the dunghill are as proud and high minded ye shal see them to march stately carying their neck bolt vpright with a combe on their head like the crest of a soldiers helmet And there is not a bird besides himself that so oft looketh aloft to the Sun and sky and then vp goeth the taile and all which he beares on high turning backward again on the top like a hook And hereupon it is that marching thus proudly as they do the very Lions which of all wilde beasts be most couragious stand in feare and awe of them and will not abide the sight of them Now of these Cocks some of them are made for nothing els but war and fighting and neuer are they well but in quarrels brawles and fraies and these be cocks of kind and the countries from whence they come are grown into name being much renowned for their breed as namely Rhodus and Tenagra in the first and highest degree In a second ranke and place be those of Melos and Chalcis Vnto these birds for their worth dignity the purple robe at Rome and all magistrats of state disdain not to giue honor These be they that by their tripudium solistimum i. hearty feeding obserued by the pullitiers shew good successe These rule our great rulers euery day and there is not a mighty L. or state of Rome that dare open or shut the dore of his house before he knowes the good pleasure of these fowles and that which more is the soueraigne magistrate in his majestie of the Roman empire with the regall ensignes of rods and axes caried before him neither sets forward nor reculeth backe without direction from these birds they giue order to whole armies to aduance forth to battel again command them to stay and keep within the camp These were they that gaue the signall and foretold the issue of all those famous foughten fields whereby we haue atchieued all our victories throughout the whole world and in one word these birds command those great Commanders of all nations vpon the earth as acceptable to the gods in sacrifice with their smal fibres filaments of their inwards as the greatest and fattest oxen that are killed for sacrifice Moreouer their crowing out of order too soon before their houre or too late and namely in the euening portendeth also and presageth somwhat by it selfe For well known it is that by their crowing at one time all night long they fore-signified to the Boeotians that noble victorie of theirs atchieued ouer the Lacedaemonians For this interpretation and coniecture was giuen thereupon of a fortunat day because that bird neuer croweth if he be beaten or ouercome If they be once carued and made capons they crow no more And this feat is practised vpon them two manner of waye namely either by burning their loines toward their kidnies with a red hot yron or else by cauterising their legs beneath and their spurs and then presently applying a plaister vnto the exulcerate and blistered place made of potters white clay or chalky earth and being thus serued they will sooner feed and be fat At Pergamus euery yeare there is a solemne shew exhibited openly to the people of Cocke-fighting as if sword-fencers were brought within the lists to fight at outterance We finde in record among our Annales that within the territorie of Ariminum in that yeare when Marcus Lepidus and Quintus Catulus were Consuls there was a dunghill cocke did speake and it was about a ferme-house in the countrey belonging to one Galerius But this hapned neuer but once for ought that I could euer heare or learne CHAP. XXII ¶ Of Geese and who first eat the Goose liuer Also of the leafe of a Goose of Comagena THe Goose likewise is very vigilant and watchfull witnesse the Capitoll of Rome which by the meanes of Geese was defended and saued whereas at the same time through the default of dogs which should haue giuen warning all had like to haue bin lost Wherefore the first thing that the Censors do by vertue of their office is to take order for the Geese of the Capitol and to appoint some one man of purpose to see vnto them that they haue meat enough Moreouer they are said to be giuen much to loue for at Argos there was a Goose that was wonderously inamoured of a faire boy named Olenus as also of a damosel whose name was Glauce who vsed to play on the lute before king Ptolomaeus and by report at the same time a Ram made court vnto the said wench and was in loue with her It may be credibly thought also that this creature hath some sparks as it were of reason vnderstanding and learning for Lacydes the Philosopher had one of them about him which would neuer leaue him night nor day neither in the open street abroad nor in priuat house at home but would follow him euen to his close and secret baines where he vsed to bathe But our countrimen and citisens of Rome beleeue me are wiser now adaies who know forsooth how to make a dainty dish of their Liuer For in those Geese that are kept vp and cram'd fat in coup the liuer grows to be exceeding great and when it is taken forth of the belly it waxeth bigger still if it be steeped in milk and sweet mede together Good cause therefore it is that there be some question and controuersie about the first inuentor of this great good and singular commoditie to mankind whether it were Scipio Metellus a man who lately was called to be Consulior M. Sestius who in those daies was by his birth a gentleman of Rome But to leaue that stil vndecided this is certainly known that Messalinus Cotta son to that Messala the Orator found out the secret to broile fry the flat broad feet of Geese and together with cocks combs to 〈◊〉 a sauory dish of meat thereof between two platters For surely I for my part will giue euery man his due and right and will not defraud them of their singular praise and honour who haue bin benefactors to the kitchen and proceeded masters in cookerie A maruellous thing of these birds that a flock of them should come all the way bare foot from * Terwin and Torney in France as far as to Rome Their order was who had the conduct of them in this large voyage to bring those forward that were weary and lagged behind into the vaward forefront and so the rest by a certain thick vnited squadron which naturally they make going together driue the others before them A second commoditie that Geese yeeld especially those that be white is their plume and downe For in some places their soft feathers are pluckt twice a yeare and yet they cary feathers again and be as well couered with plume as before and euermore the neerer to the skin and flesh the softer is the downe But of all other the finest and best is that which is brought out of
line the second to the Meridian line or the South the third to the Sun-setting in the Equinoctiall and the fourth taketh vp all the rest from the said West to the North star These quarters againe they haue parted into foure regions a piece of which eight from the Sun-rising they called the Left as many again from the contrary part the Right Which considered most dreadfull and terrible are those lightnings which from the Sun-setting reach into the North and therefore it skilleth very much from whence lightnings come and whither they go the best thing obserued in them is when they return into the Easterly parts And therefore when they come from that first and principall part of the skie and haue recourse again into the same it is holden for passing good hap such was the signe and token of victories giuen by report to Sylla the Dictatour In all other parts of the element they be lesse fortunate or fearful They that haue written of these matters haue deliuered in writing that there be lightnings which to vtter abroad is held vnlawful as also to giue eare vnto them if they be disclosed vnlesse they be declared either to parents or to a friend and guest How great the vanity is of this obseruation was at Rome vpon the blasting of Iunoes temple found by Scaurus the Consull who soone after was President of the Senate It lightneth without thunder more in the night than day time Of all creatures that haue life and breath man only it doth not alwaies kill the rest it dispatcheth presently This priuiledge honour we see Nature hath giuen to him whereas otherwise so many great beasts surpasse him in strength All other creatures smitten with lightning fall downe vpon the contrary side man onely vnlesse he turne vpon the parts stricken dyeth not Those that are smitten from aboue vpon the head lie downe and sinke directly He that is stricken watching is found dead with his eies winking and close shut but whosoeuer is smitten sleeping is found open eied A man thus comming by his death may not by law be burned Religion hath taught that he ought to be enterred and buried in the earth No liuing creature is set a fire by lightning but it is breathlesse first The wounds of them that be smitten with thunderbolts are colder than all the body besides CHAP. LV. ¶ What things are not smitten with Lightning OF all those things which grow out of the earth Lightning blasteth not the Laurell tree nor entreth at any time aboue fiue foot deep into the ground and therefore men fearfull of lightning suppose the deeper caues to be the surest and most safe or els booths made of skins of sea-beasts which they call Seales or Sea-calues for of all creatures in the sea this alone is not subiect to the stroke of lightning like as of all flying foules the Eagle which for this cause is imagined to be the armour-bearer of Iupiter for this kinde of weapon In Italie betweene Tarracina and the temple of Feronia they gaue ouer in time of warre to make towers and forts for not one of them escaped but was ouerthrowne with lightning CHAP. LVI ¶ Of strange and prodigious raine to wit of Milke Bloud Flesh Iron Wooll Tyles and Brickes BEsides these things aboue in this lower region vnder heauen we finde recorded in monuments that it rained milke and bloud when M. Acilius and C. Porcius were Consuls And many times else besides it rained flesh as namely whiles L. Volumnius and Serv. Sulpitius were Consuls and look what of it the foules of the aire caught not vp nor carried away it neuer putrified In like manner it rained yron in the Lucanes countrey the yere before that M. Crassus was slaine by the Parthians and together with him all the Lucanes his souldiers of whom there were many in his army That which came downe in this raine resembled in some sort Sponges and the Wisards and South sayers being sought vnto gaue warning to take heed of wounds from aboue But in the yere that L. Paulus and C. Marcellus were Consuls it rained wooll about the Castle Carissa neare to which a yeare after T. Annius Milo was slaine At the time that the same Milo pleaded his owne cause at the bar there fell a raine of tyles and bricks as it is to be seen in the Records of that yeare CHAP. LVII ¶ Of the rustling of Armour and sound of Trumpets heard from Heauen IN the time of the Cimbrian warres we haue bin told that Armour was heard to rustle and the trumpet to sound out of heauen And this happened very often both before and after those wars But in the third Consulship of Marius the Amerines and Tudertes saw men in armes in the skie rushing and running one against another from the East and West and might behold those of the West discomfited That the very firmament it selfe should be of a light fire it is no maruel at all for oftentimes it hath been seene when clouds haue caught any greater deale of fire CHAP. LVIII ¶ Of Stones falling downe from the Skie AMong the Greeks there is much talke of Anaxagoras Clazomenius who by his learning and skill that he had in Astronomie foretold in the second yeare of the 78 Olympias what time a stone should fall from out of the Sun and the same happened accordingly in the day time in a part of Thracia neere the riuer Aegos which stone is shewed at this day as big as a waine load carrying a burnt and adust colour at what time as a comet or blazing starre also burned in those nights Which if any man beleeue that it was fore-signified must needs also confesse that this diuinitie or fore-telling of Anaxagoras was more miraculous and wonderfull than the thing it selfe and then farewell the knowledge of Natures workes and welcome confusion of al in case we should beleeue that either the Sun were a stone or that euer any stone were in it But that stones fall oftentimes downe no man will make any doubt In the publicke place of Exercise in Abydos there is one at this day vpon the same cause preserued and kept for to be seene and held in great reuerence it is but of a meane and small quantity yet it is that which the selfe-same Anaxagoras by report fore-signified that it should fal in the mids of the earth There is one also at Cassandria which was in old time vsually called Potidaea a colony from thence deducted I my selfe haue seene another in the territorie of the Vocantians which was brought thither but a little before CHAP. LIX ¶ Of the Rainebow THose which we call Rain-bowes are seene often without any wonder at all or betokening any great matter for they portend not so much as rainy or faire daies to trust vpon But manifest it is that the Sun beames striking vpon an hollow cloud when their edge is repelled are beaten backe against the Sun and thus ariseth varietie
or earthen vessels and so they will continue good till new come As for all other plums as they be soon ripe so they are as soone gone It is not long since that in the realm of Granado and Andalusia they began to graffe plums vpon apple-tree stocks and those brought forth plums named Apple-plums as also others called Almond-plums graffed vpon Almond-stocks these haue within their stone a kernel like an Almond and verily there is not a fruit again wherein is seene a wittier deuise to conioine and represent in one and the same subiect two diuers sorts As for the Damascene-plums taking name of Damasco in Syria we haue sufficiently spoken thereof in our treatise of strange trees and yet long since they haue bin knowne to grow in Italy which although they haue a large stone and little carnosity about them yet they neuer wither into wrinkles and riuels when they be dry for that they want the ful strength of the kind Sun which they had in Syria We should do wel to write together with them of the fruit Sebesten which also come from the same Syria albeit now of late they begin to grow at Rome being graffed vpon Soruices As touching peaches in generall the very name in Latine whereby they are called Persica doth euidently shew that they were brought out of Persis first and that it is a fruit not ordinary either in Greece or Natolia but a meere stranger there Contrariwise wilde plums as it is well knowne grow euery where I maruell therefore so much the more that Cato made no mention thereof considering that of purpose he shewed the maner how to preserue and keep diuers wild fruits till new came for long it was first ere Peach trees came into these parts and much adoe there was before they could be brought for to prosper with vs seeing that in the Island Rhodes which was their place of habitation next to Aegypt they beare not at all but are altogether barren And whereas it is said That Peaches be venomous in Persia do cause great torments in them who do eat therof as also that the KK of Persia in old time caused them to be transported ouer into Aegypt by way of reuenge to plague that country and notwithstanding their poisonous nature yet through the goodnes of that soile they became good and holesom all this is nothing but a meere fable a loud lie True it is indeed that the best writers who haue been painful aboue others to search out the truth haue reported so much concerning the tree Persea which is far different from the Peach tree Persica beareth fruit like to Sebesten of color red and willingly would not grow in any country without the East parts and yet the wiser more learned Clerkes do hold That it was not the tree Persea which was brought out of Persis into Egypt for to annoy and plague the country but that it was planted first by K. Perseus at Memphis Whereupon it came that Alexander the Great ordained That all victors who had won the prize at any game there should be crowned with a chaplet of that tree to honor the memoriall of his great grandsires father But how euer it be certaine it is that this tree continueth greene all the yere long and beareth euermore fruit one vnder another new and old together And to returne again to our Plum-trees euident it is that in Cato's time they were not knowne in Italy but all the Plum-trees which we now haue are come since he died CHAP. XIIII ¶ Of nine and twenty kinds of Fruits contained vnder the names of Apples OF Apples that is to say of fruits that haue tender skins to be pared off there bee many sorts For as touching Pome-citrons together with their tree we haue already written The Greekes call them Medica according to the name of the country from whence they first came in old time As for Iujubes as also the fruit Tuberes they bee likewise strangers as well as the rest and long it is not since they arriued first in Italy the one sort out of Africk the other namely Iujubes out of Syria Sextus Papinius whom my self in my time saw Consul of Rome was the first man that brought them both into these parts namely in the later end of Augustus Caesar the Emperor and planted them about the rampiers of his campe for to beautifie the same Howbeit to say a truth their fruit resembled rather berries than apples yet they make a goodly shew vpon the rampiers and no maruell since that now adayes whole groues of trees begin to ouertop and surmount the houses of priuat persons Concerning the fruit Tuberes there be two sorts thereof to wit the white and the reddish called also Sericum of the colour of silke The Apples named Lanata are held in manner for strangers in Italy and are knowne to grow but in one place thereof and namely within the territory of Verona Couered they be all ouer with a kind of down or fine cotton which albeit both quince and peach be clad and ouergrown with in great plenty yet these alone cary the name thereof for otherwise no special propertie are they known by to commend them A number of apples there are besides that haue immortalised their first founders and inventers who brought them into name caused them to be known abroad in the world as if therin they had performed some worthy deed beneficiall to all mankinde In which regard why should I think much to rehearse reckon them vp particularly by name for if I be not much deceiued thereby will appeare the singular wit that some men imployed in graffing trees and how there is not so small a matter so it be wel and cunningly done but is able to get honor to the first author yea and to eternise his name for euer From hence it comes that our best apples take their denominations of Matius Cestius Manlius Claudius As for the quince-apples that come of a quince graffed vpon an apple stock they are called Appiana of one Appius who was of the Claudian house and first deuised and practised that feat These apples cary the smel with them of quinces they beare in quantitie the bignesse of the Claudian apples and are in color red Now lest any man should think that this fruit came into credit by reason only of partiall fauor for that the first inuentor was a man descended from so antient noble a family let him but think of the apples Sceptiana which are in as great request as they for their passing roundnesse and they beare the name of one Sceptius their first inuentor who was no better than the son of a slaue lately infranchised Cato maketh mention of apples called Quiriana as also of Scantiana which he saith the maner is to put vp in vessels and so keep them But of all others the last that were adopted and tooke name of their patrons and inuentors be Petisia
at both ends taking it long-waies groweth hard in manner of a stone how beit that which hath an hard shell without and a soft body within is better than that which is hardened in the carnous substance of the body and lightly neither of both these qualities happeneth to any but the male kind Ouer and besides some you shall find fashioned long like an egge others as round as a ball and a third sort sharp pointed The outward colour also yeeldeth variety for some be blacker than other but the whiter commonly â—…e the better set by Some are bitter toward the ends and sweet in the mids The length also the shortnesse of the stele or taile whereto they hang maketh a difference The very tree it self causeth diuersity of the fruit for that Oke which beareth the biggest mast is named Hemeris A shorter tree this is than the rest with a round head and putting forth many hollow arm pits as it were of boughes and branches The wood or timber of the ordinary and common Oke is tougher and harder than that of others and lesse subiect to putrifaction ful of arms boughes it is as the other but it groweth taller and is thicker in the body The highest of all is the Aegilops which loueth to grow in wild and desart places Next to it for talnesse is the broad leafed Oke but the timber therof is not so good and profitable for building howsoeuer it be imploied for to make charcole yet being once squared to that purpose cleft it is subiect to the worm and will soon rot and for this cause being in quarters they vse not to make cole of it clouen but of the solid and round boughs or branches thereof And yet this kind of charcole serueth only the Bloom-smithies and furnaces the hammer-mills also of brasse and copper-smithes whom it standeth in great good stead and saueth them much fewell for it burneth and consumeth no longer than the bellowes goe let them leaue blowing once presently the cole dieth and so it lasteth long for at euery new blast it is renewed againe and refreshed otherwise it sparkleth very much and yeeldeth many cinders But the charcole made of yong trees is the better Now the maner of making them is this when the wood is cut into many clefts splents fresh and green they are heaped vp on high and hollow in manner of a furnace or chimney and then well luted with clay in the top and all about which done the pile of truncheons aforesaid is set on fire within and as the outward coat or crust of clay beginneth to wax hard the workemen or colliers pierce it with poles and pearches and make diuers holes therein for vent and to let out the smokie vapor that doth sweat and breath from the wood The worst of all other for timber or cole is the oke named Haliphleos a thicke barke it hath and as big a body but for the most part hollow and light like a spunge or mushrom and there is not another besides it of all these kind of trees that rotteth as it stands aliue Besides so vnfortunate it is that the lightning smiteth it as low as it groweth for none of them ariseth to any great height which is the cause that it is not lawfull to vse the wood thereof about the burning of any sacrifice Seldome beareth it any Acorns and those few that it hath be exceeding bitter so as no other beast will touch them but swine again nor they neither but for pure hunger when they can meet with no other food Moreouer in this regard also reiected it is and not emploied in any religious vse for that without blowing at the wood and cole thereof continually it will not burne cleare and consume the sacrifice but goeth out and lieth dead But to returne vnto our mast againe that of the Beech tree feedeth swine quickely maketh their flesh and lard faire and pleasant to the eie tender to be soone sodden or rosted light and easie of digestion and good for the stomacke The mast of the Holme causeth hogs to gather a more fast and compact flesh their bodies to be neat slender lanke and ponderous Acornes doe engender a fleshy substance more square and spreading and the same also most heauy and hardest of digestion and yet they are of all other kinds of mast most sweet and pleasant Next to them in goodnesse by the testimony of Nigidius is that of the tree Cerrus neither is there bred of any other a courser flesh howbeit hard it is fast and tough As for the mast of Ilex hogs are endangered by eating thereof vnlesse it be giuen them warily by little and little Hee sayth moreouer that of all other it falleth last Moreouer the mast of Esculus Robur and the Corke causeth the flesh to be spungeous and hollow To conclude what trees soeuer beare mast carry also certaine nuts called Galls and lightly they are full of mast but each other yeare But the oke Hemeris beareth the best gals and fittest for the curriors to dresse their leather The broad leafed Oke hath a kinde of Galls like vnto it but lighter in substance and not so good by far it carrieth also blacke galls for 2 sorts there be and this is better for the dier to colour wooll CHAP. VII ¶ Of the Gall-nuts and how many other things Mast-trees doe beare besides Mast. THe nuts called Galls doe euer breake out all at once in a night and namely about the beginning of Iune when the Sun is ready to goe out of the signe Gemini The whiter sort thereof commeth to the growth in one day and if in the first spring and breaking foorth thereof it be hot weather it drieth and withereth out of hand and commeth not to the full bignesse and perfection namely to haue a kernell as much as a bean The blacke of this kind continueth longer fresh and green and groweth still to the bignesse otherwhiles of an apple The best galls be those of Comagena the worst is that of the oke called Robur which are knowne by the holes they haue that may be seen through The common oke Quercus ouer and besides the fruit which is the mast beareth many other things for it carieth both sorts of gal the black and the white certaine berries also like Mulberries but that they be dry and hard resembling for the most part a buls head containing within them a fruit much like the kernels of the oliue Moreouer there grow vpon it certain little bals not vnlike to nuts hauing soft flox within good to make candle-wiek or matches for lamps for burn they wil without any oile like as the black Gals It beareth also other little pils or balls good for nothing couered ouer with haire yet in the spring time they yeeld a certain juice or liquor like hony Furthermore there breed in the hollow arm-pits as it were of the boughes other small pills setled or sticking close to the wood
boiled in oile the decoction also is vsually giuen in drink to those who be subiect to the falling euill likewise to such as be troubled in mind beside themselues to as many as are giuen to dizzines giddines of the brain and do ween that euery thing turnes round but they must take the poise of one dram euery day throughout the yeare The same root if it be taken in any great quantity purgeth the sences But the principall and most excellent vertue that it hath is this That if it be stamped with water and so applied it draweth forth spels of broken and shiuered bones as well and effectually as the verie true Bryonie which is the cause that some doe call it White Bryonie for there is another which is black and of greater efficacie to the same purpose if it be applied with hony Frankincense It is very good to resolue impostumes and biles which are in growing and not yet come to suppuration but if they haue continued and gather to an head it bringeth them soone to maturation and afterwards clenseth them It bringeth downe womens monthly sicknesse and prouoketh vrine An electuary or lohoch made therof to licke and suffered gently to melt vnder the tongue and go downe leisurely is singular good for such as bee short-winded and labour for breath also for pleurisies or pains of the side for convulsions and inward ruptures If one drink the weight of three oboli 30 daies together it will wast and consume the swelled splene The same serueth in a liniment to be applied with figs to the excrescences or risings of the flesh ouer the naile called Pterygia Being laid too as a cataplasm with wine it fetcheth away the after-birth in women and taken to the weight of a dram in honied water it purgeth flegmatick humors The juice of the root must be drawne before the fruit or seed be ripe this juice either alone or incorporat with Eruile meale if the body be annointed therewith doth illustrat the colour make the skin soft and tender and in one word it is such an embelishment that it maketh any person better for the sale where by the way note that it chaseth serpents away Moreouer the very substance of the root if it be stamped with fat figs doth lay the riuels and wrinckles of the skin plain and euen if it be rubbed or annointed therewith but then the party must walk immediatly vpon it a good quarter of a mile for otherwise it will fret and burne the skin vnlesse presently it be washed off with cold water Howbeit the black wild vine doth this feat more gently and with greater ease for surely the white setteth an itch vpon the skin There is therfore a black wild vine which properly they call Bryonia some Chironia others Cynecanthe or Apronia like in all respects to the former but only in the colour of the root grape or berry for it is black as I haue before said The tender sprouts sions that spring from the root Diocles preferred to be eaten in a sallad or otherwise before the very crops and tender shoots of the true garden Sperage and indeed they prouoke vrine and diminish the spleen far better it groweth commonly in hedges among bushes and shrubs and most of all in reed-plots The root without-forth is blacke but within of a pale yellow box colour and this is of much more efficacie to draw out broken bones than the aboue-named white Briony Moreouer this peculiar property it hath besides To cure the farcines or sores in horse necks and for this it is thought to be the only thing in the world Said commonly it is that if a man do set an hedge or hay thereof round about a grange or ferm house in the country there will no kites nor hawks nor any such rauening birds of prey come neere so as the pullen and other foul kept about the said ferme shall be secure from their claws or tallons If it be tied about the ankles of a man or the pasterns of laboring horses vnto which there is a fall either of Phlegmatick humors or of a bloud causing the gout in the one and the pains in the other it cureth the same Thus much concerning the sundrie sorts of Vines and their properties respectiue to Physicke As touching Musts or new wines the first and principall difference of them lieth in this that some by nature are white others blacke and others again of a mixt colour between them both Secondly some Musts there be whereof wine is made and others which serue only for cuit but if we regard the artificiall deuises and the carefull industry of man about them there be an infinit number of musts all distinct and different one from the other Thus much may suffice to deliuer fully in generall terms concerning musts or new wines As for their properties There is no must or new wine but it is hurtfull to the stomack though otherwise pleasant to the veines and passages Certes if a man poure downe new wine hastily without breathing or taking the wind between presently as he commeth out of the bain or hot-house hee doth enough to kill himselfe Howbeit of a contrary nature it is to the Cantharides saueth those that are in danger by drinking them A singular counterpoison is new wine in the lees against al serpents but principally the Haemorrhoids and the Salamanders It causeth head-ache and is an enemy to the throat and windpipes wholsome it is for the kidnies the liuer and the inward parts of the bladder for it easeth them all of pain But a singular vertue it hath against the venomous worm or flie Buprestis aboue the rest if one drink it with oile and cast it vp againe by vomit it is an excellent remedy for those who haue taken too much Opium it helpeth those who are in danger of crudled milk within the body such also as are poisoned with hemlock envenomed with the poison Toxica Dorycnium In sum white new wine is not so powerful in operation as others Likewise the Must wherof cuit is made is pleasanter than the rest causes lesse headach As touching the sundrie kinds of wine which are exceeding many as also the vertues and properties of euery seueral sort in manner by it selfe I haue sufficiently discoursed in a former Treatise Neither is there any point more difficult to be handled or that affourdeth greater variety of matter And a man canot readily say Whether wine be more hurtfull or wholsome for our bodies considering the doubtful euent and issue presently on the drinking therof for that somtime it is a remedy and a helpe otherwhiles it proueth to be a mischiefe and a very poison For mine owne part according to my first dessign and purpose I am to treat only of such things as Nature hath brought forth for the health and preseruation of man Wel I wote that Asclepiades hath made one entire volume expressely of the manner how to giue
