who had a cave in the earth against the Sun his Den replenished with the heads of men and he himself breathing out fire so that the earth was warmed with the slaughter of men slain by him whose slaughter he fastened upon his own doores being supposed to be the son of Vulcan And there be some that affirm this Cacus to have wasted and depopulated all Italy and at length when Hercules had slain Geryon as he came out of Spain through Italy with the Oxen which he had taken from Geryon Cacus drew divers of them into his cave by their tails but when Hercules missed daily some of Cattel and knew not which way they strayed at last he came to the den of Cacus and seeing all the steps stand forward by reason the cattel were drawn in backward he departed and going away he heard the loughing of the Oxen for their fellows whereby he discovered the fraud of Cacus whereupon he presently ran and took his club the Monster being within his cave closed up the mouth thereof with a wonderful great stone and so hid himself for fear but Hercules went to the top of the Mountain and there digging down the same untill he opened the cave then leaped in suddenly and slew the Monster and recovered his Oxen. But the truth is this forged Cacus was a wicked servant of Evander which used great robbery in the Mountains and by reason of his evill life was called Cacus for Cakos in Greek signifieth evill He was said to breath forth fire because he burned up their corn growing in the fields and at last was betrayed of his own Sister for which cause she was deified and the Virgins of Vesta made Sacrifice to her and therefore it shall be idle to prosecute this fable any farther as Albertus Magnus doth it being like the fable of Alcida which the Poets faign was a Bird of the earth and being invincible burned up all Phrygia and at last was slain by Minerva Of the CAMEL ALthough there be divers sorts of Camels according to their several Countries yet is the name not much varied but taken in the general sense of the denomination of every particular The Hebrews call it Gamal the Chaldeans Gamela and Gamele the Arabians Gemal Gemel Alnegeb Algiazar The Persians Schetor the Saracent Shymel the Turks call a company of Camels traveling together Caravana The Italians and Spaniards call a Camel Camello the French Chameau the Germans Ramelthier all derived of the Latine Camelus and the Greek Camelos The Illyrians call it Vuelblud and the reason of the name Camelos in Greek is because his burden or load is laid upon him kneeling or lying derived as it may seem of Camptein merous the bending of his knees and slowness of pace wherefore a man of a slow pace was among the Egyptians deciphered by a Camel For that cause there is Town in Syria called Gangamela that is the house of a Camel erected by Darius the Son of Hystaspis allowing a certain provision of food therein for wearied and tyred Camels The Epithets given to this beast are not many among Authors for he is tearmed by them rough deformed and thirsting as Iuvenal Deformis poterunt immania membra Cameli And Persius in his fifth Satyre saith Tolle recens primus piper è sitiente Camelo There are of them divers kindes according to the Countries wherein they breed as in India in Arabia and in Bactria All those which are in India are said by Didymus to be bred in the Mountains of the Bactrians and have two bunches on their back and one other on their breast whereupon they lean they have sometimes a Bore for their Sire which feedeth with the flock of she-Camels for as Mules and Horses will couple together in copulation so also will Bores and Camels and that a Camel is so ingendered sometimes the roughness of his hair like a Bores or Swines and the strength of his body are sufficient evidences and these are worthily called Bactrians because they were first of all conceived among them having two bunches on their backs whereas the Arabian hath but one The colour of this Camel is for the most part brown or puke yet there are herds of white ones in India Ptolemeus Lagi brought two strange things into Egypt a black Camel and a man which was the one half white and the other half black in equal proportion the which caused the Egyptians to wonder and marvail at the shape and proportion of the Camel and to laugh at the man whereupon it grew to a Proverb a Camel among the Egyptians for a matter fearful at the first and ridiculous at the last The head and neck of this beast is different in proportion from all others yet the Ethiopians have a beast called Nabim which in his neck resembleth a Horse and in his head a Camel They have not teeth on both sides although they want horns I mean both the Arabian and Bactrian Camel whereof Aristotle disputeth the reason in the third Book of the parts of creatures and fourteenth chapter Their necks are long and nimble whereby the whole body is much relieved and in their neck toward the neather part of the the throat there is a place called Anhar wherein a Camel doth by spear or sword most easily receive his mortal or deadly wound His belly is variable now great now small like an Oxes his gall is not distinguished within him like other beasts but only carryed in great veins and therefore some have thought he had none and asigned that as a cause of his long life Betwixt his thighes he hath two udders which have four speans depending from them like a Cow His genital part is confected and standeth upon a sinew insomuch as thereof may a string be made for the bending of the strongest bow The tail is like the tail of an Ass hanging down to their knees they have knees in every leg having in their former le◠three bones and in the hinder four They have an ancle like an Oxes and very small buttocks for the proportion of their great body their foot is cloven but so that in the under part it hath but two fissures or clefts opening the breadth of a finger and in the upper part four fissures or clefts opening a little and having a little thing growing in them like as is in the foot of a Goose The foot it self is fleshy like a Bears and therefore they are shod with leather when they travail lest the gauling of their feet cause them to tire Avicenna affirmeth that he had seen Camels with whole feet like a Horses but their feet although fleshy are so tyed together with little lungs that they never wear and their manner of going or pace is like a Lyons so walking as the left foot never out-goeth the right whereas all other beasts change the setting forward of their feet and lean upon their left feet while they remove their
