Olympicall enemies of ours are worser then Wasps more cruel and displeasant and especially sensuall and worldly pleasure Yea whosoever dare adventure to challenge into the field this hardy and couragious little Creature he shall I dare be bold to say but Cadmeam victoriam reportare lose more then he shall get whet his sword against himself and return home by weeping crosse considering that besides the noblenesse of their stout stomacks and armed stings they are withall so stiffe and obstinate as that they will never give over They differ also in their first breeding stock sex place feeding and manner of labour Isidore saith although perhaps not so truly that Wasps do first proceed from the rotten Carkases of dead Asses for all hold opinion that the black Flies called Beetles do take their Originall from them But I am rather moved to think that they were first bred from the dead body of some warlike and fierce Horse and so also thinketh Pliny in his eleventh book and twentieth Chapter And the Grecians have usually this famous and vulgar Verse in their ordinary talk Hippoi men sphekon genesis Tauroi de melisson Equi enim vesparum generatio Tauri verò Apum In English thus Wasps do first come from Horses and Bees are bred from Bulls And surely their incredible swiftnesse in their flight their ardent and burning desire they have to fighting are sufficient inducements to move me to think that they took their first beginning from some gallant Horse and not from Asses Oxen or Cowes and much lesse from the fearfull Deer For dame Nature hath seldome been so indulgent and friendly to any one beast besides an Horse as to excell both in swiftnesse of pace quicknesse of spirit courage of stomack and magnanimity And I rather lean to this side because else I do not know what sense I should give to that Aristotelean Proverb Chairete aellopodoon thugateres ippon Salvete volucripedum filiae Equorum Which may be Englished thus All hail ye daughters of swift footed Horses For besides the truth that lyeth in the bare words I take the morall of it to be uttered as a witty check or a figurative flout conceitedly to rebuke and hit in the teeth those shrewd women curst and scolding wives which are so peevish that they will not be pacified who are like unto Wasps in their sullen displeasant humours tempestuous madnesse and pelting chafe Some Wasps do proceed from the stinking Carkase of a Crocodile if we may give any credit to the Egyptians and their fellowes and for that cause when they imagine or think a Wasp they paint and draw out the shape and form of a Crocodile or a Horse From hence Hierom Cardan would make this collection that of every corrupted living
Cardamomum Galbanum Propolis which may be called Bee glew the herb called Horstrange Panax Opopanax Fleabane the shavings or serapings of the Cypresse or Cedar tree being steeped in Oyl the Jet-stone Sagapâ—num the herb called Poley Fern and all other things that have a strong or vehement ill savour being cast on the coals for a fumigation do with their vapour chase away venomous beasts For whereas all venomous Creatures have the passages or pores of their bodies very straight and narrow they are very easily filled and stuffed and are quickly stopped and suffocated by such like sents and smells Aetius in his thirteenth Book setteth down an excellent fume after this manner Take of Galbenum of Sandracha Butter and of Goats-fat of every one alike much make them into Pills and use them for a fumigation Nicander in Theriacis setteth down some for the same intentions in these Verses Cervinique gravi cornu nidore fugabis Et sic cum accendens Gagatae quandoque lapillum Quem consumentis non exedit impetus ignis Multifidam filicem crepitantibus injice flammis Aut imas viridis libanotidos accipe fibras Tantundemque acris nasturci his junge duobus Aequali capreae jam jactum pondere cornu Aut exiccantem nares cerebrumque nigelam Interdum Sulphur foedum quandoque Bâ—â—â—men Vt sumpta aequali pendantur singula parte Praeterea graveolens candentibus indita prunis Galbana ignitum faciens urtica dolorem Dentatisque cedrum maxillis sectile lignum Omnibus invisum Serpentibus eflat odorem In English thus By Hart-horn fume do Serpents slide away When stone Gagates burning's put thereto Which heat of fire doth not clean destroy Then in t ' those flames cast many-leaved Fern also Of green hogs-fennel take the lowest branches Of Nosewort sharp so much then to them joyn A like proportion of Roes horn in weight and kantches Or else Nigella drying nose and brain Or Brimstone called filthy Sulphure So all be equall in weight and parts to cure Besides Galbanum rank laid on burning coals Or nettles which do cause 〈…〉 ry pain And Cedar cut all burn'd bout Serpents holes Them overcome and make them flie amain The breath or vapour that issueth from Serpents is so pestilent that it killeth all young chickins as Columella saith and for preventing of this mischief it is good to burn Harts-horn Womens hair or Galbanum Vis mirificos cautus perdiscere odores Accensis quibus arcetur teterrima Serpens Aut Styracem uras aut atri vulturis alam Vel Nepetam aut frondem rigidae stirpemque myricae In English thus If thou wouldst learn what cdours for thy skill Were best to scare the Serpent fierce away Burn Styrax or black Vultures winged quill Or Neppe green leaves or stock of Tamarisk assay And Pliny and Sextus agreeing with him do say that if you burn the feathers of a Vultur all Serpents will quickly avoid the strong sent thereof There is a certain River in the Countreys of Media and Paeonia as Aristotle testifieth wherein there is a stone found with whose fume Serpents are chased away whose property is such that if any man cast water on it it will burn and burning if with any Fan you go about to make it to flame it is straightway quenched and thus being extinguished it sendeth forth a savour stronger then any Brimstone And to this subscribeth Nicander in these words Veltu Threicium flamma succende lapillum Quilicet irriguis mersus tamen ardet in undis Expressaque statim resting uitur unctus oliva Hanc quem fluctisoni mittant de littore P 〈…〉 i Qui rudevulgus ibi vescentes carne magistri Pascendi pecoris sua post armenta sequuntur In English thus Or take the Thracian stone which set on fire Will burn in water yet quenched is with Oyl This cast from Pontus shore Heard-men desire The better to feed their flocks and Serpents foyle The powder of a Cedar tree putteth to flight venomous Serpents as Virgil in the third of his Georgicks witnesseth Disce odoratum stabulis accendere Cedrum Galbaneoque agitare graves nidore chelydros Which may be Englished thus Learn how of Cedar fire in thy folds to make And with Galbanums savour put to flight the Snake Things that are strewed or said under us both in our houses and in high-wayes or beds will likewise defend and keep us from venomous creatures as for example Southernwood Dittander Flea-bane Calamint Gentian Hastula regia Sage Nightshade S. Johns wort called of some Fuga daemonum Marjoram Origan wilde Rue wilde Thyme Bay-leaves the shavings or tops of the Cypres or Cedar-tree Cardamomum Penyroyal Wormwood Mugwort Lysimachia called in English Loose-strife and Rosemary And if we cannot lie upon such a bed Tunc juxta virides sinuosi vorticis alveos Amnicolam nepetam per â—besas collige ripas Aut tibi costa salix pulchro quae flore renidet Praebeat instrata securum fronde grabatum Sic quoque montanum polium cujus grave spirans Horret odor nomenque suum qua debet echidnae Herba ab Euxina quae fertur origanus urbe Quaecunque illarum decerpitur obvia prodest Quin etiam multo per aprica cacumina flore Ridens abrotonus pecorique ingrata petitum Pabula serpyllum molli quod pascitur horto Praestat item exiguam circumlustrare conyzam Vrticeasque comas spinosas anagyros Sic punicea sectis ex arbore ramis Regalisque amplis licet hastae frondibus uti Accipe item innocuo medicantem frigore strumum Atque invisa pigris Scyra prima aestate bubulcis Nicander In English thus Then by the winding banks of crooked streams The Water-nep take up which under-foot is tread Or the chast Osier whose fair flower hath beams And leaves secure from Serpents make thy bed The Mountain Poley whose strong smelling breath The snakes abhor that which doth the hydra name The Origan which cometh from Euxinus earth Doprofit all gainst Serpent if you bear the same The smiling Southernwood which groweth on tops of hills Wilde Marjoram to beasts abhorred food Conyza strewed the haunt of Serpents spills The Nettle-crops thorny Anagres stay their mood So do Pomegranate branches cut from tree And the broad leaves of Kingly Hasta use Strume bealing strumes in harmless cold I see And Scyra which in Summer Neatheards do refuse In like sort to sprinckle the place with water where in Sal Ammoniaoum is dissolved driveth away Serpents as Avicen affirmeth If any one anoint himself either with Dears-sewet the fat of Elephants or Lions Serpents wil shun that person and there be some as Pliny saith that for fear of Serpents do anoint their bodies with the seeds of Juniper The juyce of the black Vine extracted from the root and anointed on the body performeth the like For preservation from Serpents Nicander compoundeth this ointment Take two Vipers about the end of Spring time Deer-sewet thirty drams Vngenti rosati
leaves or small twigs of trees and whereas commonly they are brought forth in twins it is best to choose out the strongest headed Kid for the flock and to sell the other away to the Butchers Out of the rennet of the Calves or Kids is the Coagulation There was a certain law as appeareth by Baifyus in the Books of the civill Lawyers that shooes should be made of the skins of Kids as appeared by ancient Marble monuments at Rome which thing Martiall approveth in his verses to Phebus shewing how time altereth all things and that the skins of Kids which were wont to cover bald heads are now put upon bare legs the verses are these that follow Hoedina tibi pelle contegenti Nudae tempora verticemque calvae Festive tibi Phaebe dixit ille Qui dixit caput esse calceatum Out of the hide of a Kid is made good glew and in the time of Cicero they stuffed beds with Kids hair their flesh hath been much esteemed for delicate meat and for that cause dressed and trimmed sundry ways the best Kids for meat have been said to come from Melos or Vmbralia or Viburtinum which never tasted grass but have more milk in them then bloud according to the saying of Juvenal De Viburtino veniet pinguissimus agro Hoedulus toto grege mollior inscius herbae Nec dum ausus virgas humilis mordere salicti For this cause they may safely be eaten all the year long while they suck both of men of temperate and hot constitution for they are less hurtful then the Rams and do easily digest and nourish temperately for they engender thin and moist bloud and also help all hot and temperate bodies and they are at the best when as they are neither two old that is above six moneths nor too young that is under two moneths The red or sandy coloured are the best yet is their flesh hurtful to the Colick Simeon Sethi affirmeth that if a man eat a Kids liver before he drink in the morning he shall not be over drunk that day Celtus also prescribeth it in the sickness of the Holy-fire They are wholesome sod roasted or baked but the ribs are best sod Platina teacheth one way whereby it was dressed in his time for a delicate dish they took some field Herbs and fat broth two whites of an Egge well beaten together with two heads of Garlick a little Saffron and a little Pepper with the Kids flesh put all together into a dish rosted before at the fire upon a spit with Parsely Rosemary and Lawrel leaves and so serv'd out with that sauce and set on the table but if they did not eat it before it was cold it weakened the eye-sight and raised up venereal lust The bloud also of a Kid was made into a bludding and given to be eaten of them which have the Bloudy-flix They have also devised to dress a Kid hot and to fill his belly with Spices and other good things likewise it is sod in Milk with Lawrel with divers other fashions which every Cook is able to practise without the knowledge of learning And thus I might conclude the discourse of Kids with a remembrance of their constellation in the Waggoner upon the Bulls horn which the Poets observe for signes and tokens fore-shewing rain and clowdy weather according to Virgils verse Quantus ab occasu veniens pluvialibus Hoedis These Stars rise in the Evening about the Nones of October and in December they wont to sacrifice a Kid with Wine to Faunus There is a Bird called 〈…〉 ptilus which is a great devourer of Kids and Lambs and the same also is hunted by a Dragon for when she hath filled her self with these Beasts being wearyed and idle the Dragon doth easily set upon her and overtake her Also when they fish for the Worm seven cubits long in the River Indus they bait their hook with a Lamb or Kid as is reported by Aelianus and the Ancients were wont by inspection into the intrails of Kids to declare or search into things to come as Gyraldus amongst other their superstitious vanities rehearseth The manifold medicinal properties of Goats come now in the end of this story to be declared and first of all it is to be noted that these properties are several both in the male female and Kid and therefore they are not to be confounded but as the diligence of learned Authors hath invented and left them severally recorded so they require at our hands which are the heirs of such beneficial helps the same care and needful curtesie There are some which do continually nourish Goats in stables neer their dwelling houses with an opinion that they help to continue them in health for the Ancients ordained that a man which had been bitten or stroke by Serpents and could not easily be cured thereof should be lodged in a Goats stable The hairs of a Goat-buck burned and perfumed in the presence or under a man whose genital is decayed it cureth him The powder of a Wine bottle made of a Goats skin with a little Rozen doth not only stanch the bloud of a green wound but also cure the same The powder of the Horn with Nitre and Tamarisk seed Butter and Oyl after the head is shaven by anointing it therewith strengthneth the hair from falling off when it groweth again and cureth the Alopecia and a horn burnt to powder and mingled with meal cureth the chippings in the head and the scabs for taking away the smell of the arm-pits they take the horn of an old Goat and either scrape or burn the same then adde they to it a like quaintity of Myrrhe the Goats gall and first scrape or shave off the hair and afterward rub them therewith every day and they are cured by that perfrication The bloud fryed in a pan and afterwards drunk with Wine is a preservative against intoxications and cureth the Bloudy-flix and the bloud in a Sear-cloth is applyed against the Gout and cleanseth away all Leprosies and if the bloud come forth of the nose without stay then rub the nose with this bloud of a Goat It being fitted to meat cureth all the pains of the inward parts being sod upon coals stayeth the looseness of the belly and the same applyed to the belly mixed with fine flowre and Rozen 〈…〉 aseth the pain in the small guts the same mixed with the marrow of a Goat which hath been fed with Lentils cureth the Dropsie and being drunk alone breaketh the stones in the reins and with Parsley drunk in Wine also dissolveth the stone in the bladder and preventeth all such calculating gravel in time to come There is a Medicine called by the Apothecaries Divina manus Gods hand against the Stone and they make it in this manner When Grapes begin to wax ripe they take a new earthen pot and pour into it water and seethe the same till all the scum or earthy
