of a Dog if it be tied on it will cure all pains Pliny writ this out of Nigidius Also he asserts that if a womans loyns be anoynted with the bloud of it she will abhorre venery Moreover nine or ten Goats Tikes taken in wine will stop the terms Dioscorides Anoynt your eye-lids with the bloud of a Tike taken from a Bitch the hairs being first pluckt off saith Galen Simpl. 10. c. 5. and they will never grow again So also Pliny and Avicenna write but it is from other mens opinions Dionysius Melesius prescribes such a Depilotary against pricking thorny hairs Burn a Sea-hare in a new earthen pot and keep the ashes with Tikes bloud in a horn box use this first pulling out the hairs Many English men have learned by experience that one dram and a half of Sheeps Lice given in drink will soon and certainly cure the Jaundies CHAP. XXVII Of the Garment-eating Moth. PEnnius beginning to write the history of this Insect saith that Tinea is a word that signifies many things as Lice of Hawk-weed according to Albertus Wood-lice in Plautus the plague of Bee-hives in Virgil and it signifies the creeping ulcers of the head that are eaten like to garments whence it may be Glaudian writes The filthy Mâ—ths have gnawn the loathsome head Gaza translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tineas but very ignorantly as we observed in the history of Catterpillars Also Pliny saith that Tineae do destroy the seeds of Figs he means the Worms that breed in Figs from whence grow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niphus cals that little Scorpion which eats books Tineas whereof I spake in the history of Scorpions But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if a man will speak properly is a Worm that eats garments It is called in Latine Tinea a tenendo from holding for it sticks fast in garments and will not easily change its station The French call it Teigne the Spaniards Tina the Italians Tignola the Muscovites Mel the Polonians Mol the English Moth the Hebrewes Hhasch and Sas as you shall finde it Job chap. 13. and Isai 51. It is a little Worm of a wan white colour of which ariseth that small kinde of Flie that will fly at night about the Candle-light There are some of them that are silver-coloured the English call them silver-moths the Dutch Schietes from their swift motion Niphus greatly erred making this the Scorpion amongst Books There is also a certain Worm that is thick or with a coat saith Pliny called Tinea that drawes its coat along with it as a Snail doth its shell and when she is deprived of this she presently dieth But if this coat grow too great it changeth to a Chrysaliâ— out of which at a set time a little Glow-worm comes This kinde hanging by a thred hangs a long time in houses before it changeth to an Aurelia It hath a little black head the rest of the body is a whitish dark brown the Case of it is something long made almost of a Cobweb not round at all but lightly compacted and at each end something hairy The Phalenae that come from thence stick by the feet to the roofs of houses untill their bodies being corrupted and putrefied they are bred again when their bodies corrupt and their wings and feet fall off of themselves they hang with a thred by the tails At length they get a Case and are turned into this kinde of Moth. In Germany and Helvetia there is a Moth of a sad red colour with a little thick head the body grows by degrees smaller even to the tail The colour of its belly is lighter something yellow and like a soft downy silk It is a very tender Creature especially that which is silver'd over and it is bruised to pieces if you do but touch it Whence that Kingly Psalmist Psal 39. When thou with chastisements shalt correct man thou makest him to consume away as a Moth. And Job Chap. 40. he amplifying the certain destruction of the wicked They shall be bruised saith he before the Moth. All Moths are reckoned amongst the number of six-footed Creatures and they breed in Garments as well of Wooll as skins that are not cleansed from dust and filth and so much the sooner if a Spider be shut in as Aristotle writes For the Spider drinks up all their inbred moysture and dries them wherefore care must be had that garments be not layd up full of dust and when the Air is thick and moyst Some to avoid Moths ventilate their garments in the hot Sun-shine which our women severely forbid and lay them up in the shade and when the winde is high and very cold For they hold that the Sun-beams are kindly for Moths but windes and tempests and the shade are enemies to them These Worms when they have by degrees insensibly eat off the outmost superficies of the cloth then they eat up the inward part and so insinuate themselves into the middle substance of it that those that search never so well for them can hardly finde them The Ancients were most expert to kill Moths For the garments of Servius Tullius lasted to the destruction of Sejanus for they were kept with so great diligence by the keepers of the Wardrobe that they neither consumed by age nor were Moth-eaten They that sell woollen Clothes use to wrap up the skin of a Bird called the Kings-Fisher amongst them or else hang one in the shop as a thing by a secret Antipathy that Moths cannot endure They are handsomely destroyed by the sent and smoke of Savin Hops Finger hood Wormwood Rosemary Poley Panax Aniseed Golden-flower Pomegranates Citron-pills for this was the chiefest use of Citrons in old time the out-landish Myrtle Cedar Cypresse Calamint Brimstone Downy feathers The Books that were found in Numa his Tomb were said to be anoynted with the juice of Cedar wherefore as Pliny writes they were supposed to be free from Moths above 530. years The bones of Bergesterts I know not what beast it is being brought to powder and strew'd amongst garments will drive away Moths if we will credit Hildegard Rhasâ—s reports that Cantharides hung up in the middle of the house will do as much Who saith moreover that garments wrapt up in a Lions skin will never have any Moths Some wet a a linnen cloth in a strong lie and dry it in the Sun without pressing it and they affirm that clothes wrapt in that will not be Moth-eaten Cato bids sprinkle your Wardrobe with Oyl-lees That which Pliny reports is a wonder that a Cloth laid under the Biere of a dead body will never have Moths to hurt it The richer people who as Horace writes Whose hangings rot in Chests rich for the Worms and Moths take diligent care in Summer to look up their garments and taking them out of their Coffers they air them in open place for the winde and then they beat off the dust with the leaves of Indian
great Mice The hair of the Egyptian Mice is very hard and for the most part like a Hedge-hogs and there are also some which walk bolt upright upon two feet for they have the hinder-legs longer and their fore-legs shorter their procreation is also manifold and they do likewise sit upon their buttocks and they use their fore-feet as hands But Herodotus affirmeth these Mice to be of Africkâ— and not of Egypt amongst the African or Carthaginian pastures saith he in Africk towards the Orient there are three kindes of Mice of the which some are called Bipedal or two-footed some in the Carthaginian language Zetzeries which is as much in our language as hills some Hedge-hogs Thare are more kindes of Mice in the Cyrenaican region some which have broad fore-heads some sharp some which have pricking hair in the manner of Hedge-hogs It is reported that in Cyrene there are divers kindes of Mice both in colour and shape and that some of them have as broad a countenance as a Cat some have sharp bristles and bear the form and countenance of a Viper which the Inhabitants call Ethenetae but improperly as it appeareth by the words of Aristotle in his book of Wonders Herodotus also affirmeth the like of those Mice to be in shape and colour like Vipers but Pliny and Aristotle do both disallow it and say that in those juice there is nothing common to Vipers but only to Hedge hogs as concerning their sharp bristles There are also some Mice in Egypt which do violently rush upon pastures and corn of which things Aelianus speaketh saying in this manner When it beginneth first to rain in Egypt the Mice are wont to be born in very small bubbles which wandering far and near through all the fields do affect the corn with great calamity by gnawing and cutting asunder with their teeth the blades thereof and wasting the heaps of that which is made in bundles do bring great pains and business unto the Egyptians by which it comes to pass that they endure all manner of ways to make snares for them by setting of Mice-traps and to repel them from their inclosures and by ditches and burning fires to drive them quite away but the Mice as they will not come unto the traps for as much as they are apt to leap they both go over the hedges and leap over the ditches But the Egyptians being frustrated of all hope by their labours all subtil inventions and policies being left as it were of no efficacy they betake themselves humbly to pray to their Gods to remove that calamity from them Whereat the Mice by some fear of a divine anger even as it were in battel aray of observing a squadron order do depart into a certain Mountain The least of all these in age do stand in the first order but the greatest and eldest do lead the last troups compelling those which are weary to follow them But if in their journey the least or youngest do chance through travail to wax weary all those which follow as the manner is in Wars do likewise stand still and when the first begin to go forward the rest do continually follow them It is also reported that the Mice which inhabit the Sea do observe the same order and custom The African Mice do usually die assoon as ever they take any drink but this is commonly proper unto all Mice as Ephesius affirmeth where it is written above concerning the poysoning of Mice Mice but especially those of Africk having their skins pulled off boiled with Oyl and Salt and then taken in meat doth very effectually cure those which are troubled with any pains or diseases in the lungs or lights The same doth also easily help those which are molested with corrupt and bloudy spettings with retchings The kindes of African Mice are divers some are two footed some have hair like unto Hedge-hogs some faces of the breadth of a Weesil but some call these Mice Cirenacian some Egyptian as I have before declared In Arabia there are certain Mice much bigger then Dormice whose former legs are of the quantity of a hand breadth and the hinder of the quantity of the joynt to the end of the finger I do understand them to be so short that nothing thereof may seem to appear without the body except the space of the joints of the finger as it is in Martinets It is said that the garments of the Armenians are usually woven with Mice which are bred in the same Countrey or diversly docked with the shape of the same creature The Author writeth that Pliny maketh mention of the Armenian Mouse but I have read no such thing therefore he doth perchance take the Armenian Mouse for the Shrew In Cappadocia there is a kinde of Mouse which some call a Squirrel Aelianus writing of the Caspian Mice Amyntas saith he in his Book entituled De Mansionibus which he doth so inscribe saith that in Caspia there do come an infinite multitude of Mice which without any fear do swi inm the flouds which have great and violent currents and holding one another by their tails in their mouths as it is likewise reported of Wolves have a sure and stable passage over the water But when they pass over any tillage of the earth they fell the corn and climing up into trees do eat the fruit thereof and break the boughs which when the Caspians cannot resist they do by this means endevour to restrain their turbulent incursions for they remove all things which may hurt birds having crooked talons who come presently so flying in such great flocks or companies that may seem to be clouds to expel the Mice from their borders and by a proper gift incident unto them by nature do drive away hunger from the Caspians Neither in quantity are these Mice inferiour to the Egyptian Ichneumons they are also ungentle and they do no less devour with the strength of their teeth then the Mice of Teredon in Babylon do Iron whose soft skins the Merchants carry to the Persians The Indian Mouse or Pharaohs Mouse as some learned later Writers do write is no other then the Ichneumon Antonius musa Brasavolus took the before expressed figure of an Indian Mouse for so he did call it which before that time was shewn by Bellonius and I guessed it to be an Ichneumon and truly in the snowt if you take away the beard and in the ears it doth agree but in the tail it doth differ which doth rather resemble a Cats and in many other things which by conferring them are easâ—e to be marked and as I conceived it I have set it down Of the Moschatte or Musk-cat THis Beasts name is derived from the Hebrew word Bosem which signifieth sweet odour for the Germans call the same Bisem and the Beast it self Bisemthier And the Graecians derive their Moschos of Moo and ozo to seek and to smell and of Mesou
the third kinde of the Unicorn and I trust that there is no wise man that will be offended at it for as we have shewed already in many stories that sundry Beasts have not only their divisions but sub-divisions into sub-alternal kindes as many Dogs many Deer many Horses many Mice many Panthers and such like why should there not also be many Unicorns And if the Reader be not pleased with this let him either shew me better reason which I know he shall never be able to do or else be silent lest the uttering of his dislike bewray envy and ignorance Now although the parts of the Unicorn be in some measure described and also their Countries namely India and Aethiopia yet for as much as all is not said as may be said I will add the residue in this place And first of all there are two Kingdoms in India one called Niem and the other Lamber or Lambri both these are stored with Unicorns And Aloisius Cadamustus in his fifty Chapter of his Book of Navigation writeth that there is a certain Region of the New-found World wherein are found live Unicorns and toward the East and South under the Equinoctial there is a living creature with one horn which is crooked and not great having the head of a Dragon and a beard upon his chin his neck long and stretched out like a Serpents the residue of his body like to a Harts saving that his feet colour and mouth are like a Lions and this also if not a fable or rather a Monster may be a fourth kinde of Unicorn and concerning the horns of Unicorns now we must perform our promise which is to relate the true history of them as it is found in the best Writers This therefore growing out of the fore-head betwixt the eye-lids is neither light nor hollow nor yet smooth like other horns but hard as Iron rough as any file revolved into many plights sharper than any dart straight and not crooked and every where black except at the point There are two of these at Venice in the Treasury of S. Marks Church as Brasavolus writeth one at Argentarat which is wreathed about with divers Spires There are also two in the Treasury of the King of Polonia all of them as long as a man in his stature In the year 1520 there was found the horn of a Unicorn in the River Aâ—rula near Bruga in Helvetia the upper face or outside whereof was a dark yellow it was two cubits in length but had upon it no plights or wreathings It was very odoriferous especially when any part of it was set on â—iee so that it smelled like musk assoon as it was found it was carryed to a Nunnery called Campus regius but afterwards by the Governor of Helvetia it was recovered back again because it was found within his territory Now the vertues of this horn are already recited before and yet I will for the better justifying of that which I have said concerning the Unicorns horn add the testimony of our learned men which did write thereof to Gesner whose letters according as I finde them recorded in his work so I have here inserted and translated word for word And first of all the answer of Nicholas Gerbelius unto his Epistle concerning the Unicorns horn at Argentoratum is this which followeth for saith he The horn which those Noblemen have in the secrets of the great Temple I have often seen and handled with my hands It is of the length of a tall man if so be that you shall thereunto add the point thereof for there was a certain evil disposed person amongst them who had learned I know not of whom that the point or top of the same horn would be a present remedy both against all poyson and also against the Plague or Pestilence Wherefore that sacrilegious thief plucked off the higher part or top from the residue being in length three or four fingers For which wicked offence both he himself was cast out of that company and not any ever afterwards of that family might be received into this society by an Ordinance gravely and maturely ratified This pulling off the top brought a notable deformity to that most splendant gift The whole horn from that which sticketh to the fore-head of this beast even unto the top of the horn is altogether firm or solid not gaping with chops chinks or crevises with a little greater thickness then a tile is usually amongst us For I have oftentimes comprehended almost the whole horn in my right hand From the root unto the point it is even as wax candles are rowled together most elegantly severed and raised up in little lines The weight of this horn is of so great a massiness that a man would hardly believe it and it hath been often wondred at that a beast of so little a stature could bear so heavy and weighty a burden I could never smell any sweetness at all therein The colour thereof is like unto old Ivory in the midst betwixt white and yellow But you shall never have a better pattern of this then where it is sold in little pieces or fragments by the Oylmen For the colour of our horn is life unto them But by whom this was given unto that same Temple I am altogether ignorant Another certain friend of mine being a man worthy to be believed declared unto me that he saw at Paris with the Chancellor being Lord of Pratus a piece of a Unicorns horn to the quantity of a cubit wreathed in tops or spires about the thickness of an indifferent staffe the compass thereof extending to the quantity of six fingers being within and without of a muddy colour with a solid Iubstance the fragments whereof would boil in the Wine although they were never burned having very little or no smell at all therein When Joannes Ferrerius of Piemont had read these things he wrote unto me that in the Temple of Dennis near unto Paris there was a Unicorns horn six foot long wherein all those things which are written by Gerbelius in our Chronicles were verified both the weight and the colour but that in bigness it exceeded the horn at the City of Argentorate being also hollow almost a foot from that part which sticketh unto the fore-head of the Beast this he saw himself in the Temple of S. Dennis and handled the horn with his hands as long as he would I hear that in the former year which was from the year of our Lord 1553. when Vercella was overthrown by the French there was brought from that treasure unto the King of France a very great Unicorns horn the price whereof was valued at fourscore thousand Duckets Paulus Poaeius describeth an Unicorn in this manner That he is a Beast in shape much like a young Horse of a dusty colour with a maned neck a hairy beard and a fore-head armed with a horn of the quantity of two cubits being separated with
unto this which is thus Take of Bryony Opopanax of the root of Iris Illirica and of the root of Rosemary and of Ginger of each of these three drams of Aristolochia five drams of the best Turpentine of wilde Rue of each three drams of the meal of Orobus two drams make them into Trochisces with Wine every one weighing one scruple and a half or two scruples to be given in Wine Galen in his second Book De antidotis chapter 49. discourseth of a certain Theriacal medicament called Zopyria antidotus so taking the name of one Zopyrus which was notable against all poysons and bitings of venomous creeping creatures This Zopyrus in his Letters written unto Mithridates sollicited him very much that he would make some experiment of his Antidote which as he put him in minde he might easily do by causing any one that was already condemned to die to drink down some poyson aforehand and then to take the Antidote or else to receive the Antidote and after that to drink some poyson And put him in remembrance to try it also in those that were wounded any manner of way by Serpents or those that were hurt by Arrows or Darts anointed or poysoned by any destroying venom So all things being dispatched according to his praemonition the Man notwithstanding the strength of the poyson was preserved safe and sound by this alexipharmatical medicine of Zopyrus Matthiolus in his Preface upon the sixth Book of Dioscorides entreating of Antidotes and preservatives from poyson saith that at length after long study and travail he had found out an Antidote whose vertue was wonderful and worthy admiration and it is a certain quintessence extracted from many simples which he setteth down in the same place He saith it is of such force and efficacie that the quantity of four drams being taken either by it self or with the like quantity of some sweet senting Wine or else with some distilled water which hath some natural property to strengthen the heart if that any person hath either been wounded or strucken of any venomous living thing and that the patients life be therewith in danger so that he hath lost the use of his tongue seeing and for the most part all his other senses yet for all that by taking this his Quintessence it will recover and raise him as it were out of a dead sleep from sickness to health to the great astonishment and admiration of the standers by They that desire to know the composition of this rare preservative let them read it in the Author himself for it is too long and tedious to describe it at this time There be besides these compounds many simple medicines which being taken inwardly do perform the same effect as namely the Thistle whereupon Serenus hath these verses following Carduus nondum doctis fullonibus aptus Ex illo radix tepido potatur in amni That is to say The root of Teasil young for Fullers yet unfit Drunk in warm water venom out doth spit That Thistle which Qu. Serenus here understandeth is properly that plant which of the Greeks is called Scolymos Yet it is taken sometimes for other prickly plants of the same kinde as for both the Chamaeleons Dipsacos or Labrum Veneris Spina alba Eryngium and some other But Dioscorides attributeth the chiefest vertue against poysons to the Thistle called Chamaeleon albus and to the Sea-thistle called Eryngium marinum which some call Sea-hul or Hulver for in his third book and ninth chapter entreating of Chamaeleon albus he saith thus The root of it taken with Wine inwardly is as good as Treacle against any venom and in the 21 chapter of the same Book Eryngium is saith he taken to good purpose with some Wine against the biting of venomous creatures or any poyson inwardly taken And the same Serenus adscribeth to the same vertue to the Harts curd or rennet as followeth Cervino ex soetu commixta coagula viâ—o Sumantur quaeres membris agit atra venena In English thus Wine mixt with Rennet taken from a Hart So drunk doth venom from the members part He meaneth a young Hart being killed in the Dams belly as Pliny affirmeth also the same in his 8. Book and 30. chapter in these words The chiefest remedy against the biting of Serpents is made of the Coagulum of a Fawn kill'd and cut out of the belly of his Dam. Coagulum is nothing else but that part in the belly which is used to thicken the Milk Proderit caulem cum vino haurire sambuci Qu. Serenus Which may be Englished thus In drink the powder of an Elder-stalk Gainst poison profiteth as some men talk That vertue which Serenus here giveth to the stalk of Dwarf Elder for that is meant in this place the same effect Dioscorides attributeth to the root in his fourth Book and Pliny to the leaves The herb called Betony is excellent against these foresaid affects and by good reason for the greatest part of poysons do kill through their excess of coldness and therefore to overcome and resist them such means are necessary by which natural and lively heat is stirred up and quickned and so the poyson hindred from growing thick together and from coagulation Again all men do agree that those medicines are profitable which do extenuate as all those do which have a property to provoke urine and Betony is of this quality and therefore being taken with Wine it must needs do good in venomous bitings and that not only in the bitings of Men and Apes but in Serpents also Radish also hath the same quality being taken with Vinegar and Water boiled together 〈◊〉 else outwardly applyed as Serenus affirmeth Sive homo seu similis turpissima bestia nobis Vulnera dente dedit virus simul intulit atrum Vetonicam ex duro prodest assumere Baccho Nec non raphani cortex decocta medetur Si trita admorâ—is fuerit circumlita membris In English thus If Man or Ape a filthy beast most like to us By biting wound and therein poyson thrust Then Betony in hard Wine steeped long Or rinde of Radish sod as soft as pap Do heal applyed to the members stâ—â—g There be certain herbs and simples as wilde Lettice Vervin the root called Rhubarb Agarick Oyl of Oliander and the leaves of the same the seeds of Peony with a great number a little before described that being taken either inwardly or outwardly in juyce or powder do cure poyson yea though it be received by hurt from envenomed arrows shafts or other warlike engines and weapons for the Arabians Indians the Galls now tearmed French-men and Scythians were wont to poyson their arrows as Paulus Orosius in his third Book testifieth of the Indians where he writeth how Alexander the Great in his conquering and winning of a certain City under the government of King Ambira lost the greatest part there of his whole Army with envenomed darts and quarrels And Celsus in his fifth Book saith that
the ancient Galles were wont to anoint their arrows with the juyce of white Hellebore with which they they did great mischief Pliny affirmeth the same to be used of the Scythian Nation The Scythians saith he do anoint their Arrow-heads with the corrupt poysonous and filthy stained dreggy bloud of Vipers and with Mans bloud mixed together so that the wound seemeth to be incurable And to this alludeth Quintus Serenus Cuspide non quisquam longa neque caede sarissae Fulmine non gladii volucris nec felle sagittae Quà m cito Vipereo potis est affligier ictu Quare aptam dicamus opem succosque manentes Which may be thus Englished There is no Man with Spear or Launces point Sharp edge of Sword or swift Arrows might To kill so soon as Vipers force doth dint Then fit is the aid and means that it acquite There is a certain kinde of people to whom it is naturally given either by touching or sucking to cure the wounding of venomous Serpents called Psylli a people of Lybia and Marsi people of Italy bordering upon the Samnites and Aequiculania and those that were called by the Ancient Writers Ophiogenes which dwelt about Hellespont as both Pliny Aelianus and Aeneas Sylvius do witness Callias in his tenth Book of the history which he wrote of Agathocles the Syracusan saith that if any man were bitten of a Serpent if either a Lybian by birth or any Psyllus whose body was accounted venom to Serpents was either purposely sent for or came that way by chance and saw the wound but indifferently and not very sore tormenting the Patient that if he did lay but a little of his spittle upon the biting or stroke that presently the aking and pain would be mitigated But if he found the sick Patient in great and intolerable anguish and pain he took this course iâ— his curation that first he would suck and draw up into his mouth a great deal of water and first riâ—se and wash his own mouth therewith and after this pouring it all out of his own mouth into a cup he would give it to the poor wounded person to sup off Lastly if the malignity and strength of the venom had crept and spread it self very far and deep into the body so that there was danger of death then would he strip himself stark naked and so lie and spread his body upon the naked body of the sick person and so by this way of touching break the malice and quality of the poyson and give perfect cure to the man For more confirmation hereof Nicander Colophonius is sufficient auâ—hority whose verses I will here describe Audivi Libycos Psyllos quos aspera Syrtis Serpentumque ferax patria alit populos Non ictu inflictum diro morsuve venenum Laedere quin laesis ferre opem reliquis Non vi radicum proprio sed corpore juncto Which is in English thus The people Psylli bred in Lybia Land Neer Syrtes where all Serpents do abound Are never stung nor bitten by that band Vnto their harm or any bodies wound But straight one naked man anothers burt doth heal No roots but bodies vertue danger doth repeal Some of the Greeks have left in writing that the Idolatrous Priests and Prelates of the God Vulcan that dwelt in Isle Lemnos had a special vertue given them to cure those who were wounded by Serpents whereupon it is said that Philoctetes being wounded by a Serpent before the Altar of Apollo went thither to be remedied of his hurt Cornelius Celsus saith flatly that the people called Psylli had no such peculiar gift in healing them that were hurt of Serpents either by sucking or touching the place but being boldly adventurous had presumed thereby to attempt and do that which others of less courage had no stomach to do for whosoever durst be so confident as to follow their example should be himself out of danger and assure the other safe and free from fear of further hurt Galen in his book De Theriaca ad Pisonem manifestly sheweth that the Marsi who lived in his days had no such special quality against the poyson of Serpents but that with their crafty dealing and knavish tricks they beguiled the common people For saith he those Juglers and Deceivers do never hunt Vipers at any convenient time but long after the prime of the year and Spring wherein they cast their skins when as they are weak and have lost their strength and are very faint then do they take them and so by long use and continuance teach them and inure themselves one to another and bring it so to pass that they wil feed them with strange and unaccustomed meats to their nature yea they will permit them to tast of flesh and constrain them to be continually gnawing and biting of the same that by their so labouring and striving their poyson may by little and little be spent and purged out of their bellies Besides all this they give them a kinde of bread made of milk and flour that by this means the holes in their teeth may be stopped and so by this laborious course of dieting them they bring the matter so about that their bitings are very weak and do small annoyance to any that they strike at So that the seers and lookers on account it a thing exceeding common reason and nature and blaze it abroad for a miracle Matthiolus also a Physitian of late days agreeth with him in this point affirming expresly that these kinde of trumperies and crafty fetches are much put in practise in these times by such bold and impudent Quacksalvers Mountebanks and couseners of plain Countrey people who dare face it out lie faign and cog that they are descended from the race and linage of Saint Paul wherein they shew themselves notorious lyers c. Thus far Matthiolus Serpents do sometimes creep into the mouths of them that are fast asleep whereupon a certain Poet saith Non mihi tunc libeat dorso jacuisse per herbdnt Which may be Englished thus Then would I not upon the grass Lie on my back where Serpents pass For if a man sleep open mouthed they slily convey themselves in and winde and roll them round in compass so taking up their lodging in the stomach and then is the poor wretched man miserably and pitifully tormented his life is more bitter then death neither feeleth he any release or mitigation of his pain unless it be by feeding this his unwelcome guest in his guest-chamber with good store of milk and such other meats as Serpents best like of The only remedy against this mischief is to eat good store of Garlick as Erasmus in his Dial. De Amicitia saith Cardan saith how that it was reported for a certain that a Viper entring into a Mans mouth being asleep and gaping with his mouth the venomous Worm was expelled only with burning of Leather and so receiving the stinking fume at his mouth the Viper not enduring it he
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
offensive Take female Vipers for we must take heed how we take male Vipers for the confection of Antidotes For Trochuks all Vipers are not convenient but those which be yellow and of the yellow the females only Vipers great with young you must refuse for being pregnant they are more exasperate then themselves at other times Of Vipers be made Trochisces which of the Grecians are called Theriaci four fingers being cut off at either end and the inwards taken out and the pale matter cleaving to the back-bone the rest of the body must be boiled in a dish in water with the herb Dill the back-bone must be taken out and fine flowre must be added Thus these Trochuks being made they must be dryed in the shade apart from the Sun-beams and being so prepared they be of very great use for many medicines The use of Triacle is profitable for many things for not only by his own nature it availeth against the biting of venomous creatures and poysons but also it is found by experience to help many other great infirmities For it easeth the Gowt and pain in the joynts it dryeth fluxes it very much profiteth men molested with the Dropsie leprous and melancholick persons those that have Quartane Agues or the Jaundise those that have a weak voice or that spet bloud those that are troubled with aking reins with Dysentery with the stone with short breath with passion of the liver or milt with choler with heart-ach with the Falling-sicknesse It driveth all kinde of Worms out of the bowels It is the most soveraign remedy of the Plague Even to them that are in health the often use of it is wholesome for it promiseth long life and firm health it consumeth excrements it strengtheneth natural actions it quickeneth the wit and sharpeneth all the senses it preserveth the body from poyson and other offences and maketh it scarse subject to danger by such casualties it begetteth good bloud it corrupteth the the air and waters neither alone doth it deliver from instant diseases but also preserveth from those that be imminent Of EARTH-WORMS ALthough there be many and sundry sorts of Worms which do contain in them some poysonous quality yet for all that at this time my purpose is to discourse especially of Earth-worms whereof some are bred only in the earth and others among plants and in the bodies of living creatures Worms of the earth are termed by Plautus and Columella Lumbrici peradventure as being derived a Lubricitate They are called also Terrae Intestina of the Latines as well because they take their first beginning and breeding in the very bowels and inward parts of the Earth as because being pressed and squeesed betwixt the fingers or otherwise they do void forth excrements after the fashion of living beasts that have intrails in them The Greeks call them Ges entera Hesychius calleth them Embullous Brunfelsius Otho in his Physick Lexicon writeth that they are usually called in the Cilician tongue Gaphagas fetching the derivation of the word parà Tò gaian phágein for they feed upon earth Of the Englishmen they are called Meds and Earth-worms of the French Vers de Terra of the Germans Eert wurm and Erdwurmem Melet Ode Regenwurm of the Belgians Pier-wuorm or Rengenwuorm of the Italians Lumbrichi of the Spaniards Lumbrizes of the Polonians Glisti of the Hungarians Galisza of the Arabians they are called Charatin Manardus in his second Book and 40. Epistle writeth that in times past they were called Onisculi and Nisculi There are found especially two sorts of Earth-worms which are either greater or lesser The greater Earth-worms are somewhat long almost like in proportion and shape to those round Worms which do breed in mens bodies They are half a foot long at least and being stretched out in length they are found to be a foot long they are of a whitish colour and sometimes though seldom of a bloudy hue and for the most part they are all adorned with a chain about their necks or rather they seem to wear a certain collar wherein there is a little bloud contained and they lack eyes and eye-sight as all forts of Worms do They breed of the slime of the earth taking their first being from putrefaction and of the fat moisture of the same earth they are again fed and nourished and into earth at last are resolved When there falleth any showre of rain then this kinde of Worm creepeth suddenly out of the earth where-upon old Euclio in Plautus being very careful of his pot of Gold speaketh aptly to his Drudge Strobilus in these words Foras foras Lumbrice qui sub terra erepsisti modo Qui modo nusquam camparebas nunc autem cùm compares peris Which may be Englished thus Away away thou Worm late from the earth crept out Safe thou wast unseen but seen life fails I doubt Here Euclio very properly termeth his Bondman Strobilus a Worm because not being espyed of his Master before he suddenly came sneaking out from behinde an Altar where he was hid much like a Worm that in moist weather issueth out of the ground Those little heaps which are cast up and lie shining and wrinckled before the mouth or edges of their holes I take them to be their miery excrements for I cold never as yet finde other excrementitious substance drossy matter or other feculency but only bare earth in them whose alimentary juyce and moisture being clean exhausted they cast out the remainder as an unprofitable burthen nothing fit for nourishment At the entrance of their doors which yet steadeth them to some commodious use for stopping and damming up their holes that the rain cannot so easily soke in they are by these means safely defended from many anoyances and dangers that otherwise might light upon them Their delight is to couple together especially in a rainy night cleaving together untill the morning and in the same they are not folded round about one another like unto Serpents but are straightly closed together side-wise and thus do they remain sticking close the one to the other They send forth a certain froathy slime or jelly when that they joyn together They do ever keep the middle part of their body within the earth I mean their hinder-parts yea even in their mutual joyning together neither are they at any time so fast glewed and closed but with the least stirring and motion of the ground that can be imagined they are straight-ways severed withdrawing themselves speedily into their lurking holes In rainy weather they are whiter a great deal then at other times unlesse it be when they couple together for then they appear very red I my self about the midst of April did once open a thick female Worm and within the flesh I found a certain receptacle ringed round about and filling up the whole cavity of the body having a thin membrane or seat enclosing it and in this aforesaid store-house the earth which she had