cold it is compound as when many qualities do exceed as when the body is too hot and too dry or too cold and too moist The second kind is called Mala constitutiâ— that is to say an evill state or composition which is to be considered either by the shape number quantity or sight of the member or part evill affected or diseased The third kind is called Vnitatis solutio that is to say the loosening or division of the unity which as it may chance diversly so it hath divers names accordingly for if such solution or division be in a bone then it is called a fracture if it be in any fleshie part then it is called a Wound or Ulcer in the veins a Rupture in the sinews a Convulsion or Cramp and in the skin an Excoriation Again of diseases some be called long and some sharp and short called of the Latins M 〈…〉 which be perillous and do quickly kill the body The long do 〈…〉 rry longer by it Yet moreover there is sickness by it self and sickness by consent Sickness by it self is that which being in some member hindereth the action thereof by it self Sickness by consent is derived out of one member into another through the neighbourhood and community that is betwixt them as the pain of the head which cometh from the stomach Thus the learned Physitians which write of Mars body do divide sickness But Absyrtus writing of Horse-leach craft saith of that sickness or rather malady for so he termeth it using that word as a general name to all manner of diseases that be in a Horse there be four kinds that is to say the moist malady the dry malady the malady of the joynts and the malady betwixt the flesh and the skin The moist malady is that which we call the Glanders The dry malady is an incurable consumption which some perhaps would call the mourning of the chein but not rightly as shall appear unto you hereafter The malady of the joints comprehendeth all griefs and sorentes that be in the joints And the malady betwixt the flesh and the skin is that which we call the 〈◊〉 U 〈…〉 which four kindes of maladies Vegetius addeth three others that is the Forcine the 〈◊〉 of the Reins or Kidnies and the con 〈…〉 ered Marginess most commonly called of the old writers the 〈…〉 sic and so maketh seven kindes of maladies under which all other perticular diseases are comprehended Again Laurentius Rusius useth an other kind of division of sickness Of Horses diseases saith he some be natural and some accidental The natural be those that do come either through the excesse or lack of engendring seed or by error of nature in misforming the young or else by some defect of the dam or sire in that perhaps they be diseased within and have their seed corrupted The accidental diseases be those that come by chance as by surfetting of cold heat and such like thing But forasmuch as none of these writers do follow their own divisions nor handle the parts thereof accordingly to avoid their confusion and to teach plainly I thought good and profitable therefore to use this my own division and order here following First then of diseases some be inward and some be outward The inward be those that breed within the Horses body and are properly called maladies and diseases whereof some do occupy all the whole body and some particular parts or members of the body Of those then that occupie all the body and not be accident to any private member I do first treat as of Agues of the Pestilence and such like and then of those that be incident to every particular member beginning at the head and so proceed orderly throughout all the members even down to the sole of the foot observing therein so nigh as I can the self same order that Galen useth in his book De locis male affectis declaring what manner of disease it is and how it is called in English and also in Italian because the Kings stable is never without Italian Riders of whom our Farriars borrowed divers names as you shall perceive hereafter 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 answer every part of the body I do not let to interlace them with outward diseases incident to those parts yea rather I leave out no outward disease belonging to any particular member and to the intent you may the better know to what diseases or sorances every part or member of the Horses body is most commonly subject And note by the way that I call those outward diseases that proceed not of any inward cause but of some outward cause as when a Horse is shouldered by means of some outward cause or his back galled with the saddle or his sides spurgalled or his his hoof cloid with a nail which properly may be called sorances or griefs Thirdly I talk of those diseases as well outward as inward that may indifferently chance in any part of the body as of Impostumes Cankerous Ulcers Wounds Fistulaes Burnings Bâ—usings Breaking of bones and such like Fourthly because most diseases are healed either by letting of bloud by taking