stark The leaues serue to make a good liniment for to annoint the pitch of the stomacke and their juice applied in manner of a pessarie setleth the mother when it rolleth euery way and is out of her place The greene leaues chewed and applied cure the running skalls in the head the cankers and sores in the mouth all risings and apostemations and likewise the piles A decoction of the said leaues is singular for burns and skals likewise for lims out of joynt if they be bathed therin The very leaues in substance stampedand incorporat with the juice of a peare-quince into an ointment set a reddish yellow colour vpon the haire of the head The floures brought into a liniment with vinegre assuage the paine of the head the same calcined and burnt into ashes within a pot of vnbaked or raw earth either alone or with hony healeth corrosiue sores and putrified vlcers These floures haue a certaine sauor with them which procureth sleep The oile called Gleucinum is astringent and yet it cooleth after the same sort that the oile Oenanthium The Balsame oile called Balm is of all others most pretious as hertofore I haue said in my treatise of odoriferous ointments and of great efficacie against the venome of al serpents It clarifieth the eie-sight mightily and dispatcheth mists and clouds which dimmed the same it easeth all those who draw their breath with difficultie it assuageth impostumations and hard swellings it keepeth bloud from cluttering and is excellent to mundifie foule vlcers singular comfortable to the eares in case of paine hardnesse of hearing singing within to the head also for to assuage the ach for the nerues against shaking trembling and convulsions withal a proper remedy for ruptures It danteth and mortifieth the poison of Aconitum if it be taken with milk If the patient lying sicke of an ague be annointed all ouer therewith it mitigateth the fits comming with shaking and shiuering Howbeit folke must be warie and vse it with moderation for being hot in the highest degree it is caustick and so doth en flame and burne and therfore if a mean be not kept it bringeth a mischiefe for a remedie and doth more harme than good Concerning Malobathrum the nature and sundrie kinds thereof I haue discoursed heretofore Now for the vertues which it hath in Physicke first it prouoketh vrine being stamped the juice drawne out of it with wine by way of expression is excellent to be applied vnto the eyes for to stay their continuall watering the same laid to the forehead as a frontall procureth sleep to them that would gladly take their repose And more effectually it worketh in case the nosethrils also be annointed therewith or if it be drunke with water The leafe of Malabathrum if it be but held vnder the tongue causeth the mouth and the breath to smell sweet like as if it lie among apparell it giueth them a pleasant sauour The oile of Henbane is emollitiue howbeit an enemie to the sinewes certes if it be taken in drinke it troubleth the braine The oile of Lupines called Therminum is likewise an emollitiue and commeth nearest of any to the operation and effects of oile-rosat Touching the oile of Daffodills I haue spoken of it in the treatise of the floures thereof Radish oile cureth the lowsie disease and namely when lice are engendred vpon some long and chronick disease it clenseth the skin of the face from all roughnesse and maketh it slicke and smooth The oile of Sesama cureth the paine of the eares and healeth vlcers which eat as they spread euen such as be morimals and check the Chirurgians hand Oile of Lillies which wee haue named Lirinon Phaselinum and Sirium is most agreeable and wholsom for the kidnies also to procure and maintaine sweat to mollifie the matrice and naturall parts in women to promote digestion inwardly The oil or ointment Selgiticum as we haue already said is comfortable to the sinues like as the grasse-green oile which the Inguinians dwelling vpon the causy or street-way Flamminia vse to sel. Elaeomeli an oil which as I haue declared before issueth from oliue trees in Syria carrieth a certaine tast of hony howbeit their stomacks it maketh to rise at it who licke therof and it is of power to soften the belly It purgeth choler Electiuè if two cyaths thereof be giuen to drink in one hemine of water howbeit these symptomes or accidents do follow them who drinke thereof They lie as it were in a dead sleepe and must eftsoons be awakened Our lustie drunkards who make profession of carousing vse to take one ciath thereof before they sit down to drink one another vnder bourd The oile of Pitch is vsed euery where for to heale the skurfe mange and farcins in beasts Next to vines and oliues Date trees are to be raunged in the highest place and doe cary the greatest name Dates if they be fresh and new doe inebriat and ouerturn the braine and if they be not very wel dried they do cause head-ach neither are they so far as I can see any way good for the stomacke againe they do exasperat the cough and make it worse yet they be great nourishers and cause them to feed who eat of them Our ancients in old time drew a certaine juice or liquor out of them when they were boiled which they gaue vnto sicke persons in stead of an hydromell or honyed water to drinke and that for to refresh them to restore their strength and to quench thirst and for this purpose they preferred the Dates of Thebais in high Aegypt before all others Being eaten as meat especially at meals they are good for them who reach vp bloud The dates Caryotae serue to make a liniment for the stomack the bladder belly guts with an addition of Quince among Being incorporat with wax safron they reduce the black and blew marks remaining after stripes in the skin to their naturall colour Date stones with their kernels are burnt in a new earthen vessel which was neuer occupied before and being thus calcined and their ashes washed they serue in stead of Spodium and doe enter with other ingredients into collyries or eie-salues and with some Nard among they make fukes to paint and imbelish the eye-browes CHAP. V. ¶ Of the Myrabolan Date and the Date Elate THe best Palm or Date tree which beareth a fruit like to Myrabolanes is that which groweth in Aegypt These Dates haue no stones like to others Being taken in vnripe and hard wine they stop the flux of the belly and stay the extraordinary course of womens fleures and do consolidat wounds As touching the Date-tree called Elate or Spathe it affoordeth for vse in Physick the yong buds the leaues and the barke The leaues serue to be applied vnto the midriffe and precordial parts the stomacke liuer and such corosiue vlcers as hardly will be brought to heale and skinne vp The tender
and Acacia 13. Of the common and wild thistle of Ery sisceptrum of the thorne or thystle Appendix of Pyxacanthum or the Barbarie tree of Paliurus of the Holly of the Eugh tree and other bushes with their vertues in Physicke 14. Of the sweet Brier or Eglantine of the Respâ—…ce bush of the white bramble Rhamnus of Lycium of Sarcocolla of the composition named Oporice and all their medicines 15. Of Germander of Perwinke or Lowrie of 〈◊〉 or Oliuell of Chamaesyce of ground yvie of Lauander Cotton of Ampeloprasos or Vine Porret of Stachys or wild Sauge of Clinopodium or Horse-time of Cudweed of Perwinke of Aegypt and their properties 16. Of Wake-Robin of Dragonwort or Serpentine of the garden the greater Dragon-wort of Arisaron of yarrow and Millefoile of bastard Nauew of Myrrhis and Onobrychis with their vertues 17. Of Coriacesia Callicia and Menais with three and twentie other hearbes and their properties which are held by some to serue in Magick Of Considia and Aproxis with others that reduce and reuiue loue againe 18. Of Eriphia Lanaria and water Yarrow with their vertues 19. Of the herbes that growe vpon the head of statues and Images of the hearbes that come out of riuers of the herbe called Lingua simply i. the tongue of herbes growing within sieues and vpon dnnghils of Rhodora of the herbe Impia i. the child before the parents of the herbe Pecten veneris of Nodia of Cleiuers or Goose Erith of Burs of Tordile of Dent de chien or Quiches of Dactylus and Fenigreek with their vertues In summe herein are comprised medicines stories and obseruations a thousand foure hundred and eighteene collected out of Latine Authors C. Volgius Pompeius Lenaeus Sextius Niger and Iulius Bassus who wrate both in Greeke Antonius Castor M. Varro Cornelius Celsus and Fabius Forreine Writers Theophrastus Apollodorus Democritus Orpheus Pythagoras Mago Menander the author of the booke Biochresta Nicander Homer Hesiodus Museus Sophocles and Anaxilaus Physitians Mnestheus Callimachus Phanias the naturall Philosopher Simo Timaristus Hippocrates Chrysippus Diocles Ophion Heraclides Hicesius Dionysius Apollodorus of Cittia Apollodorus the Tarentine Praxagoras Plistonicus Medius Dieuchus Cleophantus Philistio Asclepiades Cratevas Petronius Diodotus Iolla Erasistratus Diagoras Andreas Mnesicles Epicharmus Damion Sosimenes Theopolemus Solon Lycus Metrodorus Olympias the Midwife of Thebes Phyllinus Petreius Miction Glaucia and Xenocrates ¶ IN THE XXV BOOKE ARE CONTAINED the natures of hearbes and weeds that come vp of themselues The reputation that hearbes haue been of When they began first to be vsed Chap. 1. The properties and natures of wild herbes growing of their owne accord 2. What Authours haue written in Latine of the nature and vse of hearbes When the knowledge of simples began first to be practised at Rome What Greeke Authours first wrote of herbes the inuention and finding out of sundry hearbes the Physicke of old time What is the cause that Simples are not so much in request and vse for Physicke as in old time The medicinable vertues of the Eglantine and Serpentary or Dragon 3. Of a certaine venomous fountaine in Almaine the vertues and properties of the herbe Britannica what diseases cause the greatest paines 4. Of Moly of Dodecatheos of Paeonium named otherwise Pentorobus and Glycyside of Panace or Asclepios of Heraclium of Panace Chironeum of Panace Centaureum or Pharnaceum of Heraclium Siderium of Henbane 5. Of the herbe Mercurie female of Parthenium of Hermu-Poea or rather Mercurie of Yarow of Panace Heracleum of Sideritis of Millefoile of Scopa regio of Hemionium Teucrium Splenium Melampodium or blacke Ellebore and how many kinds there be of them The medicinable vertues of blacke and white Ellebore when Ellebore is to be giuen how it is to be taken to whom it is not to be giuen also that it killeth Mice and Rats 6. Of Mithridatium of Scordotis or Scordium of Polemonia otherwise called Philetaeria or Chiliodynama of Eupatorie or Agrimonie of great Centaurie otherwise called Chironium of the lesse Centaurie or Libadium called Fel Terrae i. the gall of the Earth Of Triorches and their vertues 7. Of Clymenus Gentian Lysimachia and Parthenius or Motherwort Mugwort Ambrose Nenuphar Heraclium and Euphorbia with all their vertues medicinable 8. Of Plantaine Buglosse Hounds tongue Oxe-eye or May weed of Scythica Hippice and Ischaemon of Betonie Cantabrica Settarwort of Dittander or Hiberis of Celendine the greater Celendine the lesse or Pilewort of Canaria of Elaphoboscos of Dictamnum of Aristolochia or Hartwort how fishes will come to it for loue of bait and so are soone caught The counterpoysons against stinging of serpents by these herbes abouenamed 9. Of Argemonia of Agaricke Echium Henbane Vervaine Blattaria Lemonia Cinquefoile Carot Persalata the Clot Burre Swines bread or Cyclaminus Harstrang all very good for the sting of serpents 10. Of Danewort or Walwort of Mullin of Thelyphonon Remedies against the sting of Scorpions the biting of Toades and mad Dogs and generally against all poysons 11. Receits and remedies against head-ach and diseases of the head 12. Of Centaurie Celendine Panace and Henbane and Euphorbium all soueraigne medicines for the eies 13. Of Pimpernell or Corchorus of Mandragoras or Circeium of Henbane of Crethmoagrion of Molybdaena of Fumiterre of Galengale of Floure de lis of Cotyledon or Vmbilicus Veneris of Housleeke or Sengreene of Pourcellane of Groundswell of Ephemerum of great Tazill of Crow-foot which affourd medicines against the infirmities and diseases of the eyes eares nosthrils teeth and mouth In summe this Booke doth yeeld of medicines stories and obseruations a thousand two hundred ninetie and two Latine Authours cited M. Varro C. Volgius Pompeius Lenaeus Sextius Niger and Iulius Bassus who both wrote in Greeke Antonius Castor and Cornelius Celsus Forreine Writers Theophrastus Apollodorus Democritus king Iuba Orpheus Pythagoras Mago Menander who wrote Biochresta Nicander Homer Hesiodus Musaeus Sophocles Xanthus and Anaxilaus Physitians Mnestheus Callimachus Phanias the naturall Philosopher Timaristus Simus Hippocrates Chrysippus Diocles Ophion Heraclides Hicesius Dionysius Apollodorus the Tarentine Praxagoras Plistonicus Medius Dieuches Cleophantus Philistio Asclepiades Cratevas Iolla Erasistratus Diagoras Andreas Mnesicles Epicharmus Damion Theopolemus Metrodorus Solon Lycus Olympias the midwife of Thebes Phyllinus Petreius Miction Glaucias and Xenocrates ¶ IN THE XXVI BOOKE ARE CONTAIned the medicines for the parts of mans bodie Chap. 1. Of new maladies and namely of Lichenes what they be and when they began to raign in Italie first Of the Carbuncle of the white Morphew or Leprosie called Elephantiasis and of the Collicke 2. The praise of Hippocrates 3. Of the new practise in Physicke of the Physician Asclepiades and by what meanes hee abolished the old manner of practise and set vp a new 4. The superstitious follie of Magicke is derided Also a discourse touching the foule tettar called Lichenes the remedie thereof and also the infirmities of the throat and chawes 5. Receits and remedies against the kings euil also for
of Rome Noted it hath bin that the shortest time of theit appearance is a seuen-night and the longest eighty daies some of them moue like the wandering planets others are fixed fast and stir not All in maner are seen vnder the very North star called Charlemaignes Wain some in no certain part thereof but especially in that white which hath taken the name of the Milk circle Aristotle saith that many are seene together a thing that no man else hath found out so far as I can learne Mary boisterous windes and much heate of weather are foretokened by them There are of them seene also in Winter season and about the Antarticke South pole but in that place without any beames A terrible one likewise was seene of the people in Ethiopia and Egypt which the King who reigned in that age named Typhon It resembled fire and was pleited and twisted in manner of a wreath grim and hideous to be looked on and no more truly to be counted a star than some knot of fire Sometimes it falleth out that rhe planets and other stars are bespred all ouer with haires but a Comet lightly is neuer seen in the west part of the heauen A fearefull star for the most part this Comet is and not easily expiated as it appeared by the late ciuill troubles when Octauius was Consul as also a second time by the intestine war of Pompey and Caesar. And in our dayes about the time that Claudius Caesar was poysoned and left the Empire to Domitius Nero in the time of whose reigne and gouernment there was another in manner continually seen and euer terrible Men hold opinion that it is materiall for presage to obserue into what quarters it shooteth or what stars power and influence it receiueth also what similitudes it resembleth and in what parts it shineth out and first ariseth For if it be like vnto flutes or hautboies it portendeth somewhat to Musitians if it appeare in the priuy parts of any signe then let ruffians whore-masters and such filthy persons take heed It is respectiue to fine wits and learned men if it put forth a triangular or foure-square figure with euen angles to any scituations of the perpetuall fixed stars And it it is thought to presage yea to sprinkle and put forth poison if seen in the head of the Dragon either North or South In one only place of the whole world namely in a Temple at Rome a Comet is worshipped and adored euen that which by Augustus Caesar himselfe of happy memorie was iudged verie lucky and happy to him who when it began to appeare gaue attendance in person as ouerseer of those playes and games which he made to Venus genetrix not long after the death of his father Caesar in the colledge by him instituted and erected testifying his ioy in these words In those very daies during the solemnities of my Plaies there was seen a blasing star for seuen daies together in that region of the sky which is vnder the North star Septentriones It arose about the 11 houre of the day bright it was and cleare and euidently seene in all lands by that star it was signified as the common sort belceued that the soule of Iulius Caesar was receiued among the diuine powers of the immortal gods In which regard that marke or ensigne of a slar was set to the head of that statue of Iulius Caesar which soone after we dedicated in the Forum Romanum These words published he abroad but in a more inward ioy to himselfe he interpreted and conceiued thus of the thing That this Comet was made for him and that himselfe was in it borne And verily if we wil confesse a truth a healthfull good and happy presage that was to the whole world Some there be who beleeue that these be perpetuall stars and go their course round but are not seen vnlesse they be left by the Sun Others againe are of opinion that they are ingendred casually by some humour and the power of fire together and thereby do melt away and consume CHAP. XXVI ¶ Hipparchus his opinion of the Stars Also historicall examples of Torches Lamps Beames Fiery Darts opening of the Firmnment and other such impressions HIppaachus the foresaid Philosopher a man neuer sufficiently praised as who proued the affinitie of stars with men and none more than he affirming also that our soules were parcell of heauen found out and obserued another new star ingendred in his time and by the motion thereof on what day it first shone he grew presently into a doubt Whether it hapned not very often that new stars should arise and whether those starres also moued not which we imagined to be fixed The same man went so farre that he attempted a thing euen hard for God to performe to deliuer to posteritie the iust number of starres He brought the same stars within the compasse of rule and art deuising certaine instruments to take their seueral places and set out their magnitudes that thereby it might be easily discerned not only whether the old died and new were borne but also whether they moued and which way they tooke their course likewise whether they increased or decreased Thus he left the inheritance of heauen vnto all men if haply any one could be found able to enter vpon it as lawfull heire There be also certaine flaming torches shining out in the sky how be it neuer seene but when they fall Such a one was that which at the time that Germ. Caesar exhibited a shew of Sword-fencers at vtterance ran at noontide in sight of all the people And two sorts there be of them namely Lampades which they call plaine torches and Bolides i. Lances such as thé Mutinians saw in their calamitie when their city was sacked Herein they differ for that those lampes or torches make long traines whiles the forepart only is on a light fire but Bolis burnes all ouer and draweth a longer taile There appeare and shine out after the same manner certain beams which the Greekes call Docus like as when the Lacedemonians being vanquished at sea lost the empire and dominion of Greece The firmament also is seene to chinke and open and this they name Chasma CHAP. XXVij ¶ Of the strange colours of the Sky THere appeareth in the Sky also a resemblance of bloud and than which nothing is more dread and feared of men a fiery impression falling from out of heauen to earth like as it hapned in the 3 yeare of the 107 Olympias at what time King Philip made all Greece to shake with fire and sword And these things verily I suppose to come at certaine times by course of nature like as other things and not as the most part thinke of sundry causes which the subtill wit and head of man is able to deuise They haue indeed been fore-runners of exceeding great miseries but I suppose those calamities hapned not because these impressions were but these therefore
a vapor with a dissonant sound like as when a red hot yron maketh an hissing being thrust into water a smokie fume walmeth vp with many turnings like waues Hereupon stormes do breed And if this flatuositie or vapour doe struggle and wrestle within the cloud from thence it commeth that thunderclaps be heard but if it breake through still burning then flieth out the thunderbolt if it be longer time a strugling and cannot pierce through then leams and flashes are seene With these the cloud is clouen with the other burst in sunder Moreouer thunders are nothing els but the blows and thumps giuen by the fires beating hard vpon the clouds and therefore presently the firy chinkes and rifts of those clouds do glitter and shine Possible it is also that the breath and winde eleuated from the earth being repelled back and kept downe by the stars so held in and restrained within a cloud may thunder whiles Nature choketh the rumbling sound all the while it striueth and quarelleth but sendeth forth a crack when it breaketh out as we see in a bladder puffed vp with winde Likewise it may be that the same wind or spirit whatsoeuer is set on fire by fretting and rubbing as it violently passeth headlong downe It may also be stricken by the conflict of two clouds as if two stones hit one against another and so the leams and flashes sparkle forth so as all these accidents happen by chance-medley and be irregular And hereupon come those bruitish vain lightenings such as haue no natural reason but are occasioned by these impressions aboue said With these are mountains and seas smitten and of this kind be all other blasts and bolts that do no hurt to liuing creatures As for those that come from aboue and of ordinary causes yea and from their proper stars they alwaies presage and foretell future euents In like manner as touching the windes or rather blasts I would not denie but that they may proceed from a dry exhalation of the earth void of all moisture neither is it impossible but that they do arise out of waters breathing and sending out an aire which neither can thicken into a mist nor gather into clouds also they may be driuen by the lugitation and impulsion of the Sun because the winde is conceiued to be nought els but the fluctuation and waiuing of the aire and that by many means also for some we see to rise out of riuers firths and seas euen when they be stil and calme as also others out of the earth which winds they name Altani And those verily when they come backe againe from the sea are called Tropaei if they go onward Apogaei CHAP. XLIIII ¶ What is the reason of the resounding and doubling of the Eccho BVt the windings of hils and their often turuings their many tops their crests and ridges also bending like an elbow or broken and arched as it were into shoulders together with the hollow noukes of vallies do cut vnequally the aire that reboundeth them fro which is the cause of reciprocall voices called Ecchoes answering one another in many places when a man doth holla or houpe among them CHAP. XLV ¶ Of Windes againe NOw there be certaine caues and holes which breed windes continually without end like as that is one which we see in the edge of Dalmatia with a wide mouth gaping leading to a deep downfall into which if you cast any matter of light weight be the day neuer so calm otherwise there ariseth presently a stormie tempest like a whirle puffe The places name is Senta Moreouer in the prouince Cyrenaica there is reported to be a rock consecrated to the South-wind which without prophanation may not be touched with mans hand but if it be presently the South wind doth arise and cast vp heaps of sand Also in many houses there be hollow places deuised made by mans hand for receipt of wind which being inclosed with shade and darknesse gather their blasts Whereby we may see how all winds haue one cause or other But great difference there is betweene such blasts and winds As for these they be setled and ordinarie continually blowing which not some smal tracts particular places but whole lands do feele which are not light gales nor stormy puffes named Aurae and Procellae but simply called winds by the Masculine name Venti which whether they arise by the continuall motion of the heauen and the contrary course of the Planets or whether this winde be that spirit of Nature that engendreth all things wandering to and fro as it were in some wombe or rather the aire beaten and driuen by the vnlike influences and raies of the straying starres or planets and the multiplicitie of their beames or whether all winds come from their owne stars namely these planets neerer at hand or rather fall from them that be fixed in the firmament Plaine and euident it is that guided they by an ordinary law of Nature not altogether vnknowne although it be not yet throughly knowne CHAP. XLVI ¶ The Natures and obseruations of the Windes THe old Greeke writers not so few as twentie haue set downe and recorded their obseruations of the Winds I maruell so much the more that the World being so at discord and diuided into kingdomes that is to say dismembred as it was so many men haue had care to seek after these things so intricate and hard to be found out and namely in time of wars and amid those places where was no safe lodging nor abode and especially when pyrats and rouers common enemies to mankinde held welneere all passages I maruell I say that at this day each man in his owne tract and countrey taketh more light and true knowledge of some things by their commentaries and bookes who neuer set foot there than they doe by the skill and information of home-born inhabitants whereas now in time of so blessed and ioious peace and vnder a prince who taketh such delight in the progresse of the State and of all good arts no new thing is learned by farther inquisition nay nor so much as the inuentions of old writers are throughly vnderstood And verily it cannot be said that greater rewards were in those daies giuen considering that the bountie of Fortune was dispersed and put into many mens hands and in truth most of these deepe Clerkes and learned men sought out these secrets for no other reward or regard than to doe good vnto posteritie But now mens manners are waxen old and decay now all good customes are in the waine and notwithstanding that the fruit of learning be as great as euer it was and the recompences as liberall yet men are become idle in this behalfe The seas are open to all an infinite multitude of saylers haue discouered all coasts whatsoeuer they saile through and arriue familiarly at euery shore all for gaine and lucre but none for knowledge and cunning Their mindes altogether blinded and bent vpon nothing