unguents you may know that it will presently be a showre But if they be in all places many and numerous and shall so continue long if Alexander Benedict and Johannes Damascenus say true they foretel a plague or pestilence because so many of them could not be bred of a little putrefaction of the air Many waies doth natute also by Flies play with the fancies of men in dreams if we may credit Apomasaris in his Apotelesms For the Indians Persians and Aegyptians do teach that if Flies appear to us in our sleep it doth signifie an Herauld at Arms or an approaching disease If a General of an Army or a chief Commander dream that at such or such a place he should see a great company of Flies in that very place where ever it shall be there he shall be in anguish and grief for his Souldiers that are slain his Army routed and the victory lost If a mean or ordinary man dream the like he shall fall into a violent Feaver likely may cost him his life If a man dream in his sleep that Flies went into his mouth or nostrils he is to expect with great sorrow and grief imminent destruction from his enemies Nor do they only foretell storms that shall fall out such daies or such times of the year but they do afford much matter for Medicine and cure for diseases For Galen out of Saranus Asclepiades Cleopatra and others hath taken many Medicines against the disease called Alopecia or the Foxes evill and he useth them either by themselves or mingled with other things For so it is written in Cleopatra's Book de Ornatu Take five grains of the heads of Flies beat and rub them on the head affected with this disease and it will certainly cure it Asclepiades used to take a great many Flies heads fresh pluckt from the body and rub the part that was bare or bald with this disease especially if they were exulcerated For the bloud of Flies saith he doth much help the parts that are exulcerated with Nitrous medicines or are otherwise galled or fretted Soranus used mix a pot full of whole Flies dried to powder with Alcyonium quick Brimstone Gunpowder sowes Gall and other like things against the Fox-evil Some adde to these Bears hair roots of Reed and Fern and bark of Chesnut and with which medicine they cure perfectly not only the Fox-evill but whatever defluxion of hair and the thinnesse thereof however contracted the place affected being only first rubbed till it be red again with fig-leaves Others use the bloud that runs out of the heads of Flies othersome apply the ashes of them ten daies together with the ashes of paper or nuts so that the third part be the ashes of Flies Some others do temper ashes of Flies with womens milk or coleworts some only with honey Pliny After the same manner Haly and Marcellus burn the heads of Flies and mingle them with honey in stead of an oyntment Brassavolus lib. de morbo Gallico maketh use of both the bloud and the ashes of Flies against the Foxes Evill The like Medicine Pliny useth to procure hair on the eye-lids Take of ashes of Flies and Mouse-dung of each alike mingled half a penny weight add to it two sixth parts of Stibium and with these and Oesipus or sheeps fat anoint the part Some prescribe Flies with the roots of Docks for the Leprosie to be annointed withall Pliny saith that there were some that for the same cause did give 21 red Flies dead in drink but those that were very weak a fewer number That Flies are very good for sundry diseases of the eyes not only Haly Galen Pliny and Archigenes have affirmed but also Neotericks or later writers especially for the Pin and web Bleer-eye squint-eye and warts on the eye-lids If the eyes be washed in the evening with water of ordinary Flies distilled in way of bath for a moneths space it will cure them of all spots or films If the hair be often wet with it it will grow exceedingly But the Vessel must be buried in Autumn and the Material distilled about Winter With two drops of this water put into the ears Gesner writes the deafnesse of them will be cured and this Medicine he saith he learned of a Jew Mutianus which was thrice Consul from observation did hang a live Fly in a little linnen bag about his neck wherewith the rhume or bloudshot of them was cured as Pliny affirmeth Flies in an odde number being rubbed together are reported to be very good to cure a fellon on the ring finger Bean Flies drank with vinegar do drive forth a horsleech sticking in the throat Haly Abbas The Fly Napellaris of the herb Napellus or Wolfebane so called doth not only cure the poyson of that herb but all other poyson whatsoever as Avicen witnesseth and Julius Scaliger confesseth from whence this Antidote is made Take round Birth-wort Mithridate of each two ounces terra sigillata half an ounce Flies of Napellus in number 18 juice of Citrons what may suffice mingle them make an Opiate For saith Scaliger against the biting of the Tarantula or any venomous beast or the poyson of Wolfebane there is no Antidote comparable to this The same do Gainerius and Petrus Apponensis teach us Yea moreover when as there is no Fly almost but will cause vomiting as I shall make good out of Arnoldus why may not all of them be thought preservatives against poyson Cardanus in like manner commends the wormed Fly But it is best learning of medicines by hands and eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. by known experience lest while we affect unknown medicines we lose the use of those we know He tels us that an oyl made of wood Flies was in great estimation yet he telleth not us how to make or to use it A Fly chewed and swallowed doth vehemently provoke vomiting Arnoldus I have heard of a certain man saith Gesner that was wont to take three or four Flies into his body which gave him a very good stool Take five grains of Broom-flowers let them be put into an earthen po◠with butter here and there laid between them bed upon bed with which the vessel may be filled and being very well closed let it be buried in horse dung where the Sun useth to come for the space of one year at the years end you shall finde the Flies turned into an Unguent the which afterwards are exceeding good for any grief whatsoever in any part of the body as I have learned of a friend of very good credit Nonus adviseth to take the bodies of great Flies when the heads are off and rub'd between the fingers and to annoint a small impostumate swelling therewith for a special remedy Fortius the Poet affirms that there was a German maid which lived three years with eating of Flies If cattel cannot urine or the urine scald their genitals put but a live Fly into them and it will give them ease
water hard and without motion not long after the shell being broken cometh forth the Empis and sits there till either moved by the wind or the Sun he be able to fly Thus far Gara Neverthelesse not to wrong a famous man I should think it a very easâ—e matter to shew where in many things he is out Why doth he translate the Empides Muliones who are said not to live above a day and feed only upon honey which must needs be hard for them to get so readily in Fens and Marishes For I may well call without wrong to the judgement either of Pliny or Penny the Muliones as they call them Melliones for they neither care for Mules nor feed on them but only upon Honey the which they can smell at a great â—istance they have a bill like a Wood-pecker long and sharp with which they devour in honey so greedily that at length they burst their bellies and so presently expire In this also did Gaza trip to say the least that may be that he translates the word Ascarides by the word Tipulae For the Ascarides whether they come forth of the earth or the water or otherwise every man knowes do signifie little worms Besides the Tipulae alwaies keep the top of the water seldome or never go down to the bottom Last of all when as the Tipulae themselves come of the Ascarides who can rightly say that Ascarides are the Tipulae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is called Culex ficarius i. e. Fig Gnat not because it comes indeed from the fig-tree but because it is fed and sustained by its fruit For it is sprung of a certain worm that breeds in the Figs which when nature cannot make her perfect work upon nor bring to the sweetness and perfection of other Figs lest she should make something in vain by a certain quickning vertue out of the grains of them being rotten and putrefied she produceth these Gnats Yet not so as that the Gnat is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or besides the intention of Nature as Scaliger hath learnedly observed or if it be the truth is the work by the bye is of more dignity than the main Nature did propose to its self the perfection of a wilde Fig a thing not so much to be esteemed of this she being not able to bring to passe turns her self from so common a work to an enterprise of greater weight and produceth a Gnat which she effecteth Concerning those Gnats Pliny hath these words the wilde Fig-tree brings forth Gnats these being defrauded of the nourishment they should have received from their mother being turned to rottenness they go to the neighbouring Fig-tree and with the often biting of the same fig-tree and greedily feeding upon it they let in the sun withall and set open a door for plenty of air to enter in at Anon after they destroy the milky moisture and infancy of the fruit which is done very easily and as it were of its own accord and for that cause the wilde fig-tree is alwaies set before the fig-trees that the wind when the Gnats fly out of them may carry them amongst the fig-trees who asloon as they come into them the figs swell and ripening of a sudden grow very big and full Whence it is that the Greeks to expresse a woman great with childe and near her time yea or newly conceived with childe call her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gnat-bitten Those kemb'd and curle lockt Pathicks and prostitutes of unnatural lust were called from hence Capifricati as witnesseth the Greek Iambick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nemo comptus nisi Caprificatus There is no man that curls and trims his locks that is not Caprificatus To this Caprification Turnebus thinks that Adrian the Emperor did allude when he upbraids that effeminate Poet Florus with his Pathick obscenity under the term of round Gnats in a most bitter Sarcasm Florus had said Ego nolo Caesar esse Ambulare per Britannos Scythicas pati pruinas To whom Caesar answereth Ego nolo Florus esse Ambulare per Tabernas Latitare per popinas Culices pati rotundos In English thus I would not Caesar be To travel Britany To suffer Scythian cold I would not Florus bee To walk the Taverns free In Sculking Brothels hide Or the round Gnats abide But what time these Gnats passe from the wilde fig to the fig-tree they do it in such haste that many of them leave either a foot or a wing behinde them Now that they generated of the grains of the unripe fig may be evident in that the wilde fig is left void of grains Cnips some call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so called of the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from biting or stinging for that the twinge the flesh and with their biting cause an itching in the same is a very small Gnat not unlike the Conops who although by his sitting upon the Fig it may seem the same Gnat spoken of before called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophrastus saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which place Pliny interprets thus There is a kinde of Gnat very offensive to certain trees as to the Oak of whose moisture that is under the bark they are thought to be bred Theophrastus cals all those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what ever they be that are bred in the Elm Naven Rapes Poley the Mastick Turpentine and other trees either with putrefaction or otherwise These or the like but a little bigger Cursius in his 13. Book saith are very hurtful to the orchard Wal-nuts which are called of those of Lions Bordella Bordells Galens opinion is they are great devourers of Grapes The moisture of the Elm included in its first growth in the leaves or rather bladders if it dry up is changed into these Cnipae In the Autumn it brings forth other kinde of Gnats many small and black called Canchryes Symphorianus They do especially haunt and spoil watered gardens the crop and scrape most kindes of herbs Velarandus Insulanus an Apothecary at Lions hath observed them very frequently to come forth of the middle or heart of the Oak Apple having a hole made into it as also out of divers other herbs not so much by reason of putrefaction but rather out of the alteration of certain principles being digested into a better nature by successive labour Origen upon Exodus saith that with these little creatures God did the third time take down the proud heart of Pharaoh the which are hung in the air by the wings but yet as it were invisible and do so subtilly and quickly pierce the skin that the fly which you cannot perceive flying you may feel stinging So all the ancient interpreters following Origen expound the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Only Tremelius a very faithful interpreter of the Hebrew Text and of sacred Writ is of another minde who thinks this plague to be a swarm of such kinde of creatures as if the Gnats and all other venemous and stinging flies
about Viglevianum which of old was called Vergeminum as Simon Puteus and I were walking abroad in the evening to take the air But what those hairy worms should be unless they be a kinde of Juli I do not know There is another worm altogether unlike these of which we read in the Book of the Nature of things There is saith he a worm like a star which shines like a star in the dark it is never seen but in great rains and then it foretels fair weather to come shortly after So great is the coldness of this worm that it will just like ice put out the fire If a mans flesh be but touched with the slime of this worm all his hair will come ofâ— and whatsoever it touched therewith it changeth the colour of it into green But all these he handleth untowardly for he confounds the Stellia which he here cals Stella with the Salamander and Cicindele and of these he maketh a very confused and imperfect History Neither doth Guillerinus de Conchis nor Vincentius which transcribed all almost out of Guillerine in his obscure and dark tract where he reports this story correct it But these things are nothing to the Cicindele and that which they write concerning the Salamander is other where amended Hitherto of Insects shining in the dark Whether or no the Glow-worm being dead doth retain its splendor and shining is wont to be a question Massarius a veâ—y learned man writing on Pliny his 9. Book saith it doth and that boyes taking the Glow-worms used to put about their head the shining parts of them with which if the hands or other parts of the body be rubbed they also will shine in the dark But by the leave of so great and learned a man as he is experience teacheth the contrary For after the Glow-worm is dead that part whereof which so shineth in the night though not presently yet within a few hours after is quite lost and seems altogether to go away with the vital spirits this is a clear case from experience and I have often tried the same This I will grant if a certain number of those that have no wings for those that have shine not but only when the fly be but put into a clear Crystal glass so that the air may freely come at them with a little grass they may perchance give light for the space of some 12 daies iâ— every day fresh grasâ—e be put to them but at the length as they languish and faint away so the light by little and little is remitted and slackned and in the end they dying as before is said it is totally extinguished Vainly therefore do some boast of compositions made of them with which they will keep perpetual light as they suppose amongst whom is Cardanus as if they would bring down the Moon from heaven Others there are not learned only but unlearned also who have committed these compositions to writing whereby they might the better betray their own ignorance Of this perpetual light Albertus makes mention who in his Works gathers a whole bundle of lies together as it were into one body And here now I will set down some of them that the Reader may be aware of them and the vanity and levity of the writers themselves may be manifested Some there are which take a great many Glow-worms beat them together put them into a vial of glass and bury them fifteen daies in horse dung Afterwards they distil them through an Aâ—enâ—bick and keep the water in a clear glass To this end Gaudentius Merula who hath heaped up many things together from this and that Author without any judgement hath these words Of these Glow-worms being putrefied there is made a water or a liquor rather in a vessel which will wonderfully shine in the dark Such a light doth this water or liquor give by report that in the darkest night any one may read and write and do any other business as he pleaseth Others lest they should seem not to add to what is invented to their hands for pregnant wits unless they bring forth some novelty are not well together with the Glow-worms digest the gall of the Tortoise of a Weasel and Sea-dog puting them in dung and afterwards they distill them This water they say far excels all other whatsoever in lustre Others put whole Glow-worms in dung for nine daies to digest others for three weeks then throwing away the Glow-worms they take the fat of them and keep it in a clean glass for to use Some yet more fondly take Glow-worms and casting away their heads they put to them the scales of fishes and rotten shining wood such as glissens in the dark with the gals of Sea-dogs and so distill them through an Alembick Others promise confidently to make letters to shine in the dark by pricking out the yellow moisture of the Glow-worm and anointing therewith the paper or painting it with the same liquor in form of a star some rub them with the oyl of Linseed upon marble and whatsoever you shall paint or write they perswade us may easily read in the night be it never so dark but let them believe them that have made the trial Others after they have digested in horse-dung nine daies take the liquor that is left in the bottome of the glass and write with it and so think confidently to obtain their desire John Arden a skilful Chirurgeon an English man walking after their steps above thirty years ago left such a description of this perpetual light in writing He gathereth a great number of Glow-worms and shuts them in a glassen vessel well stopt laies them in dung fifteen daies then puts the water he findes in the bottome of the glass into a clean glass to which he adds as much of Quicksilver the dross being purged from it and then he saith you must shut the glass mouth very close and hang it where you will and then for certain as he affirms it will produce the wished effect Some have told me that this is very true whom notwithstanding I will not believe untill such time as the experiment be made before mine eyes These and many the like you may finde by reading but what credit may be given to them is easily conjectured out of what went before Hence then we may plainly understand how foolishly and vainly mans wisdome doth many times vaunt it self and whither our wits may be carried if not founded upon right Reason the mistress of all Arts and Sciences shunning with all diligence the uncooth rocks of opinion and self conceiâ— How wonderful the works of God are in our eyes none can be ignorant who shall diligently consider this little creature and weigh its nature and its light resembling that divine light For who is he that beholds the vanishing light of this that doth not fix the eyes of his minde upon Christ the lasting true and the chiefest light of the world and doth not call to remembrance
THE HISTORY OF Four-footed Beasts SERPENTS AND INSECTS THE HISTORY OF Four-footed Beasts AND SERPENTS Describing at Large Their True and Lively Figure their several Names Conditions Kinds Virtues both Natural and Medicinal Countries of their Breed their Love and Hatred to Mankind and the wonderful work of God in their Creation Preservation and Destruction Interwoven with curious variety of Historical Narrations out of Scriptures Fathers Philosophers Physicians and Poets Illustrated with divers Hieroglyphicks and Emblems c. both pleasant and profitable for Students in all Faculties and Professions Collected out of the Writings of CONRADUS GESNER and other Authors By EDWARD TOPSEL Whereunto is now Added The Theater of Insects or Lesser living Creatures As Bees Flies Caterpillars Spiders Worms c. A most Elaborate Work By T. MUFFET Dr. of Physick The whole Revised Corrected and Inlarged with the Addition of Two useful Physical Tables by J. R. M. D. LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for G. Sawbridge at the Bible on Ludgate-hill T. Williams at the Bible in Little-Britain and T. Johnson at the Key in Pauls Church yard M DC LVIII TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lord Marquesse OF DORCHESTER Earl of KINGSTONE Vicount NEW ARKE c. My very Noble LORD YOur Lordship well knows that Honour attends upon Virtue as the shadow doth upon the substance there is such a magnetick force in Goodness that it draws the hearts of men after it The world observes that Your Honour is a great Lover of the works of Learned Writers which is an infalliable argument of an excellent mind residing in You. Wherefore I here humbly offer unto Your Noble Patronage the most Famous and Incomparable History of CONRADUS GESNER a great Philosopher and Physitian who by his vast expences and indefatigable pains Collected and Digested into two Volums what ever he found scattered here and there in almost infinite Authors concerning Fourfooted-Beasts and Serpents adding also what he could possibly attain to by his own experience and correspondence held with other famous Scholars every where After him Mr. Edward Topsel a Learned Divine Revised and Augmented the same History as it is not altogether so difficult to add something to what is first begun and to build upon such a foundation which was before so artificially laid He hath deserved well of our English Nation in so doing and the more that he doth with so much modesty attribute the praise of the whole work to the Master-workman to whom it was chiefly due The same Gesner after Mr. Edward Wotton had begun undertook to compose the History of Insects which as it is a business of more curiosity and difficulty to write exactly of so all things considered they serve as much to set forth the Wisdom and Power of God as the greatest Creatures he hath made and are as beneficial to Mankind not only for dainty Food but for the many Physical uses that arise from them John Baptist fed upon Locusts and wilde Honey and we read that our Saviour eat a piece of a Honey comb These little Insects are not so contemptible as the World generally thinks they are for they can do as much by their multitudes as the other can by their magnitude when as one Hornet shall be able suddenly to kill a Horse and Gnats Ants and Wasps to bid resistance to Bears Lions and Elephants and to depopulate whole Countries The Frogs Locusts and Lice were none of the least Judgements in the Land of Egypt Mr. Thomas Pennius another Physitian lighting his Candle by the former lights succeeded them in this great undertaking But all these vigilant and painful Men never could bring it to perfection being every one of them prevented by death And indeed things of deep search and high concernment are very seldom begun and ended by the same persons Hippocrates gives the reason for it that Art is long Life short Experience difficult occasion precipitate Judgement uncertain I may say farther which he also comprehends in the close of that Aphorism that all must perform their several offices which is not often done but ingenious men frequently labour under the want of means and find small encouragement to proceed in their great designs especially in this latter age of the World Gesner makes a sad complaint in behalf of himself and Topsel doth the like and so do all the rest who spent their Estates and wasted their Spirits for the common good Which is sufficient proof to convince many rich men of blindness and ingratitude and confirms that truth the Poet speaks Haud facilè emâ—rguunt quorum virtutibus obstat Res angusta domi Good and well meaning men cannot proceed Virtue is crusht by want opprest by need After the death of the forementioned four Worthies of their times Mr. Thomas Muffet a noted English Physitian undertook the same task and compleated it whose Encomium is excellently well penned by the late Honourable Doctor of Physick Sir Theodore Mayerne in his Epistle to Doctor William Paddy of famous memory premised to this Book wherein to his own immortal praise he hath so Anatomically dissected many of the chiefest Insects even to admiration that he hath let the World understand by it that he was a deep Philosopher and a most accurate searcher into the secrets of Nature and worthy of those places of Honour he enjoyed in Great Princes Courts This large History is not nor could possibly be the production of one Age both able Divines and Physitians-contributed what they had and employed their Talents and greatest studies for many years in their severall generations to bring it forth whereby it may appear how necessary this Work is for the souls and bodies of Men to teach them to know the Wisdom and Omnipotence of God in the Creation of these Creatures and Goodness to bestow them upon Man both for profit and delight and though mony of them be Dangerous and Venomous yet they were not so when God first made them For the Wiseman saith That God made not death neither takes he pleasure in the destruction of the living for he created all things that they mighe have their being and the Generations of the World were healthful and there was no poison of destruction in them no Kingdom of death upon the earth but ungodly men by their wicked works and words called it to them This Book will plentifully furnish us with Remedies against most of these inconveniences which is no small occasion to put us in mind how much we stand obliged to the memories of the learned Authours of it who spared no cost nor pains that they might prove beneficial to the then present and to succeeding Ages And the same reason is very strong in behalf of those who now have been at this vast charge to Reprint and to perfect the same that it never should be lost by time or casualties which consume all things and to supply the whole Work with a double Physical Index to ease the Readers labour that he might
not wander up and down and lose himself in this great wilderness of Beasts and Insects searching after that he stands in need of but may in an instant be provided with all those known remedies these several Creatures can afford him Should such a Fabrique as this decay and come to ruine the dammage were unspeakable and irreparable the Mausolean Sepulchre the Colossus of Rhodes or the Pyramids of Egypt might sooner be renewed and built again Wherefore Men are bound in conscience by the Laws of God of Nature and of Nations to consider of the great Expence and Pains now taken in it and to promote the Work to the best advantage of the present undertakers for the publick good who have now brought it to this perfection that they may say of it what Ovid did of his Metamorphosis Jamque opus exegi quod nec Jovis ira nec ignis Nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas The Work is ended which can envies fume Nor Sword nor Fire nor wasting time consume Never was there so compleate a History of the Creatures as this is since the daies of Solomon who writ the story of Beasts and Creeping things and indeed it requires a Kingly Treasure and Understanding to accomplish it And Petrus Gillius writes that in former Ages all the Histories of Creatures were compiled by Kings or Dedicated to them who are bestable to bear the charge of it and most fit be honoured with it What would the World now give for that Book of Solomons which by the negligence of ungrateful men and length of time is utterly lost How highly then ought we to esteem of this History of Gesner and Muffet which is inferiour to none but that For what Aristotle set forth upon this subject at the appointment of Alexander the Great and for which he received from him 400 Talents as a Kingly reward is all comprehended in this with the addition of many hundreds more that have travelled in the same way Orpheus whom the Poets so much magnifie for drawing the Beasts after him could do no more with all his melodious harmony then these famous and ingenious Men have done And because I cannot but think what the Poets fancied concerning him was but an Hieroglyphical representation according to the dim light they had of all the Creatures coming to Noah into the Ark this History seems to me to be like another Ark of Noah wherein the several kinds of beasts are once again met together for their better preservation in the understanding of Man however there were multitudes of Birds in the Ark which are not here it may be because Aldrovandus and others have written largely to that purpose yet here are abundance of Insects that never were in Noahs Ark and whereof we never had or we can find extant any compleate History untill this was made which is like to another Paradise where the Beasts as they were brought to Adam are again described by their Natures and named in most Languages which serves to make some reparation for the great loss of that excellent knowledge of the Creature which our first Parents brought upon their posterity when they fell from God We read in the 10 th of the Acts that when a vessel was let down from heaven wherein there were all manner of Fourfooted-Beasts and Creeping things that St. Peter wondered at it who then can choose but admire to see so many living Creatures that Nature hath divided and scattered in Woods Mountains and Vallies over the face of the whole earth to come all together to a general muster and to act their several parts in order upon the same Theater I confess there are many Men so barbarous that they make no account of this kind of learning but think all charge and pains fruitless that is imployed this way shewing themselves herein more unreasonable and brutish then the irrational Beasts For next unto Man are these Creatures rankt in dignity and they were ordained by God to live upon the same earth and to be Fellow-commoners with Man having all the Plants and Vegetables appointed them for their food as well as Man had and have obtained one priviledge beyond us in that they were created before Man was and ever since they are obnoxious to the same casualties and have the same coming into the World and going out that we have For that which befals the Sons of Men befals Beasts even one thing befals them both as the one dyeth so dyeth the other so that Man hath no preeminence above the Beasts All go unto one place all are of the dust and all return to dust again Eccles 3. 19 20. And the Prophet David dobuts not to compare Man being in honour and having no understanding unto the Beasts that perish As for Minerals they are yet another degree below Beasts all the Gold Jewels and Diamonds in the World are not comparable to any one of the meanest Creatures that hath within it the breath of life God hath bountifully bestowed them all on Man whom he hath advanced above them all for food and raiment and other necessary uses also for his pleasure and recreation and so long as we use them with Sobriety and Thankfulness we shall finde an infinite benefit and advantage by them but when we prove ungratefull unto God they become so many Instruments of his vengeance against sinners to make up that fourfold Judgement with the Sword Famine and Pestilence the Prophet threatens the Jews with I fear to be tedious therefore I beseech Your Honour to accept this History in good part from him who humbly prayeth for Your Lordships temporal and eternal happiness and who is Your Honours most affectionately humble Servant JOHN ROVVLAND To the Reverend and Right Worshipful RICHARD NEILE D. of Divinity Dean of Westminster Master of the Savoy and Clerk of the King his most Excellent Majesties Closet all felicity Temporal Spiritual and Eternal THE Library of English Books and Catalogue of Writers Right Worthy and Learned DEAN my most respected PATRON have grown to the height not only of a just number but almost innumerable and no marvel for God himself hath in all ages preserved Learning in the next place of Life for as Life is the Ministerial Governor and Mover in this World so is Learning the Ministerial Governor and Mover in Life As an Interpreter in a strange Countrey is necessary for a Traveller that is ignorant of Languages or else he should perish so is Knowledge and Learning to us poor Pilgrims in this our Perigrination out of Paradise unto Paradise whereby confused BABELS tongues are again reduced to their significant Dialects not in the builders of BABEL to further and finish an earthly Tower but in the builders of JERUSALEM to bring them all to their own Countrey which they seek and to the desired rest of souls Literae obstetrices artium quarum beneficio ab interitu vindicantur As Life is different and divers according to the
things as shall never again come in use but this sheweth that Chronicle which was made by God himself every living Beast being a word every Kind being a sentence and all of them together a large History containing admirablâ— knowledge and learning which was which is which shall continue if not for ever yet to the Worlds end Et patris nostras nonumque prematur in annum Membranis intus positis delere licebit Quod non edideris The second thing in this discourse which I have promised to affirm is the truth of the History of Creatures for the mark of a good Writer is to follow truth and not deceivable Fables And in this kind I have passed the straightest passage because the relation of most things in this Book are taken out of Heathen writers such as peradventure are many times superstitiously credulous and have added of their own very many rash inventions without reason authority or probability as if they had been hired to sell such Fables For Non bene conducti vendunt perjuria testes I would not have the Reader of these Histories to imagine that I have inserted or related all that ever is said of these Beasts but only so much as is said by many For in the month of two or three witnesses standeth every word and if at any time I have set down a single Testimony it was because the matter was clear and needeth not farther probation or else I have laid it upon the Author with special words not giving the Reader any warrant from me to believe it Besides I have taken regard to imitate the best Writers which was easie for me to do because Gesner relateth every mans opinion like a co 〈…〉 on place or Dictionary as he professeth and if at any time he seemed obscure I tu 〈…〉 to the Books which I had at hand to ghesse their meaning putting in that which he had left out of many good Authors and leaving out many magical devises Now although I have used no small diligence or care in collecting those things which were most essential to every Beast most true without exception and most evident by the Testimony of many good Authors yet I have delivered in this Treatise many strange and rare things not as Fictions but Miracles of nature for wisemen to behold and observe to their singular comfort if they love the power glory and praise of their maker not withholding their consent to the things expressed because they intreat of living things made by God himself Si ergo quaerimus quis fecerit Deus est Si per quod dixit Fiat facta sunt Si quare fiat quia bonus est Nec enim autor est excellentior Deo nec ars efficacior Dei verbo nec causa melior quam ut bonum crearetur a Deo beno and this Plato said was the only cause of the worlds creation ut a Deo bono opera bona fierent Now I do in a sort challenge a consent unto the probability of these things to wise and learned men although no belief For Fides is credere invisibilia but consensus is a cleaving or yeelding to a relation untill the manifestation of another truth and when any man shall justly reprove any thing I have written for false and erroneous I will not stick to release the Readers consent but make satisfact on for usurpation But for the rude and vulgar sort who being utterly ignorant of the operation of Learning do presently condemn all strange things w ch are not ingraven in the palms of their own hands or evident in their own herds and flocks I care not for my ears have heard some of them speak against the History of Sampson where he tied fire-brands to the tails of Foxes and many of them against the miracles of Christ I may remember you R. W. of a Countrey tale of an old Masse-Priest in the daies of Henry the eight who reading in English after the translation of the Bible the miracles of the five Loaves and two Fishes and when he came to the verse that reckoneth the number of the ghests or eaters of the banquet he paused a little and at last said they were about five hundred The Clerk that was a little wiser whispered into the Priests ears that it was five thousand but the Priest turned back and replyed with indignation Hold your peace sirrah we shall never make them believe they were five hundred Such Priests such People such persons I shall draw upon my back and although I do not challenge a power of not erring yet because I speak of the power of God that is unlimitable I will be bold to aver that for truth in the Book of Creatures although first observed by Heathen men which is not contrary to the book of Scriptures Lastly that it is the proper office of a Preacher or Divine to set forth these works of God I think no wiseman will make question for so did Moses and David and Solomon and Christ and S. Paul and S. John and S. Ireney S. Gregory S. Basil S. Austin S. Jerem S. Bernard in his â—â—arrations or Sermons upon the Canticles and of latter daies Isidorus The Monks of Messuen Geminianus and to conclude that ornament of our time Jeronimus Zanchius For how shall we be able to speak the whole Counsel of God unto his people if we read unto them but one of his books when he hath another in the world which we never study past the title or outside although the great God have made them an Epistle Dedicatory to the whole race of Mankind This is my indevour and pains in this Book that I might profit and delight the Reader whereinto he may look on the Holiest daies not omitting prayer and the publick service of God and passe away the Sabbaths in heavenly meditations upon earthly creatures I have followed D. Gesner as neer as I could I do profess him my Author in most of my Stories yet I have gathered up that which he let fall and added many Pictures and Stories as may appear by Conference of both together In the names of the Beasts and the Physick I have not swarved from him at all He was a Protestant Physician a rare thing to finde any Religion in a Physitian although St. Luke a Physician were a writer of the Gospell His praises therefore shall remain and all living Creatures shall witnesse for him at the last day This my labor whatsoever it be I consecrate to the benefit of all our English Nation under your Name and Patronage a publick Professor a learned and reverend Divine a famous Preacher observed in Court and Countrey if you will vouchsafe to allow of my Labors I stand not upon others and if it have your commendation it shall incourage me to proceed to t 〈…〉 residue wherein I fear no impediment but ability to carry out the charge my case so st 〈…〉 ing that I have not any accesse of maintenance but by