up of veins by purgation or else by cauterisation that is to say by giving the fire I talk of those four necessary things severally by themselves and finally I shew you the true order of paring and shooing all manner of hoofs according as the diversity of hoofs require and to the intent you may the better understand me you have the perfect shapes of all necessary shooes plainly set forth in figures before your eyes Thus much touching mine order which I have hitherto observed Now it is necessary to know that to every disease or malady belongeth four several times that is to say the beginning the increasing the state and declination which times are diligently to be observed of the Farriar because they require divers applying of medicine for that medicine which was meet to be used in the beginning of the disease perhaps is not to be used in the declination thereof and that which is requisite and very needful to be applyed in the state or chiefest of the disease may be very dangerous to be used in the beginning And therefore the Farriar ought to be a man of judgement and able to discern one time from another to the intent he may apply his medicines rightly Hither of causes and sickness in general Now it is also meet that we speak in general of signes whereby sickness is known Of the signes of sickness in general SIckness according to the learned Physitians is known four manner of wayes First by inseparable or substantial accidents as by the shape number quality and sight of the part or member diseased For if it be otherwise formed or more or lesse in number or quantity or else otherwise placed then it ought to
of a Lamb of two moneths old having his head mouth feet and nails like to a Cat. But concerning his beard and tail his beard hangeth down on both sides divided in the middle with sundry colours the former being white and the latter black his tail is short and thick being from the middle to the uppermost prart red and to the lower part black his eyes being yellow the hair of the eye-lids obscurely waxing white His ears erected upright as the ears of a Cat being replenished within with white hair without covered with white and black but so that the upper part is black the middle for it is divided into three parts be white and the lowest black again Neither is it content to be ended in his own course except also that his former parts or the farthest brinkes or edges and also his latter may be bended on the other side in like manner as the edges of the Priests hat of the Grecian Church are folded amongst the Venetians In the top of his ears there are placed some black hairs as it were a foretop or tust The colour of this beast in the outmost parts is red in the innermost white but sprinkled here with black spots and almost by rowes and there with spots somewhat lighter then the other all his hair being for the most part white all over all his body except the aforesaid spots as it is in certain black skins of young Conies And on both the sides of his nose there are four spots set in order In both his lips as now we will declare in his uppermost lip there are five orders or rowes being of a very eqnall distance In the first row and the upper four in the second five in the third eight in the fourth five in the fift there are four and these also every one in his order having an equall distance In the lower lip there are only seven more manifest and evident being placed in two rowes In the first four to the very mouth of the lip in the second after them three others after these other lesser but not placed with so certain and true order as the uppermost In the upper lip on both sides there are certain white hairs being rougher then those in Cats and Lions His nose is somewhat of a pale red colour being somewhat distinct or apart from the rest rest of his face on every side with a black line Another line also doth divide the outermost part of his nose by length as in an Ounce but only being lightly lead by the top or highest parts not impressed higher by the lowermost The skin of his feet are exceeding hard and his nails are hid in his feet as the nails of an Ounce and a Cats are neither doth he put them forth at any time unlesse in taking of his prey as they do He doth climb wonderfully so that what he may be able to do in that thing either in his cave or den nature her self doth teach He is a quick-moving creature and cannot stand still in a place so that except by meer chance the voice of a Wood-pecker in the basket of a certain Countrey man who came then only to see the Lions had made him quiet and attentive there had been no hope of the portraiting out the picture of his body He being present he was most quiet but he going away he would never stand still wherefore I was constrained to send my man after the Countrey-man to buy the bird which being present he stood very still untill the business was dispatched and the work absolutely perfected Our Countreymen call it Luzarne it is doubtful whether we should call it Leunce or Lynx in the affinity of the words His skin is used by Noble men and is sold for a great price He is angry at none but them which offer him injury his voice is like a Cats when he would snatch away the food from his fellow He is loving and gentle unto his keeper and not cruell unto any man So far Doctor Cay Unto this description of Doctor Caius I may add another description that was taken by the sight of the skin of this Beast The length whereof from the tip of the nose unto the very tail was four spans and five fingers and the length of the tail seven fingers the breadth of the shoulder-blades of his back and the top of his neck was two palmes six fingers and a span the length of his forelegs a span