taken into Troy except the gates were pulled downe and this they placed hard to the wals of Troy Sinon the counterfet runagat being then within the wals among the Troyans perswaded them to pull downe their wals and pul in that wooden horsse affirming that if they could get it Pallas would stand so friendly to them that the Graecians should neuer be able to mooue warre against them wherefore they pull downe their gates and part of their wall and by that meanes do bring the horsse into the citty while the Troyans were thus reuelling and making merry with themselues and not thinking of any harme might ensue vpon them the leaders of the Graecian army who by deceit all this while kept themselues close hid euer since which time the Graecians are tearmed of all nations deceitfull on a suddaine rose out of their lurking places and so going forward inuaded the citty being destitute of any defence and by this meanes subdewed it Others are of opinion that the poets fiction of the Troyan horsse was no other but this that there was a mountaine neare Troy called Equus and by aduantage thereof Troy was taken whereunto Virgill seemeth to alude saying Instar montis Equum diuina Palladis arte Aedificant For they saie that Pallas and Epeus made the horsse and therefore I coniecture that the Troian horsse was nothing else but an engine of war like vnto that which is called Aries For Pausanias saith that Epeus was the inuenter thereof And Higintas saith that the Troyan horsse was Machina oppugnatoira a deuise of war to ouerthrow the wals Of this horsse there was a brazen image at Athens in Acropolis with this inscription Chaeridemus Fuangeli filius caelenenatus dicauit When Alexander looked vpon his own picture at Ephesus which Apelles had drawne with all his skill the king did not commend it according to the worth thereof It fortuned that a horsse was brought into the roome who presentlie neighed at the picture of Alexanders horsse smelling vnto it as to a liuing horsse where at Apelles spake thus to the king Ho men Hippos eoice sou graphicoteros Cata polu That is to say the horsse is a better discerner of truth then you There was one Phormis which went from Maenalus in Arcadia into Scicilia to serue Gelon the Sonne of Dinomenes vnder whom and his brother Hiero he arose to great estate of wealth and therefore he gaue many guifts to Apollo at Delphos and made two brazen horsses with their riders at Olympia setting Dionisius the Graecian vpon one and Simon Egenenta vpon the other Aemilius Censorinus a cruel Tirant in Scicilia bestowed great gifts vpon such as could inuent new kind of Torments there was one Aruntius Paterculus hoping to receiue from him some great reward made a brazen horsse and presented it to the Tirant to include therein such as he should condemne to death at the receipt whereof Aemilius which was neuer iust before first of all put the author into it that he might take experience how cursed a thing it was to minister vnto crueltie Apelles also painted Clytus on horsse-backe hastening to war and his armour bearer reaching his helmet vnto him so liuely that other dumb beasts were affraid of his horsse And excellent was the skil of Nealces who had so pictured a horsse foaming that the beholders were wont to take their handkerchefs to wipe it from his mouth and thus much for the morrall vses of horsses Of the seuerall diseases of Horsses and their cures SEeing in this discourse I haue principally aymed at the pleasure delight and profitte of Englishmen I haue thought good to discource of the diseases of horsses and their cures in the words of our owne countrymen M. Blundevile and M. Markham whose works of these matters are to be recorded like the Illiads of Homer in many places and seuerall Monumentes to the the entent that enuy or Barbarisme may neuer be able to burie them in obliuion or neglect to root them out of the world without the losse of other memorable labors Wherefore good Reader for the ensuing Tractate of diseases and cure compiled by them after that I had read ouer the labors of C. Gesner and compared it with them finding nothing of substance in him which is not more materially perspicuously profitably and familiarly either extracted or expressed by them in a method most fitting this Hystory I haue thoght good to follow theÌ„ in the description of the disease and the remedy first according to time declaring them in the words of M. Blund and afterwards in the words of M. Markam methodically one after the other in the same place wherwithal I trust the liuing authors will not be displeased that so you may with one labour examin both and I hope that neither they nor any of their friends or Schollers shall receiue any iuste cause of offence by adding this part of their studies to our labors neither their bookes imprinted be any way disgraced or hindered but rather reuiued renobled and honoured To beginne therefore saith Maister Blundeuill after the discourse of the nature of a horsse followeth those things which are against nature the knowledge whereof is as need fully profitable as the other Things against nature be those whereby the heathfull estate of a horsse-horsse-body is decayed which are in number three That is the causes the sicknes and the accidentes of the two first in order and the other promiscuously as neede requireth Of causes and kinds thereof THe causes of sickenes be vnnaturall affects or euill dispositions preceding sicknesse and prouoking the same which of themselues do not hinder the actions of the bodye but by meanes of sicknesse comming betwixt Blundevile Of causes some be called internal and some Externall Internall be those that breede within the body of the beast as euill iuice Externall be those that chance outwardly to the body as heat cold or the stinging of a Serpent and such like In knowing the cause of euery disease consisteth the chiefe skill of the Ferrer For vnlesse he knoweth the cause of the disease it is impossible for him to cure it wel and skilfully And therefore I wish al Ferrers to be diligent in seeking to know the causes of all diseases as wel in the parts similer as instrumentall and to know whether such causes be simple or compound for as they be simple or compound so do they engender simple or compound diseases Of sicknesse what it is and how many generall kinds there be also with what order the diseases of Horsses are heerein declared And finally of the foure times belonging to euery sicknesse SIcknes is an euill affect contrary to nature hindring of it selfe some action of the body Of sickenes there be three generall kindes whereof the firste consisteth in the parts simyler the second in the parts instrumental and the third in both parts togither The first kind is called of the Latines Intemperâ—es that is to say euill temperature which is
either simple or compound It is simple when one quality onlie doth abound or exceed too much as to be too hot or too cold it is compound as when manie qualities do exceed as when the body is too hot and too drie or too cold and too moist The second kind is called Mala constitutio that is to say an euil state or composition which is to be considered eyther by the shape number quantity or sight of the member or part euell affected or diseased The thirde kind is called Vnitatis solutio that is to saie the loosening or diuision of the vnitie which as it may chaunce diuerslie so it hath diuers names accordinglie for if such solution or diuision be in a bone then it is called a fracture if it be in anie fleshie part then it is called a wounde or vlcer in the vaines a rupture in the sinnews a conuulsion or crampe and in the skin an excoriation Againe of diseases some be called long and some sharpe and short called of the Latines Morbi accuti which be perillous and do quickly kill the body The long do tarrye longer by it Yet moreouer there is sicknes by it selfe and sicknes by consent Sicknesse by it selfe is that which being in some member hindereth the action thereof by it selfe Sicknesse by consent is deriued out of one member into another through the neighborhood and community that is betwixt them as the pain of the head which commeth from the stomacke Thus the learned Physitians which write of mans body do diuide sicknesse But Absirtus writing of horsse-leach craft saith of that sicknes or rather malady for so he termeth it vsing that worde as a generall name to all manner of diseases that be in a horsse there be foure kinds that is to say the moist malady the dry malady the malady of the ioynts and the malady betwixt the flesh and the skin The moist malady is that which we call the Glanders the dry maladie is an incurable consumption which some perhaps would call the mourning of the cheine but not rightly as shall well appeare vnto you heereafter The malady of the ioynts comprehendeth al griefes and sorances that be in the ioyntes And the malady betwixt the flesh and the skin is that which we call the scab vnto which foure kindes of maladies Vegetius addeth three others that is the Farcine the paine of the Reynes or Kidneys and the cankered Mangenesse most commonly called of the old writers the Leprosie and so maketh seauen kinds of maladies vnder which all other particular diseases are comprehended Againe Laurentius Russius vseth an other kind of diuision of sicknes Of horsses diseases saith he some be naturall and some accidentall The natural be those that do come either through the excesse or lacke of engendring seed or by error of nature in missorming the young or else by some defect of the damme or sire in that perhaps they be diseased within and haue their seed corrupted The accidentall diseases be those that come by chaunce as by surfetting of cold heat and such like thing But forasmuch as none of these writers doe follow their owne diuisions nor handle the partes thereof accordingly to auoide their confusion and to teach plainely I thought good and profitable therefore to vse this my owne diuision and order heere following First then of diseases some be inward and some be outward The inward be those that breede within the horsses bodie and are properly called maladies and diseases whereof some do ocupy al the wholebodie and some particular parts or members of the body Of those then that occupie all the body and not be accident to any priuate member I do first treat as of Agues of the Pestilence and such like and then of those that be incident to euery particluar member beginning at the head and so proceede orderly throughout all the members euen downe to the sole of the foot obseruing therein so nie as I can the selfe same order that Galen vseth in his booke De locis male affectis declaring first what manner of disease it is and how it is called in English and also in Italian because the Kings stable is neuer without Italian riders of whome our Ferrers haue borrowed many names as you shal perceiue heerafter Then the causes whereof it proceeds and the signes how to know it and finally the cure and diet belonging to the same and because I find not inward diseases enow to answeare euery part of the body I doe not let to enterlace them with outward diseases incident to those partes yea rather I leaue out no outwarde disease belonging to anie particular member and to the entent you maie the better know to what diseases or sorances euerie part or member of the horsses bodie is most commonly subiect And note by the way that I call those outward diseases that proceede not of any inwarde cause but of some outwarde cause as when a horsse is shouldered by meanes of some outward cause or his backe galled with the saddle or his sides spurgalled or his hooue cloid with a naile and such like which properly may be called sorances or griefes Thirdly I talke of those diseases as wel outward as inward that maie indifferently chance in anie part of the bdie as of Impostumes cankerous Vlcers Woundes Fistules Burninges Brousinges Breaking of bones and such like Fourthly because most diseases are healed either by letting of blood by taking vp of vains by purgation or els by cauterisation that is to say by giuing the fire I talke of those foure necessary things seuerally by themselues and finally I shew you the true order of paring and shooing all manner of hooues according as the diuersity of hooues require and to the intent you may the better vnderstand mee you haue the perfect shapes of all necessary shooes plainely set forth in figures before your eyes Thus much touching mine order which I haue hitherto obserued Now it is necessary to know that to euery disease or malady belongeth foure seuerall times that is to say the beginning the increasing the state and declination which times are diligently to be obserued of the Ferrer because they require diuers applying of medicine for that medicine which was meete to be vsed in the beginning of the disease perhaps is not to be vsed in the declination thereof and that which is requisite and very needefull to be applyed in the state or chiefest of the disease may be very dangerous to be vsed in the beginning And therefore the Ferrer ought to be a man of iudgement and able to discerne one time from another to the intent he may apply his medicines rightly Hither of causes and sicknesse in generall Now it is also meete that we speake in generall of signes whereby sicknesse is knowne Of the signes of sicknesse in generall â—â—undevile SIcknesse according to the learned Physitians is knowne foure manner of waies first by inseparable or substantiall accidents as by the shape
that which our Ferrers cal the yellowes The signs wherof according to Martin be these The Horse will bee faint and sweat as hee standeth in the stable and forsake his meat and his eies and the inside of his lips and all his mouth within will be yellow The cure whereof according to him is in this sort Let him bloode in the Necke vaine a good quantity and then giue him this drinke take of white wine of Ale a quart and put thereunto of Saffron turmericke of each halfe an ounce and the iuyce that is wroong out of a handfull of Celendine and being lukewarme giue it the Horse to drinke and keepe him warme the space of three or foure daies giuing him warme water with a little bran in it Of the Yellowes THe yellowes is a general disease in horsses and differ nothing from the yellow-iandise in men it is mortall and many horses die thereof the signes to know it is thus Markham pull downe the lids of the horsses eies and the white of the eie will bee yellow the inside of his lips wil be yellow and gums the cure followeth First let him bloode in the palat of the mouth that he may suck vp the same then giue him this drink take of strong Ale a quart of the greene ordure of Geese strained three or foure spoonefuls of the iuyce of Salendine as much of saffron halfe an ounce mix these together and being warme giue it the horse to drinke Of the euill habit of the body and of the dropsie AS touching the drines and consumption of the flesh without any apparant cause why Blundevile called of the Physitians as I said before Atrophia I know not what to say more then I haue already before in the chap. of consumption of the flesh and therefore resort thither And as for the euil habit of the body which is to be euil colored heauy dul of no force strength nor liuelines commeth not for lack of nutriment but for lack of good nutriment for that the blood is corrupted with flegme choler or melancholy proceeding either fro the spleene or else through weakenesse of the stomach or Liuer causing euill digestion or it may come by foule feeding yea also for lacke of moderate exercise The euill habit of the body is next cosin to the dropsie whereof though our Ferrers haue had no experience yet because mine old Authors writing of horselcach-craft do speak much thereof I thinke it good heere briefely to shew you their experience therein that is to say how to know it and also how to cure it But sith none of them do shew the cause whereof it proceedes I thinke it meete first therefore to declare vnto you the causes therof according to the doctrin of the learned Physitians which in mans body do make three kinds of dropsies calling the first Anasarca the second Ascites and the third Timpanias Anasarca is an vniuersall swelling of the body through the aboundance of water lying betwixt the skin and the flesh and differeth not from the disease last mentioned called Cachexia that is to say euill habit of the bloode sauing that the body is more swoln in this then in Cachexia albeit they proceede both of like causes as of coldnesse and weakenesse of the liuer or by meanes that the hart spleene stomack and other members seruing to digestion by grieued or diseased Ascites is a swelling in the couering of the belly called of the Physitians Abdomen comprehending both the skin the fat eight muscles and the filme or panicle called Peritoneum through the aboundance of some whayish humor entred into the same which besides the causes before alledged proceedeth most chiefely by means that some of the vessels within be broken or rather cracked out of the which though the blood being somewhat grosse cannot yssue forth yet the whayish humor being subtil may run out into the belly like water distilling through a cracked pot Timpanias called of vs commonly the Timpany is a swelling of the aforesaid couering of the belly through the aboundance of wind entred into the same which wind is ingendered of crudity and euill digestion and whilest it aboundeth in the stomach or other intrals finding no yssue out it breaketh in violently through the smal cundits among the panicles of the aforesaid couering not without great paine to the patient and so by tossing to and fro windeth at length into the space of the couering it selfe But surely such wind cannot be altogether void of moisture Notwithstanding the body swelleth not so much with this kinde of dropsie as with the other kind called Ascites The signs of the dropsie is shortnes of breath swelling of the body euil colour lothing of meat and great desire to drinke especially in the dropsie called Ascites in which also the belly wil sound like a bottle halfe ful of water but in the Timpanie it wil sound like a Tabar But now though mine authors make not so many kinds of dropsies yet they say al generally that a horse is much subiect to the dropsie The signs according to Absirtus and Hierocles be these His belly legs and stones wil be swollen but his back buttocks and flanks wil be dryed and shrunke vp to the very bones Moreouer the vaines of his face and temples and also the vaines vnder his tong wil be so hidden as you cannot see them and if you thrust your finger hard against his body you shal leaue the print therof behind for the flesh lacking natural heat wil not returne again to his place and when the horselyeth down he spreadeth himselfe abroad not being able to he round together on his belly and the haire of his back by rubbing wil fal away Pelagonius in shewing the signs of the dropsie not much differing from the Physitians first recited seemeth to make two kinds therof calling the one the Timpany which for difference sake may be called in English the wind dropsie and the other the water dropsie Notwithstanding both haue one cure so farre as I can perceiue which is in this sort Let him bee warme couered and walked a good while together in the sun to prouoke sweat and let all his body be wel and often rubbed alongst the haire let him seed vpon Colworts smallâ—ge and Elming boughs and of al other thinges that may loosen the belly or prouoke vrin and let his common meat be grasse if it may be gotten if not then hay sprinkled with water and Nytrum It is good also to giue him a kinde of pulse called Cich steeped a day and a night in water and then taken out and laid so as the water may drop away from it Pelagonius would haue him to drink Parsly stampt with wine or the root of the herb called 〈◊〉 Latin Panax with wine But if the swelling of the belly wil not decrease for al this then slit a litle hole vnder his belly a handful behind the nauil put into that hole a hollow reed
dung often and to do but little and that with great paine And also another disease called Procidentia ani that is to say the falling out of the fundament which the Physitians do account as seueral diseases Notwithstanding for somuch as Dysenteria and Tenasmus do spring both of like causes yea and also for that the falling out of the fundament hath some affinity with them I wil follow mine Authors in ioyning them altogether in this one chapter The Physitians make diuers kindes of bloody-flixe for sometime the fat of the slimy filth which is voided is sprinkled with a little blood sometime the matter that voydeth is mixt with the scraping of the guts and sometime it is waterish bloode like water wherein flesh hath beene washed and sometime blood mixt with melancholy and sometime pure blood and by the mixture of the matter you shall know in mans body whether the vlceration be in the inner smal guts or no if it bee the matter and blood wil be perfectly mixt togither but if it be in the outward guts then they be not mingled together but come out seuerall the blood most commonly following the matter Of this kind is that disease called before Tenasmus for that is an vlcer in the right gut seruing the fundament and doth proceede euen as the Flixe doth of some sharpe humors which being violently driuen and hauing to passe through many crooked and narrow waies do cleaue to the guts and with their sharpenesse fret them causing exulceration and grieuous paine The flixe also may come of some extreame cold heat or moistnesse or by meane of receiuing some violent purgation hauing therein ouer much Scamony or such like violent simple or through weakenesse of the Liuer or other members seruing to digestion Now as touching the falling out of the fundament the Physitians say that it commeth through the resolution or weakenesse of the muscles seruing to draw vp the fundament which resolution may come partly by ouer-much straining and partly they may be loosened by ouermuch moisture for which cause children being ful of moisture are more subiect to this disease then men And for the selfe same cause I thinke that Horsses hauing very moyst bodyes be subiect thereunto Thus hauing shewed you the causes of the diseases before recited I wil shew you the cure prescribed by the old writers Absirtus would haue the fundament on the outside to be cut round about but so as the inward ringe thereof be not touched for that were dangerous and would kil the horse for so much as his fundament would neuer abide within his body and that done he would haue you to giue him to drinke the powder of vnripe Pomgranat shels called in Latine Malicorium together with wine and water which indeede because it is astringent is not to be misliked but as for cutting of the fundament I assure you I cannot iudge what he should meane thereby vnlesse it be to widen the fundament by giuing it long slits or cuts on the outside but well I know that it may cause more paine and greater inflamation And therefore methinkes it were better in this case to follow the Physitians precepts which is first to consider whether the fundament being fallen out bee inflamed or not for if it bee not inflamed then it shall bee good to annoynt it first with Oyle of Roses somewhat warmed or else to wash it with warme red wine But if it be inflamed then to bath it wel first with a spunge dipt in the decoction of Mallowes Camomile Lineseede and Fenegreek and also to annoint it wel with oyle of Camomile and Dill mingled together to asswage the swelling and then to thrust it in againe faire and softly with a soft linnen cloth That done it shall be good to bathe all the place about with red wine wherein hath beene sodden Acatium Galles A corne cups parings of Quinces and such like simples as be astringent and then to throw on some astringent powder made of bole Armony Frankincens Sanguis Draconis Myrrh Acatium and such like yea and also to giue the Horsse this drinke much praised of all the old writers Take of Saffron one ounce of Myrrh two ounces of the hearb called in Latine Abrotonum named in some of our English herbals Sothernwood three ounces of Parsly one ounce of garden Rue otherwise called herb Grace three ounces of Piritheum otherwise called of some people spittlewort and of Isope of each two ounces of Cassia which is like Cynamon one ounce Let al these things be beaten in fine powder then mingled with chalk and strong vineger wrought into paast of which paast make little cakes and dry them in the shadow and being dryed dissolue some of them in a sufficient quantity of barly milk or iuyce called of the old writers and also of the Physitians Cremor Ptisane and giue to the Horse to drinke thereof with a horne for the medicine as the Authors write doth not onely heale the bloody-flixe and the other two diseases before recited but also if it be giuen with a quart of warme water it will heale al griefe and pain in the belly and also of the bladder that commeth for lacke of staling And being giuen with sweete wine it will heale the biting of any Serpent or mad dog Of the Wormes IN a Horsses guts do breed three kindes of wormes euen as there doth in mans body Blundevile though they be not altogether like in shape The first long and round euen like to those that children do most commonly voyde and are called by the generall name wormes The second little worms hauing great heads and small long tailes like a needle and be called Bots. The 3. be short and thick like the end of a mans little finger and therefore be cald Troncheons and though they haue diuers shapes according to the diuersity of the place perhaps where they breed or else according to the figure of the putrified matter whereby they breede yet no doubt they proceede all of one cause that is to say of a raw grosse and flegmatike matter apt to putryfaction ingendred most commonly by foule feeding and as they proceede of one selfe cause so also haue they like signes and like cure The usignes be these The Horse wil forsake his meate for the Troncheons and the Bots wil couet alwaies to the maw and paine him sore He will also lye downe and wallow and standing he will stamp and strike at his belly with his hinder foote and looke often toward his belly The cure according to Martin is thus take of sweet milke a quart of hony a quarterne and giue it him lukewarme and walke him vppe and downe for the space of an houre and so let him rest for that day with as little meate or drinke as may bee and suffer him not to lye downe Then the next day giue him this drinke take of berbe Grace a handful of Sauin as much and being wel stampt put therunto a little