who had a cave in the earth against the Sun his Den replenished with the heads of men and he himself breathing out fire so that the earth was warmed with the slaughter of men slain by him whose slaughter he fastened upon his own doores being supposed to be the son of Vulcan And there be some that affirm this Cacus to have wasted and depopulated all Italy and at length when Hercules had slain Geryon as he came out of Spain through Italy with the Oxen which he had taken from Geryon Cacus drew divers of them into his cave by their tails but when Hercules missed daily some of Cattel and knew not which way they strayed at last he came to the den of Cacus and seeing all the steps stand forward by reason the cattel were drawn in backward he departed and going away he heard the loughing of the Oxen for their fellows whereby he discovered the fraud of Cacus whereupon he presently ran and took his club the Monster being within his cave closed up the mouth thereof with a wonderful great stone and so hid himself for fear but Hercules went to the top of the Mountain and there digging down the same untill he opened the cave then leaped in suddenly and slew the Monster and recovered his Oxen. But the truth is this forged Cacus was a wicked servant of Evander which used great robbery in the Mountains and by reason of his evill life was called Cacus for Cakos in Greek signifieth evill He was said to breath forth fire because he burned up their corn growing in the fields and at last was betrayed of his own Sister for which cause she was deified and the Virgins of Vesta made Sacrifice to her and therefore it shall be idle to prosecute this fable any farther as Albertus Magnus doth it being like the fable of Alcida which the Poets faign was a Bird of the earth and being invincible burned up all Phrygia and at last was slain by Minerva Of the CAMEL ALthough there be divers sorts of Camels according to their several Countries yet is the name not much varied but taken in the general sense of the denomination of every particular The Hebrews call it Gamal the Chaldeans Gamela and Gamele the Arabians Gemal Gemel Alnegeb Algiazar The Persians Schetor the Saracent Shymel the Turks call a company of Camels traveling together Caravana The Italians and Spaniards call a Camel Camello the French Chameau the Germans Ramelthier all derived of the Latine Camelus and the Greek Camelos The Illyrians call it Vuelblud and the reason of the name Camelos in Greek is because his burden or load is laid upon him kneeling or lying derived as it may seem of Camptein merous the bending of his knees and slowness of pace wherefore a man of a slow pace was among the Egyptians deciphered by a Camel For that cause there is Town in Syria called Gangamela that is the house of a Camel erected by Darius the Son of Hystaspis allowing a certain provision of food therein for wearied and tyred Camels The Epithets given to this beast are not many among Authors for he is tearmed by them rough deformed and thirsting as Iuvenal Deformis poterunt immania membra Cameli And Persius in his fifth Satyre saith Tolle recens primus piper è sitiente Camelo There are of them divers kindes according to the Countries wherein they breed as in India in Arabia and in Bactria All those which are in India are said by Didymus to be bred in the Mountains of the Bactrians and have two bunches on their back and one other on their breast whereupon they lean they have sometimes a Bore for their Sire which feedeth with the flock of she-Camels for as Mules and Horses will couple together in copulation so also will Bores and Camels and that a Camel is so ingendered sometimes the roughness of his hair like a Bores or Swines and the strength of his body are sufficient evidences and these are worthily called Bactrians because they were first of all conceived among them having two bunches on their backs whereas the Arabian hath but one The colour of this Camel is for the most part brown or puke yet there are herds of white ones in India Ptolemeus Lagi brought two strange things into Egypt a black Camel and a man which was the one half white and the other half black in equal proportion the which caused the Egyptians to wonder and marvail at the shape and proportion of the Camel and to laugh at the man whereupon it grew to a Proverb a Camel among the Egyptians for a matter fearful at the first and ridiculous at the last The head and neck of this beast is different in proportion from all others yet the Ethiopians have a beast called Nabim which in his neck resembleth a Horse and in his head a Camel They have not teeth on both sides although they want horns I mean both the Arabian and Bactrian Camel whereof Aristotle disputeth the reason in the third Book of the parts of creatures and fourteenth chapter Their necks are long and nimble whereby the whole body is much relieved and in their neck toward the neather part of the the throat there is a place called Anhar wherein a Camel doth by spear or sword most easily receive his mortal or deadly wound His belly is variable now great now small like an Oxes his gall is not distinguished within him like other beasts but only carryed in great veins and therefore some have thought he had none and asigned that as a cause of his long life Betwixt his thighes he hath two udders which have four speans depending from them like a Cow His genital part is confected and standeth upon a sinew insomuch as thereof may a string be made for the bending of the strongest bow The tail is like the tail of an Ass hanging down to their knees they have knees in every leg having in their former le◠three bones and in the hinder four They have an ancle like an Oxes and very small buttocks for the proportion of their great body their foot is cloven but so that in the under part it hath but two fissures or clefts opening the breadth of a finger and in the upper part four fissures or clefts opening a little and having a little thing growing in them like as is in the foot of a Goose The foot it self is fleshy like a Bears and therefore they are shod with leather when they travail lest the gauling of their feet cause them to tire Avicenna affirmeth that he had seen Camels with whole feet like a Horses but their feet although fleshy are so tyed together with little lungs that they never wear and their manner of going or pace is like a Lyons so walking as the left foot never out-goeth the right whereas all other beasts change the setting forward of their feet and lean upon their left feet while they remove their
do sufficiently convince that they are emblems of vile cursed rayling and filthy men which esteem not holy things but eat up again their own vomits The skins of Dogs are dressed for Gloves and close Boots the which are used by such as have Ulcerous and swelling Legs or Limbs for by them the afflicted place receiveth a double relief first it resisteth the influent humors and secondly it is not exasperated with Woollen The Turkes colour their Dogs tails with red and it is a custom of Hunters to take Dogs and tie them in the Woods unto trees by their stones for by crying they provoke the Panther to come unto them It is not to be doubted but that the flesh of Dogs is used for meat in many places although the opinion of Rasis be true and consonant to reason that all devouring creatures as Dogs Foxes and Wolves have no good flesh for meat because they engender melancholy and yet Galen thinketh that it is like to the flesh of a Hare especially young Whelpes were held among the Romans a delicate meat and were used by their Priests and among Whelpes they attributed most virtue to their flesh which were eaten before they did see for by them came no evill humor at all as is often set down in Plautus Peter Martyr and Scaliger do affirm of Cozumella and Lucatana and other Islands of the new World that the people there do eat a kind of Dog which cannot bark These Dogs are vile to look upon like young Kids The inhabitants of Corsica which are fierce angry wilde cruell audacious dissemblers active and strong do also feed upon Dogs both wilde and tame and it is thought that their meat is a little furtherance to their inclination for such is the natural disposition of Dogs And Sciltbergerus in the Book of Peregrinations affirmeth also that the Tartarians in Ibissibur do after the same manner feed upon the flesh of Dogs from hence it cometh that men resembling a Dog in a plain forehead and narrow are said to be foolish in a smooth and stretched out flatterers those which have great voices like a Ban-dog are strong they which rail much like often barking Dogs are of a doggish angry disposition He that hath a great head like a Dog is witty he which hath a little head like an Asses is blockish they which have fiery eyes like Dogs are impudent and shameless thin lips with narrow folding corners in Dogs is a token of generosity and in men of magnanimity they whose teeth hang over their canine teeth are also adjudged railers and virulent speakers and as Carnarius observeth vain glorious braggarts A wide mouth betokeneth a cruell mad and wicked disposition a sharpe nose an angry minde as a round blunt and solid Nose signifieth a Lions stomach and worthiness A sharpe chin vain babling and wantonness they which are small in their girting stead about their loins do much love hunting Stobaeus in his wicked discourse or dispraise of Women affirmeth that the curst sharp smart curious dainty clamorous implacable and wanton-rowling-eyed Women were derived from Dogs and Hesiode to amend the matter saith when Jupiter had fashioned Man out of the earth he commanded Mercury to infuse into him a Canine minde and a clamorous inclination but the Proverb of Solomon Chap. 30. concludeth the excellency of a Dog saying There be three things which go pleasantly and the fourth ordereth his pace aright The Lion which is the strongest among beast and feareth not the sight of any body a hunting Dog strong in his loins a Goat and a King against whom there is no rising up by all which is deciphered a good King for the Lion riseth not against beasts except he be provoked the Dog riseth not against his friends but wilde beasts and the He-goat goeth before his flock like a guide and keeper Of the GRAY-HOUND with a narration of all strong and great hunting DOGS AMong the divers kinds of hunting Dogs the Gray-hound or Grecian Dog called Thereuticos or Elatica by reason of his swiftness strength and sagacity to follow and devour wilde beast of great stature deserveth the first place for such are the conditions of this Dog as Plato hath observed that he is reasonably sented to finde out speedy and quick of foot to follow and fierce and strong to take and overcome and yet silent coming upon his prey at unawares according to the observation of Gratius Sic Canis illa suos taciturna supervenit hostes Like the Dogs of Acarnania which set upon their game by stealth Of these are the greatest Dogs of the world which in this place are briefly to be remembred These have large bodies little heads beaked noses but flat broad faces above their eyes long necks but great next to their bodies fiery eyes broad backs and most generous stomachs both against all wilde beasts and men also Their rage is so great against their prey that sometimes for wrath they lose their eye-sight They will not only set upon Buls Boars and such like beasts but also upon Lions which Mantuan noteth in this verse Et truculentus Helor certare leonibus auâ—lens The greatest dogs of this kind are in India Scythia and Hircania and among the Scythians they joyn them with Asses in yoak for ordinary labour The Dogs of India are conceived by Tygres for the Indians will take divers females or Bitches and fasten them to trees in woods where Tygres abide whereunto the greedy ravening Tyger cometh and instantly devoureth some one or two of them if his lust do not restrain him and then being so filled with meat which thing Tygers feldom meet withall presently he burneth in lust and so limeth the living Bitches who are apt to conceive by him which being performed he retireth to some secret place and in the mean time the Indians take away the Bitches of whom come these valorous Dogs which retain the stomach and courage of their father but the shape and proportion of their mother yet do they not keep any of the first or second litter for fear of their Tygrian stomachs but make them away and reserve the third litter Of this kinde were the Dogs given to Alexander by the King of Albania when he was going into India and presented by an Indian whom Alexander admired and being desirous to try what vertue was contained in so great a body caused a Bore and a Hart to be turned out to him and when he would not so much as stir at them he turned Bears unto him which likewise he disdained and rose not from his kennel wherewithal the King being moved commanded the heavy and dull Beast for so he termed him to be hanged up his keeper the Indian informed the King that the Dog respected not such Beasts but if he would turn out unto him a Lyon he should see what he would do Immediately a Lyon was put unto him at the first sight whereof he
Herodotus also calleth the Nisean Horses the Medes whereof more shall be spoke afterwards The Menapians amongst our Country-men the only men which I suppose were once call'd French of Caesar and the Rugians as Warriours for the most part are in estimation I also finde that the Rugians inhabited that Countrey which is now called Rugerland and that Paulus Diaconus remembreth them lib. 1. Touching the affairs of Longobardus there are that say they departed into Mechelburgia These are the right off spring of the Germans saith Althametus they are counted as Germans both in language and vertue Gratius writeth of the Marcibians saying the Marcibians scarse yeeld their tough neck to the sword Virgill also declareth Mycenia to be a Countrey of most notable Horses and Gratius commendeth a Horse fit for hunting highly in these verses Consule Penei qualis perfunditur amne Thessalus aut patriae quem conspexere Mycenae Glaucum nempe ingens nempe ardua fundet in aur as Crura quis Eleas potior lustravit arenas Ne tamen hoc attingat opus jactantior illi Virtus quam silvas durumque lacessere Martem The Mysian Horses were once great in estimation as Camerarius writeth Also the Nasamonians are people of Lybia living as spoylers of the ships in the Syrtes Of all these Horses before said the Nisaean Horse is the goodliest and fittest to carry the body of a King they are of a passing good shape an easie pace and very submissive to the bridle having a little head and a long and thick mane with yellow or brown hairs hanging down on both sides Armenia is very fit for feeding Horses wherein is a certain medow called Hippoboans by which they make their journey which pass from Persia and Babylon into the Caspian Border in which place they feed five hundred Mares which belong unto their King The Nisaean Horses written with Jota and simple Sigma as Eustathius writeth are the most excellent and best some say that they have their generation from Germany others out of Armenia but they have a certain kinde of shape like the Parthians In India most of their living creatures are far greater then in other places except Horses for the Nisaean Horses do exceed the Indian Horses as Herodotus writeth in his seaventh Book describeing the Persian Horse Behinde the spears saith be came ten Horses in most sumptuous furniture which were Nisaeans so called because there is a great field named Nisaeus in the Countrey of Media which yeeldeth Horses of a great stature After these followed Jupiters Chariot drawn with eight Horses after which Xerxes was â—aryed in a Chariot drawn by Nisaean Horses and by how much the greater the Lybian Elephant is then the Nisaean Horse so much the greater are the Nisaean Horses then the Indian as the same man saith in his first Book but the King was about to offer a white Horse that is of the Nisaean Horses having a better mark as some expounded There are that say that Nisaeus is a plain of Persis where the most famous and notable Horses are bred Some interpret it to the yellow Nisaean Horse because all the Horses of Nisaean are of this colour Between Susinax and Bactria there is a place which the Greeks call Nisos in which the most singular fine Horses are bred There are also that suppose they are had from the red Sea and all those to be of a yellow colour Herodotus writing of Nisaeus maketh it a part of Media Orpheus also writeth that there is a place in the red Sea called Nisa Stephanus also maketh mention of Nysaean Pedâ—on with the Medes of which people the Horses are so called Coelius Rhodiginus reproved a certain man which translated the Islandish Horses for the Nisaean Horses Plutarch saith that Pyrrbus had an apparition of a Nisaean Horse armed and furnished with a Rider that Alexander the Great was Captain thereof The Medes have Colts of a most noble kinde of Horses which as antient Writers do teach us and as we our selves have seen men when they begin the battel with a fierce encounter are wont to prance valiantly which are called Nisaean Horses Touching the Paphlagonians about the education of their Horses see more among the Venetians The Parthian Horses are of a large body couragious of a gentle kinde and most sound of their feet Concerning those Horses which have but one eye commended among the Parthians and of those which are distinguished by diversity of colours from those that come forth first I have spoke already out of Absyrtus The Armenian and Parthian Horses are of a swifter pace then the Sicilians and the Iberi swffer then the Parthians whereof Gratius writeth to this effect Scilicet Parthis inter sua mollia rura Mansit honor veniat Caudini saxa Taburni Garganumque trucem aut Ligurinas desuper Alpes Ante opus excussis cadet unguibus tamen illi Est animus fingetque meas se nisus in artes Sed juxta vitium posuit Deus That is to say among the Parthians there hath remained honour for their soft Countries but let him come to the Rocks of Caudmus Tabernus and too rough Gargaâ—us or upon the Ligurian Alpes then he will quickly shake off his hoofs and make a shew of great valiantness The Horses of the Celtiberians are somewhat white and if they may be brought into Spain they change their colour But the Parthians are a like for they excel all others in nimbleness and dexterity of running How the Parthians do make their pace easie in the trotters and hard footing Horses after the manner of Geldings shall be declared afterwards for Persia preferreth these Horses above the censure of their patrimonies as well to carry having an easie pace and being of most excellent dignity As for their pace it is thick and short and he doth delight and lift up the Rider being not instructed by art but effecteth it by nature Amongst these ambling Nags called of the Latines among the common sort of Totâ—narii their pace is indifferent and whereas they are not alike they are supposed to have something common from both as it hath been proved whereof Vegetius writeth in this manner In a short journey they have the more comeliness and grace in going but when they travel far they are impatient stubborn and unless they be tamed will be stubborn against the Rider and that which is a more greater marvel when they are chafed they are of a delightful comeliness their neck turneth in manner of a Bow that it seemeth to ly on their breast The Pharsalian Mares evermore bring Foals very like their Syre and therefore very well so named Equae probae We read of the Phasian Horses which receive their name from the mark or brand of a bird so named or else because of their excellent beauty and comeliness The Rosean Horses Varro so nameth of Rosea which Volatteranus writeth to be most fit for War and this Rosea otherwise Roscea Festus saith
that it is a Countrey in the coasts of the Reatians so called because the fields are said to be moist with that dew The Horses of Sacae if they happen to throw down their Rider they forthwith stand still that they may get up again Vegetius having commended the Persian Horses saith that the Armenians and Sapharens do follow next This Saphirine verily is an Island in the Arabian coast and the people of Saphiria lye beside Pontus The Horses of Epirota Salmarica and Dalmatia although they will not abide to be bridled yet they shew that they are warlike by their legs The Sardinian Horses are nimble and fair but lesser then others The Sarmatican kind of Horses is feat and well fashioned in this kind very fit for running unmixt having a well set body a strong head and a comely neck Some Horses they call Aetogenes from a certain mark which they have in their shoulders and colour which the Sarmatians do take unto themselves as very good with which they do contend about their cruelty wherefore they imploy them in warlike out-rodes but those that bear the Eagles mark in their buttocks and tail they are disallowed of them and they report that they mark them so because they will not use them by reason lest they should quickly be destroyed or run into some trouble The Sarmatians when they entend any long journeys the day before they keep them fasting giving them a little drink and so they will ride them a hundred and fifty miles continually going These Horses are very fit for War and many of them are sound gelded in their tender age and they say they never lose their teeth It is a custome of Scythia and Sarmatia to geld their Horses to make them more gentle they are swift little and fierce but very stubborn and untamed neither doth Circo situate near Sicilia breed Horses inferiour to the Spanish as Vegetius writeth The Epirotan and Siculian Horses are not to be despised if they were well bred and educated they want not comeliness and good qualities The Siculian Horses are most swift Lilybaeum is a promontory of Sicilia lying towards Lybia which a certain verse maketh more plain but as I understand it is the Three-clift-topt-mountain Aetna which casteth forth fire and covereth the carkcase of Enceladus the Giant lying there under whereof Oppianus writeth and some others also But saith he the Armenians and Parthians have swifter coursers by far then the Siculians Now let us hear Gratius himself discoursing of the Siculian Horses as well as of the Lybican Sic Strymonio facilis tutela Bisaltae Possent Aetneas utinam se ferre per artes Qui ludus Siculis quid tum si turpia colla Aut tenuis dorso curvatur spina per illos Cantalus Graiis Agragas victaeque fragosum Nebroden liquere ferae O quantus in armis Ille meis cujus dociles pecuaria foetus Sufficient queis Chaonias contendere contra Ausit vix merita quas signat Achaia palma But as for Gratius I suspect the place to be unperfect for Agragas is a Mountain of Sicilla having a Town situate in the top of it bearing the same name where their Ancestors were wont to nourish and bring up the best Horses There is also in Sicilia a Mountain called Nebrodes which some think to be so called by reason of the plenty of Dear but they have no Author for it and as for the printed Book of Gratius I finde it expresseth it not so well as Virgill setteth it down saying that Agragas was a breeder of most couragious and notable Horses but yet Servius saith according to â—ndarus that the Agrigentines in times past sent their Horses to the justing or combates of Graecia returning with victory from thence and we have also read that in Cappadocia whole troops of Horses have been destroyed The men of Delpbos by the answer of Apollo got herds and great store of Horses from Agrigentine and those were excellent Aristophanes calleth those great Aetnean Horses Canthari either of the greatness of the Mountain or else great Canthars are bred in it or of the Horses of Aetna being notable for swiftness and running The Horses that are bred in Creet and Cappadocia are also most excellent In Greece there are most notable Horses of Thessaly which Absyrtus saith be the best in all Greece The words of Gratius the Poet speaking of the Thessalian Horses are before recited The Mares of Aametus were the most excellent but as Homer reporteth the Thessalian were before them The Solitude or Wilderness of Arcananus is as commodious to feed Horses as Thessalia It is certain that Thessalia excels with Horses from whence Xerxes is said to have made a combate that he might try his Horses there where he understood the best breed of Greekish Horses to be and from whence this proverb arose Decernatur equa Thessalia viz. let the Thessalian Mare be tryed by battail a proverb of excellent worth because in old time the chiefest praise was of the Thessalian Mares which is very apparent by the Oracle that was delivered to the Aeginensians Suidas relateth but I know not out of what Author that Thessalia hath excellent Horsmen Thracia expert shooters and India light armour so hath likewise Creet and Caria Erasmus writeth that Thessalia is most fit to feed Horses who do far excel the Arcadians and Epidaures as Strabo witnesseth lib. 8. Caesar was said when he was Dictator to have made the first shew among the Romans of the Horses fighting against Buls and killing them whereof Lucanus writeth thus Thessalius sonipes bellis feralibus omen That is to say the Thessalian Horse is profitable for fence and deadly conflicts There is also in Thessalia a City named Pella from whence I deem the Pellaean Horses are so called of Gratius yet there be other places called Pella as Macedonia and Achaia whereof Gratius writeth thus Spadices vis Pellaei valuere Cerauni Et tibi devotae magnum pecuaria Cyrrhae Phoebe decus nostras agere in sacraria tonsas Which Cerauni are Mounts of Epirus and Cyrrha is a Town of Phocis situate at the foot of the hill Parnassus where Apollo Cyrrhaeus was worshipped The Tyrrheans being excellent warriors are commended of Oppianus Out of the Islands of the Tyrrbenian Sea especially Corsica and Sardinia there be very short Horses but they are of good courage and gentle withall The Thracian Horses are foul and ill shapen being rough all over their bodies and having very great shoulders which in the Greek is named Calomysten such a one as will cast down the rider on the ground from off his back they are crook-backt or bunched out or else of divers kindes and therefore they have an unsure and reeling pace and their course is very unconstant Absyrtus saith the Thracian Horses are the best The Thuringian Horses are neighbours to Hessis which Pliny and Volatteranus supposed are called Mediterranean Cimbri
after great floods or earthquakes and sometime by means of some evill distillation or influence of the Planets corrupting sometime the plants and fruits of the earth and sometime divers kind of Cattle and sometime both Men Women and Children as we dayly see by experience It seemeth that this evill or mischief in times past came suddenly without giving any warning for none of mine Authors doth declare any signes how to know whether a Horse hath this disease or not but only affirm that if one Horse do die of it all his fellows that bear him company will follow after if they be not remedied in time so that as far as I can learn the sudden death of one or two first must be the only mean to know that this disease doth reign And the remedy that they give is this First separate the whole from the sick yea and have them 〈◊〉 out of the air of those that be dead the bodies whereof as Vegetius saith if they be not 〈◊〉 buryed will infect all the rest And let them bloud as well in the neck as in the mouth and then give them this drink Take of Gentian of Aristoloch of Bay 〈…〉 es of 〈…〉 of the scraping of Ivory of each like quantity beat them into fine powder and give as 〈◊〉 to the sick as to the whole whom you would preserve from this coâ—tagion every day a spoonful 〈◊〉 two of this powder in a pinte of good Wine so long as you shall see it needful This 〈◊〉 before rehearsed is called of the ancient writers Diapente that is to say a composition 〈…〉 simples and is praised to be a soveraign medicine and preservative against all inward diseases and therefore they would have such as travell by the way to carry of this powder alwayes 〈◊〉 them There be many other medicines which I leave to write because if I should rehearse every 〈◊〉 medicine my book would be infinite I for my part would use no other then that before expressed or else Wine and Treacle only Of the Diseases in the Head THe head is subject to divers diseases according to the divers parts thereof for in the panicles or little fine skins cleaving to the bones and covering the brain do most properly breed head-ach and Migram Again in the substance of the brain which in a Horse is as much in quantity as is almost the brain of a mean Hog do breed the Frensie madness sleeping evill the Palsie and forgetfulness Finally in the ventricles or cels of the brain and in those conducts through which the spirits animal do give feeling and moving to the body do breed the Turnsick or staggers the Falling-evill the Night-mare the Apoplexy the Palsie and the Convulsion or Cramp the Catar or Rhume which in a Horse is called the Glaunders but first of Head-ach Of Head-ach THe Head-ach either cometh of some inward causes as of some cholerick humor bred in the the panicles of the brain or else of some outward cause as of extream heat or cold of some blow or of some violent savour Eumelus saith that it cometh of raw digestion but Martin saith most commonly of cold the signes be these the Horse will hang down his head and also hang down his ears his sight will be dim his eyes swollen and waterish and he will forsake his meat The cure Let him bloud in the palat of his mouth also purge his head with this perfume Take of Garlike stalks a handful all to broken in short pieces and a good quantity of Frankincense and being put into a chafing-dish of fresh coals hold the chafing-dish under the Horses nostrils so as the fume may ascend up into his head and in using him thus once or twice it will make him to cast at the nose and so purge his head of all filth Pelagonius saith that it is good to pour into his nostrils Wine wherein hath been sodden Euforbium Centaury and Frankincense Of the Frenzy and Madness of a Horse THe learned Physitians do make divers kindes as well of Frensie as of Madness which are not needful to be recited sith I could never read in any Author nor learn of any Farriar that a Horse were subject to the one half of them Absyrtus Hierocles Eumelus Pelagonius and Hippocrates do write simply de furore rabie that is to say of the madness of a Horse But indeed Vegetius in his second Book of Horse-leach-craft seemeth to make four mad passions belonging to a Horse intituling his Chapters in this sort de Appioso de Frenetico de Cardiacis de Rabioso the effects thereof though I fear me it will be to no great purpose yet to content such as perhaps have read the Author as well as I my self I will here briefly rehearse the same When some naughty bloud saith he doth strike the film or pannicle of the brain in one part only and maketh the same grievously to ake then the beast becometh Appiosum that is to say as it seemeth by his own words next following both dull of minde and of sight This word Appiosum is a strange word and not to be found again in any other Author and because in this passion the one side of the head is only grieved the Horse turneth round as though he went in a Mill. But when the poyson of such corrupt bloud doth infect the mid brain then the Horse becometh Frantick and will leap and fling and will run against the wals And if such bloud filleth the veins of the stomach or breast then it infecteth as well the heart as the brain and causeth alienation of minde and the body to sweat and this disease is called of Vegetius Passocardiaca which if Equus Appiosus chance to have then he becometh Rabiosus that is to say stark-mad For saith he by overmuch heat of the liver and bloud the veins and arteries of the heart are choaked up for grief and pain whereof the Horse biteth himself and gnaweth his own flesh Of two sorts of mad Horses I believe I have seen my self here in this Realm For I saw once a black Sweatbland Horse as I took him to be in my Lord of Hunsdons stable at Hunsdon coming thither by chance with my Lord Morley which Horse would stand all day long biting of the manger and eat little meat or none suffering no man to approach unto him by which his doings and partly by his colour and complexion I judged him to be vexed with a melancholy madness called of the Physitians Mania or rather Melancholia which cometh of a corrupt Melancholy and filthy bloud or humor sometime spread throughout all the veins of the body and sometimes perhaps remaining only in the head or else in the spleen or places next adjoyning The other mad Horse was a Roan of Master Ashlies Master of the Jewel house which with his teeth crushed his Masters right fore-finger in pieces whilest he offered him a little Hay to eat whereby he lost in a manner
strong bodies and in strong diseases as in Carbuncles Cankers Ulcers and such like and they be these Arsenicke Sublimat Resalgar and otder medicines compound therewith Silvius also addeth thereunto Sandaraca Chrysocolla and Aconitum but he doth not agree with Avicâ—n in the description of the putrifactive medicines For he saith that they have little pain or none neither be they so hot and drie as those that are called Escharotica that is to say Crustive which be hot in the fourth degree and do breed a crust and scar and cause great pain as unsleck't Lime and the burned dregs of Wine wherefore it seemeth that Avicens description belongeth rather to the crustive then to the Putrifactive medicines Notwithstanding I must needs say that our Chirurgions and also Farriers do finde both Arsenicke and Resalgar to be so sharp hot and burning things as when they minister the same to any part of the body they are forced to allay the sharpness thereof the Chirurgions with the juice of Plantain or Daffadil or else of House-leek the Farriers with Hogs grease Medicines Caustick that is to say Burning are those whose operation are most strong and incline to the nature of the fire and yet more easily allayed as Vigo writeth then the medicines Putrifactive and therefore may be more safely used They be made as he saith of strong lie called Capite 〈…〉 um or Magistra of Vitriolae Romanâ— Sal Nitri Aqua fortis of this sort be all those which Vigo calleth the blistering medicines as Apium Cantharides Câ—clamine Onions strong Garlick Melanacardinum the stones or grains of Vitis Alba otherwise called Brionie Moreover Vigo maketh every one of these Cauteries Potential to excell one another as it were by certain degrees saying that Corrosives be weaker then putrifactives and Putrifactives be weaker then Causticks and therefore Corrosives work in the upper part and in soft flesh Putrifactives in hard flesh and deep But Causticks have power to break the skin in hard flesh and do enter most deeply The use of the most part of which things have been taught you before in sundry places according to Martins experience And therefore I leave to trouble you any further wishing you that are desirous to know any more of those matters to read Taugantâ—us writing Depiroticis and Silvius de medicamentorum compositione and John Vigo writing of Surgery Englished but few years since But the old writers so far as I can judge by the words of Absyrius and others that write of Horse-leach craft do apply this word Caustick to such medicines as are astrictive and binding called of Martin and other Farriers in these dayes binding charges as may well appear by the composition and use here following recited by Vegetius in this sort The receipt of a Caustick used by Chiron to dry up the superfluous moisture and to bind parts loosened and to strengthen parts weakned TAke of Bitumen Judaicum two pound of Bitumen Apollonii two pound of the purest part of Frankincense six ounces of Bdellium Arabicum two ounces of Deers sewet two pound of Populeum two ounces of Galbanum two ounces of the drops of Storax two ounces of common Wax two pound of Resin Gabial one pound of Viscus Itâ—licâ—â— three ounces of Apoxima two ounces of the juyce of Hysop two ounces of the drops of Armoniack two ounces of Pitch one pound Another Caustick used by Pelagonius to dry up Swellings Bladders Wind-gals and Splents in the legs and joynts TAke Virgin Wax one pound of Rosin two pound and a half of Galbanum three ounces of Asphaltum Judaicum two pound of Mirrhe secondary two pound of Bitumen one pound of Armoniack six ounces of Gostas six ounces Boyl all these things together in an earthen pot saving the Asphaltum Armoniack and Costum which being first ground like fine flowre must be added unto the other things and after that they have been boyled and cooled and then boiled all together again and well stirred so as they may be incorporated together and made all one substance These kindes of Emplaisters or Ointments ought in my judgement to be so called as I said before rather binding charges then Caustick medicines because there be no such extreme Corrosive or burning simples in these as are before recited Notwithstanding I refer my judgment to those that be better learned and so end for being over tedious For if I would I could take very good occasion here to speak of divers other medicines whereof some are called Anodyna easing pain and grief Martin calleth them Linoges which are made of Linseed Camomile soft grease and such like things as are hot in the first degree some again are called Narcotica that is to say astonying or bringing to sleep as those that are made of Opi 〈…〉 Mandragora Poppie and such like cold and grosse things And some are called Sarcotica that is Breeding flesh as Barly flowre and Prankincense And many other kinds of Emplaisters Ointments waters and salves which would occupy a book of no small volum to be written hereafter by some other perhaps if not by my self And in the mean time let this that I may have already written suffice Of the Anticor AN Anticor cometh of superfluity of evill-bloud or spirit in the arteries and also of inflamation in the liver which is ingendered by means of too choise keeping and overmuch rest which choaketh the vital power and occasions unnatural swellings in the brest which if they ascend upward and come into the neck they are instantly death The cure whereof is in this sort Let him bleed so as he may bleed abundantly then with a sharp knife in divers places cut the swelling which done set a cupping-glasse thereon and cup it till the glasse filled with foul water fall away it self then give the Horse to drink three mornings together a pinte of M 〈…〉 esie well stirred with Cinamon Licoras and a little Bâ—zar stone and during his sickness let his drink be warmed and mingled with either Bran or Malt. Of the Cords THe Cord is a disease that maketh the Horse stumble and many times fall and they appear in a Horses fore-legs this is the cure thereof Take a sharp knife and cut a slit even at the top of his nose just with the point of the gristle open the slit being made and you shall perceive a white string take it up with a Boars tooth or some crooked bodkin and cut it in sunder then stitch up the slit and anoint it with Butter and the Horse doubtless shall be recovered Of the Millets THe Millets is a grief that appeareth in the Fetlocks behind and causeth the hair to shed three or four inches long and a quarter of an inch in breadth like as it were bare and ill to cure But thus is the cure First wash it well with wrong lie and rub it till it bleed then binde unto it Hony unsleck't Lime and Deers sewet boyled and mingled together this do for the space of