heat of his body that he cannot long stand and although he shall lodge himself in some Marish or Woods where the Hunters can have no use of their nets yet must they not be afraid to approach unto him and with such hunting instruments as they have shew the magnitude and courage of their minde by attaining their game by the strength of hand when they are deprived from the help of Art And to conclude the same devises diligence labour prosecution and observations are to be used in the hunting of the Boar which are prescribed for the hunting of the Hart. It seldome falleth out that the Pigs of wilde Swine are taken for they run and hide themselves among the leaves and in the Woods seldome parting from their parents untill their death and as we have said already the dams fight for their young ones most irâ—fully For it is not with these as with the vulgar Swine that they beat away their young ones from following them but because they conceive but seldome they suffer their Pigs to accompany them a whole year And thus much for the violent and forcible hunting of Boars Now followeth the artificiall devises and policies which have been invented for the same purpose whereby to take them without pursuit of Dogs And first of all the same engins which we have prescribed for taking of the Hart are also in use for taking of the Boar and Petrus Crescentiensis sheweth how a multitude of Boars may be taken together in one ditch and first of all he saith neer to the place where Boars make their abode they sow in some plain fields a kinde of fatting corn which Hogs love and about that field they make a high and strong hedge of the boughâ— of trees in the one part whereof they leave a great gap yet not altogether down to the ground At the time of the year when the grain waxeth ripe the Boars gather thereinto in great number now right over against the said gap on the other side there is another little low place of the hedge left over which the Swine may easily leap When the watch-man hunter seeth the field full he cometh alone and unarmed to the first gap and therein he standeth lewring and making a terrible noise to affright the Swine now on the other side where the hedge is left low there is also made a vast and deep ditch the Hogs being terrified with the presence and noise of the Hunter and seeing him stand in the place of their entrance run to and fro to seek another escape and finding none but that low place of the hedge before the ditch over they presse headlong as fast as they can and so fall into the trench one upon another Again neer Rome there be divers that watch in the woods and in the night time when the Moon shineth set up certain Iron instruments through which there glistereth fire unto which the Boars and wilde Swine will approach or at the leastwise stand still and gaze upon them and in the mean season the Hunters which stand in secret come and kill them with their darts and to conclude in Armenia there are certain black venemous fishes which the inhabitants take and mixe with meal and cast them abroad where Boars and wilde Swine did haunt by eating whereof as also Hemlock and Henbane they are quickly poisoned and die And thus much we have shewed out of Xenophon and other Authors the severall wayes of hunting and taking of wilde Swine Now forasmuch as the hunting thereof hath been often shewed to be dangerous both to men and Dogs I will a little adde some histories concerning the death of them which have been killed by Boars For if that cometh not to passe which Martiall writeth Thuscâ— glaâ—dis Aper populator ilice multa Impiger Aetolâ— fâ—ma secunda forae Quem mens intravit splendenti cuspide cultor Praeda jâ—ces nostris invidiosâ— fociâ— I say if the Boar be not killed by men the Hunter is constrained many times to say with Lydia in the same Poet Fuhnineo spumantiâ—â—pri sum dente peremptâ— Apuleius reporteth of one Leopolemus that he loved the wife of Thrasillus now to the intent that he might possesse her he took her husband abroad with him to the hunting of a Boar that under colour thereof he might kill him and say the Boar slew him Being abroad the nets raised and the Dogs loosed there appeared unto them a Boar of a monstrous shape wonderfull fat with horrible hair a skin set with standing bristles rough upon the back and his mouth continually foaming out abundance of froath and the sound of his gnashing teeth ringing like the ratling of armor having fire-burning eyes a despiteâ—ul look a violent force and every way fervent he slew the noblest Dogs which first set upon him not staying till they came to him but he sought out for them breaking their cheeks and legs asunder even as a Dog will do some small bones then he trod down the nets in disdain passing by them that offered him the first encounter and yet remembring his own vigor and strength turning back again upon them first overthrowing them and grinding them betwixt his teeth like Apples at length he meets with Thrasillus and first teareth his cloth from his back and then likewise tore his body in pieces and this man I remember in the first place to be killed by this monster-Boar whether he was a beast or a man Martiall in his book of spectacles remembreth a story of Diana who killing of a wilde Sow with Pig the young ones leaped out of her belly and this I thought good to remember here although it be somewhat out of place Inter Caesarea discrimina saeva Dianae Fixisset gravidam cum levis hasta suem Exiliit partus miserae de vulnere matris O Lucina feroâ—c hoc peperisse fuit Anceus the father of Agapenor was killed by the Calidonian Boar as we have said already Ca 〈…〉 was slain by a Boar in the mountain Tmolus There was one Attas a Syrian and another an Arcadian and both these were slain by Boars as Plutarch writeth in the life of Sertâ—rius It is reported of one Attes a Phrygian that as he kept his Sheep he did continually â—ing songs in commendation of the mother of the Gods for which cause she loved him honoured him and often appeared unto him whereupon Jupiter fell to be offended and therefore sent a Boar to kill Attes Rea after his death lamented him and caused him to be buryed honourably The Phrygians in his remembrance did every year in the spring time lament and bewail him Adonis also the Leman of Venus is faigned of the Poets to be killed by a Boar and yet Macrobius saith that it is an allegory of the Sun and the Winter for Adonis signifieth the Sun and the Boar the Winter for as the Boar is a rough and sharp beast living in moyst cold and places covered with frost and doth
Poets amplified with sundry accidental Histories Hierogliphycks Epigrams Emblems and Aenigmatical Observations By EDVVARD TOPSELL The Boas London Printed by E. Cotes 1658. To the Reader GEntle and pious Reader although it be needlesse for me to write any more of the publishing of this Treatise of Venemous Beasts yet for your better satisfaction and direction briefly take this which followeth After the publishing of the former book of Four-footed Beasts I understood of two things much misliked therein wherein I also my self received a just offence First the manifold escapes in the Presse which turned and sometimes over-turned the sense in many places especially in the Latine which fault as it may in part concern me so yet it toucheth another more deeply yet are both of us excusable He in wanting the true knowledge of the Latine Tongue and I because of my employment in my Pastorall charge and both of us together because we were not so throughly estated as to maintain a sufficient Scholar to attend only upon the Presse Wherefore in this second Book we have removed away that blot and used a more accurate diligence and I trust there is no escape committed perverting the sense and not very many altering the letters The second exception taken against the former Treatise was the not Englishing or translating of the Latine Verses which thing I purposed to have done if I had not been overhastened in the businesse for it had been to the work an Ornament and to the History a more ample declaration This fault I have now amended in the setting forth of this second Book of Living Creatures All therefore that can be said for your direction I could wish the History more compleat for the manifestation of the most blessed Trinities glory whose works are here declared and for the better revelation of the severall natures of every Serpent I may fail in the expressing of some particular yet I suppose that I have omitted no one thing in their narration which might be warranted by good authority or experience And therefore although I cannot say that I have said all that can be written of these living Creatures yet I dare say I have wrote more then ever was before me written in any Language Now therefore ask the Creatures after God and they will tell you For saith S. Austin Interrogatio creaturarum profunda est consideratio ipsarum responsio earum attestatio ipsarum de Deo quoniam omnia clamant Deus nos fecit The asking of the Creatures is a deep and profound consideration of their severall natures their answer is their attestation or testimony of God because all ofthem cry out The Lord hath made us Wherefore seeing it is most true incognita non desiderantur things unknown are not desired to the intent that all true English Christians may hereafter more affectionately long after and desire both the mysticall vision of God in this World and also his perfect sight in the World to come I have for my part out of that weak ability wherewith I am endued made known unto them in their own mother Tongue the wonderfull works of God for the admiring of Gods praise in the Creatures standeth not in a confused ignorance not knowing the beginnings and reason of every thing but rather in a curious and artificiall investigation of their greatest secrets Therefore let all living men consider every part of divine wisdome in all his works for if it be high he thereby terrifieth the proud by the truth he feedeth the great ones by his affability he nourisheth the little ones And so I will conclude my Preface with the words of the three Children O all ye works of the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever Edward Topsell A GENERAL TREATISE OF SERPENTS DIVINE MORAL and NATVRAL Of the Creation and first Beginning of SERPENTS THere is no Man that can justly take exception that this History of Serpents beginneth at their Creation for seeing our purpose is to set forth the works of GOD by which as by a clear glass he endevoureth to disperse and distribute the knowledge of his Majesty Omnipotency Wisdom and Goodness to the whole race of Mankinde it seemeth most proper that the first stone of this building laid in the foundation be fetched from the Creation and the rather because some Naturalists especially amongst the ancient Heathen have taken the Original of these venomous Beasts to be of the earth without all respect of Divine and Primary Creation And hereunto some Hereticks as the Manichees and Marcionites have also subscribed though not directly for they account the Creation of these venomous and all hurtful Beasts an unworthy work for the good GOD because they could never see any good use of such creatures in the World Yet we know the blessed Trinity created the whole frame of this visible World by it self and for good reasonable and necessary causes framed both the beneficial and hurtful Creatures either for a Physical or Metaphysical end Therefore it is most certain that if we consider the outward parts of these Creatures endued with life no man nor nature could begin and make them but the first Essence or Fountain of life and if we can be brought to acknowledge a difference betwixt our shallow capacity and the deep wisdom of God it may necessarily follow by an unavoidable sequel that their uses and ends were good although in the barrenness of our understanding we cannot conceive or learn them But I purpose not to follow these things Philosophically by arguments but rather Divinely by evident demonstration of the things themselves And first of all it appeareth Gen. 1. 24. that God brought out of the earth all creeping things after their kinde And lest that any man should doubt that under the general name of creeping things Serpents and other venomous Beasts were not intelligibly enough expressed it is added Chap. 3. 1. That the Serpent was more subtile then all the Beasts of the field which God had made The Prophet David also Psal 148. 7. among other things which are exhorted by the Prophet to praise their Creator there are named Dragons which are the greatest kinde of Serpents Unto this also alluded S. James ch 3. 7. saying That the whole nature of Beasts and of Birds of creeping things and things in the Sea iâ— tameâ— by the nature of Man for Man which is next unto God hath authority and power to rule over all his works and therefore over Serpents And herein it is fit to shew what wonders men have wrought upon Serpents taming and destroying them rather like Worms and Beasts no ways enemies to mankinde but friendly and endued with sociable respect or else as weaklings commanded by a superior power Such an one was Atyr a notable Inchanter who by touching any Serpent brought it into a deadly sleep according to these verses Nec non Serpentes diro exarmare veneno Doctus Atyr tactuque graves sepire chelydros In