be no appearance of these vpon their tongue then the chap-man or buyer pulleth of a bristle from the backe and if blood follow it is certaine that the Beast is infected and also such cannot well stand vppon theyr hinder legs Their taile is very round For remedy hereof diuers daies before their killing they put into their wash or swill some ashes especially of Hasell trees But in France and Germany it is not lawfull to sel such a Hogge and therefore the poore people do onely eat them Howbeit they cannot but engender euill humours and naughty blood in the body The rootes of the bramble called Ramme beaten to powder and cast into the holes where swine vse to bath themselues do keepe them cleare from many of these diseases and for this cause also in ancient time they gaue them Horse-flesh sodden and Toads sodden in water to drinke the broath of them The Burre pulled out of the earth without yron is good also for them if it be stamped and put into milk and so giuen them in their wash They giue their Hogges heere in Englande red-lead red-Oker and in some places red-loame or earth And Pliny saith that he or she which gathereth the aforesaid Burre must say this charme Haec est herba argemon Quam minerua reperit Suibas his remedium Qui de illa gustauerint At this daie there is great-praise of Maiden-haire for the recouery of swine also holy Thistle and the root of Gunhan and Harts tongue Of leannesse or pyning SOmetime the whole heard of swine falleth into leannes and so forsake their meat yea although they be brought forth into the fielde to feede yet as if they were drunke or weary they lie downe and sleepe all the day long For cure whereof they must be closely shutte vp into a warme place and made to fast one whole day from meat and water and then giue them the roots of wilde Cucumber beaten to powder and mixed with Water let them drinke it and afterward giue them beanes pulse or any drie meat to eat and lastlie warme water to procure vomit as in men whereby their stomackes are emptyed of al thinges both good and bad and this remedy is prescribed against all incertaine diseases the cause whereof cannot be discerned and some in such cases doe cut off the tops of the tailes or their eares for there is no other vse of letting these beastes bloode in theyr vaines Of the Pestilence THese beasts are also subiect to the Pestilence by reason of earth-quakes sudden infections in the aire and in such affection the beast hath sometime certaine bunches or swellings about the necke then let them be seperated and giue them to drinke in water the roots of Daffadill Quatit agros tussis anhela sues Ac faucibus angit obesis tempore pestis Some giue them night shade of the wood which hath great stalkes like cherry twiggs the leaues to be eaten by them against all their hot diseases and also burned snailes or Pepper-woort of the Garden or Lactuca foetida cut in peeces sodden in water and put into their meate Of the Ague IN auncient time Varro saith that when a man bought a Hogge he couenaunted with the seller that it was free from sicknes from danger that he might buy it lawfully that it had no maunge or Ague The signes of an Ague in this beast are these WHen they stop suddenly standing stil and turning their heads about fal downe as it were by a Megrim then you must diligently marke their heads which way they turne them that you may let them bloode on the contrary eare and likewise vnder their taile some two fingers from their buttockes where you shall finde a large veine fitted for that purpose which first of all we must beat with a rodde or peece of wood that by the often striking it may be made to swell and afterwardes open the saide veine with a knife the blood being taken away their taile must be bound vp with Osier or Elme twigges and then the swine must be kept in the house a day or two being fed with Barly meale and receiuing warme water to drinke as much as they will Of the Crampe VVHen swine fall from a great heat into a sudden colde which hapneth when in their trauel they suddenly lie downe through wearinesse they fall to haue the Crampe by a painefull convulsion of their members and the best remedye thereof is for to driue them vp and downe till they wax warme againe and as hot as they were before and then let them bee kept warme stil and coole at great leisure as a horsse doth by walking otherwise they perish vnrecouerably like Calues which neuer liue after they once haue the crampe Of Lice THey are many times so infested and annoied with lice that their skinne is eaten and gnawne through thereby for remedy whereof some annoint them with a confection made of Cream Butter and a great deale of salt Others again annoint them after they haue washed them all ouer with the Leeze of wine and in England commonly the country people vse staues-aker red-Oaker and grease Of the Lefragey BY reason that they are giuen much to sleepe in the summer time they fall into Lethargies and die of the same the remedy whereof is to keepe them from sleepe and to Wake them whensoeuer you finde them asleepe Of the head-aches THis disease is cald by the Graecians Scotomia and Kraura and by Albertus Fraretis herewith all swine are many times infected and their eares fall downe their eies are also deiected by reason of many cold humors gathered together in their head whereof they die in multitudes as they do of the pestilence and this sickenesse is fatal vnto them if they be not holpen within three or foure daies The remedie whereof if their be anie at al is to hold Wine to their Nostrils first making them to smel thereof and then rubbing it hard with it and some giue them also the roots of white Thistle cut smal and beaten into their meat but if it fall out that in this paine they loose one of their eies it is a signe that the beast wil die by and by after as Pliny and Aristotle write Of the gargarisme This disease is called by the Latins Raucelo and by the Graecians Brancos which is a swelling about their chaps ioyned with Feauer and Head-ach spredding it selfe all ouer the throat like as the squinancy doth in a man and many times it begetteth that also in the swine which may be knowne by the often moouing of their feet and then they dy with in three daies for the beast cannot eat being so affected and the disease creepeth by little and little to the liuer which when it hath touched it the beast dieth because it putrifieth as it passeth For remedy hereof giue vnto the beast those things which a man receiueth against the squinancy and also let him blood in the root of his tongue I mean in
vpper part of their body is far greater then the neather like other Quadrupedes consisting of A porportion betweene fiue and three by reason whereof they grow out of kinde hauing feete like hands and feete They liue more downeward then vpward like other foure footed Beasts and they want Buttocks although Albertus saith they haue large ones they haue no taile like 2. legged creatures or a very small signe thereof The genitall or priuy place of the female is like a Womans but the Males is like a dogges their nourishment goeth more forward then backward like the best horses and the Arabian Seraph which are higher before then behinde and that Ape whose meate goeth forward by reason of the heate of heart and Lyuer is most like to a man in standing vpright their eyes are hollow and that thing in men is accounted for a signe of a malitious minde as little eies are a token of a base and abiect spirit Men that haue low and flat Nostrils are Libidinous as Apes that attempt women and hauing thicke lippes the vpper hanging ouer the neather they are deemed fooles like the lips of Asses and Apes Albertus saith he saw the heart of a Male Ape hauing 2. tops of snarp ends which I knowe not whether to terme a wonder or a Monster An Ape and a Cat haue a small backe and so hath a weake hearted man a broad and strong back signifieth a valiant and magnanimous mind The Apes nailes are halfe round and when they are in copulation they bende their Elbowes before them the sinewes of their hinder ioynts being turned cleane about but with a man it is cleane otherwise The vaines of their armes are no otherwise dissected then a mans hauing a very small and ridiculous crooked thumbe by reason of the Muscles which come out of the hinder part of the Leg into the middle of the Shinne and the fore muscles drawing the leg backeward they cannot exactly stand vpright and therefore they runne and stand like a man that counterfaites a lame mans halting The disposition of Apes And as the body of an Ape is Ridiculous by reason of an indecent likenesse and imitation of man so is his soule or spirit for they are kept only in rich mens houses to sport withall being for that cause easily tamed following euery action he seeth done euen to his owne harme without discretion A certaine Ape after a shipwracke swimming to land An History was seene by a Countreyman and thinknig him to be a man in the water gaue him his hand to saue him yet in the meane time asked him what Countrey man he was who answered he was an Athenian well saide the man dost thou know Piraeus which was a port in Athens very well Places of their abode saide the Ape and his wife frends and children where at the man being moued did what he could to drowne him They keep for the most part in Caues and hollow places of hils in rocks and trees feeding vpon Apples and Nuts but if they finde any bitternesse in the shel they cast all away They eate Life and picke them out of heads and garments Food of apes They will drinke wine till they be drunk but if they drink it oft they grow not great specialy they lose their nails as other Quadrupedes do They are best contented to sitte aloft although tied with chaines They are taken by laying for them shoos and other things for they which hunt them will anoint their eies with water in their presence and so departing leaue a pot of lime or Hony in stead of the water The manner of taking Apes which the Ape espying commeth and anointeth her eies therewith and so being not able to see doeth the hunter take her If they lay shooes they are leaden ones to heauy for them to weare wherein are made such deuises of Ginnes that when once the Ape hath put them on they cannot be gotten off without the help of man So likewise for little Bags made like Breeches wherewithall they are deceiued and taken Procreation of apes They bring forth young ones for the most part by twins whereof they loue the one and hate the other that which they loue they beare in their Armes the other hangeth at the dams back and for the most part she killeth that which she loueth by pressing it to hard afterward she setteth her whole delight vpon the other The Egyptians when they discribe a father leauing his inheritance to his sonne that he loueth not picture an Ape with hir young one vpon her backe The male and female abide with the young one and if it want anything the male with fist and irefull aspect punisheth the female When the Moone is in the waine they are heauy and sorrowful Secretes in their nature which in that kinde haue tailes but they leape and reioyce at the change for as other Beasts so doe these feare the defect of the starres and planets They are full of dissimulation and imitation of man they readiler folow the euill then the good they see their imitation They are very fierce by nature and yet tamed forget it but still remaine subiect to madnesse their loue They loue Conies very tenderly for in England an old Ape scarse able to goe did defend tame Conies from the Weasell as Sir Thomas Moore reported thâ—ir â—eere They feare a shel fish and a snaile very greatly as appeareth by this History In Rome a certaine Boy put a snaile in his hat and came to an Ape who as he was accustomed leapes vpon his shoulder and tooke off his hat to kil Life in his head but espying the snaile it was a wonder to see with what hast the Ape leaped from the Boyes shoulder and in trembling manner looked backe to see if the snaile followed him also when a snaile was tied to the one end of another Apes chaine so that he could not chose but continually looke vpon it one cannot imagine how the Ape was tormented therewith finding no meanes to get from it cast vp whatsoeuer was in his stomaeke and fell into a grieuous feuer till it was remoued from the snaile an antiquity and refreshed with Wine and water Cardane reporteth that it was an ancient custome in former time when a parracide was executed he was after he was whipped with bloody stripes put into a sacke with a liue Serpent a dog an Ape and a Cocke by the Serpent was signified his extreame malice to mankinde in killing his father by the Ape that in the likenesse of man he was a Beast by the dog how like a dog he spared none no not his owne father and by a cocke his hatefull pride and then were they altogether hurld headlong into the Sea That he might be deemed vnworthy of all the Elements of life and other blessings of nature A Lyon ruleth the beasts of the earth and a Dolphin the beasts of the sea when the Dolphin
is in age and sicknes she recouereth by eating a sea-ape and so the Lyon by eating an ape of the earth and therefore the Egiptians paint a Lyon eating an ape to signifie the medicin of apes a sicke man curing himselfe The hart of an ape sod and dried whereof the weight of a groat drunk in a draught of stale Hunny sod in water called Mellicraton strengthneth the heart emboldneth it and driueth away the pulse and pusillanimity thereof sharpeneth ones vnderstanding and is soueraigne against the falling euill THE MVNKEY Ioh. Leo. Affrican The contrey of their abod and Breed They are bred in the hils of constance in the woods of Bugia and Mauritania In Aethiopia they haue blacke heads haire like asses and voices like to other In India they report that the Munkeys will clime the most steepe and high rockes and fling stones at them that prosecute to take them When the king of Ioga in India for religion goeth on Pilgrimage he carrieth with him very many Munkeys In like sort Munkeys are brought from the new found Lands from calechut and Prasia and not farre from Aden a cittie of Arabia is a most high hill Hart of Munkeys abounding in these beasts who are a great hinderance to the poore vintagers of the countrey of calechut for they will climbe into the high palm trees and breaking the vessels set to receiue the Wine poure forth that lickquor they finde in them Their food they will eat hearbes and graine and ears of grasse going togither in great flocks whereof one euer watcheth at the vtmost bounds of their campe that he may crye out when the husbandman commeth and then al flying and leaping into the next trees escape away the females carry their young ones about with them on their shoulders and with that burden leape from tree to tree There be of this kind of Munkeys two sorts one greater the other lesser Diuersities of Munkeys as is accounted in England and Munkeys are in like sort so diuided that there be in all foure kinds differing in bignes whereof the least is little bigger then a squirrell and because of their marueilous and diuers mowings mouings voices and gestures the Englishmen call any man vsing such Histrionical actours a Munkey The onely difference betwixt these and other Apes aforesaide is their taile Solinus Their anatomy and parts they differ from men in their Nerues in the ioynts of their loynes and their processes and they want the thirde muscle moouing the fingers of their handes Mammonents are lesse then an Ape Vâ—ssâ—â—us Mammonets brown on the back and white on the belly hauing a long and hairy taile his neck almost so big as his body for which cause they are tied by the hips that they slip not collar They haue a round head a face like a man but blacke and bald on the crowne his nose in a reasonable distance from his mouth like a mans and not continued like an Apes his stones greenish blew like a Turkey stone They are caught after the manner of Apes and being tamed and taught they conceiue and worke very admirable feats and their skins pulled off them being dead are dressed for garments The foolish Arabians dedicated Memnonius cercopithecus vnto heauen and in all afflictions implored his aide Festus another kind There is one other kind of Munkeys whose taile is onely hairy at the tip called corcolipis THE CEPVS OR Martine Munkey THE Martine called cepus of the Greeke worde The names Kepos which Aristotle writeth Kebos and some translate Caebus some Cephus or Cepphus or more barbarously celphus the latines sometimes Ortus Diodorus Siculus for indeede this kinde of ape in his best estate is like * a garden set with diuers flowers and therefore the best kinde of them is discerned and known by the sweetest sauour such being alwayes the most ingenious imitators of men It is very probable that this name cepus is deriued of the Haebrewe Koph and Kophin signifying apes in general as is before said but yet this kind is destinguished from other by strabo Aelianus and Pliny although Aristotle doeth make no difference betwixt this and another ordinarie Munkey The games of great Pompey first of all brought these Martines to the sight of the Romaines and afterward Rome saw no more Pliny The first knowledg of Mâ—rtins they are the same which are brought out of Aethiopia and the farthest Arabia their feet and knees being like a mans and their fore-feet like hands their inward parts like a mans so that some haue doubted what kinde of creature this should be which is in part a man and yet a Foure-footed beast it hauing a face like a Lyon Their country of breed Strabo and some part of the body like a Panther being as big as a wilde goate or Roe-bucke or as one of the dogs of Erithrea and a long taile the which such of them as haue tasted flesh will eat from their owne bodies Their anatomy Strabo Scaliger Concerning their coulor howsoeuer they are not all alike for some are blacke with white spots hauing a greater voyce then others some yellow some Lyon-tauny some golden yellow and some cole-black yet for the most part the head and backe parts to the taile are of a fiery color with some golden hair aspersed among the residue Their color a white snowt and certain golden strakes like a collar going about the necke the inferior parts of the necke downe to the brest and the forefeet are white Aelianus their two dugs as big as a mans hand can gripe are of a blewish coulor and their belly white their hinder legs blacke and the shape of their snowt like a Cynocephale which may be the difference betwixt Aelianus and Strabo their cepus and Aristotles Cebus for nature many times bringeth forth like beasts which are not of the same kind Cay In England there was a Martine that had his backe and sides of a green coulor hauing heere and their white haire the belly chin and beard which was round white the face and shins blacke and the nose white being of the lesser kind for in bignes it exceeded not a coney Their disposition Some of them in Aethiopia haue a face like a Satyre and other members in part resembling a Beare and in part a Dog so are the Prasian Apes This Martine did the Babilonians inhabiting neere Memphis for the strangenes the coulor and shape thereof worship for a God They are of euill disposition like Apes and therefore we will spare both their pictures and further description finding very little of them in Histories worth commemoration The Ape CALITRICH THE Calitrich so called by reason of his bearde the name and may bee termed in English a bearded Ape Pliny Countrey of breed will liue no other where then in Ethiopia and India which are easie to take but verye harde to bring away aliue