afterwards they pull it from their nose and if they perceive the savour of the Musk then do they buy it and take it for good but if not they refuse it for corrupted In some Churches they make perfumes with Musk and by mingling Stirax Aloes Amber and juyce of Roses they make a perfume called Regium Suffumigium the Kings perfume likewise unto sweet waters drawn out of the furnaces of Chymists whereunto they add simple Rose Water and for the richer sort of people Musk and Camphory Andreas Furnerius in his French Book of adorning mans nature teacheth a composition to be made of certain Oyls Sope and Musk and also Ointments and musked Oyls He also sheweth how to make little round Balls of Musk and other confections and afterwards to draw a thread through the middle of them and so wear them about ones neck Some put it into Silken wool through which they first draw a thread and so dissolve it in Rose water afterward make it up in medicines and use it as aforesaid It may be preserved in a vessel of Lead close stopped a long time for the lead which is cold and moist agreeth well with the nature of the Musk and therefore if a leaden vessel be wanting so as ye be forced to use glass and silver then must you put two or three pieces of lead into it for the better preservation and covering the passage all over with Wax and above all things you must avoid all kinde of Spices taking heed that no grain thereof come into it If while it is in the vessel it lose the savour and be dead then it is to be recovered by opening the mouth of the Vial and hanging it over a privy for when the stink and evill savour cometh unto it Contra foetorem eluctatur quasi luctando reviviscit it striveth against the filthy stink and as it were reviveth in that contention saith Isidorus Albertus and Platearius But concerning the adulterating of Musk I will say more in this place First of all the Mounte-banks do corrupt it by mingling with it the liver of a Calf Also by a root called Makir and an herb Salich Many times the dung of Mice is sold for Musk and so great is the deceit herein that a man may not trust the outward shape of an intire cod for there be Imposters which can counterfeit them and make them in all parts for the outward appearance and fill them with certain stuffe interposing some little true Musk among it until it have a reasonable savour and therewithal deceive simple people It is also adulterated by mingling with it a little Goats bloud fryed or brown Bread fryed so that three or four parts of these will receive seasonable tast from one part of the Musk. It is also adulterated in the skin by putting pieces of the skin into it and it may be known from the true Musk because it will weigh twice so heavy The Sarazens use this shift above all others and there is one principal way of making counterfeit Musk which is this they take Nutmegs Mace Cinamon Cloves Gilly-flowers and Spikenard of every one a handful all these being beat diligently together and dryed and sifted they are mingled with the warm bloud of a Dove and afterwards dryed in the Sun then are they seven times sprinkled over or moistened with the water of Musk-roses and betwixt every sprinkling they are dryed at length they mingle therewithall a third or fourth part of true Musk and then sprinckle it over again with Musk-rose-water so divide it into three or four lumps and take the white hairs from under the tail of a Roe or Kid and so put it in a vessel of glass Benyvine white Wax taken out of a new Hive of Bees the rotten part of Eve-tree and a little Musk are mingled all together to make a counterfeit Amber for it will smell like Civet or Musk or else Stirax and the powder of Lignum aloes with Civet and Rose-water but the fraud in one and other is easily deprehended for both the odor and the colour are different from the true Amber and also it will sooner wax soft in water then that which is natural Some do corrupt their Musk with the seed of Angelica or rather with the root of it because the root smelleth sweet like Musk but the cosenage may be easily discovered by putting it into water for the Angelica will sink and the Musk will swim The true Musk is sold for forty shillings an ounce at the least It is also observed by Arnoldus Villanovanus that in the presence of Assa foetida or Castoreum the best Musk will have a horrible and intolerable savour although they touch not one another which cannot be ascribed to any known reason but to some secret in nature The sweetness of the Arabian Musk is described by Alciatus in this verse Et celebris suavi est unguine Muscus Arabs There be divers herbs which smell sweet like Musk as Angelica Dorsis Musk-gilliflowers Musk-grapes the leaves of a Winter Cherry and an herb growing near Basil without a name like wilde Parsley the Damasine-rose and many other Wilde Cats and Martins do also render an excrement much like Musk and there are Hares called Moschiae which leave such an intolerable smell in the impression of their foot-steps that the Dogs by touching them grow mad as we have shewed in the story of the Hare And thus much for the description of this Beast now followeth the medicines The Medicines of the Musk-cat A very little part or quantity of a Musk-cat is of great vertue and efficacy wherefore it is very sparingly used in medicines or potions neither is there any part thereof beaten or bruised as it is of all other Beasts but it is melted and dissolved in water which proceedeth from the sweetest Roses It is also a Beast which is very hot and dry but rather more dry then hot yet notwithstanding the same his heat is asswaged and allayed by no other thing but only the Gum called Camphire and his driness is only moistned or mollified with Oyls and very sweet as Oyl of Violets and Oyl of Roses Amongst sweet smels and savours the principallest and chiefest laud and commendation is attributed unto the smell which proceedethfrom the Musk-cat For he doth not only with his odoriferous and delightful savour please and content the scent of men but also doth strengthen the spirits and all the parts of mans body yea and that in a moment for the slenderness of his parts which although it doth forthwith penetrate or enter into the scent of man yet doth it endure longer and is not so speedily or quickly dissolved as the scent or savour of any other sweet smell whatsoever A Musk-cat and the herb called Mercuries-fingers or Dogs bane being given in purging medicines to drink do greatly renew and refresh the decayed strength or force of those which have been before times weakened with divers and
they have another property if they do not breed and engender before the casting of their Colts-teeth they remain steril and barren all their life long for so doth the generative power of the Asses body rest upon a tickle and nice point apt to rise or easie to fall away to nothing And in like sort is a Horse prone to barrenness for it wanteth nothing but cold substance to be mingled with his seed which cometh then to pass when the seed of the Ass is mixed with it for there wanteth but very little but that the Asses seed waxeth barren in his own kinde and therefore much more when it meeteth with that which is beside his nature and kinde This also hapneth to Mules that their bodies grow exceeding great especially because they have no menstruous purgation and therefore where there is an annual breeding or procreation by the help and refreshing of these flowers they both conceive and nourish now these being wanting unto Mules they are the more unfit to procreation The excrements of their body in this kinde they purge with their urine which appeareth because the male Mules never smell to the secrets of the female but to their urine and the residue which is not voided in the urine turneth to encrease the quantity and greatness of the body whereby it cometh to pass that if the female Mule do conceive with foal yet is she not able to bring it forth to perfection because those things are dispersed to the nourishment of her own body which should be imployed about the nourishment of the foal and for this cause when the Egyptians describe a barren woman they picture a Mule Alexander Aphrodiseus writeth thus also of the sterility of Mules Mules saith he seem to be barren because they consist of Beasts divers in kinde for the commixtion of seeds which differ both in habit and nature do evermore work something contrary to nature for the abolishing of generation for as the mingling together of black and white colours doth destroy both the black and white and produce a swart and brown and neither of both appear in the brown so is it in the generation of the Mules whereby the habitual and generative power of nature is utterly destroyed in the created compound which before was eminent in both kindes simple and several These things saith he Alcmaeon as he is related by Plutarch saith that the male Mules are barren by reason of the thinness and coldness of their seed and the females because their wombs are shut up and the veins that should carry in the seed and expel out the menstruous purgation are utterly stopt And Empedocles and Diocles say that the womb is low narrow and the passages crooked that lead into it and that therefore they cannot receive seed or conceive with young whereunto I do also willingly yeeld because it hath been often found that women have been barren for the same cause To conclude therefore Mules bear very seldom and that in some particular Nations if it be natural or else their Colts are prodigious and accounted monsters Concerning their natural birth in hot regions where the exterior heat doth temper the coldness of the Asses seed there they may bring forth And therefore Collumella and Varro say that in many parts of Africk the Colts of Mules are as familiar and common as the Colts of Mares are in any part of Europe So then by this reason it is probable unto me that Mules may ingender in all hot Countries as there was a Mule did engender often at Rome or else there is some other cause why they do engender in Africk and it may be that the African Mules are like to the Syrian Mules before spoken of that is they are a special kinde by themselves and are called Mules for resemblance and not for nature It hath been seen that a Mule hath brought forth twins but it was held a prodigy Herodotus in his fourth Book recorded these two stories of a Mules procreation When Darius saith he besieged Babylon the Babylonians scorned his Army and getting up to the top of their Towers did pipe and dance in the presence of the Persians and also utter very violent opprobrious speeches against Darius and the whole Army amongst whom one of the Babylonians said thus Quid istic desidetis ô Persâ— quin potius absceditis tunc expugnaturi nos cum pepererint Mulae O ye Persians why do you sit here wisdom would teach you to depart away for when Mules bring forth young ones then may you overcome the Babylonians Thus spake the Babylonian believing that the Persians should never overcome them because of the common proverb epcan emionoi tekâ—sin when a Mâ—le beareth young ones But the poor man spake truer then he was aware of for this followed after a yeer and seven months While the siege yet lasted it hapned that certain Mules belonging to Zâ—pirus the son of Megabizus brought forth young ones whereat their Master was much moved while he remembred the aforesaid song of the Babylonian and that therefore he might be made the Author of that fact communicated the matter with Darius who presently entertained the device therefore Zopirus cut off his own nose and ears and so ran away to the Babylonians telling them that Darius had thus used him because he perswaded him to depart with his whole Army from Babylon which he said was in expugnable and invincible The Babylonians seeing his wounds and trusting to their own strength did easily give credence unto him for such is the nature of men that the best way to beguile them is to tell them of those things they most desire for so are their hopes perswaded before they receive any assurances But to proceed Zopirus insinuated himself further into the favour of the Babylonians and did many valiant acts against the Persians whereby he got so much credit that at last he was made the General of the whole Army and so betrayed the City unto the hands of Dirius Thus was Babylon taken when Mules brought forth Another Mule brought forth a young one at what time Xerxes passed over Hellespont to go against Graecia with his innumerable Troops of Souldiers and the said Mule so brought forth had the genitals both of the male and female Unto this I may adde another story out of Suetonius in the life of Galba Caesar As his father was procuring Augurisms or divinations an Eagle came and took the bowels out of his hands and carryed them into a fruit-bearing-oak he enquiring what the meaning of that should be received answer that his posterity should be Emperours but it would be very long first whereunto he merrily replyed Sane cum Mula pepererit I sir when a Mule brings forth young ones which thing afterwards happened unto Galba for by the birth of a Mule he was confirmed in his enterprises when he attempted the Empire so that that thing which was a prodigy and cause of sorrow and
procure favour unto him and that he might be reckoned an inventer of some things for requital whereof Bacchus gave him the land of Thebes in Egypt to keep his Sheep and Cattel and afterward for that invention he was pictured with Rams horas on his head for remembrance that he brought the first Sheep into Egypt and Bacchus also placed the sign of the Ram in Heaven These and such like fictions there are about all the signes of Heaven but the truer observation and reason we have shewed before out of the Egyptians learning and therefore I will cease from any farther prosecution of these fables They ought to be two year old at least before you suffer them to joyn in copulation with the Ewes and for two months before to be separate and fed more plentifully then at other times that so at their return they may more eagerly and perfectly fill the Ewes and then also before copulation and at the time that they are permitted in some Countries they give them Barly and mix Onions with their meat and feed them with the herb Salomons seal for all these are vertuous to stir up and incease their nature And likewise one kinde of the Satyrium and salt water as we have said in the discourse aforegoing Now at the time of their copulation they have a peculiar voice to draw and allure their females differing from the common bleating whereof the Poet speaketh Blaterat hinc aries pia balat ovis This Beast may continue in copulation and be preserved for the generation of Lambs till he be eight year old and it is their nature the older they be to seek out for their fellows the elder Ewes or females forsaking the younger by a kinde of natural wisdom Now concerning the time of their admission to copulation although we have touched it in the former Treatise yet we must add somewhat more in this place In some places they suffer them in April and some in June that so they may be past danger before Winter and be brought forth in the Autumn when the grass after harvest is sweet but the best is in October for then the Winter will be over-passed before the Lamb come forth of his dams belly Great is the rage of these Beasts at their copulation for they fight irefully till one of them have the victory and for this cause Arictare among the Writers is a word to express singular violence Arietat in portas duros objice poster And Silvis of Dioxippâ—â— Arietat in primos objieitque immania membra And so Seneca in his book of Anger Magno imperatori antequam actes inter se ariâ—tarent cor exiluit And indeed great is the violence of Rams for it is reported that many times in Rhetiâ— to try their violence they hold betwixt the fighting of Rams a stick or bat of Corn-tree which in a bout or two they utterly diminish and bruise in pieces There is a known fable in Abstenius of the Wolf that found a couple of Rams and told them that he must have one of them to his dinner and bad them agree betwixt themselves to whose lot that death should happen for one of them must die the two Rams agreed together that the Wolf should stand in the middle of the close and that they twain should part one into one corner and the other into the other corner of the field and so come running to the Wolf and he that came last should lose his life to the Wolfs mercy the Wolf agreed to this their device and chose his standing while the Rams consented with their horns when they came upon him to make him sure enough from hurting any more Sheep forth therefore went the Rams each of them unto his quarter one into the East and the other into the West the Wolf standing joyfully in the midst laughing at the Rams destruction then began the two Rams to set forward with all their violence one of them so attending and observing the other as that they might both meet together upon the Woolf and so they did with vengeance to their enemy for having him betwixt their horns they crushed his ribs in pieces and he fell down without stomach to Rams flesh This invention although it have another moral yet it is material to be inserted into this place to shew the violence of Rams and from this came so many warlike inventions called Arietes wherewithal they push down the walls of Cities as the Readers may see in Vitruvius Valturnis and Ammianus for they say that the warlike Ram was made of wood and covered over with shels of Tortoyses to the intent it should not be burned when it was set to a wall and it was also covered with the skins of sack-cloth by rows artificially contrived within the same was a beam which was pointed with a crooked Iron and therefore called a Ram or rather because the front was so hard that it overthrew walls when by the violent strength of men it was forced upon them and whereas it was shaped over with Tortoise shels it was for the true resemblance it bare therewith for like as a Tortoise doth sometime put forth his head and again sometime pull it in so also doth the Ram sometime put forth the sicle and sometime pull it in and hide it within the frame so that by this engine they did not over-turn the walls but also they caused the stones to 〈…〉 ie upon the enemies like thunder-bolts striking them down on every side and wounding with their fall or stroke like the blows of an armed man and against these forces there were counter-forces devised on the part of the besieged for because the greatness thereof was such as it could not be moved without singular note and ostentation it gave the besieged time to oppose against it their instruments of war for their safeguard such were called Culcitrae Laquei Lupi ferrum made like a pair of tongs whereby as Polyaenus writeth many times it came to pass that when the wall was overthrown the enemies durst not enter saying Ceâ—â—e hostes sponte ab obsessis destructa moenia meâ—uentes ingredi in urbem non audebam And thus much for the force of Rams both their true and natural strength and also their artificial imitation by men Now on the other side the wise shepheards want not devises to restrain the wrath of these impetuous Beasts For Epicharmus the Syracusan saith if there be a hole bored in the backer part of his crooked horn neer his ear it is very profitable to be followed for seeing that he is a Captain of the flock and that he leadeth all the residue it is most necessary that his health and safe-guard be principally regarded and therefore the ancient shepheards were wont to appoint the Captain of the flock from the prime and first appearance of his horns and to give him him his name whereof he took knowledge and would lead and go before them at
Egypt there was a Lamb that spake with a mans voice upon the Crown of his head was a regal Serpent having Wings which was four cubits long and this Lamb spake of divers future events The like is said of another Lamb that spake with a mans voice at what time Romulus and R 〈…〉 were born and from these miraculous events came that common proverb and so for this story I will conclude with the verse of Valerius Aspera nunc pavidos contra ruit agna leones There is in M 〈…〉 neer Volga a certain Beast of the quantity and form of a little Lamb the people call it Bâ—ranz and it is reported by Sigismumdus in his description of Moscovia that it is generated out of the earth like a reptile creature without seed with dam without copulation thus liveth a little while and never stirreth far from the place it is bred in I mean it is not able to move it self but eateth up all the grasse and green things that it can reach and when it can finde no more then it dyeth Of the MUSMON I Have thought good to reserve this Beast to this place for that it is a kinde of Sheep and therefore of natural right and linage to this story for it is not unlike a Sheep except in the wool which may rather seem to be the hair of a Goat and this is the same which the antients did call Vmbricae oves Vmbrian Sheep for that howsoever it differeth from Sheep yet in simplicity and other inward gifts it cometh nearer to the Sheep Strabo calleth it Musmo yet the Latins call it Mussimon This beast by Cato is called an Asse and sometimes a Ram and sometimes a Musmon The picture which here we have expressed is taken from the sight of the Beast at Caen in Normandy and was afterwards figured by Theodorus Beza Munster in his description of Sardinia remembreth this beast but he saith that it is speckled whereat I do not much wonder seeing that he confesseth that he hath all that he wrote thereof by the Narration of others Some say it is a Horse or a Mule of which race there are two kinds in Spain called by the Latins Asturcones for they are very small but I do not wonder thereat seeing that those little Horses or Mules are called Musimones because they are brought out of those Countries where the true Musmones which we may interpret wilde Sheep or wilde Goats are bred and nourished There are of these Musmons in Sardinia Spain and Corsica and they are said to be gotten betwixt a Ram and a Goat as the Cinirus betwixt a Buck-goat and an Ewe The form of this Beast is much like a Ram saving that his brest is more rough and hairy his horns do grow from his head like vulgar Rams but bend backward only to his ears they are exceeding swift of foot so as in their celerity they are comparable to the swiftest Beast The people of those Countries wherein they are bred do use their skins for breastplates Pliny maketh mention of a Beast which he called Ophion and he saith he found the remembrance of it in the Grecian books but he thinketh that in his time there was none of them to be found in the world herein he speaketh like a man that did not know GOD for it is not to be thought that he which created so many kinds of beasts at the beginning and conserved of every kinde two male and female at the generall deluge would not afterward permit them to be destroyed till the worlds end nor then neither for seeing it is apparent by holy Scriptures that after the world ended all creatures and beasts shall remain upon the earth as the monuments of the first six days works of Almighty God for the farther manifestation of his glory wisdom and goodness it is an unreasonable thing to imagine that any of them shall perish in general in this world The Taâ—dinians call these beasts Muffla and Erim Mufflo which may easily be derived from Ophion therefore I cannot but consent unto them that the antient Ophion is the Musmon being in quantity betwixt a Hart and a Sheep or Goat in hair resembling a Hart and this Beast at this day is not found but in Sardinia It frequenteth the steepest mountains and therefore liveth on green grasse and such other hearbs The flesh thereof is very good for meat and for that cause the inhabitants seek after it to take it Hector Boethius in his description of the Hebridian Islands saith that there is a Beast not much unlike to Sheep but his hair betwixt a Goats and a Sheeps being very wilde and never found or taken but by hunting and diligent inquisition The name of the Islands is Hiethae and the reason of that name is from his breed of Sheep called Hierth in the Vulgar tongue yet those Sheep agree with the Musmon in all things but their tails for he saith that they have long tails reaching down to the ground and this name cometh from the German word Herd a flock and thereof â—irt cometh for all Sheep in general Now followeth the conclusion of their story with their medicinal virtues The medicines of the Sheep in general The bodies of such as are beaten and have upon them the appearance of the stripes being put into the warm skins of Sheep when they are newly puld off from their backs eateth away the outward pain and appearance if it continue on a day and a night If you seethe together a good season the skin of the feet and of the snowt of an Ox or a Sheep till they be made like glew and then taken forth of the pot and dryed in the windy air is by Silvius commended against the burstness of the belly The bloud of Sheep drunk is profitable against the falling sickness Also Hippocrates prescribeth this medicine following for a remedy or purgation to the belly first make a perfume of Barly steeped in oyl upon some coles and then seethe some Mutton or Sheeps flesh very much and with decoction of Barley set it abroad all day and night and afterward seethe it again and eat or sup it up warm and then the next day with Hony Frankincense and Parsely all beaten and mingled together make a Suppository and with wool put it up under the party and it shall ease the distress The same flesh burned and mixed in water by washing cureth all the maladies or diseases arising in the secrets and the broth of Mutton Goose or Veal will help against the poison by biting if it be not drawn out by cupping glasse nor by horse-leach The sewet of a Sheep melted at the fire and with a linnen cloth anointed upon a burned place doth greatly ease the pain thereof The Liver with the sewet and Nitro causeth the scars of the flesh to become of the same colour that it was before the wound it being mixed with toasted Salt scattereth the bunches in the flesh and with
severall meats and whole Beasts as Lambs Birds Capons and such like to serve the appetites of the most strange belly-gods and Architects of gluttony and therefore Cincius in his oration wherein he perswaded the Senators and people to the law Fannia reproveth this immoderate riot in banquets In apponendo mensis porcum Trojanum and indeed it wanted not effect for they forbad both Porcum Trojanum and Callum Aprugnum There was another Raven-monster-dish called Pinax wherein were included many Beasts Fowles Egges and other things which were distributed whole to the guests and no marvell for this Beast was as great as a Hog and yet gilded over with silver And Hippolocus in his Epistle to Lynceus speaking of the banquet of Caramis saith thus Allatus est nobis etiam porcus dimidia parte diligenter assus sive tostus dimidia altera parte tanquam ex aqua molliter elixus mira etiam coqui industria ita paratus ut qua parte jugulatus esset quomodo variis deliciis refertus ejus vener non appareat There was brought to us a Hog whereof the one half was well roasted and the other half or side well sod and this was so industriously prepared by the Cook that it did not appear where the Hog was slain or received his deadly wound nor yet how his belly came to be stuffed with divers and sundry excellent and delicate things The Romans had a fashion to divide and distribute a Hog which appeareth in these Verses of Martial Iste tibi faciet bona Saturnalia porcus Inter spumantes ilice pastus apros And of the eating of a sucking Pig Martial also writeth in this manner Lacte mero pastum pigrae mihi matris alumnum Ponat Aetolo de sue dives edat I might add many other things concerning the eating and dressing of Swines flesh both young and old but I will passe it over leaving that learning to every Cook and Kitchin-boy Concerning Bacon that which is cald by the Latins Perna I might add many things neither improper nor impertinent and I cannot tell whether it should be a fault to omit it in this place The word Perna after Varro seemeth to be derived from Pede but in my opinion it is more consonant to reason that it is derived from the Greek word Pterna which is the ribs and hips of the Hog hanged up and salted called by Martial Petaso and by Plautus Ophthalmia Horaeum Scombrum and Laridunn Quanta pecus pestis veniet quanta labes larido The time of the making of Bacon is in the Winter season and all the cold weather and of this Martial writeth very much in one place Musteus est propera charos ne differ amicos Nam mihi cum vetulo sit petasone nihil And again Et pulpam dubio de petasone voras Cretana mihi fiet vel massa licebit De menapis lauti de petasone vorant Strabo in his time commended the Bacon of the Gaules or of France affirming that it was not inferiour to the Asian or Lycian an old City of Spain called Pompelon neer Aquitania was also famous for Bacon They first of all killed their hogs and then burned or scalded off all their hair and after a little season did slit them assunder in the middle laying them upon salt in some tub or deep trough and there covering them all over with salt with the skin uppermost and so heap flitch upon flitch till all be salted and then againe they often turned the same that every part and side might receive his season that is after five daies laying them undermost which were uppermost and those uppermost which were undermost Then after twelve days salting they took all out of the tub or trough rubbing off from it all the salt and so hanged it up two days in the winde and the third day they all to anoint it with oyl and did hang it up two days more in the smoak and afterward take it down again and hang it or lay it up in the larder where all the meat is preserved still looking warily unto it to preserve it from Mice and Wormes And thus much shall suffice at this time for the flesh of Hogs both Pork and Bacon The milk of a Sow is fat and thick very apt to congeal and needeth not any runnet to turn it it breedeth little whay and therefore it is not fit for the stomach except to procure vomiting and because it hath been often proved that they which drink or eat Sow milk fall into scurfs and Leprosies which diseases the Asians hate above all other therefore the Egyptians added this to all the residue of their reasons to condemn a Sow for an unclean and filthy beast And this was peculiarly the saying of Manethon With the skins of Swine which the Grecians did call Phorine they made shoo-leather but now a days by reason of the tenderness and looseness thereof they use it not but leave it to the Sadlers and to them that cover Books for which cause it is much better then either Sheep or Goats skins for it hath a deeper grain and doth not so easily fall off Out of the parings of their skins they make a kinde of glew which is preferred before Taurocollum and which for similitude they call Choerocollum The fat of Swine is very pretious to liquor shooes and boots therewithal The Amber that is in common use groweth rough rude impolished and without clearness but after that it is sod in the grease of a Sow that giveth suck it getteth that nitour and shining beauty which we finde to be in it Some mix the bloud of Hogs with those medicines that they cast into Waters to take fishes and the Hunters in some Countries when they would take Wolves and Foxes do make a train with a Hogs liver sod cut in pieces and anointed over with hony and so anointing their shoos with Swines grease draw after them a dead Cat which will cause the beast to follow after very speedily The hairs of Swine are used by Cobblers and Shoomakers and also with them every Boy knoweth how to make their Nose bleed The dung is very sharp and yet it is justly condemned by Columella for no use no not to fatten the earth and Vines also are burned therewithal except they be diligently watered or rest five years without stirring In Plinies time they studied to enlarge and make their Lettice grow broad and not close together which they did by slitting a little the stalk and thrusting gently into it some Hogs dung But for trees there is more especial use of it for it is used to ripen fruit and make the trees more plentiful The Pomegranats and Almonds are sweetned hereby and the Nuts easily caused to fall out of the shell Likewise if Fennel be unsavory by laying to the root thereof either Hogs dung or Pigeons dung it may be cured and when any Apple tree is affected and razed with Worms
more to be doubted in the kinde of Unicorns for the horns of Harts are not only solid as Aristole supposed but also the horns of Unicorns as here I have said The horn of an Unicorn is at this day used although age or longinquity of time hath quite abolished it from the nature of a horn There are some which mingle the Rhinoceros with the Unicorn for that which is named the Rhinoceros horn is at this day in Physical use of which notwithstanding the Authors have declared no effectual force Some say that the Unicorns horn doth sweat having any poyson coming over it which is false it doth perhaps sometimes sweat even as some solid hard and light substance as also stones and glass some external vapour being about them but this doth nothing appertain to poyson It is in like manner reported that a kinde of stone called the Serpents tongue doth sweat having poyson come over it I have heard and read in a certain book written with ones hands that the true horn of a Unicorn is to be proved in this manner To give to two Pigeons poyson red Arsnick or Orpin the one which drinketh a little of the true Unicorns horn will be healed the other will die I do leave this manner of trial unto rich men For the price of that which is true is reported at this day to be of no less value then gold Some do sell the weight thereof for a floren or eight pence some for a crown or twelve pence But the marrow thereof is certainly of a greater price then that which is of harder substance Some likewise do sell a dram thereof for two pence half penny so great is the diversity thereof For experience of the Unicorns horns to know whether it be right or not put silk upon a burning coal and upon the silk the aforesaid horn and if so be that it be true the silk will not be a whit consumed The horns of Unicorns especially that which is brought from new Islands being beaten and drunk in water doth wonderfully help against poyson as of late experience doth manifest unto us a man who having taken poyson beginning to swell was preserved by this remedy I my self have heard of a man worthy to be believed that having eaten a poysoned cherry and perceiving his belly to swell he cured himself by the marrow of this horn being drunk in Wine in very short space The same is also praised at this day for the curing of the Falling sickness and affirmed by Aelianus who called this disease cursed The ancient Writers did attribute the force of healing to cups made of this horn Wine being drunk out of them but because we cannot have cups we drink the substance of the horn either by it self or with other medicines I happily sometime made this Sugar of the horn as they call it mingling with the same Amber Ivory dust leaves of gold coral certain other things the horn being included in silk and beaten in the decotion of Raisins and Cinamon I cast them is water the rest of the reason of healing in the mean time not being neglected It is moreover commended of Physitians of our time against the pestilent feaver as Aloisius Mundellus writeth against the bitings of ravenous Dogs and the strokes or poysonsome stings of other creatures and privately in rich mens houses against the belly or maw worms to conclude it is given against all poyson whatsoever as also against many most grievous diseases The King of the Indians drinking out of a cup made of an Indian Unicorns horn and being asked wherefore he did it whether it were for the love of drunkenness made answer that by that drink drunkenness was both expelled and resisted and worser things cured meaning that it clean abolished all poyson whatsoever The horn of a Unicorn doth heal that detestable disease in men called S. Johns evill otherwise the cursed disease The horn of an Unicorn being beaten and boiled in Wine hath a wonderful effect in making the teeth white or clear the mouth being well cleansed therewith And thus much shall suffice for the medicines and vertues arising from the Unicorn Of the VRE-OX THis beast is called by the Latines Vrus by the Germans Aurox and Vrox and Grossevesent by the Lituanians Thur the Scythians Bubri and these beasts were not known to the Grecians as Pliny writeth of whom Seneca writeth in this manner Tibi dant variae pectora Tigres Tibi villosi terga Bisontes Latisque feri cornibus uri And Viâ—gil also maketh mention of them in his Georgicks writing of the culture or tilling of Vines Texenda saepes etiam pecus omne tenendum Praecipuâ— cum frons tenera imprudensâ— laborum Cui super indignas hyemes â—olemque potentem Silvestres uri assidue capreaeque sequaces Illudunt These wilde beasts or Ure-oxes are wilde Oxen differing from all other kindes already rehearsed in the story of Oxen Bugles Bisons or any other although some have unskilfully taken them for Bisons and Sir Thomas Eliot in his Dictionary doth English Vrus a Bugil but beside him no body that I know and for this cause he is reprehended by other Now although there be nothing in this beast but ordinary yet seeing it is a creature so well known we have less reason to omit his shape and story lest we should justly be condemned of negligenee and carelesneâ—s In outward proportion of the body it differeth little from the Bull It is very thick and his back somewhat bunched up and his length from the head to the tail is short no ways answerable to the proportion of his stature and sides the horns as some say are but short yet black broad and thick his eyes red a broad mouth and a great broad head his temples hairy a beard upon his chin but short and the colour thereof black his other parts as namely in the face sides legs and tail of a reddish colour These are in the wood Hercynia in the Pyrâ—ney Mountains and in Mazovia near Lituania They are call'd Vri of Oron that is the Mountains because their savage wildeness so great that they seldom descend from those safeguards They far excel Bulls and other wilde Oxen coming nearer to the quantity or stature of Elephants then to the Bull. In resemblance a man would think them to be compounded of a Mule and a Hart for their outward resemblance so seem It is said they could never be taken by men although they were taken when they were young yet they love other heards of Cattel and will not forsake them easily after they have once joyned themselves unto them whereby many times they are deceived and killed twenty thirty or forty at a time Caligula Caesar brought of these alive to Rome and did shew them in publick spectacle to the people and at that time they were taken for wilde Bulls Some affirm that there are of these in Prussia and that they are so wilde cruel and
in the said manner The dung of Mice or of a Weasel being anoynted upon the head is an excellent remedy for the falling off of the hair on the head or any other part of mans body and doth also cure the disease called by some the Foxes evil The biting of a Weasel is reported by some to be very venemous and in his ravening or madnesse not to be lesse hurtfull then the bitings of mad Dogs For Weasels and Foxes are very often mad But Arnoldus is of a contrary opinion and affirmeth that the Weasel doth more hurt by his biting then by any venom he can put forth Others also do affirm that there is venom in Weasels for this cause that in all kinde of Weasels when they are angry the force of their smell is so rank and strong The best way to drive away Mice is by scattering the powder of Weasels or Cats dung up and down the savour whereof Mice cannot abide but the same being made into some certain kinde of bread will smell more strongly That the bites of a Weasel are venemous and deadly there is an example written by Aristides of a certain man who being bitten by a Weasel and ready to die gave a great sigh and said that if he had died by a Lyon or Panther it would never have grieved him but to die by the biting of such an ignoble beast it grieved him worse then his death The biting of a Weasel doth bring very quick and grievous pain which is only known by the colour being dusky or blewish and it is cured by Onions and Garlick either applyed outward or taken in drink so that the party drink sweet wine thereon Unripe Figs also mingled with the flour of the grain called Orobos doth much profit the same Treacle in like manner being applyed in the manner of a plaister speedily cureth them Garlick being mingled with Fig-tree leaves and Cinamon and so beaten together are very well applyed to the said bites It cometh also to passe that sometimes the Weasel biteth some Cattell which presently killeth them except there be some instant remedy The remedy for it is this to rub the wounded place with a piece of a Weasels skin well dryed untill it waxe hot and in the mean time give the best Treacle to drink in the manner of an antidote The Weasel usually biteth Cowes dugs which when they are swollen if they be rubbed with a Weasels skin they are instantly healed Of the WOLF A Wolf is called in Hebrew Zeeb as it is said in Gen. 49. and among the Chaldeans Deeba and Deba among the Arabians Dib The female is called Zebah a she-Wolf and the masculine Zeebim but in Ezek. 22. it is called Zebeth that is to say a Wolf Alsebha saith And. Bellun is a common name for all Four-footed beasts which do set on men killing and tearing them in pieces devouring them with their teeth and clawes as a Lyon a Wolf a Tiger and such like whereon they are said to have the behaviour of Alsebha that is wilde beasts which are fierce and cruel From hence happily cometh it that not only Albertus but also some ignorant Writers do attribute unto a Wolf many things which Aristotle hath uttered concerning a Lyon Oppianus among the other kinde of Wolves hath demonstrated one which is bred in Cilicia And also he doth write that it is called in the mountains of Taurus and Amanus Chryseon that is to say Aureum but I conjecture that in those places it was called after the language of the Hebrewes or Syrians which do call Sahab or Schab aurum and Seeb Lupum for a Wolf or Dahab or Debah for Aurum They also do call Deeb or Deeba for a Wolf Dib othertherwise Dijb is an Arabian or Saracenican word Also the translation of this word in the book of medicines is divers as Adib Adep Adbip and Aldip but I have preferred the last translation which also Bellunensis doth use Aldip Alambat doth signifie a mad or furious Wolf The Wolf which Oppianus doth call Aureum as I have said even now doth seem to agree to this kinde both by signification of the name Aurum and also by the nature because it doth go under a Dog close to the earth to eschew the heat of the Summer which Oppianus doth write doth seek his food out of hollow places as a Hyena or Dabh doth out of graves where the dead men are buryed The golden coloured Wolf is also more rough and hairy then the residue even as the Hyena is said to be rough and maned And also these Wolves necks in India are maned but it differeth according to the nation and colour where there are any Wolves at all Lycos a Wolf among the Grecians and Lugos and Lucania and Lycos among some of the Arabican Writers is borrowed from them as Munster hath noted in his Lexicon of three languages In Italy it is called Lupo In French Loup in Spain Lobo in Germany Vulff in England Wolf In Illyria Vulk as it were by a transposition of the letters of the Greek word Now because both men women Cities places Mountains Villages and many artificiall instruments have their names from the Latine and Greek words of this beast it is not vain or idle to touch both them and the derivation of them before we proceed to the naturall story of this beast Lupus as some say in Latine is Quasi Leopos Lyon-footed because that it resembleth a Lyon in his feet and therefore Isidorus writeth that nothing liveth that it presseth or treadeth upon in wrath Other derive it from Lukes the light because in the twilight of the evening or morning it devoureth his prey avoiding both extreme light as the noon day and also extreme darknesse as the night The Grecians do also call them Nycterinoi canes dogs of the night Lupa and lupula were the names of noble devouring Harlots and from thenceforth cometh Lupanar for the stewes It is doubtfull whether the nurse of Romulus and Remus were a Harlot or she-wolf I rather think it was a Harlot then a Wolf that nursed those children For we read of the wife of Fostulus which was called Laurentia after she had played the whore with certain Shepherds was called Lupa In all Nations there are some mens names derived from Wolves therefore we read of Lupus a Roman Poet Lupus Servatus a Priest or Elder of Lupus de Oliveto a Spanish Monk of Fulvus Lupinus a Roman and the Germans have Vulf Vulfe Hart Vulfegang The Grecians have Lycambes of whom it is reported he had a daughter called Neobole which he promised in marriage to Archilochus the Poet yet afterwards he repented and would not perform his promise for which cause the Poet wrote against him many bitter Verses and therefore Lycambes when he came to knowledge of them dyed for grief Lycaon was a common name among the Grecians for many men as Lycaon Gnotius an excellent maker