the putrid back-bone in the grave rack'd Or marrow chang'd the shape of Snakes to take In Egypt as Frogs and Mice are engendred by showres of rain so also are Serpents And Avicen saith that the longest hairs of women are easily turned into Serpents Nicander dreameth that all venomous Beasts are engendred of the bloud of the Titans or Giants Acusilaus of the bloud of Typhon Apollonius Rhodius of the drops of bloud which do distil from Gorgons Virgilius saith that dung being laid in a hollow place subject to receive moisture engendereth Serpents Of the Gorgons drops Ovid writeth thus Cumque super Lybicas victor penderet arenas Gorgonei capitis guttae cecidere cruentae Quas humus exceptas varios animavit in angues Vnde frequens illa est infestaque terra colubris Which may thus be Englished And as he over flew The Lybick sands the drops of bloud that from the head did sew Of Gorgon being new cut off upon the ground did fall Which taking them and as it were conceiving them withall Engendred sundry Snakes and Worms by means wbereof that Clime Did swarm with Serpents ever since to this same present time But most strange of all other are the succeeding Narrations For it is reported that when L. Scipio and C. Norbanus were Consuls that the Mother of Clusius in Hetruria brought forth a living Serpent in stead of a childe and the said Serpent by the command of the Wizards was cast into a River nevertheless it would not drown but swimmed against the stream And Pliny saith that at the beginning of the Marsyck war there was a maid-servant that brought forth another Serpent And Faustina the Empress dreamed that she brought forth Serpents when she was with childe of Commodus and Antoninus and one of these Serpents seemed more fierce then the other which proved allegorically true for afterward Commodus was so voluptuous and tyrannous that he seemed like a Serpent to be born for nothing but for the destruction of mankinde In the year of our Lord 1551. there was a little Latine Book printed at Vienna wherein was contained this History following In this Summer saith the Book about S. Margarites day there happened most rare and admirable accidents for near a Village called Zichsa by the River Theose in Hungaria there were many Serpents and Lisards bred in the bodies of men very like to such as are bred in the earth whereupon they fell into exquisite torments and there dyed of that calamity about three thousand and some of the bodies being laid against the Sun gaping the Serpents came forth of their mouths and suddenly entred into their bellies again Amongst other there was a certain Noblemans daughter which dyed of that malady and when she was dissected or ripped there were found in her body two great Serpents These things seem to be miraculous and above the order of Nature yet credible because in our experience in England there have been Worms like Serpents found in the bodies of men whereof some have been ejected the parties being alive and other when as the parties were dead But that these beginnings of Serpents being unnatural are Divine and sent from God as scourges it may appear by another notable History recorded in the aforenamed Book both in the same year and in the same Countrey There was saith mine Author found in a mow or ryck of Corn almost as many Snakes Adders and other Serpents as there were sheafs so as no one sheaf could be removed but there presently appeared a heap of ugly and fierce Serpents The Countrey-men determined to set fire upon the Barn and so attempted to do but in vain for the straw would take no fire although they labored with all their wit and policy to burn them up At last there appeared unto them at the top of the heap a huge great Serpent which lifting up his head spake with mans voice to the Countrey-men saying Cease to prosecute your devise for you shall not be able to accomplish our burning for we were not bred by Nature neither came we hither of our own accord but were sent by God to take vengeance on the sins of men And thus much for the true and natural beginnings of Serpents Now we read in read in holy Scripture that the rod of Moses was turned into a Serpent by divine miracle whereby he was assured of the power that God would give him to deliver his people Israel out of Egypt which land abounding with Serpents both natural bred in the earth and moral such are crafty and politick Princes and people yet Moses should take them as he did his Serpent by the tail and cause them to bend unto him like as it were a wand or else some other little walking staffe and also that his power should be unresistible because his Serpent devoured others The Magitians or Sorcerers as Jannes and Jambres resisted him and also turned their rods into Serpents But Moses did it by true piety they by diabolical delusions as false Christians many times work miracles by outward signes of true piety and therefore Moses rod overcame the Sorcerers Serpents because the end of fraud and falsehood is to be overcome by truth and piety From this changing of rods into Serpents came the several metamorphosing of sundry other things into Serpents also as that tale of Orpheus head after he was torn in pieces by the Thracian women and the same thrown into a River was taken up in Lemnos The Poet describeth it thus Hic ferus exposito peregrinis anguis arenis Os petit sparsos stillants rore capillos Lambit hymniferos inhiat divellere vultus Tandem Phoebus adest morsusque inserre parantem Arcet in Lapidem rictus Serpentis apertos Congelat patulos ut erant indurat hiatus In English thus No sooner on the forain coast now cast a land they were But that cruel natur'd Snake did straight upon them fly And licking on his ruffled hair the which was dropping dry Did gape to tyre upon those lips that had been wont to sing The heavenly hymnes But Phoebus straight preventing that same thing Dispoints the Serpent of his bait and turns him into stone With gaping chaps c. So Isacius Tzetzes writeth that when Tiresia found Serpents in carnal copulation in Cithaeron he slew a female who presently after death was turned into a Woman then also he slew a male who likewise being dead was in the same place and manner turned into a Man When Cadmus was was sent by his Father to seek out his sister Europa that was ravished by Jupiter with straight charge not to return back again except he could finde her having spent much time in seeking her to no purpose because he could not finde her and not daring to go back again to his father he was warned by the Oracle that he should go into Boeotia to build a City Coming thither he sent his companions to the fountain of Mars that
and was freely discharged because he therewith healed the daughter of the Emperour Marcus for being forely wounded by a Serpent in her breast and all other Physitians despairing of help yet with this she was recovered It is also good for all new and old Ulcers and for such as are either bitten by any kinde of venomous creeping Worms and Serpents Take of Squamma eris which is the scales and offal of Brass blown from it in melting of Ammoniacum Aloes hepatica Verdigrease of Aeâ— ustum of Frankincense Sal ammoniacum Aristolochia rotunda of every one half an ounce Turnep-seeds three scruples of the root of Dragon-wort half an ounce seeds of Mugwort nine scruples pure Wax five pound of Colophenia one pound old Oyl three ounces sharp Vinegar half a spoonful Mustard-seed three scruples Spodium nine scruples Stone-allum and Opopanax of either half an ounce Infuse the metalline ingredients for three days space in Vinegar and beat and powder them together melting those that are to be melted then sprinkle on those that are dry and all of them being throughly wrought and made up according to the form of an Emplaister use them where necessity requireth Antonius Fumanellus a late Physitian prescribeth an experimented and as he calleth it a divine Oyl against any poyson taken into the body or the biting of any venomous Beasts and Serpents whether it be received inwardly by drinking it down or anointed outwardly upon the body and this is it that followeth Take of Oyl of Olives one pound the flowers and the leaves of the herb called S. Johnswort bruised boyl them for the space of three hours and strain them then boyl again other fresh flowers and leaves of the same herb and strain them hard and do so again the third time then add to them of the roots of Gentian and Tormentil of either one ounce boyl and strain them as you did before and reserve this Oyl for your use Andreas Matthiolus in his Commentaries upon Dioscorides doth exceedingly commend Oyl of Scorpions because being anointed upon the pulses outwardly it is as he affirmeth a singular remedy not only against any poyson taken inwardly into the body by the mouth but for the bitings and stingings of any venomous creature whatsoever The way to prepare and make it he describeth at large in his Preface upon the sixt Book of Dioscorides which I think needless here to describe to avoid tediousness therefore if any one be desirous to know the composition of it let him read Matthiolus in the place before cited Unquenched Lime mixed with Hony and Oyl and applyed to the place the thickness of a cerote is good against the wounds that come by any venomous Beasts biting Now I think it meet to set down those simple medicaments which are outwardly to be applyed either by laying on or by anointing against the sting and venomous biting of Serpents It is best first to foment the sore place with hot Vinegar wherein Catamint hath been boyled and in stead of Vinegar one may take Salt-water or Southernwood Maidenhair and Garlick either in drink meat or to be used as an Ointment The root of Aram and Astrologe and the leaves of the true Daffadil and Oyl of Balm is most effectual also Bdellium and the root either of the white or black Beet is good against the bitings of Serpents Betony Coleworts especially the wilde Coleworts Calamint the leaves of the wilde Fig-tree Centory Onions Germander Chamaeleon the herb called Fleabane wilde Carrets Rocket Heath Fennil Figs Winter Cherries Enula Campana Barly-meal the Day-lilly Hysop the Flower-deluceroot Horehound Balm Water-cresses Basil Origan Plantine Leeks Turneps Madder Râ—e Verven Mustard-seed Scabious and Saint Johnswort all these plants are greatly praised amongst the Writers of Physick for the mischiefs abovesaid Pliny is of opinion that the bowels or entrails of Serpents themselves being applyed will surely cure the wounds of all other Serpents although they seem incurable A live Serpent being caught if it be bruised beaten and stamped in water and the hurt place fomented therewith will assuredly help and do much ease Quae nocuit Serpens fertur caput illius aptè Vulneribus jungi sanat quae sauciat ipsa Vt Larissea curatus Telephus hosta Qu Serenus Which may be thus thus Englished What Serpent hurteth Men say by long experience His head applyed doth cure for where the wound The help is also made as in Telephus sense Harm'd by Larissus spear by it was cured found And Guil. Varignana saith divide or cut a Serpent and lay it upon the place and it will mitigate the anguish and pain The seed of Thraspi and of Tithimal which is a kinde of spurge is greatly used for this Aut Tithimallus atrox vulnus quae tuta perungat Some besides these do put the root of black Hellebore into the wound because it draweth out the poyson as I by mine own experience can testifie saith Matthiolus There be also sundry Antidotes and Preservatives which are taken inwardly that are very effectual against the bitings of Serpents and venomous beasts as namely that which is called Theriaca Andromachi or Mithridate and the like compositions Galen in his Book De Theriaca ad Pisonem preferreth Theriaca Andromachi before all other medicines either simple or compound for virulent wounds because it performeth that effect for which it is ministred For it was never as yet heard that ever any one perished of any venomous hurt or biting who without any delay forthwith drank this medicine and if any man had taken it before he received any such dangerous hurt if he were set upon and assailed by any poysonous creature it hath not lightly been heard that he hath dyed of the same There be many Antidotes described by the Ancients which they set down to be admirable for thesepassions As for example that which Avicen tearmeth Theriaca mirabilis whose composition is as followeth Take of Opium and of Myrrhe of either of them a dram Pepper one dram and a half the root of Aristolochia longa and rotunda of each of them three drams Wine two drams make them up with Hony and Rocket water so much as is sufficient for an Electuary the quantity to give is four scruples relented in some fit and convenient decoction King Antiochus surnamed Magnus had a kinde of Theriaca which he used against all poysons which is described of Pliny in his 20. Book and last chapter in this wise Take of wilde Thyme Opopanax and the herb called Gromel of each a like much two drams Trifolie one dram of the seeds of Dill Fennil Smallage Anise and Ameos of every one alike six drams of the meal of Orobus twelve drams all these being powned and finely searsed must with Wine a sufficient quantity be made into Trochisces whereof every one must weigh one dram give thereof one dram at a time in a draught of Wine There is another Antidote and preservative against any poyson described by Paulus Aegineta much like
in the flesh which if it do very deep then death hath sometimes followed as Nicander writeth in his Theriacis In like manner the people of the old World that we may prove the sting of Bees to be converted to some good use did as Suidas writeth punish those persons who were found guilty of cousenage and deceitfull counterfeiting of merchandize after this sort First they stripped the offender stark naked anoynting his body all over with Honey then setting him in the open Sun with his hands and feet fast bound that by this means being tormented with Flies Bees and scorching beams of the Sun he might endure punishment pain and death due to his lewd and wicked life With which kinde of punishment and torture the Spaniards do grievously vex the poor naked Islanders of America at this day now called the West-Indies who are under their rule and government not for justice sake as those Ancients did but for satisfaction and fulfilling of their barbarous wills and beastly tyranny that they might seem to be more cruell then cruelty it self Nonius faith that if the herb Balm called Apiastrum be beaten and anoynted with Oyl upon the stinged place that there will ensue no hurt thereby Florentius counselleth the gatherer of Honey to anoynt himself with the juice of Marsh-mallowes for by that means he may safely and without fear take away the Combes But the juice of any Mallow will do as much and especially if it be mixed with Oyl for it both preserveth from stinging and besides it remedieth the stinged But admit that Bees by their stinging do vexe and disease us yet notwithstanding the dead Bees so found in the Honey do speedily bring cure to that hurt if they be duly applyed abating and taking away all the pain and poyson What should I say No Creature is so profitable none lesse sumptuous GOD hath created them and a little money and cost will maintain them and small provision will content them They live almost in all places yea even in Forrests Woods and Mountains both rich and poor by their good husbandry do gather good customs and pensions by them they paying as all men know very large rents for their dwelling houses and yet for all their tribute they pay a man need neither keep one servant the more for the gathering of it nor set on pot the oftner Merula saith that Varro gathered yeerly five thousand pound weight of Honey and that in a small Village of Spain not exceeding one acre of ground he was wont to gain by Honey there gathered ten thousand Sesterties which is of our English Coyn about fifty pounds We are furnished also out of their work-houses or Shops with Waxe Sandracha Bee-glew Combs and dregs of Wax which no Common-wealth can well spare To speak nothing of the examples of their vertues and noble properties being no lesse wholsome for the soul then these others are for the good provision and maintenance of our life and for nourishment of our bodies necessary and commodious Now for the conservation of Bees it is very meet as Pliny writeth that we come by them lawfully and by honest means that is either by gift or by buying of them for being taken away by theft they will not prosper with us even as the hearb called Rue being stolne will very hardly or never grow Furthermore to keep these good pay-masters and to make them in love with you you must remove from their Hives mouthes unlucky mischievous and deceitfull people and idle persons that have nothing to do causing them to stand further off As also all those that are distayned with whoredome or infected