in other birds But since it is not propagated ex traduce from an egg or seed it neither leaves egg nor seed nor gives more to another than nature gave to it For if it lay'd eggs that chickens might proceed from the Barnacle had been so bred her self but neither of these is so For as a Mule is not bred of a Mule but from the mingling of an Asse and Mare together so it doth not generate a Mule but continues alwaies Barren as this bird doth Bees are bred of Worms the Worms in the honey combs from honey by a wonderfull operation of nature though without any sensible body of seed yet not without virtuall seed imprinted on the Honey-Combs by the Bees which they first had from Heaven Nor is it possible that these effectual and spiritual qualities should proceed from the pure Elements or onely by propagation since the matter of the seed which is made of nutriment and blood could be extended in infinitum without diminution of it self For we observe that the Elements are but like dead and materiall receptacles of the formal vertues and that the matter of the seed is dayly supplyed and heaped up by the Elements And therefore it is necessary that the formative force should daily flow into the formed seeds or where they are wanting into a matter prepared by Nature from corruption or other operations From whence the form of this wonderfull Creature is easily drawn namely that it is an imaginative vertue of the Heavens or of the Sun actively infused into a viscous matter of that wood in those places so disposed by corruption that it may enliven it and promote it to be a new kind of living plant or bird included in a shell which so soon as it falls into the waters may swim and when the wings are grown fly about The final cause is the common ornament of the World the variety and wonderfull works of Nature the profit of those that dwell near and especially the providence omnipotence and clemency of our good and great God all whose attributes do appear to mankind as well from this creature as from the rest whilest he crowns the year with his free gifts and the whole earth with variety of Creatures So that he is far more mighty in creating and making different kinds of living Creatures than we are able to expresse them to nominate or to know them Let it suffice us that we have seen some part of the wonderfull works of God and taken a view of them for it is not possible for a mortall Man to be capable to apprehend them all yet to consider of none of them were brutish and we should so be more like unto Beasts than Men. OF Naturall VVonders The Seventh Classis Wherein are set down the Wonders of Four-footed Creatures Seneca l. 3. de ira c. 30. WE are troubled with frivolous and vain matters A red colour makes a Bull angry and a viper is stirred by a shadow A picture will make Bears and Lions fiercer All things that are cruell and ravening by nature are moved with vain things The same things happen to unquiet and foolish spirits they are stricken with jealousie and suspition of things CHAP. I. Of the Elk and the Ram. THe Elk is a four-footed beast commonly found in Scandinavia in Summer of an Ash-colour almost in Winter it turns toward black The horns are fit for footstools each of them is 12 pound weight and two foot long His upper lip hangs out so long that he cannot eat but going backwards Men write that he is subject to the falling sicknesse and that the remedy he hath is to lift up the right claw of the hinder foot and put it to his left Ear. It holds the same vertue if you cut it off when he goes to rut in August or September He is commended for his swiftnesse for he will run as much ground in one day as a horse shall in three He is very strong for a strong blow with his foot will kill the hunter The Ram for six Winter moneths sleeps on his left side but after the vernal equinoctiall he rests on his right Aelianus hath discovered this but the Butchers deny it In Camandu a Country of Tartary they are as big as Asses their tails weigh 30 pound weight One was seen in the Court of the King of the Arabians whose tail weighed 40 pound Vartom Cardanus ascribes that to its cold temperament when the rest of the bones will no more be extended Lest he should be choked with his own fat he sends down the humour unto his tail CHAP. II. Of the Asse IN the Kingdom of Persia Asses are so esteemed that one of them is sold for 30 pound of gold amongst the Pigmies they are as big as our Râ—ms Paul Venet. In Egypt they ambâ—e so swiftly that one will go 40 miles a day without any hurt Scalig. Exerc. 217. s. 1. She doth sparingly dip-in her mouth when she drinks She is afraid saith Cardanus For when she beholds the great shadow of her ears in the water she is fearfull they will be wet There are some found in Africa that do not drink She staleth when she seeth another stale or upon a dunghill For Nature doth stirre them up being slothfull by the acrimony of the smell Cardan l. 10. subtil Observation proves that where an Asse hath cropt a vine branch the vine will grow more fruitfull The monument of this matter was seen at Nauplia where an Asse of stone was set up in thankfull remembrance for posterity Vadimonius writes that there is a fruitfull Orchard in the middle whereof she was buried Aldrovand l. 1. de quadr c. 2. In Hetruria when they have eaten Hemlock they fall asleep that they seem to be dead The Countrey-men are deceived by it for oft-times they rise up and fright them when they have pull'd off their skins almost Mathiol in Dioscorid Sheep will run into the fold if you pen them in an Asses stall If one be stung by a Scorpion if he sit upon on Asse with his face toward the tayl the Asse will endure the pain and not he It is a sign of it because she will dye farting Merula Asses milk is commended Poppaea the Wife of Domitius Nero that conceived in all 500 times did wash her body in a Bath of Asses milk thinking to stretch her skin thereby Plin. l. 15. c. 40. 〈…〉 of crete being in a Consumption recovered by feeding on Asses flesh Moreover there are some in Scythia whose horn contains Stygian water for it will pierce through iron vessels Some in 〈…〉 have one horn in their forehead Who drinks out of that is preserved from a disease but if any venomous matter be drank it is caâ—t forth They are so strong that they will kill a horse to travell with them Also that was a wonderfull one that was sent as a present with other gifts by the King of Assyria to Ferdinand of Naples for the hair was
into the fire they are made clean Lemnius in l. 2. de occult That kind growes in the deserts of India where such is the condition of the Ayr and the quality of the Earth which causeth such a temper of the Plants that they may be spun and woven into linnen Cloth Wood and Planks if they be anointed with Allum I add and smeared with Eggs they will not burn Plin. l. 29. c. 3. Nor will posts painted with a green colour so you do it thick and Allom with the ashes of white lead be plentifully mingled with the paint Because the wood is thickned and hardened the fire cannot enter Hence it was that Sylla could not fire a Tower that was smeered with Allom. C. Caesar set fire to a Castle near to Po that was built of Larch-tree and it would not burn Vitruv. l. 2. c. 9. for the Larch tree is not onely free from rottennesse nor will it resolve into coles The cause is the compacted matter Lemnius l. c. What shall we say of Pyrrhus on whose great joynt of his right foot fire could not prevail What of Zwinglius whose heart was not touched after his body was consumed by fire Thuan. l. 5. Histor. The Salamander lives safe in the midst of the flames if we credit Pliny And the bottom of the Cauldron is cold when it stands in the midst of the fire and the water boyles the sides are red hot Yet Dioscorid writes l. 2. c. 52. That the Cauldron being cold by nature doth for a while keep off the fire by being so near to it but at last it burns and wastes The reason of this is from the Pyramidall figure of the fire which ascends in a point and the thin parts rise up first the thicker are cast to the sides Keckerm Disp 4. Phys coral 10. In the Scriptures we have examples God appeared to Moses in a flaming bush the bush did not burn Exod. Ch. 3. Elias was taken up into Heaven with a fiery Chariot and horses The three Children cast into the fiery furnace in Babylon had not a hair touched and they were consumed that came but near in the Apocryph ad c. 3. Daniel is Eugenius relates what befell an Hebrew Boy at Constantinople So much for Burning Now for putting it out A certain fire came forth of Mount Hecla which is extinguished with Towe that which comes forth of the Mount Chimaera is put out with Hay or Earth At Cullen of the Ubii with stones or cloathes But when Charles Duke of Burgundy had taken the City of Geldria the ground was burnt the grasse and roots burned the fire could be extinguished by no art of man it penetrated into Burgundy Fulgosius l. 1. To these I shall adde those Chymicall devices of Tritenhemius whereby he procured everlasting fires as an Anonymus reports in Aureo vellere in the name of Bartholmaeus Korndorferus Now there are two Eternal Lights The first of them is made by mingling brimstone and calcined Allum 4. ounces and by subliming them they are made flowrs He joyned 2 ounces and a half to 1 ounce of 〈…〉 Vedetus like Crystall and to these 〈…〉 bruised and put into a hâ—llow glasse he poured on the spirit of wiâ—â— four times distilled and making digestion and drawing that off he poured on new and he did this twice thrice or four times untill the brimstone made hot upon plates of brasse would run like wax without smoke This is the food of it Afterwards the Wick must be thus ordered The small shords of the stone Asbestos about the length of the little finger and about half so thick must be tyed together with white silk The Wick thus made is sprinkled with brimstone of the foresaid matter in a Venice-glasse and it is put under ground and is boyled in hot sand 24 hours the brimstone alwaies boyling up The wick so anointed and wet is put into a hollow glasse that it may a little come forth the prepared Brimstone is heap'd on the glasse is set into hot sand that the Brimstone may melt and hold fast to the wick then will this set on fire burn with a continual flame you may see the Lamp in any place This is the first eternal Fire The latter is made thus To a pound of decrepit Salt pour on strong Wine Vinegar Draw it off to the consistence of oyl put on new let it steep distill it as before and do this four times Infuse in this Vinegar glasse of Antimony finely powdered one pound set the infusion in hot ashes 6 hours in a close vessel and draw out a red tincture Pour off that vinegar and pour on more and draw it off again repeating the labour untill all the colour be resolved and drawn forth Coagulate the extractions to the consistence of oyl and rectifie it in Balneo till it be pure Then take the powder of Antimony out of which the rednesse was drawn and make fine flower of it put it into a glasse and pour on the rectified oyl draw it off and pour it on 7 times untill the body have drank in all its oyl and become dry Draw out this by the spirit of wine changed so often untill all the substance be drawn forth distill the Menstruums collected in a Venice Viol covering it with a five doubled paper that the spirit coming forth the incombustible ayr may remain in the bottom which must be used with a Wick as that of Brimstone before CHAP. II. Of the Ayr. Artic. 1. Of the three Regions of the Ayr. PHilosophers make 3. Regions The Region in the middle is so cold that it is almost ready to freeze the Kite which is wont to live there in the dog dayes from Noon till Night or his limbs should grow stiff by staying there too long And in the Alps there is alwaies so much snow that in Summer the passage is dangerous They that have crept up to the tops of the Mountaines of Baldus in the Country of Verona feel no lesse cold in July and August than in the coldest Winter Aldrovâ—â—â—â— Ornith l. â— c. 15. Some think the aire to be so thin there that a man can hardly live Augustin de Genes ad liter l. 13. c. 2. reports from other men that such as go to the top of Olympus either to sacrifice or to view the Starrs carry sponges with them wet in water to breathe with But from the History of the flood and others we may observe that some Mountaines are so high that they are above the Clouds and yet a man may live in that ayre Libav de orig rer l. 6. There is in the Island Zelainum a very high Mountain and most pleasant on the top In Arabia Faelix there is an extreame high Mountain and there is a Town on the top of it If we observe the force of the aire it is notable Philosophers speak much of it Cardan saith that if it be shut up it corrupts living Creatures and preserves dead things but the open
full of water But that ceased when the sacrifice ceased Joseph l. 7. c. 24. There is a certain River Bocatius speaks of every ten years it makes a mighty noyse by the stones striking together and this is suddenly in a moment and the stones ran downwards for 3. dayes and 3 or 4 times a day though it be fair weather and after three dayes all is quiet Strabo writes of the Rivers of Hircania l. 11. There are in the Sea high shores that are prominent and are cut forth of Rocks but when the Rivers run out of the Rocks into the Sea with great violence they passe over a great space as the fall betwixt the Sea and the Rocks that Armies may march under the fall of the waters as under Arches and receive no hurt Trochlotes in North Norway makes such a noyse when it runs that it is heard 20 miles Olaus l. 2. c. 28. Beca in Livonia runs forth of the Rocks with such a fall that it makes men deaf Ortel in Livon Tâ—nais by a very long passage from Scythia falling into the Lake Meotis it makes it so long and broad that those that are ignorant of it take it for a great Mountain Boccatius In Solomon's Temple there ran a Spring great in Summer small in Winter Euseb. praeparat Evangel l. 9. c. 4. If you ask the cause it is taken from the Time All things are wet in Winter then are the Channels full and for want of evaporation the waters are kept in But in Summer all things are dry and the Suns heat penetrates Hence it is that they are congregated in their Fountains and run out by the Ayr inforcing them Maeander is so full of windings and turnings that it is often thought to run back again c. He that seeks more concerning Nilus and other Waters let him read Geographerrs Artic. 5. Of the change of quantity and of qualities in Waters THis great variety in Waters that I have set down is a token of the wisdome and power of God and it is no lesse wonder that the same waters should be so diversly changed It is certain that they are changed A Fountain in the Island Tenedos alwayes from 3. at night till 6. after the Summer Solstice overflowes There is another in â—odon that hath its Name from Jupiter it fails always at Noon-day And the River Po in Summer as if it took its rest growes dry saith Pliny In Italy Tophanus a Fountain of Anagnania is dry when the Lake Fucinus is frozen at other times of the year it runs with great quantity of water Agricol l. cit passim The Waters of the Lake of Babylon are red in Summer Boristhenes at some times of the year seems to be died with Verdigrease The water of the Fountain of the Tungri is boyling hot with fire subterraneal and is red The Waters of the River Caria by Neptunâ—s Temple were sweet and are now salt But in Thrace when Georgius Despota ruled a sweet Fountain grew to be bitter intolerably and whole rivers were changed at Citheron in Beotia as Theophrastus writes Men report that of the Mineral Waters which run by the Pangaeus a Mountain of Thrace an Athenian cotyle weighs in Summer 64 grains and in Winter 96. In the Province of Cyrene the Fountain of the Sun is hot at midnight afterwards it cooles by degrees and at Sun-rising it is cold and the higher the the Sun riseth the colder it is so that it is frozen at mid day then again by degrees it growes warm it is hot at Sun-set and the more the Sun proceeds the hotter it becomes The same Fountain every day as it growes cold at mid-day so it is sweet as it growes hot at midnight so it growes bitter Artic. 