a venemous creature yet is it an enemy to the Serpent for when she seeth a Serpent lie under her tree in the shadow she weaveth or twisteth a thred down from her web upon the head of the Serpent and suddenly biteth into his head a mortal wound so that he can do nothing but only roul to and fro being stricken with a Megrim whereby he hath not so much power as to break the Spiders thred hanging over his head untill he be dead and overthrown The Cockatrice is such an enemy to some kinde of Serpents that he killeth them with his breath or hissing The Lizard a kinde of Serpent is most friendly to man and very irefull against Serpents to the uttermost of his power whereof Erasmus in his book of Friendship telleth this story I saw saith he on a day a very great Lizard fighting with a Serpent in the very mouth of a Cave at the first sight whereof I marvailed at the matter for the Serpent was not visible out of the earth there was with me an Italian who said that surely the Lizard had some enemy within the Cave After a little while the Lizard came unto us and shewed us his side all wounded as it were craving help for the Serpent had bitten him sore for of green he made him appear red and this Lizard did suffer himself to be touched of us Thus saith Erasmus Again in the same place he saith that when a Lizard saw a Serpent lye in wait to set upon a man being asleep the Lizard ran to the man and never ceased running upon the mans face scratching his neck and face gently with his clawes untill he had awaked the man and so discovered to him his great danger The Locust also fighteth with a Serpent and killeth him when he lusteth for he getteth hold with his teeth upon his lower chap and so destroyeth him but this is not to be understood of every kinde of Locust but only of one kinde which for this cause is called Ophiomachum genus The Serpent is also an enemy to the Chamaeleon for in the extremity of famine she setteth upon them and except the Chamaeleon can cover herself from his rage he hath no defence but death Albertus calleth a certain Worm Spoliator colubri because as he saith it will take fast hold upon a Serpents neck underneath his jawes and never give over till he hath wearied and destroyed his adversary The Tortoises are enemies to Serpents and will fight with them but before they enter combat they arm themselves with wilde Marjoram or Penniroyall But there is not any thing in the world that fighteth more earnestly against Serpents then Sea-crabs and Crevises for when the Sun is in Cancer Serpents are naturally tormented with pains and feavers and therefore if Swine be stung or bitten with Serpents they cure themselves by eating of Sea-crabs There is a great water neer Ephesus at the one side whereof there is a Cave full of many noysome and irefull Serpents whose bitings by often probation have been very deadly both to men and beasts These Serpents do often times endevour to crawl over the pool now on the other side there are great store of Crabs who when they see the Serpents come crawling or swimming they instantly put out their crooked legs and as it were with tongs or pinsers reach at the sliding Serpent wherewithall the Serpents are so deterred that through their sight and often remembrance of their unhappy successe with them they turn back again and never dare any more adventure to the other side Where we may see the most wise providence of the Creator who hath set Sea-crabs the enemies of Serpents to guard both men and Cattell which are on the opposite side for otherwise the inhabitants would all perish or else be drove away from their dwellings To conclude not only living Creatures but also some kinde of earth and Plants are enemies to Serpents And therefore most famous are Ebusus and Creet as some say although Bellonius say that there are Scolopendraes Vipers and Slow-worms in Creet yet he saith they are without venom and there are very few in England and Scotland but none at all in Ireland neither will they live if they be brought in thither from any other Countrey This antipathy with Serpents proceedeth from living to dead and vegetable things as trees herbs and plants as may be seen by this discourse following There is such vertue in the Ash-tree that no Serpent will endure to come neer either the morning or evening shadow of it yea though very far distant from them they do so deadly hate it We set down nothing but that we have found true by experience If a great fire be made and the same fire encircled round with Ashen boughs and a Serpent put betwixt the fire and the Ashen boughs the Serpent will sooner run into the fire then come neer the Ashen boughs Thus saith Pliny Olaus Magnus saith that those Northern Countreys which have great store of Ash-trees do want venemous beasts of which opinion is also Pliny Callimachus saith there is a Tree growing in the land of Trachinia called Smilo to which if any Serpents do either come neer or touch they forthwith die Democritus is of opinion that any Serpent will die if you cast Oken-leaves upon him Pliny is of opinion that Alcibiadum which is a kinde of wilde Buglosse is of the same use and quality and further being chewed if it be spit upon any Serpent that it cannot possibly live In time of those solemn Feasts which the Athenians dedicated to the Goddesse Ceres their women did use to lay and strew their beds with the leaves of the Plant called Agnos because Serpents could not endure it and because they imagined it kept them chaste whereupon they thought the name was given it The herb called Rosemary is terrible to Serpents The Egyptians do give it out that Polydamna the wife of Thorris their King taking pity upon Helen caused her to be set on shore in the Island of Pharus and bestowed upon her an hearb whereof there was plenty that was a great enemy to Serpents whereof the Serpents having a feeling sense as they say and so readily known of them they straightwayes got them to their surking holes in the earth and Helen planted this herb who coming to the knowledge thereof she perceived that in his due time it bore a seed that was a great enemy to Serpents and thereupon was called Helenium as they that are skilfull in Plants affirm and it groweth plentifully in Pharus which is a little Isle against the mouth of Nilus joyned to Alexandria with a Bridge Rue called of some Herb of grace especially that which groweth in Lybia is but a back friend to Serpents for it is most dry and therefore causing Serpents soon to faint and lose their courage because as S 〈…〉 catus affirmeth it induceth a kinde of heavinesse or
drunkennesse in their head with a vertiginy or giddiness through the excess of his driness or immoderate siccity Serpents cannot endure the savour of Rue and therefore a Weasel when she is to fight with any Serpent eateth Rue as a defensative against her enemy as Aristotle and Pliny his Interpreter are of opinion The Countrey-people leaving their Vessels of Milk abroad in the open fields do besmear them round about with Garlick for fear lest some venemous Serpents should creep into them but the smell of Garlick as Erasmus saith driveth them away No Serpents were ever yet seen to touch the herb Trifolie or Three-leaved grasse as Aedonnus would make us believe And Cardan the Physitian hath observed as much that neither Serpents nor any thing that is venemous will lodge dwell not lurk privily neer unto Trifolie because that it is their bane as they are to other living Creatures and therefore it is sown to very good purpose and planted in very hot Countreys where there is most store of such venemous Creatures Arnoldus Villanovanus saith that the herb called Dracoutes killeth Serpents And Florentinus affirmeth that if you plant Wormwood Mugwort and Sothernwood about your dwelling that no venemous Serpents will ever come neer or dare enterprise to invade the same No Serpent is found in Vines when they flourish bearing flowers or blossoms for they abhor the smell as Aristotle saith Avicon an Arabian Physitian saith that Capers doe kill Worms in the guts and likewise Serpents If you make a round circle with the herb Betony and therein include any Serpents they will kill themselves in the place rather than strive to get away Galbanum killeth Serpents only by touching if Oyl and the herb called Fennel-giant be mixt withall There is alshrub called Therionarca having a flower like a Rose which maketh Serpents heavy dull and drowsie and so killeth them as Pliny affirmeth Albertus and Kyranides affirm that there is a certain Tree in Asia called Hyperdiocis which soundeth as much as Against the right hand with whose sweet fruit Doves are delighted but there are Serpents which are sore enemies to the Doves so lying in wait for them and not being able to abide the smell shadow of the tree the Doves notwithstanding very safely do there in the tree seek their refuge and finde food wherewith to sustain themselves Rasis who practised Physick one hundred years affirmeth that if any man do melt Sal Almoniack in his mouth and then spit it into a Serpents mouth that he will die of it Of the Medicines made and taken on t of SERPENTS IT is manifest that if any man be wounded of a Serpent though the wound seem incurable that the bowels or inward parts of the same Serpent being applyed to the wound will cure the same and those that have eaten the liver of a boyled Viper at any time shall never after be wounded of any Serpent Neither is a Snake venemous unlesse at some times of the Moon when she is throughly moved or angred And a live Snake or Serpent being caught if the bitten place be bathed soked or washed with the Snake being bruised in any water it is of notable effect Besides they are thought to be very soveraign against many infirmities and therefore as Pliny saith they are dedicated to Aesculapius Avicen saith that if any be troubled with the Leprosie he is to be cured by taking a black Serpent 〈…〉 being excoriated he must be buryed so long till there breed Worms of him and then he is to be taken forth of the earth and dryed and so to be given to the leprous person for three dayes together the quantity of one dram at every time with syrup of Hony Pliny and with him agreeth Cornelius Celsus affirmeth that if any one do eat the middle part of Snakes or Serpents casting away the heads and tayls they cure Strumes which we in English call the Kings-evil There is a disease called Ecephantia or Elephantiasis which is a kinde of Lepry proceeding of melancholy choler and flegme exceedingly adust and maketh the skin rough of colour like an Elephant with black wannish spots and dry parched scales and scurf This disease I say so grievous and Strumes are exceedingly holpen by eating often of Vipers and Serpents as John Taganet in his first Book Institut Chirurg hath assured us Pliny saith that if you take out the right eye of a Serpent and so binde it about any part of you that it is of great force against the watering or dropping of the eyes by means of a rheum issuing out thereat if the Serpent be again let go alive And so he saith that a Serpents or Snakes heart if either it be bitten or tyed to any part of you that it is a present remedy for the tooth-ache and he addeth further that if any man do taste of the Snakes heart that he shall never after be hurt of any Serpent Paulus Venetus in his second Book Chap. 40. writeth how that in the Province of Caraiam there be Serpents of exceeding greatnesse which being killed the inhabitants of the Countrey do pull out their gall which they use to prize at a very high rate when they sell any of it for it is very medicinal so that they which are bit of a mad Dog if they take inwardly in any drink but the quantity of a penny weight of this gall they are presently cured And if a woman be in her travail of childe-birth if she taste never so little of this gall the birth will be the more speedy So if any be troubled either with the Pyles or Hemorhoids in the fundament if that the place be anoynted with this gall after a few dayes he is set free from his disease Hippocrates giveth the seed of Serpents as a remedy against the suffocation of the belly Nicholaus Myrepsus prescribeth this medicine against strains and hardnesses Take a dead Serpent and put him into a new pot luting it very well with Gypsum then set it in a furnace that it may be burnt after that commixe the ashes of a Serpent with an equall portion of the seeds of Fenugreek so being wrought up with Attick Hony and throughly digested anoynt the place affected And with him agreeth Pliny who expresly affirmeth that the ashes of Snakes and Serpents being anoynted upon Strumes either with Oyl or Waxe is a singular medicine And likewise to drink the ashes of a Serpent that is burnt to powder in a new earthen pot is very good but it will be the more effectuall if the Serpents be killed between two tracks or furrowes that are made with Cart-wheels The ashes of a Serpent burnt with salt in a pot being put with Oyl of Roses into the contrary ear helpeth the tooth-ache An unguent against the Morphue prescribed by Olaus Magnus Take of the ashes of a Serpent burnt in a new pot and well covered two ounces Lytharge Galbanum Ammoniacum and Opoponax dissolved in Vinegar three ounces boyl
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
and slain by an a 〈…〉 bush of Germans in Germany P. Fabius and Q. Elius being Consuls It is written that a swarm lighted in the tent of Hostilius Rutilus who was in the Army of Drusus ard did there hang after such a manner as they did enclose round his Spear which was fastened to his Pavilion as if it had been a rope hanging down M. Lepidus and Munatius Plancus being Consuls Also in the Consulship of L. Paulus and Caius Metellus a swarm of Bees flying up and down presignified the enemy at hand as the Soothsayers well divined Pompey likewise warring against Caesar when for the pleasuring of his friends he had set his Army in aray going out of Dyrrhachium Bees met with him and darkened even the very Ancients with their great multitude We read in the Histories of the Helvetians how that in the year of our Lord God 1385. when Leopold of Austrich prepared to go against Sempach with an Host of men being yet in his journey a swarm of Bees fled to the Town and there rested upon a certain great Tree called Tilia whereupon the vulgar sort rightly foretold the coming of some strange people to them So likewise Virgil in the seventh Book of his Aeneids seemeth to describe the coming of Aeneas into Italy after this manner Lauri Hujus Apes summum densae mirabile dictu Stridore ingenti liquidum trans aethera vectae Obsedere apitem et pedibus per mutua nexis Examen subitò ramo frondente pependit Continuò vates examen cernimus inquit Adventare virum That is A tale of wonder to be told there came a swarm of Bees Which with great noyse within the air a Bay-tree did attain Where leg in leg they cleaped fast and top of all degrees O're-spread and suddenly a hive of them remaind There hanging down whereat the Prophet said Some stranger here shall come to make us all afraid Which thing also Herodotus Pausanias and divers other Historiographers have with greater observation then reason confirmed Laon Acraephniensis when he could not finde the Oracle of Trophonius by a swarm flying thither he found the place In like sort the Nurses being absent Jupiter Melitaeus Hiero the Syracusan Plato Pindarus and Ambrosius were nourished by Honey which Bees by little and little put in their mouths as Plutarch Pausanias and Textor are Authors Xenophon likewise in his Oeconomicks termeth Honey-making the Shop of vertues and to it sendeth mothers of Housholds to be instructed Poets gladly compare themselves with Bees who following Nature only as a School-mistresse useth no Art So Plato saith that Poets ruled by Art can never perform any notable matter And for the same reason Pindarus maketh his brags that he was superior to Bacchilides and Simonides having only Nature not Art to his friend Bees unlesse they be incensed to anger do no hurt at all but being provoked and stirred up they sting most sharply and such is the disposition and naturall inclination of Poets and therefore in his Mino strictly enjoyneth that those who love their own quiet must take great heed that they make no wars either with Poets or Bees Finally they have so many vertues which we may imitate that the Egyptians Chaldeans and Grecians have taken divers Hieroglyphicks from them And he that will read over Pierius shall there finde store of Emblems of them The Countrey people in like manner have learned of them Aeromantie that is Divination of things by the air for they have a fore-feeling and understanding of rain and windes aforehand and do rightly prognosticate of storms and foul weather So that then they flye not far from their own homes but sustain themselves with their own Honey-suck already provided Which being true we must then think it no strange matter that Aristeus Philistius Aristomachus Solensis Menus the Samnite and six hundred others that have writ of the Nature of Bees bidding adiew to all those pleasures and delicacies that are found in Cities for fifty and eight yeers space together inhabited the Woods and Fields that they might more exactly come to the knowledge of their order of living and naturall dispositions leaving it as a monument for posterity to imitate But what their bodies do work in ours I judge worth the labour and pains taking to let you understand that we may be assured there is nothing in Bees but maketh to the furtherance of our health and good First therefore their bodies being taken newly from the hives and bruised and drunk with some diuretical wine cureth mightily the Dropsie breaketh the stone openeth the obstructed passages of the Urine and helpeth the suppression thereof Being bruised they cure the wringings and gripings of the belly if they be laid upon the place affected and if any have drunk any poysonous Honey Bees being likewise drunk do expell the same They mollifie hard ulcers in the lips and being bound to the part they cure a Carbuncle and the Bloody-flixe amending also the crudity of the stomack and all spots and flecks in the face being tempered with their own made Honey as both Hollerius Alexander Benedictus and Pliny have written Galen affirmeth that if you take live Bees out of their Combes and mix them with Honey wherein Bees have been found dead you shall make an excellent Oyntment to be used against the shedding and falling of the hair in any place of the head causing it to grow again and come afresh Pliny again willeth us to burn many Bees commixing the ashes with Oyl and therewith to anoynt the bâ—ld places but we must saith he take great heed that we touch no other place neer adjoyning Yea he affirmeth that Honey wherein is found dead Bees is a very wholsome medicine serving for all diseases Erotis cap. 61. De morb muliebrib commendeth highly the ashes of Pee beaten and tempered with Oyl for the dealbation of the hair Bees also are very profitable because divers living creatures are nourished by and do feed full savorly on their Honey as the Bear the Badger or Brock Lizards Frogs Serpents the Wood-pecker or Eat-bee Swallows Lapwings the little Titmouse which of some is called a Nunne because his head is filletted as it were Nun-like the Robin-red-breast Spiders and Wasps as Bellonius hath well observed But to what end you will say serveth their sting against whose poyson Pliny knew no remedy I must needs confesse truely that which cannot be denyed that the stings of Bees are sometimes venemous but that is when either they are mad and raging and be exceedingly disquieted by means of anger or some vehement Feaver for otherwise they do not sting but prick but a little and therefore Dioscorides never made mention of the stinging of Bees supposing it very unmeet for a man to complain of so small a matter as the sting of a silly Bee But yet they that have succeeded him have observed pain rednesse and swellings as companions and effects of their malice especially if the sting do stick
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
Many of those which have stings do forgoe and quite lose them when Winter draweth on as some make reckoning but it was never my hap to see this saith the Philosopher in his 9. Book De hist Animal capit 41. If you catch a Wasp holding her fast by the feet suffering her to make her usual humming sound you shall have all those that lack stings presently come flying about you which the stinged Wasps never are seen to do Therefore some hold this as a good reason to prove that the one should be the male the other the female Both these sorts both wilde and unwilde have been seen to couple toger after the manner of flies Besides in respect of sex both kindes of Wasps are divided into Captains or Ring-leaders and into labourers those former are ever greater in quantity and of more calm disposition these other both lesser more froward testy peevish and divers The males of labourers never live one whole year out but all of them die in the Winter time which is evident by this because in the very beginning of cold weather they are as it were frozen or benummed and in the depth or midst of hard winter a man shall hardly or never see any of them But yet for all that their Dukes or principal Chieftains are seen all the Winter long to lie hid in their lurking holes under the earth and indeed many men when they plowed or broke up the ground and digged in Winter have found of this sort But as for the labouring Wasp I never as yet heard of any that could finde them Their Principal or Captain is broader thicker more ponderous and greater then the male Wasp and so not very swift in flight for the weightinesse of their bodies is such an hinderance to them that they cannot flie very far whereby it cometh to passe that they ever remain at home in their hives there making and devising their combes of a certain glutinous matter or substance brought unto them by the Work-wasps thus spending their time in executing and doing all those duties that are meet intheir Cells Wasps are not long lived for their Dukes who live longest do not exceed two years And the labouring that is the male Wasps together with Autumn make an end of their days Yea which is more strange whether their Dukes or Captains of the former year after they have ingendered and brought forth new sprung up Dukes do die together with the new Wasps and whether this do come to passe after one and the self same order or whether yet they do and may live any longer time divers men do diversly doubt All men hold the wilder kinde to be more strong of nature and to continue and hold out the longer For why these other making their nests neer unto common high-ways and beaten paths do live in more hazard lie open to divers injuries and so more subject to shortnesse of life The brevity of their life is after a sort recompensed and some part of amends made by the rare clammy glewishnesse of the same for if you separate their bulks from the head and the head from the breast they will live a long while after and thrust out their sting almost as strongly as if they were undivideable and free from hurt and deaths harm Apollonius calleth Wasps Omotoroi and Aristotle Meloboroi although they do not only feed on raw flesh but also on Pears Plums Grapes Raisins and on divers and sundry sorts of flowers and fruits of the juyce of Elms Sugar Honey and in a manner of all things that are seasoned tempered made pleasant or prepared with either of these two last rehearsed Pliny in his 11. Book capit 53. is of opinion that some Wasps especially those of the wilder and feller kinde do eat the flesh of Serpents which is the cause that death hath sometimes ensued of their poysonous stinging They also hunt after great flies not one whit sparing the harmlesse Bees who by their good deeds have so well deserved According to the nature of the soyl and place they do much differ in their outward form and fashion of their body and in the manner of their qualities and dispositions of their minde for the common Wasps being acquainted and familiarly used to the company of Men and Beasts are the gentler but the Hermites and solitary Wasps are more rude churlish and tempestuous yea Nicander tearmeth them Oloous that is pernicious They are also more unhappy dangerous and deadly in very hot Countries as Ovidius reporteth and namely in the West-Indies where both in their magnitude and figure there is great difference betwixt theirs and ours so that they are accounted far more poysonous and deadly then either the English French Spanish or Barbarian Wasps Some of these dangerous generation do also abound in exceeding cold Countries as Olaus Magnus in his 22. Book telleth us Their use is great and singular for besides that they serve for food to those kind of Hawks which are called Kaistrels or Fleingals Martinets Swallows Owls to Brocks or Badgers and to the Camelion they also do great pleasure and service to men sundry ways for the kill the Phalangium which is a kinde of venomous Spider that hath in all his legs three knots or joynts whose poyson is perilous and deadly and yet Wasps do cure their wounds Raynard the Fox likewise who is so full of his wiles and crafty shifting is reported to lie in wait to betray Wasps after this sort The wily thief thrusteth his bushy tail into the Wasps nest there holding it so long until he perceive it to be full of them then drawing it slily forth he beateth and smiteth his tail full of Wasps against the next stone or tree never resting so long as he seeth any of them alive and thus playing his Fox like parts many times together at last he setteth upon their combes devouring all that he can finde Pliny greatly commendeth the so litary Wasp to be very effectual against a Quartain Ague if you catch her with your left hand and tie or fasten her to any part of your body always provided that it must be the first Wasp that you lay hold on that year Mizaldus memor Cent. 7. attributeth great vertue to the distilled water and likewise to the decoction of common Wasps affirming expresly that if any part be therewith anointed it straight ways causeth it to swell monstrously and to be pussed up that you would imagine them to be sick of a Dropsie and this course crafty drabs and queans use to perswade their sweet hearts that they are forsooth with childe by them thus many times beguiling and blinding the eyes of wary and expert Midwives Whereupon we may very confidently conclude that their poyson is very hot flatulous or windy Some do prole after Wasps and kill them by other sleights and devises For when the labourers do much use and frequent Elms which they do very often about the Summer solstice to gather
unto Sithes or two sickles nothing varying in colour from their feet Their belly is as though it were tyed to their shoulders with a very fine thred the forward and middle part whereof is overcast with a brown colour and begirt as it were with a girdle of Saffron The hinder part is altogether yellow easily discerned and remarkable for those brown pricks or specks every one of them being much like unto a small triangle besides they have certain clefts or slits on both sides both before and behinde by which they can at their pleasure when they list either shrink up themselves or draw and gather themselves together and with the same again lengthen and stretch out their bodies They have also neer to their belly on both sides four black spots and in their tail they are armed with a strong piercing sting and the same very venomous They make a sound or a buzzing strange noise morehideous and dreadful then Wasps do They are shrewd fierce and cruel quickly angry and wrathful and although they live in companies together yet notwithstanding they are ever known to be but of an homely rude curst and untractable disposition and nature and will never be brought by any Art or fashioning to lay aside their uplandish wildenesse as some herbs will do that are transplanted into Gardens They are besides this of such a mischievous malignity and venomous quality that as some affirm nine of their stings will kill a Man and three times nine will be able to kill a strong Horse especially at the rising of the Dog-star and after at which time they have a more fiery hasty and inflaming nature and men at that season by reason of their large exaltation and sending forth of spirits grow more weak and faint And therefore it is no marvail though in holy Scripture they are compared or likened to most fierce and cruel enemies which should put and cast forth the Canaanites Plittites and Chevites Exod. 23. 28. So likewise Ovid in the eleventh Book of his Metamorphos hath these words Spicula carbtonum ardentia The burning stings of Hornets And Virgil in the fourth Book of his Georgicks calleth them Asperrima most sharp and violent Terence the most eloquent of all Comical Poets in his Comedy intituled Phormio and Plautus in his Amphitryo have this Proverb Irritavi crabrones I have provoked or incensed the great Wasps to anger which I suppose they used as a by-word against the properties natures and froward behaviours of women who being in their wonted furnish mood if once you go about to overthwart them or a little to contrary their wilfulnesse you shall pull an old house over your own head by a further provocation and perhaps if you get you not the sooner out of their sight and reach of their clutches you may chance have somewhat more flying about you ears then you would It is good therefore if you have a Wife that is Calcato immitior hydra unquiet and contentious to let her alone not to wake an angry Dog and when a mischief is well quieted and brought asleep to go your ways and say never a word Whereas among Bees their Drones and Kings do want stings yea and some Wasps too as before I have writ yet notwithanding all Hornets in general as well the greater sort of them that build their houses in trees as the lesser sort that dwell in the earth are provided of stings neither do their Ring-leader seem to be unarmed For Wasps have their Presidents of their own society and their Captains general as well as Bees and Wasps whatsoever Pliny lib. 11. cap. 21. dream to the contrary which in proportion and quantity are far greater if you respect the bodies of other Hornets then either the Captains of the Bees and Wasps are in comparison of their subjects These also spend their time within doors as the Captain of Wasps do not having many but one head to guide and rule over them lest by banding into parties and factions some civill war wherein all things are miserable as Tully saith or other mutiny might arise to their final destruction They are great vexers and troublers and even like such as had sworn the death of their enemies robbers and theeves And yet at home they nourish peace excelling even the very Bees themselves in their painful earnest and willing desire to maintain their stock and common society For neither do they chide braul or contend nor yet make any stir or rustling when any is promoted to any office or place of preferment in their corporation neither are they distracted into divers mindes with their businesses neither yet do they raise any tumult make any uprore or keep a coil or ruffling at the election of their Prince and Captain general but with common consent they use but one Table taking their commons together like good friends and fellows and whatsoever they kill they carry some part of it home frankly imparting it to their neighbors children and companions Neither do they yearly drive and expel forth of the doors to seek new habitations where they can as some Bees deal very churlishly and unnatural with their young but they contrarywise in their bosome defend and keep warm their new springed up progeny and race building for them greater Houses and raising of moe Sellers and flores bording and planking the same in case of necessity never ceasing till they be fully rear'd and made fit for defence and safety But as for their King and Captain whom they exceedingly honor and highly esteem they make choyce of such a one as neither seemeth to be a King without a Kingdom nor a Prince without people and possessions and yet he so behaveth himself and carryeth himself so evenly as though he had but little to do in this his Empire And yet in largenesse of body and greatnesse of his heart in stoutnesse and statelinesse of stomach and person he staineth all the rest carrying away the prize from them all and when there is Proclamation of War to be made against any forain foes and that their flags and ancients be displayed by sounding his deadly blast he giveth defiance to his enemies most couragiously bestirring himself more then any of his followers shewing himself both most vehement warlike and skilful in fight and yet again at home towards his subjects like a true noble spirit he is very gracious gentle and temperate tractable easie to be â—ntreated and most ready to forgive They make for themselves certain holes or dwelling places under the ground casting forth the earth much after the fashion of Pismires for you must understand that neither Wasps nor Hornets do send forth any Swarms as Bees do but those young Hornets which spring from them now and then do there remain among their breeders making their beds or hives much greater by means of the earth formerly cast out They enlarge their combes exceedingly by adding more and more unto them so that of a strong and
lothing or abhorring of meat with a disposition to vo-miting and often an ordinary desire to make water and to exonerate nature but all in vain He that taketh them findeth in his mouth the tast or tallage of Pitch and all these symptomes passions or effects that they work have I with much labour faithfully collected out of the sixth Book of Dioscorides and the first Chapter And out of Galen Lib. de Theriaca ad Pisonem Cap. 4. and Lib. 3. de Temperam cap. 3. And out of ancient Rhazes who practised Physick one hundred years if truth be truly related Tit. 8. chap. 17. If any one be either affected or infected with any accidents by means of Cantharides Dioscorides doth thus cure them as you may readily finde in the Book and Chapter before cited First of all he causeth them to vomit often and much and after that he prescribeth Glysters to be made for the scouring of the belly with Nitre and to preserve the bladder inwardly to take Milk and Psyllum and then he would have the matter of Glysters to be somewhat different from those which were taken in the beginning as namely to be made of Barley water Marsh-mallows the white of an Egge the Musciling of Line-seeds Water of Rice the decoction of Fenugreek Hydromel fat Broaths Oyl of Almonds the fat of a Goose and the yelks of Egges And inwardly to take at the mouth he biddeth them to use Cows milk Hydromel the grains or fruit of the Pitch-tree both the greater and the lesser sort Wine sod to the half Ducks fat a decoction with some diuretical seeds namely with the four greater cold seeds which are Cucumbers Gourds Citrals and Melons and likewise some decoction made of Figs with syrup of Violets Oyl of Quinces is highly commended of some as a proper and special Antidote in this case and so is Oyl of Lillies and Terra Samia Rhazes counsel is after the taking of some Glysters made of any fat broaths to make an injection into the yard with Oyl of Roses and the sick person to sit in a warm Bath Tit. 8. Chap. 17. The Writers and Authors of Physick and Philosophy cannot agree in what part of the Cantharides their poyson chiefly lurketh for some will have it to be principally in the head and feet and others again will none of that And yet they all agree upon this point that in what part of the body soever their poyson is seated that their wings are a soveraign remedy and preservative and if they be wanting that their poyson is deadly so that although they be never so poysonous yet have they their own remedy which in themselves they contain and carry about Thus saith Pliny in his 11. Book and 35. chapter And peradventure for the same cause Galen in his eleventh Book which he intituled De Simplie Medicament facultatibus adviseth us expresly and learnedly that Cantharides should be taken whole as they are and so to be used either for inward or outward uses For why it is far better even in the outward application of them that they should more gently and slowly corrode gnaw or fret asunder and that their burning vertue and quality should be a little corrected and weakened then to perform their full effect to the great danger of the patient and many times to his utter undoing and destruction Therefore they are clean out of the way who when they would use them for any inward cause do cast away their wings and feet whereas indeed they ought to take all of them not rejecting any one part of them For being given whole they need not so much any correctives to bridle and lessen their powerful operation in regard of their wings and feet the proper resisters and expellers of their own or other poyson The fafest course is to use all and every part of them without exception unlesse you would have them to corrode fret inflame or burn any part Lycus Neapolitanus is of opinion that Purcelane is their proper counter-poyson which vertue Pliny in his twentyeth Book Chap. 13. ascribeth to the herb called wilde Basil who also many ways commendeth Acetum Scyliticum Oleum Oenanthium Cows milk and brethes made of Goats flesh for these intentions in his 23. Book Chapter the second and fourth and likewise in his 28. Book and tenth Chapter And for our History of Cantharides let this for this time suffice which I much wonder that the famous learned Gesner hath in such deep silence passed over never so much as mentioning them whereof notwithstanding so many Authors both of the Ancients and Neotericks do so much ring Many moe authorities could I have alleadged concerning this my discourse of Cantharides but that I suppose it a labour as endlesse in toyl as needlesse in use the one savouring of too much curiosity the other of a frivolous affectation so that I hope even amongst the whole College of Physitians wheresoever in England if their ears be not too dainty to finde some few grains of their good words and such curteous construction as that I may neither be charged with partiality of concealing where it is meet I should be mute nor be suspected of unsufficiency for not pursuing where I can finde no good footing Of CATERPILLERS or PALMER-WORMS called of some Cankers NOw I am come to speak of Caterpillers sometimes the destroyers and wasters of Egypt as well in regard of the great difference that is found in their several sorts as for their great dignity and use wherein some of them are most notable and excellent Some think that Eruca which is Englished a Caterpiller hath his derivation ab erodendo which is not altogether improbable For they gnaw off and consume by eating both leaves boughs and flowers yea and some fruits also as I have often seen in Peaches Ovidius the famous Poet stileth them by the name of Tineae agrestes Quaeque solent canis frondes intexere filis Agrestes Tineae res observata colonis Feraci mutant cum papilione figuram In English thus And those wilde Mothes by husbandmen observed Which fold themselves in hoary springing leaves Gainst force of famine and storm to be preserved A shape from fruitful Butterflies receives The Grecians call a Caterpiller Kampe by reason of his crooked winding or bending pace in waving sort whereby in creeping they bow wry and lift up themselves Of the Hebrews it is termed Gbazain because it sheareth pilleth and devoureth the fruits of the earth as Kimhi upon the first of Joel writeth The Italians call it Rugaverme and Brucho for so Marcellus Virgilius upon Dioscorides saith expresly that in his time all the people of Italy named it Erucae Bruchi The Spaniards term it Oruga The Frenchmen Chenille and Chattepeleuse Of the English they are commonly called Caterpillers of what kinde soever they be of But the English Northern men call the hairy Caterpillers Oubuts and the Southern men usually term them Palmer-worms Of the Polonians it is