with the disease called Gonorrhoea or the fluxe of menstrues bathes or any thing that smelleth of smoak mud dung or ordure of Cattell men or beasts houses of Office sinks or kitchens Mundifie and correct the air oftentimes infected with the breath and vapour of Toads and Serpents by burning of Balm Thyme or Fennel having great care to keep them neat clean and quiet Destroy all Vermine and seekers to prey upon their Honey robbers pillers and pollers and if at any time they be sick give them physick Now the signs of their unhealthinesse as of all other living creatures are known by three things that is from the action offended the outward affect of the body and excrements For their cheerfulnesse being gone sluggish dulnesse a giddy and vertiginous pace often and idle standing before the mouth of the Hive lack of strength wearinesse lithernesse languishing and want of spirit to do any businesse detestation of Flowers and Honey long watchings and continuall sleepings unaccustomed noyses and hummings are sure arguments that Bees are not in good health As also if they be somewhat rough not fine and trim dry and unpleasant in handling not soft harsh and rugged not delicate and tender if their Combes be infected with any manner of filthy corrupt and noysome savour and that their excrements melt stink and be full of worms carrying dead carkases daily out of their houses that they have no regard to their Bees and Bee-hives it is a certain token that they are sick and that some epidemicall generall Pestilence or plague rageth amongst them whereof that famous Poet Virgil hath very elegantly but confusedly touched some part in the fourth Book of his Georgicks in these following Verses Si verò quoniam lapsus Apibus quoque nostris Vita tulit tristi languebunt corpâ—rae morbo I 〈…〉 non dubiis poteris cognâ—seere signis Continuo est agris aliâ—s color horrida vultum Deformat maties tum corporalucâ— câ—rentum Exportant tectis tristia funera ducunt Aut illae pedibus connexa ad limina pendent Aut intus clausis cunctantur in aedibus omnes Ignavaeque fame contracto frigore pigrae Tum sonus auditur gravior tractimque susurrant Frigidus at quando silvis immurmurat auster Vt mare solicitum stridet refluentibus undis Aestuat aut clausis rapidus fornacibus igniâ— In English thus The life of Bees is subject unto fall Their bodies languish with diseases sad This by undoubted signs discern you shall Their bodies then with other colour is clad A leannesse rough doth then deform their face Then doth the living bring dead bodies out And for their fellowes make a funerall place Mourning sad exequies their dwellings all about Or else with feet in feet they hang upon The threshold of their Hive or else abide Close within doors not looking on the Sun Tell sloth by cold and famine their life up dry'd Then also is their sound and voice more great Drawing solt like a Southern winde in woods Or fire enclosed in burning furnace heat Or as in t ' Sea falls back the sliding flouds And so the sicknesses of Bees being evidently known plainly perceived and cured they will live many yeers although Aristotle Theophrastus Pliny Virgil Varro Columella Cardan and finally all Authors would make us beleeve that they seldome attain to nine years
advice required lest at any time by their caustick faculty they exulcerate too deep into the flesh Cantharides mingled with Lime serve in stead of a Pen-knife to eradicate and take away those little hard and red swellings rising chiefly in the crown of the head armpits or privy parts called of some Physitians Pani and some there be again that will adventure a little of them in powder to give with such Medicines whose property is to provoke Urine But yet there is hard hold and tough reasoning on both sides whether they ought to be given inwardly with Diuretikes or no considering that being so drunk they are accounted amongst strong poysons tormenting the bladder without any ceasing othersome again hold the contrary assuring us upon their own experience that not exceeding their due quantity they may be taken with other Correctories to serve as a Retricle to transport them to the place affected so that you see either side hath his strength and reasons Justa pari premitur veluti cum pondere libra Prona nec hac plus parte sedet nec surgit ab isla That is to say As when an even scale with equal weight is prized Nor falls it down this way or is it that way raised But being mingled and wrought up with the juyce of Vna Taminea which is a kinde of Berry growing on the herb called Ampelos angria a kinde of Briony Sheeps or Goats sewet there is no doubt but that they do great good Some of my Masters sâ—ith Galen the Prince of all Physitians next to Hippocrates did use to put Cantharides amongst such medicines as they prepared to move urine taking only their wings with the feet but I saith he am wont to take Cantharides wholly as well as some parts of them and so I judge them the more safe to be used and prepared this way especially I misse not to make choyce of such are found among Corn and have as it were a yellow circle or enclosure crossing overthwart their wings lib. 3. lib. 11. de Simplie facult Being applyed rightly they do also provoke the monthly terms and that very eff 〈…〉 ually and put into Antidotes they are thought of many to help Hydropical persons as not only Hippecrates and Dioscorides but also Galen Avicenna Rhazes Pliny and other Physitians of best note and worth have witnessed I cannot here sufficiently enough commend their assured tryed and approved use being commixed with Leaven Salt and Gum Ammoniacum for the diversion of Rhumes or Catarrhs the taking away of all Goutish pains out of the hanch or hip called the Sciatica of the popular sort whilest they draw forth and consume from the center of the body being there throughly and deeply impacted to the surface the matter or offending humours causing these griefs above said They are also good against the venom of a Salamandra as Pliny in his 29. Book and 24. Chapter assureth us They are also highly esteemed of some being duly prepared and orderly mixed with certain other medicines to take away and correct the remisse negligence falling-faintnesse and heartlesse casting down of the Virile part yea they do as they say very much provoke to venerous incitements But here I would counsel each one not to be knack-hardy bold in medling with them for these or the like intentions for as they bring both health and help being duly commixed and orderly tempered not exceeding their dose and first quantity so again if you fail in their due and skilful application or propination they induce and drive men into most intolerable grievous symptomes and accidents and otherwhiles to death it self John Langius setteth down a true and very pleasant story which in this place because it maketh greatly for our matter in hand I will not refuse briefly to describe it There was saith he at Bonony in Italy a certain rich and Noble young man of France which Gallus to use his own words was Gallo quovis gallinaceo salacior who falling extreamly in love with a certain Maid in the same City prevailed so far at length through his earnest importunities and incessant sollicitations that at length they appointed and agreed upon the time and place of their meeting to keep their Revels for one night So this lusty Gallant being thus insnared in the inextricable labyrinth of her beauteous Phisnomy fearing deadly lest his heart should turn into Liver or that he might faint and lose his courage before he should attain to his journeys end in this his doubtful coaping and dangerous skirmishing conflict like a wise man fearing the worst casting all dangers afore-hand what might ensue would needs know of a fellow-souldier and Countreyman of his who had as one may guesse born a standard in the Camp of Venus what were best to be done to move him to a more vigorous courage and to keep his credit for that time lest either he should turn Craven like an overtyred Jade or else be utterly non-suited which was worst of all who presently wished him to take some Cantharides in his Broath which the other at all adventures forth-with did But it was not long before this jolly Yonker felt an itching about his lower parts then being frolike above measure supposed it to be the operation of his medicine that caused this Colt-evil he without any more ado hyed him to his Love minding there indeed to draw the matter to a set battel and to end all controversies by dint of sword Tunc animis opus Acnea tunc pectore firmo In English thus Of courage then indeed Then of stout breast is need But yet for all this in the still of the night when every one besides were at rest my restlesse Frank felt his whole body to be pockily torn and miserably rent with sundry cruel prickings and stingings feeling moreover a strange tast in his mouth like the juyce or liquor that issueth from the Cedar tree stamping and staring raging and faring like a furious mad frantike Bedlam being almost besides himself through the extremity of his pain virtiginy and giddinesse of his brain with inclination to fainting or swounding so being troubled tost and perplexed all sad melancholike and male-content destitute of counsel and comfort like a silly Miser and an impotent Suiter and not like a couragious hot-spur he let his action fall turning hâ—â— back like a Novice and fresh-water Souldier full sore against his will you may be sure but there was no remedy and so with as much speed as he could bidding his Love adiew he trudged home to his own lodging whither being come and finding no relief but rather an encrease of his torments with a continual burning of his Urine and Strangury he lamentably besought and with weeping and tears most humbly craved and cryed out for help requiring the favour and furtherance both of my self and of another Physitian for the cure so I being admitted to visit this poor patient I first gave him some Oyl to drink thereby to provoke vomiting
wound to be judged by the eye unto those parts that are next the entrails as the heart liver and the rest They weave their webs after a fine and exquisite manner as Spiders do drawing out in length framing and trimming in good order their hairy small threads And under these when â—ight draweth on they lie as in their own proper tent and pavillion aswell to avoid cold as the 〈…〉 mmodities of furious blasts and storms for the matter and substance of this their tent is so handsomely wrought so firm stiffe clammy and sure that they neither care for furious windes nor yet any rain or storm will ever sole through Besides the largenesse of this house is such and of so great receit as it will easily receive and lodge many thousands of Caterpillers They make their nests or buildings in the highest branches of the Pitch and Pine-trees where they live not solitarily as other Palmer-worms do but in flocks or companies together Which way soever they take their journey they are still spinning and drawing out their threads for their web and early in the morning if it be likely to prove fair the younger sort by heaps attend the elder and having first bared and robbed the trees of all their boughs and leaves for they make clean riddance of all wheresoever they come they afterwards dexterously bend themselves to their weaving craft They are the only plague and destruction of Pitch and Pine-trees for unto any other roziny or gummy trees they never do harm There is great plenty of them to be found in the Mountain of Athos situate betwixt Macedonia and Thrace in the Woods of Trident and in divers Valleys beyond the Alpes in which places there is store of these fore-named trees as Matthiolus saith They are doubtlesse most poysonous and venomous vermine whether they be crushed outwardly with the hands or taken inwardly into the body yea they are so known manifest and so never failing a poyson and so esteemed of in times past as that Vlpian the famous Lawyer interpreting the Law Cornelia de Sicariis or privy murtherers that he in that place calleth and esteemeth the giver of any Pityocampie in drink or otherwise to any one to be doomed a murtherer and their punishment to be equallized Sect. Alium ff ad Leg. Corn. de sic As soon as this kinde of Caterpiller is received into the body there followeth immediately a great pain extremely tormenting the mouth and palate the tongue belly and stomach are grievously inflamed by their corroding and gnawing poysonous quality besides the intolerable pain the receiver feeleth although at first the party seemeth to feel a certain pleasant itching but it is not long before he perceiveth a great burning within loathing and detesting of meat and a continual desire to vomit and go to the stool which neverthelesse he cannot do At length unlesse speedy succour be given they so miserably burn and parch the body that they bring a hard crustinesse skurffe or scald upon the stomach as though the sides thereof had been plastered with some hard shards or other like things after the manner of Arsenick as Dioscorides Aetius Pliny and Celsus do assure us In like manner Galen in his eleventh Book Simp. cap. 50. and Avicen 505. cap. 25. have testified the same And for this cause Aetius and Aegineta do say that it is nothing wholesome for any to sit down â—o meat to spread the Table or make any long tariance under any Pine tree lest peradventure through the savour or smell of the meats the reek or vapour of their broaths or noise of men the Pityocampies being disturbed from their homes and usual resting places might fall down either into their meats beneath or at least-wise cast down or let fall any of their seed as poysonous as themselves They that receive hurt by them must have recourse to those preservatives and medicines as were prescribed to those that were poysoned by Cantharides for by them they are to be cured and by no other means Yet for all that Oyl of Quinces is properly commended to vomit withall in this case which must be taken twice or thrice even by the prescript of Dioscorides and Aetius They are generated or to speak more aptly they are regenerated after the manner of Vine-fretters which are a kinde of Caterpillers or little hairy Worms with many feet that eat Vines when they begin to shoot of that Autumnal seed of theirs left and reserved in certain small bags or bladders within their webs There is another sort of these Caterpillers who have no certain place of abode nor yet cannot tell where to finde their food but like unto superstitious Pilgrims do wander and stray hither and thither and like Mice consume and eat up that which is none of their own and these have purchased a very apt name amongst us Englishmen to be called Palmer-worms by reason of their wandering and roguish life for they never stay in one place but are ever wandering although by reason of their roughnesse and ruggednesse some call them Bear-worms They can by no means endure to be dieted and to feed upon some certain herbs and flowers but boldly and disorderly creep over all and tast of all plants and trees indifferently and live as they list There are sundry other sorts of these Cankers or Caterpillers to be found in the herbs called Cranesbil Ragwort Petie-mullen Hops Coleworts Hasels Marigolds Fennil Lycorice Basil Alder Nightshade Water-betony Garden-spurge and other sorts of that herb in Elm-trees Pear-trees Nettles and Gilliflowers Yea there is not any plant to be found which hath not his proper and peculiar enemy and destroyer all which because they are so commonly known of all though perhaps not of all observed I will lest I should seem to be infinite passe over with silence But yet I will adde a word or two of a strange and stinking Caterpiller which it was never my hap as yet to see described by Conradus Gesner in these words following This stinking Caterpiller saith he is very like to those that are horned but yet it wanteth horns differing from them all in colour I first espyed it creeping upon a wall toward the end of August Anno 1550. there cometh from it a lothsome and an abominable savour and smell so that you would verily believe it to be very venomous It went forwards very frowningly and with a quick angry and despightful countenance as it were in bending wise the head always stretched up a loft with the two former feet I judge her to be blinde She was the length and breadth of a mans finger with a few scattering and rugged hairs somewhat bristly and hard both on her back and sides the back was very black the colour of her belly and sides was somewhat red enclining to yellow and the whole body was distinguished divided and easily discerned with fourteen joynts or knots and every joynt had a certain furrow like a kinde of wrinckle running all