6. Of some other things admirable in Waters THey were wonders that are passed but greater follow In those it is easy to assign a cause mixture or some such like if you rightly consider it but here it is difficult for though you may in some yet commonly we must fly to hidden qualities I will briefly rehearse them Some drops of a Fountain of the Goths powred upon the Earth cease to move and are thickned by the ayr The waters of Cepusia in Pitchers turn into a Stone those of Rhaetid make people foolish they pull out the teeth in two years and dissolve the ligaments of the sinews which Pliny writes to be in Germany by the Sea-side Those of Islandia change things that are hollow into stones Tybur covers Wood with stone covers Zamenfes in Africa makes clear voyces Soractes when the Sun riseth runs over as though it boyled birds that then drink of it die He growes temperate who drinks of the Lake Clitorius and he forgets who drinks of a well nere the River Orchomenus sacred to the God Trophonius Philarch. He proves dull of wit that drinks of a Fountain in the Island Cea Agricola de reb 〈…〉 terra effluent gives a cause for it as for the former by reason of the bitumen For saith he the seeds of wild Parsnips wrapt in a linnen clout and put into Wine as also the powder of the flowers of Hermodactylus which the Turks use being drunk with it are the cause that it will make a man sooner and more drunk so some kind of Bitumen mixt with water is wont to make men drunk The horses drinking Sebaris are troubled with sneesing whatsoever is sprinkled with it is couloured black Clitumnus of Umbria drank of makes white Oxen and Cesiphus of Beotia white sheep but a River in Cappadocia makes the hair whiter softer and longer In Pontus Astaces waters the fields in which Mares are fed that feed the whole Countrey with black milk The waters in Gadaris make men bald and deprive Cattle of hair hooffs and horns Cicero writes that in the Marshes of Reate the hoofs of beasts are hardned The hot baths at the Fort of New-house colour the Silver Rings of such as wash in them with a Golden colour and make Gold Rings more beautifull Aniger that runs out of Lapithum a Mountain of Arcadia will nourish no fish in it till it receive Acidan and those that go then out of it into Aniger are not edible but they in Acidan are Pausanias Agrigentinum a Lake of Sicily will beare those things that do not swim in the waters In Aethiopia there is one so thin that it will not carry up leaves that fall from the next Trees In the lake Asphaltiâ—es a man bound hand and foot cannot sink The cause is held to be the great quantity of Salt Hieronymus Florentinus saw a Bankrupt bound and cast headlong from the Tower into it and it bore him up all the night Posidonius observed that bricks in Spain made of Earth with which their Silver plate is rub'd did swim in the waters Cleon and Goon were two Fountains in Phrygia either of their waters made men cry There were two in the fortunate Island they that tasted of one laught till they died
the other was the remedy for them Anauros of Thessaly and Boristhenes send out no vapour nor exhalation many refer the cause of it to its mixture others seek it other-where Agricola l. 2. de effl ex terr c. 17. saith In what part of the Rivers the Channels in the Fords have no veins and fibres by that they can breath forth no exhalations In the snows of Mount Caucasus hollow Clods freez and contain good water in a membrane there are Beasts there that drink this water which is very good and runs forth when the membranes are broken Strab. in Geograph Nilus makes women so fruitfull that they will have 4 and 6 at one venter Pliny in Histor. There is a Well of water that makes the inhabitants of the Alps to have swollen throats Lang. l. 5. Epist. 43. But in field Rupert neer to Argentina there is a water said to be that makes the drinkers of it troubled with Bronchocele they seem to be infected with quicksilver for this is an enemy to the brain and nervs for it not only sends back flegme to the glandulous parts of the head and neck but that which is heaped up in the head it throws down upon the parts under it Sebizius de acidul s. 1. dict 6. Corol. 1. thes 12. Diana a River of Sicily that runs to Camerina unlesse a chast woman draw its water it will not mingle with Wine Solinus C. 10. Styx in Arcadia drank of kills presently it penetrates and breaks all yet it may be contained in the horns of one kind of Asse Seneca l. 3. natur c. 25. Two Rivers runs into Niger a River in Africa one is reddish the other whitish Barrens Histor. dec 1. l. 3. c. 8. If any man drink of both he will be forced to Vomit both up but if any man drink but of one he shall Vomit leasurely but when they are both run into Niger and a man drink them mingled he shall have no desire to Vomit Narvia is a River of Lithuania so soon as Serpents tast of the water they give a hiss and get away Cromer descript Polon l. 1. A Fountain of Sardinia in the Mediterranean keeps the length and shortnesse of dayes and runs accordingly In the Island of Ferrum one of the Canaries there is no water the Ayr is fiery the ground dry and man and beast are sad for want of water But there is a Tree the kind is unknown the leaves are long narrow and allways green A Clowd allwaies surrounds it whereby the leaves are so moystned that most pure liquour runs continually from it which the inhabitants fetch setting vessells round the Tree to take it in Bertius in descript Canariar Sea-waters if they be lukewarm they portend tempests before two days be over and violent Winds Lemnius de occult l. 2. c. 49. In England nere New-Castle there is a lake called Myrtous part whereof is frozen in Summer Thuan. in Histor. But I have done with these Authours have more if any man desire it especially Claudius Vendilinus whom I name for honour sake if he seek for the wonders of Nilus Artic. 7. Of some Floods or Waters and of the Universall Deluge THe Floods were signs of Gods anger and so much the more as that was greater and mens sins more grievous The greatest was that we call the generall Deluge which began about the end of the year of the World 1656. All the bars of the Channels were broken and for 40 dayes a vaste quantity of water was poured down Also the Fountains of the great Deep were cut asunder so that the Waters increased continually for 150 dayes and passed above the highest Mountains 15 Cubits At length they abated by degrees for after 70 dayes the tops began to appear The Inhabitants of the New World say they had it from their Ancestours Those of Peru say that all those Lands lay under waters and that men were drowned except a few who got into woodden Vessels like Ships and having provision sufficient they continued there till the waters were gone Which they knew by their dogs which they sent forth of doors and when the dogs came in wet they knew they were put to swim but when they returned dry that the waters were gone August Carat But they of Mexico say that five Suns did then shine and that the first of them perished in the waters and men with it and whatsoever was in the earth These things they have described in Pictures and Characters from their Ancestors giving credit to Plato's Flood which was said to have hapned in the Island Atlantis Lupus Gomara But Lydiat ascribes the cause of that universal Deluge to a subterraneal fire in a hotter degree increasing the magnitude by rarefaction so long as it could not gâ—t out of its hollow places Genesis seems to demonstrate it For the Fountains of the great Deep are said to be broken open and that a wind was sent forth after 40 dayes and the waters were quieted We must understand a wind from a dry Exhalation which a subterraneous fire much increased had most abundantly raised out of the deep of the Sea which was then thrust forth of them and did increase the motion of the ayr that it laid hold of together with the revolution of the Heavens and the vehemency of the Firmament But there were other miraculous Deluges besides this CHAP. IV. Of the Originall of Fountains Sea by passages under the Earth The Sea alone is sufficient to supply all Springs and when we see that it no wayes increaseth by the Rivers that run into it it is apparent that they run to their Fountains by secret channels But the question is of the manner how they ascend Socrates ascribes it to the Tossing of them Pliny to the wind l. 21. c. 65. Bodin l. 2. Theatr. to the weight of the Earth driving forth the water Scaliger to the Bulk of the Sea others to vapours redoubled into themselves It is a hard matter to define all things nor is it our purpose But because Thom Lydiat an English Man hath written most acutely of this Subject we will set down his opinion here contracted into a few Propositions I. The Rolling of the Water is not the cause of its ascending to the superficies of the Earth For there is no cause for its tossing and wherefore then should it not at length stand levell II. To be driven with the wind is not the cause 1. For it seems not to be raised in the Sea by a fixed Law of Nature but by way of Tempest 2. The Channels are winding and should carry it rather to the sides than to the superficies 3. If a contrary wind cannot do so much in any water what then can the wind do here Also if there were any receptacles for the waters forced upwards Miners those that dig in mines would have found them out as Vallesius saith III. The weight of the Earth squeesing out the water is not the Cause For the Earth
butter of Antimony Some impute it to the native heat of the earth or to a certain hot spirit so that these natural spirits of exhalations heating not violently but naturally in some places the secret channels of the Earth grow hot that this heat is communicated to the Walls of those concavities by reason whereof a sufficient and continuall heat may be communicated to the Baths even as in an Oven heated when all the flame is gone the bread is sufficiently baked Horstius de natur Thermar Others ascribe it to subterraneall fire but whether it be so may be known by what proceeded Bartholin de aquis Farther it may be shewed by an Example Mingle salt-water with Clay make of this clay or mud a ball and hollow it within then stop the orifice with the clay and put in a narrow pipe into it and put this ball to the fire the pipe being from the fire when the ball waxeth hot out of the ball by the pipe hot water will run Sennert l. 4. scient natural c. 10. Baths have a taste by the mixture of Earths and so have things in the Earth Hippocrates l. de natur human saith That there is in the Earth sweet sowr and bitter and in the bowels of it there are divers faculties and many humours l. 4. de Morbis Every thing drawes its nourishment from the Earth in which it is Hence in Ionia and Peloponnesus though the heat of the Sun be very sufficient yet Silphium growes not though it be sowed namely for want of such a humour as might nourish it Yet there are in that earth juices not onely for the vaporous but also for the moyst and solid substance Juices condensed are dissolved by waters the moyst are mingled Earths are dissolved and scrapings of mettals are found The goodnesse of them differs sometimes because those that in Summer are beray'd with the Suns heat and attenuated are the best In Autumn they are lesse beat upon by its beams because he is nearer to them so in the spring For the Earth is opened the waters are purified the healthfull light of the Sun approaches but in the Winter they are worst for they are heavier thicker and more defiled with earthly exhalations That they suffer changes we may learn by divers examples Fallop de Therm c. 11. Savanarola saith That the Bath waters in the Country of Pisa cause great diseases in those that drink them and the Inhabitants are warn'd of it For in March April and May when they see the waters look yellow and to be troubled they foresee they are dangerous Alcardus of Veroneus a Physitian who writ of the Calâ—erian Baths saith That the water of Apponus is sometimes deadly by the example of one Galeatius a Noble man who with his Son in Law drank of it and dyed The sharp waters of Alsatia are sometimes so sharp that they cause the dysentery and sometimes they are feeble and are deprived of their wonted vigour Sebizius de acidulis diss 50. s. 1. The causes are divers amongst the ordinary a rainy cloudy dark Southern constitution of the Ayr too violent flowing of the Sea inundations Earthquakes It is wonderfull that is written concerning some hot Baths in Germany that they grew dry when there was a tax set upon them Camerar horis subcis cent 2. c. 69. Something like this fell out in shell-fish at the Sluce for when a kind of tribute was laid upon the collecting of them they were no more found there they returned when the Tax was taken off Jacob Mayer in Annal. Flandriae CHAP. VI. Of the Sea Artic. 1. 〈…〉 Artic. 2. 〈…〉 and Hercules Pillars about Spain and France in his dayes But the North Sea for the greatest part was passed over by the happy successe of the famous Augustus We find in Velleius that Germany was surrounded by sailing so far as the Promontory of the Cimbri and from thence the vast Ocean was discovered or known by relation as far as Scythia and the parts that were frozen by the command of Tiberius The same Pliny tells us that Alexander the Great extended his Victories over the greatest part of the East and Southern Seas unto the Arabian shores whereby afterwards when C. Caesar the Son of Augustus managed the businesse the ensigns of ships were known to belong to the Spaniards that had suffered shipwrack there But when Carthage flourished 〈…〉 from the Gades to the furthermost parts of Arabia and 〈…〉 writing that Voyage and Hamilco at the same time was sent to discover the outward parts of Europe Moreover Cornelius Nepos is the Author of it in Pliny that one Eudoxus in his time when he fled from Lathyrus King of Aegypt came from the Arabian Coasts as far as Gades and Caelius Antipater long before him affirms the same that he saw him who sailed out of Spain into Aethiopia 〈…〉 Merchandize The same Author writes that the King of Sweden gave freely to Quint. Metellus Celer Pro Consul of France those Indians who sailed out of India for Traffiquâ— and were by Tempests carried into Germany That Voyage hath been attempted of late but with extream danger of life men being hindred continually by Ice and extream darknesse If these things be so then was all our World sailed about It is further questioned whether there be any passage through the North Sea to the Kingdom of Sina and to the Moluccos Jovius reportâ— that he heard it of Demetrius Moschus that Duidna with many Rivers entring into it ran into the North a wonderfull way and that the Sea was there open so that stearing the course toward the right hand shore unlesse the land be betwixt men might saile to Cathay Those of Cathay belong to the furthest parts of the East and the parallel of Thracia and are known to the Portingalls in India when they to buy spices sayled to the Golden Chersonesus through the Countries of Sina and Molucco and brought with them garments of Sabell skins Petruâ— Bertius a man that deserved well for his learning but ill for divinity reports in descrip noâ— Zembliae that he saw a Table described 〈…〉 the Russes wherein the shores of the Russes Samogetans and Tingâ—â—eri with the North Sea nere unto them and some Islands were â—â—â—ely set forth In that the Duina River was farthest West but others Rivers followed towards the East and in the first place Peisa Petchoâ—a Obiâ— Jeneseia and Peisida Therefore the passage must be open from the River Obii to Peisida The Histories of â—â—e Russes reportâ— that when the Moscovites and the Tingesi were curious to search out Countries farther toward the East they sent out discoveries over Land who passed beyond the River Obii and Jeneseia so far as Peisida ouâ— foot and there they fell amongst people that in their habit manners and speech were farr different from them There they heard the found of Bells from the East the noyse of Men the neighing of Hortes they saw say is foure square such as