beasts their hornes being in compasse about nine ynches and somewhat more are verie smooth and blacke like varnish Their voice is like the voice of an oxe their legs all hairy and their feet clouen their taile too shorte for the other members of the Body like a Bugles His flesh and disposition to anger their backe stretched out at length is as long as a seat for seauen men their flesh is very sweet for which cause he is much sought for in hunting hee will with his feet dig vp the ground like an oxe or bull in his rage when he is once stroke he flyeth away His fight in flyeng fighting with his heeles backward and whereas nature hath denyed him the benefit of hornes which other beastes haue so that hee is onely adorned and not armed by those weapons like a souldiour that cannot draw foorth his sword she hath giuen him the secret operation of his dung The secret operation of his dung which in his chase he casteth forth of his body so plentifully vpon the Dogges or other that pursue him by the space of foure paces backeward that he slayeth their course and the heat of this dung is so admirable that it scorcheth or burneth the haire or skinne of any beastes or men that hunt him neither hath this fime such vertuous operation at any other time but onely when the beast flieth being hunted and pursued for life at other times it lying quiet there is no such vertue therin neither ought this to seeme incredible seeing many other beasts in their chase haue the like or at the least do then eiect their excrement more plentifully and noisomly then at other times The reason of the heat operation of their excrement as the Cuttell-fiâ—h for when in chase the intrals are heated and the passage somewhat restrained so that the holding in of breath breedeth more wind in the guttes it may very naturally chaunce the excrement being with the inclosed wind and heat sent forth by violent eruption that it may flie far backward and also burne as aforesaid These beasts calue in the mountaines Their place and succour for caluing and before that time commeth she chuseth a place which she walleth in with the abundance of her owne dung so high as it may couer her younge one for there is no beast that is naturally so full of excrement as a bonassus Their eares are very broade as the Poet sayeth Patutae camuris sub cornibus aures broad eares vnder crooked winding blunt hornes the skinne is so large that it hath couered a good part of a house the inward colour whereof is like the earth whereon the beast did vse to feed That excellent Phisitian of England Iohn Cay did sende mee the head of this beast with this description in an Epistle saying I Send vnto thee the head of a great wild beast the bare mouth and the bones supporters of the hornes being very weighty The relation of Iohn Cay a Doctor of Physick in England and therefore bearing vp some like heauy burden the hornes are recurued and bending backward so that they do not spire directly downeward but rather forward though in a crooked manner which because it could not appear forward as they doe when the Beast is aliue therefore they are described turning on the one side the space betwixt the hornes or bredth of the forehead is three Roman palmes and halfe the length of the hornes three palmes one finger and a half and their compas where they are ioyned to the head is one foot one palme and a halfe In the castle of warwicke where are preserued the armor and speare of one Earle Guy of Warwicke a most valiant strong man I haue seene the heade of a beast not vnlike to this sauing that if the bones whereon the hornes grow should be ioyned together then would the hornes bee longer and of another crooked fashion And in the same place there is also the necke bone of the same beast the compasse there of is at the least three Roman feet two palmes and a halfe whereunto I may also adde that shoulder-blade which hangeth on the North gate of the citty of Couentry being in the lowest part three foot broad and two fingers and four foot long and two palmes and the compasse of the arme-hole wherein the shoulder is ioyned is three foote and one palme and the whole compasse of them both in breadth and length is eleuen foot one palme and a halfe In the chappell of the said great Guy distant from Warwick about one thousand paces or a mile there hangeth a ribbe of this beast as I suppose the compasse whereof in the smallest place is three palmes and in length it is sixe foote and a halfe the ribbe is dry and rotten in the superficies thereof The vulgar people affirme that it is the peece of a Boare which was slaine by Earle Guy other say by tradition of their elders that it is a piece of a wilde Cow remaining neere Couentry did much harm to many people which latter opinion I embrace taking it for a Bonasus who in most things is like a cow and therefore some affirme it is an Indian Cow but ignorantly because any thing that is not common is vsually attributed to some strange countri-breed with an addition to that it most of all resembleth The shape of these horns are heere following discribed Thus farre D. Câ—â— Whereunto I assent holding his coniectures to be very probable vntill by the diligent industry of some other or my owne eie sight we may deliuer to the world som more assured and perfect knowledge in these kinde of beastes Exhorting in the meane season all learned men to discouer more exactly their present or future knowledge heerein to the high benefit of al them that are diligent students in this part of Gods creation OF THE BVFFE A Buffe is called in Greeke Tarandos and in Latine Tarandus Of the name and kind of Buffes which some haue corrupted barbarously terming it Parandrus and Pyradus and I coniecture that it is the same beast which the Polonians call Tur or Thuro howsoeuer other confound this Tarandus with another beast called Rangifer and some with a kind of Vrus which haue many properties in common with a Buffe yet my reason why the Polonian Tur can be no other then a Buffe is because the head and mouth differeth from those beastes and also by cause this is taken in Sarmatia where the common people call it Daran or Darau although the later writers call it Duran and Daran and translate it a Bonnasus which can by no meanes agree with this beast and the name of Daran is easily deriued from Tarandus or Tarandos Pliny The seueral parts Siluius Hesychius The head of this beast is like the head of a Hart and his hornes branched or ragged his body for the most part like a wilde Oxes his haire deepe and harshe like a Beares his
hide is so hard and thicke that of it the Scithians make breast-plates which no dart can pierce through His colour for the most part like an Asses but when he is hunted or feared he changeth his hew into whatsoeuer thing he seeth as among trees he is like them among greene boughs he seemeth greene a myracle in his colour amongst rocks of stone he is transmuted into their colour also as it is generally by most writers affirmed as Pliny Solinus among the auncient Stephanus and Eustathius among the later Writers This indeed is the thing that seemeth most incredible but there are two reasons which draw me to subscribe hereunto first because we see that the face of men and beasts thorough feare ioy anger and other passions doe quickly change from ruddy to white from blacke to pale and from pale to ruddy againe Now as this beast hath the head of a Hart so also hath it the feare of a Hart but in a higher degree and therefore by secret operation it may easily alter the colour of their haire as a passion in a reasonable man may alter the colour of his face The same thinges are reported by Pliny of a beast in INDIA called Lycaon as shall be afterward declared and besides these two there is no other among creatures couered with haire that chaungeth colour Another reason forcing me to yeeld herunto is that in the sea a Polypus-fish and in the earth among creeping things a Chamaeleon doe also change their colour in like sort and fashion whereunto it may be replyed that the Chamaeleon and Polypus-fish are pilled or bare without haire and therefore may more easily be verse-coloured but it is a thing impossible in nature for the haire to receiue any tincture from the passions but I answer that the same nature can multiply and diminish her power in lesser and smaller Beastes according to hir pleasure and reserueth an operation for the nayles and feathers of Birds and finnes and scales of Fishes making one sort of diuers colour from the other and therefore may and doth as forcibly worke in the haires of a buffe as in the skinne of a Chamaeleon adding so much more force to transmute them by how much farther off they stand from the blood like as an Archer which setteth his arme and bow higher to shoote farther and therefore it is worthy obseruation that as this beast hath the best defence by her skin aboue all other so she hath the wakest and most timerous heart aboue all other These Buffes are bred in Scithia and are therefore called Tarandi Scithic Countries of Buffes they are also among the Sarmatians and called Budini and neere Gelonis and in a part of Poland in the Duchy of Mazauia betwixt Oszezke and Garuolyin And if the polonian Thuro before mentioned haue a mane whereof I am ignorant then will I also take that beast for a kind of Bison In phrygia there is a territory called Tarandros Stephanus and peraduenture this beast had his name from that Contrey wherein it may be he was first discouered and made knowne The quantity of this beast exceedeth not the quantity of a wild Oxe The quantity or stature of a Buffe whereunto in al the parts of his body he is most like except in his head face and hornes his Legges and hoofes are also like an Oxes The goodnesse of his hide is memorable and desired in all the cold countries of the world wherein onely these beasts and all other of strong thicke The hide is most profitable to man hides are found for the thinnest and most vnprofitable skinnes of beastes are in the whot and warmer partes of the world and God hath prouided thicke warme most commodious and precious couers for those beasts that liue farthest from the Sunne Whereupon many take the hides of other beastes for Buffe for being tawed and wrought artificially they make garmentes of them as it is daily to be seene in Germany Of the vulgar Bugill A Bugill is called in Latine Bubalus and Buffalus The seuerall names in French Beufle in Spaninsh Bufano in German Buffell and in the Illirian tongue Bouwoll The Haebrewes haue no proper word for it but comprehend it vnder To which signifieth any kind of wild Oxen for neither can it be expressed by Meriah which signifieth fatted oxen or Bekarmi which signifieth oxen properly or Iachmur which the Persians call Kutzcohi or Buzcohi and is vsually translated a wild-asse For which beast the Haebrewes haue many wordes neither haue the Graecians any proper word for a vulgar Bugill for Boubalos and Boubalis are amongest them taken for a kind of Roe bucke The originall of the term Bubalus So that this Bubalus was first of all some moderne or barbarous terme in Affrique taken vp by the Italians by them attributed to this beast and many other for whom they knew no proper names For in the time of Pliny they vse to call strange beastes like Oxen or Buls Vri as now a daies lead with the same errour or rather ignorance they call such Bubali or buffali The true effigies of the vulgar Bugill was sent vnto me by Cornelius Sittardus a famous Physitian in Norimberge and it is pictured by a tame and familiar Bugill such as liueth among men for labour as it seemeth to me For there is difference among these beastes as Aristotle hath affirmed both in colour mouth horne and strength This vulgar Bugill Of the vulgar Bugill hir parts is of a kinde of Wilde Oxen greater and taller then the ordinary Oxen their body being thicker and stronger and their lims better compact together their skinne most hard their other partes very leane their haire short small and blacke but little or none at all vpon the taile which is also short and small The head hangeth downward to the earth and is but little being compared with the reasidue of his body and his aspect or face betokeneth a tameable and simple disposition His forehead is broad and curled with haire his hornes more flat then round very long bending together at the top Pollonius Vse of their hornes as a Goates doe backward insomuch as in creete they make bovves of them and they are not for defence of the beast but for distinction of kind and ornament His necke is thicke and long and his rump or neather part of his backe is lower then the residue descending to the tayle His Legs are very great broad and strong but shorter then the quantity of his body would seeme to permit They are very fierce being tamed but that is corrected by putting an Iron ring through his Nostriles Erasmus whereinto is also put a cord by which he is lead and ruled as a horse by a bridle for which cause in Germany they call a simple man ouerruled by the aduise of another to his owne hurt a Bugle lead with a ring in his Nose His feete are clouen and with the formost
that these are greater and stronger then Harts Agricola Of their strength and colour their vpper part of the backe being blacke and the neather neere the belly not White as in a Hart but rather blackish but about his genitals very blacke I haue seene the hornes to haue seauen spires or braunches growing out of one of them being palmed at the top These are like to those which are called Achaeines in Greeke by reason of their paine and sorrow and Kummerer in Germane by cause they liue in continuall sorrow for their young ones while they are not able to runne out of their dennes belike fearing by some instinct of nature A secret in their paâ—sion least their tender and weake age should betray them to the hunters before they be able to runne away THE FIGVRE OF ANOTHER Tragelaphus or Deere-goate expressed by BELLONIVS THere is another Tragelaphus saith he whereof I finde no name among the French it wanteth a beard The description of his seuerall parts and the Haire thereof resembleth an Ibex-goate whose description followeth afterward among Goates the hornes heereof are like a Goats but more crooked and bending compassing behinde as a Rammes doe which he neuer looseth His face Nose and eares are like a sheepes the skinne of his Cods being very thicke and hanging downe His Legs are white like a sheepes his taile white his haires are so long about his necke and stomacke that you would thinke it were bearded His haire on the shoulders and brest blacke and it hath two gray spots on his flanks on either side the Nostriles are blacke the beake or face White so also is the belly beneath but the description heereof seemeth rather to agree with a Pygargus or Musmon of which I shall speake afterward Either sexe loose euery yeare their hoofes and Harts doe their Hornes that nature may shew their resemblance in their feet to a Hart as he doth in their head to a Goat His eare is short like a Goats but his eie genitall stones and taile like a Harts though somwhat shorter The hornes like a Rammes crooked and distinguished in the middle by a blacke line all their length which is two Roman feete and one finger and in compasse at the roote one foot one palme and a halfe standing one from another where they differ most not aboue one foote three palmes one finger and a halfe The rugged circles going about them toward the top are bunchy and toward the bottom or roote they are low with beaten notches or impressions Their quantity in length and breadth They are not at the top distant one point from another aboue one foote and a palme The length of their face from the Crowne to the tip of the Nose one foote and three fingers the breadth in the forehead where it is broadest two palmes and one finger The height of this beast not aboue three foote and a halfe except where his mane standeth and the whole length heere of from the crown of the head to the taile is foure feet and a halfe and two fingers It hath onely teeth beneath on the neather chap and those in number not aboue sixe neither did I obserue any defect in them It cheweth the cud like other clouen-footed beasts The Nostrils are blacke from whom the vpper lip is deuided by a long perpendicular line It is a gentle pleasant and wanton beast in the disposition Of the description of this beast rather resembling a Goate then a Hart desiring the steepest and slipperyest places whereon it leapeth and from whence it is reptored that it doth cast downe it selfe headlong vpon the hornes naturally that by them it may breake the violence of his fall or leape and then stayeth his body vpon the sore-knees It will runne apace but it is most excellent in leaping for by leaping it ascendeth the highest Mountaines and rockes The females are greater then the males but not in Horne or Haire it eateth Grasse Oates Cheasâ—ill Hay and Bread they bring forth twinnes euery time and this we call in England a Barbary-Deere Thus farre Doctor Cay OF THE HART AND HINDE THe male of this beast is called in Haebrew Ajal Deut. 14. The names of a Hart. and the Arabians doe also retaine that word in their translations the Persians cal him Geuazen the Septuagints Elaphos the Graecians at this day Laphe Pelaphe and Saint Ierom for the Latins Ceruus the Chaldees Aielah the Italians Ceruo the Spaniards Cieruo the French Cerf the Germans Hirtz of Hirs and Hirsch the Plimmings Hert the Polonians Gelen the Illirians Ielijelij The female or Hinde likewise termed in Haebrew Aial and sometime Alia and Aielet The names of a Hinde the Latines and Italians Cerua the Spaniards Cierua the Germans Hinde and Hindin and the Germans more speciallye Hin and Wilprecht the French Biche and the Polonians Lanij The young faunes or calfes of this Beast they call in Latine Hinnuli the Graecians Anebros the Haebrewes Ofer the Germans Hindcalb The nams of a hinde-calfe Also it is not to be forgotten that they haue diuers other names to dinstinguish their yeares and countries as for example when they begin to haue hornes which appeare in the second yeare of their age like Bodkins without braunches which are in Latine called Subulae Aristotle Pliny Oâ— Spittards Subulous they are also cald Subulones for the similitude they haue with bodkins and the Germans cal such an one Spirzhirtz which in English is called a Spittard and the Italians corbiati but the french haue no proper name for this beast that I can learn vntil he be a three yearing and then they call him ein Gabler which in Latine are called Furcarij And indeed I was once of this opinion that these Subulones were only two-yearing Harts vntil I consulted with a Sauoyen of Segusium Of Brocardes who did assure me from the mouths of men traind vp in hunting wild beasts from their youth that there are a kind of Subulones which they call also Brocardi with straight and vnforked hornes except one branch in the mountaine of Iura neare the lake Lemanus and that these also do liue among other Hartes for there was seene neere a monastry called the Roman Monasterie by certaine hunters in the yeare 1553. a vulgar Hart with branched hornes and his female and likewise with a Subulon or Brocarde which when in pursuit he was constrained to leape from rocke to rock to get to the Water he brake his legge and so was taken These Brocards are as great in quantity as other vulgar Hartes The quantity of Brocards but their bodies are leaner and they swifter in course Of their horns They haue but one braunch growing out of the stem of their horne which is not bigger then a mans finger and for this cause in the rutting time when they ioyne with their females they easily ouercome the vulgar Hart with his branched and forked hornes The
theeues Pliny and when he was slaine hee departed not from the body but kept it warily from Dogs Birds or wilde Beasts sitting vpon his priuy parts and couering them vntill the Roman captaines came and buryed it Tzetzes But most admirable was the loue of a certaine dog to his maister punished with death for the fact against Germanicus Among other this dog would neuer go from the prison and afterward when his maisters dead bodie was broght in the presence of many Romans the cur vttered most lamentable and sorrowful cries for which cause one of the company threw vnto him some meat to see if that would stoppe his mouth and procure silence but the poore dog tooke vp the meat and caried it to his maisters mouth not without the singular passion of the beholders at last the body was taken vp and cast into the riuer Tiber the poore dog leaped in after it and endeauored by all the meanes his weaknes could afford to keep it from sinking in the presence of an inumerable multitude which without teares could not looke vpon the louing care of this brute beast The dogs of Gelon Hieron Lysimachus Pyrrhus king of Epirus Polus the Tragoedian and Theodorus leaped into the burning fires which consumed their maisters dead bodies Nicias a certaine hunter going abroad in the woods chaunced to fall into a heape of burning coales hauing no helpe about him but his dogs there he perished yet they ranne to the high waies and ceased not with barking and apprehending the garments of passengers to shew vnto them some direfull euent and at last one of the trauailers followed the dogs and came to the place where they saw the man consumed and by that coniectured the whole story The like did the dogs of Marius Caesarinus for by their howling they procured company to draw him out of a deepe Caue whereinto he was fallen on horse-back and had there perished being alone except his hounds had released him But that dogs will also bewray the murtherers of their friends and maisters these stories following may euidently manifest Dogs detectors of murders As King Pyrrhus by chance trauailed in his countrey he found a dog keeping a deade corps Plutarch and he perceiued that the dog was almost pined by tarrying about the body with out all food wherefore taking pittie on the beast he caused the body to be interred and by giuing the dog his belly full of meat he drew him to loue him and so led him awaie afterward as Pyrrhus mustred his souldiours and euery one appeared in his presence the dog also being beside him he saw the murtherers of his maister and so not containing himselfe with voice tooth and naile he set vppon them the king suspecting that which followd examined them if euer they had seen or known that dog they denied it but the k. not satisfied charged them that surely they were the murtherers of the dogs maister for the dog all this while remained fierce against them and neuer barked before their appearance at the last their guilty consciences brake forth at their mouthes and tongues end and so confessed the whole matter The like was of two French Merchants which trauailed togither Blondus and when they came into a certaine wood one of them rose against the other for desire of his money and so slew him and buried him His dog would not depart from the place but filled the woodes with howlings and cries the murtherer went forwarde in his iourney the people and inhabitants neer the said wood came and found both the murdered corps and also the dog which they tooke vp and nourished til the faire was done and the merchants returned at which time they watched the high waies hauing the dog with them who seeing the murtherer instantly made force at him without al prouocation as a man would do at his mortall enemy which thing caused the people to apprehend him who being examined confessed the fact and receiued condigne punishment for so foule a deede To conclue this discourse with one memorable story more out of Blondus who relateth that there was a certaine maid neer Paris who was beloued of two young men one of them on a daye tooke his staffe and his Dog and went abroad as it was thought of purpose to go to his loue but it hapned that by the way he was murthered and buried the dog would not depart from the graue of his maister at the last he being missed by his father and brethren one of them went also to seeke him and see what was become of him and so seeking found the dog lying vpon his graue who houled pittifully when he saw his maisters brother the young man caused the ground to be opened and so founde the wounded corps of his brother which he brought away caused to be buried til the murtherer could be descried afterward in processe of time the dogge in the presence of the dead mans brethren espied the murtherer and presently made force vpon him very eagerly which the brethren suspecting aprehended him and broght him before the gouernors of the citty who examining him with all the policies they could inuent what should be the occasion why the dog should so eagerly fly vppon him at all times whensoeuer hee was brought into his presence could not get any confession of the fact from him then the magistrate adiudged that the young man and the Dogge should combate together The Dog was couered with a dry sod skin instead of armor and the murtherer with a speare and on his body a little thin linnen cloath both came forth to the fight A Combat and so the man presently made force at the dog who leaping vp to the face of the murtherer tooke him fast by the throat and ouerthrew him whereat the wretch amazed cryed out saying take pitty on me you reuerend fathers and pull off the dog from my throat and I will confesse al the which they performed and he likewise declared the cause and manner of the whole murther for which thing he was deseruedly put to death And thus far of the lesser sociable dogs now followeth the second kind of the greater The greater sociable Dogs of defence are such as souldiors vse in warres Blondus The greater sociable dogs or defenders or else are acustomed to keepe houses or cattell This kind ought to be horrible fierce strange and vnacquainted with all except his maister so that he be alway at daggers drawing and ready to fight with all which shall but lay their handes vppon him for which cause hee is to bee instructed from his littering or infancy by art and continuall discipline to supply in him the defects of nature let him be often prouoked to wrath by boies and and afterward as he groweth let some stranger set vppon him with Weapon as staffe or sword with whom let him combate till he be wearied and then let him teare some peece of the prouokers garment