Verbanus Ticinus in Benacus Mincius in Seuinus Ollius in Lemanus lake the riuer Rhodanus As for this riuer beyond the Alpes and the former in Italy for many a mile as they passe carry forth their owne waters from thence where they abode as strangers and none other and the same no larger than they brought in with them This is reported likewise of Orontes a riuer in Syria and of many others Some riuers again there be which vpon an hatred to the sea run euen vnder the bottom thereof as Arethusa a fountaine in Syracusa wherein this is obserued that whatsoeuer is cast into it commeth vp againe at the riuer Alpheus which running through Olimpia falleth into the sea shore of Peloponnesus There go vnder the ground and shew aboue the ground againe Lycus in Asia Erasinus in Argolica Tygris in Mesopotamia And at Athens what things soeuer are drowned in the fountain of Aesculapius be cast vp againe in Phalericus Also in the Atinate plaines the riuer that is buried vnder the earth twentie miles off appeareth againe So doth Timavus in the territory of Aquileia In Asphaltites a lake in Iury which ingenders Bittumen nothing will sinke nor can be drowned no more than in Arethusa in the greater Armenia and the same verily notwithstanding it be full of Nitre breedeth and feedeth fish In the Salentines countrey neere the towne Manduria there is a lake brim full lade out of it as much water as you will it decreaseth not ne yet augmenteth poure in neuer so much to it In a riuer of the Ciconians and in the lake Velinus in the Picene territory if wood be throwne in it is couered ouer with a stony barke Also in Surius a riuer of Colchis the like is to be seen insomuch as ye shall haue very often the bark that ouergrowes it as hard as any stone Likewise in the riuer Silarus beyond Surrentum not twigs onely that are dipped therein but leaues also grow to be stones and yet the vater thereof otherwise is good and wholesome to be drunk In the very passage and issue of Reatine meere there growes a rocke of stone bigger and bigger by the dashing of the water Moreouer in the red sea there be oliue trees and other shrubs that grow vp green There be also very many springs which haue a wonderfull nature for their boiling heat yea and that vpon the very mountains of the Alpes and in the sea between Italy and Aenaria as in the Firth Baianus and the riuer Liris and many others For in diuers and sundry places ye may draw fresh water out of the sea namely about the islands Chelidoniae and Aradus yea and in the Ocean about Gades In the hot waters of the Padouans there grow greene herbes in those of the Pisanes there breed frogs and at Vetulonij in Hetruria not far from the sea fishes also are bread In the territory Casinas there is a riuer called Scatebra which is cold and in Summer time more abounding and fuller of water than in winter in it as also in Stymphalis of Arcadia there breed come forth of it little water-mice or small Limpins In Dodone the fountain of Iupiter being exceeding chill and cold so as it quencheth and putteth out light torches dipped therein yet if you hold the same neere vnto it when they are extinct and put out it setteth them on fire againe The same spring at noon-tide euermore giueth ouer to boile and wants water for which cause they call it Anapauomenos anon it begins to rise vntill it be midnight and then it hath great abundance and from that time againe it faints by little and little In Illyricum there is a cold spring ouer which if ye spread any clothes they catch a fire and burne The fountaine of Iupiter Hammon in the day time is cold all night it is seething hot In the Troglodites countrey there is a fountaine of the Sunne called the sweet Spring about noon it is exceeding cold anon by little and little it growes to be warm but at midnight it passeth and is offensiue for heate and bitternes The head of the Po at noon in Summer giueth ouer as it were and intermits to boile and is then euer drie In the Island Tenedus there is a spring which after the Sommer Sunsteed euermore from the third houre of the night vnto the sixt doth ouerflow And in the isle Delos the fountain snopus falleth and rises after the same sort that Nilus doth and together with it Ouer against the riuer Timavus there is a little Island within the sea hauing hot wels which ebbe and flow as the tide of the sea doth and iust therwith In the territory of the Pitinates beyond Apenninus the riuer Nouanus at euery midsummertime swelles and runnes ouer the bankes but in mid-winter is cleane dry In the Faliscane countrie the water of the riuer Clitumnus makes the oxen and kine white that drinke of it And in Baeotia the riuer Melas maketh sheepe blacke Cephyssus running out of the same lake causeth them to be white and Penius again giues them a black colour but Xanthus neere vnto Ilium coloureth them reddish and hereupon the riuer tooke that name In the land of Pontus there is a riuer that watereth the plaines of Astace vpon which those mares that feed giue blacke milke for the food and sustenance of that nation In the Reatine territorie there is a fountaine called Neminia which according to the springing and issuing forth out of this or that place signifyeth the change in the price of corne and victuals In the hauen of Brind is there is a Well that yeeldeth vnto sailers and sea-fering-men water which will neuer corrupt The water of Lincestis called Acidula i. Soure maketh men drunken no lesse than wine Semblably in Paphlagonia and in the territory of Cales Also in the Isle Andros there is a fountaine neere the temple of Father Bacchus which vpon the Nones of Ianuarie alwaies runneth with water that tasteth like wine as Mulianus verily beleeueth who was a man that had beene thrice Consull The name of the spring is Dios Tecnosia Neere vnto Nonacris in Arcadia there is the riuer Styx differing from the other Styx neither in smell nor colour drinke of it once and it is present death Also in Berosus an hill of the Tauri there be three fountaines the water whereof whosoeuer drinketh is sure to die of it remedilesse and yet without paine In the Countrey of Spaine called Carrinensis two Springs there bee that runne neere together the one rejecteth the other swalloweth vp all things In the same countrey there is another water which sheweth all fishes within it of a golden colour but if they be once out of that water they be like to other fishes In the Cannensian territory neere to the lake Larius there is a large and broad Well which euery houre continually swelleth and falleth downe againe In the Island Sydonia before Lesbos an hot fountaine there is that runneth
it fetcheth such windings to and fro that oftentimes it is taken for to run back againe from whence it came The first countrie that it passeth through is Apamia and from thence it proceedeth to Eumenitica and so forward through the plaines Bergylletici Last of all hee commeth gently into Caria and when hee hath watered and ouerflowed all that land with a most fat and fruitful mud that he leaueth behind him about ten stadia from Miletus he dischargeth himselfe into the sea Neer to that riuer is the hill Latmus the citie Heraclea surnamed Caryca of a hill of that name also Myus which as the report goeth was the first citie founded by the Ionians after their arriuall from Athens Naulochum and Pyrene Also vpon the sea coast the towne called Trogilia and the riuer Gessus Moreouer this quarter all the Ionians resort vnto in their deuotion and therefore named it is Panionia Neere vnto it was built a priueledged place for all fugitiues as appeareth by the name Phygela as also the town Marathesium stood there sometime and aboue it the renowmed citie Magnesia surnamed Vpon Maeander of the foundation of that other Magnesia in Thessalie From Ephesus it is 15 miles and from Trallais thither it is three miles farther Beforetime called it was Thessaloce Androlitia and being otherwise situate vpon the strond it tooke away with it other Islands called Derasides and ioine them to the firme land from out of the sea More within the maine standeth Thyatira in old time called Pelopia and Euhippa vpon the riuer Lycus But vpon the sea coast yee haue Manteium and Ephesus founded in times past by the Amazones But many names it had gone through before for in time of the Troiane war Alopes it was called soone after Ortygia and Morges yea and it took name Smyrne with addition of Trachaea i. rough Samornium and Ptelea Mounted it is vpon the hill Pione and hath the riuer Caystrus vnder it which commeth out of the Cilbian hills and bringeth downe with it many other riuers and principally is maintained and enriched with the lake Pegaseum which dischargeth it selfe by reason of the riuer Phyrites that runneth into it With these riuers he bringeth downe a good quantitie of mud whereby he increaseth the land for now already a good way within the land is the Island Syrie ioined to the continent A fountain there is within the citie called Callipia and two riuers height both Selinus comming from diuers parts enuiron the temple of Diana After you haue been at Ephesus you come to another Manteium inhabited by the Colophonians and within the country Colophon it selfe with the riuer Halesus vnder it Then meet you with the noble temple of Apollo Clarius and Lebedos And in this quarter somtime was to be seen the towne Notium The promontory also Coryceon is in this coast and the mountaine Mimas which reaches out 250 miles and endeth at length in the plaines within the continent that ioyne vnto it This is the place wherein Alexander the Great commanded a trench seuen miles long and an halfe to be cut through the plain for to ioyne two gulfes in one and to bring Erythree and Mimas together for to be enuironed round therewith Neere this city Erythree were sometimes the townes Pteleon Helos and Dorion now there is the riuer Aleon and the cape Corineum vpon the mount Mimas Clazomene Partheniae and Hippi called Chytophoria hauing beene sometime Islands the same Alexander caused to be vnited to the firme land for the space of two stadia There haue perished within-forth and beene drowned Daphnus Hermesia and Sipylum called before-time Tantalis notwithstanding it had beene the chiefe citie of Moeonia situate in that place where now is the meere or lake Sale And for that cause Archaeopolis succeeded in that preeminence and after it Colpe and in stead thereof Lebade As you returne from thence toward the sea side about twelue miles off you come vpon the citie Smyrna built by an Amazonite but repaired and fortified by Alexander the Great Situat it is pleasantly vpon the riuer Melis which hath his head and source not far off The most renowned hils in Asia for the most part spred themselues at large in this tract to wit Mastusia on the back side of Smyrna and Termetis that meets close to the foot of Olympus This hil Olympus endeth at the mountain Tmolus Tmolus at Cadmus and Cadmus at Taurus When you are past Smyrna you come into certain plains occasioned by the riuer Hermus and therefore adopted in his name This riuer hath his beginning neer to Doryleus a city of Phrygia and takes into it many other cities principally Phryge which giues name to the whole nation and diuides Phrygia and Caria asunder Moreouer Lyllus Crios which also are big and great by reason of other riuers of Phrygia Mysia and Lydia which enter into them In the very mouth of this riuer stood somtime the towne Temnos but now in the very vtmost nouke of the gulfe certain stony rocks called Myrmeces Also the towne Leuce vpon the cape so called somtime an Island it was and last of all Phocaea which limiteth and boundeth Ionia But to returne to Smyrna the most part of Aeolia whereof we will speake anon repaires commonly thither to their Parliament and Assises Likewise the Macedonians syrnamed Hircani as also the Magnetes from Sipylum But vnto Ephesus which is another principal and famous city of Asia resort those that dwell farther off to wit the Caesarians Metropolites Cylbianes the Myso-Macedonians as well the higher as the lower the Mastaurians Brullites Hyppepoenians and Dios-Hieriteae CHAP. XXX ¶ Aeolis Troas and Pergamus Aeolis in old time Mysia confronts vpon Ionia so doth Troas which bounds on the coast of Hellespontus Being then past Phocaea you meet with the port Ascanius the place where sometime Larissa stood and now Cyme and Myrina which loueth to be called Sebastopolis Within the firme land Aegae Attalia Posidea Neon-tichos and Temnos But vpon the coast the riuer Titanus and a city taking name thereof The time was when a man might haue seen there the city Grynia but now there is but an hauen and the bare ground by reason that the Island is taken into it and ioyned thereto The towne Elaea is not farre from thence and the riuer Caicus comming out of Mysia Moreouer the towne Pytane and the Riuer Canaius Other townes there were in old time but they are lost and perished namely Canae Lysimachia Atarnaea Carenae Cisthene Cilla Cocillum Thebae Astyre Chrysa Paloestepsis Gergithos and Neandros Yet at this day are to be seen the city Perperene beyond it the tract and territory Heracleotes the towne Coryphas the riuer Gryliosolius the quarter called Aphrodisias before-time Politice Orgas the country and Scepsis the new The riuer Evenus vpon the banke whereof stood once Lyrmessos and Miletos but now they are gon In this tract is the mountain Ida. Moreouer in the sea coast Adramytteos
Man I Am abashed much and very sory to thinke and consider what a poore and ticklish beginning man hath the proudest creature of all others when the smel only of the snuffe of a candle put out is the cause oft times that a woman fals into vntimely trauel And yet see these great tyrans and such as delight only in carnage and bloudshed haue no better original Thou then that presumest vpon thy bodily strength thou that standest so much vpon Fortunes fauors and hast thy hands full of her bountifull gifts taking thy self not to be a foster-child and nurceling of hers but a naturall son borne of her owne body thou I say that busiest thy head euermore and settest thy minde vpon conquests and victories thou that art vpon euerie good successe and pleasant gale of prosperity puffed vp with pride and takest thy selfe for a god neuer thinkest that thy life when it was hung vpon so single a thred with so small a matter might haue miscarried Nay more than that euen at this day art thou in more danger than so if thou chance to be but stung or bitten with the little tooth of a Serpent or if but the verie kernell of a raisin go downe thy throat wrong as it did with the poet Anacreon which cost him his life Or as Fabius a Senator of Rome and Lord chiefe Iustice besides who in a draught of milk fortuned to swallow a small haire which strangled him Well then thinke better of this point for he verily that will euermore set before his eies and remember the frailty of mans estate shall liue in this world vprightly and in euen ballance without inclining more to one side than vnto another CHAP. VIII ¶ Of those that be called Agrippae TO be borne with the feet forward is vnnaturall and vnkinde and such as come in that order into the world the Latines were wont to name Agrippae as if a man should say born hardly and with much ado And in this maner M. Agrippa as they say came forth of his mothers wombe the only man almost known to haue brought any good fortune with him and prospered in the world of all that euer were in that sort borne And yet as happy as hee was and how well soeuer he chieued in some respects he was much pained with the gout and passed all his youth and many a day after in bloudy wars and in danger of a thousand deaths And hauing escaped all these harmfull perils vnfortunate he was in all his children and especially in his two daughters the Agrippinae both who brought forth those wicked Imps so pernicious to the whole earth namely C. Caligula and Domitius Nero two Emperours but two fiery flames to consume and waste all mankinde Moreouer his infelicitie herein appeared that hee liued so short a time dying as he did a strong and lusty man in the 51 yeare of his age tormented and vexed with the adulteries of his owne wife oppressed with the heauy and intolerable seruitude that he was in vnder his wiues father In which regards it seems he paid full deare for the presage of his vntoward birth and natiuitie Moreouer Agrippina hath left in writing That her son Nero also late Emperor who all the time of his reigne was a very enemy to all mankinde was borne with his feet forward And in truth by the right order and course of Nature a man is brought into the world with his head first but is carried forth with his feet formost CHAP. IX ¶ Births cut out of the wombe BVt more fortunate are they a great deale whose birth costeth their mothers life parting from them by means of incision like as Scipio Africanus the former who came into the world in that manner and the first that euer was sirnamed Caesar was so called for the like cause And hereof comes the fore-name also of the Caesones In like sort also was that Manlius borne who entred Carthage with an army CHAP. X. ¶ Who are Vopisci THe Latines were wont to call him Vopiscus or rather Opiscus who being one of two twins hapned to stay behinde in the wombe the full terme when as the other miscarried by abortiue and vntimely birth And in this case there chance right strange accidents although they fall out very seldome CHAP. XI ¶ Examples of many Infants at one birth FEw creatures there be besides women that seeke after the male and can skill of their companie after they be once conceiued with yong one kind verily or two at the most there is knowne to conceiue double one vpon the other We find in books written by Physitians and in their records who haue studied such matters and gathered obseruations that there haue passed or bin cast away from a woman at one only slip 12 distinct children but when it falleth out that there is some pretty time betwixt two conceptions both of them may carry their full time and be borne with life as appeared in Hercules and his brother Iphiclus as also in that harlot who was deliuered of two infants one like her owne husband the other resembling the Adulterer likewise in a Proconnesian bond-seruant who was in one day gotten with childe by her master and also by his Baily or Procurator and being afterwards deliuered of two children they bewrayed plainly who were their fathers Moreouer there was another who went her full time euen nine moneths for one childe but was deliuered of another at the fiue moneths end Furthermore in another who hauing dropped downe one childe at the end of seuen moneths by the end of the ninth came with two twinnes more Ouer and besides it is commonly seen that children be not alwaies answerable to the parents in euery respect for of perfect fathers and mothers who haue all their limmes there are begotten children vnperfect and wanting some members and contrariwise parents there are maimed and defectiue in some part who neuerthelesse beget children that are sound and entire and with all that they should haue It is seen also that infants are at a default of those parts their parents misse yea and they carry often times certaine markes moles blemishes and skarres of their fathers and mothers as like as may be Among the people called Dakes the children vsually beare the markes imprinted in their armes of them from whom they descend euen to the fourth generation CHAP. XII ¶ Examples of many that haue been very like and resembled one another IN the race and family of the Lepidi it is said there were three of them not successiuely one after another but out of order after some intermission who had euery one of them at their birth a little pannicle or thin skin growing ouer their eye Some haue bin known to resemble their grandsires and of two twins one hath beene like the father the other the mother but he that was borne a yere after hath bin so like his elder brother as if he had bin one of the twins Some women
may wonder the more at this matter and come to the full conceit thereof if he do but consider that it was counted an exceeding great iourny that Tiberius Nero made with three chariots shifting from one to the other fresh in a day and a night riding post haste vnto his brother Drusus then lying sicke in Germany and all that was but 200 miles CHAP. XXI ¶ Examples of good Eie-sight VVE find in histories as incredible examples as any be as touching quicknesse of Eie-sight Cicero hath recorded that the whole Poeme of Homer called Ilias was written in a piece of parchment which was able to be couched within a nut shel The same writer maketh mention of one that could see and discerne out-right 135 miles And M. Varro nameth the man and saith he was called Strabo who affirmeth thus much moreouer of him that during the Carthaginian war he was wont to stand and watch vpon Lilybaeum a cape in Sicily to discouer the enemies fleet loosing out of the hauen of Carthage and was able to tel the very just number of the ships Callicrates vsed to make Pismires and other such like little creatures out of yvorie so artificially that other men could not discerne the parts of their body one from another There was one Myrmecides excellent in that kinde of workmanship who of the same matter wrought a chariot with foure wheeles and as many steeds in so little roome that a silly flie might couer all with her wings Also he made a ship with all the tackling to it no bigger than a little bee might hide it with her wings CHAP. XXII ¶ Of Hearing AS for hearing there is one example wonderfull For the bruit of that battell whereupon Sybaris was forced sacked was heard the very same day as far as Olympia in Greece As touching the news of the Cimbrians defeature as also the report and tidings of the victorie ouer the Persians made by the Roman Castores the same day that it was atchieued were held for diuine reuelations rather than humane reports and the knowledge thereof came more by way of vision than otherwise CHAP. XXIII ¶ Examples of Patience MAny are the calamities of this life incident to mankind which haue affoorded infinite trials of mens patience in suffering paines in their body Among others for women the example of Leaena the courtisan is most rare and singular who for all the dolorous tortures that could be deuised would neuer bewray Harmodius and Aristogiton who slew the tyranous king And for men Anaxarchus did the like who being for such a cause examined vpon the racke in the midst of his torments bit off his own tongue with his teeth the only means wherby he might haply reueale and disclose the matter in question and spit it in the face of the ty rant that put him to his torture CHAP. XXIIII ¶ Examples of Memorie AS touching memorie the greatest gift of Nature and most necessary of all others for this life hard it is to iudge and say who of all others deserued the chiefe honor therein considering how many men haue excelled and woon much glory in that behalfe King Cyrus was able to call euery souldier that he had through his whole army by his owne name L. Scipio could do the like by all the citizens of Rome Semblably Cineas Embassador of king Pyrrhus the very next day that he came to Rome both knew and also saluted by name all the Senate the whole degrees of Gentlemen and Cauallerie in the citie Mithridates the king reigned ouer two and twentie nations of diuers languages and in so many tongues gaue lawes and ministred justice vnto them without truchman and when he was to make speech vnto them in publicke assembly respectiuely to euery nation he did performe it in their own tongue without interpretor One Charmidas or Charmadas a Grecian was of so singular a memory that hâ—… was able to deliuer by heart the contents word for word of all the books that a man would call for out of any librarie as if he read the same presently within book At length the practise hereof was reduced into an art of Memory deuised and inuented first by Simonides Melicus and afterwards brought to perfection and consummate by Metrodorus Sepsius by which a man might learne to rehearse againe the same words of any discourse whatsoeuer after once hearing and yet there is not a thing in man so fraile and brittle againe as it whether it be occasioned by disease by casual iniuries or occurrents or by feare through which it faileth somtime in part and otherwhiles decaieth generally and is clean lost One with the stroke of a stone fell presently to forget his letters onely and could reade no more otherwise his memorie serued him well enough Another with a fall from the roofe of a very high house lost the remembrance of his owne mother his next kinsfolks friends and neighbors Another in a sicknesse of his forgot his own seruants about him and Messala Corvinus the great Orator vpon the like occasion forgot his own proper name So fickle and slipperie is mans memorie that oftentimes it assaieth and goeth about to leese it selfe euen whiles a mans body is otherwise quiet and in health But let sleep creepe at any time vpon vs it seemeth to be vanquished so as our poore spirit wandreth vp and downe to seeke where it is and to recouer it againe CHAP. XXV ¶ The praise of C. Iulius Caesar. FOr vigor and quicknesse of spirit I take it that C. Caesar Dictatour went beyond all men besides I speake not now of his vertue and constancie neither of his high reach and deep wit whereby he apprehended the knowledge of all things vnder the cope of heauen but of that agilitie of minde that prompt and ready conceit of his as nimble and actiue as the verie fire I haue heard it reported of him that he was wont to write to reade to indite letters and withall to giue audience to suiters heare their causes all at one instant And being emploied as you know he was in so great and important affairs he ordinarily indited letters to foure secretaries or clerkes at once and when he was free from other greater businesse he would otherwise finde seuen of them work at one time The same man in his daies fought 50 set battels with banners displaied against his enemies in which point he alone out-went M. Marcellus who was seene 40 times saue one in the field Besides the carnage of citizens that hee made in the ciuill wars when he obtained victory he put to the sword 1192000 of his enemies in one battell or other And certes for mine owne part I hold this for no speciall glory and commendation of his considering so great iniurie done to mankind by this effusion of bloud which in some part hâ—… hath confessed himselfe in that he hath forborne to set downe the ouerthrowes bloud-shed of his aduersaries fellow citizens during the