hardly extinguish flames and it is easily 〈…〉 that are washed in it are quickly dryed 3. 〈…〉 as Britanny and France hotter V. The Sea is not onely salt but bitter therefore it is 〈…〉 called Mare than Sâ—â—um VI. The salt and bitternesse of the Sea iâ— from a subterraneal 〈…〉 fire 1. Bitumen is perceived so bitter in taste that it may be known to be the first subject of it 2. Bitumen hath great force to cause iâ— salt and bitter taste The bituminous Lake of Palestina is so salt and bitter that no Fish is bred in it it scours cloaths if one wet them and shake it well out 3. Pliny reports that a bituminous water thaâ— is also salt at Babylon is cast out of their Wells into salt Piâ—â— and is thickned partly into Bitumen partly into Salt VII A salt Exhalation proceeding froâ—â—hose Deâ—pâ— iâ— easily divided by the body of the Sea For as fine flower or 〈…〉 thing else casâ— into 〈…〉 boyling liquor is cast from the place that boyls unto other parts 〈…〉 on one side to the other if in the middle to the circumference 〈…〉 bituminous Exhalation from thence where it boyleth most and the Sea is most hot is cast and dispell'd into the whole body of it So 〈…〉 Artic. 5. Of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea ANother great miracle of Nature is the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea When the Philosopher sought for the cause of it hâ— grew desperate Possidonius in Strabo l. 3. Geograph makes 3. Circuits of the Sea's motion The diurnall monethly and yearly The first is when the Moon is risen above the Horizon but one sign of the Zodiack or is gone down under the Horizon then the Sea swells untill the Moon comes to the midst of the Heaven 〈…〉 it above or beneath the Earth When it declines from thence the Sea begins to retire untill the Moon is but one sign distant from the East or West and then it stops Pliny assents thus far to him that the flowing of the Sea begins about two equinoctiall hours after the rising or setting of the Moon and ends just so long before its setting or rising He determines the other to be monethly in the conjunction when he saith That the greatest and quickest returnings of the Sea do happen about the new and full Moon the mean about the Quarters of the Moon And Marriners approve this when they call it the Living Sea by reason of the great ebbings and flowings in the new and full Moons but the dead Sea in the half Moons because of the lesser and slower motions of it Possidonius addes more That one Sâ—leucus observed a Sea that was derived from the red Sea and was different from it that kept the monethly course of returning namely according to the Lunar moneth which men call periodicall For he had observed in the Moon being in the Equinoctiall signs that the Tides were equall but in the solstices they were unequall both for quantity and swiftnesse and the same inequality held in the rest so far as any of them happened â—ear to the foresaid places Lastly Possidonius saith That he learned the yearly motions from the Mariners of Gades For they say that about the summer Solstice the ebbing and flowing of the Sea increaseth much and that he conjectured the same did diminish as far as the Equinoctial and again to increase untill Winterâ— from 〈…〉 to decrease untill the spring Equinox â— and so increase again untill the Summer solstice Pliny determines the contraâ—◠〈…〉 reason of the Equinox But Patricius witnesseth That iâ— Libâ—â—â—ia in January great part of the strandâ— are naked and continue dry for some dayes The same Pliny l. â— c. 97. observes That in every eight years in the Moons 100 circumvolution the Tides are called back to their first motions and like increasings that is to say the Sun and Moon then returning to a conjunction in the same sign and degree wherein they were in conjunction eight years before But for the daily Tides there is a differeâ—â—e amongst Writers In the Sicilian Sea 〈…〉 and flowings are twice a day and twice in the night 〈…〉 in the Sinâ—s of Aegeum repeats its motion 7. times a day and sometimes is seen thrown down from the highest Mountains and so steep down that no ships can be safe there Basil iâ— Hexaemex In England at Bristoll the Ebb is daily twice and so great that the ships that were in the Sea stand dry and are twice on dry Land twice in the Sea Pitheas Massiliensis as Pliny testifies l. 2. c. 67. writes that it swâ—lls fourscore cubits higher than Britanny In the Southern part of the New World the Sea rising flowes two Leagues Ovetan summ c. 9. But in a certain Northern Sea there iâ— no flowing or ebbing observed by the waves of it Petrus Hispan p. 5. c. 1. Not far from Cuba Promontory and by the shores of Margaret Island and Paria the Sea flowes naturally nor can ships by any means though they have a prosperous gale sayl against the floods nor make a mile in a whole day Petrus Martyâ—â—â—n sum Indiae In the Adriatick Sea formerly there was wont to be a very great flowing forth early in the morning the Sea being so advanced into the Continent that it went as far up as a strong man could run in a day Procop. l. 1. Belli Gothici â—ut singular was that Tide and a wonder of the World which in particular which proceed from whirlepools by which the waters are suckt up and spued out again by turns It is very probable this happens in Charybdis the Syrtes and Chalcydis about Eubaea This represents a true flowing and comes from winds breaking forth of the Caves of the Earth and forcing forward the waters or to the Waves running back again and sinking down But the fourth is 〈…〉 true ebbing and flowing which runs neither Eastward nor Westward but begins from the Navel of the Sea and that boyls up and as the waters rise thus they are powred forth toward the Banks more or lesse as the cause is more or lesse violent unlesse something hinder the cause whereof we shall seek last of all And true it is that Marriners in the straights of Magellan where the South Sea is seperated from the North by a notable difference marking diligently the Tydes of both Seas have observed what they could not do in the vast Ocean namely that both Seas do not begin to flow at the same time And that it is not moved by any outward cause not from the Heavens nor is it brought in from the East or West but comes from the bottom of it and boyles out from thence the superfluity running toward the Land variously as the swelling is great or small the shores high or low and the cause that moves it from the bottom upwards weaker or stronger This is confirmed by the nature of the water which casts up from the bottom whatsoever it sucks in if it be not
in Also Plutonium in a little hill of a Mountainous Country hath so moderate a mouth that it can receive but one Man but it is wonderfull deep It is compassed about with square pales and that so many as would compasse in half an Acâ—e which are so full of clowdy thick darknesse that the ground can hardly be seen The Ayr hurts not those who come to the outside of the pales as being clear from that darknesse when the winds blow not If a living Creature goes in he dies immediately Bulls brought in fall down and are drawn forth dead Lastly at Hierapolis in Syria as Dio in the Life of Trajan writes there is a den of a filthy and deadly smell what living creature sucks it in is destroyed by it Only Eunuchs are free from the venom and hurt of it Scaliger Exerc. 277. Sect. 4. CHAP. II. Of Comets Artic. 1. Of the Nature and Magnitude of Comets THe original and nature of Comets hath diversly troubled wise then nor yet was any man found that could decide the question Some think they are perpetuall and are carried about the Sun like Venus and Mercury and oft times they lye hid some think they are newly created and are not in sublunary but heavenly places Democritus thought they were the soules of famous men who when they had been vigorous many Ages in the earth make their triumphs when they die Bodine confesseth his ignorance yet he to this inclines and 〈…〉 lâ—st they become 〈…〉 Stars The cause The Ancients say they all vanished and did not seâ— Others said they were of two sorts false ones in the Aire true ones who foreshew'd things to come from the heavenly place What ever it be they are secret things and because they are in the Heavens they are so much the harder That which shined Anno 1456. possessed more than two signs in the Heavens that which appeared Anno 1472 for a whole moneâ—h retrogâ—ade from Libra 〈…〉 through the whole Zodiack in its motion at first 40 parts then 120 parts every day Sennert l. 4. Epitom Cap. 2. Anno 1556. There was one so great that not onely the most light and dry vapours but all Woods and Groves be they as many as are in the whole Earth would not serve for to feed it two moneths that it shined They are Bodin's words l. 2. Theatr. Anno 1543 it had a very long tayl toward the North a flame flew from it like a Dragon it drank up a River and consumed the fruits of the ground Sennert l. c. When Attalus raigned there was one so great that it was stretched out exceedingly and was equall to the milky way in the Heavens Senec. quaest natural l. 7. c. 15. Aristot. 1. Meteorol c. 7. In the time of Anaxagoras a huge great one burned 75 dayes and so great a Tempest of winds followed that it brake a stone off as great as a Chariot and the whirlwind carried it aloft and threw it into the River Aegaeum in Thracia Niceph. l. 12. c. Again in the Reign of Theodosius the elder an unusuall one appeared at midnight about Lucifer and a great multitude of Stars were gathered about it which by their mutual lustre sent out the greater light this was resolved into one flame like to a two edged sword The same day in July the Spaniards report they saw it that was fatall to them and to their Ships Cardanus l. 4. de varietat c. 63. saith it happened either by reason of the purenesse of the Ayr or the union of Light or by reason of the darknesse of the day Artic. 2. Of the Comets signification MEn say it is a fore-runner of Calamities if we look upon the Judgment and it is found so to be It foreshew'd Vespasian's death Romes Captivity by Alaricus the miserable end of Mauritius the destruction of Mahomet the destructive diminution of the Emperours of Rome the end of Charles the Great the Excursion of the Tartars into Silesia and the cutting off of Lugs Records say that Charles the Great when he saw it was frighted and reasoning with Eginhartus he said it foreshew'd the death of a Prince And when he lest he should be sad at it said Be not afraid at the signs in the Heavens He replyed We must fear none but him who created us and the Stars also but we are bound to praise his Clemency who will vouchsafe to admonish our sluggishnesse with such signs Alsted in Chronol One was held to be fortunate which appeared to Augustus when he prepared Plays for his Genitrix Venus These are his words Pliny l. 2. c. 25. The very same dayes I had my pastimes a hairy Star appeared for seven dayes in the Region of Heaven which is under the North Star It rose about the 11th hour of the day and was clear to be seen in all Lands The people believed that that Star signified that Caesar 's Soul must be received amongst the immortall Gods upon which account that Ensign was added to the Image of an head which presently was consecrated by us in the publick Judicature In the one side of an old Roman penny Caesar's Image was to be seen with these Letters Imp Caes Divi 111. Vir R.R.C. on the other side the forepart of Venus Temple with a Star and Caesar's Statue in his Robes of Inauguration and the Altar where he was wont to sacrifice make his Vowes and Controversies by interposâ—ng an Oath and these Letters were added to it Divo Jul. Delchamp add 2. Plin. c. 25. CHAP. III. Of an Ignis Fatuus Helena Castor and Pollux AN Ignis Fatuus useth to be seen about Sepulchres and Gallowses for it riseth from a birdlimy fat Exhalation It is lighted by an Antiperistasis of the ayr in the night and it is carried here and there with the Ayrs motion It seems to fly from travellers coming toward it and to follow those that run from it The Cause is in the Ayr It is driven forward in running and it drawes them forward but in flying from it it followes and keeps them company Hence are strangers travelling in so great danger oft times For they thinking that it is light from Towns fall into bogs These 3. following use to appear at Sea Pliny l. 2. c. 37. saith That these lights are dangerous if they come alone and sink the ships and burn them if they fall to the bottoms of their Vessels but two are successeful and signs of a prosperous Voyage for they by their appâ—oach drive away say they that unhappy and threatning Helena Wherefore they assign that diety to Castor and Pollux and call upon them at Sea making them the tutelar Captains for their Ships Act. 28. c. 11. Cardan de subâ—ilitat l. 2. of the Star Helena writes thus The Star of Helena is almost of the same kind about the Mast of the Ship which falling will melt brazen Vessels a certain sign of shipwrack For it appears onely in great Tempests and cannot be driven into the
suffer Socrates to dispute too much because by that agitation of the mind he would grow hot Ciocompalon is a kind of Tree in Camalonga which sends forth only 4 or 5 branches from a long stalk the leaves are very great for the inhabitants weare them for a Cloke against the heat of the Sun and rayn In the top of the Tree it puts forth flowers like Bean flowers about 200 from whence grow fruit abundantly as big as ones hand breath It is a yearely Plant. It withers after it hath brought forth Coccus is the same with Tenga It is a Tree with a leaf like the Palme-tree they cover their houses with them for they make mats of them to serve for six months in China and Malabar Scalig. exerc 25. s. 13. It brings fruit in clusters as the Palme Tree doth each hath â—00 nuts When its comes forth there is water bred in it it is filled with it when it is perfect The end of this increase is the beginning of the Pith for it grows by the thickning of it The quantity is full three Cyathi It is very sweet When the Tree is come to the full growth in August they cut some of the boughs of it in the middle and leave the rest they cut off the top also a little They hang a cuâ— to each of them four great jugs are filled in one day It brings fruit that continually follow one the other it lives 30 or 40 yeares CHAP. XVII Of Doronicum Dragons Olive-honey Vipers Bugloss Eryngion Euphorhium DOronicum is Poyson that kills doggs suddenly Matthiolus gave some to his dogg and the dogg fawned on him all the time he lived in seven hours he died as of a falling sicknesse There is a 〈…〉 of Tree in the West Indies neere Carthagena the fruit whereof is perfectly like a Dragon with a long neck open mouth nostrills lifted up a long taile standing on its feet so that who sees it would think it to be a Dragon Monarel In Palmyra of Syria there runs forth oyle from a stock of a Tree that tasts sweet it is called Etaeo-meli Mathiol in l. 4. c. 73. It purgeth choler and crudities exhibited one sextarius of it with one Hemina of water They that take it grow stupid but they receive no harm if they be often rowsed that they may not sleep Dioscor l. 1. c. 32. Echion or Vipers Buglosse was found by one Alcibius Sleeping on the ground a Viper bit him Mathiol in l. 4. c. 25. When he rose up he pressed out the juyce oâ— the hearb with his teeth and drank it down the rest he laid to the wound and it cured him Nature hath made the hearb with hairs like Vipers that Men might know the use of it Eryngion if a Goat take it in the mouth the whole heard will stand still and cannot move till you take it out Plutarch in lib. quod maxinâ— cum princip disp si philos The smell of it passeth so quick that it spreads like fire to what is next and exerciseth its force upon it Suphorbium if we believe the Africans is a prickly Plant out of the root of it the fruit comes forth of a long forme like to Cucumbers somtimes two foot long when it is ripe it is pricked with an Iron and a clammy white liquâ—r comes forth of it which they let run into a bottle and they keep that Scalig exer 181. s. 2. It