bring they to the ground Flowing with Natures shameful filthy bloud Her bosome open and her hair untrimmed falling Like one ore'prest with grief forgetting good Three times about the plots and hedges walking Which done a wonder t is for to be told As rain drops from the trees ripe Apples fall Walnuts out of husks so cast you may behold These Worms from trees all torn and cannot crall Theophrastus saith that Caterpillers will touch no plants which are moistened or besprinckled with Wine They will die if they take the fume or be any way smoaked with the herb Psora Aetius Whereby it is apparent saith Silvius that the herb commonly termed Scabious is not the true Psora Caterpillers that live and feed on Coleworts if they be but touched with that kinde of Worm which is found in the Fullers Teasel they die Pliny All to besprinkle a Colewort whilest it hath but only three leaves with Nitre or with saltish and brinish earth and by means of the saltnesse the Caterpillers will be quite driven away Geopon Palladius in this case preferreth the ashes of Fig-leaves The Sea-onion called Squilla being sown or hanged up in Gardens hindereth the breeding of Caterpillers Othersome in the most places of their Gardens and round about them sow and set Mints the pulse called Orobos which is somewhat like Vetches and some Wormwood or at least-wise hang them in bunches in divers places of the same to expell this kinde of noysome creature Some very advisedly take dry leaves and stalks of Garlick and with the same do smoke and perfume their whole Garden so that by this way the smoke being conveyed into all places thereof the Caterpillers will fall down dead as Palladius hath written in whose writings any man may read of plenty of such Antidotes and Alexipharmical medicines as may serve to destroy Caterpillers Now will I speak of their use in Physick and in the Common-wealth The web of Caterpillers being taken inwardly stayeth womens fluxes as Matthiolus saith Being likewise burnt and put into the nostrils it stancheth bleeding at the nose The Caterpillers that are found amongst the herbs called Spurges of all sorts by the judgement of Hippocrates are notable for purulent and mattery Wombs especially if they be first dryed in the Sun with a double quantity of Earth-worms and a little Aniseed finely powdered and so all of them to be relented and taken in some excellent White-wine But in case they feel any heavinesse or aking in the belly after the taking of this medicine then it were good to drink a little Mulse thereupon This saith Hippocrates in his Book De Superfoetat Dioscorides in his first Book and 90. chapter giveth in drink those common Caterpillers that live in companies together against the disease called the Squinsie But unlesse by some hid and secret property they do good in this grief being received inwardly it were needful in regard of their manifest venomous nature that they were utterly rejected and contemned Nicander useth them to provoke sleep for thus he writeth Ei de suge tripsas oligo en hammati kampen Kepeien drosoeastan epi chloreida noto c. Which Hieremias Martius hath thus translated Quod si rodentes olus frendentia vermes Lueva quibus virides depingunt terga colores In medio sacra de Palladis arbore succo Triveris hincque tuum colleveris undique corpus Tuta dabis dulci securus membra quieti Which may be Englished thus With herb-eating or green-leaf-gnawing Worms Whose backs imprinted are with colours lively green All bruised mixed with juyce from Pallas tree that runs Anointed body brought to sound sleep is often seen There are to be seen in divers thorny prickly sharp and rough herbs as for example in Nettle sundry hairy or lanuginous Caterpillers which being tyed or hanged about some part of the body do by and by as the report goeth heal those Infants which have any stopping of the meats passage when they cannot swallow A Caterpiller breeding in Pot-herbs being first bruised and then anointed upon any venomous bitings of Serpents is of great efficacy and if you rub a naughty or a rotten tooth with the Colewort-caterpillers and that often within a few days following the tooth will fall out of his own accord Avicenna Caterpillers mixt with Oyl do drive away Serpents Dioscorides If a man anoint his hands or any other part with Oyl it will cause that he shall receive no hurt by the stinging of Bees Wasps or Hornets as Aetius saith Pliny citeth many fond and superstitious fained matters and lying tales devised by those who in his time were called Magi Soothsayers or Diviners concerning the admirable vertues of Caterpillers All which because I see them hissed out of the School of Divinity and that in heart secretly I have condemned them I will at this time let them passe without any further mention They are also a very good meat to divers Birds and Fowls which are so needful for the use benefit and food of mankinde as to Starlings Peacocks Hens Thrushes Daws or Choughes and to sundry fishes likewise as to the Tench Pike or Pikerel and to a certain Sea-fish called a Scorpion also to the Trout and some others who are easily deceived with a Caterpillered hook Which kind of fishing fraud if you would better be instructed in I must refer you to Tarentinus in his Geoponicks and to a little Book dedicated to Robert Dudley late Earl of Leicester written by Master Samuel Vicar of Godmanobester in Huntingtonshire It is not to be passed over in silence how that not many years since there came infinite swarms of Caterpillers out of Thracia into Polonia Hungaria and beyond the limits of Germany which did not only devour the fruits of trees but whatsoever was green either in the medows and tilled fields besides the Vines which was taken for an evident prognostick and sign as many divined of some great Turkish Army to come swarming into those parts neither herein did this their ghessing and mistrust deceive them for the next year following was the siedge of Vienna in Austria the wasting spoyling and over-running of Hungaria and the deadly English-sweating could not contain it self in an Island but must spread it self among them of the Continent whereupon ensued the destruction of many thousands of people before any remedy could be found out In the year of grace 1573. there rushed infinite swarms of Caterpillers into Italy where they spoyled and made havock of all green buds and grasse growing upon the face of the earth so that with their unquenchable and insatiate voracity they left nothing but the bare roots of trees and plants and this hapned chiefly about Mantua and Brixia And upon the neck of this followed a terrible and fearful pestilence of which there dyed about 50. thousand persons Also in the year of our Lord GOD 1570. there were two great and sudden swarms of Caterpillers that came rushing into Italy in the space of one
hand is the making or efficient cause and for the worthinesse of that divine story how God maketh and taketh away Frogs I will expresse it as it is left by the holy Ghost in ch 8. Exod. ver 5. Also the Lord said unto Moses say thou unto Aaron stretch thou out thy band with thy rod upon the streams upon the rivers and upon the ponds and cause Frogs to come upon the land of Egypt Ver. 6. Then Aaron stretched out his hand upon the waters of Egypt and the Frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt Vers 7. And the Sorcerers did likewise with their Sorceries and brought Frogs upon the land of Egypt Vers 8. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said Pray ye unto the Lord that he may take away the Frogs from me and from my people and I will let the people go that they may do sacrifice to the Lord. Vers 9. And Moses said unto Pharaoh concerning me Command when I shall pray for thee and thy servants and thy people to destroy the Frogs from thee and from thy houses that they may remain in the River only Vers 10. Then he said to morrow and he answered Be it as thou hast said that thou mayst know that there is none like the Lord our God Vers 11. So the Frogs shall depart from thee and from thy houses and from thy people and from thy servants only they shall remain in the River Ver. 12. Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh and Moses cryed unto the Lord concerning the Frogs which he had sent unto Pharaoh Vers 13. And the Lord did according to the saying of Moses so the Frogs dyed in the houses and in the Towns and in the fields Vers 14. And they gathered them together by heaps and the land stank of them c. And this was the second plague of Egypt wherein the Lord turned all the Fishes into Frogs as the Book of Wisdom saith and the Frogs ahounded in the Kings chamber and notwithstanding this great judgement of God for the present Pharaoh would not let the people go and afterwards that blinde superstitious Nation became worshippers of Frogs as Philastrius writeth thinking by this devotion or rather wickednesse in this observant manner to pacifie the wrath of God choosing their own ways before the word of Almighty God But vain is that worship which is invented without heavenly warrant and better it is to be obedient to the will of God then go about to please him with the cogitations of men although in their pretended holinesse we spend much time wealth and bloud There was one Cypselus the father of Periander who by his mother was hid in a Chest called Kypsele to be preserved from the hands of certain murtherers which were sent to kill him Wherefore afterwards the said Cypselus consecrated a house at Delphos to Apollo because he heard his crying when he was hid in a chest and preserved him In the bottom of that house was the trunk of a Palm-tree and certain Frogs pictured running out of the same but what was meant thereby is not certainly known for neither Plutarch which writeth the story nor Chersias which relateth it giveth any signification thereof but in another place where he enquireth the reason why the Oracle of Pythias gave no answer he conjectured because it was that the accursed thing brought out of the Temple of Apollo from Delphos into the Corinthian house had ingraven underneath the Brazen Palm Snakes and Frogs or else for the signification of the Sun rising The meat of Frogs thus brought forth are green herbs and Humble-bees or Shorn-bugs which they devour or catch when they come to the water to drink sometime also they are said to eat earth but as well Frogs as Toads do eat the dead Mole for the Mole devoureth them being alive In the moneth of August they never open their mouths either to take in meat or drink or to utter any voyce and their chaps are so fast joyned or closed together that you can hardly open them with your finger or with a stick The young ones of this kinde are killed by casting Long-wort or the leaves of Sea-lettice as Aelianus and Suidas write and thus much for the description of their parts generation and sustentation of these common Frogs The wisdom or disposition of the Aegyptian Frogs is much commended for they save themselves from their enemies with singular dexterity If they fall at any time upon a Water-snake which they know is their mortal enemy they take in their mouths a round Reed which with an invincible strength they hold fast never letting go although the Snake have gotten her into her mouth for by this means the Snake cannot swallow her and so she is preserved alive There is a pretty fable of a great Bull which came to the water to quench his thirst and whilest the Beast came running greedily into the water he trod in pieces two or three young Frogs then one of them which escaped with life went and told his mother the miserable misfortune and chance of his fellows she asked who it was that had so killed her young ones to whom he answered It was a great one but how great he could not tell the foolish Mother-frog desirous to have seen some body in the eyes of her son began to swell with holding in of her breath and then asked the young one if the Beast were as big as she And he answered much greater at which words she began to swel more and asked him again if the Beast were so big To whom the young one answered Mother leave your swelling for though you break your self you will never be so big as he and I think from this fable came the Proverb Rana Gyrina sapientior wiser then the young Frog This is excellently described by Horace in his third Satyre as followeth Absentis ranae pullis vituli pede pressis Vnus ubi effugit matri denarrat ut ingens Bellua cognates eliserit illa rogare Quantánt Num tandem se inflans sic magna fuisset Major dimidio Num tanto Cum magis atque Se magis inflaret non si te ruperis inquit Par eris haec à te non multum abludit imago Which may be Englished thus In old Frogs absence the young were prest to death By feet of a great Calf drinking in the water To tell the dam one ran that scap't with life and breath How a great heast her young to death did scatter How great said she so big and then did swell Greater by half said he then she swoll more and said Thus big but he cease swelling dam for I thee tell Though break thy self like him thou never canst be made There is another pretty fable in Esop tasking discontented persons under the name of Frogs according to the old verse Et veterem in limo ranae cacinere querelam Nam neque sicca placet nec quae stagnata
them There is great account or reckoning made of their egges which they lay in the Summer time for first of all they are so glewed and conjoyned together partly with the speetle and moistnesse which proceedeth from their mouths and partly with the spume and froath of their own body that a man seeing their beaps would judge them to be coupled together by some artificial devise These egges thus knotted together in bunches the Latinos call 〈◊〉 The Drâ—ides or ancient Wisards of England and Scotland have delivered that if the Snake hisse these will of their own accord fly up into the air and then if some wise man take them by prevention before they touch the ground again the Snakes will follow him as fast as any Horse until he come to some River into the which they dare not enter And the folly of these also proceeded so far that they were not ashamed to report that if one of these Anguines or bunches of egges were tyed to a piece of gold it would swim in a River against the stream These they commended unto Princes and Great mâ—n to carry about with them in the time of wars and other contentions and that therefore when a Roman Knight of Volentii was found by Claudius to carry one of these about him he was by the Emperors commandment put to death But to leave vanities we will prosecute the true and natural description of their egges in this manner They are round and soft in colour white cleaving as we have already said together in great bunches forty or fifty or a hundred in a cluster without they are covered with a skin or crust much harder and whiter then the substance contained within it which is like matter or the rotten Egges of a Hen or Duck in quantity as big as Bullies Plums and seldom bigger being most commonly very round and orbicular Yet Gesner reporteth that he had one sent him of the proportion of Lentil and as great as the fist of a Man and within every egge appear certain small things like the tails of Serpents or Leaches being in number ten five greater and five smaller one folded or lapped within another And these have also little pustules upon the skin or crusts whereof one doth not touch the other Out of these Egges come the young ones but I cannot affirm what great affection the old ones bear unto them or that when many Snakes lay their egges together every one in that multitude hath skill to discern her own Egges from the other For I have been with other my Colleagues or School-fellows when I was young at the destruction of many thousands of them and never perceived that the old Snake did with any extraordinary affection fight for their egges but rather forsook them and suffered us to do with them what we pleased which sometimes we brake sometimes scattered abroad upon the dunghill out of which we digged them and sometimes we cast them into the next River we came at but never saw any of them recollected again to their former place by the Snakes although the place were very full of them and therefore I conclude for mine own experience that Snakes cannot be perceived to bear any exceeding love in nature to their egges or young ones Their ordinary food for the most part is earth Frogs Worms Toads and especially Paddocks or crook-backed Frogs Newts and small fishes The Foxes and Snakes which are about the River Nilus are at continual variance and besides the Harts are by nature common enemies to all Serpents They are not in venom inferiour to other Serpents for they infect the waters neer to houses and are many times the causes of diseases and death whereof the Physitians cannot discern When they bite or sting there followeth extream pain inflamation greennesse or blacknesse of the wound dizzinesse in the head and death within three days Whereof dyed Phyloctetes General of the Fleet of Greece in Lemnos Daedalus and Menalippus The cure of this evil must be by Origan stamped and laid to the sore with Lie and Oyl or ashes of the root of an Oak with Pitch or Barley-meal mixed with Honey and Water and sod at the fire And in drink take wilde Nosewort Daffadil flowers and Fennel-seed in Wine And it is also said that a man carrying about him the Liver of a Snake shall never be bitten by any of that kinde And this Liver is also prescribed against the Stone in the Bladder being drunk in strong drink And thus much for this Serpent Of Spiders and their several sorts And first of those that are commonly called PHALANGIES THis kinde of venomous creature of the Latines is called Araneus or Aranea and of Cicero in his Books De natura Deorum Araneola and Araneolus Of the Grecians Arachnes or Arachne Hesichius termeth it Stibe the Hebrews name it Acobitha Acbar Acabith and Semamith the Arabians Sibth and Phihib in the German tongue Spin and Banker in English Attercop Spider and Spinner of the Brabanders Spinne in France Araigne in Italy Ragno and Ragna in Spain Arana or Taranna of the Illyrians it is called Spawanck of the Polonians Pajak and Pajeczino of the Hungarians Pox of the Barbarians Koatan and Kersenat Isidore in his twelfth Book saith that the Spider is termed Araneus because she is both bred and fed in the air but herein he hath fallen into a double error For if they lived only in the air and by the air as he would seem to enforce I marvel to what end and purpose they should so bustly make and pitch their nets for the ensnaring of flies And if they receive their first being and breeding in the air I cannot see to what purpose they do either lay egges or exclude small little Worms after their coupling together But we will easily pardon this presumptuous Etymologist and diver deep into Interpretations with others also of the same humor whose ordinary custom thus to to dally and play with words is with them esteemed as good as Statute-law for the most part There are many sorts of Spiders and all of them have three joynts a piece in their legs Estque caput minimum toto quoque corpore parvum est In latere exiles digiti pro crutibus haerent Latera venter habet de quo tamen illa remittet Stamina Which may be Englished thus Little is their head likewise the body small All over is and fingers thin upon the sides In stead of legs out of the bellies flanck do fall Yet out of which she makes her web to glide All Spiders are venomous but yet some more and some lesse Of Spiders that neither do nor can do much harm some of them are tame familiar and domestical and these be commonly the greatest among the whole pack of them Others again be meer wilde living without the house abroad in the open air which by reason of their ravenous gut and greedy devouring maw have purchased to themselves the names of Wolfs
Wart they then set fire on it and so burn it to ashes and by this way and order the Warts are eradicated that they never after grow again Marcellus Empiricus taketh Spiders webs that are found in the Cypresse tree mixing them with other convenient remedies so giving them to a podagrical person for the asswaging of his pain Against the pain of a hollow tooth Galen in his first Book De Compos medicam secundum loca much commendeth by testimony of Archigenes the Egges of Spiders being tempered and mixed with Oleum Nardinum and so a little of it being put into the tooth In like sort Kiramides giveth Spiders egges for the curation of a Tertian Ague Whereupon we conclude with Galen in his Book to Piso that Nature as yet never brought forth any thing so vile mean and contemptible in outward shew but that it hath manifold and most excellent and necessary uses if we would shew a greater diligence and not be so squeamish as to refuse those wholesome medicines which are easie to be had and without great charges and travail acquired I will add therefore this one note before I end this discourse that Apes Marmosets or Monkies the Serpents called Lizards the Stellion which is likewise a venomous Beast like unto a Lizard having spots in his neck like unto stars Wasps and the little beast called Ichneumon Swallows Sparrows the little Titmouse and Hedge-sparrows do often feed full favourly upon Spiders Besides if the Nightingale the Prince of all singing Birds do eat any Spiders she is clean freed and healed of all diseases whatsoever In the days of Alexander the Great there dwelled in the City of Alexandria a certain young maid which from her youth up was fed and nourished only with eating of Spiders and for the same cause the King was premonished not to come neer her lest peradventure he might be infected by her poysonous breath or by the venom evaporated by her sweating Albertus likewise hath recorded in his writings that there was a certain noble young Virgin dwelling at Colen in Germany who from her tender years was fed only with Spiders And thus much we English men have known that there was one Henry Lilgrave living not many years since being Clerk of the Kitchen to the right Noble Ambrose Dudley Earl of Warwick who would search every corner for Spiders and if a man had brought him thirty or forty at one time he would have eaten them all up very greedily such was his desirous longing after them Of the STELLION THey are much deceived that confound the green Lizard or any other vulgar Lizard for because the Stellion hath a ru 〈…〉 colour and yet as Matthiolus writeth seeing Aristotle hath left recorded that there are venomous Stellions in Italy he thinketh that the little white Beast with stars on the back found about the City of Rome in the walls and ruines of old houses and is there called Tarantula is the Stellion of which he speaketh and there it liveth upon Spiders Yet that there is another and more noble kinde of Stellion 〈…〉 iently so called of the learned shall afterward appear in the succeeding discourse This Beast or Serpent is called by the Grecians Colottes Ascalobtes and Galeotes and such a one was that which Aristophanes faigneth from the side of a house eased her belly into the mouth of Socrates as he gaped when in a Moon-shine night he observed the course of the stars and motion of the Moon The reason of this Greek name Ascalabotes is taken from Ascalos a circle because it appeareth on the back full of such circles like stars as writeth Perottus Howbeit that seemeth to be a faigned Etymologie and therefore I rather take it that Ascala signifieth impurity and that by reason of the uncleannesse of this beast it was called Ascalabates or as Suidas deriveth it of Colobates because by the help and dexterity of the fingers it climbeth up the walls even as Rats and Mice or as Kiramides will have it from Calos signifying a piece of wood because it climbeth upon wood and trees And for the same reason it is called Galeotes because it climbeth like a Weasil but at this day it is vulgarly called among the Grecians Liakoni although some are also of opinion that it is also known among them by the words Thamiamithos and Psammamythe Among the vulgar Hebrews it is sometimes called Letaah and sometimes Semmamit as Munster writeth The Arabians call it Sarnabraus and Senabras a Stellion of the Gardens And peradventure Guarill Guasemabras Alurel and Gnases And Sylvaticus also useth Epithets for a Stellion And the general Arabian word for such creeping biting things is Vasga which is also rendered a Dragon of the house In stead of Colotes Albertus hath Arcolus The Germans English and French have no words for this Serpent except the Latine word and therefore I was justly constrained to call it a Stellion in imitation of the Latine word As I have shewed some difference about the name so it now ensueth that I should do the like about the nature and place of their abode First of all therefore I must put a difference betwixt the Italian Stellion or Tarentula and the Thracian or Grecian for the stellion of the Ancients is proper to Grecia For they say this Stellion is full of Lentile spots or speckles making a sharp or shrill shrieking noise and is good to be eaten but the other in Italy are not so Also they say in Sicilia that their Stellions inflict a deadly biting but those in Italy cause no great harm by their teeth They are covered with a skin like a shell or thick bark and about their backs there are many little shining spots like eyes from whence they have their names streaming like stars or drops of bright and clear water according to this verse of Ovid Aptumque colori Nomen habet variis Stellatus corpora guttis Which may be Englished thus And like his spotted hiew so is his name The body starred over like drops of rain It moveth but slowly the back and tail being much broader then is the back and tail of a Lizard but the Italian Tarentulaes are white and in quantity like the smallest Lizards and the other Grecian Lizards called at this day among them Haconi is of bright silver colour and are very harmful and angry whereas the other are not so but so meek and gentle as a man may put his fingers into the mouth of it without danger One reason of their white bright shining colour is because they want bloud and therefore it was an error in Sylvaticus to say that they had bloud The teeth of this Serpent are very small and crooked and whensoever they bite they stick fast in the wound and are not pulled forth again except with violence The tail is not very long and yet when by any chance it is broken bitten or cut off then it groweth again They live in houses and neer unto the dores
saying of Aetius is to make a plaister of Garlick and Leeks mixed together or else to eat the said Garlick and Leeks drinking after them a good draught of sweet Wine unmixed and very pure or else apply Nigella Romana Sesamyne and sweet Water unto it Some as Arnoldus writeth prescribe for this cure the dung of a Faulcon or a Scorpion to be bruised all to pieces and laid to the wound But sometimes it happeneth that a mans meat or drink is corrupted with Stellions that fall into the same from some high place where they desire to be climbing and then if the same Meat or Wine so corrupted be eaten or drunk it causeth unto the party a continual vomiting and pain in the stomach Then must the cure be made also by vomits to avoid the poyson and by Glysters to open the lower passage that so there may be no stop or stay to keep the imprisoned meat or drink in the body And principally those things are prescribed in this case which are before expressed in the Cantharides when a man hath by any accident been poysoned by eating of them The remedies which are observed out of this Serpent are these Being eaten by Hawks they make them quickly to cast their old coats or feathers Others give it in meat after it is bowelled to them that have the Falling-sicknesse Also when the head feet and bowels are taken away it is profitable for those persons which cannot hold in their urine and being sodden is given against the Bloudy-flux Also sod in Wine with black Poppy-seed cureth the pain of the loins if the Wine be drunk up by the sick patient The Oyl of Stellions being anointed upon the arm-holes or pits of children or young persons it restraineth all hair for ever growing in those places Also the Oyl of Stellions which are sod in Oyl-olive with Lizards do cure all boils and wens consuming them without lancing or breaking And the ashes of the Stellion are most principally commended against the Falling-sicknesse like as also is the skin or trunck as we have said before The head burned and dryed and afterward mixed with Honey-attick is very good against the continual dropping or running of the eyes and in the days of Pliny he writeth that they mixed Stibium herewithal The heart is of so great force that it being eaten bringeth a most deep and dangerous sleep as may appear by these verses Mande cor tantus prosternet corpora somnus Vt scindi possunt absque dolore manus Which may be Englished thus Eat you the heart and then such sleep the body will possesse That hands may from the same be cut away painlesse To conclude the Physitians have carefully observed sundry medicines out of the egges gall and dung of Stellions but because I write for the benefit of the English Reader I will spare their relation seeing we shall not need to fear the bitings of Stellions in England or expect any drugs among our A pothecaries out of them and therefore I will here end the History of the Stellion Of the TYRE THere be some which have confounded this Serpent with the Viper and taken them both to be but one kinde or at least the Tyre to be a kinde of Viper because the Arabians call a Viper Thiron of the Greek word Therion which signifieth a wilde beast and whatsoever the Grecians write of their Echidna that is their Viper the same things the Arabians write of the Tyre and Leonicenus compiled a whole Book in the defence of that matter and from hence cometh that noble name or composition antidotary called Theriaca that is Triacle But Avicen in the mention of the Triacle of Andromachus distinguisheth the Triacle of the Viper from that of the Tyre and calleth one of them Trohiscos Tyri and the other Trohiscos Viperae So Gentilis and Florentinus do likewise put a manifest difference betwixt the Tyre and the Viper although in many they are alike and agree together This Tyre is called in Latine Tyrus and Tyria and also among the Arabians as Sylvaticus writeth Eosmari and Alpfahex Rabbi Moses in his Aphorisms writeth that when the Hunters go to seek these Serpents they carry with them bread which they cast unto them and while the Tyre doth eat it he closeth his mouth so fast that his teeth cannot suddenly open again to do his hunting adversary any harm and this thing as he writeth is very admirable at the first to them that are ignorant of the secret in nature Galen also writeth so much to Piso of Vipers and he saith that the Circulators Juglers or Quacksalvers did cast certain mazes or small cakes to them which when they had tasted they had no power to harm any body This Tyrus is said to be a Serpent about the coasts of Jericho in the Wildernesse where it hunteth Birds and liveth by devouring of them and their egs And a confection of the flesh of this Serpent with the admixture of some few other things taketh away all intoxicate poyson which confection is called Triacle It is also reported that whereas the Dragons have no poyson of themselves they take it away from this Serpent and so poyson with a borrowed venom For this poyson is very deadly and there is a tale which I will not tell for truth that before the coming and death of our Saviour Jesus Christ the same was unremediable and they dyed thereof whosoever they were that had been poysoned by a Tyre but on the day of Christ his passion one of them was found by chance in Jerusalem which was taken alive and brought to the side of our Saviour hanging up on the Crosse where it also fastened the teeth and from that time ever since all the kinde have received a qualified and remediable poyson and also their flesh made apt to cure it self or other venoms It is reported that when the Tyrus is old he casteth or rather wresteth off his coat in this manner following First it getteth off the skin which groweth betwixt the eyes by which it looketh as if it were blinde and if it be strange to a man I mean the first time that ever he saw it he will verily take it to be blinde afterward it also fleyeth off the skin from the head and so at last by little and little the whole body at which sight it appeareth as though it were an Embryon or skinlesse Serpent They keep their egs in their belly and in them breed their young ones as the Vipers do for before they come out of the dams belly they are in all parts according to their kinde perfect creatures and so every one generateth his like as do four-footed Beasts I take it by the relation of Gesner that the Dipsas in Italy is called Tyrus Also Cardan writeth that there is a supposed and false conceit that with the flesh of this Tyre mixed with Hellebore and water is made a confection to restore youth
earth and carryeth them away with her to the water They lay sometimes an hundred Egs and sometimes they lay fewer but ever the number is very great There is upon the left side of Hispaniola a little Island upon the Port Beata which is called Altus Bellus where Peter Martyr reporteth strange things of many creatures especially of the Tortoises for he writeth that when they rage in lust for copulation they come on shore and there they dig a ditch wherein they lay together three or four hundred Egs being as great as Goose Egs and when they have made an end they cover them with sand and go away to the Sea not once looking after them but at the appointed time of Nature by the heat of the Sun the young Tortoises are hatched engendered and produced into light without any further help of their parents Great is the courage of one of these for it is not afraid to set upon three men together but if it can be turned upward upon the back it is made weak and unresistible And if the head be cut off and severed from the body it dieth not presently nor closeth the eyes for if a man shake his hand at it then will it wink but if he put it neer it will also bite if it can reach it If by the heat of the Sun their backs grow dry they also grow weak and inflexible and therefore they hasten to the water to remollifie them or else they die within short time and for this cause this is the best way to take them In the hottest day they are drawn into the deep where they swim willingly with their backs or shells above the water where they take breath and in continuance the Sun so hardeneth them that they are not able to help themselves in the water but they grow very faint and weak and are taken at the pleasure of the Fisherman They are also taken on the tops of the water after they return weary from their feeding in the night-time for then two men may easily turn them on their backs and in the mean while another casteth a Snare upon them and draweth them safely to the land In the Phaenician Sea they are taken safely without danger and generally where they may be turned on their back there they can make no resistance but where they cannot many times they would and kill the Fisher-men breaking the nets asunder and let out all the other Fish included with them Bellonius writeth that there be of these Sea-tortoises two kindes one long the other round and both of them breath at their Noses because they want gills and the long ones are most frequent about the Port Torra in the Red-sea whose cover is variable for the males shell is plain and smooth underneath and the females is hollow The Turks have a kinde of Tortoise whose shell is bright like the Chrysolite of which they make hasts for Knives of the greatest price which they adorn with plates of gold In Jambolus an Island of the South there are also found certain Monsters or living creatures which are not very great yet are they admirable in Nature and in the vertue of their bloud Their bodies are round and like the Tortoise having two crosse lines over their backs in the ends of which is an eye and an ear at either side so as they seem to have four ears the belly is but one into which the meat passeth out of the mouth They have feet round about and with them they go both backward and forward The vertue of their bloud is affirmed to be admirable for whatsoever body is cut asunder and put together if it be sprinckled with this bloud during the time that it breatheth it couniteth as before The ancient Troglodytes had a kinde of Sea-tortoise which they call Celtium which had horns unto which they fastened the strings of their harps these also they worshipped and accounted very holy Yet some think that they might better be called Celetum then Celtium but I think Hermolaus doth better call them Chelitium apotes Cheluos which signifieth both a Tortoise and their broad breasts and with their horns they help themselves in swimming Albertus also maketh mention of a Tortoise called Barchora but it is thought to be a corrupt word from Ostra â—odermus These Sea-Tortoises are found sometimes to be eight cubits broad and in India with their shells they cover houses and such use they also put them unto in Taprobana for they have them fifteen cubits broad And thus much for all kinde kinde of Tortoises Of the VIPER NOtwithstanding the asseveration of Suessanus who will needs exclude the Viper from the Serpents because a Serpent is called Ophis and the Viper Echis yet I trust there shall be no reasonable man that can make exception to the placing of this living creature among Serpents for that great learned man was deceived in that argument seeing by the same reason he might as well exclude any other as the Snake Dragon Scorpion and such like who have their peculiar names besides the generall word Ophis and yet might he also have been better advised then to affirm a Viper not to be called a Serpent for even in Aristotle whom he expoundeth and approveth he might have found in his fifth Book of Gen. animal and the last Chapter that the Viper is recorded Inter genera opheon that is Amongst the general kindes of Serpents although as we shall shew afterward it differeth from most kindes of Serpents because it breedeth the young one in his belly and in the Winter time lyeth in the Rocks and among stones and not in the earth The Hebrews as it appeareth Esa 59. and Job 6. call it Aphgnath and according to Munster Aphgnaim plurally for Vipers because of the variety of colours wherewithal they are set all over The Arabians from the Greek word Thereon signifying all kinde of wide Beasts do also call it Thiron and that kinde of Viper whereof is made the Triacle they call a Alafafrai and Alphai they also call it Eosman as Leonicenus writeth Beside it is called Alphe which seemeth to be derived of the Hebreâ—s and Afâ—â— which may likewise be conjectured to arise from the Greek word Ophis The Greeks call the Male peculiarly and properly Echis and the Female Echidna and it is a question whether the vulgar word among the Grecians at this day Ochendra do not also signifie this kinde of Serpent Bellonius thinketh that it is corrupted of Echidna the female Viper The Germans have many words for a Viper as Brandt Schlaâ—gen Natet-otter Heck nater and Viper-nater The French une Vipere the Spaniards Bivora and Bicha the Italians Vipera Maraesso Scurtio and sometimes Scorzonei although Scorzo and Scorzone be general words in Italy for all creeping Serpents without feet and that strike with their teeth There is also about the word Maraeso some question although Leonicenus decideth the matter and maketh it out