at what time as the citie was besieged by the Lacedaemonians god Bacchus appeared sundry times by way of vision in a dreame to Lysander their king admonishng him to suffer his delight and him whom he set most store by for to be enterred Whereupon the king made diligent enquirie who lately was departed this life in Athens and by relation of the citizens soone found it out and perceiued who it was that the foresaid god meant and so gaue them leaue to bury Sophocles in peace and to performe his funeralls without any molestation or impeachment CHAP. XXX ¶ Of Plato Ennius Virgil M. Varro and M. Cicero DEnis the tyrant borne otherwise to pride and cruelty being aduertised of the comming and arriuall of Plato that great clerke and prince of learning sent out to meet him a ship adorned with goodly ribbands and himselfe mounted vpon a charriot drawne with foure white horses receiued him as if he had bin a K. at the hauen when hee dis barked and came aland Isocrates sold one Oration that he made for 20 talents of gold Aeschines that famous oratour of Athens in his time hauing at Rhodes rehearsed that accusatorie oration which he had made against Demosthenes read withall his aduersaries defence againe by occasion wherof he was confined to Rhodes and there liued in banishment and when the Rhodians that heard it wondred thereat Nay qd Aeschines you would haue maruelled much more at it if you had heard the man himselfe pronouncing it pleading Viua voce yeelding thus as you see a notable testimony of his aduersary in the time of his aduersitie The Athenians exiled Thucidides their Generall Captaine but after he had written his Chronicle they called him home again wondring at the eloquence of the man whose vertue and prowesse they had before condemned The KK of Egypt and Macedonie gaue a singular testimony how much they honoured Menander the Comicall poet in that they sent Embassadors for him and a fleet to waft him for his more securitie but he wan vnto himselfe more fame and glory by his owne setled iudgement for that he esteemed more of his owne priuat study and following his book than of all those fauors offered vnto him from great princes Moreouer there haue bin great personages and men of high calling at Rome who haue shewed the like in token how they esteemed and regarded the learned crew of forrein nations Cn. Pompeius after he had dispatched the war against Mithridates intended to go and visit Posidonius that renowned professor of learning and when hee should enter into the mans house gaue streight commandement to his Lictors or Huishers that they should not after their ordinary maner with all others râ—…p at his dore and this great warriour vnto whom both the East and West parts of the world had submitted vailed bonet as it were and based his armes and ensignes of state which his officers carried before the verie dore of this Philosopher Cato syrnamed Censorius vpon a time when there came to Rome that noble embassage from Athens consisting of three the wisest sages among them when hee had heard Carneades speake who was one of those three gaue his opinion presently That those embassadors were to be dispatched and sent away with all speed for feare least if that man argued the case it would be an hard piece of worke to sound and find out the truth so pregnant were his reasons and so witty his discourses But Lord what a change is there now in mens manners and dispositions This Cato the renowned Censor both now and at all times else could not abide to haue any Grecian within Italy but alwaies gaue judgement to them all in generall to be expelled but after him there comes his nephew once remoued or his nephewes sonne who brought one of their Philosophers ouer with him when he had bin military Tribune or knight marshall and another likewise vpon his embassage to Cypres And verily a wonder it is and a memorable thing to consider how these two Catoes differed in another point for the former of them could not away with the Greek tongue the other that killed himselfe at Vtica esteemed it as highly But to leaue strangers let vs now speak of our own countrimen so renowned in this behalfe Scipio Africanus the elder gaue expresse order and commanded That the statue of Q. Ennius the poet should be set ouer his tomb to the end that the great name and stile of Africanus or indeed the booty rather that hee had woon and carried away from a third part of the world should in his monument vpon the reliques of his ashes be read together with the title of this poet Augustus Caesar late Emperor expressely forbad that the Poeme of Virgil should be burned notwithstanding that he by his last wil and testament on a modesty gaue order to the contrary by which means there grew more credit and authority vnto the Poet than if himself had approued and allowed his owne verses Asinius Pollio was the first that set vp a publicke Library at Rome raised of the spoile and pillage gained from the enemies In the Library of which gentleman was erected the image of M. Varro euen whiles he liued a thing that won as great honor to M. Varro in mine opinion considering that amongst those fine wits whereof a great number then flourished at Rome his hap only was to haue the garland at the hands of a noble citizen and an excellent Orator beside as that other nauall crowne gained him which Pompey the Great bestowed vpon him for his good seruice in the pyrats war Infinite examples more there are of vs Romans if a man would seeke after them and search them out for this only nation hath brought forth more excellent and accomplished men in euery kinde than all the lands besides of the whole world But what a sin should I commit if I proceeded farther and speake not of thee O M. Cicero and yet how should I possibly write of thee according to thy worthinesse would a man require a better proofe of thy condigne praises than the most honorable testimony of the whole body of that people in generall and the acts onely of thy Consulship chosen out of al other vertuous deeds throughout thy whole life Thine eloquence was the cause that all the Tribes renownced the law Agraria as touching the diuision of Lands a-among the commons albeit their greatest maintenance and nourishment consisted therein Through thy persuasion they pardoned Roscius the first author of that seditious bill and law whereby the States and degrees of the city were placed distinctly in their seats at the Theatre they were content I say and tooke it well that they were noted and pointed at for this difference in taking place and rowms which he first brought in By means of thy orations the children of proscript and outlawed persons were ashamed and abashed to sue for honorable dignities in common-weale thy witty head it was that put
war between them after another sort and that the occasion thereof ariseth from a naturall cause for say they the Elephants bloud is exceeding cold and therefore the dragons be wonderful desirous thereof to refresh and coole themselues therewith during the parching hot season of the yeare And to this purpose they ly vnder the water waiting their time to take the Elephants at a vantage when they are drinking where they catch fast hold first of their trunke and they haue not so soone clasped and intangled it with their taile but they set their venomous teeth in the Elephants eare the onely part of all their body which they cannot reach vnto with their trunke and so bite it hard now these dragons are so big withal that they are able to receiue all the elephants bloud thus are they sucked dry vntill they fall down dead and the dragons also drunke with their bloud are squeesed vnder them and so dy together CHAP. XIII ¶ Of Dragons IN Aethyopia there be as great dragons bred as in India namely 20 cubits long but I maruell much at this one thing that king Iuba should think they are crested They are bred most in a countrey of Aethyopia where the Asachaei inhabit It is reported that vpon their coast they are inwrapped foure or fiue of them one within another like to a hurdle or lattise-worke and thus passe the seas to find out better pasturage in Arabia cutting the waues and bearing their heads aloft which serue them in stead of sailes CHAP. XIV ¶ Of monstrous great Serpents and namely of those called Boae MEgasthes writeth that there be serpents among the Indians growne to that bignesse that they are able to swallow stags or bulls all whole Metrodorus saith that about the riuer Rhyndacus in Pontus there be serpents that catch and deuoure the fowles of the aire be they neuer so swift winged and soare they neuer so high Well knowne it is that Attilius Regulus Generall vnder the Romans during the wars against the Carthaginians assailed a Serpent neere the riuer Bagrada which caried in length 120 foot and before hee could conquer him was driuen to discharge vpon him arrowes quarrels stones bullets and such like shot out of brakes slings and other engins of artillery as if he had giuen the assualt to some strong warlike towne the proofe whereof was to be seen by the marks remaining in his skin and chawes which vntill the war of Numantia remained in a temple or conspicuous place of Rome And this is the more credible for that we see in Italy other serpents named Boae so big and huge that in the daies of the Emperor Claudius there was one of them killed in the Vaticane within the belly whereof there was found an infant all whole This serpent liueth at the first of kines milk and thereof takes the name Boae As for other beasts which ordinarily of late are brought from all parts into Italy and oftentimes haue there been seen needlesse it is for me to describe their formes in particular curiously CHAP. XV. ¶ Of Scythian beasts and those which are bred in the North parts VEry few sauage beasts are ingendred in Scythia for want of trees pasturage Few likewise in Germany bordering vpon it Howbeit that countrâ—… bâ—…ings forth certaine kindes of goodly great wild boeufs to wit the Bisontes mained with a collar like Lions and the Vri a mighty strong beast and a swift which the ignorant people call Buffles whereas indeed the Buffle is bred in Africke and somewhat resembles a calfe rather or stag The Northerne regions bring forth wilde horses which there are found in great troups like as in Asia and in Africk there are to be seen wild Asses Moreouer a certain beast called the Alce very like to a horse but that his eares are longer and his necke also with two markes distinguishing them asunder Moreouer in the Island of Scandinavia there is a beast called Machlis not much vnlike the Alce aboue-named common he is there much talk we haue heard of him howbeit in these parts he was neuer seen He resembles I say the Alce but that he hath neither ioynt in the hough nor pasternes in his hind legs and therefore he neuer lieth downe but sleepeth leaning to a tree Wherefore the hunters that lie in wait for these beasts cut down the trees while they are asleepe and so take them otherwise they should neuer be taken they are so swift of foot that it is wonderfull Their vpper lip is exceeding great and therefore as they grase and feed they go retrograde lest if they went passant forward they should fold that lip double vnder their muzzle There is they say a wild beast in Paeonia called Bonasus with a maine like an horse otherwise resembling a bull mary his hornes bend so inward with their tips toward his head that they serue him in no stead at all for fight either to offend or defend himself and therefore all the helpe hee hath is in his good footmanship and otherwhiles in his flight by dunging which he will squirt out from behind him three acres in length This his ordure is so strong and hot that it burneth them that pursue him like fire if haply they touch it A strange thing it is and wonderfull that the Leopards Panthers Lions and such like beasts as they go draw in the points of their claws within their body as it were into sheaths because they should neither breake nor wax blunt but be alwaies keene and sharpe also that when they runne they should turne the hooked nailes of their pawes back and neuer stretch them forth at length but when they meane to assaile or strike any thing CHAP. XVI ¶ Of Lions THe Lions are then in their kind most strong and couragious when the haire of their main or collar is so long that it couereth both necke and shoulders And this comes to them at a certain age namely to those that are ingendred by Lions for such as haue Pards to their sires neuer haue this ornament no more than the Lionesse These Lionesses are very lecherous aad this is the cause that the Lions are so fell and cruell This Africke knowes best and sees most and especially in a great drought when for want of water a great number of wild beasts resort by troups to those few riuers that be there and meet together and hereupon it is that so many strange shaped beasts of a mixt and mungrell kind are there bred whiles the males either perforce or for pleasure leap and couer the females of all sorts From hence it is also that the Greeks haue this common prouerbe That Africke euermore brings forth some new and strange thing or other The Lion knoweth by sent and smell of the Pard when the Lionesse his mate hath played false and suffered her selfe to be couered by him and presently with all his might and maine runneth vpon her for to chastise and punish her And therefore when
pittifull groning of a man they are saddle-backed their snout is camoise and flat turning vp And this is the cause that all of them after a wonderfull sort know the name Simo and take great pleasure that men should so call them The Dolphin is a creature that carries a louing affection not only vnto man but also to musicke delighted he is with harmony in song but especially with the sound of the water instrument or such kind of pipes Of a man he is nothing affraid neither auoides from him as a stranger but of himselfe meeteth their ships plaieth and disportes himselfe and fetcheth a thousand friskes and gamboles before them He will swim along by the mariners as it were for a wager who should make way most speedily and alwaies outgoeth them saile they with neuer so good a fore-wind In the daies of Augustus Caesar the Emperour there was a Dolphin entred the gulfe or poole Lucrinus which loued wondrous well a certain boy a poore mans son who vsing to goe euery day to schoole from Baianum to Puteoli was woont also about noone-tide to stay at the water side and to call vnto the Dolphin Simo Simo and many times would giue him fragments of bread which of purpose he euer brought with him and by this meanes allured the Dolphin to come ordinarily vnto him at his call I would make scruple and bash to insert this tale in my storie and to tell it out but that Mecenas Fabianus Flauius Alfius and many others haue set it downe for a truth in their chronicles Well in processe of time at what houre soeuer of the day this boy lured for him called Simo were the Dolphin neuer so close hidden in any secret and blind corner out he would and come abroad yea and skud amaine to this lad and taking bread and other victuals at his hand would gently offer him his back to mount vpon and then downe went the sharpe pointed prickles of his fins which he would put vp as it were within a sheath for fear of hurting the boy Thus when he had him once on his back he would carry him ouer the broad arme of the sea as farre as Puteoli to schoole and in like manner conuey him backe again home and thus he continued for many yeeres rogether so long as the child liued But when the boy was fallen sicke dead yet the Dolphin gaue not ouer his haunt but vsually came to the wonted place missing the lad seemed to be heauie and mourne againe vntill for very griefe sorrow as it is doubtles to be presumed he also was found dead vpon the shore Another Dolphin there was not many yeeres since vpon the coast of Affricke neere to the citie Hippo called also Diarrhytus which in like manner would take meat at a mans hand suffer himselfe gently to be handled play with them that swom and bathed in the sea and carrie on his backe whosoeuer would get vpon it Now it fell out so that Flauianus the Proconsull or lieutenant Generall in Affrick vnder the Romans perfumed and besmeered this Dolphin vpon a time with a sweet ointment but the fish as it should seem smelling this new strange smel fell to be drow sie and sleepie and hulled to and fro with the waues as if it had bin halfe dead and as though some iniurie had bin offered vnto him went his way and kept aloufe and would not conuerse any more for certaine moneths with men as before-time Howbeit in the end he came again to Hippo to the great wonder astonishment of all that saw him But the wrongs that some great persons and lords did vnto the citizens of Hippo such I mean as vsed to come for to see this sight and namely the hard measure offered to those townesmen who to their great cost gaue them entertainement caused the men of Hippo to kill the poore Dolphin The like is reported in the citie Iassos long before this time for there was seene a Dolphin many a day to affect a certaine boy so as he would come vnto him wheresoeuer he chanced to espy him But whiles at one time aboue the rest he followed egerly after the lad going toward the towne he shot himselfe vpon the dry sands before he was aware and died forthwith In regard hereof Alexander the Great ordained that the said young boy should afterwards be the chiefe priest and sacrificer to Neptune in Babylon collecting by the singular fancie that this Dolphin cast vnto him That it was a great signe of the speciall loue of that god of the sea vnto him and that he would be good and gracious to men for his sake Egesidemus writeth that in the same Iassus there was another boy named Hermias who hauing vsed likewise to ride vpon a Dolphin ouer the sea chanced at the last in a sodaine storme to be ouer-whelmed with waues as he sat vpon his backe and so died and was brought backe dead by the Dolphin who confessing as it were that he was the cause of his death would neuer retire againe into the sea but launced himselfe vpon the sands and there died on the drie land The semblable happened at Naupactum by the report of Theophrastus But there is no end of examples in this kinde for the Amphilochians and Tarentines testifie as much as touching Dolphins which haue bin enamoured of little boies which induceth me the rather to beleeue the tale that goes of Arion This Arion being a notable musition plaier of the harpe chanced to fall into the hands of certain mariners in the ship where he was who supposing that he had good store of mony about him which he had gotten with his instrument were in hand to kill him and cast him ouer boord for the said monie and so to intercept all his gaines he seeing himselfe at their deuotion and mercie besought them in the best manner that he could deuise to suffer him yet before he died to play one fit of mirth with his harpe which they granted at his musicke and sound of harpe a number of Dolphins came flocking about him which done they turned him ouer shipbord into the sea where one of the Dolphins tooke him vpon his backe and carried him safe to the bay of Taenarus To conclude and knit vp this matter In Languedoc within the prouince of Narbon and in the territorie of Naemausium there is a standing poole or dead water called Laterra wherein men and Dolphins together vse to fish for at one certain time of the yeare an infinite number of fishes called Mullets taking the vantage of the tide when the water doth ebbe at câ—…tain narrow weares and passages with great force break forth of the said poole into the sea and by reason of that violence no nets can be set and pitched against them strong enough to abide and beare their huge weight and the streame of the water rogether if so be men were not cunning and craftie to wait and espie their
CHerry-trees Peach-trees and generally all that either haue Greek names or any other but Latine are held for aliens in Italy Howbeit some of them now are infranchised and taken for free denizens among vs so familiar they be made vnto vs and they like the ground so well But of them we will speake in the ranke of those trees that beare fruit For this present we are to treat of those that be meere forrainers and for good lucke sake begin we will with that which of all others is most holesome to wit the Citron tree called the Assyrian tree and by some the Median Apple-tree the fruit whereof is a counterpoison and singular Antidote against all venome The tree it selfe bears the leafe like vnto an Arbut tree mary it hath certain pricks among The Pomecitron is not so good to be chewed and eaten of it selfe howbeit very odoriferous it is as be the leaues also therof which are vsed to be laid in wardrobes among apparel for the smel thereof wil passe into the cloths and preserue them from the moth spider and such like vermin This tree beares fruit at all times of the yere for when some fall for ripenesse others wax mellow and some again begin then but to shew their blossome Many forrainers haue assaied to transplant them and set them in their own countries in regard of their excellent vertue to resist poisons And for this purpose they haue caried yong quick sets or plants of them in earthen pots made for the purpose and inclosed them well with earth howbeit the roots had liberty giuen them to breath as it were at certain holes for the nones because they should not be clunged and pent in prison Which I rather note because I would haue it known once for all and well remembred That all plants which are to be remoued and carried far off must be set very close and vsed in the same order most precisely But for all the care and paines taken about it for to make it grow in other countries yet would it not forget Media and Persia nor like in any other soile but soon die This is that fruit the kernels wherof as I said before the lords and great men of Parthia vse to seeth with their meat for to correct their soure and stinking breaths And verily there is not a tree in all Media of better respect than is the Citron tree As for those trees in the region of the Seres which beare the silk wool or cotton we haue spoken thereof in our Cosmographie when we made mention of that Nation CHAP. IV. ¶ Of Indian Trees and when the Ebene was first knowne at Rome IN like manner discoursed we haue of the talnesse and greatnesse of Indian trees Of all those trees which be appropriate to India Virgil hath highly commended the Ebene aboue all the rest and he affirmeth That it will not grow elswhere But Herodotus assigneth it rather to Aethyopia and saith That euery three yeares the Aethyopians were wont to pay by way of tribute vnto the kings of Persia 100 billets of the timber of that tree together with gold and yuory Moreouer I must not forget since that mine author hath so expressely set it downe that the Ethyopians in the same regard were bound to pay in like manner twentie great and massie Elephants teeth In such estimation was yuorie then namely in the 310 yeare after the foundation of Rome at what time as Herodotus put forth that historie at Thurij in Italy The more maruell it is that we giue so much credit to that writer saying as he doth How that in his time before there was no man knowne in Asia or Greece nor yet to himselfe who had not so much as seen the riuer Po. The Card or Map of Ethiopia which lately was presented and shewed to the Emperor Nero as wc haue before said doth sufficiently testifie That from Syene which confines and bounds the lands of our Empire and dominion as far as to the Island Meroe for the space of 996 miles there is little Ebene found and that in all those parts betweene there be few other trees to be found but Date trees Which peraduenture may be a cause That Ebene was counted a rich tribute and deserued the third place after Gold Iuory Certes Pompey the Great in that solemnitie of triumph for the victorie and conquest of Mithridates shewed one Ebene tree Fabianus is of opinion that it wil not burne howbeit experience sheweth the contrary for take fire it will yea and cast a pleasant and sweet perfume Two kindes there be of Ebene the one which as it is the better so likewise it is rare and geason it carrieth a trunke like another tree without knot the wood thereof is blacke and shining and at the very first sight faire and pleasant to the eie without any art or polishing at all The other is more like a shrub and putteth forth twigs as the Tretrifolie A plant this is commonly to be seene in all parts of India CHAP. V. ¶ Of certaine Thornes and Fig-trees of India THere groweth also among the Indians a Thorne resembling the later kind of Ebene and found to serue for the vse of candles for no sooner commeth it neere vnto the fire but it catcheth a flame the fire leaps presently vnto it Now it remains to speak of those trees which set Alexander the Great into a wonder at what time as vpon his victory he made a voiage for to discouer that part of the world First and formost there is a fig tree there which beareth very small and slender Figs. The property of this tree is to plant and set it selfe without mans help For it spreadeth out with mighty armes and the lowest water-boughes vnderneath doe bend so downward to the very earth that they touch it againe and lie vpon it whereby within one yeares space they will take fast root in the ground and put forth a new Spring round about the Mother-tree so as these branches thus growing seeme like a traile or border of arbors most curiously and artificially made Within these bowers the Sheepherds vse to repose and take vp their harbor in Summer time for shady and coole it is and besides well fenced all about with a set of young trees in manner of a pallaisado A most pleasant and delectable sight whether a man either come neere and looke into it or stand a farre off so faire and pleasant an arbour it is all greene and framed arch-wise in just compasse Now the vpper boughes thereof stand vp on high and beare a goodly tuft and head aloft like a little thicke wood or forrest And the body or trunke of the Mother is so great that many of them take vp in compasse threescore paces and as for the foresaid shadow it couereth in ground a quarter of a mile The leaues of this Tree are verie broad made in forme of an Amazonian or Turkish Targuet which is the reason that the
there are again who would haue it to be Stephanos Alexandri i. Alexanders chaplet This plant also is full of branches carrying a thicker and softer leafe than the common Lawrell and if a man tast therof it will set both the mouth also the throat on a fire the beries that it beareth be blackish inclining to a kind of red It hath bin noted and obserued in antient writers that no kind of Lawrel in old time was to be found in the Island Corsica and yet in these daies it is there planted and thriueth well enough The Lawrell betokeneth peace insomuch as if a branch therof be held out among armed enemies it is a signe of quietnes and cessation from armes Moreouer the Romans were wont to send their missiue letters adorned with Lawrell when they would giue aduertisement of some special good newes or ioiful victory they vsed besides to garnish therewith their lances pikes and spears The knitches also and bunches of rods born before grand captains and generals of the army were beautified set out with Bay branches Herewith they stick and bedecke the bosome of that most great and gracious Iupiter so often as there commeth glad tidings of some late fresh victory And all this honor is don to the Lawrell not because it is alwaies green nor for that it pretendeth and sheweth peace for in both these respects the oliue is to be preferred before it but in this regard that the fairest and goodliest of them grow vpon the mountain Pernassus and therefore also is it so acceptable to Apollo for which cause as may appeare by L. Brutus the Roman kings in old time were accustomed to send great presents and oblations thither to the temple of Apollo or peraduenture it was in memoriall of that ground that bare Lawrell trees and which according to the Oracle of Apollo the said L. Brutus kissed when he intended the publicke freedom of the city and minded to deliuer it from the yoke and seruitude of the kings or haply because it alone either set with the hand before the dores or brought into the house is not blasted and smitten with lightning And these reasons verily induce me to beleeue that in times past they chose the Bay tree for their triumphs before any other rather than as Massurius would haue it because the Lawrell serued for a solemne perfume to expiate and assoile the carnage and execution don vpon the enemies And so far were men in old time from common vsing either Lawrell or oliue and polluting the same in any prophane vse that they could not be permitted to burne thereof vpon their altars when they sacrificed or offered Incense although it were to doe honour to the gods and to appease their wrath and indignation Euident it is that the Bay tree leaues by their crackling that they make in the fire do put it from them and seem to detest and abhor it It cureth moreouer the diseases of the guts the matrice and the bladder also the lassitude and wearinesse of the sinews It is reported that Tiberius Caesar the Emperor vsed euer to weare a chaplet thereof when it thundered for feare of being strucken with lightening Moreouer certaine strange and memorable euents as touching the Bay tree haue happened about Augustus Caesar. For Liuia Drusilla who afterwards by mariage with the said Augustus became Empresse and was honored with the title of Augusta at what time as she was affianced and espoused to Caesar chanced as she sat still to haue an exceeding white hen to light into her lap which an Aegle flying aloft let fall from on high without any harme at all to the said pullet Now when this lady or princesse aduised considered wel the hen without being astonied and amazed at so strange miraculous a sight she perceiued that the hen held in her bill a lawrell branch full of Bay berries The Wisards and Soothsaiers were consulted withall about this wonderful occurrent and gaue aduise in the end to preserue the bird and the brood therof likewise to set in the ground the foresaid branch and duly to tend and look vnto it Both the one and the other was done and excecuted accordingly about a certain house in the country belonging to the Caesars seated vpon the riuer Tyberis neere the causey or port way Flaminia about nine miles from Rome which house therupon was called Ad Gallinas as a man would say The signe of the Hens Well the foresaid branch mightily prospered and proued afterwards to be a groue of Laurels which all came from the first stock In processe of time Augustus Caesar when he entred in Triumph into Rome caried in his hand a branch of that Bay tree yea and wore a chaplet vpon his head of the same and so did all the Emperors and Caesars his successors after him Hereof also came the custome to set againe and replant those branches of Lawrel that emperors held in their hands when they triumphed therof continue whole woods groues distinguished each one by their seuerall names and perhaps therefore were they named Triumphall This is the only tree known in the Latine tongue whereof a man beareth the name Againe there is not another tree besides that hath the leafe to cary in the Latine tongue a denomination and name by it selfe apart as well as the tree for whereas the plant is named Laurus the leafe we call Laurea Moreouer there is a place likewise within the city of Rome on mount Aventine retaining stil the name Loretum which first was imposed vpon it by reason of a lawrell groue which grew there The Bay tree also is vsed in solemne purifications before the gods and to conclude this would be resolued and agreed vpon by the way That if a branch therof be set it will prosper and become a tree although Democritus and Theophrastus make some doubt thereof Thus much of Lawrels and other domesticall and natiue trees it remaineth now to write of those that be wild and sauage and of their natures THE SIXTEENTH BOOKE OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS The Proeme HItherto haue we treated of those Trees that beare Apples and such like fruits which likewise with their mild iuice and sweet liquors made our meats first delight some and taught vs to mingle together with the necessarie food for sustentation of our liues that which maketh it delicate and pleasant to content our taste as well those trees that naturally were so in the beginning as those which through the industry and skill of man what by graffing and what by wedding them as it were to others became toothsome and delectable to our tongue whereby also we haue gratified in some sort wild beasts and done pleasure to the foules of the aire It followeth now by order that we should discourse likewise of trees that beare Mast those trees I say which ministred the first food vnto our forefathers and were the nources that fed and