and hunting Spiders The least sort of these weave no webs at all but the greater beginneth to make a small and harsh web about hedges nigh unto the earth spreading and setting the same abroad in the very entry and in void places neer their lurking holes their deceitful nets observing very diligently the stirring of their deceitful webs and perceiving them moving though never so lightly she maketh no stay but with all speed possible hastneth her self to the place and whatsoever she there findeth she seizeth upon as her lawful prize The most dangerous and hurtful Spiders are called Phalangia if they bite any one for they never strike their poyson is by experience found to be so perillous as that there will a notable great swelling immediately follow thereupon These kindes of venomous Spiders are of two sundry sorts for some of them are lesser and some greater The lesser sort are very unlike one to another and of changeable colours violent libidinous hot stirring sharp-topped holding on their pace and way as it were in jumping manner or leaping-wise and these I finde to be called by Aristotle in his 11. Book De Animal Psullas or Pulices and Pitheci or Simii Of some they are called Oribates because they are usually found among Trees that grow upon Mountains They are also called Hypodromi because they live under the leaves The Phalangium or Phalanx Spider is unknown in Italy as Pliny saith and there are found many sorts of them One sort of them is very like unto a great Pismire but much bigger having also a red head but all other parts are black speckled and garnished with many white spots running all alongst their bodies This formicarian or Pismire-like Phalanx of Aetius is described to have a body much resembling soot in colour his neck ash-coloured and his back glistering as it were with many stars on it Nicander calleth it Agrostes and Aetius Lucos The Latines tearm it Venator that is the Hunter This stingeth but weakly without any pain at all but yet it is somewhat venomous though not very much This kinde of Phalanx is often found among Spiders webs where after the fashion of some Hunters they beguile and intrap Flies Gnats and Bees Gad-flies and Wasps And if Lonicerus write no more then may be warranted for truth those great Horse-flies or Ox-flies and Brimsees that in Summer season vex Cattle and whatsoever they lay their clowtches on that they hold fast and destroy and thus live they by taking of booties and preys There is no man I think so ill advised that will confesse this to be the same creature which Aristotle calleth Pulex for the body of that by his description is broad rowling round and the parts about the neck have certain lines or cuts and besides about the mouth there appear and seem to bud forth three eminencies or standings out There is another sort of Phalangium called by Nicander Rox of Aetius Ragion of Aelianus Rhax because it is so like the kernel or stone that is found in Grapes and this kinde of Spider is of a round figure black in colour the body glistering and round as a ball with very short stumped feet yet neverthelesse of a very swift pace They have teeth and their mouth is nigh their belly and when they stir they gather up their feet very round In the description of this Spider Aetius Aelianus and Pliny do wholly consent and agree in opinion and yet Aelianus was a little besides the way when he set down podâ—s macrous for microus long feet for short feet and that this kinde of Spider was only found in Lybia and not elsewhere That kinde of Spider termed of Pliny Asterion seemeth to be all one with the former saving that this is more known by his little white spots made star-wise and the glistering stripes or rays wherewith his body seemeth to be over-sprinckled Pliny only mentioneth this as if Aristotle Aetius Galen and Avicen had never heard of it The most venomous and hurtful of all these is that which Nicander calleth Pedcoros of colour azure or bright blew which hath long high and lofty feet on both sides of the body The Scholiast addeth Dasu and Meteoron that is lanuginosum and sublime soft like cotten or Wooll and lofty or high and not sublime lanuginosum as Lonicerus translateth it Pliny saith that this Spider hath a black mossinesse or soft down although it will scarse sink into my head that any Spider that is of an azure or blew colour hath any soft hairs or woolly substance of a black colour There is another kinde of Phalangium Spider called of Nicander Dysderi which name is neither to be found in Aristotle Pliny nor Aetius nor yet in any other ancient Author that ever I could read which some others call and that very properly Sphekion quasi vesparium because it is so like a red Wasp saving that it lacketh wings and this Wasp-like Spider is of a passing deep red colour and counted far worser then the blew Spider although the azure or blew Spider only by touching doth infect with poyson and will break any Crystal glasse if it run over it though never so speedily or do but touch it in glancing wise as Scaliger beareth witnesse There are two sorts of Phalangie Spiders called Tetragnatha and the worser is that which hath half of his head divided with one white line and another white line running crosse-wise There is another of these not so hurtful as the former and this is of an ash-colour and very white in the hinder-parts There is also a Spider coloured as this is that maketh her web by walls sides for the taking of Flies which as some affirm hath little or no venom in it at all Aetius saith that the Tetragnathus is a kinde of Phalangium having a broad and whitish body rough footed with two swelling or little bunches standing out in the head the one somewhat broad the other standing right forth so that at the first one would imagine that it had two mouths and four jaws Aelianus in his xvij Book chap. 40. saith that there is great store of these to be found in India about the River Arrhata where their multitude is so dangerous and mischievous as that they bring death and destruction to the Citizens and people bordering nigh those places And Strabo the Geographer in his xvj Book telleth us that beyond the Lybians and on the Western side of Africk there is a Countrey left destitute of Inhabitants having goodly large fields and pastures being unhabitable by reason of the multitude of Scorpions there bred and of the Spiders called Tetragnathoi There is to be found in Harvest-time amongst Pease Beans and other sorts of pulse when they are gathered and reaped by the hand certain small Spiders called Kantharidessi Eikela in shew like unto Cantharides or Spanish-flies of a very red and fiery colour such as we Englishmen call Twinges by eating or licking up of which both Oxen and other
or hip his verses be these Meriones d' apiontos iei chalkere oiston Kai r'ebale gloucon kata dexion autar oistos Antikron kata kustin up ' osteon exeperesen Ezomenos de cat ' authi philon en chersin etairon Thumon apopneion oste scolex epi gaia Keito tacheis ecd ' aima melan ree deue de gaian Id est Meriones autem in abeuntem misit aeream sagittam Et vulneravit coxam ad dextram ac sagitta E regione per vesicam sub os penetravit Residens autem illic charorum inter manus sociorum Animam efflans tanquam vermis super terram Jacebat extensus sanguisque effluebat â—ingebat autem terram That is to say But as he went away behold Meriones With brazen dart did his right hip-bone wound Which neer the bladder did the bone through pierce In friends deer hands he dyed upon the ground So stretcht upon the earth as Worm he lyed Black bloud out flowing the same bedyed Mark well the slendernesse of this comparison whereby he would give us to understand the base estate and faint heart of Harpalion For in other places having to write of noble valiant and magnanimous persons when they were ready to give up the ghost he useth the words Sphadazein Bruchein and the like to these secretly insinuating to us that they fell not down dead like impotent Cowards or timorous abjects but that they raged like Lions with grinding and gnashing their teeth together that they were blasted benummed or suddenly deprived of all their lives and senses c. But here this pusillanimous and sordidous minded man Harpalion seemed to be disgraced by his resembling to a poor Worm being peradventure a man of so small estimation and vile condition as that no greater comparison seemed to fit him It seemeth he was a man but of a faint courage and very weak withall because striking and thrusting with his Spear or Javellin at the Shield or Target of Atrides he was not able to strike it through But although this famous Poet doth so much seem to extenuate and debase a weak Worm yet others have left us in their writings such commendations of their singular use and necessity for the recovery of mans health then which no earthly thing is more pretious and have so nobilitated the worth of these poor contemptible Creatures as I think nature as yet hath scarse given any other simple Medicine or experience found out by tract of time nor knowledge of plants by long study hath revealed nor Paracelsus by the Distillations of his Limbeck hath made known to the world any secret endued with so many vertues and excellent properties against so many diseases and for proof hereof it shall not be beside the purpose to examine and describe the rarest and most probable that are recorded amongst the learned Earth-worms do mollifie conglutinate appease pain and by their terrestrial and withall water ish humidity they do contemper any affected part orderly and measurably moderating any excesse whatsoever The powder of Worms is thus prepared They use to take the greatest Earth-worm that can be found and to wrap them in Mosse suffering them there to remain for a certain time thereby the better to purge and clense them from that clammy and filthy slimynesse which outwardly cleaveth to their bodies When all this is done they presse hard the hinder-part of their bodies neer to the tail squeesing out thereby their excrements that no impurity so neer as is possible may be retained in them Thirdly they use to put them into a pot or some fit vessel with some white Wine and a little salt and straining them gently between the fingers they first of all cast away that Wine and then do they pour more Wine to them and after the washing of the Worms they must also take away some of the Wine for it must not all be poured away as some would have it and this must so often be done and renewed until the Wine be passing clear without any filth or drossinesse for by this way their slimy jelly and glutinous evil quality is clear lost and spent Being thus prepared they are to be dryed by little and little in an Oven so long till they may be brought to powder which being beaten and searsed it is to be kept in a Glasse vessel far from the fire by it self A dram of this powder being commixed with the juyce of Marigolds cureth the Epilepsie with some sweet Wine as Muscadel Bastard or the Metheglin of the Welchmen It helpeth the Dropsie With white Wine and Myrrhe the Jaundise with new Wine or Hydromel the Stone Ulcers of the Reins and Bladder It stayeth also the loosnesse of the belly helpeth barrennesse and expelleth the Secondine it asswageth the pain of the hanch or hipâ— by some the Sciatica it openeth obstructions of the Liver driveth away Tertian Agues and expelleth all Worms that are bred in the Guts being given and taken with the decoction or distilled Water of Germander Worm-wood Southern-wood Garlick Scordum Centory and such like The decoction of Worms made with the juyce of Knot-grasse or Comfery Salomons Seal or Sarasius compound cureth the disease tearmed by Physitians Diabetes when one cannot hold his water but that it runneth from him without stay or as fast as he drinketh A Glyster likewise made of the decoction of Earth-worms and also taken accordingly doth marvellously asswage and appease the pain of the Hemorrhoids There be some that give the decoction of Earth-worms to those persons that have any congealed or clotted bloud in their bodies and that with happy successe The vertue of Earth-worms is exceedingly set forth both by the Grecians and Arabians to encrease Milk in womens breasts Hieronymus Mercurialis a learned Physitian of Italy adviseth Nurses to use this confection following in case they want milk always provided that there be not a Fever joyned withall Take of the Kernels of the fruit of the Pine-tree sweet Almonds of each alike one ounce seeds of Fennel Parsley and Rapes of either alike one dram of the powder of Earth-worms washed in Wine two drams with Sugar so much as is sufficient to be given the quantity of a dram or two in the morning and after it drink some small Wine or Capon-broth boyled with Rape-seeds and Leeks Against the Tooth-ach the same powder of Earth-worms is proved singular being decocted in Oyl and dropped a little at once into the ear on the same side the pain is as Pliny witnesseth or a little of it put into the contrary ear will perform the same effect as Dioscorides testifieth And thus far of Earth-worms taken into the body and of their manifold vertues according to the evidence and testimony of Dioscorides Galen Aetius Paulus Aegineta Myrepsus Pliny and daily experience which goeth beyond the precepts of all skilful Masters for this is the Schoolmistris of all Arts as Manilius in his second Book hath written Per varios usus artem experientia fecit