purgeth the belly but the patient will faint and sweat with a cold sweat Given the weight of two Oâ—boli it cures the dropsy it kills one if he take three drams weight For in 3 days it will corrode the Stomach and the Guts Mathiol in l. 3. c. 80. CHAP. XVIII Of Elaterium Hellebour Eupatorium Emitum and Fennel ELaterium lasts longest of all Physicks One had of it that was 200 yeares old The moysture is said to be the cause of it For though it be cut moyst and layd in the ashes yet for 50 yeares it will put out a Candle if it be put to it Theophil l. 9. c. 14. With the infusion of Hellebour in the midst of Winter when the cold is greatest many have been cured of a Quartane Ague Matthiolus ad l. 4. c. 146 Never saith he as I remember did we give our infusion to those had quartane Agues but at once or twice taking by Gods assistance they were cured By the smell of dryed Eupatorium venemous Creatures are driven away Hearts wounded are cured by eating this Matthiol ad loc cit c. 37. Emitus is a Tree in Trachimia if Serpents come neere and but touch it they dye Aelian l. 9. c. 27. Also Strabo saw one l. 15. that I will here mention it was like a Bay Tree beasts that tast of it grow mad some at the mouth and fall into an Epilopse In the Kingdome of Tombut which is the wilde of West Aethiopiaâ— Fennel grows so big that they make bowes of it Scalig. exerc 166. In Spain whilst it is green the Country people mowe down the stalks of it for firing Dalecamp ad Plin. l. 20 c. ult CHAP. XIX Of Fennel Gyant and the Fig-Tree FEnnel Gyant grows in hot Countries Out of the first shoots of it Shepherds take out a little pith like to the the yolk of an ege that is hard That wrapt in a wet paper and rosted under the embers and then sprinkled with Salt and Pepper tasts exceeding well and makes them busy Mathiol ad l. 3. c. 76. They are by nature of great antipathy to Lampreyes for if they but touch them they dye Plin. l. 20. c. 33. Also they are present Poyson to other Beasts yet very pleasant food for Asses The Indian Fig-Tree is wonderfull great Scaliger briefly describes it out of Theophrastus The Fig-Tree saith he beares small fruit it plants it self and is spread forth with vast boughs by the weight whereof they are so bended to the earth that in a yeares space they stick in and grow up with new branches round about their parents like to Arbouts so that seven Shepheards may summer under it being shaded and fenced about with the fence of the Tree It is pleasant to behold and from far it seems an arched circumference The upper boughs of it put forth very high and in abundance like a wood from the huge bulk of the Tree that many of them make a round of 60 paces and they will cast a shade two furlongs The broad leaves are like an Amazonian Target wherefore covering the fruit it will not let it grow It is very rare and no bigger than a beane Scalig. exerc 166. Moreover Carthage was destroyed by the Fig-Tree For Cato beareing a deadly â—ate against Carthage and being carefull to secure his posperity when he had cried out at every meeting of the Senate that Carthage must be destroyed he brought one day into the Court a early ripe Figg that was fetcht from Carthage shewing it to the Son a tours he asked them whence they thought
that Fig was taken from the Tree And when they all granted it was newly gathered he replied 3 dayes since was this pulled at Carthage so neere to our walls is the enemy They presently began the 3d Punick Warre wherein Carthage was rooted out In Hyrcania there are some that each of them will beare 260 Bushells Plin. l. 15. c. 18. CHAP. XX. Of the Ash Mushrooms and the Beech. THe Ash is an Enemy to Serpents none of them can â—ndure the shade of it though it be late at night Plin. l. 16. c. 13. Pliny saith he proved it that if a Serpent be compassed in with Ashwood and fire he will leap into the fire before he will passe over the Ash wood This is the great bounty of Nature that it flowers before the Serpents come forth nor do the leaves fall till the Serpents be gone to hide themselves Vessels made of the wood of it for use of meat and drink help the Splâ—â—â— and the Stone wonderfully Dom. Zean l. 1. pract At the waters 〈…〉 out of which fire breaks forth it did once prosper Pliny hist. l. 2. c. 107. Mushrooms groâ— so great in Namidia that they are thicker than Quindes In the Kingdome of Nanles the crust of the ground is thick and like Marble that being covered with earth a span deep and sprinkled with warm water in 4. dayes sends forth Mushromes Scalig. Exerc. 181. S. 1. It is of necessity that there be some seminary vertue out of whose bosome they may proceed for the water that is sprinkled on affords matter and nutriment and also a procatarctical cause Libav l. 1. Epist. Chym. 30. If they be boyled or the juice be pressed forth and poured at the roots of Trees especially Beech-Trees Mushroms will grow from thence in great abundance Sennert de cons. et disp Chym. c. 12. In the Northern parts under the Pole Beech-Trees are frequent of a magnetick vertue and the Mushroms that grow to them are changed into Loadstones saith Olaus l. 12. c. 1. CHAP. XXI Of Guaicum and Gentian GUaicum is of great vertue against the French-Pox In Italy at first they were fearful to drink it Bread and Raisins were prescribed with a moderate diet and to live 40 dayes in a dark Chamber and that so curiously that they admit not of the least Ayr Mathiol in l. 1. c. 3 The errour was observed afterwards and Hens flesh was allowed but not a drop of Wine Mathiolus was the first that tryed it with successe and others followed him Gentian called also Cruciata is the herb of S. Ladistaus a King The report is that the Tartars drove him out of Hungary and that he fled to Claudiopolis a City of Daâ—ia There he grew acquainted with a rich man and became his Godfather He helped him to drive out the Tartars They as they fled threw down moneys of Gold that they had plundered in the field of Aradium as a means to hinder those that pursued them The King pray'd unto God that they might be changed into stones and it was so Hence it is that there are so many stones there After this Hungary being afflicted with a grievous Plague He obtain'd of God that what plant an Arrow shot into the Ayr should fall down upon might be a remedy for that disease It fell upon Cruciata and by the use of that the Plague was driven out of that Country Camerar Centur. 3. Memorab s. 23. CHAP. XXII Of Broom Ginger and St. Johns-wort IN stony and sandy grounds 3. foot from Broom one moneth before and after the Calends of June there is a kind of Broomrape found that is a cubit high if this be bruised and the juice pressed forth which is like to clear wine and be kept in a glasse bottle stopt all the year it is an excellent remedy against the Plague Ginger is a root that creeps along with knots and joynts the leaves are like reed leaves that wax green anew twice or thrice a year Mathiol l. 2. c. 154. There is some difference in the taste when it is dug forth before its time to be ripe The fit time to gather it is when the root growes dry otherwise it is subject to Worms and rottennesse St. Johns-Wort both feed and flower is wonderful to heal all wounds besides those in the head Some write that the Devils hate it so much that the very smell of it drives them away I think this superstitious The same is reported of Pellitary especially for green wounds If it be bruised green and bound to a wound and taken off the third day there will need no other Medicament Mathiol in l. 4. c. 81. CHAP. XXIII Of Elecampane Turnsole and Hiuoa ELecampane is a yearly Plant that growes higher than a man Sometimes 24 foot in height it growes up in 6. moneths after the seed is sown on the top of the stalk there growes a head like an Artichoke but it is rounder and broader and it extends it self with a flower as big as a great Dish Bauhin ad lib. 4. Dioscor c. 182. Sometimes the diameter of the dish is more than a foot and half and it is compassed about with long leaves of a golden colour or as it were Sun-beams and the plain of it in the middle is purple colour The seed is disposed of in the holes of the dish it hath a black rind and sweet substance within so great is the abundance of it that sometimes you shall find above a thousand in one dish Some there are that take the tender stalks of the leaves and scraping away the Down they boyl them on a grid-iron and season them with Salt Oyl and Spices and they are better tasted than Artichokes It is a wonder that it turns with the Sun East and West for when the Sun riseth as if it did adore the Sun it bows down the head and it riseth with it alwaies pointing toward the Sun and opening it self very much at the root of it till the Sun sets Turnsole kills Pismires if you stop their holes with it If a Scorpions hole be compassed about with the juice of it he will never come forth but if you put in the herb he dies Mathiol ad l. 4. c. 186. Hiuca is as great as a mans thigh it goes about with the Sun though it be a clowdy day and at night it is contracted as sad for the Suns absence Plin. l. 22. c. 21. They break it into fine meal by rubbing it with Pumex stones or whetstones then they put it into an Hippocras bag and pour water to it and presse forth the juice The Liquor is deadly but the meal that is left is set in the Sun as they do Sugar-Candy when the meal is dry they temper it with water and make bread of it Scalig. Exâ—rc 153. l. 8. CHAP. XXIV Of Impia Juniper and Glasse-wort IMpia is thought to be a plant that no Creature will taste of and from thence it hath its name yet bruised
being kept 3. years in a Cage and fed if they can find opportunity they will flie away There is such plenty of the wild ones that they cover all the waters but they live no where but in warm Countries In the Winter that they may not be Frozen in by an instinct of nature they swim circularly and on one side they keep the waters open and cry so lowd that they may be heard When the cold grows too violent they flye aloft to the Sea Olaus l. 19. c. 6. The Hollanders brought the Bird Emme from Java it is twice as great as a Swan black and with black wings But out of two originalls there proceed two more as it is with the Ostrich It wants wings and a tongue on the top of the head it hath a buckler as hard as a Tortesse-shell like a Target It would swallow Apples as big as ones fist and lumps of Ice also burning Coles and all without any hurt Aldrovand CHAP. VII Of Barnacles THere is a bird in Britanny that the English call Barnacles and Brant Geese the Scotch call them Clakguse It is lesse than a wild Goose the breast is somwhat black the rest Asâ—-colour It flies as wild Geese do cries and haunts Lakes and spoiles the Corne. The learned question the original of it very much For some say it breeds from rotten wood some from Apples some of fruit that is like to heaps of leaves which when at the time appointed it falls into the water that is under it it revives and becomes a living Creature It grows in the Isle Pomonia in Scotland toward the North. And of this opinion is Isidore Alexander ab Alexandro Olaus Magnus Gesner Boetius and others contrarily Albertus and those that are of his mind hold that they breed by copulation The Hollanders from their own experience in Greenland affirm they found some Barnacles sitting on egs and had young ones But these things may agree together for things bred of corruption may have eggs and that seems also most clear that Boetius hath written concerning them That every man may perceive they are not fabulous I shall set it down Now it remains that we speak of those Geese which they call Clak-Geese and which commonly they think amisse to be bred upon Trees in these Islands of which we were for a long time very inquisitive and have found by experience For I think the Sea between is the greater cause of their generation than any thing else For things are bred in the Sea variously as we have observed For if you throw wood into the Sea in time Worms breed in it that by degrees have a head feet wings and lastly feathers Lastly they are as great as Geese when they are full grown they flye upward as other birds do using their wings to carry them through the ayre which is as clear as day and was seen in the yeare from the Virgins conception 1490 Many looking on For when some of this wood was carried by the Waves to the Castle Pethschlâ—ge in great quantity they that first espied it wondred and ran to the Governour and tell him this strange news The Governour came and bid them Saw the Log in sunder then they saw an infinite sort of living Creatures that were partly Worms some not formed others were and were partly birds and some of them were callow some had feathers Wondring at the miracle at the Governours command they carried that Log into the Church of St. Andrew at Tira where it yet remaines full of Worm holes as it was The like to this two yeares after was brought into Tham by the tide to Bruthe Castle many ran to see it which again two yeares after at Leith in the Harbour all Edenburgh came to see For a great ship that had the name and the ensigne of Christopher when it had been 3 whole yeares at Anchor in one of the Hebrides was brought back hither and drawn on land that part of it that was alwaies under the Sea had the beames eaten through and was full of Worms of this kind partly unformed not yet like birds and partly those that were perfect Birds But it may be some man will cavill at it and say that there is such a vertue in the boughs and stocks of Trees that grow in those Islands and that the Christopher it self was made of the wood growing in those Hebrides wherefore I shall willingly declare what I saw 7 yeares since Alexander Gallovidianus Pastor of the Church of Kilâ—y a man besides his great integrity incomparable for his care in study of wonders when he had pull'd forth some Sea weeds from the stalks and boughs and likewise from the root that grew up to the top where they joynd he perceived some shell fish-breed he frighted with the novelty of the matter presently opened them to know farther and then he wondred far more than before For he saw no flesh shut up in the shells but which is wonderful a bird Wherefore he ran presently to me whom he a long time knew desirous to know such new things and shew'd it me who was not more astonished at the sight of it as I rejoyced at the occasion to see a thing so rare and unheard of By this I think it is evident enough that these are not the seeds of breeding of Birds in fruits of roots of Trees but in the Sea it self which Virgil and Homer rightly term the Father of all things But because they saw that come to passe vvhen the Apples fell from the Trees that grevv on the shore into the vvaters that by continuance of time Birds appeared in them they vvere of that opinion that they believed the Apples vvere turned into Birds c. Thus far Boetius Reader thou may'st judge of it for my part I admire at Gods providence and at the end of this Classis by vvay of Appendix I shall add some thing out of the discourse of Majerus concerning the Tree-Bird CHAP. VIII Of the Owl and Catarrhacta THe Owl builds in the highest Rocks that sometimes it is hard to find her eggs for its young Pliny saith comes forth by the tail out of the egg because the eggs being reversed by weight of their heads brings the hinder part to be fostered by the dam. It is said That in Churches she drinks up the oyl she not onely kills Birds but Hares also A Duck hath been found in one cut open The brain of it with Goose-grease doth wonderfully joyn wounds The Catarrhacta hath a wonderful way of sitting on her eggs if that be true that Oppianus hath written She layes Sea-weed upon her eggs on a rock and so leaves them open to the winds Hence the male catcheth those eggs he thinks sit to breed the males and the female doth the like for the females then they carry them up on high with their Talons and so let them fall into the Sea doing this often they grow hot by motion and the young ones are