odoriferous any wood is the more durable also it is and euerlasting Next to these trees aboue rehearsed the wood of the Mulberrie tree is most commended which in tract of time as it growes to be old waxes also blacke Moreouer some kinds of wood as they be more lasting than other so they continue better being emploied in one kind of work than they do in another The Elme timber will well abide the aire and the wind The wild Oke Robur loueth to stand within the ground and the common Oke is good in the water let it bee vsed aboue ground to take the aire and the weather it will cast warpe and cleaue too bad The Larch wood agreeth passing wel with water works and so doth the black Alder. As for the Oke Robur it will corrupt and rot in the sea The Beech will doe well in water and the Walnut tree likewise but to stand within the earth they are principall good and haue no fellow And for the Iuniper it will hold the owne being laid vnder ground but for building aboue in the open aire it is excellent good The Beech and the Cerus wood rot quickly The smal Oke called Esculus canot abide the water The Cherrie tree wood is firme and fast the Elme and the Ash are tough how beit they will soone settle downward and sag being charged with any weight but bend they will before they break and in case before they were fallen they stood a while in the wood after they had a kerfe round about for their superfluous moisture to run out vntill they were well dried they would be the better and sure in building It is commonly said that the Larch wood if it be put into ships at sea is subject to wormes like as al other kinds of wood vnlesse it be the wild and tame Oliue For to conclude some timber is more readie to corrupt and be marred in the sea and others againe vpon the land CHAP. XLI ¶ Of wormes that breed in wood OF vermine that eat into wood there be 4 kinds The first are called in Latine Teredines a very great head they haue for the proportion of the body and with their teeth they gnaw These are found only in ships at sea and indeed properly none other be Teredines A second sort there be and those are land wormes or mothes named Tineae But a third kind resembling gnats the Greeks tearme by the name of Thripes In the fourth place bee the little wormes whereof some are bred of the putrified humor and corruption in the very timber like as others againe engender in trees of a worme called Cerastes for hauing gnawne and eaten so much that he hath roume enough to turne him about within the hole which he first made hee engendreth this other worm Now some wood there is so bitter that none of these wermin will breed in it as the Cypresse others likewise so hard that they cannot eat into it as the Box. It is a generall opinion that if the Firre be barked about the budding times at such an age of the Moon as hath been before said it will neuer putrifie in the water Reported it is by those that accompanied Alexander the great in his voiage into the East that in the Isle Tylos lying within the red sea there be certain trees that serue for timber to build ships the which were known to continue two hundred yeares and being drowned in the sea were found with the wood nothing at all perished They affirmed moreouer that in the same Island there grew little plants or shrubs no thicker than would wel serue for walking staues to cary in a mans hand the wood whereof was massie and ponderous striped also and spotted in manner of a Tygres skin but so brittle withall that if it chanced to fall vpon a thing harder than it selfe it would breake into fitters like glasse CHAP. XLII ¶ Of timber good for Architecture and Carpentrie what wood will serue for this or that worke and which is the strongest and surest timber for roufes of building WEe haue here in Italie wood and timber that will cleaue of it selfe For which cause our Maister Carpenters giue order to besmeare them with beasts dung and so to lie a drying that the wind and piercing aire should not hurt them The joists and plankes made of Firre and Larch are very strong to beare a great weight although they bee laid in length ouerthwart Contrariwise the Rafters made of the wild Oke Robur and Oliue wood wil bend yeeld vnder their load whereas the other named before do resist mainly withstand neither will they easily break vnlesse they haue much wrong nay sooner do they rot than faile otherwise in strength The Date-tree wood also is tough and strong for it yeeldeth not but curbeth the contrarie way The Poplar setteth and bendeth downeward whereas the Date-tree contrariwise rises vpward archwise The Pine and the Cypres are not subject either to rottennesse or worme-eating The Walnut tree wood soone bendeth and is saddle-backt as it lieth for thereof also they often vse to make beames and rafters but before that it breaketh it will giue wâ—…ing by a cracke which saued many a mans life in the Island Antandros at what time as being within the common baines they were skared with the crack that the floore gaue and ran forth speedily before all fell Pines Pitch trees and Allar are very good for to make pumps and conduit-pipes to conuey water and for this purpose their wood is boared hollow lying buried vnder the ground they will continue many a yeare sound and good let them bee vncouered without any mould and lie aboue ground they will quickly decay But if water also stand aboue the wood a wonder it is to see how they will harden therewith and endure Firre or Deale wood is of all other surest and strongest for roufes aboue head the same also is passing good for dore leaues for bolts and barres also in all seelings and wainscot or whatsoeuer it bee whether Greekish Campaine or Sicilian it is best and maketh very faire worke A man shall see the fine shauings thereof run alwaies round and winding like the tendrills of a vine as the Ioyner runneth ouer the painels and quarters with his plainer Moreouer the timber of it is commendable for coaches and chariots and there is not a wood that makes a better and stronger joynt with glew than it doth insomuch as the sound plank will sooner cleaue in any other place than in the joynt where it was glewed CHAP. XLIII ¶ Of glewing timber of rent clouen and sawen painell GReat cunning there is in making strong glew and in the feat of joyning with it as well in regard of seelings and wainscot made of thin bourd and painell as of marquetry other inlaid workes and for this purpose Ioyners doe chuse the mistresse threadie grain that is most streight which some call the Fertill veine because ordinarily it breedeth others and
were holden to call the Commons away from their market affaires Also the manner in those daies was to take their sleepe and repose in good straw and litter Yea and when speech was of glory and renowne men would call it by no other term but Adorea of Ador a kind of fine red wheat Where by the way I haue in great admiration the antique words of those times and it doth me good to think how significant they were For thus we read in the sacred Pontificall Commentaries of the high priests For the Augurie or solemne sacrifice called Canarium let there be certain daies appointed to wit before the corn shew eare out of the hose yea and before that it come into it But to return againe to the praise of Husbandry When the world was thus addicted and giuen to Agriculture Italy was not only well prouided and sufficiently furnished of corne without any help from out prouinces but also all kind of grain and victuals were in those daies so exceeding cheap as it is incredible for Manius Martius a Plebeian Edile of Rome was the first man that serued the people wheat at one Asse the Modius and after him Minutius Augurinus the eleuenth Tribune of the commons euen he who indited that mutinous and seditious citizen Sp. Melius brought down the price of wheat for 3 market daies to an Asse the Modius The people therefore of Rome in regard of this good deed of his erected a statue for him without the gate Trigemina and that with such affection and deuotion that euery man contributed somewhat thereto by way of beneuolence Trebius also in the time of his Aedileship caused wheat to be sold vnto the people at the same rate to wit one Asse a Modius For which cause there were 2 statues also in memorial of him set vp both in the Capitoll and also in Palatium and himselfe when he was departed this life had this honor done vnto him by the people at his exequies as to be carried on their shoulders to his funerall fire It is reported moreouer That in the very same yeare wherein the great goddesse Cybele called also the mother of the gods was brought to Rome there was a more plentifull haruest that Summer and corn was at a lower price than had bin known in ten yeares before Likewise M. Varro hath left in writing That when L. Metellus made shew of so many Elephants in his triumph at Rome a Modius of good red wheat was worth no more than one Asse also a gallon of wine cost no more And as for drie figges thirty pound weight carried no higher price and a man might haue bought a pound of Oile oliue and 12 pound of flesh at the very same reckoning And yet all this plenty and cheapnesse proceeded not from the great domaines and large possessions of those priuate persons that incroched vpon their neighbors and hemmed them within narrow compasse For by the law published by Stolo Licinius prouided it was that no Roman citizen should hold in priuat aboue fiue hundred acres The rigor of which law or statute was extended and practised vpon the Law-maker himselfe and by vertue thereof he was condemned who for to possesse aboue that proportion and to defraud the meaning of the said Act purchased more lands in the name of his Son Loe what might be the proportion and measure of possessions allowed euen then when as the State and Common-wealth of Rome was in the prime and began to flourish And as for the Oration verily of Manius Curius after such triumphs of his and when he had subdued and brought vnder the obeisance of the Roman Empire and laid to their dominion so many forrein nations what it was euery man knoweth wherin he deliuered this speech That he was not to be counted a good man but a dangerous citizen who could not content himselfe with a close of seuen acres of ground And to say a truth after that the kings were banished out of Rome and their regiment abolished this was the very proportion of land assigned to a Roman Commoner If this be so What might be the cause of so great plenty abundance aforesaid in those daies Certes this nothing els great LL and generals of the field as it should seem tilled themselues their ground with their own hands the Earth again for her part taking no small pleasure as it were to be eared and broken vp with ploughes Laureat and ploughmen Triumphant strained her selfe to yeeld increase to the vttermost Like it is also that these braue men and worthy personages were as curious in sowing a ground with corne as in ordinance of a battell in array as diligent I say in disposing and ordering of their lands as in pitching of a field and commonly euery thing that commeth vnder good hands the more neat and cleane that the vsage thereof is and the greater paines that is taken about it the better it thriueth and prospereth afterwards What shall we say more was not C. Attilius Serranus when the honorable dignity of Consulship was presented vnto him with commission to conduct the Roman army found sowing his own field and planting trees whereupon he took that syrname Serranus As for Quintius Cincinnatus a purseuant or messenger of the Senat brought vnto him the letters patents of his Dictatorship at what time as he was in proper person ploughing a piece of ground of his owne containing foure acres and no more which are now called Prata Quintiana i. Quintius his medowes lying within the Vaticane and as it is reported not onely bare-headed was hee and open breasted but also all naked and full of dust The foresaid officer or sergeant taking him in this maner Do on your cloths sir quoth he and couer your body that I may deliuer vnto you the charge that I haue from the Senate and people of Rome Where note by the way that such Pursevants and Sergeants in those daies were named Viatores for that eftsoones they were sent to fetch both Senatours and Generall captaines out of the fields where they were at worke but now see how the times be changed They that doe this businesse in the field what are they but bond-slaues fettered condemned malefactors manacled and in one word noted persons and such as are branded and marked in their visage with an hot yron Howbeit the Earth whom wee call our Mother and whom wee would seem to worship is not so deafe and sencelesse but she knoweth well enough how shee is by them depriued of that honour which was done in old time vnto her insomuch as wee may well weet that against her will shee yeeldeth fruit as shee doth howsoeuer wee would haue it thought by these glorious titles giuen vnto her that she is nothing displeased therewith namely to be labored and wrought by such vile and base hirelings But we forsooth do maruell that the labor of these contemptible bond slaues and abiect villains doth not render the like
leaue the heauen and those coelestiall Bodies in their maiestie What is the cause that as the Magnet or loadstone draweth iron vnto it so there is another stone abhorreth the same and driueth iron from it What should the reason be of the Diamond that peerlesse stone the chiefe iewell wherein our rich worldings repose their greatest ioy and delight a stone otherwise inuincible and which no force and violence besides can conquer but that it remaineth still infâ—…ngible and yet that the simple bloud of a poore Goat is able to burst it in pieces Besides many other secrets in nature as strange yea and more miraculous All which we purpose to reserue vnto their seuer all places and will speake of them in order Mean while may it please the Reader to pardon vs and to take in good part the manner of our entrance into this matter for albeit we shall deale in the beginning with the smallest and basest things of all others yet such they be as are wholsome and concerne much the health of man and the maintenance of his life And first will we set in handwith the garden and the herbes that wee finde there CHAP. I. ¶ Of the wilde Cucumber and the juice thereof Elaterium THis wild Cucumber as we haue said heretofore is far lesse than that of the Garden Out of the fruit hereof there is a medicinable juice drawne which the Physitians call Elaterium For to get this juice men must not stay vntill the Cucumber be fullâ—… ripe for vnles it be taken betimes and cut down the sooner it wil leap flurt in the handling from the stele whereto it hangeth against their faces with no smal danger of their eye-sight Now when it is once gathered they keepe it soone whole night The next morrow they make an incision and slit it with the edge of a cane They vse to strew ashes also thereupon to restrain and keep down the liquor which issueth forth in such abundance which done they presse the said juice forth andreceiue it in raine water wherin it setleth and afterwards when it is dried in the Sunne they make it vp into Trochisques And certaine these Trochisques are soueraigne for many purposes to the great good and benefit of mankind For first and foremost it cureth the dimnesse and other defects or imperfections of the eyes it healeth also the vlcers of the eye lids It is said moreouer that if a man rub neuer so little of this juice vpon vine roots there will no birds come neere to pecke or once touch the grapes that shall hang thereon The root of this wild Cucumber if it be boiled in vinegre and made into a liniment and so applied is singular good for all kinds of gout but the juice of the said root helpeth the tooth-ach The root being dried and incorporat with rosin cureth the ringworme tettar wild scab or skurf which some cal Psora and Lichenes it discusseth and healeth the swelling kernels behind the eare the angrie pushes also and biles in other Emunctories called Pani and reduceth the stooles or skars left after any sore and other skarres to their fresh and natiue colour againe The juice of the leaues dopped with vinegre into the ears is a remedie for deafenesse As for the liquor concrete of this cucumber named elaterium the right season of making it is in autumne neither is there a drug that the Apothecaries hath which lasteth longer than it doth howbeit before it be three yeres old it begins not to be in force for any purpose that a man shal vse it and yet if one would occupie it fresh and new before that time he must correct the foresaid Trosch es with vinegre dissoluing them therin ouer a soft fire in a new earthen pot neuer occupied before but the elder they be the better and more effectuall they are insomuch as by the report of Theophrastus Elaterium hath bin kept and continued good 200 yeares And for fiftie yeares it is so strong full of vertue that it wil put out the light of a candle or lamp for this is the triall and proofe of good Elaterium it being set neer therto before that it puts out the light it cause the candle to sparkle vpward and downward That which is pale of color and smooth is better than that which is of a greenish grasse color rough in hand the same also is somwhat bitter withall Moreouer it is said that if a woman desire to haue children do cary about her the fruit of this wild Cucumber fast tied to her bodie she shall the sooner conceiue and proue with child prouided alwaies that in the gathering the said Cucumber touched not the ground in any case Also if it be lapped within the wooll of a Ram be bound to the loins of a woman in trauell of childbirth so that she be not her selfware therof she shal haue the better speed and easier deliuerance but then so soon as the infant the mother be parted the said Cucumber must be had out of the house in all hast where the woman lyeth Those writers who magnifie these wild Cucumbers and set great store by them affirm That the best kind of them groweth in Arabia and the next about Cyrenae but others say That the principall be in Arcadia That the plant resembleth Turnsol That betweene the leaues and branches thereof there groweth the fruit as big as a Wallnut with a white taile turning vp backeward in manner of a Scorpions taile whereupon some there bee who giue it the name of the Scorpion Cucumber True it is indeed that as wel the fruit it selfe as the juice therof called Elaterium be most effectuall against the pricke or sting of the Scorpion as also that it is a medicine purgatiue of the bellie but especially cleanseth the wombe or matrice of women The ordinarie dose is from half an Obulus to a Solid i. an obole or half a scruple according to the strength of the patient A greater receit than one Obulus killeth him or her that taketh it but being taken within that quantitie aboue named in some broth or conuenient liquor it is passing good for the dropsie yea and to euacuat those filthie humors thar engender the lowsie diseas Being tempered with honey and old oile and so reduced into a thin ointment or liniment it cureth the Squinancie and such diseases incident to the windpipes CHAP. II. ¶ Of the Serpentine Cucumber called otherwise the Wandering Cucumber also of the Garden Cucumbers Melons or Pompions MAny there be of opinion that the Serpentine Cucumber among vs which others call the wandring Cucumber is the same that the former Cucumber which yeeldeth Elaterium The decoction whereof is of that vertue that whatsoeuer is besprinckled therewith no myce wil come neer to touch it The same being sodden in vinegre and brought to the consistence of an ointment is a present remedie to allay the pains of gout as
within the bodie like as it stancheth bleeding at the nose if it be stamped and put vp into the nosethrils and otherwise a collution therof to wash the mouth withall doth much good to the teeth Semblably the juice distilled into the ears allaies their pain prouided alwaies as I haue often said alreadie that a mean and measure be kept As for the juice of the wild Rue if it be tempered either with oile of roses or of baies or els mingled with Cumin Honie it helpeth those that are hard of hearing discusseth the ringing sound in the ears Moreouer the juice of rue stamped and drawne with vinegre is excellent good to be instilled or let drop from on high by way of Embrochation vpon the region of the brain and temples of the head for the phrensie Some put thereto wild running Thime also and baies therewith annointing the head and neck of the patient Others haue prescribed it in case of Lethargie to those that can do no other but sleepe continually for to smel vnto And those haue giuen counsel also to them that be subject to the falling sicknesse for to drinke the juice thereof sodden in foure Cyaths of water before the fit came on them for to preuent and auoid the intollerable cold which they should endure as also to those that be apt to chill for cold to be eaten with meat raw Rue sends out euen the bloudie vrine which is gathered into the blader And as Hippocrates is of opinion If it be drunk with sweet thicke and grosse wine it causeth womens floures to come downe it expelleth the after-birth yea and the dead infant within the womb And therefore he aduiseth women in trauel to haue those naturall parts annointed with Rue yea to sit ouer a suffumigation made therof Diocles maketh a cataplasm with Rue Vinegre Hony Barly floure for faintings cold sweats and tremblings of the heart Likewise against the torments of the smal guts commonly called the Iliak passion he appointeth to take the decoction thereof in Oile and to receiue the same in lockes of wooll and so to be applied vnto the vpper region of the belly Many doe set downe two drams thereof drie and one dram and a halfe of Brimstone as an excellent receit to bee taken by those that reach and spit vp filthy and stinking matter but if they cast or send vp bloud they should drinke the decoction of three branches thereof in wine It is an ordinarie practise in case of the Dysenterie or bloudie Flix to giue it stamped first with cheese in wine but they mingle therewith Bitumen and so crum or break it into their drink against the difficulty of taking wind Also three drams of the seed therof is giuen in drinke to those that are fallen from a loft for to dissolue the bruised and cluttered bloud within them Item Take one pound or pint of oile of wine one sextar or wine quart seeth the leaues of Rue herin that oile so prepared is singular good for to annoint parts which are benummed and in manner mortified and blacke with cold Moreouer considering that it is diuretical as Hippocrates thinketh and doth prouoke vrine I canot but wonder at some who giue it as a thing that staieth vrin therefore appoint it to be drunke by those that cannot hold their water The inunction thereof with Allum and Hony clean seth the dry wild scab leprosy Likewise with Morel or Nightshade hogs grease and Bulls tallow it scoureth the Morphew taketh away werts discusseth and dispatcheth the Kings euil and such like tumors In like manner it killeth the fretting hot humor called S. Anthonies fire being applied to the place with vinegre Honny or Cerusse i. white Lead like as it cureth the Carbuncle laid too with vinegre alone Some there be who prescribe Laserpitium also to be joined with the rest in this liniment but without it they cure the chilblanes bloudy fals that be so angry in the night season Many vse to boile Rue together with wax reduce it into a Cerot which they apply to the swollen breasts or paps of women as also to the breaking out of phlegmatick pustules or wheales much like to our measels or small pockes Also being reduced into an vnguent with the tender sprigs or tops of Laurell it is a singular remedy for the flux or fall of humors into the burse of the cods And verily this Rue is counted so excellent an hearbe in operation this waies and so respectiue peculiarly to those parts that it is commonly holden for a soueraign remedie to heale all ruptures if a man take the wild of that kind and make a liniment of it and old Swines grease together Likewise if any bones or lims be broken a Cerot made with the seed of Rue and wax together is able to souder the fracture The root of Rue being reduced into a liniment cureth bloud shotten eies and restoreth to the natiue colour all skarres or spots that giue blemish to any part of the bodie Among the other properties that be reported of Rue this is one to be wondred at considering how hot it is of nature as all Physicians doe agree That a bunch thereof beeing boiled in oile Rosate and with one ounce of Aloe brought into the forme of an ointment should represse their siuet who are annointed therewith As also that ordinare vse thereof at meat should disable folke as wel in the act of generation as conception In which regard it is prescribed vnto them that shed their seed and vnto such as vse to dreame in their sleepe of amato rious matters and the delights of Venus But women with child must beware how they eat Rue they especially must forbear this hearbe for I find that it killeth the yong child conceiued within their bodies Thus much for the effects that it worketh in men and women Ouer and besides al which there is not an hearb growing in the garden that is so much vsed for the curing of 4 footed beasts whether they be broken winded and pursiue or otherwise bitten stung with venomous beasts in which cases there must be an injection made vp into the nosthrils of the juice of Rue in wine Also if it chance that a beast hath swallowed an Horseleech in drinking let it be taken with vinegre Finally in euery accident of theirs let Rue be prepared and ministred respectiuely vnto each griefe according to the manner set downe for men in the semblable case CHAP. XIIII ¶ Of wild Mint of garden Mint of Penyroiall of Nep and Cumin WIld Mint is called in Latin Mentastrum it differeth from the other in the form of the leaues for shaped it is like Basil how soeuer in color it resembles Penniroyal which is the cause that some name it the sauage Penyroiall In the time of Pompey the Great it was knowne by experience that the leaues of wild Mint chewed and applied outwardly cured the Leprosie by