meâ—itations of a Christian man and carrieth him aloft consider how the Silk-worm makes her self a tombe that is unpassable by reason of her woven work that is most compacted within in which the Worm contracted into it self seems to die and by a prodigious metamorphosis it is born anew a Butterfly a more noble creature which by the weaving of its wings flies up into the air toward heaven whereas before its burial it lived a base creeping creature fastned to the earth and glued to the food of the ground See whether a little beast that is obscure of the kinde of Locusts living amongst the stubble of the fields when she is consumed with extreme leanness which from the posture of one that is praying the French men of Narbon call Pregadion do not teach men to hold up their hands in prayer unto heaven and admonish them to observe a convenient gesture in offering up their supplications unto God What think you of the greater Beetle the Indian Rhinoceros which being bred without a female as the rest of the like kindes are dies and riseth again out of her own corruption like a Phoenix after her change when she was supposed to be wholly dead Lastly what think you of Flies which when they are drown'd many hours in water if you bury them in hot embers you shall revive them again Truly I doubt not but that amongst those serious cogitations the object whereof will seem not so serious in respect of other false appearances of men that are illiterate and unreasonable thy minde may rise to its original and fastning thy eyes on heaven inspired by God wilt cry out O the depth and with the divine Psalmist wilt return a Psalm of thanks to the Maker of Nature How wonderful are thy works O Lord In wisdom hast thou made them all the earth â—s full with thy possession So shall I have whereby I may rejoyce that however the whole course of thy age hitherto hath been but one continual act of Philosophy yet that by the rare advantage of this Present which is curious with variety I have given thee a new occasion of no less solid and profitable than of pleasant and ingenious meditation Suffer therefore that a friendly hand may convey into your Library the Off spring of the most learned Mouffet which is now at last published and brought to light and amongst so many volumes wherewith thy Study shelfs are most excellently furnished assign a place for it worthy of the Father and the Son Besides the good things mentioned that shall from thence accrew unto thee and the very great increase thou shalt reap from the hours thou shalt spend in reading the Book if I may jest with thee thy own profit shall not want its advantage lest thy proper benefit should here seem to be neglected In these leaves thou shalt finde what will drive away the plague of thy delights those beasts that are the greatest enemies to the Muses their darlings I mean the Moths that devour Books which with a greedy belly and iron teeth though their bodies be very smal prodigally waste and rend the lucubrations of whole ages Let those evil beasts that are the most deadly mischiefs of angry nature be destroyed after an ill manner to prevent the propagation whereof and to kill their infamous progeny whilest in the mean time learned writers of Books endevour to abolish their kinde utterly or their sedulous Collectors do what they can this Book which I send to thee as a remembrance of my love will teach thee in the Chapter that treats of it But let it suffice I began with a small pitcher why should the wheel run till it fill an Amphora The heat of good will and fruitfulness of the subject carry me away I must now take off my hand lest my Epistle should proceed absurdly beyond the bounds which already unawares hath increased into a volume Believe that I am affectionated to thee and how well I wish and desire to thee these lines I have written may speak What remains of thy daies which God hath appointed thee to run the race of thy life before thou receive thy heavenly reward I wish thou maist finish without any pain of minde or body and that I may speak with Aristotle writing his last Testament I pray from my heart that thou maist live longer here for it is well but if any thing happen that thou maist safely arrive and enter gloriously into the harbour of the blessed at the moment decreed Farewel From my Study in the Ides of May and the year of Mans Redemption 1634. A Preface upon the undertaking of this Argument and of the worth and use of it THat the History of Insects is worthy of the chiefest Philosophers the pains of great Aristotle and Pliny and of our Wotton in describing them doth sufficiently demonstrate After their time Conradus Gesner laboured not unfruitfully to perfect that work which they began but by reason of his short life he fainted in the beginning of the race nor was he able to put an end to it But when Pennius of blessed memory met with those papers by a better fate for fifteen years together by infinite reading of all Authors he enriched the History by the exceeding great help of Quickelbergius Clusius Camerarius Sir Thomas Knivet and of his most learned brother Edmund Jo. Jacob Roger Broun Brite but chiefly of our Bruer and some courtesie of Peter Turner That is to be lamented that he also was taken away by untimely death before he had disposed of the matter and framed it to the dignity of this work which he had heaped up together on all sides Hence it was that his Letters were full of blots and confused with doubtful Characters and they had perished had not I laid them apart when they were ready to be cast out of doors and with a great sum of money had redeemed all the torn pieces of it For I had rather something should be taken off from my own estate than from his glory who had spent so much pains in the description of Insects and so much money for the PlateÌ„s engraving wherefore this Mans and Gesners and Wottons fragments being disposed in order adding to them the light of oratory which Pennius wanted I forged the History and according to my abilities which I know how small they are I at last brought it to a period At first I was deterred from it by the difficulty of the work because I saw that Insects are hard to be explained both in respect of the unusualness of the subject and also of the sublime or rather supine negligence of our Ancestors in this point for they stood still in the very entrance and they saluted them only by the way or as the proverb is at the threshold of the door I also feared that which fell out it may be lest there should want dignity of oratory for so exquisite a Narration chiefly when as I oft observed Pennius
All these as also all made Wines are condemned by Themison a chief writer Galen prepares it thus Let the best honey be clarified and add so much wine-vinegar to it that it may please the sick mans palate boyl them till they are well mingled and when you will use it mingle as much water as you please it is boyled enough when it sends forth no more scum Some there are perhaps that deliver these compositions somewhat otherwise and Dioscorides he differs from Misues and Nicolaus from them both In Misue you shall finde ten several sorts of it in Nicolaus I have seen seventeen some simple some compound with Squills Thyme Flower de luce and other herbs and roots Also Gesner brought in an Oxymel with Hellebore which he commends not a little in his Greek Epistle to Adolphus Otto To make thin thick and clammy humours and to root them out but especially to make way for insensible transpiration that is to draw forth from the center to the superficies of the body But you shall finde every where scattered in the Book of his Epistles what force it hath against Melancholy Cacheria Dropsies Epilepsies and Feavers where also you have the Oxymels made with Hellebore the great and the small 4. Apomeli of Philagrius in Aegineta Take white combs full of honey 1 pound fountain-water 3 pound and half break the combs and press out the honey boyl this water and honey together untill the froth of it and that which as it were the waxy part swim a top and be by degrees taken off when it is cool put it into a vessel It cools lightly as Galen saith wherefore in Phlegmone and weariness in a Feaver it is very good Avicenna his syrup of Honey seems to be the same with this In Nicolaus you shal finde three kinds of Apomeli and in Aetius Oribasius Actuarius yet more for they are changed according to the nature of the disease and the sick patient that is the reason that we had rather only touch upon them then to describe them at large It is drunk all the summer to cool the body at which time any man may drink of it especially when it growes sowrish it is held to be of a middle nature between a Mulsum and an Oxymel Galen It is also useful to expectorate with to move urine to purge the belly and to â—ut thick humours Aegineta Ruelius 5. Omphacomeli which Grapoldus did not well translate Bitter honey it is made of the juice of unripe grapes 3 saxtarii and 1 sextarius of honey boyled together or set a sunning for 40 daies when it hath done working put it in a veslel and stop it close and keep it for your uâ—e The same way almost is Melomeli of Quinces made Rhodomeli of roses honey of Myrtils Rhoites Rhodostacte c. you may finde their descriptions and use in Aetius 6. Thalassiomeli is made of equal parts of sea-water rain-water and honey purified and set in the sun in a pitched vessel in the Dog-daies some to two parts of sea-water add one part of honey and so tun it up They both purge but this hath far the less Gorraeus It is pleasant in taste and smell it purgeth gently without troubling the stomach at all Pliny And thus much of Honied drinks It would be too long for me and tedious to the Reader should I set down all kinde of Meats which the Athenians provided with honey and other ingredients therefore it shall not be needfull to rehearse them and it may be it is impossible for divers Nations did variously mingle honey with other things as with milk meat flour wheat cheese and with Sesama whence are these meats made of honey called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Juncates or honeymeats and wafers they have divers names as the thing is made Athenaeus They sacrificed to Ceres this bread of felicity as the Scholiast upon Nicander sheweth we call it honey-bread Also the Scripture teacheth that the nations offered wafers made with honey to the Sun and Moon and to the Queen of heaven wherefore Moses forbad the Israelites to offer honey in their offerings unto God Leviticus the 2. But it may be that was rather forbid the Jewes because honey hath a power of fermenting Also they made it with suet fresh cheese oyl and raisins also to cause sleep the Ancients made a kinde of meat of honey and poppy-seed very pleasant which they called Cocetum as Festus reports Also Ambrosia which was held to be the meat of the gods had that exceeding sweetness whereby it was thought to be so healthful from honey to make men immortal of which Athenaeus and Bellonius write at large But the Indians have the best and the most wholsome juncates who were held to be Barbarians but the truth is they may for their wit be compared with any in Europe and for what I can see to be preferred before them But before honey be used it must be clarified which is thus performed Take honey and fountain water distilled of each 2 pound or as much as you please boyl them and skim off all that swims a top till all the water be consumed Then clarifie it with 12 whites of Eggs. Abynzoar But if you make it hard pure and fast together mingle half a pound of the best wine to one pound of honey thus clarified boyl them skimming them till they grow hard put it in a vial and set it in boyling water and it will grow clear and stony like sugar-candy If honey be but mean it will grow better by boyling whether honey be sophisticate or pure you shall know by bâ—rning it for what is not sophisticate will burn purely The Author of the Geoponicon But if you would separate the quintessence of honey oyl salt water vinegar see Isaac Belga the treasure of Euonymus and other Chymists we will not venture into this ocean being already plunged in the harbour Now I shall shew you its first inventers Saturn was the first inventer of honey as Macrobius and they of Cyrene boast Caliâ—s and Pliny say that Aristaeus first invented honey-works But Diodorus Siculus writes that the Curetes of Crete first found out the use and way of honey Some ascribe this to the Thessalians Others to Melissus the most ancient King of the Greeks Some to Bacchus as Ovid testifieth The Greeks feign that a Nymph called Melissa first found out honey and the use of it and thence she had her Name given her from Bees Who found it or when it is not much matter It is a heavenly gift and very profitable for men if they use it well and warily CHAP. VI. Concerning Wax Bee-glew dregs of Wax Pissoceros Bees-bread and of their Nature and Use WAx in Hebrew Donagh in Arabick Mum Examacha Zamache Aberan in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in High Duch Wachs in English Wax in Brabant Wass in French Cire in Italian Cera in Spanish Cicrai it is either natural
Vlieghe the English Butterfly The Butterfly is a volatile Insect having four wings not two as Constantinus Friburgensis dreamed six feet two eyes standing forth of his head and two lither Cornicles growing forth from before his eyes the Butterfly hath a two forked beak or bill and within those forks is couched another little bill or beak with which they suck in some the day dew others the night They couple sometime with their tails averse sometimes reflex and continue long in the act of Copulation They lay and fasten their Eggs not little worms as Arist imagined on the top and under the leaves some great some small yellow blew blackish white green some lesser then Millet seed some twice as big others just as big according to the colour and natural magnitude of each Butterfly These eggs being laid in a warm place or being cherished and caused to grow in the day time with the heat of the Suns beams shoot forth a Palmer or canker-worm at the first all of one and the same colour with them but afterwards as they grow bigger they change their colour Out of some eggs the Caterpillars appear at four daies end others do not hatch before fourteen daies which by little and little get strength and fly but weakly yea some of them being kept from the injuries of cold and hard weather endure all the winter as experience doth sufficiently confirm in the Silk-worm After copulation all the Butterflies do not presently die but live in a languishing condition till winter and some to the winter solstice the lesser and weaker sort of them are very short lived the more strong and hardy continue longer they appear in the Spring time out of the Canker-worms Aureliae growing by the heat of the Sun and by the temper of the air being in stead of a Midwiâ—e to them they are brought forth The coming of them is for the most part a sign of the Spring coming on but yet not alwaies nor in all places For although they be very weak and not long lived yet while we were writing thus saith Pliny it was observed that their issue was thrice destroyed by cold weather coming again and strange Birds about the 6. of the Kalends of February gave notice of the Springs approach but a while after with a cruel bitter winter weather that succeeded they were all destroyed We ought not to wonder that those foolish Icarian Astrologers having no ground for what they say do tell us that which is false whereas it doth appear by this that Nature her self is inconstant and we being more addicted to second causes than we should and being unmindful of the first Mover are deceived by her Pennius reports of two swarms of Butterflies in one Autumn Now although I do not deny with long and sharp frosts they may all die yet they are able to endure moderate cold and do live in warm places even in