also desire to wash and so will go and seeke out water to wash themselues and of their owne accord returne backe againe to the basket of flowers which if they find not they will bray and call for them Afterward being led into their stable they will not eat meat vntill they take of their flowers and dresse the brimmes of their maungers therewith and likewise strew their roome or standing place pleasing themselues with their meat because of the sauor of the Flowers stucke about their cratch like dainty fed persons which set their dishes with greene hearbs and put them into their cups of wine Their pace is very slow for a child may ouertake them by reason of their high and larg bodies except in their feare and for that cause they cannot swim as also Gillius The shiping of Elephants by reason that the toes of their feet are very short and finally diuided When they are brought into a ship they haue a bridge made of wood and couered with earth and greene boughes are set on either side so that they immagine they go vpon the land vntill they enter into the ship because the boughes keepe them from sight of the Sea They are most chast Aelianus and keepe true vnto their males without all inconstant loue or seperation admitting no adulteries amongest them and like men which tast of Venus not for any corporall lust but for desire of heires and successors in their families so do Elephants without all vnchast and vnlawfull lust take their veneriall complements for the continuation of their kind and neuer aboue thrice in all their daies either male or female suffer carnall copulation but the female onely twice Yet is their rage great when the female prouoketh them and although they fight not among themselues for their females except very sildome yet do they so burne in this fury that many times they ouerthrow trees and houses in India by their tuskes and running their head like a Ram against them wherefore then they keepe them low down by subtraction of their meat also bring some stranger to beat them There was a certaine cunning hunter sent into Mauritania by the Roman Emp to hunt and take Elephants on a day he saw a goodly young Elephant in copulation with another instantly a third aproched with a direfull braying as if he would haue eaten vp al the company and as it afterward appeared he was an arriuall to the female Aelianus which we saw in copulation with the other male when he approched neere both of them set themselues to combat which they performd like some vnresistable waues of the Sea or as the hils which are shaken together by an earthquake wherein each one charged the other most furiously for their loue to the terror and admiration of all the beholders and so at last becam both disarmed of their teeth and hornes by their often blowes before one had ouercome the other and so at last by the hunters were parted asunder being euer afterward quiet from such contentions about their females for copulation The Indians separate the stables of the females far asunder from the males because at that time they ouerthrowe their houses They are modest and shamefast in this action The place manner of their copulation Plinyus for they seeke the Desarts woodes and secret places for procreation and somtimes the waters because the waters doe support the Male in that action whereby hee ascendeth and descendeth from the backe of the female with more ease and once it was seene that in Virgea a Countrey of the Corascens two Elephants did engender out of India otherwise they couple not out of their owne countreys When they goe to copulation they turne their heads towards the east but whether in remembrance of Paradise or for the Mandragoras or for any other cause I cannot tell the female sitteth while she is couerd Albertus They begin to ingender the male at sixe ten twelue fifteene or twenty yeare olde the female not before ten yeares old They couple but fiue daies in two yeares and neuer after the female is filled till she haue beene cleare one whole yeare Solinus The time of copulation Arrianus and after the second copulation he neuer more toucheth his female At that time the male breatheth foorth at his nose a certaine fat humor like a menstruous thing but the female hath them not til hir place of conception be opened and alway the day after her filling she washeth her selfe before she returne to the flocke Aristotle The time of their goâ—og with young The time of their going with yong is according to some two years and according to other three the occasion of this diuersity is because their time of copulation cannot certainely be knowne because of their secrecy for the greater bodies that beasts haue they are the lesse fruitfull She is deliuered in great paine leaning vpon her hinder Legges They neuer bring forth but one at a time and that is not much greater then a great cowcalfe of three monthes old which she nourisheth sixe or eight yeare As soone as it is Calued Diodonus Pogius Aelianus it seeth and goeth and sucketh with the mouth not with the trunke and so groweth to a great stature The females when they haue calued are most fierce for feare of their young ones but if a man come and touch them they are not angry for it seemeth they vnderstand that he toucheth them not for any desire to take or harme them but rather to stroke and admire them The loue of the male to the female of both to the Calfe Sometimes they goe into the Water to the belly and there calue for feare of the Dragon the male neuer forsaketh her but keepeth with her for the like feare of the Dragon and feede and defend their young ones with singular loue and constancye vnto death as appeareth by the example of one that heard the braying of her calfe fallen into a ditch and not able to arise the female ranne vnto it and for hast fell downe vppon it so crushing it to death Tzetzes and breaking her owne Necke with one and the same violente loue As they liue in heards so when they are to passe ouer a ryuer or Water they send ouer the least or youngest first because their great bodies together should not cause the deepe water to swell or rise aboue their heigth the other stand on the bancke and obserue howe deepe he wadeth and so make account that the greater may with more assurance follow after the younger and smaller Plutarch Aelianus Philostratus then they the elder and taller and the females carry ouer their Calues vpon their snowts long eminent teeth binding them fast with their trunks like as with ropes or male girts that they may not fall being sometime holpen by the male wherein appeareth an admirable point of naturall wisedome both in the carriage of their
so doe the Elephants their teeth vpon trees the sharpnesse of either yeeldeth not to any steele Aelianus Oppianus Strabo Especiall the Rhinocerot teareth and pricketh the legs of the Elephant They fight in the woods for no other cause but for the meat they liue vpon but if the Rhinocerot get not the aduantage of the Elephants belly but set vpon him in some other part of his body hee is soone put to the worst by the sharpenes of the yuory tooth which pierceth through his more then buffehard-skinne not to be pierced with any dart with great facility being set on with the strength of so able an aduersary The Tygre also feareth not an Elephant but is fiercer and stronger Eustathius for he leapeth vpon his head and teareth out his throat but the Gryphins which ouercome almost all beasts are not able to stand with the Lyons or Elephants The females are far more strong chearefull and couragious then the males and also they are apt to beare the greater burthens but in War â—he male is more gracefull and acceptable Vartomanus The conditions corage of male and female Gillius because he is taller giuing more assured ensignes of victory and fortitude for their strength is admirable as may be coniecturd by that which is formerly recited of their trunke and Vartoman affirmeth that he saw three Elephants with their onely heades driue a great ship out of the Sea-water where it was fastened vnto the shore When he is most loaded he goeth surest for he can carry a woodden Tower on his backe with thirty men therein and their sufficient foode and warlike instruments The king of India was woont to go to warre with 30000. Elephants of war and beside these he had also followed him 3000. Albertus The strength and burthen of an Eleph of the chiefest and strongest in India which at his commaund would ouethrow trees Houses Walles or any such thing standing against him and indeed vpon these were the Indians wont to fight for the defence of their coast and country The farthest region of that continent is called Partalis inhabited by the Gangarides and Calingae the king whereof was wont to haue seuen hundred Elephants to watch his Army and there was no meane prince in all India which was not Lord of many Elephants Pliny The keepers and maintainers of Elep Solinus The king of Palibotrae kept in stipend eight thousand euery day and beyond his territory was the king of Modubae and Molindae which had foure hundred Elephants These fight with men and ouerthrowe all that come within their reach both with trunkes and teeth There were certaine officers and guiders of these Elephants which were called Elephantarchae whoe were the gouernors of sixteene Elephants and they which did institute and teach them Martiall discipline were called Elephanta gogi The military Elephant did cary 4. Pollux The instruction of Elephants for war Aelianus persons on his bare backe one fighting on the right hand another fighting on the left hand a third which stood fighting backward from the Elephants head and a fourth in the middle of these holding the raines and guiding the beast to the descretion of the Souldiers euen as the pilot in a ship guideth the sterne wherein was required an equall knowledge and dexterity for they vnderstand any language quickly for when the Indian which ruled them said strike heere on the right hand or els on the left or refraine and stand stil no reasonable man could yeald readier obedience They did fasten by iron chaines first of all vpon the elephant that was to beare ten fifteene twenty or thirty men on either side two panniers of iron bound vnderneath their belly and vpon them the like panniers of wood hollow wherin they place their men at armes and couered them ouer with small boards for the trunk of the elephant was couered with a maile for defence and vpon that a broad sword and two cubits long this as also the wodden Castle or paniers aforsaid were fastened first to the necke and then to the rumpe of the elephant Being thus armed they entred the battell and they shewed vnto the beast to make them more fierce wine red liquor made of rice and white cloth for at the sight of any of these his courage and rage increaseth aboue all measure then at the sound of the Trumpet he beginneth with teeth to strike teare beate spoyle take vp into the aire cast down again stamp vpon men vnder feet ouerthrow with his trunke and make way for his riders to pierce with Speare shield and sword so that his horrible voice his wonderfull body his terrible force his admirable skill his ready and inclinable obedience and his straunge and sildome seene shape produced in a maine battell no meane accidents and ouerturnes For this cause we read how that Pyrrhus first of all produced elephants against the Romans in Lucania afterward Asdruball in Affrica Antiochus in the East and Iugurtha in Numidia Against these new kindes of Castle-fighting and Souldier-bearing-beastes on the contrary they inuented New kindes of stratagems as is before sette downe and also new instrumentes of Warre The fight against eleph for a Centuryon in Lucania with a new deuised sharp sword cutte of the trunke of this Beast againe other inuented that two armed Horsses should draw a charriot and in the same armed men with Iauelins and sharpe speares the speedy horses should withall force run vpon the Elephants and the speare-men directing their course and Weapons some vpon the beast other vpon the riders did not onely wound the beast but also by celerity of the horses escape all danger Other againe sent against him armed Souldiers hauing their Armour made full of sharpe prickes or piercing piked Nayles so that when the beast did strike at them with his trunke he receiued grieuous woundes by his owne blowes Againe there were certaine young men Souldiers armed with light armour which being mounted vppon swift Horsses could cast Darts with singular facility and without the reach of the beast many times wounding him with long speares and so by example of the Horse-men the foote-men grew more bold and with piles in the earth annoyed the belly of the Beast and vtterly vanquishing it and the rider Againe they deuised slings to cast stones wherby they beate off the riders and many times ouerthrewe the Castle bearer as it were by some violent stroke of a Cannot shot neither was there euer any more easie way to disaster these monster-seeming-Soldiers then by casting of stones and lastly they would suffer their Elephants and their riders by poore hopes and appearances of feare to enter into the middest among them and so begirte and inclose them that they tooke the Elephants aliue and also more shooters of Darts carried in Chariots with the stronge course of Horsses did so annoy them that whereas their bodies were great and vnweldy not nimble to stir out of place it became more
deliuer our mother from your thraldome and in sted of her take vs hir vnhappy children bend your hard harts feare the lawes of God which forbiddeth innocents to be punished and consider what reuerence you owe to the olde age of a mother therefore againe we pray you let our liues satisfie you for our dammes liberty But poor creaturs when they see that nothing can moue the vnexerable mind of the hunters they resolue to dye with her whom they cannot deliuer and thereupon of their owne accord giue themselues into the handes of the Hunters and so are led away with their mother Concerning the Libyan goates before spoken off which liue in the tops of Mountaines they are taken by nets or snares or else killed by Darts and arrowes or some other art of Hunting But if at any time they discend downe into the plaine fieldes they are no lesse troubled then if they were in the waues of some great water And therefore any man of a slow pace may there taken them without any great difficulty The greatest benefit that ariseth from them is their skinne and their hornes with their skinnes they are clothed in Winter time against tempests Frostes and Snowe and it is a common weede for Shepherds and Carpenters The hornes serue them in steed of buckets to draw Water out of the running streames wherewithall they quench their thirst for they may drinke out of them as out of cups They are so great that no man is able to drinke them off at one draught and when cunning artifficers haue the handling of them they make them to receiue three times as much more The selfe same things are Wryten of the Wilde Goates of Egypt who are said neuer to be hurt by Scorpions There is a great Citty in Egypt called Coptus who were wont to be much addicted to the worship of Isis and in that place there are great aboundance of Scorpions which with their stings and poyson do oftentimes giue mortall and deadly woundes to the people whilest they mourne about the Chappell for they worship that Goddesse with funeral lamentation against the stinging of these Scorpions the Egyptians haue inuented a thousand deuises whereof this was the principall At the time of their assembly they turne in wild fem goats naked among the Scorpions lying on the ground by whose presence they are deliuered and escape free from the woundes of the Serpents whereupon the Coptites doe religiously consecrate these female Goats to deuinity thinking that their Idoll Isis did wholy loue them and therfore they sacrificed the males but neuer the females It is reported by Plutarch that wilde Goates doe aboue other meate loue meale and figges wherefore in Armenia there are certaine black Fishes which are poyson with the pouder or meale of these fishes they couer these figges and cast them abroad where the Goates do haunt and assoone as the beasts haue tasted them they presently die Now to the wilde Goat before pictured called in Latine Rupi Capra and Capricornus and in Greek a Gargos and Aigastros and of Homer Ixalon of the Germanes Gemmes or Gemmuss the Rhetians which speake Italian call it Camuza the Spaniards Capramontes the Polonians Dzykakoza the Bohemians Korytanski Kozlik that is to say a Carinthian Goate because that part of the Alpes called Carinthia is neere bordering vpon Bohemia Bellanius writeth Albertus that the French cal him Chambris and in their ancient tongue Ysard this is not very great of bodye but hath crooked hornes which bend backeward to his back whereupon he staieth himselfe when he falleth from the slippery Rockes or Mountaines Plinyus These hornes are not fit to fight they are so small and weake and therefore nature hath bestowed them vpon them for the cause aforesaid Of all other Goats this is the least it hath red eies but a quâ—cke eie-sight his hornes are blacke being nine or ten fingers longe and compassed about with diuers circles but at the top none at all which is sharp and crooked like a hooke They arise at the roote Paralelwise that is by equall distance one from another being hollow the bredth of ones Thumbe the residue solide like the Harts The Males in this kinde differ not from the Females neither in horne colour or proportion of body they are in bignesse like the common Goate but somewhat hier Their colour is betwixt brown and red In the Summer time they are red and in the winter time they are browne There hath beene seene of them which were white and blacke in distinct colour one from another and the reason heere of is because they chaunge colour many times in the year There are some of them altogether white but these are seldome found they inhabit for the most part the Rockes or Mountaines but not the tops like the Ibeâ—ks neither doe they leape so far as the foresaid goats They come down somtime to the roots of the Alpes and there they licke sand from the rockes like as the village tame goates to procure them an appetite The Heluetians call these places in their naturall tongue Fultzen that is Salares about these places do the Hunters hide themselues and secretly with guns bowes or other such instrumentes they suddendly shoote and kill them When they are hunted they step vp to the steepest rocks and most inaccessible for Dogges by that meanes prouiding their own safty buâ— if the hunters presse after them and clime vpon the rocks with hands and feet they leape from thence from stone to stone making their waie to the tops of the Mountaines so long as euer they are able to goe or climbe and then they hange by the Hornes of their heade as if they were ready to fall which caused Martiall to write thus Pendentem summa Capream de rupe videbis Casuram speres decipit illa Canes Where the Poet attributeth that to the Roe which belongeth to the wilde goat and there they hange many times till they perish because they cannot loose themselues againe or else they are shotte with guns or fall downe headlong or else are driuen off by the hunters From the day of Saint Iames they vse themselues to the coldest partes of the Mountains because they vnderstand winter is approaching making custome to be their shield against cold weather there haue bene some of these made tame so that they haue discended downe to the flocks of tame Goats whome they do not auoide like the Ibex From these wilde goats hath that same herbe called Doronicum and of the Grecians Doronieu giuen a name among the Germaines Geniesseh Worts that is wilde-goats-herb being excellent to cure the Collick and therefore highly esteemed among the Arabians Graecians and Mauritanians It is hot and dry in the second degree and the countrey people in Heluetia do giue it against dizines in the head because these wilde goats oftentimes feed vpon the same and yet are neuer troubled with that infirmity although they runne round about the mountaines There are hunters