principall parts and the heart The Gyrsaulcons are of divers kinds They are some white found in Moscovy Norway Ireland They are bold If one of them be let fly at five Cranes he will follow them all till he have killed them The food of it reserved in its Cave it will take in order She never wets her self with water but onely with sand She loves the cold so well that she will alwayes delight to stand upon ice or upon a cold stone sometimes untaught she is sold for 50 Nobles There is a Faulcon called Ruâ—eus because the spots that are white in the rest are red and black in this kind yet they seem not to be so but when she stretcheth forth her wings The cause of this rednesse is a feeble colour infused into the superficies of the body and inflaming the smoaky moysture which is put forth to breed the feathers CHAP. XVII Of a Hen and Cock HEns in the Kingdom of Senega are thrice greater than ours there are many near to Thessalonica some lay two eggs that is with two yolks which are parted by a partition that they may not be confounded Aristot. in mirabil reports that some have laid â—â— double ones and to have hatcht them one chicken was greater than another and at last it became a Monster In Macedonia there was one Hen which once laid 18 eggs and hatcht two young chickens at once saith Pierius l. 24. Hieroglyph But their eggs as also dâ—uer birds eggs are first conceived above where the partition is where first it is seen to be faint and white as Aristot. writes than red and bloody and as it increaseth it becomes all yellow but as it more increaseth it is distinguished so that the yellow part is inward and the white goes outwardly about it when it is perfect it is finished and comes forth of the shell soft at first hatching but presently it growes hard The place of its perfection is the Matrix it self into which they fall Aldrovand l. 14. Ornithol Some report also that a Cock layes an egge when he is 9. or 14. years old and they suppose it proceeds from seed putrified or ill humours concurring together It is thought to be round and to be laid about the rising of the Dog-star For the expulsive faculty being then weak is helped in an aged Cock by the outward heat With Ferrans Imperatus an Apothecary one was seen that was long fashioned Aldrovand The Cocks are wonderful falacious for they will tread the Hens 50 times a day and they have been seen to ejaculate their seed when they but saw the Hen or heard her note Aelian There was an old Law as Plutarch saith in Libro Num bruta ratione careant That if one Cock trod another he should be burnt alive When he finds he is too full of blood he will scratch his comb till he fetch blood All men know he Crowes in the morning Some say the cause is the Love he hath to the Sun some to his venery others to his desire of meat The Mahumetans say they answer a Cock that crowes in heaven Keckerm in Physicis The first reason seems something for he will crow when he is full also and after copulation also he crowes when the Hen is present but when he is gelt he crowes no more Plin. Yet l. 29. c. 4. he saith That a circle of Vine-twigs tied about his neck he will not sing Albertus saith if his head and forehead be anointed with oyl He is at great Amity with the Kings-Fisher that if they be both in the same house and the Kings-Fisher dye the Cock will dye with hunger They that have fed on Fox flesh boyl'd are free for two moneths from their Treachery Boetius As for a Dung-hill Cock Gesner saith he found it in a German Manuscript that a Noble-man having tryed all remedies for pains of the Collick and finding none at length he drank a small cup of Capons-grease unsalted boyl'd in water But saith he you must drink the fat that swims on the top as hot as you can CHAP. XVIII Of the Crane and the Woodwall THe Cranes travell all over the World Yet Aldrovandus saith he scarce believes that they will live willingly in all Countries l. 20. The Aspera arteria of them is set into the flesh on both sides at the Breast-bone whence you may hear a Crane afar off They travel but no time is set yet how swiftly they fly is manifest by the example of Cyrus who was said so to have disposed of his Posts at certain stages that when one was weary another should proceed night and day that they out-went the Cranes that flew When they fly they keep a triangular sharp angled figure that they may the easier pierce through the Ayr that is against them That Crane that gathers the rest together will correct them as Isidorus saith When one is hoarse another succeeds When they light upon the Earth to feed the Captain of them holds up his head to keep watch for the rest and they feed securely Before they take rest they appoint another Sentinel who may stand and ward with his neck stretched forth whilest the rest are asleep with their heads under their wings and standing upon one leg The Captain goes about the Camp and if there be any danger he â—laries Lest they should sleep too soundly they stand upon one foot and hold a stone in the other above ground that if at any time being weary they should be oppressed with sleep the stone falling might awaken them They love their young ones so much that they will fight whether shall give them their breeding Albertus saw a maleâ—Crane cast down a female and kill her giving her eleven wounds with his bill because she had drawn away his young ones from following of him This fell out at Colen where tame Cranes use to breed Those are fables that men relate of the Battels between the Pigmies and the Cranes The Woodwall hangs up her nest on the boughs like a Cup that no four-footed beast can come at it The nest is like to the fashion of a Rams-stones Albert. Magn. Some say there is Silk â—ound in it and that rhe nest is built not far from the water made of moss and the cords it hangs by are horse hairs She leaves Italy when Arcturus ariseth As she hangs down she sleeps upon her feet hoping for more safety thereby Plin. l. 10. c. 32. When she comes into Germany there is great hopes that Winter for Snow and Frost is gone CHAP. XIX Of the Chough IT is thought that the Choughs feed on Locusts besides Corn because the Inhabitants of the Island Lemnos were reported to worship these birds because they flew to destroy the Locusts Plin. l. 10. c. 29. The males will rather lose their lives than part with their females They fly at the eyes of him that holds them The reason is rendred by Nicolaus Leonicus because the eyes are shining and very
Wild Goat call'd Oryx and the Panther or Leopard PLiny reckons Oryx amongst wild Goats When the Moon comes to the East it looks upon it and cryes and men say that for hate thereof it will digge up the ground with its forefeet and will set the very balls of the eyes to the ground and cast it up Some think it doth the same when the Sun riseth what place soever in the desart it finds water in it will trouble it by drinking at it and stirs the mud and throwes dust into it that it may not be fit to drink The Panther smells so sweet that it will allure all the wild beasts but the frowning countenance it hath frights them wherefore he hides his head and so they come and are caught In the right shoulder they have a mark like to the Moon and as that increaseth this increaseth and decreaseth Albert. It breeds but once in the life-time if we credit the Author of the Book of naturall things When the young ones are grown in the Mothers belly they will not tarry but tear out their passage she with pain is delivered of them and so can never after conceive again the parts being corrupted where the seed should stay Demetrius Physicus writes of it that one of them lay in the way waiting for a man and suddenly appeared to him he was frighted and began to run away but the wild beast came and tumbled before him that was frighted and was grieved at it Which also may be understood of a Panther For she had littâ—red and her Whelps were fallen into a pit First therefore he had cause to pity her and not to be afraid and next to take care and he was secure as he understood the cause of her grief and followed her she gently laying her claws and drawing him by the garments and he had his life for a reward for taking out her whelps and she having got her young ones again went along with him and guarded him out of the desart and she was jocant and merry that it might easily appear how gratefull she was and not to wrong him for his good deeds which is a rare thing in a Man They love wine and when they are drunk they are catcht The Holy Ghost likeneth Alexander the Great who founded the Graecian Monarchy to the Leopard You shall see the application in Cl Domino Conrado Grasero our Master in his Isagogue of Universal History a Work never can be enough commended CHAP. XXXI Of the Frog FRogs couple in the Spring and lay their spawn in the spring of the year following in the middle of it the frog lieth hid the Frogs being come forth shew their great heads Albertus At Lutavia they catch Bees when they come to drink at the water it is observed that they will eat a dead mole Albert. In August their mouth is so shut that they can neither eat nor drink nor cry and you can hardly open it with your hand or with a stick lib. de nat rer Their young ones are destroyed by the leaves of Mullens or Nut-leaves cast into the water Aelian If a candle lighted be set on the bank they will leave croking African in Geopont Their spawn is first found in March wash your hands in it and it will cure the Itch. Gesner saith it will cure the worms whereof a fellon is a kind if you lay it on your fingers The Egyptian Frogs when they light upon a water-Snake will take a reed in their mouthes and so they cannot be devoured Gillius A Toad burned will breed again of his own ashes But in Dariene a Province of the New World they breed presently from the drops that fall from their slaves hands whilest they water the pavements Martyr changeth them in Summer into Fleas he ascribeth it to the filthy muddy Ayr. If you beat him with a wand he will first cast forth his venom by his legs and then he sweats some drops like milk Frederick Duke of Saxony gave one of them to hold till it grew hot it was first thrust through with a woodden spit dryed in the shade and wrapt in Sarsnet and this was his remedy to stâ—nch blood Gesner makes the reason to be Cold. Borax is a kind of Toad especially of a brown colour and in hot Countries is of a cubital magnitude and sometimes carries its young on its back In the forehead of this Toad is the stone found sometimes it is white sometimes brown which is best if it have a yellow spot in the middle Some say it is onely a bone some say it is bred of that bird-limy froth which Toads meeting together in Spring-time do breathe into the forehead of one of the chief of them Gesner l. 2. de Oviparis he cannot believe that it is a stone He that would hear more of Frogs shall â—ind it in the books of Libavius his Battrachiorum if he reads them CHAP. XXXII Of Rangifer and Rhinoceros RAngifer breeds in the North specially in Norway and Swethland it is like a Hart but bigger in body and exceeding strong He â—ath three ranks of horns on his head so that in each there are two and his head seems to be set about with twigs Of these two are greater than the rest when they come to perfection they are five cubitâ— and have 25 branches in them Albertus They are milked and will go 30 miles a day Olaus Rhinoceros is a Beast as big as an Elephant he hath one horn in his nose and from thence he hath his name It is moderately bent and so sharp that is will pierce stones and Iron Aelian His skin is very thick with skaly crusts in colour and figure like a Tortoisse shell It is so fast that a Dart can hardly enter it He is an Elephants enemy when he fights with him he whets his horn on a stone then putting his horn under the Elephants belly where it is softest he rends him He that will see examples let him read Camerarius in subcisivis horis CHAP. XXXIII Of divers Serpents IN the Province of Caraia under the King of Tartaria some Serpents are ten yards long and ten hands broad some want fore-feet but have clawes in the room of them Their eyes are as great as two small loaves They are wonderfull good in Physick For one bit by a mad dog if he drink but a penny weight presently he will be suddenly cured and a woman in labour if she taste never so little thereof will be delivered immediately Paul Venetus Americus Vespatius saw some in the Indies that men did eat They were as big as Kids and a yard and half long their feet were long armed with strong claws their skin was of divers colours and nose like a Serpent From the ears to the end of the tail a certain bristle went quite through the back that you would think they were Serpents indeed Calecut breeds the like so great as Boars and sometimes with greater heads four feet no venom yet they
there breaks forth a little living creature so soon as the fruit is ripe There are Worms found in the gnats that tied to the neck will retain the birth they must be taken off before delivery can be In the leaves of Night-shade there is a Worm that is of a green and yellow colour that hath a Horn in the forehead as long as ones finger In the Asphodil Worms breed that become flies in the fashion of flowers for when the stalk fades and withers they eat the cover they are in and fly out you shall find no fewer insects observable in living creatures Mans excrements are known sufficiently especially when the Sun shines on the excrements of beggerly people We know that in Aegypt Worms are presently bred in Mens legs In a Carp the first year a black Worm is bred neer his gills River perches breed as it were 12 pearls so great as tares and each of them hath in it a slender long round worm Lastly it is said that in Bee-hives a worm is bred As for the parts Flies have open wings Beetles have sheath wings some have their belly joyn'd to their mouth and the right Intestin revolved from that Those that leap have either their hinder legs longer or else they lean upon their tails bended backwards As for their generation some are bred from animals of the same kind some do generate but not of their own kind but only Worms and those not from living creatures but from putrefaction of moysture and drynesse Amongst those that couple the females are commonly the biggest the males have no feminal passages nor do they thrust in their member into the females but the females into them by the lower part This I have spoken more largely of bloodlesse creatures because I know that their external habit hath made them contemptible Wherefore the mind of man ought to be rouzed up contemplate their worth by the majesty of the internal nature of them and to verse it self therein CHAP. II. Concerning Bees IN Lithuaniâ— and Podolia there is an infinite company of Bees that the hollow parts of the earth that are dry are filled with honey Olaus Magnus saith That great Bears have fallen in and been drown'd The fruitfulnesse of the fields causeth the plenty of them the sweet smells the abundance of flowers the pleasant taste of them Adde to this the mighty Woods of Pine-Trees which are alwaies green and keep the place warm with high tops and large boughs in Summer they shade the Bees and in Winter they hide themselves in the coverings of the Pines Leo. Nolan in Problem Solinus saith That Scotland breeds none but I know that is false for I saw some in my Host's Garden at St. Andrews and sometimes I have been much delighted with them In Africa they are rare If you ask the cause you shall find it is the want of those things that I spake of in Sarmatia In some parts of Egypt if you bury a Bull to his horns Bees in time will breed from it from its putrefaction If therefore you would breed Bees so read Florentinus He bids you as Caesar Constantinus relates make you a house ten cubits high and ten cubits broad and the other sides equal thereunto let there be but one place of entring and four windows on each side one drive an Ox that is fleshy and 30 moneths old into this place he must be very fat cause many young men to stand round about him and beat him sorely and kill him with Clubs breaking his very horns and bones yet they must take great heed that no blood follow For the Bees are not bred of blood and when they strike him first let not them run violently upon him Then presently