very cold seasons For how commonly are they found in houses sleeping all the Winter like Serpents and Bears in windowes in chinks and corners where if the Spider do not chance to light on them they live till the Spring Arist saith that they all take their colour from the worm they are bred of but yet if this be granted they have other colours besides as will appear in their particular Descriptions and Histories They most abound in the time of Mallowes blowing out of whose flowers when they have thrust in their snout or proboscis they suck a sweet juice with whichthey refresh their bodies Columella in his Book de Nat. rerum l. 9. c. 11. speaketh of the Butterflies thus coupling and beginning on this manner The Butterflies couple after August after they have coupled the male straight-way dies out of their dung come forth worms But all these things are so horribly strange that they have no shew of truth For their chief time of coupling is in May and July neither doth any Male of them die immediately after copulation unless it be of that kinde of Butterflies of which those Caterpillars come which are called Silk-worms To conclude those things he supposeth to be dung are indeed eggs out of which come not worms but a great many little Cankers out of whose cases come Butterflies There are so many kindes of Butterflies as there are of the Cankerworms out of whose Aureliae they proceed They differ generally in that some fly abroad especially by night these are called Phalenae Others only by day which are called therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Day-flies The name Phalaina is a Rhodian and Cyprian word for so they as Nicander the Scholiast witnesseth call that creature which flies to the candle viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Turnebus out of Nicolaus and Lycophron will have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of whom because with the motion and force of its wings it oftentimes puts out the candles is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the roughnesse and the bran and meal which seems to be spread upon it it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And because some of them are so far taken with the love of the light that they burn themselves with the flame they are called Pyraustae There are those that interpret this Phalaina to be the Cicindela or Glow-worm but not rightly forasmuch as the Glow-worm never desires the candle at all but delights generally and chiefly in a dark night The Germans call it ein Leight m' ucken ein Leight flugen the Helvetians Flatterschen the Italians Farfalla Paviglione and Poveia our North as also the West countreymen call it Saule i. e. Psychen Animam the soul because some silly people in old time did fancy that the souls of the dead did fly about in the night seeking light Nicander describes a Phalaina thus which Hieremias Martius interprets thus Consider what strange beasts rude Memphis breeds One like a flying worm by candle light Wherein he playes as if he took delight Driven from meats whereon at night he feeds His wings are narrow of pale hue not green But more like ash-coloured to be seen From these things therefore we may gather this description of the Phalena that it is a kinde of Butterfly flying in the night most desirous of enjoying the light from whence it takes its name of a body rough its wings powdered or sprinkled as it were with a fine kinde of ashes or dust lying hid all the day time under leaves or in some obscure place of recesse in the night flying about the candles and by its too much desire of them reducing it self into ashes seldome or never it flies but with the wings standing upright on the back as on the contrary the day Flies keep their wings even with their body Horns they have for the most part either rough and large or very little and short but the day Flies more long and tuberous in the extremity of them The Phalenae come out of the
Grashoppers were of old time men born of the earth but by the favour of the Muses turned into that Musical sort of creatures the Grashoppers Even at this day sustaining their lives with no other food than dew and feeding themselves by continual â—inging they live For this cause the Athenians were called Tettigophori because they wore golden Grashoppers for ornament in their hair and for a token of their nobility and antiquity as Thucidides 1. Syngraph and Heraclides Ponticus de priscis Atheniensibus testifie Erytheus makes a proof of this custome being born of the earth as they say who first governed the Common-wealth of the Athenians and they too in the judgement of Plato the Natives were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. born of the earth Afterwards it came to be a custome that none but an Athenian or one born in the place might wear a Grashopper in his hair of this opinion is Aristoph as also his Scholiast Iâ—idore saith that the Cuckow-spittle doth generate Grashoppers which is not true but that it produceth small Locusts is manifest Lucretius in his 4 Book saith that the Grashopper in the Summer doth shift his skin according to this verse Cum veteres ponunt tunicas aestate Cicada And for that reason he is called by Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the naked Grashoppers or without a skin whom I should not have believed unless I had the picture of the skin so cast off by me Before Copulation the Males are of the more delicate taste afterwards the females for that they have in them white eggs very pleasant to the palat The Parthians as Pliny writeth and the rest of the eastern Nations feed upon them not only for nutrition sake but to open their veins and to stir up their languishing appetite as Atheneus in his 4. Book and Natalis Comes expresly affirm Hence Aristophanes in his Anagyrus out of Theocritus writes that the gods did feed upon Grashoppers at what time they had lost their appetite through choler or passion I have seen saith Aelian l. 12. c. 6. those that sold them tyed in bundles together for men to eat to wit the most voracious of all living creatures did sell the most jejune lest any thing should be lacking to their exquisite dainties Dioscorides gave rosted Grashoppers to eat and saith they are very good against the diseases of the bladder Some saith Galen use dryed Grashoppers for the Colick they give according to the number 3 5 or 7 grains of Pepper as well when it goes off as when it comes on Trallianus bids to give them for the Stone dried and beaten the wings and feet first of all taken away and this to be done in a bath with sweet Wine and Hippocrass Aegineta useth them dryed for the Stone in the reins and for the diseases of the reins he invented the composition called Diatettigon Such another like Antidote doth Myrepsus prescribe but all heads and feet as supervacaneous members being cast away Luminaris hath transcribed an Electuary out of Nicolaus of this sort Take Grashoppers their heads and legs cast away two ounces Grommel seed Saxifrage seed each 1 ounce Pepper Galanga Cinnamon of each 2 drams Lignum Aloes half a dram honey what is sufficient Nicolaus useth Grashoppers burned and powdered mingled with honey and gives them about the bigness of a bean in a quantity of wine Aetius gives three Grashoppers beat in Wine Some in stead of Cantharides use Grashoppers to provoke urine and in my judgement not without very good reason for they are taken with lesse danger and do work sooner as well in this disease as in the weakness of venery Nonus the Physician prescribes an Antidote of Grashoppers and Xenophyllum against the Stone in the kidneys Aretaeus for the remedies of the bladder speaks thus of Grashoppers The best remedy for the bladder is a Grashopper given in its time to eat Males before copulation but afterwards Females as we finde in Aristotle but out of their time dried and powdered boyl them with water and a little spike also let the patient sit in the same for a bath to ease the pains of the bladder Some of our later practitioners put Grashoppers in oyl and set them in the Sun and mingle them with oyl of Scorpions and anoint the privities of men and women the testicles and parts about with it for pains of the bladder Arnoldus Breviar l. 1. c. 20. 32. commends the powder of Grashoppers for the Colick and Iliack passion and also to drive forth the Stone if half a Grashopper in powder be drank with Goats bloud or Diuretick wine Lauframus highly esteems the ashes of Grashoppers to break the Stone taken with Radish water or the decoction of chich Pease Also they cause idle and lazy boyes to hunt after them Theocritus speaks thus of it in his first Idyllium Hee with thin ears of corn bound to a cane did make A whip for Grashoppers to hunt and take Neither are they only excellent meat and very usefull in Physick to men but they feed Birds also and insnare them For the youth of Crete as Bellonius witnesseth hide a hook in the body of a Grashopper and when they have fastned it to a line they cast it up into the air which the Merops seeing catch it and swalloweth which when the boyes perceive they draw it to them and so do exercise their air-fowling not without profit and pleasure The Grashoppers abounding in the end of the Spring do foretel a sickly year to come not that they are the cause of putrefaction in themselves but only shew plenty of putrid matter to be when there is such store of them appear Oftentimes their coming and singing doth pottend the happy state of things so Theocritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niphus saith that what year but few of them are to be seen they presage dearness of victuals and scarcity of all things else But whereas Jo. Langius a Philosopher of great reading and learning and a famous Physician saith lib. 2. epist that Grashoppers did eat the corn in Germany as the Locusts do Stumsius that it was done in Helvetia Lycosthenes lib. prodig and the Greek Epigram doth affirm that they eat the fruits and crop the herbs truly unless they mean a Locust in stead of a Grashopper they declare a strange thing and saving the credit of so famous men I will not believe for they have neither teeth nor excrement as hath been said but only feed and swell with the dew Besides although I have gone over all Helvetia Germany and England and have searcht for a Grashopper as for a needle yet could I fâ—nde none And therefore I suppose that both they themselves as also Guill de Conchy and Albert. Vincentius to have mistaken the Locust or Bruchus for the Grashopper being deceived by the common error who take the one for the other They that desire more of their nature and use may consult the Authors
admirable water to quench that fire and most effectual against it as Gesner received it from a friend Take fountain water one pound honey three spoonfuls shake them in a can and set them in an Emmets hill so that Pismires may easily fall into it when you find that so many are fallen in as will thicken the water shake the Can and as you use to do in making Rose-water so distill them The dose is half a spoonfull or more as the Patient can endure it by reason of his force more or lesse it will wonderfully provoke vomiting and will also evacuate the matter of the disease by Urine Pliny is the Authour from the old sayes that a Quotidian Tertian Quartan and all intermitting Fevers will be cured if the sick cause the parings of his nails to be cast before the entring of the Ant hill and if he catch the first of them that layes hold of them and bind him up and tie him about his neck Art thou troubled with pains in thy ears go to fill a glasse with Emmets and Emmets eggs and stop it well and bake it in an Oven with the bread till it be as hot as the bread that begins to heat then shall you find a water that is very usefull to cure the pains in the ears if it be dayly dropped in Is there a cloud before the sight 〈◊〉 presse out the juyce of the red Emmets and drop it in it doth corrode with some pain and wholly extirpate it Erotus Trotula Theophrastus Emmets egges beaten and put into the ears remove all deafness quickly Marcellus Some bruise them and press out the watry substance and drop it in Some infuse them in a glasse vessell in Oyl and boyl that on the fire and powre that into the ears If Urine be retained and cause the Dropsie drink twenty Pismires and so many egges with them in white wine and they shall help you Also their egges distilled do much when Urine is stopped Leo Faventinus A Maid that cares for her beauty and would make the circles of her eye-lids black Emmets egges bruised with Flies will perform that and give them their desire Some again either through age or disease to use the Poets phrase are beaten in their property and have lost their generative power that they cannot do the office of a husband if they would Some Authours commend to these oyl of Sesamum with Emmets egges bruised and set in the sun if the yard and testicles were anointed with it To this oyl some add Euphorbium one scruple Pepper Rew seed of each one dram Mustard seed half a dram and again they set it in the sun Rasis Arnoldus in this case commends black Ants macerated with oyl of Elder Nicolaus mingleth it with roots of Satyrium and others do give the distilled water thereof to those that are fasting Gesner in Euonymus describes a water conducing thereunto Take saith he a pot besmeered within side with honey and half full of Ants then add long Pepper Nutmegs Cardamon Pellitory of Spain each one pugil Butter what may suffice and digest them fourteen dayes in horse dung then distill them in a Bath and give a little duly to be drank fasting Others saith Merula add Comfery to oyl of Pismires others Borax or root of Masterwort with Wine when the impotent man goes to bed and thus they affirm that men may be cured of feeblenesse and women of barrenness But I wonder at the force of Pismires in this case for Brunfelsius writes that but four Ants taken in drink will make a man unfit for venery and abate all his courage thereunto yet he will maintain that Emmets with common salt and egges and old hogs grease wrapt in a cloth and laid on will cure the pain of the Hip-gowt Marcellus saith that if they be applyed with a little salt they are a present remedy for a Tetter Also as Serenus relates they are good against scabs and itch from an inflamation of bloud The dust in Emmets hils doth deep ly Being mingled with oyl will help it by and by Also Arnoldus reckons Emmets egges amongst such things as take off hair and commends water distilled from them against Noli me tangere and all corroding Ulcers Albertus thinks that drank with Wine they do powerfully dissipate winde Reckon how many Warts you have and take so many Ants and bind them up in a thin cloth with a Snail and bring all to ashes and mingle it with Vinegar Take off the head of a small Ant and bruise the body between your fingers and anoint with it any impostumated tumour and it will presently sink down Nonus Also God that I may omit nothing by the biting of Ants called Solipugae it is a kind of venomous Ant drove the Cynamolgi a slothful and idle people of Aethiopia from their habitations and destroyed them quite Pliny Some think they should be called Solifugae but Cicero cals them Solipugas I have a few things to speak from Authors as from Anthologius Apthonius Natalis Comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Moichea a witty Book of the same argument And Aratus Herodotus Strabo Aristophanes Rasis Aggregator Beroldus Ryffius Zetzes Arnobius have by the by run over the natures of them and their polite life But because they add but little to what hath been said I would no longer play the Pismire lest seeming to be eloquent I might grow impertinent and searching every creek too narrowly I should make more gaps God grant that we whom God hath commanded to learn of Ants when we are idle and mind nothing but our bellies may by his good guiding learn of them and he instructing us we may perform our duty It is a small creature and contemptible for its magnitude yet we must know that goodness is not in greatness but what is good is to be accounted great I have said CHAP. XVII Of the Gloworm and the female Melo and of Anthremus and the field Chislep OFt-times those that are of a great faction and of noble descent will scorn to marry with one of a common family Yet the Poets write that Jupiter did not disdain to imbrace ordinary women and the Cicindela or Gloworm and the oyl Beetle or Meloe though they are of the winged order are not ashamed to couple with others that want wings And for as much as these females are endowed with the same force and dignity by nature which is seen in males I know not why they should refuse or be weary of their chance and of their females when as if their wings be taken off they agree in the same endowments of their minds and bodies We spake abundantly in the first Book concerning their form figure manners virtues use when we speak of their males that have wings and though this Treaty is allotted for Insects without wings yet I would not artificially separate the females from their males whereas naturall love hath from the beginning united them together From the similitude this Insect