and full of bunches like Harts no where smooth but in the tops of the speers and where the vaines run to carry nutriment to their whole length which is couered with a hairye skin they are not so rough at the beginning or at the first prosses specially in the for part as they are in the second for that onely is full of wrinckles from the bottom to the middle they growe straight but from thence they are a little recurued they haue onely three speers or prosses the two lower turne awry but the vppermost groweth vpright to heauen yet sometimes it falleth out as the keepers of the saide beast affirmed that either by sicknes or else through want of food the left horn hath but two branches In length they are one Roman foot and a halfe and one finger and a halfe in bredth at the roote two Roman palmes The top of one of the hornes is distant from the top of the other three Roman feet and three fingers and the lower speere of one horne is distant from the lower of the other two Roman feet measured from the roots in substance and collor they are like to Harts hornes they waied together with the dry broken spongy-bone of the forehead fiue pound and a halfe and halfe an ounce I meane sixteene ounces to the pound they fall off euery yeare in the month of Aprill like to Harts and they are not hollow The bredth of their fore-heads betwixt the hornes is two Roman palmes and a halfe the top of the crown betwixt the horns is hollow on the hinder part and in that siecel lieth the brain which discendeth downe to the middle region of the eies Theyr teeth are like Harts and inwardly in their cheekes they grow like furrowes bigger then in a Horsse the tooth rising out sharp aboue the throat as it should seeme that none of his meate should fall thereinto vnbruised This beast in his young age is of a mouse or Asse colour but in his elder age it is more yellowish especially in the extreame partes of his body the haire smooth but most of all on his legges but vnder his belly in the inner part of his knee the top of his Neck breast shoulders and back-bone not so smooth In heigth it was about 22. handfuls and three fingers being much swifter then any horse the female beareth euery yeare as the keeper said in Norway two at a time but in England it brought forth but one The flesh of it is blacke and the fibere broad like an Oxes but being dressed like harts flesh and baked in an Ouen it tasted much sweeter It eateth commonly grasse but in england seldome after the fashion of horsses which forbeare hay when they may haue bread but leaues rindes of trees bread and Oats are most acceptable vnto it It reacheth naturally thirty hand breadths high but if any thing be higher which it doth affect it standeth vp vpon the hinder legs and with the forelegs there imbraseth or leaneth to the tree and with his mouth biteth off his desire It drinketh water and also English Ale in great plenty yet without drunkennesse and there were that gaue it wine but if it drinke plentifully it became drunk It is a most pleasant creature being tamed but being wilde is very fierce and an enemy to mankind persecuting men not only when he seeth them by the eie but also by the sagacity of his nose following by foote more certainly then any horse for which cause they which kept them neare the high waies did euery yeare cut off their hornes with a saw It setteth both vpon horse and foot-men trampling and treading them vnder foot whom he did ouermatch when he smelleth a man before hee seeth him hee vttereth a voice like the gruntling of a Swine being without his female it doth most naturally affect a woman thrusting out his genital which is like a Harts as if it discernd sexes In Norway they cal it an Elke or Elend but it is plaine they are deceiued in so calling it because it hath not the legges of an Elke which neuer bend nor yet the hornes as by conference may appeare Muchlesse can I beleeue it to be the Hippardius because the female wanteth hornes and the head is like a Mules but yet it may be that it is a kind of Elke for the hornes are not alwaies alike or rather the Elke is a kind of Horsse-hart which Aristotle calleth Arrochosius of Arracotos a region of Assya and heerein I leaue euery man to his iudgment referring the reader vnto the former discourses of a Elke and the Tragelaphus OF THE SEA-HORSE THe Sea-horsse called in Greeke Hippotomos and in Latine Equus Fluuiatilis It is a most vgly and filthy beast so called because in his voice and mane he resembleth a Horsse but in his head an Oxe or a Calfe in the residue of his body a Swine for which cause some Graecians call him somtimes a Sea-horsse and sometimes a Sea-oxe which thing hath moued many learned men in our time to affirme that a Sea-horsse was neuer seene whereunto I would easily subscribe saith Bellonias were it not that the auncient figures of a Sea-horsse altogether resembled that which is heere expressed and was lately to bee seene at Constantinople from whom this picture was taken It liueth for the most part in Nilus yet is it of a doubtful life for it brings forth and breedeth on the land and by the proportion of the Legges it seemeth rather to bee made for going then for swimming for in the night time it eateth both Hay and frutes forraging into corne fieldes and deuouring whatsoeuer commeth in the way And therefore I thought it fit to be inserted into this story As for the Sea-calfe which commeth sometimes to land onely to take sleepe I did not iudge it to belong to this discourse because it feedeth onely in the waters This picture was taken out the Colossus In the Vatican at Rome representing the Riuer Nylus and eating of a Crocadile and thus I reserue the farther discourse of this beast vnto the History of Fishes adding only thus much that it ought to be no wonder to consider such monsters to come out of the Sea which resemble horsses in their heads seeing therein are also creatures like vnto Grapes and swords The Orsean Indians do hunt a beast with one horne hauing the body of a Horsse and the head of a Hart. The Aethiopians likewise haue a beast in the necke like vnto a Horsse and the feet and legs like vnto an Oxe The Rhinocephalus hath a necke like a Horsse and also the other parts of his body but it is said to breath out aire which killeth men Pausanias writeth that in the Temple of Gabales there is the picture of a Horsse which from his breast backwards is like a whale Lampsacenus writeth that in the Scythian Ocean ther are Ilands wherein the people are called Hippopodes hauing the bodyes of men but the feete of Horsses and
wel sodden and also mundified that is to say the huske pulled awaye like as when you blanch Almonds Of diuers sorts of Feuers according to Vigetius and first of that which continueth but one day THe Feauer of one day called by the Geeek name Ephemera or els by the Latin name Diaria chaunceth many times through the rashnesse and small discretion of the keeper or some other that letteth not to ride a horsse vnmeasurably either before or after watering whereby the horsse afterward in the stable entreth into an extreame heate and so falleth into his Feuer which you shall know partly by his waterish and bloodshotten eyes and partly by his short violent and hot breathing and panting Moreouer he will forsake his meate and his Legs wil wax stiffe and feeble The cure Let him haue rest all the next day following and be comforted with warme meate then let him be walked vp and downe saite and softly and so by little and little brought againe to his former estate Of the Feauer continuall THe Feuer continuall is that which continueth without intermission and is called in Italian by the Latine name Febris continua which springeth of some inflamation or extreame heate bredde in the principall members or inwarde partes about the heart which is knowne in this sort The Horsse doth not take his accustomed rest whereby his flesh dothfal away euery day more and more and sometime there doth appear hot inflamations in his flankes and aboue his withers The cure Purge his head by squirting into his Nostrils mans vrine or the Water of an Oxe that hath beene rested a certaine time to the intent such water may be the stronger and then giue him the drinke writen in the next Chapter Of the Feuer taken in the Autumne that is to say at the fall of the leafe IF a Horsse chance to get a Feauer at the fall of the leafe cause him immediatly to be let blood in the necke vaine and also in the third furrow of the roofe of his mouth and then giue him this drinke Take of Iermander foure ounces of Gum dragant and of dryed roses of each one ounce beat them all into fine powder and put them into a quart of Ale adding thereunto of Oyle oliue foure ounces and of Hony as much and giue it the Horsse lukewarme Of the Feuer in Summer season A Feuer taken in Summer season is much worse then in any other time and especially if it be taken in the Dogge daies for then the accidents be more furious Blundevile The signes be these his artires wil beate euidently and hee will shed his seede when he staleth and his going wil be vnorderly The cure Let him blood in a vaine that he hath in his hinder hanch about foure fingers beneath the fundament or if you cannot finde that vaine let him blood in the necke vaine toward the withers and if it be needefull you may giue him also this drinke Take the iuyce of a handfull of Parslein mingled with Gum dragant with Ensens and a fewe Damaske roses beaten all into fine powder and then put thereunto a sufficient quantity of ale made sweete with Hony Of the Feuer in winter FOr the Feauer in Winter it shall be good to take the powder of the drugs last mentioned and with a quill or reede to blowe it vp into his left Nostrill to make him to neese It shall be good also to let him bloode in the necke vaine Blundevile and in the palat of the mouth and then to giue him one of these drinkes heere following Take of Ireos sixe ounces of round Pepper one ounce of Bay-berries and of the seede of Smallage of each one ounce and let him drinke them with sodden Wine Or else take a pint of good Milke and put therein of Oyle foure ounces of Saffron one scruple of Myrrhe two scruples of the seede of Smallage a spoonefull and make him drinke that or make him this drinke Take of Aristoloch otherwise called round Hartwoâ—t one ounce of Gention of Isop of Wormwoode of Sothernwood of each one ounce of dry fat Figs sixe ounces of the seede of Smallage three ounces of Rue a handfull boile them all in a cleane vessell with Riuer Water vntill the third part be consumed and when you see it looke blacke and thicke take it from the fire straine it and giue the Horsse to drinke thereof lukewarme As touching his dyet let his water be alwaies lukewarme wherein would be put a little Wheat meale and remember to giue him no meate so long as his fit continueth And because in all Agues it is good to quicken the naturall heate of the Horsse by rubbing and fretting his body it shall not be amisse in some faire day to vse this friction called of the ancient writers Apotorapie which is made in this sort Take of Damaske Roses one pound of olde Oyle a pinte of strong vineger a pinte and a halfe of Mintes and Rue beaten into powder of each one ounce and a halfe together with one olde dry Nut beate them and mingle them together then being strained and made lukwarme rub and chafeal the horses body therewith against the haire vntill he beginneth to sweate then set him vp in the warmest place of the stable and couer him well Of the Feuer which commeth of raw digestion or of repletion YOu shall know if the Feuer proceedeth of any such cause by these signes heere following The Horsse will blow at the nose more then hee is accustomed to doe seemeth to fetch his winde onely at his nose and his breath will bee short hot and dry you shall see his flanks walke and his backe to beate The cure Cause him to be let blood aboundantly in the head and palat of his mouth and by squirting warme vineger in the morning into his nostrils force him to neese and if hee bee costiue let his fundament be raked or else giue him a glister to ease the paine in his head And as touching his dyet giue him but little prouender or hay neither let him drink much nor often but betwixt times But in any wise let him be well rubbed and chafed and that a good while together and if you vse the friction declared in the last chapter before in such sort as there is said it shall do him very much good Of the Feuer accidentall comming of some vlcer in the mouth or throat THe Horsse not being well kept and gouerned after that he hath beene let blood in the vpper partes yea and also besides that of his owne nature is subiect vnto the distillation in his throate or partes there about the painefull swelling or vlcer wherof causeth the Horsse to fall into a grieuous Ague Whereof besides the former remedies apt to purge humors it shall be necessary also to let him bloode in the vaine of the head and in the palat of his mouth and to bee short in all those places where the disease causeth most griefe And if
the Horsse bee so sore pained as he cannot swallow downe his meate it shall bee good to giue him lukewarme water mingled with Barly meale or wheat meale and besides that to make him swallow downe seuen sops sopped in wine one after another at one time some vse at the second time to dip such sops in sweet sallet oile Thus far Vegetius Of the Pestilent Ague IT seemeth by Laurentius Russius that Horsses be also subiect to a pestilent feuer which almost incureable Blundevile is called of him Infirmitas Epidimialis that is to say a contagious and pestiferous disease whereof there dyed in one yeare in Rome aboue a thousand Horses which as I take it came by some corruption of the aire whereunto Rome in the chiefe of Summer is much subiect or else corrupt humors in the body ingendered by vnkinde food by reason perhaps that the City was then pestered with more horse-men then there could be conueniently harbored or fed Laurentius himselfe rendereth no cause therof but onely sheweth signes how to know it which be these The Horsse holdeth down his head eateth little or nothing his eyes waterish and his flanks doe continually beat The cure First giue him this glister Take of the pulpe of Coloquintida one ounce of Dragantum one ounce and a halfe of Centuary and Wormwood of each one handfull of Castoreum halfe an ounce boile them in water then being strained dissolue therein of Gerologundinum sixe ounces of salt an ounce and a halfe and halfe a pound of Oyle oliue and minister it lukewarme with a horne or pipe made of purpose Make also this plaister for his head take of Squilla fiue ounces of Elder of Castoreum of Mustard seed and of Euforbium of each two ounces dissolue the same in the iuyce of Daffodill and of Sage and laie it to the Temples of his head next vnto his eares or else giue him any of these three drinks heere following take of the best Triacle two or three ounces and distemper it in good wine and giue it him with a horne or else let him drinke euery morning the space of three daies one pound or two of the iuyce of Elder rootes or else giue him euery morning to eate a good quantity of Venus haire called of the Latines Capillus Veneris newly and fresh gathered but if it be old then boile it in water and giue him the decoction thereof to drink with a horne Martins opinion and experience touching a Horsses Feuer THough Martin haue not seene so many seuerall kindes of feuers to chance to Horsses Blundevile yet he confesseth that a Horsse will haue a feauer and saith that you shal know it by these signes For after the Horsse hath beene sicke two or three daies if you looke on his tongue you shall see it almost raw and scalt with the heate that coms out of his body and he wil shake and tremble reele and stagger when his fit commeth which fit wil keepe his due howers both of comming and also of continuance vnlesse you preuent it by putting the horsse into a heat which would be done so soone as you see him begin to tremble either by riding him or tying vp his Legs and by chasing him vp and downe in the stable vntil he leaue shaking and then let him be kept warm and stand on the bit the space of two houres that done you may giue him some hay by a little at once and giue him warme water with a litle ground mault twice a day the space of three or foure daies and once a day wash his tongue with Alom water vineger and Sage But if you see that all this preuailes not then purge him with this drinke after that he hath fasted al one night Take of Aloes one ounce of Agaricke halfe an ounce of Lycoras and Annis seedes of each a dram beaten to powder and let him drinke it with a quart of white wine lukewarme and made sweet with a little Hony in the morning fasting and let him be chafed a little after it and be kept warme and suffered to stand on the bit meatlesse two or three houres after and he shall recouer his health againe quickly Of sicknesse in generall and the Feuer IN general sicknes is an opposit foe to nature warring against the agents of the body and minde seeking to confound those actions which vphold and maintaine the bodies strength and liuely-hood Markham Who coueteth to haue larger definition of sicknesse let him reade Vegesius Rusius or excellent Maister Blundiuile who in that hath bin admirably well-deseruing plainefull For mine owne part my intent is to write nothing more then mine own experience and what I haue approued in Horsses diseases most auaileable and first of the Feuer or Ague in a Horsse though it bee a disease seldome or not at all noted by our Mechannicall Horsse Farriors who cure many times what they know noâ— and kill wher they might cure knew they the cause yet I haue my selfe seene of late both by the demonstrate opinions of others better learned and by the effects of the disease some two Horses which I dare auouch were mightily tormented with a Feauer though diuers Leeches had thereof giuen diuers opinions one saying it was the bots by reason of his immoderate languishment another affirmed him to be bewitcht by reason of his great shaking heauinesse and sweating but I haue found it and approued it to be a Feuer both in effect nature and quality the cure whereof is thus for the originall cause of a Feuer is surfet breeding putrifaction in the blood then when his shaking beginneth take three new laide Egges breake them in a dish and beate them together then mixe thereto fiue or sixe spoonefuls of excellent good Aqua vitae and giue it him in a horne then bridle him and in some Close or Court chafe him til his shaking cease and he beginne to sweat then set him vp and cloath him warme And during the time of his sicknesse giue him no water to drinke but before he drinke it boile therein Mallowes Sorrell Purslaine of each two or three handfuls As for his foode let it bee sodden Barly and now and then a little Rye in the sheafe to clense and purge him chiefely if he be drye inwardly and grow costiue This I haue proued vneffectlesse for this disease and also much auaileable for any other inward sicknesse proceeding either of raw digestion too extreame riding or other surfet Diuers haue written diuersly of diuers Agues and I coulde prescribe receiptes for them but since I haue not been experimented in them al I meane to omit them intending not to exceede mine owne knowledge in any thing Of the Pestilence THe Pestilence is a contagious disease proceeding as Pelagonius saith somtime of ouermuch labour heate colde hunger aad sometime of sudden running after long rest or of the retention or holding of stale or vrine Blundevile or of drinking colde water whiles the Horsse
is hot and sweating for all these things do breede corrupt humors in the Horsses body whereof the Pestilence doth chiefely proceede or else of the corruption of the aire poysoning the breath whereby the Beastes should liue which also happeneth sometime of the corruption of e-euill vapors and exhalations that spring out of the earth and after great floodes or earthquakes and sometime by meanes of some euill distillation or influence of the Planettes corrupting sometime the plants and fruits of the earth and sometime diuers kinde of cattell and sometime both men Women and children as wee daiely see by experience It seemeth that this euill or mischiefe in times paste came suddenly without giuing any warning for none of mine Authors doth declare any signes how to know whether a Horsse hath this disease or not but onely affirme that if one Horsse do die of it al his fellowes that beare him company will follow after if they bee not remedied in time so that as far as I can learne the sudden death of one or two first must bee the onely meane to knowe that this disease doeth reigne And the remedy that they giue is this First separate the whole from the sicke yea and haue them cleane out of the aire of those that be dead the bodies whereof as Vegetius saith if they be not deep buried will infect al the rest And let them blood as wel in the neck as in the mouth then giue them this drink take of Gentian of Aristoloch of Bay berries of Myrrhe of the scraping of Iuory of each like quantity beate them into fine powder and giue as well to the sicke as to the whole whome you would preserue from this contagion euery day a spoonefull or two of this powder in a pinte of good wine so long as you shall see it needefull This medicine before rehearsed is called of the ancient writers Diapente that is to say a composition of fiue simples and is praised to be a soueraigne medicine and preseruatiue against al inward diseases and therefore they would haue such as trauell by the way to carty of this powder alwaies about them There be many other Medicines which I leaue to write because if I should rehearse euery mans medicine my booke would be infinite I for my part would vse no other then either that before expressed or else wine and treacle onely Of the diseases in the head Blundevile THe head is subiect to diuers diseases according to the diuers partes thereof for in the pannicles or little fine skins cleaning to the bones and couering the braine do most properly breed headach and migram Againe in the substance of the braine which in a Horsse is as much in quantity as is almost the braine of a meane hog do breede the Frensie madnesse sleeping euill the palsey and forgetfulnesse Finally in the ventricles or celles of the braine and in those conducts through which the spirits annimall doe giue feeling and mouing to the body do breede the turnsick or staggers the faling euill the night mare the Apoplexy the palsie and the conuulsion or Cramp the Catarre or Rheume which in a Horsse is called the Glaunders but first of headach Of headeach THe headeach either commeth of some inward causes as of some cholerick humor bred in the pannicles of the braine or else of som outward cause as of extream heat or cold of some blow or of some violent sauour Eumelus saith that it commeth of raw digestion but Martin saith most commonly of cold the signes be these The Horsse will hang downe his head and also hang downe his eares his sight will be dimme his eies swollen and waterish and he will forsake his meat The cure Let him bloode in the palat of his mouth Also purge his head with this perfume Take of Garlike stalkes a handfull all to broken in short pieces and a good quantity of Frankencense and being put into a chafingdish of fresh coales holde the chafingdish vnder the Horsses Nostrils so as the fume may ascende vp into his head and in vsing him thus once or twice it wil make him to cast at the nose and so purge his head of al filth Pelogonius saith that it is good to pouer into his Nostrils wine wherein hath beene sodden Euforbium Centuary and Frankencence Of the frenzy and madnesse of a Horse THe learned Physicians do make diuers kindes as well of frensie as of madnesse which are not needefull to be recited sith I could neuer read in any Author nor learne of any Ferrer that a horsse were subiect to the one halfe of them Absiruus Hierocles Eumelus Pelagonius and Hippocrates do write simply de furore rabie that is to say of the madnesse of a Horsse But indeede vegetius in his second booke of horseleach-craft seemeth to make foure mad passions belonging to a Horsse intituling his Chapters in this sort de Appioso de Frenetico de Cardiacis de Rabioso the effects wherof though I feare me it wil be to no great purpose yet to content such as perhaps haue read the Author as wel as I my selfe I wil heere briefly rehearse the same When some naughty blood saith he doth strike the filme or pannacle of the brain in one part onely and maketh the same grieuously to ake then the beast becommeth Appiosum that is to say as it seemeth by his owne words next following both dul of mind and of sight This word Appiosum is a strange word and not to be found againe in any other Author and because in this passion the one side of the head is onely grieued the Horsse turneth round as though he went in a Mill. But when the poyson of such corrupt blood doth infect the mid braine then the Horse becommeth Frantike and will leape and fling and wil run against the wals And if such blood filleth the vaines of the stomach or breast then it infecteth as well the heart as the brain and causeth alienation of mind and the body to sweate and this disease is called of Vegetius Passocardiaca which if Equus Appiosus chance to haue then he becommeth Rabiosus that is to say starke mad For saith he by ouermuch heat of the liuer and blood the vaines and artires of the heart are choked vp for griefe and paine whereof the Horsse biteth himselfe and gnaweth his owne flesh Of two sorts of mad horses I beleeue I haue seene my selfe heere in this Realme For I saw once a black Sweathland Horsse as I tooke him to be in my Lord of Hunsdons stable at Hunsdon comming thither by chance with my Lord Morley which Horsse would stand all day long biting of the manger and eat little meate or none suffering no man to aproch vnto him by which his doings and partly by his colour and complexion I iudged him to be vexed with a melancholy madnesse called of the Physitians Mania or rather Melancholia which commeth of a corrupt Melancholy and filthy blood or humor