vpon the head allaieth by report the ach thereof More than it it is said That the very sent of Pennyroiall preserueth the brain from the offence that may come by the distemperature either of heat or cold yea and from the inconuenience of thirstinesse insomuch as whosoeuer haue two branches or sprigs of Pennyroiall put into his ears shall feele no accessiue heat though they continued in the Sun all the day long Peniroiall being applied in form of a liniment together with Barly groats and vinegre assuageth all grienous paines watsoeuer Howbeit the female of this kind is thought to be of greater operation euery way than the male Now hath this female a purple floure that you may know it thereby from the other for that of the male is white The female Penyroiall taken in a mash made with salt and barley groats in cold water staieth a kecklish stomack and keepeth it from the inordinat desire and many offers to cast In the same manner also it easeth the paine of the breast and belly Likewise the gnawings of the stomack it ceaseth being taken in water as also immoderat vomits it represseth with vinegre and barley groats Being sodden in hony with a little nitre among it cureth the maladies of the guts If one drinke it with wine it causeth abundance of vrine and if the said wine be made of the Amminean grapes it expelleth the stone and grauell yea and all things els which may engender inward pains If it be taken with honey and vinegre it prouoketh womens termes and quieteth them when they lie gnawing and fretting inwardly yea and sendeth forth the after-burden The same setleth the mother and reduceth it into the right place It expelleth also the dead child within the mothers body The seed of Peniroial if it be smelled vnto is singular good to recouer their tongue againe who be speechlesse for the falling sicknesse also it is giuen in a cyath of vinegre If it fortune that one must drink vnholesome waters the seed thereof reduced into pouder and strewed therupon correcteth all the malice thereof If the same be taken in wine it slaketh the itch in the bodie proceeding of hot and salt humors The seed of Pennyroiall mingled with salt vinegre and honey if it be wel rubbed into the bodie comforteth the sinewes in case of cramps and convulsions and particularly helpeth those who with a crieke are forced to carrie their necke much backeward The decoction therof is a soueraigne drinke against the sting of Serpents and particularly of Scorpions if it be bruised and taken with wine especially that which groweth in drie places Moreouer Penyroiall is held to be very soueraigne for the cankers or vlcers in the mouth and as effectuall to stay the cough The floures of Penyroial that be fresh and new gathered if they be burnt make a singular perfume to kill fleas Among many good receits that Xenocrates hath left vnto vs we find this for one namely That a branch of Pennyroiall wrapped within wooll and giuen to the patient for to smell vnto before the fit come of a tertian ague driueth it away as also if it be put vnder the couerlet of the bed and the Patient laid vpon it it doth no lesse For these purposes abouenamed the wild Penyroiall is of most efficacie This hearbe resembleth Origan and hath smaller leaues than the Penyroiall of the Garden some giue it the name of Dictamnus If it chance that either sheepe or goats do tast thereof it prouoketh them presently to blea whereupon certain authors changing one letter for another in Greeke call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This herb is so hot and ardent that if any part of the body be rubbed or annointed therewith it will rise into a blister If one haue taken a through-cold and thereby gotten a cough Physitians haue prescribed to vse frictions therewith before the Patient go into the bain for to sweat Also their direction is to do the like before the cold fits of agues as also in case of the crampe and torments of the guts Wonderfull good it is in all kinds of gout If it be taken in drinke with honey and salt it is singular for those who be diseased in the liuer as also for the lights for it opens their pipes and dischargeth them of the flegme that stuffed them so as they may reach vp and voyd the same with ease The decoction thereof with some salt is excellent good for the splene and the bladder yea and for all ventosities and shortnesse of breath Semblably the iuice prepared and dressed in maner a foresaid bringeth the mother into the naturall place and serueth as a countre-poison against the Scolopendre both of the sea and the land as also for the pricke of the scorpion especially against the biting of man or woman The root thereof being applied fresh and green is maruellous good to represse rank vlcers to consume the proud flesh about them The same being dry and so applied reduceth skars to their fresh colour and beautie of the faire and whole skin Thus much of Penyroyall of the garden and the field Great conformitie there is in operation between Peny-royal and Nep for being both boiled in water vnto the composition of a third part they discusse and shake off the cold in Ague fits which causeth the Patient to shake and besides are of validitie to bring downe womens monethly sicknesse In summer time they asswage the extremitie of heat Nep also is powerful against serpents for the smoke and perfume of this herbe they canot abide but will fly from it which is the cause that such as be afraid of serpents strew Nep vnder them in the place where they mean to repose and sleepe Being bruised and applied to the running fistulous vlcers between the nose and the greater corner of the eye it is counted a soveraign remedie Also being fresh gathered and mixed with a third part of bread and so temperat and incorporat with vinegre to the form of a liniment it cureth the head-ach The juice thereof being instilled into the nosthrils whiles the Patient lieth vpon his back stancheth bleeding at the nose The root also together with Myrtle seed in warm wine cuit and so gargarised helpeth the Squinancie As touching wild Cumin it is an herb exceeding small putting forth foure or fiue leaues and not aboue and those indented like a saw but the garden Cumin is of singular vse in physicke but principally for the pain in the stomack It dispatcheth the grosse vapors arising from flegme it dissolueth also vento sities if it be either bruised and eaten with bread or drunk with water and wine in which sort it asswageth the wringing torments and other pains of the guts how beit it maketh folke look pale as many as drink of it Certes by that deuise namely by ordinary drinking of Cumin as it is reported the schollers and followers of Porcius Latro that famous and great Rhetorician
reiect and reach vp bloud and for the Squinance Next after the wine verjuice Omphacium I cannot chuse but write of Oenanthe which is the floure that wild vines do beare whereof I haue already made mention in my discourse of ointments The best Oenanthe is that of Syria especially along the coasts and mountaines of Antiochia and Laodicea That which groweth vpon the white vine is refrigeratiue and astringent being powdered and strewed vpon wounds it doth very much good applied as a liniment to the stomack it is exceeding comfortable A proper medicine it is for the suppression of vrine the infirmities and diseases of the liuer the head-ache the bloudie flix the imbecility of the stomack and the loosenesse proceeding from it also for the violent motion of cholerick humours proceeding vpward and downeward The weight of one obolus thereof taken with vineger helpeth the loathing that the stomacke hath to meat and procureth appetite It drieth vp the running scales breaking out in the head and most effectuall it is to heale all vlcers in moist parts and therefore cureth sores in the mouth priuie members and the seat or fundament Taken with hony and saffron it knitteth the belly The scurfe and roughnesse of the eie-lids it doth clense and make them smooth it represseth rheume in waterie eies Giuen in wine to drink it comforteth and confirmeth feeble stomackes but in cold water it staies the casting and reaching vp of bloud The ashes thereof is much commended in collyries eie-salues also for to mundifie filthy and vlcerous sores to heale likewise whitflawes rising at the naile roots and either the going away of the flesh from them or the excrescence thereof remaining about them For to bring it into ashes it must be torrified in an Ouen and so continue vntill the bread be baked and readic for to bee drawne As for Massaris or the Oenanthe in Africke it is imploied onely about sweet odours and pomanders and both it as also other floures men haue brought into so great name by making haste to gather them before they could knit to any fruit so inuentiue is mans wit and so greedy to hunt after nouelties and strange deuises CHAP. I. ¶ The medicines which grapes fresh and new gathered do yeeld Of Vine branches and cuttings of grape kernels and the cake remaining after the presse Of the grape Theriace Of dried grapes or Raisins Of Astaphis of Staphis-acre otherwise called Pituitaria Of the wild vine Labrusca of the wild vine both white and blacke Of Musts or new wines Of sundry kinds of Wine and of Vineger OF Grapes that grow to their ripenesse and maturitie the blacke are more vehement in their operation than the white and therefore the wine made of them is nothing so pleasant for in very truth the white grapes be sweeter far by reason they are more transparent and cleare and therefore receiue the aire into them more easily Grapes new gathered do puffe vp the stomacke and fill it with winde they trouble also the belly which is the cause that men are forbidden to eat them in feuers especially in great quantity for they breed heauinesse in the head and induce the Patient to sleepe ouermuch vntill hee grow into a lethargie Lesse harme doe those grapes which after they be gathered hang a long time by which means they take the impression of wind and aire and so become wholsome to the stomacke and to any sicke person for they doe gently coole and bring the Patient to a stomacke againe Such grapes as haue bin condite and preserued in some sweet wine are offensiue to the head and fume vp into the brains Next in request to those aboue said which haue hanged a long time be such as haue bin kept in chaffe for as many as haue lien among wine-marc or the refuse of kernels skins remaining after the presse are hurtfull to the head the bladder and the stomacke howbeit they doe stop a laske and nothing is there better in the world for those that doe cast and reach vp bloud and yet those grapes that haue bin kept in must or new wine are much worse than such as haue lien in the marc afore said Moreouer wine cuit if they haue come into it maketh them hurtfull and offensiue to the stomack But if they must needs be preserued in some liquor the Physitians hold them most whol some which haue bin kept in rain water although they be least toothsome for they do the stomack a great pleasure in the hot distemperature thereof they be comfortable when the mouth is bitter by occasion of the regurgitation of choler from the liuer and the burse of the gal they giue great contentment also in bitter vomits in the violent and inordinat motion of cholerick humors raging vpward and downward as also in case of dropsie to those that lie sick of burning feuers As touching grapes preserued in earthen pots they refresh and season the mouth which was out of tast they open the stomack and stir vp the appetite to meat how beit this inconuenience they bring with them That they are thought to lie more heauy in the stomacke by reason of the breath and vapor which exhaleth from their kernels If hens capons cocks and such like pullen be serued among their meat with the floures of grapes so as they once tast and eat thereof they wil not afterwards peck or touch any grapes hanging by clusters vpon the vine The naked branches and bunches wherupon there were grapes haue an astrictiue vertue and indeed more effectual that way be such as come out of the pots abouesaid The kernels or stone within the grapes haue the same operation and in very truth these be they and nothing els whereby wine causeth head-ach Being torrified beaten to pouder and so taken they be good for the stomack Their pouder is vsually put into the pot in manner of barly groats for to thicken broth and suppings which are ordained for them who haue the bloudy flix who are troubled with a continual loosnesse following them by occasion of the imbecillity of the stomack and for such as are ready to keck and heaue at euery little thing Their decoction serueth very wel to foment those parts which are broken out and giuen to bleach and itch The stones themselues are lesse hurtful to the head or bladder than the little kernels within The same beeing driuen into pouder and applied with salt are good for inflammations of womens brests the decoction thereof whether it be taken inwardly or vsed by way of fomentation helpeth as well those who haue gone a long time with a dysentery or bloudy flix as them who through imbecility of stomack do scoure and purge downward continually The grape Theriace whereof we haue written in due place is good to be taken as a counterpoison against the sting of serpents it is a common receiued opinion that the burgeons and branches of that vine should likewise be taken inwardly as
therefore much eating of them causeth a man to grow corpulent and nathelesse to be strong and lusty withall which is the cause that professed wrestlers and champions were in times past fed with figs. For Pythagoras a great master and warden of these exercises was the first man who brought them to eat flesh meat Moreouer figs be restoratiue and the best thing that they can eat who are brought low by some long and languishing sicknesse and now vpon the mending hand and in recouerie In like manner they are singular for the falling euil and the dropsie Figs applied as a cataplasme are excellent either to discusse or els bring to maturity any imposthumes or swellings but they doe the seat more effectually if either quicke-lime or sal-nitre be mixt therwith Boiled with Hyssop they clense the brest break and dissolue the flegmatick humors either fallen to the lungs or there ingendred so by consequence rid away an old cough Sodden in wine so applied as a liniment they cure the infirmities incident to the seat or fundament they mollifie and resolue the swelling tumors of the paps they discusse and heale fellons pushes biles risings behind the ears A fomentationmade with their decoction is good for women And the same being sodden with Faeni-greek are excellent for the pleurisie Peripnewmony i. the inflammation of the lungs Boiled with Rue they assuage the ventosities or collicke in the guts The same being incorporat with verdi-grease or the rust of brasse cureth the morimals of the legs and with Pomgranats they heale the rising exulceration of the flesh and skin about the naile roots But made into a cerot with wax they heale burnes scaldings kibed heels Seeth Figs in wine with wormwood and barley meale and put nitre to them they are passing wholesome for those who are in a dropsie Chew them they binde the belly Make a cataplasme of Figs and salt together the same is singular for the sting of scorpions Boyle them in wine and so apply them you haue an excellent remedy to draw forth carbuncles to the outward parts and bring them to an head Take the fattest fullest Figs you can get lay them vpon the vgly and ill fauored tumor called Carcinoma i. the Canker so it be not vet exulcerat I assure you it is a soueraigne remedy and hardly can be matched againe and so it is also for the festering and eating vlcer Phagedaena There is not another tree againe growing vpon the face of the earth that yeeldeth better or sharper ashes than the wood of the Figge-tree doth either to clense vlcers or to incarnat consolidat and restrain flux of humors It is taken in drink for to resolue cluttered bloud within the body Semblably if it be giuen to drink with water oile of each one cyath it serues wel for those who are dry beaten bruised who are fallen from some high place such also as haue spasms inward rvptures And thus they vse to giue it in al cramps and namely in that vniuersall convulsion which holdeth the body so stiffe that it can stir no way nor other as if it were made of one intire piece without any ioint Likewise both taken in drink and also infused or iniected by clystre it helpeth the fluxe occasioned either by a feeble and rheumatick stomacke or els by the vlcer of the guts If a man rub the body all ouer with it and oile together it setteth it into an heat were it before benummed A liniment made of it and wrought with wax and oile Rosat together skinneth a burnt or scalded place most finely leauing no skar at al to be seen Temper it with oile and therwith annoint their eies who are pore-blind sand blind or otherwise short-sighted it amends their eie-sight to conclude rub the teeth often therewith it preserueth them white neat and from rotting Thus much of Fig-tree ashes Moreouer it is commonly said That if one come to a Fig-tree bend a bough or branch therof downward to the ground and bearing vp his head without stooping reach and catch hold of a knot or ioint with his teeth and so bite it off that no man see him when he is doing of it and then lap the same within a piece of fine leather tied fast by a thred and hang it about his necke it will dispatch the kings-euill and swelling kernels or inflammations behind the eares The bark of the Fig-tree reduced into pouder mixed with oile and so applied healeth the vlcers of the belly Green Figs taken raw stamped and incorporat with niter and meale take away all warts whether they be smooth or rough The ashes made of those shoots that spring from the root is a kind of Antispodium and may go for Spodium indeed If the same be twice calcined and burnt and then mixed with cerusse or white lead and so reduced into trochiskes they make a good collyrie or eie-salue to cure the roughnesse and exulceration of the eies As many vertues as the mild fig-tree hath yet the wild is much more effectuall in operation howsoeuer she yeeldeth lesse milke or white juice than the other doth For a branch onely of it is as good as rennet or rindles to make milk turn and run to a cheese curd Howbeit that milky liquor which it hath if it be gathered and kept vntill it be dry and wax hard serueth to season our flesh meats and giue them a good tast For which purpose it is wont to be mixed and dissolued in vineger then the flesh must be well rubbed and poudred therwith The same is vsually mingled with caustick and corrosiue medicines when there is an intention to raise blisters and make an issue It causeth the belly to be laxatiue and openeth the matrice if it be vsed with Amyl pouder Being taken in drink with the yolk of an egg it prouoketh womens fleurs Applied in a liniment with the floure of Feni-greeke it easeth the pains of the gout it clenseth the leprosie and foul wild scab it killeth ring-worms and fell tettars it scoureth away freckles and such flecks as disfauor the face likewise it cureth the parts stung with venomous serpents or bitten with mad dogs Moreouer this juice of the wild Fig-tree applied vnto the teeth with a lock of wooll allaieth their ach so it doth also if it be put into them that be worme-eaten and hollow The tender yong branches together with the leaues if they be mingled with Eruile are good against the poison of venomous sea-fishes But then according to some Physitians there must be wine added to this receit The said tender branches being put into the pot with Boeuf and so boiled together saue much fewell for lesse fire by far will serue to seeth the meat The green figs of this wild fig-tree brought into a liniment do mollifie and discusse the kings euil and all other tumors and apostemes And in some measure the leaues also haue the same operation
not that vse of them in physick as at this present for now adays if folk be amisse or il at ease straightwaies they run to the bains and bath for remedy And in truth those waters which stand vpon brimstone be good for the sinews such as come from a veine of alume are proper for the palsie or such like infirmities proceeding from resolution of the nerues Moreouer they that hold of bitumen or nitre such as be the fountains Cutiliae be potable and good to be drunke and yet they are purgatiue To come to the vse of natural bains and hot waters many men in a brauery sit long in a bath and they take a pride in it to indure the heat of the water many hours together and yet is there nothing so hurtfull for the body for in truth a man should continue little longer in them than in ordinary artificiall bains or stouphs and then afterwards when he goeth forth hee is to wash his body with fresh cold water not without some oile among Howbeit our common people here thinke this to be very strange will not be brought to to it which is the reason that mens bodies in no place are most subject to diseases for the strong vapours that steme from thence stuffe and fil their heads and although they sweat in one part yet they chil in another notwithstanding the rest of their bodies stand deep within the water Others there are besides who on the like erronious conceit take great joy in drinking a deal of this water striuing avie who can poure most of it downe the throat I haue my selfe seen some of them so puffed vp and swolne with drinking that their very skin couered and hid the rings vpon their fingers namely when they were not able to deliuer again the great quantity of water that they had taken in Therefore this drinking of much water is not good to be vsed vnles a man do eftsoons eat salt withall Great vse there is and to good purpose of the mud which these fountains do yeeld but with this regard that when the body is besmeared and bedawbed outwardly therwith the same may dry vpon it in the Sun Well these hot waters be commonly full of vertue howbeit this is not generall That if a spring be hot by and by we should think it is medicinable for the experience of the contrary is to be seen in Egesta of Sicily in Larissa Troas Magnesia Melos and Lipara Neither is it a sure argument of a medicinable water as many are of opinion if a piece of siluer or brasse which hath bin dipped therein lose the colour for there is no such matter to be seene by the naturall baths of Padua neither is there perceiued in them any difference in smell from others Concerning Sea waters the same order and mean is to be obserued especially in such as bee made hot for to help the pains and infirmities of the sinews and many hold them good to souder fractures of bones yea and to cure their bruises and contusions likewise they haue a desiccatiue vertue wherby they dry rheumaticke bodies in which regard men bath also in sea water actually cold Moreouer the sea affoor deth other vses in diuers and sundry respects but principally the aire therof is wholsome for those who are in a phthysicke or consumption as I haue beforesaid and cureth such as doe reach or void bloud vpward and verily I remember of late daies that Annaeus Gallio after that he was Consull tooke this course namely to saile vpon the sea for this infirmity What is the cause think ye that many make voiages into Aegypt surely it is not for the aire of Egypt it self but because they lie long at sea and be sailing a great while before they come thither Furthermore the vomits also which are occasioned at sea by the continual rolling and rocking of the ships neuer standing stil are good for many maladies of head eies and brest and generally they doe cure all those accidents for which the drinking of Ellebore serueth As for sea water to be applied simply of it selfe vnto the outward parts physitians are of opinion that it is more effectual than any other for to discusse resolue tumors more particularly if there be a cataplasme made of it and barly meale sodden together it is singular for the swellings behind the ears called Parotides They mingle the same likewise in plasters such especially as be white and emollitiues and if the head be hurt and the * brain touched and offended it is soueraigne to be infused into the wound It is prescribed also to be drunke for albeit the stomack take some offence and hurt thereby yet it purgeth the body well and doth euacuat melancholick humors and black choler yea and if the bloud bee cluttered within the body it sendeth it out one way or other either vpward or downeward Some haue ordained it to be giuen for the quartan feuer others aduise to saue and keep it a time for to serue the turne in case of Tinesmes which are vnordinat strainings at the stoole to no effect also for all gouts and pains of joints and in very truth by age long keeping it forgoeth al that brackish tast which it had at the first Some boile it before but all in generall agree in this To vse for these purposes that sea water which was taken out of the deep far from the land such as is not corrupt with any mixture of fresh water with it and before their patients do drink it enjoyne them to vomit and then also do they mingle with it either vineger or wine for that purpose They that giue little thereof and by it selfe appoint radishes to be eaten presently vpon it with honied vineger or oxymell for to prouoke the patient to vomit againe Moreouer they vse otherwhile to minister a clystre made of sea water first warmed verily there iâ—… not a better thing than it for to bath and foment the cods withall if they be swelled either with ventosities or waterish humors Also it is much commended for kibed heels if they be taken before they are broken and exulcerat and in like manner they kill the itch cure scabs tettars and ringwormes Sea water serueth wel to wash the head to rid it of nits and filthy lice yea and reduceth black and blew marks in the skin to the fresh and liuely colour againe In all these cures after the vse of salt-water it is passing good to foment the place affected with vineger hot Ouer and besides it is thought to be very wholsome and good against the venomous stings of serpents and namely of the spiders Phalangia and scorpions Semblably it cureth those that be infected outwardly with the noysome saliuation or spittle of the Aspis called Ptyas but in these cases it must be taken hot furthermore a perfume made with sea-water and vineger is singular for the head-ach If it be clysterized hot it
beneath and as the one is an excrement cast vp from a matter whiles it is purging it selfe so the other is the refuse or grounds thereof after it is purged and setled Howbeit many there bee who make but two kindes of this fome or litharge the one * Steresitis as it were solid and massiue the other * Peumene as one would say puffed vp and full of wind As for the third named Molybdaena they reckon as a thing by it selfe to be treated of in the discourse or chapter of lead Now the litharge abouesaid ought for the vse that it is emploied about for to be prepared in this manner first the lumps aforesaid are to be broken into small pieces as big as Hasel nuts and set ouer the fire againe thus when it is once red hot by the blast of bellows to the end that the coles and cinders might be separated one from another there is wine or vineger cast vpon it both to wash also withall to quench the same Now if it be Argyritis to the end it may look the whiter they vse to break it to the bignes of beans and giue order to seeth it in water within an earthen pot putting thereto wheat and barly lapped within pieces of new linnen cloth and suffer them to boil therwith till they burst which done for six dayes together they put it in mortars washing it thrice euery day in cold water and in the end with hot and so at length put to euery pound of the said Litharge the weight of one Obolus of Sal-gem The last day of all they put it vp into a pot or vessel of lead Some there be who seeth it with blanched beans and husked barly and after that dry it in the sun others think it better to seeth it with beans and white wool vntill such time as it colour the wooll no more black then they put thereto Sal-gem changing eft soones the water and dry it for the space of forty daies together in the hottest season of the Summer There be again who think it best to seeth it in water within a swines belly and when they haue taken it forth rub it wel with sal-nitre and pun it in mortars as before with salt Ye shall haue them that neuer bestow seething of it but only beat it with salt and then put water thereto and wash it Well thus prepared as is beforesaid it serueth for collyries and eie-salues in a liniment also to take away the foule cicatrices or scars the pimples and specks likewise that mar the beauty of women yea our dames wash the haire of their head withall to make it clean and pure And in very truth Litharge is of power to dry mollifie coole and attemper to clense also to incarnat vlcers and to asswage or mitigate any tumors Being reduced into the vnguents or plaisters aforesaid and namely with an addition of rue myrtles and vineger it is singular for S. Anthonies fire Semblably being incorporat with oile of myrtles and wax into a cerot it healeth kibed heeles CHAP. VII ¶ Of Vermilion and of what estimation it was among the old Romans the first inuention thereof Of Cinnabaris the vse thereof in Pictures and in Physicke The sundry sorts of Minium or Vermilion and how it is to be ordered to serue painters THere is found also in siluer mines a mineral called Minium i. Vermilion which is a colour at this day of great price and estimation like as it was in old time for the antient Romans made exceeding great acount of it not only for pictures but also for diuers sacred holy vses And verily Verrius alledgeth and rehearseth many authors whose credit ought not to be disproued who affirm That the maner was in times past to paint the very face of Iupiters image on high and festiual daies with Vermilion as also that the valiant captains who rode in triumphant maner into Rome had in former times their bodies coloured all ouer therewith after which manner they say noble Camillus entred the city in triumph And euen to this day according to that antient and religious custom ordinary it is to colour all the vnguents that are vseâ—… in a festiuall supper at a solemne triumph with Vermilion And no one thing doe the Censors giue charge and order for to be done at their entrance into office before the painting of Iupiters visage with Minium The cause and motiue that should induce our ancestors to this ceremony I maruel much at and canot imagin what it should be True it is and well known that in these daies the Aethiopians in generall set much store by this colour and haue it in great request insomuch as not onely the Princes and great Lords of those countries haue their bodies stained throughout therewith but also the images of their gods are â—…ainted with no other colour in which regard I am moued to discourse more curiously and at large of all particulars that may concerne it Thcophrastus saith that 90 years before Praxibulus was established chiefe ruler of the Athenians which falls out iust vpon the 249 yere after the foundation of our city of Rome Callias the Athenian was the first that deuised the vse of Vermilion and brought the liâ—…ely colour thereof into name for finding a kinde of red earth or sandy grit in the mines of siluer and hoping that by circulation there might be gold extracted out of it he tried what he could do by fire and so by that means brought it vnto that fresh and pleasant â—…e that it hath which was the first original of Vermilion Hee saith moreouer That euen in those daies there was found Minium in Spain but the same was hard and full of gritty sand Likewise among the Colchi in a certaine â—…ock inaccessible by reason whereof the people of the country were constrained by shooting at it to shake and driue it down howbeit the same was but a bastard Minium But the best simply saith he was gotten in the territorie of the Cilbians somewhat higher in the country than Ephesus in sum That the said Minium or Vermilion is a certaine sandy earth of a deepe scarlet colour which was prepared in this order first they pun and beat it into pouder and then washed it being thus puluerised Afterwards that which setled in the bottom they washed a second time In which artificiall handling of Minium this difference there is that some make perfect Vermilion of it with the first washing others thinke the Vermilion of that making to be too pale and weake in colour and therefore hold that of the second washing to be best And verily I wonder not that this colour was so highly esteemed for euen beforetime during the state of Troy the red earth called Rubrica was in great request as appeareth by the testimony of Homer who being otherwise spary enough in speaking of pictures colours yet commends the ships painted therwith The Greeks call our Minium by