stop all passages in the Ox with clean pure napkins dipt in pitch as the mouth the nostrills the eyes and all parts Nature hath made for Evacuation Then laying a great deal of Thyme under and the Ox upon it let them come forth of the house and presently shut the door and the windows and daub them with Lime that neither Ayr nor wind may enter or come forth but the third week you must set the house wide open and let in the light and the cold Ayr unlesse it be on that side where the wind blowes very strong For if it fall so out you must stop that side the wind blowes strongly on and daub it with clay The eleventh day after when you open it you shall find Bees hanging abundantly in clusters together and of the Ox that is left you shall find nothing but his horns his bones and his hair They say the Kings are bred of his brain the common Bees of his flesh Also the King is bred of the spinall marrow but it is said that those which breed of the brain are the best for strength beauty and magnitude From hence you shall know the first change and transformation of flesh into living Creatures and as it were a conception and generation thus For opening the place small white creatures like to one another and not yet perfect nor yet living will appear in great numbers about the Ox all immoveable but augmenting by degrees You shall see also the excrescence of their wings yet unjoynted and you shall see Bees in their proper colour gathering together and flying about the King but with small short wings trembling for want of using to fly and the weaknesse of their limbs They will come continually flying violently against the windows for the desire of light But it is best to open and shut the windows every other day as we said For it is to be feared that they will change the nature of Bees or else be stifled for want of Ayr. If a wing of them or the sting be pull'd off it can never grow again for because this is fastned to the Intestine it pulls that out also and so they die They have a King who is so much honoured by them that he never goes forth but they all attend him if he â—rre in flying they are quick-sented to find him out and when he cannot fly they carry him Aristotle They are so chaste that they will sting those that smell of copulation and they stall themselves in Virgins Sepulchres Plutarch For Augustinus whose sirname was Gallus saith That at Verona they crept into the Sepulchre of two sisters that were Virgins they were the Daughters of that famous Lawyer Bartholomaeus Vitalis they went in by the chinks of the wall next an Orchard they made abundance of combs in the dead bodies of them both The matter two years after their burial was made manifest by the fall of thunder without any hurt to the carcases of the Bees and combs There were some found also in the Tomb of Hippocrates and it is constantly avouched that the honey of them anointed on little blisters of Childrens mouths by the Sepulchre did miraculously cure them The Inhabitants of the Country of Cuma do feed on them If thou
for it had not put off the whole skin but onely the latter part which was next it in the case The carcasse lay crooked so that the forefeet in the breast touched almost the first pair of the hinder feet For here between the first conjugation of the hinder feet and the second the skin was broken So that the Nymph was covered with her former skin wherein was her head and breast with 6. feet and part of her belly with the two first The skin and the Aurelia being removed within there lay a perfect male young silk-worm and it had been living as appeared for that striving to come forth two dayes before I made Infection he had wet the case with his moysture and the 19 of July when I perfectly freed him he shew'd clear signs of motion in his belly and feet The cause why he could not clear himself and come forth was found in the close sticking of the Silk-worm's skull and of the fore-feet the coat being fastned to it by nature Therefore though in the back of the Thorax he had made a gap both in the Aurelia and the cast skin yet could he not pull forth his head and feet so he fainted by degrees Here I observed the policy of Nature For when in putting off the cast skin the forefeet are plucked off and the hinder feet depart also yet there are prints left under which afterwards others grow up And the sins of the wings were inserted into the holes of the old silk-worm and the whole head of the new silk-worm with the horns of the head were shut in a covering This was the male The Female quite dead seemed yet more monstrous The Silk-work being finished which was a great silk case and as long as two joynts of ones little finger but the males was thinner a great deal The silk-worm strove to cast off the skin that was white light and shining within side but outwardly hairy and yellowish and he had drawn forth his whole back that bunched forth extreamly his foreparts being contracted circularly but he could not free himself of the little mouth that stuck too fast Wherefore there you might see the head of the cast skin the crown of the Nympha and of the Necydalus joyn'd together which conjunction kept the skin upon the belly that it could not be totally cast off and drawn forth Wherefore it stuck so with the point of the belly as if it were shut into a sack and bound about the head but a hole being made on the backside it might have drawn forth the back but it would yet have stuck by the head and fundament so lying crooked and dead The cast skin was thus Out of this also stuck forth the Aurelia as concerning the upper part Again out of the Aurelia almost the entire young Silk-worm had wrested it self breaking the shell on the back-side and in the wonted place but the head stuck fast not to be pull'd asunder as also the outmost parts of the belly In the belly put forth was seen a great number of yellow eggs For the female presently within the Aurelia perfects her Eggs in her matrix but they are unfruitfull till the male besprinkled them I saw one lay eggs that had coupled with no male Hence it was clear how Nature puts off the old skin with the form of it first and then passeth into a Nymph the Aurelia whereof being again put off out comes the Necydalus This was a triple formed Monster worthy to contemplate of In this also you might observe the Aurelia on that part the wings were marked to be black and dark as if it had been in hot smoke then how â—uch the female Necydalus had striven to come forth was plain by the eyes that stuck out in the distances of the skaly circles Sometimes the circles of the belly stick together by contiguitie a thin skin coming between them But in this the circles were so disjoynted that the girdle of the juncture was larger than the circle The top of the belly of the cast skin and of the Aurelia were transparent against the light so that you might exactly discover all about it The end of the Necydalus came as far as the middle capacity of the Aurelia the Necydalus was hairy about the back though imperfectly as also the wings were not yet of their full bignesse And thus much for Monsters When the Necydalus is lusty it is full of life chiefly in the breast For when the head and tail are cut off it will move the wings strongly and run with its feet and that till the next day or longer The female being cut in the belly shews her matrix full of Eggs that when 400 are laid there are more behind It seemed to be wrapped in a very thin coat There appeared also some nervous pipes like the passages of the guts In the middle of the belly a little bladder was seen containing an earthy juyce that was yellow or russet colour This bladder of it self had a continual systole and diastole I thought the principle of life was there as in the heart About the neck of the matrix there was a double white nervous knot like to the bladder of animals it was hard and shining and that within the belly I shall speak of the dug-like processions afterwards There was one little knot that was bigger and another that was lesse The neck of the matrix is like to a pipe to which being full of juice there are joyn'd without on both sides two yellow knots like to brests About the neck there is a circle with horny reins that are broad and blunter on the top with which she takes hold of the genital of the male The breast is fleshy The head is membranous and horny The horns triangular with a white back sticking up but the wings are let down on both sides to make the Triangle If you cut them off whilest they are alive a kind of transparent juice comes forth of the back as out of a pin-feather and there appears a hole within Thus I found the female which I opened whilest she was living When she was dead there was nothing found in her belly but a notable cavity of her belly near to her breast and then that vital humour in the bladder though it now was no longer living after that the reliques of the matrix that was emptied which were nervous and membranous The upper parts of the male agree with the female If you opâ—n his belly you shall find much red matter within and besides that a tallow matter full of nerves to which the genital passage is fastned He hath a peculiar genital wanting other things that belong to the female The History of it is this Under the tail environed with a long Down there is a notable hole under a membranous circle as hard as horn that is divided as it were into two teeth In the middle of this compasse there is the three forked neck of the genital part
to intreat and leaping in the nets strive to free themselves Oviedus and Plutarch say that with their sharp backs they will cut the line and free their captive fellowes The Dace of Phalera is so soft and fat a fish that if it be held long in the hand it will melt or if many of them be carried in Ships they will drop fat which is gathered to make Candles with Apitius as Suidas reports set the pictures of these Fishes with Rape roots cut into long and slender pieces boyl'd with oyl and strewed with pepper and salt before Nicomedes the King of Bithynia CHAP. II. Of the Eele ALl know that Eeles are found in many fresh Waters yet Nauclerus writes That in the Danube there are none but in the Rhein there are Albertus makes the cold of Danubius to be the cause thereof and this proceeds because it runs before the mouth of the Alps from West to East and receives the greatest part of its water from thence These onely contrary to other fishes do not flote being dead Pliny The reason is given by Aristotle from the small belly it hath and little fat The swimming of Lampreys Congers and Muraenas that abound with fat confirm this to be true They are so lusty that being devoured whole by a Cormorant they will come forth of his guts nine times one after another and when they are grown weak then he retains them Gesner Held in a mans bosome especially great eels will twist about a mans neck and choke him Cardanus On the Land they dye if the Sun shine on them otherwise very hardly as you may see them living when their skin is pull'd off Athenaeus Aelianus and Plutarch do testifie that in Arethusa of Chalcidon there are tame ones adorned with ear-rings of gold and silver that will take their meat by hand Nymphodorus reports the same of the River Elorus CHAP. III. Of the Whale and the Barbel THe Whale is the greatest and chief of all Fishes Pliny calls this the greatest creature in the Indian Sea which was four Acres in bignesse Massarius interprets this to be 960 foot long Nearchus saith that there are Whales of 23 paces in length and reports that in the Island before Euphrates he saw a Whale cast forth of the Sea that was 150 cubits That Whale which was taken in the Scald ten miles from Antwerp Anno 1577 on the second day of July was of a blackish blew colour he had a spout on his head wherewith he belched up water with great force he was 58 foot long and 16 foot high his tail was 14 foot broad from his Eye to the top of his nose the distance was 16 foot His lower chap was 6 foot of each side armed with 25 Teeth and there were as many holes in the upper chap where there were no teeth yet so many might have stood there The longest of his Teeth was not above 6 thumbs long A Whale not long since was taken at Sceveling a Village near the Hague in Holland was 60 foot long His head was about 3. cubits long I saw him there Platina observes that the Barbels eyes are venomous chiefly in May. Antonius Gazius found it so For when he had eaten but two bits thereof at Supper time his belly was so inflated that he looked as pale as ashes he was distemper'd all over at last he fell into the cholerick passion Nor did these symptomes abate â—ill the eyes were voided upward and downvvard CHAP. IV. Of the Carp the Clupaea and the Conger THe Carp saith Gesner hath a little white hard stone in his head near his tongue and in the middle of his head a thick substance like to a heart that is flexible while it is new but afterwards it grows hard Sometimes it is found 20 pound weight Jovius saith That there was one found in the River Latium two hundred pound weight When the Female finds her self great with young when the time of bringing forth is past by moving her mouth she rouseth the male who casts on his milt and then she bringeth forth In Polonia broad Carps being put into a fish-pond by one when the waters were frozen though he sought them diligently he could not find them when the Spring came and the waters were thawed they all appeared Gesner Clupaea is a great fish In Sagona a River in France when the Moon increaseth it is white but black when it decreaseth When the body is but a little augmented it is destroy'd by its own prickles In the head of it there is found a stone like a barley corn which when the Moon decreaseth some think it will cure the quartan Ague if it be bound to the left side Calisthenes Sybarita citante Stobaeo Congers contain their off-spring within them but it is not equally so in all places nor doth their increase appear in a fat grosse matrix but it is contain'd in it in a long rank as in Serpents which is manifest by putting it into the fire For the fat consumes but the eggs crackle and they leap forth Aristotle 6. Hist. c. 17. CHAP. V. Of the Dogg-fish THe men of Nicea saith Gellius took a Dogg-fish that weighed 4000 pound a whole man was found in the belly of it Those of Massilia found a man in Armour Rondeletius saw oâ—e on the shore at Xanton the mouth and throat were so wide that they would take in a fat man Bellonius saith that each side of the mouth had 36 teeth wherefore some think the Prophet Jonas was swallowed by this fish and that this is that they call the Whale it being so vast a creature The same Bellonius writes that this Fish at divers times brings forth 6 or 8 young ones and somtimes more each of a foot long perfect with all their parts and oft times the young one coming forth there are eggs yet raw in the matrix and some hatcht lying in the upper part toward the midriff and some of them are contained in the right turning of the matrix some in the left In her Whelps this is chiefly wonderfull that they were covered with no secondine and they are fed from some part of the Navell that hath Veins For since saith he she doth not put forth her eggs and they are tied by certaine bands to the matrix they seem to need no other coat than the Amnios whereby the Whelp being now formed and by a chink in the sternon that passeth between the fins that are toward the gills it receiveth nourishment from the matrix by a band or the middle of it that is so slender as a Lute string But this nutriment by that slender string is carried into a little bag which you would say were the stomach which is alwaies full of it like to the yolk of an egge the position of it is in the middle of the belly and under the two laps of the Liver And that this is true if you cut a Whelp taken out of the dams belly through the