Exemplo monstrante viam In English thus Experience teacheth art by use of things When as example plainest way forth brings Being also beaten to powder and outwardly applyed they do close and solder up wounds and conglutinate sinews that are cut and consolidating them again in the space of seven days and to perform this cure the better Democritius adviseth to keep them in Honey The ashes of Earth-worms duly prepared cleanseth Sordious stinking and rotten Ulcers consuming and wasting away their hard lips or callous edges if it be tempered with Tar and Simblian Honey as Pliny affirmeth Dioscorides saith that the Honey of Sicilia was taken for that nf Simblia in his time Their ashes likewise draweth our Darts or Arrows shot into the body or any other matter that sticketh in the flesh if they be tempered with Oil of Roses and so applyed to the place affected The powder also cureth Kibes in the heels and Chilblanes on the hands as Marcellus testifieth for hurts that happen to the sinews when they are cut in pieces Quintus Serenus hath these verses Profuerit terrae Lumbricos indere tritos Queis vetus rancens sociari axungia debet It is good saith he to apply to sinews that are dissected The powder of Earth-worms mixed and wrought up with old rammish and unsavory Barrows grease to be put into the grief Marcellus Empiricus Besides the powder of Earth-worms and Axunger addeth further Grounswell and the tender tops of the Box-tree with Olibanum all these being made up and tempered together to make an Emplaster he counselleth to be applyed to sinews that are laid open cut asunder or that have received any puncture or suffer any pain or aking whatsoever Pliny saith that there cannot be a better medicine found out for broken bones then Earth-worms and field Mice dryed and pulverised and so mixed together with Oyl of Roses to be laid in the form of an emplaster upon the part fractured Yea to asswage and appease pain both in the joynts and in the sinews of Horses there hath not been found out a more notable Medicine as we may well perceive by the writings both of Russius Absyrtus and Didymus whereupon Cardan hath observed that all pains whatsoever may be mitigated by their apt using Carolus Clusius saith that the Indians do make an excellent unguent of Earth-worms against the disease called Erysipelas being a swelling full of heat and rednesse with pain round about commonly called S. Anthonies fire And thus it is prepared They first take Earth-worms alive feeding them either with the leaves of Moeza or else with fine Meal until by this means they grow fat afterwards boiling them in an earthen vessel remembring ever to scum the same they do strain them boyling them yet again to the consistence almost of an emplaister which if it be rightly prepared is of a yellow colour And this Medicine may well be used for any burning or scalding My purpose is not to vouch all those authorities I might concerning the admirable Nature and vertue of Earth-worms for so I think I might alledge six hundred more which is not meet to be inserted in this place I will therefore now passe to their qualities and medicinal uses for irrational creatures Pelagonius much commendeth Earth-worms as an excellent medicine for the Bots or Worms that are in Horses and in the bodies of Oxen and Kine affirming that the best way is to put them alive into their Nosthrils although without question it were far better to conveigh them into their maws by the means of some horn Tardinus adviseth to give the powder of Earth-worms with some hot flesh to Hawks when they cannot exonerate nature or how Faulkeners tearm it I know not For that saith he will loosen their bellies Moles do also feed full savorly upon them and if they fall a digging it is strange to see with what sudden hast and speed then poor Worms will issue out of the ground In like sort Hogs and Swine as Varro writeth by their turning up the mud and rooting in the earth with their snowts do by this means dig up the Worms that they may eat them Albertus Magnus saith that Toads do feed upon Worms Bellonius saith that Lizards and Tarentinus that the Sea-fish called Gryff or Grample doth greedily devour them and finally experience it self witnesseth that Frogs Eels Gudgeons Carps Breams Roches and Trowts do satisfie their hungry guts by feeding upon them Aristotle in his eight Book De Nat. Animal Cap. 3. describeth a certain Bird that liveth in the waters which Gaza interpreteth Capella though the Philosopher calleth it Aix and some have called it Vdhellus that liveth for the most part upon Worms yea Thrushes Robin-red-breasts Mun-murderers and Bramblings Hens Chaffinches Gnat-snappers Bull-finches and all sorts of Crows will feed upon them and therefore it is that there be more Crows in England then in any other Countrey in the world respecting the greatnesse because here the soil being moist and fat there is abundance of Earth-worms serving for their food as Polydorus Vurgilius in his first Book of the History of England which he dedicated to King Henry the eight hath excellently delivered The people of India if we will credit Monardus do make of these Worms divers juncats as we do Tarts Marchpanes Wafers and Cheese-cakes to eat instead of other dainties And the Inhabitants of West-India do devour them raw as Francis Lopez testifieth The people of Europe in no place that ever I heard or read of can endure them to be set on their Tables but for medicinal uses only they desire them Plautus useth in stead of a proverb this that followeth Nunc ab transenna hic turdus Lumbricum petit It is an allegory taken and borrowed from a gin or snare wherewith Birds are taken by which Chrysalus the bond-man bringing certain Letters to Nicobolus an old man signifieth and giveth warning that the weak old man was by the reading of the letter no otherwise ensnared intangled and deceived then some Birds are taken by subtile and crafty sleights For Transenna is nothing but a deceitful cord stretched out to take Birds especially Thrushes or Mavisses withall and Worms is their proper food which while they endevour to entrap they themselves are deceived and taken Surely I should not think that those Fishers and Anglers be very wise who to take Worms use to pour lye or water into the earth wherein Hemp Southern-wood Centory Worm-wood or Vervin have been long soaked or any other strange moisture causing them by this mean to issue forth out of the earth for the Earth-worms by this kinde of dealing being made more bitter unsavoury and unpleasant no fishes will once touch or tast them but rather seek to avoid them But contrarywise if they will let them lie a whole day in Wheat-meal putting a little Honey to it and then bait their hooks with them they will be so sweet pleasant and delectable as that the unwary Fish will sooner
humble as with a grateful minde so weighing by reason the degrees of proportion that he is most obliged who hath received most The Author before he could accomplish this purpose died he was worthy to have lived longer for the advantage of Art and Learning Thus the Book was left after his death to his Heir who had a smaller estate than suited with the name of his Father or his merit required and his many watchings and labours sustained for the publick good in curing of the sick justly deserved Fortune is blinde and will hardly favour those that are the best but against her will as if it were disagreeing and dissonant that there should be any commerce between Pluto with Apollo Minerva and Mercury Elizabeth being departed this life and James then holding the reins of the British Empire piously and justly and ruling peaceably amongst the storms that at that time shook all Europe having weeded out by his Majestick Scepter and by the providence of his soul which was prudent even to miracle all Monsters which endevoured to shake the foundations of the Kingdome by Treason Deceit Wickedness Lust and Wrath. The Overâ—â—ers of this Orphan left in a very poor condition were resolved to Dedicate this learned Work to this Noble Heros who was no less famous for his Learning than for a concourse of all Virtues that met in him but great poverty at home delayed the business and hindred this windy intention from taking effect and the off-spring from coming to the light So the Book lay for a long time in obscurity under the custody of the friends of the Author departed until such time as it was offered to me by Darnellus who was formerly his Apothecary and a very honest man who wished well to his Master being dead and was very desirous of his glory so it lay for some years in my Study cast aside in the dust among Worms and Moths truly it was no fault of mine but of the Printers who were so greedy of Money that though in many Countreys I invited them by my Letters and did solicit them to receive the Orphan yet they refused as they said to take upon them an unthankful business they were not pleased with the benefit of a noble Art unless it would pay more than the fraight O the times wherein the pains of learned men are valued at the price the work will be sold for and the money that must be laid out for ink and paper or by the depraved opinion of the vulgar who commonly applaud what is worst and not by the essence of the thing it self or dignity of the subject or the solid explanation of the same Then tâ—ere was an Epistle prefixed to the beginning which men call Dedicatory which being it was to carry the name before it of one of the foresaid Princes the Edition seemed to come forth unseasonably after they were both dead Perchance some other man would have cacht at this occasion to have brought it to King Charles the great Son of a great Father under whose fortunate reign in his Kingly person all Kingly virtues run together in troops each striving to have the upper hand and kneeling down before his Majesty would have offered unto him in hopes of a reward another mans Works vail'd with a false cover of commendations or obscured with the great smoke of courtly eloquence But I have no such genius for though I have not lived hitherto unwelcome to Princes yet I have learned by long practise that we must use their favour soberly and never to abuse their ears or eyes and though you do know easie entrance and fit times to come into their presence yet importunity is alwaies unseasonable and especially that which hires mercenary Muses for money to set them forth which are branded with marks of infamy Do not think that I detract so much from this Work that I think it not worthy to carry the name of a King in the Frontispice and might live in publick under the protection of so ambitious an Inscription but I held it no less than sacriledge to name the childe in stead of another of my own accord or to bring a deaf person upon the stage as to what concerns the exposition of the Argument and with other birds feathers in the very entrance of the work foolishly and vainly to pride my self yet that the Book might come forth every way compleat and that the Reader who is a lover of the custome may not desire an Epistle or complain that there is one wanting according to my manner wherewith I honour great men with the honour that belongs unto them but my friend I respect above all and that continually I would prefix to this Natural and Physical History the famous name of some man who by the common consent of the Learned is well acquainted with both and who is joyned unto me by no ordinary alliance who is dear to all good men and eminent for his own endowments which office of Reverence and good will may testifie to posterity in what esteem such men are with me who are intrinsecally furnished with the real tincture of manifold learning but chiefly with that of the most noble Art of all which I practise so I have made choice of thee alone amongst many that thou mayst be to me in stead of them all Noble Man my dearest friend Paddy who art Knighted by the wisest Monarch James who never did any thing vainly who adornest thy Virtues by thy Titles and thy Titles by thy Virtues as our Thorius hath written of thee Thou art he who after the wicked Patricide of Great Henry formerly my most milde Master which shall for ever convey the said memory of his age to posterity when I was called by the most Serene James from the French Court by his own Letters and by a guide appointed to conduct me into Britain and was immediately honoured with the title of Companion of the chief Physicians didst not look upon me with bleer and swoln eyes with the viperous venome of envy but thou didst entertain me being a stranger candidly and with a cheerful countenance as it becomes one of noble Birth contrary to that of Horace who accuseth the Britains divided almost from all the world of fierceness toward strangers After that in the many meetings we had amongst sick people and in my practise in Physick when I pleasingly hearkned to the opinions of those that consulted weighed them and as it belonged to my place concluded what was to be done thou didst hear me without brawling or contradiction which is the imbred evil custome of some unworthy Physicians and thou didst very often approve of my opinion as consonant to reason In the famous Colledge of London where as thou wert alwaies most worthy so thou wert often President when I was by the votes of the chiefest and first of all by thy suffrage made a Colleague according to the Kings Character for my place at Court thou didst willingly
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
kill them such violence which if used to their mothers would much blemish the virtues of the Bees I scarse think they are females Of what use then are they of in the Hives is the Drone altogether unprofitable good for nothing idle without sting fit for no service no way helpful to the publick More than that Virgil himself chants it to that effect Immunisque sedens aliena ad pabula fucus The Drone sits free feeding on others food Where Festus takes the word in that sense for a slothful idle unprofitable creature void of all imployment unlesse it be that of theeves and robbers who take such a course that either they will live by the sweat of other mens browes or else they will disturb the whole Kingdom Such like Hesiod makes women to be when he compares them to Drones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is I interpret it in Latine thus Qui segnes resident contectis aedibus atque Sudorem alterius proprium furantur in alvum Or in English thus Who sit at home and to work have no will With others sweat they do their bellies fill But more creditable Authors propound divers uses of Drones for if there be but a few of them amongst the Bees they make them more diligent and careful in their businesse not by their example for they live perpetually idle but because they take the more pains in making honey that they may be able to continue their liberality to strangers They discover also signs whereby to know when the honey is come to maturity for when they have perfected their honey then they kill them in abundance lest they should as their custome is rob them of it in the night for as Aelian saith the Drone all the day lies quietly in the honey cells but in the night when he perceives that the Bees are in their dead sleep he sets upon their works and destroies their combs But yet if Barthâ—lomaeus deceive us not they are not unbusied neither but they build houses for the Kings large and magnificent in the top and middle part of the Hive very finely covered over They are therefore idle to say say with Aristotle in regard of making honey or gathering dew but in regard of their Architecture so they are workmen For as the Bees make the combs of the Drones hard by the Kings Court so under the same consideration the Drones build the Kings houses which is the reason why they and their young ones if they have any are sustained by the Bees The cells of the Drones now grown up according to the bulk of their bodies are larger but their combs lesse for the Bees built these but those the made themselves because it is not fitting that the same proportion of food should be allowed to hindes and hired servants as to the childâ—en or masters of the family Tzetzes in his elegant Poem and other of the Greek Poets make them to be the Bees cellarmen or water-bearers and do assign unto them a most kindly heat whereby they are said to hatch the young Bees and make them thrive In like manner Columella the Drones do very much help to breed the young Bees by sitting upon those seeds out of which they are made And theâ—efore they are more familiarly admitted to the nursery to bring up and cherish the young bâ—ood which when they have done afterwards they are thrust out of doors And Pliny also in his 11. Book They do not assist the Bees in their Architecture only but also in cherishing their young the multitude of them causing heat and warmth the which the greater it is unlesse the honey chance to fail in the mean time the more the swarmes of Bees are increased To conclude unlesse they had been for some great use for the Bees Almighty God had never housed them under one roof nor made them as it were free Denisons of the same City Neither would the Bees lay hands on them at all as enemies of the State but when their servile multitude doth increase and they take up offensive arms or scarcity of provision were to be suddenly expected in which tempest of affairs who would not rather judge that the Carpenter should be dismissed than the Ploughman especially when without him by reason of want of victuals we may hazard our lives but the other we may be without for a time without prejudice to our lives and our selves if need requires are able to build habitations every one for himself Now as these being but a competent number of them are very profitable to the Bees so if they be over many Plato not without cause terms them morbum alvearium the Pest or Plague of the Hive in the 8. book of the Common-wealth where you may see a most elegant comparison between Acolastus and the Drone both because they waste the provision of the labouring Bees as also with their too much heat stifle them This inconvenience the Author of the Geoponicks doth thus remedy take the covers of the Hives and sprinkle them on the inside over night with water and you shall finde them betimes in the morning when you take off the cover of the Hives again all over covered with the Drones for when their bellies are full of honey they are very thirsty and are mightily perplext with an intolerable desire of water so that they cling fast to the lid of the Hive and it is an easie matter to put them all to death or if you will rather to take away the greatest part of them But if you take away the young ones and all that are not yet come to have wings and pluck off their heads casting the bodies in again to the other Bees you shall offer to them a very dainty dish Moreover also if you shall take the Drone and crop off his wings and cast it back into the Hive he will if we may credit Pliny pull ofâ— all the wings of the rest lib. 21. c. 11. or rather the Bees themselves will devour the wings of the rest of the Drones that are left For so saith Aristot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it is not probable that either the Bees should crop one the others wings or that the Drones should so far adventure or be able to offer such violence to the Bees so that as Pliny was mistaken in reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so also they do not a little speak by guesse who refer the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rest to the Bees and not to the Drones But what the dreaming of Drones doth portend what use they may be of in the way of Hieroglyphicks let Apomasaris out of the Schools of the Persians and Aegyptians declare It shall abundantly satisfie for what we intended to speak of them to shew their true use true nature generation degeneration description and name But as for what belongs to Emblemes and Hieroglyphicks and precepts for Manners
the number of wings only for that he makes to have four wings whereas Nature hath afforded this but two There are other sorts of Flies that devour herbs and flowers that are not like Bees to wit the Struthiopteri Eninopteri and Chelidonii because it is like to the Swallow Of the Struthiopteri I have seen three sorts The first whereof is tender and sort six footed with two wings the belly longer then ordinary sending forth from the head a little above the eyes two feathers like Ostriches feathers as it were horns of a downy softnesse as soft as any feathers whatsoever crump shouldered all the rest of the body white longer then the wings which are black The second is of the same colour whitish the head of a dusky colour otherwise it differeth little or nothing at all from the former The third is all alike only the horns are not so soft and downy the tail is white the body long with five white lines going athwart it the feet long marked with black and white colours as it goeth it lifteth up the tail a little and softly claps his two transparent wings together These three species do appear in the Spring time with the first in gardens hedges and shady places very frequently before and after rain The Erinopteros is a fly all over white or rather silver colour small and every where downy inasmuch as when it sits upon a flower if you look not hard upon it you would think it were a feather the wings of it are divided the feathers being severed one from the other almost like Birds wings Pennius received one of these painted from Edmund Knivet afterwards he often saw them in hedges and places set with privet The Fly called Chelidonius is swifter of wing then all the rest sides tail head brown and hairy the eyes black and hanging out the bill or rather the nose picked out of the top of which start out two horns the top of the shoulders as also the back black two silver wings the forepart whereof do answer to the blacknesse of the feet sometimes it sits in one place for a great while together as if it were unmovable but as soon as you come near it it s out of your sight before you can say What 's this and will not yeeld a jot to the Swallow from whom it hath its name for swiftnesse of â—light Pennius received another flower-Fly of the learned Carolus Clusius black having two silver wings two dainty white eyes in the back having seven yellow spots in the midst whereof is to be discerned a speck of black There are Flies that are found in beans of sundry colours but especially of a pale purple which I conceive do come of the smal worms called Midae For when they are gone which is in the midst of Summer suddenly there comes forth a great number of those Flies swarming amongst the Beans The Fly of Napellus I have not seen but those that come out of those black grains that stick to the stalk of the wormwood much less than Millet seed more black than any Moor only famous for their wonderful smalnesse There is a certain Fly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very rare and wonderful whether you respect the form or the shortnesse of its life It hath many names Aelian calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of others it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Diaria it moves with four wings and as many feet for that it hath not peculiar to it in regard of the shortnesse of its life only saith the Philosopher but also as it is a four footed creature and a flying creature It comes forth with the Sun groweth flourisheth languisheth and dieth the same day with the Sun setting In the time of the Summer Solstice these diary creatures break forth out of certain husks of putrefied grapes which husks or such as seem to be so whether they are a kinde of Aurelia proceeding from some kinde of canker-worms living in the water it is not easie to shew for in that particular the Philosopher is silent from whom most of this story is gathered Pliny cals them thin membranes Aristot small bottles and saith they are common to be seen in the River Hippane by the Cimmerian Bosphorus of Pontus They live a life both short and sweet for they live not beyond the space of a natural day and in the evening they put an end as to their lives so to their miseries In the mean while they are sustained and kept alive with their own radical moisture neither are beholding either to air or earth hence we may gather the length of their life yea rather admire and wish for it These Insects Cicero speaks of in the first of his Tuscul Questions these also Matthias Michoides in his 2. Book de Sarmatia Europaea describes in these words You may take notice saith he that in the Rivers of Russia and Lituania especially in Boristhenes and Botus in the Summer there are a great company of the Flies called Ephemers or Day Flies they are Worms and Flies both some have four others six wings in the morning they run upon their feet over the water about noon they fly about the banks the sun setting as many as were bred that day dye in the self-same day Which description doth much differ from Aristotles History of them first because in the morning it is a creeping worm then about noon a fly altogether besides that he giveth to some six wings contrary to the minde of Arist Jul. Scaliger in his learned Exoterick Exercitations against Cardanus describes this Fly after this manner I have observed a kinde of Fly frequenting Sarca and the Lake of Bennacum called Ephemerus in the evening but never any in the morning being taken it lived only a night it hath four very long wings how many feet I know not but if it have six for I do not remember how many it hath it sufficeth it hath a head like a Fly great eyes the snout or beak rolled up together the belly large the tail exceeding long and full of joynts in the end forked in some three forked of colour a darkish yellow in the bigger sort in the lesser of a brown or dunnish very specious The Taurini call this insect Monietta as they would say Monachella The Adriatick about Meranum and Tergeste call it Cuzotulum of my Countreymen it is called Sitivola i. e. Sagitella Aelian lib. 2. de Animal c. 4. sets forth another kinde of these Insects such as are bred of sowre wine Lees which when the vessell is opened come forth and the same day for nature hath given them a beginning of life but in regard of the many miseries to which it is incident quickly freeth them of it before they can be sensible of their own or any others unhappiness But yet what these Flies of which Aelian speaketh be unlesse they be those that we call Bibiones I know not
mischievous little creature to use Aelians language annoying men both day and night both with his noise and his sting especially those that live near the fens or rivers Of whom Tertullian against Marcion and his fifth book speaketh thus Endure if thou be able the trunk and launce of the Gnat who doth not only offend the ear with the shrilnesse of his sound but with his launce strikes through the skin yea and veins also The distinction of Gnats is very perplex and obscure it hath puzled all the Philosophers which with the doubtful sense of words in Authors have almost confounded the things themselves But to me they seem to differ especially in magnitude and malignity For there are these several sorts of them the bigger lesser middlemost and least The bigger may be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they have their abode in fenny and marish places there they are begotten and there nourished they have a very long slender body with two wings which they never lift up above their body as the fly doth but straight up from their shoulders and those are very neat polite and compleat as may be They abound in woods that grow near the sea and the fens not only in Norway Russia and other extreme cold regions as Olaus Magnus hath observed but in the West-Indies in Hispaniola Peru and in Italy near Eridanus Padus Adria Argenta where great sâ—oâ—e and very great ones are to be seen terrible for biting and venomous piercing through a three double stocking and boots likewise sometimes leaving behinde them impoysoned hard blue tumors sometimes painful bladders sometime itching pimples such as Hippocrates hath observed in his Epidemicks in the body of one Cyrus a Fuller being frantick Nay sometimes the vein being struck they do so suck the bloud that when they are gone with their bellies full it would flow out in drops of its own accord even as we see in horses when they are bitten of the fly called Tabanus The Italians use to clothe themselves with leather for that purpose but yet scarsely and not altogether by any means they can use can they escape their 〈…〉 ings Whether or no these are the Styges inevitable of which Theophrastus speaks of in his Book de caus pl. s cap. 4. I have not to speak for the present saith the learned Scaliger and it appears that they are the same for that they are not bred in a place of free thin and open air but are bred and fed about fens and standing waters as about Argenta and the mouth of Padus But if the be Styges they have found out a very fit name for them from their hatred and malice which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth import But those which are in the hotter Regions and live by the sides of rivers and fens are of a more fierce disposition and sting more cruelly as Massarus hath informed Gesner and our countreymen the English under Captain Drake in their expedition into Hispaniola felt by experience There are others somewhat lesse then these nothing differing in colour form and frame of body but yet in disposition more milde and sting lesse In the Summer time they are in the shady places in the Winter in snowy places neer hedges and bushes sporting themselves in their swiftness of flight and as it were trying the mastery in fleeing from this place to that They seldome bite and when they do bite they draw no bloud but only a little salt sweaty matter which they feed upon which causeth only a little hard and itching pimple to arise These two species are especially termed of the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others there are notwithstanding which have other names There are in England especially in the north part thereof two other sorts of them of a third and fourth bignesse much lesse than the former but amongst themselves not much differing in their dimensions These like expert and well trained souldiers alwaies march in an exact pyramidal Figure and although in themselves infinite yet not any one of them breaks his rank Thus they move upwards and downwards when as in the twinkling of an eye and while you can say what 's this they bring their Army into a square body and presently again into wings the which if you rout with a fly-flap or with water sprinkled amongst them or with a strong blast of breath they will instantly rally again and before you can give a fillip bring their whole body into a pyramidal figure They being in great numbers do much infest the faces and eyes of travellers and bite them so many and so frequent are they that out of what kinde of woâ—m they should have their original it cannot be imagined Countrey people suppose them and that not improbably to be procreated of some corrupt moisture of the earth These small Summer Gnats are most frequent in the moneth of May and seem to be nourished with a watery vapour for their intestine or ventricle is very small white and welnigh invisible full of a white frothy thin moisture and of little or no tenacity sometimes they fly farther off from the water and gather themselves in great companies about houses as men passe over bridges they swarm about their heads they love places that are without wind they shun what they can a turbulent air for by the troublesomenesse of the air they are dispersed hither and thither Those kind of Gnats are properly called in English Midges Now we are to descend to other soâ—t of Gnats according as their names are given them in the Greek The chief of these are these three viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which in order Empisâ—is a kinde of Gnat living about rivers especially about rocks girt about the middle with a streak of white It maketh a shril-like noise as the other kindes of Gnats do whence Chaerephon in Aristophanus his Nubibus demands of Socrates whether he thought that the Empides did make that sound with their mouth or their tail Hesichius also calleth this Empri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Oxe-eater because being deceived by the authority of Aristotle he thought the Oestrus Fly came from them the which we have declared before at large that they were procreated of Swallowes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Arist Hist 5. c. 19. Which Theodorus Latines thus Culices Muliones ex Ascaridibus gignuntur hoc est Tipulis The Gnats called Muliones are begotten of the Asarides i. e. the Tipulae These Tipulae for the most part come out of wells or standing waters the earthly matter setling to the bottome for the mud first of all putrefying becomes whitish by and by after blackish last of all bloud-red when it is such presently there come forth certain little red creatures called Algulae which remaining for a time they move to their original and afterwards come to perfection so that the Tipulae so called are carried by the water then a few daies after they heave themselves above the
Grashoppers are alwaies provided with food in great variety It is reported by Antonius Altomarinus in his Book de Manna that the Grashoppers do suck the juice out of the bark and leaves of the Ash-tree or Elm chiefly the which we call Manna but yet it is more likely that they suck it off from herbs or out of them as the Butter-flies do both because they are alwaies found to be empty within and for that they are not perceived to void any thing unless it be when they have taken in a little more dew then ordinary they cast out of their bodies the superfluity thereof as the Countreymen have observed The body is fastned to the head by a very short neck or rather none at all indeed the shoulders are spotted with green and black the breast is of a bright green well towards white out of which come three feet and shanks on each side of a leek colour the belly in the bigger sort is two fingers in length and one in breadth the inner part of the belly resembles a target ending in a sharp point and is compassed about with an hem having twelve or thirteen joynts in it within appear certain incisures of the same colour with the belly the males that is the least of the two have the end of their tail forked the females on the other side whole their back is blackish with seven or eight green lines or incisures drawn athwart the same the wings very curious of a silver colour and painted with dusky spots and specks very trim the outermost twice as long as the innermost and more various the dark brown is more rarely seen which Ludovicus Armacus a very diligent Chirurgeon brought from Guinea and gave to Pennius also Mr. White a rare Painter gave him another brought forth from Virginie it was all of an ash-colour it may be it was that the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but it was like the former in proportion it hath both its wings silver coloured but not at all spotted and the former green ones were Those that live in quicksets are most green and big those that are found in oats or corn or grasse are of divers colours according to the place where they be and are far lesse then the rest Amongst the Grashoppers the females are silent the males do in a manner loath venery neither are drawn unto it but by many enticements of the female But our women have more tongue by far than men and the men behave themselves more lasciviously than women What is to be added further The Grashoppers of all other Insects seem to be without passion but the perturbations of our mindes do carry us on so headlong that upon every slight cause yea none at all we wax hot with anger pine away with grief burn with envy and jealousie Now for the musick which the Grashoppers make amongst all the Insects there is none like it accounted so sweet amongst the Ancients that they equalled it to the sound of the Harp as Pollux writeth and it may be Lucretius therefore called Grashoppers Teretes When Timon Sillographus would commend the eloquence of Plato he compared it to the musick of the Grashoppers his words are these Plato sings sweetly and as well as the Grashoppers They begin to sing in the heat of the day even at what time the reapers would otherwise leave work wheâ—efore those laborious chanters get them up into trees and there fill the ears of the labourers and passengeâ—s with their melodious noise For as musick is a kinde refreshment and recreation to the fainting spirits and tired brain so the unaffected notes and layes of the Grashoppers and the earnestness of their contention in singing doth serve as a spur to provoke men to endure labour and doth not only invite the reapers to gather the fruits but detains thâ—m in their work Of the strife between Eunomus of Locris and Aristo of Rhegium two Harpers and Eunomus getting the better by reason of a Grashopper flying to his harp and sitting upon it and supplying the place of his broken string read Antigonus Mirabilium narrat l. 1. Strabo Geograph l. 6. Of which contention also Solinus makes mention and indeed the Ancients by the Grashopper understand Musick and therefore they painted the Grashopper sitting upon Eunomus Harp as the known Hieroglyphick of the Muses as Strabo Phlegeton and Pausanias give us to understand With the Athenians it was the symbole of Antiquity and Nobility and to that end as now the Spaniard doth the golden Fleece so they wear golden Grashoppers embroydered on their Hair from whence they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Author of the Anthologies saith further in his third Book that the Ancients had the Grashopper in such veneration that they made a monument for it in the Promontory of Taenarus in the Countrey of Laconia and engraved a very elegant Elogy thereupon in its praise to which Orus Apollo Hieroglyph 2. doth subscribe In a word there is none to whom the musick of the Grashopper can seem harsh or unpleasant but is either not well at ease in his minde or his body and so can be no competent judge of musical strains The Grecians had them in such estimation that they kept them in Cages to please their ears with them Now to adde something concerning the manner how they make this noise and then to proceed to their original and death This stridulous and obstreperous noise they make some think to be caused one way and some another Pierius thinks it is formed in the snout or promuscis Proclus Diadichus by the rubbing together of their wings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say The Grashopper sings by frequent clapping of its wings together and so it makes a noise And the same thinks Hesiod But that they sing not with their mouth all men know as neither by the rubbing of their wings together as the Locust doth but by the reverberation of a little membrame under the flabells so they call those two coverings behinde the hinder thighs cleaving to the belly or as Aristotle describes it in brief They make this noise by reason of the air striking against the membrane under the midriffe for by that means it being distended or remitted and forced up and down there breaketh forth a stridulous sound such as the boyes make with their reed or oaten pipes which have a thin skin which being pressed down shaken or intended it must make a sound And this is the reason why the female Grashoppers sing not at all because they want that space between the thighs where this thin membrane growes in the males and causeth this sound Others make the females to be more cold by far than the males and that they make the cause of their silence But forasmuch as Eunuchs old men and old women make most noise and greater than young persons that are more hot therefore frigidity cannot be the cause Add further if we