the Germans call them Seuren Graben but since this takes not away the cause of them which fosters them the disease still abides wherefore it is best to kill them with an unguent or fomentation which may at once take off that troublesome itching That which penetrates most and kils these Syrones is salt and vinegar Laur. Joubert Joh. Arden formerly the most learned Chiruregeon of England saith that a Lotion with Sublimate kils them quite And it seems not to be against reason for it dries penetrates resists putrefaction and by its heating acrimony kils them all Abinzoar l. 2. c. 19. tract 7. prescribes these following remedies First purge the body with an infusion of wilde Saffron-seed and Nettle-seed after that anoint it outwardly with the oyl of bitter Almonds or de Cherva and with the juice of the leaves of Peach-tree give boyled Partridge for meat and leavened bread Let the patient abstain from all kinde of fruit except almonds especially from Figs Grapes Jujubes and Apples rub the body often with the substance or pulp of Melons or with the Mucilage of the seed But if the body be fleshy rub it with the juyce of the leaves of the Peach-tree Pliny where there is this disease forbids Oxe-flesh Hogs Geese and all kindes of Pulse Erotis l. de pas mul. writes thus Wheat tempered with Wine adding thereto powder of Frankincense put to the parts affected for a plaister will kill these Wheal-worms every where chiefly upon the cheeks and foreheads Another Take common Salt black Soap live Brimstone each alike incorporate them with vinegar of Squils and anoint the place with them Another for Syrones on the face which the Author of the English Rose cals Barrones Take sharp Dock Frankincense Dragons cuttle-bone each alike make a powder and thrice in a week rub the places where the Worms breed but first wash you face with a decoction of Bran and on Sunday wash your face with the white of an egg and white Starch and then wash it often with river-water or with white starch Alexander Petronius Traianus commends this remedy most namely a fine linnen cloth made into lint that it may be the softer and stick the faster binde this to the part affected then lay on the white of an egge that is rosted hard whilest it is hot and cut into large pieces and then binde upon it some thicker cloth and so let it remain some hours Then taking all away you shall finde the inward lint full of these small Lice which is thus proved shake this over the fire and you shall easily hear these young Syrones crack Against hair-eating Worms and Mites in the heads of children that are usual and that will make little holes in them Alexius makes great account of this remedy Take Frankincense Bores-grease so much as you please let them boyl in an earthen vessel that is glased and make an unguent Another Sprinkle on the powder of burnt Allum and lay on some lint Another not uneffectual Powder quick Brimstone with Rose Vinegar of Squils or else incorporate it with Rose-water and binde it on with a cloth for 24 hours Another that is most certain Take juice of Lemmons and Aqua vitae each alike burnt Salt what may suffice mingle them and anoint with them often Another of Hildegard Apply that skimming of the air that is those cobwebs that are scattered in Autumn and it will certainly destroy all those Syrones and little worms Also strew on the powder of Bees that are dead in their hives on the places affected and they will all dye chiefly if it were mixt with Aqua vitae or Vinegar of Squils Again binde on the crums of white bread whilest they are hot do it often the heat will kill them Fir-tree seed burnt to ashes which growes on the top of the tree if it be strewed on will help much Also the kernels of Barberries powdered and laid to the place will kill Syrones Johan Vigo prescribes these remedies against Syrones wheresoever they breed All bitter things saith he are good against them shave the patt affected that they may penetrate the better Oyl of Vitriol warily and lightly powred on will kill them mightily Quicksilver with French Soap and a little Orpiment and some Vinegar of Squils and some Aloes doth much good For Syrons in the Teeth Some call the Worms that breed in mens teeth Syrones which they affirm have fallen forth like shavings of Lute-strings by the smoke of Henbane-seed received at the mouth Though I should truly deny that these shavings are Worms yet that Worms breed in rotten teeth Barbers and every man knowes Against venomous Syrones Abinzoar cals it the disease of Oxen between the flesh and skin there breeds a kinde of venomous Worms which raiseth no small tumour as great as a walnut wherein the Worm Syro lies hid he is venomous indeed though he be but little This disease neglected will kill He appoints the Remedy thus The place must be presently burnt with an actual cautery then apply lint with Barly-meal and sweet water when the pain of the burning is over the humour will fall being anointed with Unguent of Agrippa and oyl of Roses then wash the place with water of Honey and strew on powder of Roses and then using incarnatives close up the wound But if the part cannot be cauterized or cut take Lupine-meal Soot Pepper root of Endive each alike and bruising them all and wetting them with Alchitra fill half a Nut-shel with them and keep them on so long till the force of the medicament may penetrate to the Worm but great care must be had that no part be left bare without the shell A little creature called Nigua as Thevet imagineth doth much vex the West-Indian people It is saith he an Insect most offensive to mens hands far less than a Flea but breeds in the dust as a Flea doth De Lery was taken with the same oversight and was not ashamed to be mad with Thevet for company But Oviedus affirms that they breed between the skin and the flesh but especially they breed under the nails of the fingers into which place when once they are rooted the cause a swelling as great as a pease with a mighty itching and they multiply like to Nits Now if this worm be not timely pickt forth with its brood in a few daies this itching becomes a wonderful pain and the sick dye with the violence of the disease There is a Worm that breeds on the bodies of Hawks and Faulcons under the roots of their wings it is called Trocta we have left off to doubt any longer whether it be a Syron Acarus or Tinea or not by reading Albertus his Book wherein you may read a remedy for that disease at large Also as Bonaceiolus reports in the urines of some women with childe little red Worms called Syrones will be seen which are a certain argument of conception Dermestes is an Insect that will consume skins and from
Herodotus Bangala Aristotle Aelianus Nomadian Oxen. Aelianus Oppianus Phrygian and Erythrean Oxen. Aelianus Oxen of Syria Belgian Oxen. Guicciardine Milk of Kine in Italy Arabian Cowes Pyrrhean Cowes Phenician Cowes Aelianus Hiring of Cowes in Germany and Helvetia The use of Cow milk Pet. Crescent Aristotle Marc. Virg. Food for Cowes giving Milk Palladius Aellanus Signes of a Cowes desire to the Bull. Secrets to provoke lust in Cattell Cellumella Signes at the copulation to know whether the Calf will be Male or Female Aristotle Meaus to cause the Calf at the time of copulation to be either male or female The length of their age A srcret in copulation Of the choise of Kie The description of Oxen in common Time best to provide Oxen. Outward marks of good Oxen. Their several parts The reasons why some oxen are polled Aelianus Aristotle Pliny The parts of a Cow different from Oxen. Galen The manner how Oxen seed fat Herodotus Paul Venet. The time of Oxens age The medicines to preserve an ox in strength Paxamus Vows and superstitious medicines for the cure of Cattel The discovery of the sickness of Cattel and the particular cure thereof The diseases which infest Oxen Kie Cursuâ— boum aut cict alvum aut sebrim inducit How to tame or yoak wiâ—de Oxen. Rosis The understanding of Oxen. Guidus Aelianus The love of Oxen to their yoak-fellow Of the licking of Oxen natural observations Their aptness to go astray The anger of Oxen Kie Gillius Oxen provoked by colours Rasis The natural uses of the several parts of Oxen. How to fatten Cattel A strange report of a fat Cow if true The medicines of the several parts of Oxen and Kie Rasis Furnerius Pliny A History The moral and external use of Oxen both for labour and other industry Vatro Heraclides Augustinus A History Clemens Giraldus Pliny Marc 〈…〉 Idolatry committed with Ox 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 ye Of the choice of Apâ—â— A History Herodotus A History Of the pictures of Oxen. Of the monster Minotaurus The definition and name The cyymology of Vatulus The Epithites of a Calf Varro Men named after Calves A secret by the hoof The diseases of a Calf The cure of worms To choose Calves for store The libbing of Calves Aristotle Sotion Varro Palladius Sotion Collumella Varro Food for Calves Sacrifices of Calves Pliny Coelius Josephus A wonder Monsters of Calves Nic. Villagag The flesh of Calves Pliny Of the medicines Marcellus Pliny Nicander Rasis Marcellus Pliny Marcellus Leonellus Pliny Of the name Artemidorus The Etymologie of the word Horus The kindes of Camels The generation of Bactrian Camels The parts and colour of these Camels The several parts of a Camel Pliny Silvaticus Aristotle Pliny Their procreation Coelius Avicen The pace and agility of Camels Herodotus Of the labour and employment of Camels Pliny Diodorus Pliny Of the use of their natural parts Aelianus Baytius The flesh of a Camel not to be eaten Diodorus Leo Afric Lampridius A history of their natural disposition Caelius Caelius Solinus Sacrifices of Idolatry Gyraldus Aelianus Of the fear and hatred of Camels Herodotus Solinus Porphyrius The length of their life Pliny The medicines in the bodies of Camels Pouzettus Cardinalis Avicenna Marcellus The description of a Dromedary and the Etymology of his name Didymus Isidorus A History Aelianus Diodorus A relation of Joh. Leo Afer out of his ninth Book of the description of Africk Of the name Juli. Capital Pliny A history Isidorus The generation and description Leo Afric Oppianus Hel 〈…〉 rus Their manner of going The Countries breeding these beasts Their natural disposition and mildness The skin Of the name The nature and etymology of a Cat. Their use among the Egyptians A History Coelius Of the taming of Cats and their countries The best Cats Gillius Pliny The game and food on Cats Pliny A secret Of their love and hatred Aelianus The love of home Albertus A way to make Cats keep home A conjectural secret Their copulation Aristotle Aelianus Choise of yong Cats Gillius Coelius Alu. Mundel Their diseases The hurt that cometh by the familiarity of a Cat. Alex. Benidi Abynzoar Of a Cats flesh Ponzettus Alexander Mathaeolus Perottus Galenus The medicinal virtues of a Cat. Galen Sextus Aetius Rasis Albertus Pliny Olaus Mag. The name Of the colour A miraculous thing in her drink Strabo lib. 7. Of the Countries of their breed Of their hunting and taking Of their procreation Mat. Michou Strabo Of the name Platina Hermolaus Polybius Grapaldus The etymology of the name Their Countrey Munsterus Athenaeus Pliny Varro Their parts and members Agricola Aelianus The use of their skins Crescennensis The use of their flesh Pliny The places of their abode Their copulation and procreation Tho. Gypson Tho. Gypson The cruelty of the males and of some females Their meat and sood The danger in their meat and drink Albertus The medicins in a Cony The name Gaza Of their horns colour and other parts What Hippelaphus is Aristotle A secret in the bloud Of the medicines The reason of the Latine name Avicen The Countries breeding Roes Marcellus Albertus Pliny Strabo Their nature and several parts Stumpsius Albertus Pliny Pausanias Bellonius Edlebach Of their eye-sight Origen super Cant. Textor Pliny Cardanus The place of then abode Their concord with other beasts Columella Of their takeing Bellisarius Cresconius The use of their flesh Simion Sethi Avicenna Trallianus Apicius Of the disposition and passion Their enemies in nature Sacrifices of Roes Pausanias Aelianus The medicines arising from a Roe Sextus Actius Galen Plinius Of the generation of this beast Athenaeus The Countrirs of this beail and the name hereof Xenophon Plutarch Coelius Of the parts Of the Countries of this beast Agricola Of their strength and colour A secret in their passion A secret in the hoof Their quantity in length and breadth Of the description of this beast The names of a Hart. The names of a Hinde The names of a Hinde-calf Aristotle Pliny Of Spittards and Subulons Of Brocards The quantity of Brocards Of their horns Aristotle Of the Achaian Harts Gaza A miracle in the horn of this beast Athenaeus Of the regions breeding Harts Solinus Aelianus Aristotle A secret in the ears of Harts Ammianus A History Pollux Varinus Of the colour Aristotle Buellius Philostratus A History Plutarch Gellius Of their horns and the beauty of them The time of losing their horns Pliny Aelianus A history of a Hart with four horns Whether the right or left horn be most precious Of the horns of Turkey Harts Bonarus Orus The reasons why Harts and Deer lose their horns yearly A natural secret of gelded Deer Aristotle Pliny Solinus The several parts Aristotle Aristotle Aristotle Pliny Of their disposition Pliny A secret to cure poyson Of their food Tragus A secret in the Hinde How Harts draw Serpents out of their holes and wherefore they eat and devour them A 〈…〉 ianus Oppianus 〈…〉 us The fight