belly you shall find the true stomack of it to be alwaies empty For it takes and devours nothing by the mouth But you shall see the right intestine to swell with wan colour'd excrements If you take the young Whelp alive out of the dams belly and do not hurt him but cast him into the water you shall see him to live and swim presently Rondeletius observed the eggs to stick in the middle of the matrix toward the back bone and when they increase they are translated into both the Sinus of the matrix The forme of the eggs is like to pillows we sleep upon under our heads out of the corners there hang long and slender passages which Aristotle calls hairy pores and they are rowled up like Vine tendrels if you stretch them out at length they are two cubits long When the shell breaks the young ones come forth CHAP. VI. Of Dracunculus DRacunculus is a fish with a great head a compacted nose sticking forth a little mouth without any teeth without any opening at the gils but in the place of this above the head there is a hole on both sides wherewith it takes in and puts forth water It hath great eyes set above the head the head-bone ends at the prickles that tend to the tayl The Fins are exceeding long considering the body partly Silver part Gold colour'd Those about the Gills are Gold-coloured and Silver colour'd in the root These that are in the lower part and next to the mouth are longer than those that are next to the gils On the back two stand up the first is small Gold colour'd distinguished with Siver lines the latter is very great on the middle of the back not much unlike to butterflies wings and is made of five bones like to ears of Barley and a membrane The former bones of radii are the longer the hinder are the shorter contrary to what it is in the membrane which being as it were woven between all the distances of those radii increaseth by degrees The same also is divers for it is distinguished with Silver lines set between two black lines This is hid in the middle hollow of the back as in a sheath There is also another Golden colour'd membrane from the tail to the Podex excepting the fringes that are black CHAP. VII Of the Dolphin Exocaetus and the Fiatola THe Dolphins see so exactly that they will see a fish hid in a hole Oppianus They are so swift that Bellonius observed one of them to swim faster than a ship could run under sayle before the wind that blew strongly Some make their Fins to be the cause of it others their light body The famous Baudarcius thinks the membrane between their foreyards being extended serves them for sails They love one the other so well that one being taken at Caria and wounded a great multitude of them came to the Haven and departed again when he was set free When the Marriners whistle they will stay the longer about the ship but when a tempest riseth the credulous Greeks say if any man be in the ship that hath killed a Dolphin they will all flock thither to be revenged When then play on the calme Sea they foreshew which way the wind will blow and when they cast up water the Sea being troubled they foreshew a calme Plin. l. 8. c. 35. Thomas thinks that exhalations rising from the bottom of the Sea when a storm is at hand in Winter is the cause of it and he thinks that the Dolphins feel heat thereby and so break forth the oftner But since more fishes also perceive a tempest coming Rondeletius thinks that they are affected in the water with the motion of the ayre as those that are sick are wont to be when the South wind begins to blow Exocaetus lives long on the dry land The cause is the plenty of ayr which being he doth not draw it in too largely he is not choked by it Hence it is that an Eele will live a long time under ground Rondelet Fiatola is a broad plain fish with a taile like to a half Moon a fleshy tongue contrary to all other fish he hath no sins under his belly and he is wholly without them His Liver hath but one lap without any Gall his stomach is made like the Letter V the lower part of it ends in a point and there are so many Appendixes of hairs unto it that they cannot be numbred CHAP. VIII Of Glanis and Glaucus WRiters report of Glanis that it is a mighty and terrible fish especially in the River Tissa that runs into the Danube Hee riseth so boldly that he will not spare a Man It is publikely said in Hungaria that there was found in the belly of one a hand with rings upon it and peices of a Boy that swam in the Danube that was devoured by it Comes Martinengus Gesner saith he heard it of a learned Hungarian that the same was taken in the River Tissa it was 7 or 8 cubits long and was carried in a Cart. This had layn hid in the River 16 yeares neere the Kitchin of a Noble man at last it was caught with a hook when it had young ones to look to when she found her self taken she leaped forth the fishers ran after her two miles at last they wearied and took her and carried her to a Town called Nadlac There was in her belly a Mans head with his right hand and three Gold Rings upon it The Glaucus hath a spongy Liver distinguished into two laps the left is the larger From the right lap there hangs a little Gall bladder from a thred three fingers long so great as a pease and it hath in the bottom of the stomack a kind of Apophysis not to be seen almost in other fishes besides five others in the Pylorus that fence the stomack about CHAP. IX Of the Herring and Huso THat the Herring lives by water the Author of the Book of Nature witnesseth taken out of it it will not live as experience testifies In his belly there is nothing found for it hath onely one hungry gut They swim together in such great sholes that they cannot be taken for multitudes When they see light they swim in flocks and so they are caught in the autumnal equinoctiall They shine in the water turning their bellies upward and they send forth such a light that the Sea seems to lighten It is a miracle that some relate concerning the Inhabitants of the Island Terra Sancta of the German Ocean namely that in the year 1530 after the Virgins delivery 2000 men lived by Herring-fishing there but when they peevishly whipped one of them they had taken with rods these fishes did so diminish that afterwards scarce 100 could live by that labour The Husons have a grisle instead of a back bone that hath a great empty hole from head to tail as bored with a piercer What Aelian l. 14. c. 25. saith of the Autacea that
fountain of good vapours is compared to beneficiall Jupiter the bladder of the Gall contains the fiery fury of Mars and the loose spungy flesh of the Milt which is the receptacle of melancholique humours doth perfectly represent the cold Planet of Saturn And if you please to proceed farther I can say boldly that the Elements Seas Winds are here shadowed forth The spirits of Mans body do set forth Heaven the quintessence of all things The four humours expresse the four Elements Hot dry choler represents the Fire blood-hot and moyst the Ayr flegme cold and moyst the Water melancholy cold and dry the Earth So the belly of Man is the Earth fruitful of all fruits The hollow vein is the Mediterranean Sea the Bladder the Western Sea into which all the Rivers discharge themselves and the superfluous salt which is resolved is collected He hath the East in his Mouth the West in his Fundament the South in his Navel the North in his Back Europe Asia Africa and America may summarily be described in Man Wherefore Abdalas the Barbarian said well that the body of Man is an admirable thing and Protagoras call'd Man The measure of all things Theophrastus The pattern of the Universe and Epitome of the World Synesius The horizon of corporeall and incorporeall things And lastly we may truly cry out with Zoroastres O Man the Workmanship of most powerfull Nature for it is the most artificiall Master-piece of Gods hands CHAP. II. Of Nutrition Article 1. Of the harmlesse feeding on venomous things IF we regard Histories we can hardly doubt but that venomous things may by custome become nutrimental For many learned men having written thus they ought to be of credit Avicenna Rufus and Gentilis speak of a young Maid who was fed with poysonous creatures from her tender age and her breath was venom to those that stood by her Albertus writes That at Colonia Agrippina there was a man that held Spiders for his daintiest meat One Porus a King of the Indies used poyson every day that he might kill other men There was one who killed venomous creatures that bit him Avicenna l. 8. de anim c. 2. It is a known History of a young Maid fed with poyson with which the Persian Kings kill'd other men In Hellespont the Ophyogenes feed on Serpents One that was delighted with the same food when he was cast into a vessell fill'd with Serpents received no harm Pliny and Athenagoras of Greece could never be hurt by Scorpions and the Aethiopians that are Inhabitants by the River Hyaspis made brave cheer of Serpents and Vipers Galen saith That an old Woman of Athens eat a great quantity of Hemlock which did her no hurt Hypoth the Empirick writes that another took 30 drams of it and received no harm and he saith further That one Lysis eat 4 drams of Opium The Thracian Dame made gallant victualls of handfulls of Hellebor Lastly King Mithridates could not poyson'd bee He drinking poyson oft grew poyson-free If you search the cause of it you shall find divers First is every mans natural property by reason of which Stares feed on Hemlock Sows on Henbane with delight Then there is a certain proportion of poyson for this changeth the power of the poyson and the disposition of the subject Again the strength or weaknesse of the body Conciliator saith he saw four men feeding on venomous meats one dyed suddenly two were dangerously sick and the fourth escaped To this adde the force of the composition and the quantity the variety of the time and place wherein they are collected So Trassius Mantinensis gathered his Hemlock in the coldest places that he might sooner kill men Theophrastus shews l. 9. hist. Plant. that at Chios there was a certain way to compound it to make it effectuall One stung by a Scorpion may live many dayes and one stung by Ammodites may live 7 dayes Chersydrus kills in 3. days a Viper in 3. hours a Basilisk suddenly Lastly the history of a woman that sought to poyson her husband proves that poyson growes more effectuall by being mingled with poysons of the same kind and lesse by being mingled with poysons of a contrary kind Also it is certain that hot poysons cannot be conquer'd for Sublimate by its extream corroding cannot be concocted by nature and Napellus kills by its extremity of heat Article 2. Of the eating of other unusuall Meats NAncelius l. 3. Analog writes of a Maid delighted to feed on dung and he relates that a certain Noble-man did greedily sup up the liquid dung of Maids Fernelius l. 6. Pathol. c. 3. tells of a Maid that eat quicklime as great as a mans Fist. Trincavellus tells of one l. 7. c. 5. that eat threds out of Garments Lusitanus c. 3. cur 86 of one that eat Bombasse and Wooll Marcellus Histor. mirab l. 4. c. 1. of one that eat Lizards A woman that was fifty years old eat Tartar Nicolaus serm 5. tract 4. c. 36. Camerarius speaks of another eat hair This may happen in a particular disease which in women with Child is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Virgins and others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the cause is a vicious naughty humour impacted in the coats of the stomack or bred in the same by ill diet or coming thither from the matrix Hence for the three first months especially it happens to women great with Child when they vomit and the Child consumes not much It troubles maids when their courses are stopt But it is hard to say how such an appetite should proceed from this cause and it is better to ascribe it to a hidden quality than to commit an absurdity in what is manifest But what is reported of one Lazarus that he would eat glasse stones Wood Living creatures and Live-fish and we were told by the famous Winsemius in praelection anatomic that a Country man in Frisland would do the same for money that seems to proceed from the fault of the nerves For in him when he was dissected the fourth conjugation of nervs that is produced in other men for the benefit of their tast neither came to his tongue nor palate but was turned back to the hinder part of his head as Columbus observed Anatom l. 15. Some also think a man may be nourished by smells and some Histories say it hath been done Rondeletius de piscib saith that one at Rome lived 40 yeares only by the Ayre and Laertius reports that Democritus the Abderite a Philosopher lived four days by smelling of bread steeped in Wine that he might not profane the feasts of Ceres Cardanus l. 8. de varietate rerum c. 41 saith that men may live longer only by contemplation Lastly Megasthenes writes that at the farthermost part of the Indies from the East about the River Ganges there is a Nation call'd Astomores people that have no mouth their body is all hairy and they are clothed with the mosse of boughs they live only by the
What shall I say of Elizabeth Queen of England she by her vertues put all the world into admiration and she so amazed Pope Sixtus that he said That she onely with Henry the Fourth of France was fit to give counsell concerning the state of the whole Christian World Examples testifie that women in time were changed into men At Antioch a famous Maid being married after she had born a child became a man at Maevan another also became a man At Rome one the same day she was married was transformed Volat. l. 24. Comm. Urbin The same happened to Aemilia after she had been married 12 years See more examples in Schenkius Artic. 5. Of the noise of the Womb. SOme have observed that Children have cryed in their mothers wombs and so lowd that they could be well heard In Weinrichius of Monsters you shall find Examples A Poet writes thus Wonder it is a Child did sadly cry Which was unborn and in the womb did ly The cause was this it griev'd and with its might Strove to come forth to see the Worlds great light Or else perhaps it shew'd the earnest care To help its Parents that now weary were Some think that this portends some hurt to the child or to the mother others think that this is contrary to reason and experience To Experience because there is no certainty that any such thing happened amongst the old Philosophers To Reason because there can be no cry heard without drawing the ayr by the mouth and without the beating at the ayr by the sharp artery when we breathe it forth and without a certain forming of it by the mouth and the Palate For being there is no place for a reciprocall course of the ayr in the veins and arteries and the Infants urinary passage that are filled with other things nor for so great abundance that a passage should be made by the heart it cannot enter by the navel by reason of the notable danger of heat nor can it be admitted by the matrix to say nothing that all are full of an excrementitious glutinous matter Libavius supposeth all things required for breathing in the Thorax to be made and he thinks that the internal aereal breath made of the humours by the active heat and shut up within the house where the child is and also contain'd in the capacity of the Lungs being pressed forth by the Child may serve the turn See disc de vagitu c. Artic. 