the powder of them to put into the body by way of Clyster Cardan saith they take away pains but what pains or what kinde of Blattae should do it he tels us not The Phrygians and Lycaonians anoint those with them that have a stoppage in the Matrix Pliny l. 30. c. ult Last of all they may serve in stead of Castoreâ—m for an Antiballomenon and Galen useth them in stead of the Buprestis Now if you would have a remedy against themselves cast but a handfull of Flea-bane the Greeks Mascula is the Latines Cunilago and all the Blats will gather together to it So called in Rome Blattaria or the Blat-herb Nature hath provided a remedy against them for the Swallowes they are wont commonly to spoyl the Swallowes eggs wherefore they use to fence their young with Parsly or Smallage whereby the Moths are forced away from their nests The which might be thought to be the figment of Aelian but that Zoroastes in his Geoponicks doth affirm the same The Vpupa or Houpe inclose their nests with earth flax against Moths The Chough useth the herb Vervin to the same purpose If they be anointed with the oyl of Spike it works the like effect as Joach Camer reports That they may be rid out of Gardens let us hear Diophanes his advice Get the Guts of a Ram fresh killed and full of dung bury it in the earth where many Moths use and cast the ground lightly upon it two daies after all the Blats will gather to it the which at your pleasure you may carry other where or bury them deep enough in the place that they shall not be able to rise again If you would preserve your Bees from them use sharp fumigations or set lights near to the Hives or else anoint the props whereon they stand that they may not get up CHAP. XIX Of the Buprestis or Burncowe and the Cantharides MAny of the Naturall Philosophers have made mention of the Buprestis but so little that they seem neither to have touched either their form or qualities no not so much as their true Name For Ardoynus cals it Buprestis Vigelius veter l. 3. c. 15. cals it Vulpester or Bulpester and in the 78. chap. Bustrepis most corruptly Silvaticus if any other chief at Barbarism cals it Bustasaris Bublistes Bubestis so corrupted was the Latine tongue in these blinde times that Barbarism had wrought a general confusion in all places Now the true name of it is in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia boves rumpit because it swels Oxen Nicander in Alex. derives it ab incendendis bobus from burning or enflaming the bowels of beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. When cowes or calves are sick and bellies swell They 'ave eat Buprestis keepers know full well For first of all by their acrimony they enflame the belly of cattle upon which followes a tumor and a feaver and a kinde of a hot tympany by which in the end the bowels are burst By other as by Hesychius in like manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is more rightly ascribed to that kinde of red little Spider found in pasture grounds which doth use to bite them In English it is called a Blain-worm or Troings which being eaten by cattel doth produce the like symptomes the Latines retain the Greek name of Buprestis of the Germans it is called Geuch Gach Knoelster Gualster die Grunen Stinckhenden Wildenwentde Renkaefer of those of Heidelburg from its swift running ein Holtzbuck in Italian Bupresti in Spanish Arebenta busi if Mathiolus say true Bâ—t I for my part somewhat boldly though not improperly do adventure to call it by a new name in English Burncow or Burstcow Although these Insects are such as hath been said that they fret with their acrimony that freeting they enflame and with their poysonous inflamation cause extreme thirst and a horrible swelling insomuch that the very skin is burst yet hath Dame Nature made them notwithstanding very wholsome which Art afterwards hath prepared for medicine before they be put in use Plinius and Aegineta dispute whether they should not be prepared as the Cantharides Dioscorides dries them in a sieve over hot embers and so layeth them by Galen steeps them in vinegar Hippocrates commands to take off their wings and feet And because they fret exulcerate inflame and swell up and do strongly attract and heat the parts so fretted Diosc l. 2. c. 59. saith that being mixt advisedly with fitting ingredients they may be applyed to the Leprone Cancer and wilde Tetters My opinion is that they may be used in stead of the bigger sort of Cantharides rather than some kinde of Blattae by Pauius his leave if I may say so not only because they are somewhat like in shape and figure and in virtue also as Galen writeth Pliny saith that the Buprestis by way of corrosive doth take away Ringworms in the face Hippocrates doth much commend them in divers diseases of the womb For so he writeth in his Book of the Nature of Women and in his Book of the Diseases of Women and in his Book of Barrenness For the hardness of the womb to emollient juices and fat add a Buprestis and use it To drive out the Monethly Flowers and secondines prepare half the body of a Buprestis whether great or smal with twice as much pulp of a Fig and apply it for it purgeth the womb and inflateth it and is a special remedy to procure the Flowers when they are past hope Sometimes he applies only a Buprestis if it be a great one sometimes making a soft pessary he takes ten and adds to them a little sawcer of oyl and mingles with it Wine Aethiopian Cumin Seseli and Anniseed of each alike parts and whilest they are hot he makes a pessary of them and useth them to the Matrix In the strangling of the womb when the fit is over the body first purged Hippocrates makes a Medicament with a Buprestis and thrusts it into the Matrix Also for a Schirrous of the womb he useth a Buprestis but warily and with diligent consideration for he puts it in like a Suppository for one day and when it doth much vex the patient by corroding he bids to take it forth moreover he compounds a Buprestis Myrrhe and Elaterium and puts it in So he doth also to bring forth a Mola Gal. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 1. out of Archigenes describes a Medicament of Buprestes with Vinegar Crowfoot and Wakerobin root against falling of the hair Leprosie Elephantiasis c. the cure whereof you may easily finde there Now as I have declared hitherto its profitable qualities so lest I should transgress the bounds of history I shall open the terrible effects that this poysonous creature causeth in man and beast if a man swallow a Buprestis 't is all one as if it had been a Cantharides the body swelleth as if it had a tympany much
the 〈◊〉 of a King 〈…〉 being added to it for it signified 〈…〉 ght and just administration of things But he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Images that wanted hands those represented â—udges who ought to be free from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst these there was oâ—◠〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 his eyes which represented the chief Judge because he ought to be 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 and to look 〈◊〉 business and to hear of 〈◊〉 〈…〉 mans person It was 〈…〉 as the proverb is 〈…〉 〈◊〉 a Seal amongst the sacred Images And what did 〈◊〉 wise The old 〈◊〉 intimate to us thereby 〈…〉 but 〈◊〉 and invinâ—ible Captain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith as much that no man may suppose 〈◊〉 I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yoâ—â— common Th 〈…〉 use â—o 〈◊〉 â—â—legories But some 〈◊〉 follow may say what hath a 〈◊〉 to be compared with 〈◊〉 Commander in an Army Truly they agre◠〈◊〉 many things First you see the 〈◊〉 all in 〈◊〉 and there is 〈…〉 of its body but is guarded with plates and hardness 〈…〉 〈◊〉 said to be 〈◊〉 arm 〈…〉 in compleat armour and â—enced 〈…〉 his warlike march with a horrid and terrible humming what is there 〈…〉 sounding of 〈◊〉 whâ—◠〈…〉 of 〈…〉 〈◊〉 that Kings now so much â—â—light in the 〈◊〉 could 〈…〉 the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Asle 〈…〉 Asse was held abominable amongst 〈…〉 〈…〉 drivinâ—◠〈◊〉 burden its i 〈…〉 ible 〈…〉 age and 〈…〉 of life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say 〈◊〉 â—o females amongst 〈◊〉 but they 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 What can 〈◊〉 bes 〈…〉 no◠〈◊〉 his camp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 allow others to have them 〈…〉 this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 that in those 〈…〉 oâ— they exclude their young 〈…〉 bring 〈◊〉 up and they 〈◊〉 other place to breed in thâ—â— they have to 〈…〉 is not 〈…〉 war can better do it who know how to 〈…〉 their 〈◊〉 or on â—he bare 〈…〉 that 〈…〉 the Beetle have a face like a Cat a creature familiar with us and more useful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is desired for its self yet in that respect the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it and prefer it before all other Insects by many degrees 〈◊〉 Lastly iâ— a horse 〈◊〉 beautiful in his kindes and a dog in his why should not the Beetle be so in its kinde unless we measure tha◠〈◊〉 of all things by our own that what is not like in must be held to be ugly No man oâ— a found minde will finde fault with the colour of it for it sets forth some jewels and in special the Diamond that is the chiefest 〈◊〉 Lastly no man will think the Bettle at all despicable who shall consider with himself that Magicians and Physitians â—etch remedies from this 〈◊〉 for the greatest diseases for they are not only carried in mens purses but also hang'd about their necks and ofttimes 〈◊〉 up 〈◊〉 gold against all childrens diseases What will you say if in the most effectual and incredible remedies almost for Pliny is the Author of it it hath equal force with 〈◊〉 for that terrible Beetle 〈◊〉 on an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a present remedy against all 〈◊〉 and no leâ—s effectual than that Mâ—ly which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gave Vlyssâ—â— Nor is it good only against these but it is also very useful if any 〈◊〉 be about to go before the King upon any occasion â—o so that such a ring ought especially to be worn by them that intend to beg of Noblemen some jolly preferment or some rich Province It keeps away likewise the head 〈◊〉 which truly is no small mischief especially to great drinkers Who them can despise the Beetle whose very image engraven upon stones hath so great vertue The mentioning of precious stones puts me in minds of adding this also that if the Eagle delight in the precious stone of her name the 〈◊〉 the Beetle comes not behinde her in it a share of the same honour for the stone Ca 〈…〉 rias also â—owes its name to it wonderfully resembling the whole 〈◊〉 of the creature so that one would say it is not the shape represented but a living and true beetle inclosed in the stone Moreover this iâ—pure and filthy creature 〈◊〉 boyled with worms in oyl of Roses doth very well cuâ—â— the pains of the eats Pliâ— A 〈…〉 prescribes the Beetles called Pilularii being stamped alone to be boyled without 〈◊〉 which the Author of the Book ad 〈◊〉 approves also 〈◊〉 1â— Sylvaticâ—â— chap. 94. writer thus out of 〈◊〉 The Dung 〈◊〉 help the pains of the womb they provoke urine and monethly termes they procure Abortion with 〈◊〉 they are good to heal the Haemorrhoids and they help 〈…〉 which comes of venomes infused by living creatures and the oyl in which they are 〈◊〉 takes away the pains of the ears The later writers commend thâ—se Beetles 〈◊〉 among the remedies for the Stone especially Alex 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 makes for the 〈◊〉 the Stone thâ—â— kinde of powder which is no ordinary oneâ— Burn the Dung-beetle or any other after the same manner as you do Grashâ—ppeâ—â— or Scorpions Take of the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 of 〈◊〉 j. dram of Pigeons dung j. dram and a half let them be 〈◊〉 and a powder made of them The Dose 〈◊〉 j. dram with water of the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 For 〈…〉 this ointment is very much commended Take of oyntment 〈◊〉 j. ounce of oyl of Roses in which 〈◊〉 Beetles and as many 〈◊〉 have boyled a good while j. ounce and half of 〈…〉 them incorporate and be made into an oyntment 〈◊〉 〈…〉 reports that he had gotten of his master 〈…〉 against the Convulsion made of Beetles after this manner Take of Pepper 〈◊〉 Pellitory of Spain each alike of Beetles to the weight of all the rest 〈◊〉 them all being brought to a powder and mixt together in a bath with juyce of 〈…〉 much as 〈…〉 〈…〉 of an oyntment with which let the 〈◊〉 of the 〈…〉 templeâ— with 〈…〉 back-bone be anointed Moreover 〈…〉 awakening of such as are troubled with the Dead sleep and 〈…〉 rides 〈…〉 have done 〈◊〉 good two or three Dung 〈…〉 put up 〈…〉 half a 〈…〉 to be made fast about the â—â—pe of the 〈…〉 well 〈…〉 the muscles of the fore 〈…〉 of the arms on every 〈◊〉 one 〈…〉 〈◊〉 because this doth wonderfully 〈◊〉 up 〈◊〉 as are 〈…〉 〈◊〉 saith 〈◊〉 awakend done that had been held with a 〈◊〉 for 〈…〉 with this remedy having tried all others in vain and 〈◊〉 him afterward with 〈…〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 blister it The Dung 〈◊〉 are best for this purpose 〈…〉 which 〈…〉 be found under stones and then they which are found in a 〈◊〉 The 〈…〉 of using iâ— which 〈…〉 〈…〉 testifie they have 〈◊〉 confirm 〈…〉 by many 〈◊〉 Yet the 〈◊〉 will 〈…〉 credit when foolishly rather than truly they report and 〈…〉 〈…〉 that is adorned with golden 〈◊〉 â—ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 water with 〈…〉 tempestâ— Pli◠〈…〉 I say 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Eagle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈…〉 by 〈◊〉 in whose nests Beeth 〈…〉 which our 〈◊〉 first 〈…〉 〈◊〉 that they serve for this use also to feed 〈◊〉 Nay 〈…〉 living 〈◊〉 especially 〈◊〉 that
as Pennius hath made trial with our Bruerus in the Countrey about Heidelburg Erastus a most learned Physitian disputing about rotten Feavers endevoureth to overthrow all this History with these arguments First because Aristotle compileth the History saith Erastus who it is confessed writ many things from hearsay I grant it but then he adds ut aiunt as it is reported or some other word of the same importance as Niphus hath well-observed even as in that very place speaking of the Salamander he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We may observe that this is the constant practise of the Philosopher when he speaks according to the opinion or from the relation of others but grant it were so that he from others related it they were deceived saith Erastus who related it to him imagining those creatures bred in the fire which fell by chance into it But the circumstances of the place make it appear that this is false If they had fallen from elsewhere into the fire surely by his own confession they would be consumed by the fire And unless they had been bred there as I said before how should they be able to live in such an extremity of flame Besides spectators have observed the motion of their feet the number of their wings their flying yea their death and the cause of their death viz. their flying somewhat too far out of the fire These things and the like evince that those relators were not at all deceived but that they related what was true and unquestionable But no Author either before or since Aristotle affirms this but one or other perhaps who hath transcribed it from him This is more Erastus than you know you have not read all Authors Books the greatest part of books is lost as it appeareth plainly out of Athenaeus and Histories bear witness But how I pray you came Pliny to be assured that Fire-flies have four feet He did not learn this from Aristotle nor is there any such thing to be found in his writings which are extant Wherefore either he learnt it from others or else the History was known in Pliny's time Pliny therefore added this that he might make up the History compleat Nay if you had read Cicero l. de Nat. Deo you had found him affirming for certain that there are little winged creatures bred in the middle of the fire Neither did I before think you so ignorant in Theology as not to know what S. Augustine l. de Civit. Dei 21. c. 2. hath observed of these Pyribia There are saith he creatures which live in the midst of the fire and there are found some worms at the Spring-head of hot waters whose heat no man toucheth without harm while these remain there not only without receiving any hurt but are not able to subsist out of them And Vincentius hist Nat. l. 20. c. 68. In some waters which are naturally hot there are certain Worms which live as well as Fishes in cold nay if they go out of those waters into cold they die Solinus also confirmeth it c. 17. who calleth these kinde of Flies Carystiae and reporteth that in Crete they fly into hot furnaces without harm Yea and Seneca quest natural l. 2. affirmeth that some living creatures are generated of the fire and therefore these Fire-flies likewise as lately Marsilius Cognatus teacheth us in a large Discourse Variar observ l. 1. c. 23 24. Do not then any longer contend that no Author either before or since Aristotle affirmeth it since besides these pious and grave men already named I can bring others also who would convince you either of plain falshood or of a levity not hard to be discerned But Theophrastus maketh no mention of it in his Book de Igne What do you conclude Erastus from thence that the History is false Very fine Perhaps he beleeved it not is it therefore false But it is probable I grant it There are many things probable and yet false as experience teacheth us Erastus wrote many things against Paracelsus which are probable yet not all true unless those things which he understood not be true Certainly he endevoured to confute many things which I know he never understood I will not now descend to particulars Well but the heat of fire is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit for generation This Erastus you apprehend not but I told you before that if it were in the seed it were not which was the Philosophers meaning For it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corruptive according to Aristotle But I answered before that fire doth not corrupt all things This barrenness therefore or if you please destructiveness of the fire is to be limited Nor truly do I conceive this to be done miraculously but by the power of Nature neither do I take it for a tale but for a History agreeable to nature And as for what he writeth of the Salamander he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I said before there was no need to add it But I beseech those who believe nothing but what they see to tell me Have any one of the ancients found fault with this History or confuted it I speak of the Greek writers No not so much as Galen who otherwise is a most sharp reprehender of the Philosophers and would have laid hold on this instantly if he had had any such opinion Therefore it is likely that the history is true because none of the old writers found fault with it But come we now to Matthiolus who of all men hath contradicted this History most unhappily for in his margent he inveigheth against the vain opinions of the Philosopher as he thinks where he appears in some things vainer than vanity it self But I will return to the business It is against saith he the work of nature Is it enough for Matthiolus to say so though he prove nothing If the story had been true Galen would never have omitted it who hath searched out all things else so diligently furnaces and metals and what not Julius Scaliger will make answer to what end should he repeat a thing known before Sooner would he as he was a famous and a malicious detracter if he had not found it so have reprehended it as he doth in some places make it ridiculous He which continued so few daies did not understand the whole matter they were not they are not alwaies at hand he never enquired of the Bakers But if I should say that a little she colt newly foaled should have plenty of milk in its udder and that it did issue forth in great quantity what would they say then yet nevertheless I saw it at London about six years since as also many others of good note and credit who with their own hands did milk it out of its teats They will say perhaps we do not believe it let then chuse it makes not much to the matter there are many productions of nature the causes whereof it is impossible for any man to
to hide themselves in the morning these old cast things being suddenly taken away and shook forth a great multitude of them fals out and are killed with treading upon them Arnoldus Breviar 1. cap. 25. bids us to boyl them in common oyl or oyl of Hearts-ease and with that to anoint the arteries of such as are in a Convulsion both their temples and wrists to cause a Feaver which is a remedy for a Convulsion Josephus Michaelis an Italian and a famous Physician is wont to collect a great number of them and to bring them to a fine powder in Balneo in a glass very close stopt Then he mingles as much powder with Hares pisse that he may pour into the ear morning and evening He often protested to Pennius that this was a secret to cure deafness Others mingle the powder with oyl of Cloves and use it as before The smaller Gallinago which the English call a Suite and Hens feed on Earwigs and I well remember that I have found a great number of them in their Mawes CHAP. XXVIII Of the Scorpion the Ant and flying Lice It s Generation is after the same manner with theirs that have no wings of which we shall treat at large in the second Book The Ant is called by the Latines Formica à ferendis micis from carrying grains of corn saith Isidore The Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Hesychius and Varinus it is called in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in French Fourmis in English Ant Emmet Pismire in Spanish Hormiga in Italian Formica in the Sclavonian and Polonian Tongues Mrawenecz in the Illyrian Mpowka in Low Dutch Miere in Flandrian Labuets it Dutch Omays Omnes Eims Now some Ants are winged some without wings One of the Greeks call those that are winged of which only we treat in this Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another cals them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are named by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. de Anius part by the Latines Equites because of their exceeding swiftness wherein they excel the others They are of a larger body and bigger limbs than those that go and have no wings whereupon Pliny if I mistake not call'd them Herculanae and of a middle colour between black and swart they have four silver coloured wings their uppermost bigger and longer than their whole body their inner wings half so big I have nothing that I write for certain concerning these Indian flying Ants. For Authors themselves are uncertain and many late writers having travelled over almost all India on foot have yet found none of those gold-horders and devourers of flesh Of which Megasthenes hath recorded thus much There are found saith he among the Dardae certain winged Ants no less than Foxes Now the gold-stealers understanding that they feed upon the flesh of wilde beasts strew pieces of it along the waies and so while the Ants are over-busie about their meat they take away without danger all the gold they had all this while stolen Onesicritus writeth that he saw some of their skins like Panthers skins The Book entitled De Natura rerum so describes this winged creature with hooked clawes a winged body and a crooked beak that one would take it for a Griffin rather than an Ant. That Aethiopia also breeds such we read in Philostratus who placeth Ants and Griffins also in India which are not very like one another in shape but both trusty keepers and diggers up of gold The horns of the Indian Ant set up in the Temple of Hercules at Erythrae were a wonder as Pliny witnesseth or rather lieth He that desireth more dreams concerning them let him read Herodotus Arrianus Tzetzes Strabo Aelian and Pliny who gave so much credit to lies carried to and fro and entertained that they were not ashamed to put them down even for truths But passing over the Indian Ants let us treat of those in Europe only whose course of life fights victories policies prudence sagacity parsimony cunning frugality industry oeconomy charity fidelity civility valour and laboriousness I would to the shame of men represent here but that it would be necessary to repeat the same things in the second Book when we shall treat of those that go with which they agree in nature and belong to the same Common-wealth With these Herculean Ants bruised and Salt and Pepper put to them the Manginess the Leprosie and the Scurfe are cured Plin. Oyl made of winged Ants provoketh and strengtheneth Venus Wecker To conclude whatsoever diseases other Ants are good for and they help very many as you shall read the winged ones have the same or greater vertue in curing of them Agatharsides tels us that the Acridophagi or eaters of Locusts are not far distant from the inhabitants of the Red sea which nation are of a lower stature than others lean of visage and extream black About the Vernal Aequinoctial when the South-west and West winds blow with the Italians an unspeakable multitude of great Locusts is brought to them with those winds out of some place unknown which differ little from birds in their faculty of flying but in the shape of their body very much With this sort of creatures they are nourished all this season feeding upon them salted or otherwaies drest And they catch them by fetching them down from the air to the ground with a smoak And these people are reported to excel in nimbleness and swiftness of foot but taking a very dry nutriment they do not prolong their life beyond forty years nay and dye more miserably than they lived for when old age drawes nigh there breed in their bodies certain sorts of flying Lice in figure indeed like Dog-flies but otherwise less they begin at the breast and the belly and in a short space eat up all the skin of their face Others of them are taken like those which have the Itch thereupon they tear themselves grievously and at length the disease being at a stay and thin humours running at the coming out of these little creatures they are fain poor wretches to undergo intolerable torments and so by reason either of ill humors or of their feeding or of the badness of the air they die Hieron Mercurial de morb cut ex Diodoro Siculo 4. Antiq. lib. CHAP. XXIX Of the winged Punie or Wall-Louse WHen I had resolved to conclude this History of winged Insects we had three wood Wall-lice of the sheath-winged kinde brought to us which we here represent upon their backs and upon their bellies The back the neck the little hornes and the sheathy cases of the first are of the colour of a Leek its wings which are longer than its sheathy cases are between green and yellow as also its eyes and feet The second is of a swart colour all over The third hath its body variously coloured with black and red its little horns and feet coal-black
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
skins it hath its name and as the skins vary so that changeth its colour For oft-times it followes the colour the skin is of it is as big as a Flea with six feet and a forked nib Also a Moth consumes clothes especially woollen clothes for it is a very devouring creature and breeds from Butterflies as I said CHAP. XXV Of Wall-lice THE Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latins Cimex the Hebrews Pischpescz from seeking for it seeks after living creatures that are asleep to suck their bloud Isidore will have it called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Cimex from the herb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they call Cimicaria I confess ingenuously I know not what herb it is unless it be that low and stinking kinde of wilde Orach which growing near to wals and heaps of dirt is called by a bawdy name Vulvaria For Coris of Matthiolus smels well and therefore agrees not with Cimicaria The Arabians and Barbarians call it Alcarad Deboliar Fesases Coroda and Corab the Germans Wantlausz the English Wall-lowse the Saxons Wantzen that is Wall-lowse the Brabant people call it not amiss Wuegluys or Lowse of bedsteds the Spaniards call them Chimesas the Italians Cimice the French Punaise Now Wall-lice are either home-bred and without wings or winged and wilde Lice We spake of these in the first Book now we shall speak of those that breed in houses Shame not to drink three Wall-liâ—e mixt with wine And Garlick bruised together at noon-day Moreover a bruis'd Wall-louse with an Egge repine Not for to take 't is loathsome yet full good I say Gesner in his writings confirms this experiment having made trial of it amongst the common and meaner sort of people in the Countrey The Ancients gave seven to those that were taken with a Lethargy in a cup of water and four to children Pliny and Serenus consents to it in these Verses Some men prescribe seven Wall-lice for to drink Mingled with water and one cup they think Iâ— better then with drowsy death to sink And he of old sang that bleeding at the nose would be stayed with the only smell of Wig-lice Some there are that cure dark sights by reason of a Cataract bruising these with Salt and Asses milk Many anoynt painfull ears with honey mingled with Wall-lice to good purpose Also Marcellus saith they stay vomiting and he saith it is a certain remedy if a bruised Wall-louse be swallowed in a rear-egge by one that is fasting and knowes nothing of it Pliny seems to prove from thence that they are good against the stings of all Vipers Adders and all kinde of Serpents because that Hens that feed on these are free from the stinging of these Creatures Aetius commends Wall-lice against the Strangury and to drive forth the Stone Vegetius in this case puts one Wall-lowse into the ear another into the passage of the Yard and with a gentle friction of the parts he affirms that they will presently make water which remedy he seems to have borrowed out of Herod in his Hippiatricks Galen Eup. 5. reports that Wall-lice will not only provoke urine but also drank for nine dayes space will stop childrens water that goes from them against their wills Valarandus Donures an Islander a most learned Apothecary of Lyons often said that these drank with water hot or wine or broth would wonderfully help those that were troubled with the Stone Moreover the later writers wonderfully commend the ashes of them with a fit decoction cast in for a Clyster to bring forth the Stone If they be bruised and anoynted on the passage of the yard it will presently provoke urine Marcellus There are saith Gesner that for the Colick prescribe four live Wall-lice to drink in wine in the morning and then they command to fast two hours after and they give as many to drink two hours before 〈…〉 pper and so again the next day untill they have drank up twelve Lice truly it is a remedy to be despised but it is no new remedy in that desperate disease and it is a present cure It helped Functius the Governour of Zurick at the second taking and so it did some of his Kindred also and he was like to have written a commendation in praise of Wall-lice What concernt outward diseases If you pull up the hair by the roots and anoynt the part affected with the bloud of Wall-lice and let it dry it is the opinion of Galen Aetius and Nonus that they will never grow again Pliny saith that if you anoynt the breasts with Goose-grease and Wall-lice the pains will abate the Moles of the matrix will break forth and scabs of the privities will be cured Cornenelius Gemma in his Appendix of his Cosmocritica speaks of a woman in whose Skull opened were found abundance of Wall-lice CHAP. XXVI Of Tikes and Sheeps Lice THe Tike in Latine Ricinus in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesichius calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and others call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sypontinus calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that is not right for it wants wings The Arabians call it Alcharad Alfesafes Alhalem as Bellunensis reports The Fâ—rlini saith Hermolaus Barbarus to this very day call Tikes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we read in Dydimus Zelonotes It is called Ricinus in Latine because it is like the seed of the Plant Palma Christi Gaza calls it Reduvium and Albertus sometimes calls it Taca Also Albertus Vinoentius Guillerinus de Conchis call it Eâ—gulam I think that at first it was called Cica saith Scaliger because Cici is the same with Croton The Italians call it Zeva the Germans Haltzback the French Plata from its compact body the English Wood-teek Some distinguish between Ricinus and Reduvius thus very exactly 'T is good to noynt their ears and set them in the Sun Or use ared hot knife when Lice are first begun Rhasis commends against Aschardes of Dogs or Dog-lice to wash them with Wine and Vinegar Cummin-seed and Salt-water Th 〈…〉 and Cato prepare oyl of bitter nuts and with that they anoynt their claws and ears and secrets also Tarre of Cedar kills them Dioscorides But Columella forbids to pull off Tikes from Oren and Dogs left the places should exulcerate and he highly commends Tarre and Hogs grease Pliny saith the juice of both Chamaeleons will destroy them Albertus reports that Tikes bloud will cleanse Ulcers and if they be infused in wine they will presently make one drunk Seranuâ— farther commends them for to cure a Fistula in Ano. If that nâ—w ulcers in the secrets chance to breed Chew'd Bramble-leaves apply you quickly shall be freed Or if from an old sore a Fistula do grow A Weasils ashes burnt will help 't and further know The bloud of an Ox Tike is no means else below Also the bloud of a Tike will cure the Shingles Also men say that a Tike pulled out of the left ear
discover that light that shal shew us both Yet this is certain that those Worms serve for baits to catch Fish especially those small red ones and Fisher-men diligently seek after them for that purpose We call them Water-worms because as Earth-worms will not live long in water so Water-worms put upon dry land soon die they wanting Air and these for want of water FINIS An Index of all the CHAPTERS contained in the Second Volum BOOK I. Chap. 1. OF Bees their name description and differences page 889 Chap. 2. Of the politick moral and econimical virtues of Bees 892 Chap. 3. Of the creation generation and propagation of Bees 897 Chap. 4. Of the use of Bees 905 Chap. 5. Of the name of Honey the difference andâ—se 907 Chap. 6. Of Bee glew Pissoceros Beesmeat with the nature and use of them 915 Chap. 7. Of Drones and Theeves 917 Chap. 8. Of Wasps 921 Chap. 9. Of the Hornet and the Tenthredo 927 Chap. 10. Of Flies 931 Chap. 11. Of the differences of Flies 934 Chap. 12. Of the use of Flies 944 Chap. 13. Of Gnats 952 Chap. 14. Of Butterflies 957 Chap. 15. Of the Gloworm 975 Chap. 16. Of Locusts 981 Chap. 17. Of Grashoppers and Crickets 989 Chap. 18. Of Mothes called Blattae 997 Chap. 19. Of the Buprests or Burncow and Cantharides 1000 Chap. 20. Of the Cantharides or Spanish Fly 1003 Chap. 21. Of Beetles 1005 Chap. 22. Of the smaller Beetles 1015 Chap. 23. Of the Proscarabeus or oil Beetle and the water Beetle 1016 Chap. 24. Of the Gryllotalpa Fen Cricket Mole Cricket Evechurro or Churworm 1018 Chap. 25. Of the fire Fly 1019 Chap. 26. Of the Water Spider 1021 Chap. 27. Of the Earwig 1023 Chap. 28. Of the Scorpion Ant and Lice winged 1024 Chap. 29. Of the Wood-Wig Lowse with wings 1025 BOOK II. Chap. 1. OF Caterpillers and their differences and chiefly of Silk-wormes and Silk-spinners pag. 1029 Chap. 2. Of the other smooth Caterpillers 1032 Chap. 3. Of Caterpillers rough and hairy 1034 Chap. 4. Of the original generation aliment and metamorphosis of Caterpillers 1039 Chap. 5. Of the quality and use of Caterpillers and the remedies against them 1040 Chap. 6. Of the Whurlworm 1042 Chap. 7. Of the Wine Caterpiller called Staphylinus 1044 Chap. 8. Of the Scolopendrae and Juli 1045 Chap. 9. Of Hoglice or Chislips 1048 Chap. 10. Of Land Scorpions 1049 Chap. 11. Of the name and differences of Spiders 1058 Chap. 12. Of hurtful Spiders or Phalangia 1059 Chap. 13. Of the tame or house Spider 1065 Chap. 14. Of certain kinds of Spiders observed by Authours 1070 Chap. 15. Of the generation copulation and use of Spiders 1072 Chap. 16. A commendation of Ants wherein is described their differences nature cunning and use 1074 Chap. 17. Of the Cicindela and female Melos and of the Hâ—râ—et and field C 〈…〉 p 1080 Chap. 18. Of mineral worms with six feâ—t 1081 Chap. 19. Of Worms in vegetables with six feet and first of Worms in Trees 1082 Chap. 20. Of Worms in puls fruit corn vines herbs 1085 Chap. 21. Of the use of Worms in Minerals and Vegetables and the way to destroy them 1088 Chap. 22. Of Worms in living creatures that have six feet and first of Lice in men 1090 Chap. 23. Of Lice in Brutes and Plants 1094 Chap. 24. Of Hand-worms and Mites and worms in living creatures 1094 Chap. 25. Of Wiglice 1096 Chap. 26. Of Sheep Tikes and the like 1098 Chap. 27. Of the Moth that devours clothes 1100 Chap. 28. Of the Flea 1101 Chap. 29. Of the Insects wanting feet and first of the Intestines of the earth 1103 Chap. 30. Of Worms in living creatures 1106 Chap. 31. Of the description of Worms in the Intestines 1108 Chap. 32. Of the original of Worms in the Intestines 1110 Chap. 33. Of the signs and cure of Worms out of Gabusinus 1111 Chap. 34. Of Worms bred without the Intestines and first of Eulai Gentils or Maggots 1122 Chap. 35. Of Nits 1123 Chap. 36. Of Aureliae and Teredo without feet ibid Chap. 37. Of water Insects without feet and first of Squilla or Shrimp 1124 Chap. 38. Of the Locust Scorpion Effet Grashopper Hornet Forked claw Lizard Corculum and Lowse all water Insects 1125 Chap. 39. Of the Flea or Sow and Scolopendra of the sea 1127 Chap. 40. Of water Insects without feet and first Oripes ibid. Chap. 41. Of the Horseleech 1128 Chap. 42. Of Water Worms 1130 THE END A Physical Index containing plentifull Remedies for all Diseases incident to the Body of Man drawn from the several Creatures contained in this Second Volume A. AGues 911. 1006. 1008. 1012. 1072. 17â— 1079 1088. 1098. 1104. Ague Quartan 925. 996. Albugo of the eye 1072. Alopecia 911. 945. Ambrosia 911. Alkermes 1088. Antidote 945. Anthonies fire 996. Alcures 1049. Abortion 1012. Arnoldus Plaister 1105. Asthma 1000. 1048. Ascarides breed only in the Longanum 1109. 1110. Attenuating means 1048. B. BArrennesse caused 980. 1080. 1104. 1108. Baldnesse cured 906. 945. Bees stingings 907. Belly to stop or purge 1072. 1073. Belly griping 906. Belly-worms cured 1104. Belly loose 912. 914. Bladder hurt 1004. Bladder stopt 906. Bladder-worms 1108. Bleer-eyes 945. Birds cured 1073. 1088. Blood pissing 1004. Bloud clotted 1104. Bloudy-flix 906. Bloud to stop 1073. Boyls 1017. Body to cool 914. Bones broken 1104. Breath short 912. 1000. Breasts pains 1098 Botches 1000. 1004. Broad Worms 1109. Butter-flies use 974. 975. Brains Worms 1107. Buprestis remedies 1002. Birth restrained 1105. Birth drawn forth 1105. Breasts hard 1105. Breasts inflamed ibid. C. CAchexia 913. Catarrhs 1004. Cattel to make to stale 946. Cancrous sores 1003. 1049. Cantharias what it is 1012. Carbuncle 906. 1017. Cauteries 1004. Clyster 912. Cold water drunk 912. Chaps 1017. Clefts of hands and feet 1105. Colick 912 1098. 1107. Convulsions 1012. 1023. Corrosive 911. Corns 1003. Cough 917. 1108. Consumptions 1049. Cantharides remedies 1004. 1005. Childrens diseases 1006. 1012 1088. Childe-birth 1088. Cochineal ibid. Cramp 1049. Creeping sores 1088. Conception hindered 1107. Cankers cured 1088. Corallina good against Worms 1117. Corruption hindred 1073. Chops diseases 1049. D. DAmask Bird-lime 1118. Deafnesse 945. 1023. 1080. 1049. 1105. Dead sleep 1022. Depilatory 1100. Dislocations 912. Diabete 1098. 1104. Diaphoretick 912. Diarrhea 1104. Diuretick 912. Debility 1088. Drying without pain ibid. Dropsie 906. 913. 1004. 1017. 1080. 1104. Dogs tongue Worms 1108. Drunk to make 1099. Dysentery 912. 915. 1073. 1088. Dogs mad their bites hindered 1108. Dysuria 1080. 1093. 1048. Discussing remedies 1048. E. EArs ulcers 911. 996. Ears mattery 1105. Ears sores 915. Ears Worms 1107. Ears noyse and inflamation 911. 996. Ears pains 999. 1000. 1012. 126. 1072. 1079. 1098. 1104. 1049. Epilepsie 913. Erection caused 1004. Eye-lids corns 915. 945. Eye-lids cuâ—e 1017. Eyes â—heum 911. 945. 1088. Eyes cure 1072. 1073. 1080. 1088. 1093. 1048. Eyes suffusion 1088. Eyes spots 911. 945. Eyes white spots cured 1047. Eyes swoln 1017. Eyes diseases 1049. 1053. Expectorate 914.