good to write thus much thinking it no time lost while I may profit them anie way Of the diseases in the Spleene THe Splene as I haue said before in many places is the receptacle of melancholy and of the dregs of blood and is subiect to the like diseases that the liuer is that is to say to swelling obstruction hard knobs and inflamation for the substance of the splene is spongeous and there sort apt to sucke in al filth and to dilate it selfe wherefore being ful it must needs swel which wil appeare in the left side vnder the short ribs and such swelling causeth also shortnesse of breath and especially when the body doth labour or trauel It is painful also to lie on the right side because the splene being swollen so oppresseth the midriffe and especially when the stomacke is ful of meat and the patient hath worse disgestion than appetite and is troubled with much winde both vpwarde and downeward Moreouer the vapor of the humor doth offend the hart making it faint and causeth al the body to be heauy and dul and if such swelling be suffered to go vncured then if it be a melancholy humor and abounding ouer-much it waxeth euery day thicker and thicker causing obstruction not onely in the vaines and artires which is to be perceiued by heauinesse and greefe on the left side but also in the splene it self whereas by vertue of the heat it is hardned euery day more and more and so by little and little waxeth to a hard knob which doth not only occupy al the substance of the splene but also many times al the left side of the wombe and thereby maketh the euil accidents or griefes before recited much more than they were Now as touching the inflammation of the splene which chaunceth very sildome for so much as euery inflammation proceedeth of pure blood which sildome entereth into the splene I shal not need to make many words but refer you ouer to the chapter of the Liuer for in such case they differ not but proceeding of like cause haue also like signes and do require like cure The old writers say that horses be often greeued with griefe in the splene and specially in Summer season with greedy eating of sweet green meats and they cal those horses Lienosos that is to say splenetike The signes whereof say they are these hard swelling on the left side short breath often groning and greedy appetite to meat The remedie whereof according to Absirtus is to make a horse to sweat once a day during a certaine time by riding him or otherwise trauelling him and to poure into his left nostril euery day the iuyce of mirabolans mingled with wine and water amounting in alto the quantity of a pint But methinks it would do him more good if he drank it as Hierocles would haue him to do Eumelius praiseth this drinke take of Cummin seed and of hony of each six ounces and of Lacerpitium as much as a beane of Vineger a pint and put al these into three quartes of water and let it stand so al night and the next morning giue the horse thereof to drinke being kept ouer night fasting Theomnestus praiseth the decoction of Capers especially if the barke of the root thereof may be gotten sodden in water to a sirrop Or else make him a drinke of Garlick Nitrum Hore-hound and worm-wood sodden in harsh wine and he would haue the left side to be bathed in warme water and to be hard rubbed And if al this wil not helpe then to giue him the fire which Absirtus doth not allow saying the splene lyeth so as it cannot easily bee fired to do him anye good But for so much as the liuer and splene are members much occupied in the ingendring and seperating of humors many euil accidents and griefes doe take their first beginning of them as the Iandis called in a horse the yellowes drinesse of body and consumption of the flesh without any apparant cause why which the Phisitians call Atrophis also euill habite of the bodie called of them Chachexia and the Dropsie But first wee will speake of the Iaundis or Yellowes Of the Yellowes THe Physitians in a mans body do make two kinds of Iandis that is to say the Yellow proceeding of choler dispersed throughout the whole body and dieng the skin yellow and the blacke proceeding of melancholie dispersed likewise throughout the whole bodie and making al the skin blacke And as the yellow Iaundis commeth for the most part either by obstruction or stopping of the cundits belonging to the bladder of the gall which as I said before is the receptable of Choler or by some inflamation of the liuer wherby the blood is conuerted into choler so spreadeth throughout the body euen so the black Iandis cōmeth by meane of some obstruction in the liuer-vain that goeth to the splene not suffering the spleene to do his office in receiuing the dregs of the blood from the liuer wherin they abound too much or else for that the spleene is already too ful of dregs and so sheddeth them backe againe into the vaines But as for the blacke Iandis they haue not bin obserued to be in horses as in mē by any of our Ferrers in these daies that I can learn And yet the old writers of horseleach-craft do seeme to make two kindes of Iandis called of them Cholera that is to say the dry Choler and also the moist choler The signs of the dry choler as Absirtus saith is great heat in the body and costiuenesse of the belly wherof it is said to be dry Moreouer the horse wil not couet to lie down because he is so pained in his body and his mouth will be hot and dry It commeth as he saith by obstruction of the cundit wherby the choler should resort into the bladder of the gal and by obstruction also of the vrin vessels so as he cannot stale The cure according to his experience is to giue him a glister made of oile water and Nitrum to giue him no prouender before that you haue raked his fundament and to power the decoction of Mallowes mingled with sweet wine into his nostrils and let his meate be grasse or else sweet hay sprinkled with Nitre and water and he must rest from labor be often rubbed Hierocles would haue him to drinke the decoction of wild coleworts sodden in wine Again of the moist choler of Iandis these are the signes The horses eies will looke yellow and his nostrils will open wide his eares and his flanks wil sweat and his stale will be yellow and cholerick and he wil grone when he lieth downe which disease the said Absirtus was wont to heale as he saith by giuing the Horsse a drinke made of Time and Cumin of each like quantity stampt together and mingled with wine hony and water and also by letting him blood in the pasterns This last disease seemeth to differ nothing at all from
three yolkes of egges and a little Saffron and taint it with that ointment renewing it euery day once vntill the wound be whole Of burning with Lime or any other fiery thing MArtin saith First wash away the Lime if there bee any with warme water Then kill the fire with oyle and Water beaten together dressing him so euery daye vntill it be all raw and then annoint it with hogs grease and strew thereupon the powder of slecked lime dressing him so euery day once vntill it be whole Of the biting of a mad Dog IF a Horse be bitten with a mad dog the venom of his teeth will not onely paine him extreamely but also infect all his blood and make him to dye mad The cure according to the old writers is thus Take of Goats dung of flesh that hath laide long in salt and of the herbe Ebulus called of some Danewort of each halfe a pound and xl walnuts Stamp all these things together and lay thereof vnto the sore and this will sucke out the venom and heale the wound It is good also to giue the Horse Treacle and Wine to drinke yea and some would haue the sore place to be fiered with a hot iron Of hurts by tuskes of a Boare IF a horse be hurt with the tuske of a Boare lay Vitriol and Coporas thereunto and the powder of a dogs head being burned but let the tong be first pulled out and cast away To heale the biting or stinging of Serpents LAurentius Russius saith Take a good quantity of the herb called Sanicula stamp it and distemper it with the milke of a Cowe that is all of one colour and giue him that to drinke and that will heale him Another medicine for the same purpose MAke a plaister of Onions hony and salt stampt and mingled together and lay that to the sore place and giue the horse wine and treacle to drink Absirtus would haue you to giue him white Pepper Rue and Time to drinke with wine Of drinking of horseleaches IF a Horse chance to drinke horseleaches they will continually sucke his bloud and kill him The remedy according to Absirtus is to poure oyle into the Horses mouth which will make them to fall away and kill them Of swallowing downe hens dung IF a horse swallow downe hens dung in his hay it will fret his guts and make him to void filthy matter at the fundament For remedy whereof Absirtus would haue you to giue him drinke made of smallage seede wine and hony and to walke him throughly vpon it that he may empty his belly Of Lice and how to kill them THey be like Geese Lice but somewhat bigger they will breede most about the eares necke and taile and ouer all the body They come of pouerty Blundevile and the horse will bee alwaies rubbing and scratching and will eate his meate and not prosper withall and with rubbing he will breake all his mane and taile The cure according to Martin is thus Annoint the place with sope and quicksiluer well mingled together and to a pound of sope put halfe an ounce of quicksiluer Of Lousinesse THere be Horsses that will be Lousie and it commeth of pouerty cold and il keeping Markham and it is oftnest amongst young horses and most men take little heed vnto it and yet they will dye thereon the cure is to wash them three mornings together in Stau-aker and warme water How to saue horsses from the stinging of flies in Summer ANnoint the Horsses coat with oyle and Bay berries mingled together or tie to the headstall of his collar a sponge dipt in strong vineger or sprinkle the stable with water wherein hearb Grace hath bin laid in steepe or perfume the stable with Iuie or with Calomint or with Gith burned in a pan of coles Of bones being broken out of ioynt FEw or none of our Ferrers do intermeddle with any such griefes but do refer it ouer to the bone setter whose practised hand I must needes confesse to be needful in such businesse Notwithstanding for that it belongeth to the Ferrers art and also for that the old writers do make some mention therof I thought good not to passe it ouer altogither with silence Albeit they speake odlye of fractures in the legs beneath the knee For they make little mention or none of bones aboue the knee taking them to be incurable vnlesse it be a rib or such like If a bone then be broken in the leg it is easie to perceiue by feeling the roughnesse and inequality of the place grieued one part being higher then another the cure whereof according to Absirtus and Hierocles is in this sorte First put the bone againe into his right place That done wrap it about with vnwasht wooll binding it fast to the leg with a small linnen roller soked before in Oyle and vineger mingled together And let that roller be laid on as euen as is possible and vpon that lay againe more wooll dipt in oyle and vineger and then splent it with three splents binding them fast at both ends with a thong and let the horses leg be kept straight and right out the space of forty daies and let not the bonds be loosened aboue 3. times in twenty daies vnlesse it shrinke and so require to be new drest and bound again But faile not euery day once to poure on the sore place through the splentes oyle and vineger mingled together And at the forty daies end if you perceiue that the broken place be sowdered together again with some hard knob or gristle then loosen the bonds so as the horse may go faire and softly vsing from that time forth to annoint the place with some soft greace or ointment Of broken bones I Haue not for mine owne part had any great experience in broken bones of a Horse because it chanceth seldom Markham and when it doth chance what through the horses brutish vnrulinesse and the immoderate maner of the act it is almost held incurable yet for the little experience I haue I haue not found for this purpose any thing so soueraine or absolut good as oyle of Mandrag which applyed conglutinateth and bindeth together any thing especially bones being either shiuered or broken Of bones out of ioynt IF a Horses knee or shoulder be clean out of ioynt and no bone broken Martin saith the readiest way is Blundevile to bind all the foure legs together in such sort as hath bin taught before in the chap. of incording and then to hoise the Horsse somewhat from the ground with his heeles vpward so shal the weight and peise of his body cause the ioynt to shoot in again into the right place for by this means he pleasured not long since a friend and neighbor of his who going with his cart from S. Alboâ—s towards his owne house his Thiller fell and put his shoulder cleane out of ioynt so as he was neither able to rise nor being holpen vp could stand on
horse they will be so venemous and full of poison that if a man or woman be smitten or pricked therewith Rasius they wil neuer cease from bleeding as long as life doth last If a horse be wounded with an arrow and haue the sweat of another horse and bread which hath bene brent being mingled in mans Vrine giuen him to drink and afterwards some of the same being mingled with horse-grease put into the wounde it will in short time procure him ease and helpe There are some which wil assure vs that if a man be troubled with the belly wormes or haue a Serpent crept into his belly if hee take but the sweate of a horse being mingled with his vrine and drinke it it will presently cause the wormes or the Serpent to yssue forth Dioscorides Pliny The dung of a horse or Asse which is fedde with grasse being dried and afterward dipped in wine and so drunke is a very good remedy against the bitings and blowes of Scorpions The same medicines they doe also vse being mingled with the genital of a Hare in Vineger both against the Scorpion and against the shrew-mouse The force is so great in the poyson of a madde Dogge or Bitch that his pargeted Vrine doth much hurt especially vnto them that haue a sore bile vpon them the chiefest remedy therefore against the same is the dung of a horse mingled with Vineger and being warmed put into the scab or sore The dung aswel of Asses as of horses either raw colde or burned is excellent good against the breaking forth or yssues of the blood Marcellus The dung of Horses or Asses being newe made or warme and so clapped and put to a green wound doth very easily and speedily stanche the bleeding If the vaine of a horse bee cut and the blood doe yssue out in too great aboundance apply the dung of the same horse vnto the place where the veine is cut Russius and the bleeding wil presently cease wherefore the poet doth very wel expresse it in these verses following Pellâ—ganius Sine fimus manni cum testis vritur oui Et reprimit fluidos miro medicamine cursus Albertus The same doth also very wel driue away the corruption in mens body which doth cause the blood to stinke if it be well and iustly applyed vnto the corrupt place The same also beeing mingled with oyle of Roses Aesâ—ulapius and new made and so applied vnto the eares doeth not onely driue away the paine but also doth very much helpe for hearing There is another remedy also for the hearing which is this to take the dunge of a horse which is new made and to make it hot in a furnace Marcellus and then to poure it on the middle of the heade against the Vâ—â—la and afterward to tie the aforesaid dunge in a linnen or wollen cloath vnto the toppe of the head in the night time Pliny The dung of a young Asse when he is first foaled giuen in Wine to the quantity or magnitude of a Beane is a present remedy for eyther man or Woman who is troubled with the Iaundice or the ouer-flowing of the gall and the same property hath the dung of a younge horse or Colte when hee is new foaled But the dunge of an olde horse being boiled in faire water Sextus and afterward strained and so giuen to the party to drinke who is troubled with Water in his belly or stomacke doth presently make vent for the same There is also an excellent remedy against the Collicke and stone which is this to take a handfull of the dung of a horse which hath bene fedde with Oates and Barley and not with grasse Empiricâ—s and mingle verye vvell it with halfe a pinte of Wine all which I do gesse will amount vnto the waight of eighteene ounces and then boyle them altogether vntil halfe of them bee boyled or consumed away and then drinke the same by little and little vntil it bee all drunke vp but it will be much better for the party that is troubled to drinke it vp altogether if he be able There is moreouer a very good and easie way by horse-dung to cure the Ague or quarterne feauer which is thus to burne the aforesaid dung Marcellus and to mingle the very dust it selfe thereof in old wine and then beat it vnto small powder and so giue it vnto the party who is troubled therewith to drinke or suck without any water in it and this wil very speedily procure ease and helpe If that a woman supposeth her childe which is in hir wombe to be dead Pliny let her drinke the milt or spleene of a horse in some sweet water not to the smel but to the tast and she wil presently cast the childe The same vertue is in the perfume which is made of a horses hoof as also in the dry dung of a horse There are some which do vse this means against the falling sicknes or the sicknes called Saint Iohns euil Plinyus that is to mingle the water or vrine which a horse doth make with the water which commeth from the Smiths trough and so to giue it the party in a potion There is a very good helpe for cattell which do void blood through their Nostrils or secret parts which is this Empiricus to make a paast of Wheat-flower and beat it and mingle it togither with Butter and Egges in the vrine of a horse which hath lately drunke and afterward to giue that paast or poultes baked euen into ashes to the beast so grieued To prouoke vrine when a mans yard is stopt there is nothing so excellent as the dung or filthe which proceedeth from the vrine which a horse hath made being mingled with wine and then strained and afterwards poured into the nostrils of the party so vexed There are certaine Tetters or Ring-wormes in the knees of horses and a little aboue the hooues in the bending of these parts there are indurate and hardned thicke skins Dioscorides which being beaten into small powder and mingled with Vineger and so drunke are an exceeding good preseruatiue against the falling sicknes Galen the same is also a very good remedy for them which are bitten with any wilde Beast whatsoeuer By the Tetter or Ring-worme which groweth in a horses knees or aboue the hoofes beaten and mingled with oyle and so poured in the eares the teeth of either man or woman which were weake and loose will be made very strong and fast The aforesaid Tetter without any mingling with oyle pliny doth also heal and cure the head-ache and falling sicknes in either man or woman The same also being drunk out of Clarret Wine or Muscadel for forty daies togither doeth quite expel and driue away the collicke and stone If that any man do get and putte vp the shooe of a horse beeing stroake from his hoofe as he trauaileth in his pace
of his death the commaund of all his treasure In like sort I will not be afraid to handle this Lyon and to looke into him both dead and aliue for the expressing of so much of his nature as I can probably gather out of any good writer In the next place we are to consider the kindes of Lyons and those are according to Aristotle two the first of a lesse and well compacted body which haue curled manes being therefore called Acro leontes and this is more sluggish and fearefull then the other The second kind of Lyon hath a longer body and a deeper lose hanging mane these are more noble generous and couragious against all kind of wounds And when I speak of manes it must be remembred that all the male Lyons are maned but the females are not so neither the Leopards which are begotten by the adultry of the lyonesse for from the lyon there are many beasts which receiue procreation as the Leopard or Panther There is a beast called Leontophonus a little creature in Syria and is bred no wher els but where lyons are generated Of whose flesh if the lion tast he looseth that princely power which beareth rule among foure footed-beasts and presently dyeth for which cause they that lie in waite to kill lyons Varinus Hesychius take the body of this Leontophonus which may well bee englished Lion-queller and burneth it to ashes afterwards casting those ashes vpon flesh whereof if the lion tast she presently dyeth so great is the poyson taken out of this beast for the destruction of lyons for which cause the lyon doth not vndeseruedly hate it and when she findeth it although she dare not touch it with her teeth yet she teareth it in pieces with her clawes The vrine also of this beast sprinkled vppon a lyon doeth wonderfully harme him if it doth not destroy him They are deceiued that take this Lion-queller to be a kind of Worme or reptile creature for there is none of them that render vrine but this excrement is meerely proper to foure-footed-liuing-beastes And thus much I thought good to say of this beast in this place which I haue collected out of Aristotle Pliny Solinus Aelianus and other Authors aforesaide although his proper place be afterward among the lions enemies The Chimaera is also fained to be compounded of a lion a Goate and a Dragon according to this verse Prima leo postrema Draco media ipsa Chimaera There be also many Fishes in the great Sea about the I le Taprabones hauing the heades of Lyons Panthers Rams and other beasts The Tygers of Prasia are also engendred of Lyons and are twice so big as they There are also Lyons in India called Formicae about the bignesse of Egyptian Wolues Camalopardales haue their hinder parts like Lyons The Mantichora hath the body of a Lyon The Leucrocuta the necke taile and brest like a lion and there is an allogorical thing cald Demonium Leoninum a lyon-Diuel which by Bellunensis is enterpreted to be an allegory signifieng the mingling together reasonable vnderstanding with malicious hurtfull actions Monsters breed like Lyons It is reported also by Aelianus that in the Iland of Choos a sheepe of the flock of Nicippus contrary to the nature of those beasts in stead of a lamb brought forth a lion which monstrous prodigy was seene and considred of many whereof diuers gaue their opinions what it did pretend namely that Nicippus of a priuate man should effect superiority and become a tyrant which shortly after cam to passe for he ruled all by force and violence Coelins not with fraud or mercy for Fraus saith Cicero quasi vulpeculae vis leonis esse videtur that is Fraud is the property of a Foxe and violence of a Lion Heroditus It is reported that Meles the first King of Sardis did beget of his concubine a lyon the South-sayers told him that on what side soeuer of the city he should lead that lion it shold remaine inexpugnable and neuer be taken by any man whereupon Meles led him about euery tower and rampier of the citty which hee thought was weakest except onely one Tower standing towards the riuer Tmolus because hee thought that side was inuincible and could neuer by any force be entred scaled or ruinated Afterwards in the raigne of Crasus the Citty was taken in that place by Darius There are no lions bred in Europ except in one part of Thrasia for the Nemaeon Countries without Lyons or Cleonaean lion is but a fable yet in Aristotles time ther were more famous valiant lions in that part of Europe lying betwixt the Riuers Achelous and Nessus then in all Affrica and Asia For when Xerxes led his Army through Paeonia ouer the Riuer Chidorus the lyons came and deuoured his Camels in the night time but beyonde Nessus towardes the East or Achillous towards the West there was neuer man saw a lion in Europe but in the region betwixt them which was once called the countrey of the Abderites there were such store that they wandered into Olimpus Macedonia and Thessalia but yet of purpose Princes in castles and Towers for their pleasures sake do nourish and keepe Lions in Europe where sometimes also they breed as hath been seene both in England and Florence Pelloponesus also hath no lions and therefore when Homer maketh mention of Dianaes hunting in the mountaines of Frimanthus and Taygetus he speaketh not of lions but of Harts and Bores All the countries in the East and South lying vnder the heate of the Sun do plentifully breede lions and except in whot countries they breed seldome and therefore the lions of Fesse Temesna Angad Hippo and Tunis are accounted the most noble and audatious lions of Affrick because they are whot countries Countries of their breed But the lions of colder countries haue not halfe so much strength stomack and courage These Libian lions haue not halfe so bright haire as others their face and necke are very horrible rough making them to looke fearefully and the whole collour of their bodies betwixt browne and blacke Apolonius saw lions also beyond Nilus Hiphasis and Ganges and Strabo affirmeth that there are lions about Meroe Astapae and Astabore which lions are very gentle tame and fearefull and when the dog star called Canis Sirius doth appear wherof commeth the dog daies that then they are droue awaie by the bitings of great gnats Aethiopia also breedeth Lyons being blacke coloured hauing great heads long hair rough feet fiery eies and their mouth betwixt red and yellow Silicia Armenia and Parthia about the mouth of Ister breed many feareful Lyons hauing great heads thick and rough neckes and cheekes bright eies and eye-lids hanging down to their noses There are also plenty of lyons in Arabia so that a man cannot trauell neare the citty Aden ouer the mountaines with any security of life except he haue a hundred men in his company The Lions also of Hircania