vnto our ancestors came from Brindis and those consisted of tin and brasse tempered together But when siluer mirroirs came in place those went downe and these were preferred before them The first that made them of siluer was Praxiteles in the daies of Pompey the great Of late men had this opinion of siluer mirroirs That they would represent an image more liuely and truly in case their backe part were laid ouer with gold But to return again to siluer the Aegiptians vse a deuise to paint it to the end that they would drinke more deuoutly seeing their god Anubis painted within their pots And in truth they rest contented with painting their plate and neuer graue or chase any pieces This deuise is growne into such credit by the precedent receiued from thence that the statues of siluer caried in a shew at triumphs be nought set by vnlesse they be also enamelled painted black wonderfull it is how much more pretious they are thought to be when the natiue brightnes thereof it hid and the light quite put out or blindfolded The manner of making this black siluer is thus They take of siluer and sulphur vif as much of the one as the other of Cyprian brasse oâ—… latton plates which brasse they call Coronarium as thin as may be a third part these they mix together and melt them in an earthen pot wel luted all ouer with cley and boile they must so long vntill the lid of the pot doth rise vp and flie open of it self Moreouer siluer wil look black with the yolke of an egge rosted hard and well beaten with vineger and Tripoli To come now vnto those that counterfeit mony Antonius whiles hee was one of the three vsurping Triumvirs mixed yron with the Roman siluer denier He tempered it also with the brasen coine and so sent abroad false and counterfeit mony Others there be that make money too light namely vnder the lawful proportion which is to coin and stamp for euery pound weight of siluer 84 deniers This enormity grew to this passe that M. Gratidianus published a law by vertue whereof there was an act instituted and ordained for the proofe and allowance of siluer deniers what touch and what poise they should haue by which act of his hee so pleased the Commons of Rome that there was not a street throughout all the city but they erected a siluer statue pourtraied all whole in a gowne in the fauor and honour of M. Gratidianus But strange it is and a man would not think it that this art and cunning deuised for the detecting of falshood and forgerie is the only means to teach deceit and wickednesse for many a man wil giue too too much for false mony yea and many siluer deniers for one counterfeit well and cleanly made to take forsooth a pattern thereby and learne to deceiue others CHAP. V. ¶ Of excessiue summes of money in mens hands Who they were in old time that were thought richest And when there began largesses at Rome and mony to be scattered and cast abroad to the people IN old time men knew no number aboue 100,000 and therefore at this day also in stead of a million we multiply the said number by ten and say thus in Latine Decies centina millia i. A hundred thousand ten times told and so forward repeating alwaies a hundred thousand to the numerall aduerbe as the sums doth amount Vsuries interests and coined money haue been the cause of these multiplications and by that occasion also came debts to be called euen vnto this age by the name of Aes alienum And thereof arose the proud name of Diuites i. Rich for great monied men were so called Yet take this withall That the first man that euer was knowne by that syrname Diues brought a shilling to nine pence in the end proued Banquerout defeated his creditours As for M. Crassus one of that same house and who gaue the same armes would commonly say That no man was to be counted rich and worthie of that title Diues vnlesse he were able to dispend by the yeare as much in reuenues as would maintaine a legion of souldiers And verily his owne lands were esteemed worth Bis millies sestertium that is to say Two hundred millions of sesterces Roman setting aside Sylla he was the richest Roman that euer was knowne And yet such was his auarice that hee could not content himselfe with that wealthy estate but vpon a hungry desire to haue all the gold of the Parthians would needes vndertake a voiage against them And albeit by his inestimable wealth he vsurped the title addition of Optimus i. The best in his time yet for me thinks it doth me good to prosecute stil and inueigh against this insatiable desire of hauing more we haue known many after him those otherwise of base condition and no better than slaues newly infranchised to haue growne vnto greater wealth and namely three at one time to wit during the Empire of Claudius Caesar and those were Pallas Callistas and Narcissus late bondslaues all to the said Emperor But to let these men passe as if they were lords still of worldly wealth in that yeare wherein C. Asinius Gallus C. Marcius Censorinus were Consuls of Rome died C. Caecilius Claudius who signified by his last will and testament bearing date the 6 day before the Calends of February the yere aboue written That albeit he had sustained exceeding great losses during the troubles of the ciuil war yet he should leaue behind him at the houre of his death of slaues belonging to his retinue foure thousand one hundred and sixteen in oxen three thousand and six hundred yoke of other cattell 257000 head and in ready coine H. S. DC i. threescore millions of sesterces Romane And besides he set out for defraying of his funerall charges eleuen thousand sesterces and gaue order expressely to be enterred so sumptuously But what of all this Set case these and such like men gathered together innumerable sums of mony and an infinit masse of goods yet they shall come nothing neare to the wealth of K. Ptolomaeus who according to the testimony of M. Varro at what time as Pompey the great warred aboâ—…t Iury maintained 8000 horsmen in pay continually with his own priuat purse kept an ordinary table within his court of a thousand persons and those had euery man his own cup of gold to drink out of and at each course and change of meats that came in new plate was serued vp stil to the boord These guests of his sared so highly that a man would haue said they had bin franke-fed But how far short was this mighty and sumptuous prince think ye for I wil say no more now of kings in comparison of one Pythius a Bithynian who sent to Darius the king a Present of a Plane-tree all entire of beaten gold and withall that famous gold Vine so much renowned by all writers
the Pyramides abouesaid a great name there is of a tower built by one of the kings of Egypt within the Island Pharos and it keepeth commands the hauen of Alexandria which tower they say cost 800 talents the building And here because I would omit nothing worth the writing I cannot but note the singular magnanimity of K. Ptolome who permitted Sostratus of Gnidos the master workeman and architect to graue his owne name in this building The vse of this watch-tower is to shew light as a lanthorne and giue direction in the night season to ships for to enter the hauen where they shall auoid bars and shelues like to which there be many beacons burning to the same purpose and namely at Puteoli and Rauenna This is the danger onely lest when many lights in this lanterne meet together they should be taken for a star in the skie for that a far off such lights appeare to sailers in manner of a star This enginer or master workman beforesaid was the first man that is reported to haue made the pendant gallery and walking place at Gnidos CHAP. XIII ¶ Of the Labyrinths in Aegypt Lemnos and Italy SInce wee haue finished our Obelisks and Pyramides let vs enter also into the Labyrinths which we may truly say are the most monstrous workes that euer were deuised by the head of man neither are they incredible fabulous as peraduenture it may be supposed for one of them remaineth to be seen at this day within the jurisdiction of Heracleopolis the first that euer was made to wit three thousand and six hundred yeares ago by a king named Petesuccas or as some thinke Tithoes and yet Herodotus saith it was the whole worke of many KK one after another and that Psammerichus was the last that put his hand to it and made an end thereof the reason that moued these princes to make this Labyrinth is not resolued by writers but diuerse causes are by them alledged Demoteles saith that this Labyrinth was the roiall pallace and seat of king Motherudes Lycias affirmeth it to be the sepulchre of K. Moeris the greater part are of opinion that it was an aedifice dedicated expressely and consecrated vnto the Sun which in my conceit commeth nearest to the truth Certes there is no doubt made that Daedalus tooke from hence the pattern and platforme of his Labyrinth which he made in Crete but surely he expressed not aboue the hundreth part thereof chusing onely that corner of the Labyrinth which containeth a number of waies and passages meeting and incountring one another winding and turning in and out euery way after so intricat manner and so inexplicable that when a man is once in he cannot possibly get out againe neither must wee thinke that these turnings and returnings were after the manner of mazes which are drawne vpon the pauement and plain floore of a field such as we commonly see serue to make sport and pastime among boies that is to say which within a little compasse and round border comprehend many miles but here were many dores contriued which might trouble and confound the memorie for seeing such variety of entries allies and waies some crossed encountred others flanked on either hand a man wandred still and knew not whether he went forward or backward nor in truth where he was And this Labyrinth in Crete is counted the second to that of Aegypt the third is in the Isle Lemnos the fourth in Italy made they were all of polished stone and besides vaulted ouer head with arches As for the Labyrinth in Aegypt the entrie thereof whereat I much maruell was made with columns of stone and all the rest stuffed so substantially and after such a wonderfull maner couched and laid by art of Masonrie that impossible it was they should in many hundred yeres be disjointed and dissolued notwithstanding that the inhabitants of Heracleopolis did what they could to the contrary who for a spight that they bare vnto the whole worke annoied and impeached it wonderfully To describe the site and plot therof to vnfold the architecture of the whole and to rehearse euery particular therof it is not possible for diuided the building is into sixteene regions or quarters according to the sixteene seuerall gouernments in Aegypt which they call Nomos and within the same are contained certain vast stately pallaces which bear the names of the said jurisdictions and be answerable to them besides within the same precinct are the temples of all the Aegiptian gods ouer and aboue fifteen little chappels or shrines euerie one enclosing a Nemesis to which goddesse they be all dedicated to say nothing of many Pyramides forty ells in height apiece and euery of them hauing six walls at the foot in such sort that before a man can come to the Labyrinth indeed which is so intricat inexplicable wherein as I said before he shall be sure ro lose himselfe he may make account to be weary tyred out for yet he is to passe ouer certain lofts galleries garrets all of them so high that he must clime staires of ninety steps apiece ere he can land at them within the which a number of columns and statues there be all of porphyrit or red marble a world of images and statues representing as well gods as men besides an infinit sort of other pieces pourtraied in monstrous and ougly â—…hapes and there erected What should I speake of other roums and lodgings which are framed and situat in such manner that no sooner are the dores and gates opened which lead vnto them but a man shall heare fearfull cracks of terrible thunder furthermore the passages from place to place are for the most part so conueighed that they be as dark as pitch so as there is no going through them without fire light and still be we short of the Labyrinth for without the main wall therof there be two other mighty vpright wals or wings such as in building they call Ptera when you are passed them you meet with more shrouds vnder the ground in manner of caues and countermines vaulted ouer head and as dark as dungeons Moreouer it is said that about 600 yeares before the time of K. Alexander the Great one Circamnos an eunuch or groome of K. Nectabis chamber made some small reparations here about this Labyrinth neuer any but hee would go about such a piece of work It is reported also that while the main arches and vaults were in rearing and those were made all of foure square ashler stone the place shone all about and gaue light with the beams and plancher made of the Aegyptian Acacia sodden in oile And thus much may serue sufficiently for the Labyrinths of Aegipt and Candy The Labyrinth in Lemnos was much like to them only in this respect more admirable for that it had a hundred and forty columns of marble more than the other all wrought round by turners craft but with such dexterity that a very
whereupon it tooke that name in weight it passeth the rest but in natue it is farre vnlike for it will not abide the hammer but breake into pieces besides another adamant will pierce it and bore a hole quite through it which also may be said of the Cyprian Diamant so as to speak in one word these two last rehearsed may go only vnder the name of Diamants for otherwise they are but bastards and not true Diamants Moreouer as touching the concord and discord that is between things naturall which the Greekes call Sympathia and Antipathia whereof I haue so much written in all my bookes and endeauoured to acquaint the readers therewith in nothing throughout the world may we obserue both the one the other more euidently than in the Diamant For this inuincible minerall against which neither fire nor steele the two most violent and puissant creatures of natures making haue any power but that it checketh despiseth both the one and the other is forced to yeeld the gantelet and giue place vnto the bloud of a Goat this only thing is the means to break it in sunder howbeit care must be had that the Diamant be steeped therin whiles it is fresh drawn from the beast before it be cold yet when you haue made all the steeping you can you must haue many a blow at the Diamant with hammer vpon the anuill for euen then also vnlesse they be of excellent proofe good indeed it wil put them to it and break both the one the other But I would gladly know whose inuention this might be to soake the Diamant in Goats bloud whose head deuised it first or rather by what chance was it found out known What conjecture should lead a man to make an experiment of such a singular and admirable secret especially in a goat the filthiest beast one of them in the whole world Certes I must ascribe both this inuention all such like to the might and benificence together of the diuine powers neither are we to argue reason how and why nature hath done this or that sufficient it is that her will was so thus she would haue it But to come againe to the Diamant when this proofe taketh effect to our mind so that the Diamant once crack you shall see it break crumble into so small pieces that hardly the eie can discerne the one from the other Wel lapidaries are very desirous of Diamants seek much after them they set them into handles of yron therby they with facility cut into any thing be it neuer so hard Moreouer there is such a naturall enmity between Diamants Loadstones that if it be laid neer to piece of yron it will not suffer it to be drawn away by the loadstone nay if the said loadstone be brought so neere a piece of yron that it haue caught hold thereof the Diamant if it come in place will cause it to let goe the hold The diamant hath a property to frustrathe malicious effects of poyson to driue away those imaginations that set folke besides themselues to expell vaine feares that trouble and possesse the mind which is the reason that some haue called it Anachites Metrodorus Scepsius affirmeth That the Diamant is found in Germanie and the Island Baltia wherein Amber is ingendred but as far as euer I could reade he is the onely man that saith so This Diamant also of Almaine he preferreth before those of Arabia howbeit no man doubteth that he lieth stoutly After the precious Diamants of India and Arabia wee in these parts of the world esteem most of pearles but as touching them I haue written sufficiently in my ninth booke where I discoursed of such matters as the seas do yeeld CHAP. V. ¶ Of the Emeraud and the sundry sorts thereof Of greene gems or precious stones and such as be lightsome and cleare all thorow EMerauds for many causes deserue the third place for there is not a colour more pleasing to the eie True it is that we take great delight to behold greene herbes and leaues of trees but this is nothing to the pleasure wee haue in looking vpon the Emeraud for compare it with other things be they neuer so green it surpasses them all in pleasant verdure Besides there is not a gem or precious stone that so fully possesseth the eie and yet neuer contenteth it with sacietie Nay if the sight hath bin wearied and dimmed by intentiue poring vpon any thing els the beholding of this stone doth refresh and restore it againe which lappidaries well know that cut and ingraue fine stones for they haue not a better means to refresh their eies than the Emeraud the mild green that it hath doth so comfort and reuiue their wearines and lassitude Moreouer the longer and farther off that a man looketh vpon Emerauds the fairer and bigger they seem to the eie by reason that they cause the reuerberation of the aire about them for to seeme green for neither Sun nor shade ne yet the light of candle causeth them to change and lose their lustre but contrariwise as they euer send out their own raies by litle little so they entertain reciprocally the visual beams of our eies and for all the spissitude and thicknesse that they seeme to haue they admit gently our sight to pierce into their bottome a thing that is not ordinary in water The same are shaped many times hollow thereby to gather vnite and fortifie the spirits that maintain our eie-sight In regard of these manifold pleasures that they shew to our eies by generall consent of all men spared they are and lappidaries be forbidden expressely to cut and ingraue them and yet the Emerauds of Scythia and Aegypt be so hard as they cannot be pierced or wounded by any instrument moreouer when you meet with a table-Emerauld hold the flat face therof against any thing it will represent the said object to the eie as well as a mirroir or looking glasse And verily Nero the Emperor was wont to behold the combats of fencers and sword-plaiers in a faire Emeraud Now this first formost is to be noted that of Emerauds there be 12 kinds The fairest and richest of all other be those of Tartarie and called they are Scythick of the nation Scythia from whence they came and in truth there be none fuller and higher in colour or haue fewer blemishes and looke how far Emerauds goe beyond other precious stones so far do the Scythian Emerauds surpasse all others The Bactrian Emerauds as they are the next neighbors so they come nearest in goodnesse to the Scythicke found these be in chinks and joints as it were of rocks in the sea and gathered by report about the dog daies when the Northeast Etesian winds do blow for then they glitter and shine within the earth that is grown about them by reason that the said winds which in those parts are strong remoue the sand away from
the stallion for this purpose It is supposed also that the shee Asse within seuen daies after will soonest conceiue It is a rule to share and clip a Mares maine before shee will abide the couering of an Asse so vile and base a beast for so long as the haire of her maine is well growne she is so proud and glorious that she will not abide the Asse to come neare her So soone as they be couered and sped they run full into the South or North-wind according as they be conceiued either with male or female a thing that no other beasts besides doth And then suddainly they change their colour for their haire will be reddder or at leastwise fuller and deeper what colour soeuer it be By which signe it is knowne they are with fole and then they will admit no stallions vnto them would they neuer so faine And say that some of them haue foles running by their sides they will doe their deed at worke neuerthelesse nay when they be with fole they will labour as well as they did before in so much as many times they steale a foling before their master beware that they are with fole We haue read in Chronicles that Echecratides the Thessalian had a Mare which euen then when she was gone far with fole woone the best game in the Olympian race They that haue sought more narrowly into the secrets of Nature say That stone-Horses Dogs and Bores desire the females in a morning but Mares Bitches and Sowes make meanes to the male after noone Mares that are kept within house at rack and manger with hay and prouender desire to be couered threescore daies before those that goe abroad in the heard Swine alone of all creatures when they be brimming froth and fome at the mouth And as for the Bore if he heare the grunting of a Sow that seekes to be brimmed vnlesse he may come to her will forsake his meat vntill he be leane and poore and she againe will be so far enraged that shee will be readie to run vpon a man and all to teare him especially if his cloths be white But this rage and woodnesse of hers is asswaged and allaied only with bathing her share behind with vineger Some thinke there be certaine meats will prouoke beasts to fleshly lust namely Onions giuen in meat to a beast like as Rocket to a man or woman Moreouer it is supposed that whatsoeuer is made tame which by kind was wild the same will not breed as Geese and Ganders In like manner wild Swine red Deere if they be tamed or if they doe it is very long first and such only as were brought to hand euen from the time that they were very yong Finally this one thing is strange and wonderfull that all foure-footed beasts saue only the Mare and the Sow if they find themselues to be with yong driue the male from them But the Connie and the Hare alone will conceiue again when they be gone with yong CHAP. LXIIII. ¶ The varietie in liuing creatures as touching their comming into the world WHatsoeuer haue quicke creatures within them bring the same forth with the head forward For when the time is come the yong thing turns about a little before which otherwise lay streight out at length in the bellie Four-footed beasts whiles their dams go with them lie with their legs stretched along close vnto their own bellies An infant whiles it is in the mothers wombe gathereth round into a ball and hath his nose lying just betweene his two knees As for false conceptions or Moone-calues wherof we spake before some thinke they are engendred of the womans seed only namely when she is not conceiued by a man but by her selfe and hereupon it is that the said conception hath no vitall nor animall life because it proceeds not of the conjunction of male and female both True it is that it is endued with a certain vegetatiue power to be nourished and to grow like as we see intrees and many other plants CHAP. LXV ¶ The breed of Mice and Rats OF all creatures that bring forth their young perfect Swine only farrow one Pig and two Pigs at a time yea and somtimes a number of them Also they alone contrarie to the nature of all those that either be whole-hoofed or clouen-footed in twaine bring a number of yong ones at one farrow But aboue all Mice and Rats for fruitfulnesse do passe And therefore I cannot put off the discourse of them any longer and yet therin I must follow Aristotle for mine Author and the report withall of the souldiers that serued vnder Alexander the great It is said that they engender by licking without any other kind of copulation and that one of them hath brought six-score at a time also that in Persia there haue been young Mice found with yong euen in the bellie of the old dam. And some are of opinion that they will be bagged if they tast but of a little salt Why should wee then wonder any more how such multitudes of field-Mice and Rats should come to deuour whole fields of corne Howbeit the reason is not yet known how such numbers of them should al of a sudden consume away come to nothing For neither bee they found lying dead aboue ground neither can any man come forth and say that he hath turned vp any one with his spade as he digged in the Winter The countrey of Troas is mightily giuen to breed great store of them insomuch as they haue forced alreadie the inhabitants to abandon the place and depart Men say that the season proper and agreeable for their breeding in such aboundance is a great drought also that when they are toward their end there be little wormes breeding in their heads that kill them The Mice and Rats of Aegypt haue hard haire and pricky like to hedge-hogs They go likewise vpright on their hinder feet and walk as if they were two footed after the manner of those in the Alps. Moreouer if beasts of diuers kinds ingender together they may wel breed yong between them in case they do agree and jump in the time that the females of both should go with yong It is commonly thought and beleeued that among foure footed beasts the Lizard hath egs within her and deliuereth them at her mouth but Aristotle flatly denieth it Howbeit they sit not vpon them when they haue so done as being forgetful where they laid them so little or no memorie at all haue they And therefore the yong Lizards of themselues breake forth out of the shell CHAP. LXVI ¶ Of a Serpent ingendred of the marrow of a manâ—… back bone I Haue heard many a man say that the marrow of a mans backe bone will breed to a Snake And well it may so be for surely there be many secrets in Nature to vs vnknown and much may come of hidden causes as we may see euen among foure footed beasts CHAP. LXVII ¶ Of