6. Of numerous Births IN the single faculty of generation that man hath there happens variety if we consider time and number Some are born in the fift month some in the sixt some in the 7th 8th or 9th and some in the tenth 13th 15th Paschal in Biblio medica saith one was great with Child 23 months another 2 years Aventinus l. 5. Annal This Child was born speaking One was with Child four yeares Mercurialus Yet Physitians set the 9th and tenth months for the time of natural birth when the Child is grown great and wants plenty of nourishment and the place where he lyes is grown too narrow Those that are born in the fift month are very feeble as a maid was that Valescus de Philos. sacra c. 18. mentions who was more slender and thin than women-kind use to be Those that are born in the 7th month are weak and suspected not to be perfect in all things few live in the 8th month the striving to be born in the 7th month hath made them weak as some think For number some will bring two three four oft times and some will exceed this that it is miraculous An Aegyptian in Gellius l. 10. c. 2. had five at a birth The Mother of Lamisius King of Lombardy had 7 Sigebert in Chronic. The Countesse of Quenfurt had 9. Betraff l. 4. of the Princess of Anhalt A woman that Albertus speaks of miscarried of 22 another of 70 another of a 150. The matter was proved by cutting the little coats they were wrapped in Caelinus l. 4. c. 25. The Wife of Irmentrud Isenbert Earl of Altorf was delivered of 12. Margaret the Wife of the Earl of Viraboslai of 36 Cromer l. 11. Margaret the daughter of Florentius Earle of Holland had 365 Ludovicus vives in colloquiis Maude Countesse of Henneberg under Frederick the second had 1500. Aventin l. 7. annal Cuspinianus saith 350. But if you take them at severall times you shall find wonderfull examples of fruitfullnesse Priamus by Hecuba had 19 Children and 31 by other Women Artaxerxes had 106 Herotimus 600. Conradus Duke of Moscovia had 80. The King of Giloto it is an Island amongst the Mâ—luccas had 600 Pigafetta of Ziamb 325. another had 650. Martinus Polus l. 3. c. 6. saith he saw these living Ludovicus Vives saw a Country man in Spaine whose Children whil'st he lived had filled a Village of above a hundred housholds And in our times an old Wife spake of her ofspring thus Ah my daughter tell thy daughters daughter to lament for her daughters daughter Sphinx c. 17. Thomas Fazell writeth that Iane Pancica who in his time was maried to Bernard Belluard Sicilian of the citie of Agrigent was so fruitfull that in thirtie child-beds she was delivered of seventie and three children which should not seeme saith he incredible seeing Aristotle affirmes that one woman at four births brought forth twentie Children at every one five Albertus Magnus writes That a woman of Germanie had two and twentie abortive Children at one time all having their perfect shapes and another woman seventie And besides that another woman delivered into a bason a hundred and fiftie every one of the length of ones little finger Erasmus Vives and others have written of the strange deliverance of the Countesse of Henneberg Lewis Guicciardin in his description of the Low-Countries setteth down the same storie taken out of the ninth book of the Annals of Flanders composed by Guido Dominicus Petrus His words are these A certaine poore woman brought a bed of two Children prayed the Countesse to give her some assistance in her necessitie but the Countesse did not only send her away empty-handed but charged her that she was of an ill behaviour saying that it was a thing against nature in her opinion for a woman that is honest to conceive by her husband two Children at one birth and therefore that this her deliverance had bewraied that she had lewdly abandoned her selfe to some others The poore woman moved with this reproach and ignominious repulse and of the other side well assured of her honest carriage made earnest request to God that for the proofe of her innocency and of the faith which He knew she had kept inviolably to her husband it would please him to grant that this Countesse might have so many Children at one burden as there were daies in the yeare which within a while after came to passe And he addeth that these Children were as big as Chickens new hatcht all alive
he read and preached openly Furthermore being made Doctor of the Laws in the University of Colen he read there and expounded the Civil and Canon Law repeating by heart the texts which he had never read and at last died at Colen in the yeare 1492. We will conclude this Chapter with an example of one borne blind in whom nature made supplie of that defect with a marvelous recompence other ways The story is mentioned by Antonius de Palermo thus I learnt saith he of King Alphonsus that there was a Sicilian borne blind living still at that time in the Citie Gergento called in old time Agrigentum who had followed him oftentimes a hunting shewing to the Hunts-men who had their sights well ynough the retraits and repairing places of the wild beasts He added further touching the industry of this blind man that having by his sparing and scraping gotten together about five hundred Crowns which put him to a great deale of care he resolved at last to hide them in a field As he was making a hole in the ground to that end a gossip of his being his neighbour espied him who so soon as the blind man was gon searched in the earth found the money and caried it cleane away Two or three dayes after the blind man returning thither to visit his cash and finding nought there like one altogether forlorne he frets and torments himselfe and after much debating and discoursing concludes that no man but his gossip could have played him such a trick Whereupon finding him out he thus began to say unto him Gossip I am come to you to have your opinion I have a thousand Crowns and the one half of them I have hid in a safe place and for the other halfe I know not what to do with them having not my sight and being very unfit to keep any such thing therefore what think you might I not hide this other halfe with the rest in the same place of safetie The gossip approved and commended his resolution and going speedily to the place carried back againe the five hundred Crowns that he had taken away before hoping that he should have all the whole thousand together A while after the blind man goes to his hole and finding there his Crowns againe took them up and comming home calleth for his gossip saying unto him with a cheerfull voice Gossip the blind man hath seen better than he that hath two eyes Article 9. Of Nations of divers forms WHat I said in the 8th Article of Monstrous Births happens but seldom yet some thought that happened commonly amongst some Nations Not far from the Troglodites in Aethiopia there is a people that have no heads and their eyes are in their breasts Augustine saw them Serm. ad Fratr in Eremo Solinus confirms it c. 53. Pliny l. 5. c. 8. In Peru in the Province of Caraqui Hispalensis sayes they want the forepart and hinder part of the head Sylvius p. 5. c. 35. For he adds That so soon as they are born they make their heads level with boards Rawleigh in his Navigations to Guiana speaks of some that are call'd Epumerocaci The Circades a people beyond Taprobana are long visaged with horse heads if we credit Arrianus Ramus tom 1. In the Mountains of the Indies they have Dogs heads and claws and hides like beasts they cannot speak but bark saith Megastenes Aelian l. 10. c. 26. saith they are in Egypt in the way to Ethiopia and he describes them that they are black visaged having no voyce they make a thrill noise and their chin is so far beneath their beards that it is like to a Serpent They live by hunting Oxen and Does Augustin de civitate Dei l. 16. c. 6. thinks that is not incredible Amongst the Scythians there are some with such large ears that they will cover all their bodies Isidor l. 11. c. 3. Some have their feet so broad that they can shadow their whole bodies with them when they lie down from the heat I may here adde that there are Sea-Men Anno 1403 a Sea-Woman was taken in the Lake of Holland and brought to Harlem she was ready to learn some things that women do but she could not speak Anno 1526 in Frisland a Sea-Man was taken with a beard and hairy he lived some years but could never speak Libav l. 6. de universitat rerum And not long since when the Denmark Ambassadors sail'd into Norway they saw a man in the Sea that had a swathband of corn they took him and put him into the Ship and he dyed they cast him into the Sea again and he revived Historians approved do write these things We will not here add what we think onely the Devill hath many wiles and great is the force of Imagination and sometimes beasts are taken for men if they be but like them We read in the Scotch History that the Kings Embassadours were brought by a storm into Norway and saw hairy beasts in the Mountains wandring like to men they thought they had been men the Inhabitants told them they were wild beasts Let every man think what he please I may have occasion to speak more of this elsewhere Article 10. Of a wonderfull Antipathy betweeen the Father and the Sonne THere was a Father that hated his child as much as some men do Cats for if he were present though he saw him not he would swoond Georgius Mylius a Divine of Jena related it Libavius sought the cause diligently And if the reason of antipathy in naturall things be worth enquiry that is most worthy to be searched out that is between children and parents This is certain that the cause of this discord cannot be found nor in the rational nor the sensual part For he wished his son no harm nor can sympathy or antipathy be called love or hatred in parents For they are to be found in things that are not living and if they be in living creatures they are not in them as they are living but as they are natural things Yet because he did not abhor his other son nor hate his off-spring for which cause he married it is certain that was no hereditary infirmity It is probable the son was changed into a disposition the father could not away with and that might proceed from the seminary body ill disposed from the womb or by the confluence of impure blood that had in it some ground for this alteration or from the blood the Embryo was nourished with For this growes divers from the matter of the nourishment or may degenerate from some other inward cause or from the place sometimes the spirits that assist the blood and the whole nature cause a change Therefore either the mother had a great longing for some meat the father hated or else she was frighted at something the father could not endure To say nothing of the Midwife or of hidden causes So a Maid at Uratislavian drank Cats blood and became of a Cats qualities and
Mountain of the Gentils and those ways and breaking one leg between his horns he ran upon his fore parts yet the Oxe stood fast again and fell not but the Rams grieved exceedingly and those that adored the Rams wept because God preserved him and sent him food from India that strengthned him And behold on the otherside of the River stood an Armenian Tyger with the Moon upon his Head and he said I will prey on both the conquerer and the conquered and the Ram with three horns was devoured by the Tyger and conquered him The other Ram fled to his Mountain and the grasse withered but the Oxes horns grew and the Tyger fled from him and the Ram did not escape into the Mountain and I was glad that God preserved the Oxe Artic. 6. Of Walkers in the Night THere are many examples of Night-walkers A certain young man rising out of his bed putting on his Cloths and his Boots and Spurs got astride above the window upon a Wall and spurd the Wall as if it had been a horse Another went down into a Well and came not up again till he had touched the water Horstius tells of a Noble Man that went to the top of a Tower and robb'd a birds nest and came down again by a rope It is reported that one at Paris girt with his sword swam over the Seyn and killed one he was minded to kill before when he had done this villany he return'd home Aleman comm ad libr. Hippocrat de Aere c. As for the cause many men are of divers minds The best opinion ascribes it to Imagination for the sensitive soul in sleep not onely rouzed by an external object converts her self to be sensible and first perceives darkly afterwards more clearly but being affected by the inward object represented in a dream rouzeth the moving faculty The Imagination is rouzed by the species of things reserved about which whilest it acts intentively it stirs up the moving faculty That this is so appears by daily experience For who knowes not but we are troubled in our sleep That we rise not is because our phantasie is not altogether so busie about the Images reserved as in some other men Yet the stronger motion doth not alwaies proceed from the same cause For some think the same thing may be caused from diurnal cogitation especially in younger people that are more bold and more lustfull Others suffer this from an internal affection of their body yet they are not all of the same kind Some have more cheerful and more phantastick animal spirits some seem to do this out of simplicity That they wake not is caused by the stiffnesse of the vapours For these not suffering them to be easily awaked and on the other side the animal spirits being lively it falls out that they are half awake half asleep yet it is not likely that all are of the same kind For that boy Libavius speaks of that went naked to the door and came home again observed a Watchman sitting in the streets Lastly the cause they do those things in their sleep they cannot do waking is their ignorance of the danger the action of reason is darkned and they cannot hinder the motions raised by Phantasie Libav in Noctambulis Article 7. Of some things observable concerning the Head and the Senses THere was one born and grew to be a man Anno 1516 that put forth another head at the navel Lycosthen Anno 1487 there was a boy at Venice that had his mouth cut divers wayes and a genital member growing to his crown Some of years have had horns grow on their heads A Virgin had them about the joynts of her Feet and Arms like to Calves horns she was cured afterward Schenk l. 1. observ The Egyptians had such hard heads that you could hardly break them with throwing a stone at them The Persians heads were so weak that a little stone would break them Herodot The Indians heads in Hispaniola are so hard that they will break swords Cardan l. 12. de variet rer Beniventus saith de abdit c. 10. that a Monk had his forehead bone eaten naked by a sharp humour Tyrrhenus Torcon and Cyonus Trojanus were grey when they were young Cal. l. 3. c. 27. Antiq. And Ctesias writes that in a part of the Indies the women never breed but once and presently grow grey after the first child The Miconii are born without hair Plin. l. 14. c. 37. It is rare for a woman to grow bald no Eunuchs ever do nor any man before he hath known a woman Pliny There was a woman seen at Paris with a black upper beard that began to be hoary of a great magnitude her chin also was moderately hairy Also they report that in the company of women that Albertus the Duke of Bavaria kept one of them had a long beard Wolsius There was a child born in Lombardy in the time of Pope Gregory that had ears big enough to cover the whole body Thomaius in horto mundi c. 19. Many men could move their ears and the skin of their heads at pleasure Dalechamp Men say that in the inward parts of the East there are people without any nose and their face is flat others that want their upper lip others without tongues Plin. l. 6. c. 30. They write also that there is a part of Aethiopia where the Inhabitants are born with a flexible body that they can wind themselves easily every way they please and they have two tongues and can use them both and speak plainly with them aâ— pleasure Gem. Fris. l. 1. c. 7. Cosmocrit Mutianus saith he saw Zanes a Samothracian Citizen who had his teeth grew again after 104 years Plin. l. 11. c. 17. Aristotle l. 2. c. 4. de histor animal makes mention of a woman that had her cheek teeth come forth with pain in her 80 year Pliny writes that some had teeth bred in their palates Pliny l. 11. c. 37. Moecenas never slept in three whole years at last he was cured by gentle Musick Seneca de provident Nizolius call'd Ciceronianus never slept in ten years Heurn c. 16. de morb cap Cardan when he pleased could be so taken up in his thoughts that he would feel no pain in that state And Augustine l. 14. de Civ Dei c. 24. reports the same of a Presbyter restored He lay as though he were dead and did not feel those that pulled him nor would he stirre though they burn'd him with fire yet he confessed that he could then hear men speak if they spake aloud as though they were far off from him And it was confirmed by this Argument that he did not do it by resisting but by not feeling that he moved not his body for he lay as dead and drew no breath The English History relates that Elizabeth Burton a Maid of Canterbury had contracted the same custom of taking away her senses from a disease she had CHAP. VIII Of the faculty of moving