sexes desire copulation although Aristotle seemeth to be against it because they bring forth onely in the spring The lionesse as we haue shewed already committeth adultery by lying with the Libbard The adultery of lionesses Pliny Apollonius for which thing she is punished by her male if she wash not her selfe before she come at him but when she is ready to be deliuered she flieth to the lodgings of the Libbards and there among them hideth her yong ones which for the most part are males for if the male Lion find them he knoweth them and destroyeth them as a bastard and adulterous issue and when she goeth to giue them sucke she faineth as though shee went to hunting By the copulation of a lionesse and an Hyaena is the Aēthiopian Crocuta brought foorth Pollux Coelius The Arcadian dogges called Leontomiges were also generated betwixt dogges and Lions In all her life long she beareth but once and that but one at a time as Aesop seemeth to set downe in that fable where he expresseth that contention betweene the lionesse and the Fox about the generositie of their yong ones the Foxe obiecteth to the lionesse that she bringeth forth but one whelpe at a time but hee on the contrary begetteth many Cubs wherein he taketh great delight vnto whom the lionsse maketh this answere Parere se quidem vnum sed Leonem That is to say shee bringeth foorth indeede but one yet that one is a Lyon for one Lyon is better then a thousand Foxes and true generosity consisteth not in popularitie or multitude but in the giftes of the minde ioyned with honorable discent The lionesses of Syria beare fiue times in their life at the first time fiue afterwards but one and lastly they remaine barren Herodotus speaking of other lions saith they neuer beare but one and that only once whereof he giueth this reason that when the whelpe beginneth to stirre in his dams belly the length of his clawes pearce through her matrix and so growing greater and greater by often turning leaueth nothing whole so that when the time of littering commeth she casteth forth her whelpe and her wombe both together after which time she can neuer bear more but I hold this for a fable because Homer Pliny Oppianus Solinus Philes and Aelianus affirme otherwise contrary and besides experience sheweth the contrary When Apollonius trauelled from Babilon by the way they saw a lionesse that was killed by hunters the beast was of a wonderfull bignesse such a one as was neuer seene about her was a great cry of the hunters and of other neighbours which had flocked thither to see the monster not wondring so much at her quantitie as that by opening of her belly they found within her eight whelpes whereat Appolonius wondring a little told his companions that they trauailing now into India should be a yeare and eight monthes in their iourney Philestratus For the one lion signified by his skill one yeare and the eight yong ones eight monethes The truth is that a lion beareth neuer aboue thrice that is to say six at the first and at the most afterwards two at a time and lastly but one because that one proueth greater and fuller of stomacke then the other before him wherefore nature hauing in that accomplished her perfection giueth ouer to bring foorth any more Within two monthes after the lionesse hath conceaued the whelpes are perfected in her wombe and at six monthes are brought foorth blinde weake and some are of opinion without life which so doe remaine three daies together Physiologus vntill by the roaring of the male their father and by breathing in their face they be quickned which also he goeth about to establish by reason but they are not worth the relating Isidorus on the other side declareth that for three daies and three nights after their littering they doe nothing but sleepe and at last are awaked by the roaring of their father so that it should seeme without controuersie they are sencelesse for a certaine space after their whelping At two monthes old they begin to runne and walke They say also that the fortitude wrath and boldnesse of lions is conspicuous by their heate the young one containeth much humiditie contriued vnto him by the temprament of his kinde which afterwards by the drinesse and caliditie of his complectiom groweth viscus and slimie like bird-lime and through the helpe of the animall spirits preuaileth especially about his braine whereby the nerues are so stopped and the spirits excluded that all his power is not able to moue him vntill his parents partly by breathing into his face and partly by bellowing driue away from his braine that viscus humour these are the words of Physiologus whereby he goeth about to establish his opinion but herein I leaue euery man to his owne iudgement in the meane season admiring the wonderfull wisedome of God which hath so ordered the seuerall natures of his creatures that whereas the little Partrige can runne so soone as it is out of the shell the duckling the first day swim in the water with his dam yet the harmefull lions Beares Tygres and their whelpes are not able to see stand or goe for many monthes whereby they are exposed to destruction when they are young which liue vpon destruction when they are olde so that in infancie God clotheth the weaker with more honor There is no creature that loueth her young ones better then the lionesse for both sheapheards and hunters frequenting the mountaines doe oftentimes see how irefully she fighteth in their defence receauing the wounds of many darts the stroakes of many stones the one opening hir bleeding body the other pressing the bloud out of the wounds standing inuincible neuer yeelding till death yea death it selfe were nothing vnto her Aelianus Endemus so that her yonge ones might neuer be taken out of her den for which cause Homer compareth Aiax to a lionesse fighting in the defence of the carcasse of Patroclus It is also reported that the male will leade abroad the yong ones but it is not likely that the lyon which refuseth to accompany his female in hunting will so much abase his noble spirit as to vndergoe the lionesses duty in leading abroad the yong ones In Pangius a mountaine of Thracia there was a lionesse which had whelpes in her den the which den was obserued by a Beare Gillius the which Beare on a day finding the den vnfortified both by the absence of the Lion and the lionesse entred into the same and slew the Lions whelpes afterward went away and fearing a reuenge for her better securitie against the lions rage climbed vp into a tree and there sat as in a sure castle of defence at length the lion and lionesse returned both home and finding their little ones dead in their owne bloud according to naturall affection fell both exceeding sorrowfull to see them so slaughtered whom they both loued
sheepe-skins to cloth couer him Primus and Foelicianus Thracus Vitus Modestus and Crescentia all martyrs being cast vnto lions receiued no harme by them at all but the beasts lay down at their feet and became tame gentle and meeke not like themselues but rather like Doues When a beare and a lion fell vpon Tecla the vergin a Martyr a Lionesse came and fought eagarly in her defence against them both When Martina the Daughter of a Consull could not be terrified or drawen from the Christian faith by any imprisonment chaines or stripes nor allued by any faire words to sacrifice to Apollo there was a lion brought forth to her at the commaundement of Alexander the Emperor to destroy her who assoone as hee saw her hee lay downe at her feet wagging his taile and fawning in a louing and fearefull manner as if he had bin more in loue with her presence then desirous to lift vp one of his haires against her The like may be said of Daria a virgin in the daies of Numerian the Emperor who was defended by a Lionesse but I spare to blot much paper with the recital of those things which if they be true yet the Authors purpose in their allegatiō is most prophain vnlawful and wicked because he thereby goeth about to establish miracles in saints which are long agone ceased in the church of God Some Martyrs also haue beene deuoured by lyons as Ignatius Bishop of Antioch Satyrus and Perpetua he vnder Traian the Emperor and they vnder Valerian and Galienus Men deuoured by Lyons In holy scripture there is mention made of many men killed by lions First of all it is memorable of a prophet 1 King 13. that was sent by the almighty vnto Ieroboam to cry out against the alter at Bethell and him that erected that altar with charge that he should neither eate nor drinke in that place Afterward an old prophet which dwelt in that place hearing thereof came vnto the Prophet and told him that God had commaunded him to goe after him and fetch him backe againe to his house to eate and drinke wherewithal being deceiued he came back with him contrary to the commaundement of the lord giuen to himselfe whereupon as they sat at meate the prophet that beguiled him had a charge from God to prophesie against him and so he did afterward as he went homeward a lion met him and killed him and stood by the corps and his Asse not eating of them till the old prophet came and took him away to bury him In the twentieth chap. of the same book of Kings ther is another story of a prophet which as hee went by the way hee met with a man and bade in the name of the lord to wound and smite him but he would not preferring pittie before the seruice of the Lord well said the Prophet vnto him seeing thou refusest to obey the voice of the Lord Behold as soone as thou art departed a lyon shall meete thee and destroy thee and so it came to passe for being out of the presence of the Prophet a lion met him and tore him in peeces The idolotrous people that were placed at Ierusalem by the King of Babel were destroyed by lions and vnto these examples of God his iudgements I will adde other out of humane stories Paphages a King of Ambracia meeting a lionesse leading her whelpes was suddenly set vpon by her and torne in peeces vpon whom Ouid made these verses Foeta tibi occurrat patrio popularis in aruo Sitque paphageae causa leaena necis Hyas the brother of Hyades was also slaine by a lionesse The people called Ampraciota in Affrique Aelianus doe most religiously worship a lionesse because a notable tyrant which did oppresse them was slaine by such an one There is a mountaine neere the riuer Indus called Litaeus of a shepheard so named Plutarch which in that mountaine did most superstitiously worshippe the Moone and contemned all other Gods his sacrifices were performed in the night season at length saith the Author the Gods being angry with him sent vnto him a couple of lions who tore him in peeces leauing no monument behind but the name of the mountaine for the accident of his cruell death The inhabitants of that mountaine weare in their eares a certain rich stone called Clitoris which is very blacke and bred no where else but in that place There is a known storie of the two Babilonian louers Pyramus and Thisbe who in the night time had couenanted to meete at a fountaine neere the sepulchre of Ninus and Thysbe comming thither first as she sate by the fountaine a lionesse being thirstie came thither to drinke water after the slaughter of an Oxe at the sight whereof Thysbe ranne away and let fall her mantell which the lionesse finding tore i◠in peeces with her bloudy teeth Afterward came Pyramus and seeing her mantell all bloody and torne asunder suspecting that she that loued him being before him at the appointed place had beene killed by some wilde beast very inconsiderately drew forth his sword and thrust the same through his owne body and being scarce dead Thysbe came againe and seeing her louer lye in that distresse as one loue one cause one affection had drawen them into one place and there one feare had wrought one of their destructions she also sacrificed her selfe vpon the point of one and the same sword There was also in Scythia a cruell tyrant called Therodomas who was wont to cast men to lions to be deuoured of them and for that cause did nourish priuately many lyons vnto this crueltie did Ouid allude saying Therodomantaeos vt qui sensere leones And againe Non tibi Therodomas crudusque vocabitur Atreus Vnto this discourse of the bloud-thirstie crueltie of lyons you may adde the puissant glory of them who both in sacred and prophane stories are said to haue destroyed lyons Men that haue ouercome lions When Sampson went downe to Thimnath it is said that a yoong lyon met him roaring to destroy him but the spirit of the Lord came vpon him and he tore it in peeces like a Kid wherein he was a type of Iesus Christ who in like sort being set vpon by the roaring of the diuell and his members did with facilitie through his diuine nature vtterly ouerthrow the malice of the diuell Afterward Sampson went downe to the Philistine woman whom he loued and returning found that Bees had entred into the lions carcasse and there builded whereupon he propounded this riddle A voraci exiunt cibus ex forti egressa est dulcedo Out of the deuourer came meate and out of the strong came sweetenesse Benaia the sonne of Iehoiada one of Dauids worthies did in the Winter time in the snow kill a Lion in a ditch Dauid himselfe feeding his fathers flocke slew a Lion and a Beare which had robbed him of a Lambe It is reported of Perdicas one of the Captaines of Alexander
thereof it is blacke The price of a Lynxes skin These skinnes are sold for three Nobles a peece and sometime for six and sometimes for lesse according to the quantity of the skinne and countrey wherein it is sold And vnto this description do Bellonius and Bonarus agree For Bellonius at Constantinople saw two Lynxes Countries of Lynxes much like vnto cats and Bonarus had oftentimes seene them hunted in Moschouia Littuania Pollonia Hungaria and Germany But he commendeth aboue al other the Linxes of Scotland and Swesia as most beautifull hauing Triangular spots vpon theyr skinnes But the Indian and Affrican Linxes he saith haue round spots sharpe-bristly-short-haire and full of spots on all parts of their body and therefore they are not so delicate as the Linxes of Europe which with good cause he coniectureth to be the Linxe that Pliny speaketh of and not vnlike to that which is bred in Italy There are Linxes in diuers countries as in the for named Russia Littuania Pollonia Hungary Germany Scotland so also they are most abundant in Scandinavia in Swesia so also about Hyelsus and Helsyngia likewise in all the Regions vpon the Alpes and in Sylua Martia they are also very plentiful in Aethiopia in France and Italy about the riuer Padus and in the Island Carpathus and thus hauing discoursed of their country and proportion whereby their differences and kindes may bee discerned we will leaue euery one of them to their particular and proceed to the treatise and description of their general natures There is no great difference betwixt their outward shapes and proportion for both the smaller and the greater haue bright eies diuers coloured skins a little head Their outward shape and seueral partes a nimble and cheareful face and Albertus saith that their body is longer then the body of a Wolfe but their legges shorter mistaking the Linxe for the Thoes Their eyes stande forth of their heads very far their tongue like the toong of a Serpent and Textor affirmeth that they haue pappes or vdders in their Breastes but surely hee taketh Linxe for Sphinx Their meat goeth into the belly straight through the maw without staying and therein is a note of their insatiable voracity for none but insatiable beasts or birds are so affected as in birds the Cormorant It hath no ankle bone but a thing like vnto it the nails are very long as you may see in two of the former pictures but hee hideth them within his skin til he be angry ready to fight or climbe or otherwise affected as you may see by the picture of the Linx taken in the Tower of London The inward proportion and anatomy of their bodies is like vnto a mans and therefore Galen giueth this lesson to students in Phisicke Praestat simiarum homini quam similimarum artus dessicare cum te in exemplo exercere institues sin ea non detuo aliquam ei proximam delegito aut si nulla omnino Simia reperiatur Cynocephalum vel Satyrum vel Lincem summatim ea omnia quibus artuum extrema indigitos quinque discreta sunt That is to say It is good to discect those bodies which are likest to a man when one would instruct himselfe in anatomy and if he cannot find an Ape let him take a Baboone a Satyre or a Linx and generally any creature the extremity of whose sinnewes and ioynts are diuided into fiue fingers or toes There be some that haue thought that Panthers Pardals Linxes or Tygers hadde bin all of the kind of cats because of a mutuall resemblance in the greatnesse and strength of their nailes in the distinction of their skinnes which are partye coloured and faire hauing also a round head a short face a long taile a nimble body a wilde mind and gette their meat by hunting but heerein I leaue euery man to his owne best liking and opinion for when we haue done our best to expresse their natures and seuerall properties it shal be ydle to spend time about disputation to what ranke or order euery beast ought to be referred For euery one that readeth our story and seeth our pictures may either bee satisfied The 〈…〉 or els amend our labour The Linx therefore biteth most cruelly and deepe and therefore is accounted Rap aâ— animal instar lupi sed callidius a Beast as rauening as a wolfe but more crafty they get vp into trees and from them leape downe vppon very great beastes and destroy them beeing enemies both to men and beasts and at their pleasure according to necessity set vppon both the 〈◊〉 of 〈…〉 They are taken somtimes in Germany in the dutchy of Wertinberg and that it was once credibly affirmed one of them leaped downe from a tree vppon a countrey man as he passed vnder the same tree but being weary and hauing an axe on his necke he receiued her on the sharp edge thereof and so killed her otherwise she woulde soone haue killed him 〈◊〉 meat or foode They liue in the mountaines also where they are killed by poison or else hunted by armed men on horse-back and included with multitudes for their hunting is perilous and therefore they must be inclosed with great company Some take them with ditches as we heard before Lyons were taken others in snares or ginnes laide vppon the rockes and stones and whensoeuer they are hunted with Dogs they run directly to the woods or to the next trees wherein they are killed by gun-shot In the Summer time they are very weake and liue among the Rockes neuer strayinge farre from their owne lodging hurting no man vntill the autumn They hunt wilde goats whom they follow from Rocke to rocke leaping as fast or faster then the Goates They hunt also wilde cats and Hares and some other little beasts but the greatest Linxes hunt Hartes and Asses Olaâ—â— mag and their manner is as wee haue saide already to get vp into trees and there to ly in waite for their prey vntill they espy it vnder the boughes and then suddenly leape into the necke thereof whether it be a man or a great Beast wherein they fix their clawes so fast that no violence can shake them off but with the sharpenesse of their teeth bite into the scull and eate out the braines to the vtter destruction of the man or beaste whomsoeuer they light vpon but if it be a small beast they eate the whole body thereof and not onely the braines A singular note of forgetfulnesse Yet this is a wonderfull secret in their nature that although they belong afflicted with hunger yet when they eate their meate if they heare any noise or any other chaunce cause them to turne about from their meat out of the sight of it they forgette their prey notwithstanding theyr hunger Pliny and goe to seeke another bootey neuer remembring that which they had before them Solinus nor yet returne backe againe to eate thereof The voice of this beast