the Salamander AS for example the Salamander made in fashion of a Lizard marked with spots like stars neuer comes abroad and sheweth it felfe but in great shewres for in faire weather he is not seen He is of so cold a complexion that if he do but touch the fire he wil quench it as presently as if ice were put vnto it The Salamander casteth vp at the mouth a certaine venomous matter like milke let it but once touch any bare part of a man or womans body all the haire will fall off and the part so touched will change the colour of the skinne to the white morphew CHAP. LXVIII ¶ Of those that breed of others which neuer were ingendred Also of those that being ingendred yet breed not SOme creatures there be that breed of those that neuer were ingendred themselues and yet not according to those naturall means as others which wee haue shewed before and such also as either the Summer or Spring or some certain season of the yeare do breed Among which some ingender not at all as the Salamander for there is no more distinction of sex in them than in Yeeles and in all those which neither lay egs ne yet bring forth any liuing creature Oisters likewise and all such creatures as cleaue fast either to rockes or to the shelues are neither male nor female As for such as come of themselues if there be seene in them any distinction of male and female somthing verily they ingender betweene them but an imperfect creature verily it is and not resembling them neither doth that generation breed ought any more as we see the flies that ingender certain little wormes The experience hereof is better to be obserued in those creatures called Insects whose nature is hard to be expressed and yet I haue appointed a seuerall treatise for them apart Wherefore I will go forward in the discourse begun already and namely as touching the sence and vnderstanding of the forenamed Creatures and then proceed to the rest CHAP. LXIX ¶ The outward sences of liuing Creatures MAn excelleth all other Creatures first in the sence of feeling and then of tasting In the rest many beasts go beyond him For the Aegles haue a clearer eie-sight the Geires a finer smell and the Moldwarps notwithstanding they be couered ouer with earth so heauie so thick and deafe an element as it is yet their eare is far better than ours Moreouer albeit the voice of all them that speake aboue ground doth ascend vpward still from them yet heare theâ—… when they talke yea and if a man chance to speake of them some hold that they vnderstand their speech and thereupon do fly from them A man who at first lacketh his hearing wanteth also the vse of his tongue neither are there any deafe borne but the same likewise be dumbe A man would not think neither is it likely that the Oisters in the sea do heare and yet vpon any noise and sound their manner is to sink down to the bottome And therefore when as men do fish for them in the sea they are as silent as they may be CHAP. LXX ¶ A discourse That fishes both heare and also smell FIshes verily haue no eares ne yet any holes to serue for hearing and yet plain it is that they doe heare as we may daily see in certaine fish ponds and stewes where fishes be kept for whâ—…n those that haue the charge of them make a noise with clapping of their hands as wild as they be otherwise they shall haue them come in great flocks to take their meat that is thrown in to them and this are they wont to do daily and that which more is in Caesars Fish-pooles a man may see whole skuls of fishes to repaire at their call yea and some wil part from the rest of their company and come alone to land when they be named Hereupon it is that the Mullet sea-Pike Stock-fish and Chronius are thought to heare best of all others and therfore liue very ebbe among the shelues and shallowes That fishes haue the sence of smelling it is manifest for they are not all taken ne yet delighted with one kinde of bait and this is obserued that before they bite they will smel to it Some also there be that lie in holes vnder rocks and no sooner hath the fisher besmeared and anointed the mouth and sides of the said rocks in the very entrance to their holes but he shall see them come forth as it were to auoid the sent of their own carion Let them lie in the very deep yet wil they resort to certain odors and smells namely to the Cuttill burnt and the Polype which for that purpose they vse to put into their nests And verily they cannot abide the smel of the sinke and pumpe of a ship neither wil they come neere vnto it but aboue all things they may not away with the bloud of fish The Pourcuttle hardly or not at all can be pulled from the rocks so fast cleaueth he howbeit come neer him with the herb Marjerome or Savorie he will presently leape from the rocke and away to auoid the sent thereof Purples also be caught by means of some stinking bait And for other creatures who doubteth but they haue a perfect smell Serpents are chased away with the smell and perfume of the Harts horn but aboue all with the odor of Styrax And Pismires are killed with the very fume of Origon Quick-lime or Brimstone Gnats loue all sour things and willingly will thither but to any sweet meats they come not neare CHAP. LXXI ¶ That the sence of feeling is common to all liuing creatures THere is not a liuing creature throughout the world but hath the sence of feeling though it haue none els for euen oisters and earth-wormes if a man touch them doe euidently feele I would think also that there is none but tasteth as wel as feeles For what should the reason else be hat some desire to tast this others that And verily herein is seene aboue all the singular workmanship of Nature in the frame of their bodies and the members thereof Some ye shall haue to seise vpon their prey with their teeth others snatch it with their talons and clawes some peck and pluck it with their hookt bils others pudder into their food with their broad nebs Some with the sharp point of their beaks worke holes into their meat others lie sucking at it Some lick others sup in to conclude some chew others swallow and deuoure whole as it is As touching their feet there is no lesse varietie in the vse thereof in snatching and carrying away in tearing and plucking a pieces in holding fast and in crushing their prey Some ye shall haue to hang by their feet and others neuer lin scraping and scratching the earth CHAP. LXXII ¶ What creatures liue of poison and what of earth ROe Bucks and Does yea and Quailes as we haue said before will feed fat with
late of growth were those trees in his time and so slowly came they forward But now adaies they come vp of kernels and stones set in plots of ground for the purpose and being transplanted againe they beare Oliues the second yeare after Fabianus saith That Oliues loue not to grow either in the coldest or the hottest grounds Virgill hath set downe 3 kind of Oliues to wit Orchitae i. the great round Oliues Radij i. the long Oliues and those which are called Pausiae He saith moreouer That the Oliue trees require no tending or dressing at all and need neither the hooke to be pruned nor the rake and harrow to be moulded ne yet the spade to be digged about Doubtlesse the goodnesse of the soile and the temperature of the climat especially are very requisit and much materiall alone without farther helpe howbeit they vse to be cut and pruned yea they loue also to be scraped polished and clensed between where the branches grow ouer-thicke euen as well as vines and at the same season The time of gathering Oliues ensueth presently vpon the vintage of grapes but greater industry and skil is required to the making and tempering of good oile than about new wine for ye shall haue one and the self same kind of oliue to yeeld a different juice and diuers oiles first and formost of the greene oliue and altogether vnripe there is drawne the Oile oliue which hath of all other the best verdure and in tast excelleth the rest and of this oile the first running that commeth from the presse is most commended and so by degrees better or worse as the oile is drawn before or after out of the presse or according to a late inuention by treading them with mens feet in little panniers and vpon hardles made of small and fine oziers This is a rule The riper that the oliue is the fatter will the oile be and more plentifull but nothing so pleasant in tast And therefore the best season to gather Oliues both for goodnesse and abundance of oile is when they begin to shew black And such halfe-ripe Oliues we in Latine call Drupae and the Greekes Drypetae To conclude it skilleth very much whether the berries be ripe vpon the tree or mellow within their presse also whether the tree be watered that is to say the oliues hanging thereupon be drenched and refreshed with sprinkling water or haue no other moisture than their owne and that which they receiue by dews and raine from heauen CHAP. II. ¶ Of Oyle OIle-Oliue commeth to haue a rank and vnpleasant tast if it be old kept and stale contrary to the nature of wine which is the better for age And the longest time that oile will continue good is but one yere Wherein surely if a man would well consider he may obserue the great prouidence of Nature For seeing that wines are made to seruefor intemperance and drunkennesse there is not that necessitie to drinke much thereof and to spend them out of hand and more than so the daintie tast that they haue when they be stale induceth men to lay them vp and keep them long But contrariwise she would not haue vs make such spare of oile and therefore by reason of the generall vse and need thereof she hath made it vulgar and common to all As touching this benefit and gift of Nature bestowed vpon mankind Italy of all other nations in the world carrieth the name for the goodnesse thereof but principally the territory or county of Venafrum and namely that quarter lying toward Licinia which yeelds the oile called Licinianum wherupon there be no oliues comparable to them of Licinia both for to serue the perfumers in regard of the pleasant smel which that oile doth giue so appropriat vnto their ointments as also to furnish the kitchin and the table as they say that be fine-toothed haue a delicate taste which is the cause I say that this oile carrieth the only name And yet these oliues of Licinia haue this priuiledge besides that birds loue not to come neere them Next to these Licinian oliues the question is between them of Istria Baetica whether of them should go away with the price for their goodnesse and hard it is to say which is the better of the two A third degree there is vnder these twoaboue named namely of the Oliues that come from all other prouinces setting aside the fertile soile of that tract in Africke which yeeldeth so great increase of corn For it should seeme that Nature hath set it apart for graine onely seeing it so fruitfull that way and hath not so much enuied it the benefit of wine and oile which she hath denied those parts as thought it sufficient that they might glory and haue the name for their haruests As for other points belonging to oliues men haue erred and bin deceiued very much neither is there in any part concerning our life to be found more confusion than is therein as we will shew and declare hereafter CHAP. III. ¶ The nature of the Oliue berries also of yong Oliue Plants THis fruit called the Oliue consists of a stone or kernell of oile a fleshy substance and the lees or dregs now by these lees called in Latine Amurca I mean the bitter liquor of the grounds that the oile yeelds It comes of abundance of water and therefore as in time of drought there is least thereof so in a rainy and watery constitution you shall haue store and plenty As for the proper juice of the oliue it is their oile and the chiefe is that which comes of those that are vnripe like as we haue shewed before when we treated of Ompharium or the Oliue verjuice This oilie substance doth increase and augment within the Oliue vntill the rising of the star Arcturus to wit 16 daies before the Calends of October after which time their stones and carnous matter about them do rather thriue But marke when there followes a glut of raine and wet weather presently vpon a dry season the oile in them doth corrupt and turn all well neare into the lees aboue said which may easily be perceiued by the colour for it causeth the Oliue berrie to looke blacke And therefore when this blacknesse begins to appeare it is a sign that they haue somwhat although very little of the lees but before that they had non at all And herein men are foulely dceiued taking this marke for the beginning of their ripenesse which blacke hew indeed is a signe of their corruption and betokens that then they are in the way to be stark naught They erre also in this that they suppose an Oliue the more grown it is in carnositie to be the fuller of oile whereas in very truth all the good juice â—…n them is converted then into the grosse and corpulent substance thereof and thereby also the stone and kernell come to be big and massie which is the cause that they had need of watering at that time
most of all Which being done by great paine and labour of man or happening through raine and plenty of showers vnlesse there insue a drie season faire weather to extenuate that grosse substance into which the Oliue had turned the foresaid iuice and humor all the oile is consumed and lost For it is heat nothing els as Theophrastus saith which ingendreth oile therfore both about the presse at first also in the very garners where Oliues be laid after they vse to keep good fires by that means to draw the more oile forth A third default there is in oile and that comes of two much sparing and niggardise for some men there are who being loth to be at cost to pluck and gather Oliues from the tree wait still and looke that they should fal of themselues And such folke as would seeme yet to keepe a meane herein namely to take some paines and be at a little cost beat and pell them downe with perches and poles whereby they do offer wrong to the poore trees â—…ea and hinder themselues not a little the yeare following when they shall find how much it is out of their way thus to break their boughes and branches Whereupon the law in old time prouided well for this inconuenience by an expresse inhibition to all gatherers of Oliues in these words No man so hardie as to breake strike and beat the Oliue tree But they that go most warily and gentlâ—… to worke stand vnder the tree and with some canes shake the boughes and branches therewith or lightly smite them but in no case let driue and lay at them either with full down-right or crosse-blowes And yet as heedfull as they be in so doing this good they get by striking and knapping off the young shootes and sprigs which should beare the next yeare that they haue the trees carry fruit but once in two yeares for it The like hapneth also if a man stay till they fall of themselues for by sticking on the tree beyond their due time they rob the oliues to come after of all their nutriment wherewith they should be fed and detaine the place likewise where they should come forth and grow An euident proofe hereof is this That oliues vnlesse they be gathered before the ordinary yearely western winds do blow they gather heart again vpon the tree wil not so easily fall as before Men vse therefore to gather the Pausian Oliues first after Autumne which are fullest of carnosity not so much by nature as by misgouernement and disorder soone after the round Orchitae which haue plenty of oile then the oliues Radij and these forasmuch as they be most tender and soonest ouercome with abundance of the lees which we called before Amurca are therby forced to fal Howbeit such oliues as be thick skinned and hard tough also and admitting no wet rain by which means they are the least of all others wil abide on the tree til March and namely the Licinian Oliues the Cominian Contian Sergian which the Sabins eal roial all which change not colour look black before the foresaid Western wind blowes that is about the 6 day before the Ides of February for by that time folk think they begin to ripen Now for as much as the best most approued oile is made of them it seems that reason also being conformable to this defect of theirs justifies aproues the same in the end And this is commonly receiued and held among them that cold winters breed scarcity and dearth but ful maturity brings plenty namely when they haue leisure to ripen on the tree howbeit this goodnes is not occasioned by the time but by the nature rather of those kind of oliues which be long ere they turn into the foresaid dregs Amurca Men are also as much deceiued in this that when Oliues be gathered they keep them vpon borded floors in sellars and garners will not presse them before they haue swet whereas in truth the longer they lie the lesse oile they yeeld the more dregs of lees For by this means the ordinary proportion they say is to presse out of euery Modius of Oliues not aboue 6 pound of oile But no man makes any reckoning of the lees howmuch it increases in measure day by day in one the very same kind of Oliues the longer that they be kept ere they be pressed In one word it is a common error setled euery where that men do think the abundance of oile is to be esteemed according to the bignes of the oliues considering that the plenty of oile consists not in the greatnes of the fruit as may appeare by those that of some are called Roiall of others Majorinae and Phauliae which euery man knoweth are the biggest and fairest Oliues to see to yet otherwise haue least oile in them of any others Likewise in Aegypt the oliues are most fleshie ful of pulp howbeit least oleous As for the country Decapolis of Syria the oliues indeed be very smal there no bigger than Capers yet commended they are for their carnosity And for that cause the oliues from the parts beyond sea are preferred before the Italian for goodnesse of meat and as better to be eaten yet those of Italy yeeld more oile And euen within Italy the Picene and Sidicine oliues surpasse the rest For in truth these are first confected and seasoned with salt or els as all others prepared condite either with lees of oile or wine cuit Some oliues there be which they suffer to swim alone as they be in their owne oile without any help and addition of other things and such be called Colymbades And the same they vse otherwhiles to bruise and cleanse from their stones and then confect them with green herbs which haue some pleasant commendable taste Others there are which being otherwise very green and vnripe are presently brought to maturity and made mellow by lying infused and soking in hot scalding water And a wonder it is to see how Oliues wil drink in a sweet liquor and how by that means they may be made toothsome yea and to carry the tast of any thing that a man would haue them Among oliues there be also that are of colour purple like to those grapes which change colour when they begin to ripen Moreouer besides the aboue named sorts of oliues there be some named Superbae i. proud Also there are Oliues to be found which being dried by themselues onely are passing sweet yea and more delicate than raisins mary these are very geason and yet such are in Africke and about the city Emerita in Portugall As touching the very oile it self the way to preserue it from being ouerfat and thick is with salt If the barke of an Oliue tree be slit and cut it will receiue the rellice and smell of any medicinable spice and the oile thereof wil seem aromatized otherwise pleasant in tast it is
leather the root to die wooll And as for the fruit or Apples that it beareth they are a speciall kind by themselues for all the world they resemble the snouts or muzles of wild beasts and many of the smaller sort seeme to hang to one that is bigger than the rest As concerning boughs of trees some are termed blind because they put not forth certaine eies or chits where they should bud which happeneth somtime by a naturall defect when they are not of validity to thrust out a bud otherwhiles it is occasioned by some wrong and iniurie done namely when they be cut off and in the place of the cut there groweth as it were a callous skar that dulleth the vertue of the tree Furthermore looke what is the nature that forked trees haue in their boughes the same hath the Vine in her eies and burgeons the same also haue canes and reeds in their joints and knots Ouer and besides all trees toward their root and the nearest to the ground are thicker than else where Some run vp altogether in height and therein shew thrir growth as the Firre or Deale tree the Larch Date-tree Cypresse Elme and generally all that rise vp in an entire stocke and are not diuided Of those also that branch and put out many boughes there is a kind of Cherry-tree that is found to beare armes like beames forty cubites long and two foot in thicknesse square throughout the whole length CHAP. XXXI ¶ Of the Boughes Barke and Roots of trees THere are trees that immediatly from the root thrust out boughes and branches as do the Apple-trees Some be couered with a thin rind as the Lawrell and Iâ—…e tree others with a thicke barke as the Okes. In some a man shall find the barke euen and smooth as in the Apple-tree and fig-tree the same in others is rough and rugged as is to be seene in Okes and Date-trees And ordinarily all old trees haue more riueled barks and furrowed than the younger In many trees the bark naturally doth breake and cleaue of the own accord and namely in the Vine From some it shaleth and falleth off as from the Apple tree and the Arbut The cork and the Poplar haue a fleshie and pulpous barke the rind of the Vine and the Reed is made in manner of a membrane or thin skin In Cherry trees it is as slender as paper and runneth into rolls but Vines Lindens and Firs are clad with tunicles and coats of many folds In some again the rind is but single as in the Fig-tree and the Cane or Reed And thus much of Barke There is as great difference in the root For the fig-tree the Oke and the Plane haue great store of roots and large spurns contrariwise in the Apple tree they are short and small the firre and Larch haue one tap root and no more for vpon that one main master-root they rest and are founded howbeit many small strings and petie spurns shoot out of the sides In the Bay-tree the roots be more grosse and vnequally embossed and likewise in the oliue which also spredeth out into many branches But those of the oke be of a carnous substance and verily all the kind of okes do root deep into the ground Certes if we giue credit to Virgil that sort of them which are called Esculi go down as deep into the earth with their roots as they arise mount aboue ground with their heads The roots of the Apple-tree Oliue and Cypresse lie very ebbe and creep hard vnder the sourd of the ground Moreouer there be roots that run direct and streight as those of the Bay and Oliue there be againe that wind and turne as they go as those of the fig-tree Some are all ouergrowne and full of hairy strings as the firre-root and many others of wild trees that grow in forrests from which the mountains vse to pluck those fine fibers smal threds wherewith they twist goodly faire paniers couers for flaggons and bottels and work many other vessels prety deuises Some writers as namely Theophrastus hold opinion and haue put down in their books that no roots goe lower into the earth than that the Sunnes heat may pierce vnto them and giue them a kind warmth the which is more or lesse say they according to the nature of the soile as it is either lighter or lean or massier richer and faster compact But I take this to be a meere vntruth This is certain that we find in antient writers that a yong Fir when it was to be transplanted and set again had a root that went eight cubits within the earth and yet it was not digged vp all whole but broken in the taking vp and Ieft somewhat behind The roots of Citron trees are biggest of all other and spread most Next to them are those of the Planes Okes and other Mast-trees Some trees there be the roots wherof like better liue longer the more ebbe that they lie within the vpper face of the ground and namely Lawrels and therefore they spring fresh againe and put forth better when the old stock is withered and cut away Others hold that trees which haue short stumped roots do sooner decay liue lesse while But deceiued they are and may be reproued by the instance of fig-trees which liue least while and yet their roots are longest of any other I suppose this also to be as false which some haue held and deliuered in writing That the roots do diminish and decay as the trees do waxe old for the contrary hath bin seen by an aged oke which by the violent force of a tempest was ouerthrowne the root whereof tooke vp a good acre of ground in compasse Moreouer a common thing it is and ordinary to replant and recouer many trees that haue bin blown down and laid along for they will reioine knit againe and reuiue by meanes of the earth euen as a wound doth vnite by the solder of a callous cicatrice And this is a most vsuall and familiar practice obserued in the Planes which by reason of their great heads so thicke of boughes gather windes most and are soonest subiect to their rage if any one of them by that means be fallen they lop their boughes and discharge them of their weightie load and then set them vpright again in their owne place as it were in a socket and they will take root and prosper And in good faith this hath bin done heretofore already in Walnut trees Oliues and many other to the like proofe CHAP. XXXII ¶ Of certaine prodigious trees and presages obserued by them By what meanes trees grow of their owne accord That all plants grow not euery where and what trees they be that are appropriate to certaine regions and are not elsewhere to be found WE reade in Chronicles and records that many trees haue fallen without wind and tempest or any other apparent cause but only by way of prodigie and presage of some future euent and
the same haue risen againe of themselues without mans helpe This happened during the wars against the Cymbrians to the great astonishment of the people of Rome who thereupon gathered a fore-tokening of great consequence for at Nuceria in the groue of Iuno there was an old Elme fell and after the head was lopped off because it light vpon the very altar of Iuno it arose of it own accord and that which more is immediatly vpon it put forth blossoms and flourished And this was obserued That from that very instant the majesty of the people of Rome began to take heart reuiue and rise again which had bin decaied and infeebled by so many and so great losses that the Romans hed receiued The like chanced by report neer the city Philippi vnto a Willow tree which was fallen downe and the head of it cut off clean semblably to an Aspen tree at Stagyrae neere vnto the colledge or publik place of Exercise there And all these were fortunate presages of good luck But the greatest wonder of all other was this of a Plane tree in the Isle Antandros which was not only fallen but also hewed and squared on all sides by the Carpenter and yet it rose againe by it selfe and recouered the former greennesse and liued notwithstanding it bare 15 cubits in length foure elnes in thicknesse and compasse All trees that we are beholden vnto the goodnesse of Nature for we haue by 3 means for either they grow of their owne accord or come of seed or else by some shoot springing from the root As for such as we inioy by the art and industry of men there be a great number more of deuises to that effect whereof we will speake apart in a seuerall booke for that purpose For the present our treatise is of trees that grow in Natures garden onely wherein she hath shewed her selfe many waies after a wonderfull manner right memorable First and formost as we haue shewed and declared before euery thing will not grow in euery place indifferently neither if they be transplanted will they liue This happeneth sometimes vpon a disdaine otherwhiles vpon a peeuish forwardnesse and contumacie but oftner by occasion of imbecility and feeblenesse of the very things that are remoued and translated nay one while the climate is against it enuious otherwhiles the soile is contrary therunto The balm tree can abide no other place but Iury. The Assyrian Pome-citron tree will not beare elswhere than in Syria As for the Date-tree it scornes to grow vnder all climats or if it be brought to that passe by transplanting it refuseth to beare fruit But say that it fortune by some meanes that she giueth some shew and apparance of fruit she is not so kind as to nourish and reare vp to perfection that which she brought forth forced against her will The Cinnamon shrub hath no power and strength to indure either the aire or earth of Syria notwithstanding it be a neere neighbor to the naturall region of her natiuity The daintie plants of Amomum or Spikenard may not away with Arabia howbeit they be brought out of India thither by sea for king Seleucus made triall therof so strange they are to liue in any other country but their own Certainly this is a most wonderful thing to be noted That many times the trees for their part may be intreated to remoue into a forrain country and there to liue yea and otherwhiles the ground and soile may be persuaded and brought to accord so wel with plants be they neuer such strangers that it will feed and nourish them but vnpossible it is to bring the temperature of the aire and the climat to condiscend thereto and be fauourable vnto them The Pepper-trees liue in Italy the shrub of Casia or the Canell likewise in the Northerly regions the Frankincense tree also hath been knowne to liue in Lydia but where were the hot gleames of the Sunne to bee found in those regions either to dry vp the waterish humor of the one or to concoct and thicken the gumme and Rosine of the other Moreouer there is another maruell in Nature welneare as great as that namely that shee should so change and alter in those same places and yet exercise her vertues and operations otherwhiles againe as if there were no change nor alteration in her She hath assigned the Cedar tree vnto hot countries and yet wee set it to grow in the mountaines of Lycia and Phrygia both She hath so appointed and ordained that cold places should be hurtfull and contrary to Bay-trees howbeit there is not a tree prospereth better nor groweth in more plenty vpon the cold hill Olympus than it About the streights of the Cimmerian Bosphorus and namely in the city Panticapaeum both K. Mithridates and also the inhabitants of those quarters vsed all meanes possible to haue the Lawrel and the Myrtle there to grow only to serue their turns when they should sacrifice to the gods it would neuer be did they what they could and yet euen then there were good store of trees there growing of a warm temperature there were Pomegranates and Fig-trees plenty and now adaies there be Apple-trees and Pyrries in those parts of the best and daintiest sort Contrariwise ye shall not find in all that tract any trees of a cold nature as Pines Pitch-trees and Firres But what need I to goe as farre as to Pontus for to auerre and make good my word Goe no farther than Rome hardly and with much adoe will any Chestnut or Cherrie trees grow neere vnto it no more than Peach-trees about the territory of Thusculum And worke enough there is to make hazels and filbards to like there turne but to Tarracina thereby ye shall meet with whole woods full of Nut-trees CHAP. XXXIII ¶ Of the Cypresse tree That oftentimes some new plants do grow out of the ground which were neuer knowne to be there beforetime THe Cypresse hath bin counted a meere stranger in Italy most vnwilling there to grow as we may see in the works of Cato who hath spent more words and made oftner mention of the Cypresse alone than of all other trees whatsoeuer Much ado there is with it before it come vp and as hard it is to grow and when all is done the fruit is good for nothing The berries that it beareth be wrinckled and nothing louely to the eie the leaues wherewith it is clad bitter in tast a strong and violent smell it hath with it not so much as the very shade therof is delectable and pleasant and the wood but small not solide but of an hollow substance insomuch as a man may range it among the kinds of shrubs Consecrated is this tree to Pluto therefore men vse to set a bough thereof as a signe before those houses wherein a dead corpes lieth vnder bourd As touching the female Cypresse it is long ere shee beareth The Cypresse tree for all this in the end growing