with Lard in small peeces with Auri pigment killeth Wolues and mice Croscentiensis and in some countries for the better dispersing of the poyson set drinke beside the same whereof as soone as they tast they swel and die but I haue seen them die without drinking at all Mice and wolues if they tast of the wilde Rose and drinke after it doe not not onely dye but also fall into madnesse and bite their fellows communicating the quality of the disease to euery one they bite Flesh cut into little peeces fryed with butter in a frying pan Cardon and afterwards when it is colde adde halfe so much soft pitch thereto and mingle t together rowling vp the flesh in the pitch then distribute it vpon little boords and set it in the place and places whereunto the mice do much resort and water beside it and when that they haue tasted of it a little they are so eagerly a thirst that they drinke and dye The like I may say of Rats-bane Quicke-siluer Sublimate and Precipitate and diuers other thinges and thus much may suffice for the ketching taking and killing of myce whereunto I may adde the vse of their members and parts not medicinall but naturall although I haue touched it heeretoforein part The Scythians were woont to be clad with the skinnes of mice and Wolues and it is obserued that when mice cry and screeketh aboue their ordinary custome it presageth an alteration and change of the Weather and thus much shall suffice for their naturall discourse Hauing thus discoursed of the nature of the vulgar mouse The morrall story of mice I may also adde the morral vse thereof as I find it recorded among learned writers deliuered eyther in Historie or in prouerbe It is reported of Glaucus the sonne of Minos and Pasiphae that while he followed a mouse to take her he fel into a vessel of hony but after Polyades the prophet by laying an herb on him raised him againe to life Hatto an Arch Bysh of Metz in the frontiers of Germany was destroyed by mise or as other say by Rats Tzetzes but the words of Textor are Hatto Archiepiscopus Moguntinus à muribus fertur deuoratus And the error may proceed because that Mus is a generall word for the Rat and mouse and therefore they which haue thought it an vnreasonable thinge that so small beastes should destroy so mighty a prince haue rather attributed it to the Rats then to the mice but they ought to haue rememberd that it was an extraordinary iudgement of God to punish a cruell couetous wretch and that therefore it was as easie for him to make the little mouse his instrument as the great Rat for we read that Herod was deuourd by worms and other haue beene eaten vp with lyce Adrian the Pope was strangled by a flye and therefore Hatto an Archbishop might aswel perish through the afflicting hand of God by a multitude of mice Heliogabalus that wretch among other his monstrous desires and Tyrannicall commaundes Lampridius affirmeth that vpon a time he commaunded that there should bee brought vnto him ten thousand mice aliue a thousand weasils and a thousand Sorices or wilde fielde-mice so base were his thoughts that while he should haue attended his Emperiall calling and hearkened to the suits and complaints of poore distressed subiects he was busied in killing of mice and therefore in ancient time a mouse-killer was taken for an opprobrious speech for a base sluggish and idle companion The like is reported of a Moscouian Emperour who to afflict his people and to gather money from them commanded the Cittizens of Musco to bring him a pecke full of fleas whereunto the people answered that if they could take so many yet could not they keepe them together from leaping away And mice haue beene brought into publique spectacle because at Lauinium they gnawed asunder the shields of siluer and it was afterward iudged a prodigie for there followed the Marsicke war When the Scythians vnderstoode that Darius with his great army stoode in neede of vittailes they sent vnto him a Prouant-master with these presents or gifts a birde a mouse a frog and fiue darts At the receipte whereof the Persians wondered what should be meant thereby and demaunded of the messenger the meaning of the mystery But the Ambassador answered he knew not any signification of his presents but onely receiued charge to deliuer them and make hast backe againe and to bid the Persians if they were wise to lay their wits together to know and vnderstand the meaning thereof When the Persians heard him say so they fell to consultation Darius gaue his opinion that the mouse signified the earth Herodotus the frog the waters the bird horses and the darts warlike furniture and strength of forces and that the Scythians by sending all these vnto them yeelded that the Persians should be Lords of their land sea horses and themselues and that therefore they ought to be of good courage But one Gobrias a graue Councellor who was one of the seuen that slew the Magi or Wizards aunswered otherwise for his coniecture was more true for said he O persae nisi effecti vt aues subuoletis in coelum aut vt mures subeatis terram aut vt ranae insiliatis in paludes non remeabitis vnde venistis his sagittis confecti O ye Persians except ye become like birds to flye vp into heauen or like mice to creepe into the earth or like frogs to leap into the waters you shall not returne back againe vnto the place from whence you came and so indeede it came to passe We reade 1. Sam. 5. that when the Arke of God was taken by the Philistimes and they kept it in their Temple at Hazzah the hand of the Lord fell vppon their Princes and hee smote them with Emrods in the bottome of their belly that is God punished them with mice for he afflicted their bodies and the fruites of the earth for which cause Cap. 6. they aduise with themselues to send back againe the Arke of the Lord with a present of Golden Mice Ouid Homer and Orpheus call Apollo Smyntheus for the Cretians in auncient time called Mice Smynthae Now the fained cause thereof is thus related by Aelianus There was one Crinis which was a Priest of Apollo who neglected his dayly sacrifice for the which through aboundance of mice he was depriued of the fruites of the earth for they deuoured all At which losse Apollo himselfe was moued and taking pittie of the miserie appeared to one Horda a Neate-heard commaunding him to tell Crinis that all the cause of that penury was for that he had omitted his accustomed sacrifice and that it was his duetie to offer them againe diligently or else it would be farre worse afterward Crinis vpon the admonition amended the fault and immediatly Apollo killed all the deuouring Mice with his darts whereuppon he was called Smyntheus Other againe
snout it is called Spitzmus by some Zissmuss from the fiction of his voice and some Gross Zissmuss The Hollanders call it Moll musse because it resembleth a Mole Mathaeolus for the Italians cal it Toporagno that is a Mole-Shrew The Heluetians cal it Bisem-muss that is a Muskemouse because it being dryed in a furnace smelleth like muske The skin pulled from the flesh smelleth best by it selfe and yet the flesh smelleth well also and so doe the excrements But to returne to the Greeke name why it should be cald Mygale there is not one opinion amongst the learned but I do most willingly condescend to the opinion of Aetius who writeth that it is called Mygale because in quantity it exceedeth not a Mouse and yet in colour it resembleth a Weasell and therfore it is compounded of two words Miss a Mouse and Galen a weasell Amyntas is of opinion that it is so called because it is begot betwixt a Mouse and a Weasel but this is neither true nor probable For it is likely that Weasels and Mice will couple together in carnall copulation whose natures are so contrary the one liuing vpon the death of an other that is the weasell vpon the Mouse And beside the difference of quantitie betwixt them maketh it impossible to haue such a generation The other deriuation of Migale which is made by Rodolphus writing vpon Leuiticus fetching Mygale from Mus gulosus that is a deuouring Mouse it is against the order of all good Linguists to deriue Greeke words from Latin but rather consonant to learning to fetch the Latine from the Greeke There is no lesse inquiry about the Latine name whye it should be called Mus araneus seeing aranea signifieth Spider This Mouse saith Albertus is a red kinde of Mouse hauing a small taile a sharpe voice and is full of poyson or venome For which cause Cats doe kill them but doe not eate them Sipontinus writeth thus of this Shrew Mus araneus exiguum animal atque leuissimum est quod arane modo tenuissimum fiium gladij aciem concendit That is to say this Shrew mouse is a little and light creature which like a Spider climeth vp vpon any small threed or vpon the edge of a sword and therefore you see they deriue the Latin name from his climing like a Spider But in my opinion it is more reasonable to deriue it from the venome and poyson which it containeth in it like a spider For which cause Syluaticus writeth thus Mugali id est draco marinus animal venenosum pusillum muri simile nam araneum piscem propter venenum pungentibus insitum spinis veteres ophim id est serpentem nominarunt hodie quam vulgo draconem vel dracenam That is to say there is a fish of the Sea and a little beast on the earth like a Mouse which by a generall word are called Mugale and the spider fish called at this day a Dragon or Dragonist was in auncient time called a Serpent because by his prickly finnes he did poyson those which were strucken by him And concerning the description of this beast it may be taken from the words of an auncient English Phisition called Doctor William Turner I haue seene saith he in England the Shrew-Mouse of colour blacke hauing a taile very short and her snout very long and sharp and from the venomous biting of this beast we haue an english prouerb or imprecation I be shrow thee when we curse or wish harm vnto any man that is that some such euil as the biting of this Mouse may come vpon him The Spaniardes call this beast Raton Pequenno the Illirians Viemed kamys and the Polonias Kerit They were wont to abound in Britany as Hermolaus writeth They are also plentifull in Italy beyond the mountaines Apenine but not on this side as Pliny writeth yet in the hither partes of Italy and Germanie there are many founde especially in the countrey neere Trent in the valey Anania where this is admirable that by reason of the coldnes of that countrey their bitings are not venomous Samonicus For the Scorpions there are not venemous although in other places of Italy they poison deepely This beast is much lesse then a Weasel and of an ash colour Vegetius Aetius in most places like a mouse although the colour be not alwaies constant The eyes are so smal and beneath the proportion of her body that it hath not been vniustly doubted of the auncientes whether they were blinde or no but in their best estate their sight is very dul And for this cause the auncient Egyptians did worshippe it for as they held opinion that darkenes was before light so they deemd that the blind creatures were better then the seeing And they also beleeued that in the waine of the moone the liuer of this beast consumed It hath a long and sharpe snowt like a Mole that so it may be apt to dig The teeth are very small but so as they stand double in their mouth for they haue foure rewes of teeth two beneath and two aboue which are not onely apparant by their desection or anatomy but also by their bitinges for their wounds are Quadruple wheresoeuer they fasten their teeth Their taile is slender and short But the description of this beast was better apprehended by Gesner at the sight of one of them which hee relateth on this manner The colour saith hee was partly red and partly yellow mingled both together but the belly white The hinder feet seemeth to cleane to the body or loines It smelleth strongly and the sauour did bewray or signifie some secret poyson The taile about three fingers long beset with little short haires The residue of the body was three fingers long The eies very small and black not much greater then Moles so that next to the Mole they may iustly be caled the least sighted creatur among al four-footed-beasts so that in old age they are vtterly blind by the prouidence of God abridging their malice that when their teeth are growne to be most sharp and they most full of poyson then they should not see whome nor where to uent it They differ as we haue said in place and number from all foure-footed-beasts so that they seeme to be compounded and framed of the teeth of Serpents and mice The two foreteeth are very long and they do not growe single as in vulgar mice but haue within them two other small and sharpe teeth And also those two long teeth grow not by themselues as they do in other mice but are conioyned in the residue in one continued ranke They are sharpe like a saw hauing sharpe points like needles such as could not be seene by man except the tips of them were yellow Of either side they haue eight teeth whereas the vulgar mice haue but foure beside the two long foreteeth which also seeme deuided into two or three which except one marke diligently hee would thinke them to bee all
for that it happeneth also to other beastes that do engender Empedocles he yealds a reason out of Plutarch about the ioyning together of the seedes and therefore compareth it to a commixtion of tinne and Brasse together but hee saith he doth not vnderstand their meaning and therefore proceedeth to expresse his owne opinion in these words Frist saith he euery one of the Males do beget one of their owne kinde but the females cannot conceiue and this is no great wonder because that Horsses are not alwaies fitte for generation nor Mares to bring forth Coltes beyng couered and therfore when asses and mares doe couple together their issve may be more barren because they receiue the greater hinderance in the diuersity of kinde for besides the coldnesse of the Asses seed which may bee one great cause of his barrennesse they haue another property if they doe not breed and engender before the casting of theyr Coltes Colts-teeth they remaine steril and barren al their life long for so doth the generatiue power of the Asses body rest vpon a tickle and Nice-point apt to rise or easie to fal away to nothing And in like sort is a horse prone to barrennesse for it wanteth nothing but cold substance to be mingled with his seede which commeth then to passe when the seede of the Asse is mixed with it for there wanteth but very little but that the Asses seed waxeth barren in his owne kind and therefore much more when it meeteth with that which is beside his nature and kind This also hapneth to Mules that their bodies grow exceeding great especially because they haue no menstruous purgation and therefore where there is an annual breeding or procreation by the helpe and refreshing of these flowers they both conceiue and nourish now these being wanting vnto mules they are the more vnfitte to procreation The excrements of their body in this kinde they purge with their vrine which apeareth because the male-mules neuer smell to the secrets of the female but to their vrine and the residue which is not voided in the vrine turneth to encrease the quantity and greatnesse of the body whereby it commeth to passe that if the female mule doe conceiue with foale yet is she not able to bring it forth to perfection because those thinges are dispersed to the norishment of her owne body which should be imployed about the nourishment of the foale and for this cause when the Egyptians describe a barren woman they picture a mule Alexander Aphroditius writeth thus also of the sterility of mules Orus An Emblem Mules saith he seeme to be barren because they consist of beasts diuers in kind for the commixtion of seedes which differ both in habite and nature doe euermore worke something contrary to nature for the abolishing of generation for as the mingling together of blacke and white colours do destroy both the blacke and white and produce a swart and brown and neyther of both appeare in the browne so is it in the generation of the mules whereby the habituall and generatiue power of nature is vtterly destroyed in the created compounde which before was eminent in both kindes simple and seuerall These things saith he Alcmaeon as he is related by Plutarch saith that the male mules are barren by reason of the thinnesse and coldnes of their seed and the females because their wombes are shut vp and the veines that should carry in the seede and expell out the menstruous purgation are vtterly stopt And Empedocles and Diocles say that the wombe is low narrowe and the passages crooked that leade into it and that therefore they cannot receiue seede or conceiue with young whereunto I do also wilingly yeeld bâ—cause it hath bin often found that women haue beene barren for the same cause To conclude therefore mules beare very sildome and that in some particular Nations if it be natural or else their coltes are prodigious and accounted monsters Concerning their natural birth in hot regions where the exterior heat doeth temper the coldnesse of the Asses seed there they may bring forth And therefore Columella and Varro say that in many parts of Affricke the Colts of Mules are as familiar common as the Colts of mares are in any part of Europe So then by this reason it is probable vnto me Mules engender that mules may engender in all hotte Countries as there was a mule did engender often at Rome or else there is some other cause why they do engender in Affricke and it may be that the Affrican mules are like to the Syrian mules before spoken of that is they are a special kinde by themselues and are called mules for resemblaunce and not for nature It hath beene seene that a mule hath brought forth twinnes but it was held a prodigy Herodotus in his fourth book recordeth these two stories of a mules procreation when Darius saith he besieged Babilon the Babilonians scorned his army and getting vp to the top of their Towers did pipe and dance in the presence of the Persians and also vtter very violent and oprobrius speeehes against Darius and the whole army amongest whom one of the Babilonians said thus Quid istic desidetis ô Persae quin potius absceditis tunc ex pugnaturi nos cum peperint Mulae O ye Persians why do you sit heer wisdome would teach you to depart away for when mules bring forth young ones then may you ouercome the Babilonians Thus spake the Babilonian beleeuing that the Persians should neuer overcome them because of the common prouerbe Epean emionoi tekosin when a mule beareth young ones But the poore man spake truer then he was aware of for this followed after a yeare and seuen monthes While the siedge yet lasted A history of Mules it hapned that certain mules belonging to Zopyrus the sonne of Megabizâ—s brought forth young ones whereat their maister was much mooued while hee remembred the aforesaid song of the Babilonian and that therefore he might be made the Author of that fact communicated the matter with Darius who presently entertayned the deuice therefore Zopirus cut off his owne nose and eares and so ranne away to the Babilonians telling them that Darius had thus vsed him because he perswaded him to depart with his whole armye from Babilon which hee saide was inexpugnable and inuincible The Babilonians seeing his wounds and trusting to their owne strength did easilye giue credence vnto him for such is the nature of men that the best way to beguile them is to tel them of those thinges they most desire for so are their hopes perswaded before they receiue any assurances But to proceed Zopyrus insinuated himselfe further into the fauor of the Babilonians and did many valiant actes against the Persians whereby he got so much credit that at last he was made the generall of the whole Army and so betraied the Citty vnto the handes of Darius thus was Babilon taken when Mules brought foorâ—h Another mule brought
encreaseth into a great tree but where it is imperfect and venomous there it neuer groweth tall nor bringeth forth any great stocke There are certain litle Fishes called by the Graecians Lycos and by the Latanists blenni which we may english wolfe-Fishes these the Hunters vse to take wolues in this maner when they haue taken a great many of them aliue they put them into some tub or great morter 〈◊〉 ther kil them by bruising them to pieces afterwards they make a fire of coles in the mountains where the wolues hant putting into the same some of these fishes mixed with blood and peeces of mutton and so leauing it to haue the sauour thereof carryed euery way with the winde they go and hide themselues whilst that in the mean time the Wolues inraged with the sauour of this fire seeke too and fro to finde it because of the smell the fire before they come is quenched or goeth out naturally and the Wolues by the smoke therof especially by tasting of the flesh blood and fish which there they find do fall into a drowsie dead sleepe which when the Hunters do perceiue they come vpon them and cut their throats The Armenians do poison them with blacke fishes some do take a cat pulling off her skin taking out the bowels they put into her belly the powder of Frogges this cat is boiled a little vpon coles and by a man drawne vp and down in the mountaines where wolues do hant now if the Wolues do chance to meet with the traine of this cat they instantly followe after him inraged without all feare of man to attaine it therefore he which draweth the catte is accompanied with another hunter armed with a a Gun Pistoll or Cross bow that at the appearaunce of the Wolfe and before his approach to the traine he may destroy and kill him Poysyning of Wolues I will not discourse of Wolfe-bane commonly called Aconitum in Latine wherwithall both men beasts are intoxicated and especially Wolues but referring the Reader to the long discourse of Conradus Gesner in his History of the Wolf I will onely remember in this place an Epigram of Ausonius wherein he pleasantly relateth a story of an adulterated women desiring to make away her iealous husband and that with speed and vehemency gaue him a drinke of Wolfe-bane and Quick-siluer mingled together eyther of both single are poison but compounded are a purgation the Epigram is this that followeth Toxica zelotypo dedit vxor mecha marito Nec satis ad mortem credidit esse datum Miscuit argenti letalia pondera viui Cogeret vt celerem vis geminata necem Diuidat haec si quis faciunt discreta venenum Antidotum sumet qui sociata bibet Ergo inter sese dum noxia pocula certant Cessit letalis noxa salutiferae Protinus vacuos alui petiere recessus Lubrica deiectis qua via nota cibis Concerning the enimies of Wolues there is no doubt but that such a rauening beast hath fewe friendes for except in the time of copulation wherein they mingle sometime with dogges The enimies of Wolues and sometime with Leopards and sometime with other beastes all Beastes both great and small do auoyd their society and fellowship for it cannot be safe for strangers to liue with them in any league or amity seeing in their extremity they deuour one another for this cause in some of the inferiour beasts their hatred lasteth after death as many Authors haue obserued for if a sheepe skinne be hanged vp with a Wolues skin the Wool falleth off from it and if an instrument be stringed with stringes made of both these beasts the one will giue no sounde in the presence of the other but of this matter we haue spoken in the story of the sheep shewing the opinion of the best learned concerning the truth heereof The Rauens are in perpetuall enmity with Wolues and the Antiphathy of their natures is so violent that it is reported by Philes and Aelianus that if a rauen eat of the carcasse of a beast which the wolfe hath kild or formerly tasted of she presently dyeth There are certaine wilde Onions called Scille and some say the sea-Onion because the roote hath the similitude of an Onion of all other thinges this is hatefull to a wolfe and therefore the Arabians say that by treading on it his legge falleth into a crampe whereby his whole body many times endureth insufferable torments for the crampe increaseth into convulsions for which cause it is worthy to be obserued how vnspeakle the Lord is in all his workes for whereas the wolfe is an enemy to the fox and the Turtle he hath giuen secret instinct and knowledge both to this beast and Foule of the vertuâ—us operation of this hearbe against the rauening wolfe for in their absence from their neâ—â—s they leaue this Onion in the mouth thereof as a sure gard to keepe their young ones from the wolfe There are certaine Eagles in Tartaria which are tamed who doo of their owne accord being set on by men aduenture vpon wolues and so vex them with their talants that a man with no labor or difficulty may kil the beast for this cause the wolues do greatly feare them and auoid them And thereupon came the common prouerb Lupus fugit aquilam And thus much shall suffice to haue spoken in general concerning their taking Now we will proceed to the other parts of their History and first of al of their carnal copulation They ingender in the same manner as dogs and Sea-calues do Their Copulation procreation and therefore in the middle of their copulation they cleaue together against their wil. It is obserued that they begin to engender immediately after Christmasse and this rage of their lust lasteth but twelue daies whereupon there was wont to go a fabulous tale or reason that the cause why al of them conceiued in the twelue daies after Christmas was for that Latona so many daies togither wandered in the shape of a shee wolfe in the mountaines Hyperborei for for feare of Iuno in which likenes shee was brought to Delus but this fable is confuted by Plutarch rehearsing the words of Antipater in his booke of beastes for he saith when the Oakes that beare Acornes do begin to cast their flowers or blossoms then the wolues by eating thereof do open their wombes for where there is no plenty of Acornes there the yong ones die in the damâ— belly and therefore such countries wherein there are no store of Oakes are freed from wolues and this he saith is the true cause why they conceiue but once a yeare and that onely in the xii daies of Christmas for those Okes flower but once a year namely in the spring time at which season the wolues bring forth their yong ones For the time that they go with young and the number of whelps they agree with dogs that is they beare their young nine weeks and