and five fingers and the length of his hinder-legs a span and three fingers the hair was very soft but yet thick and deep the tips of the hair upon his back were white but in the neathermost parts they were red and they are most white which fall downwards on both sides from the middle of his back In the middle they are more red and duskie the middle of the belly and especially the lower part is white but both sides of it are white and red and every where upon his belly there are black spots but most plentiful in the bottom of the belly and on both sides The uppermost part of his neck right over against his ears hath great black spots his ears are small and not bigger then a little Triangle in the edges they are black although with the black hairs there are mingled some white His beard is mixed with black and white hair which hair is great like to bristles The teeth are most white and the upper canine teeth hang over the neather the breadth of a finger whereof six are small and of those six two are the greatest and all the residue are very small on the neather chap and to conclude all the teeth were like a common Weasils or Martil His feet were very rough being five distinct claws upon the fore-feet and four upon the hinder which claws were very white and sharp The tail was of equall bigness and thickness but in the tip thereof it is black These skins are sold for three Nobles a piece and sometimes for six and sometimes for lesse according to the quantity of the skin and Countrey wherein it is sold And unto this description do Bellonius and Bonarus agree For Bellonius at Constantinople saw two Linxes much like unto Cats and Bonarus had oftentimes seen them hunted in Moschovia Lituania Polonia Hungaria and Germany but he commendeth above all the Linxes of Scotland and Swesia as most beautiful having Triangular spots upon their skins But the Indian and African Linxes he saith have round spots sharp-bristly short hair 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 conjectureth to be the Linx that Pliny speaketh of and not unlike to that which is bred in Italy There are Linxes in divers Countries as in the forenamed Russia Lituania Polonia Hungary Germany Scotland so also they are most abundant in Scandinavia in Swesia so also about Hyelsus and
is attracted and throughly concocted by the Sun it is the apter made to generation For the preparation of the form carryeth with it the matter or stuffe as his mate and companion So these two meeting together there consequently followeth the quickning or taking life of some one creature And not only are some Caterpillers the off-spring and breed of dew as common experience can witnesse but even the greatest part of Caterpillers do fetch their stock and pedegree from Butter-flies unlesse it be those that live upon Coleworts and Cabbages and those that are called Vine-fretters with some few other For those that live and breed in Vines called of the Grecians Ipes do proceed from dew or some dewy and moist humor which is included in their webs and there grown to putrefaction For then do they swarm so exceedingly in some Countries as I dare neither affirm nor otherwise imagine but that they must needs have such a mighty increase from putrefaction And this for the most part happeneth when the Eastern winde bloweth and that the warmth of the air furthereth and hasteneth forwards any corruption All the whole pack of them are great destroyers and devourers of herbs and trees whereupon Philippis the Parasite as Athenaeus saith in Pythagorista braggeth of himself in this wise Apòlausae thumon lachanonte kampe Vescens thymo olereque eruca sum I am saith he a Caterpiller that eateth both Thyme and Pot-herbs And to this sense speaketh Martial Erucam malè pascit hortus unam A Garden hardly and slenderly can suffice to feed one Caterpiller I think he meaneth when the time of their wasting and devouring is gone and past for they commonly leave but little behinde For that being past they go wandering hither and thither up and down uncertainly wasted and hunger-starved and so at length pining away by little and little through famine some seek them fit places within other-some above the earth where they transform themselves either into a bare and empty bag or case or hanging by a thread into an Autelia covered with a membrane If this happen in the midst of Summer the hard rinde or shell wherein they are inclosed being broken about the time of 24. days there flieth out a Butter-fly but if it come to passe in the midst or toward the end of Autumn the Aurelia continueth a whole Winter neither is there any exclusion before the vernal heat And yet notwithstanding all Caterpillers are not converted into Auteliaes but some of them being gathered and drawn together on a heap as the Vine-fretters do grow at length to putrefaction from which sometimes there falleth as it were three blackish Egges the true and proper mothers and breeders of Flies and Cantharides When the Butter-flies do joyn together very late or after the time it ought to be they do lay or cast their Egges which will continue vital and that may live till the next Spring if a diligent care be had of them as well as is often seen in Silk-worms whose Egs the Spaniards sell and that very usually by whole ounces and pounds I have now according to my cunning discoursed of the transmutations and variable changes of Caterpillers it followeth next that I write of the qualities and use of Caterpillers together with those preservatives which experienced Physitians have warranted for true and infallible All Caterpillers have a burning quality and such as will readily fetch off the skin and flea it quickly and raise blisters If any one drink the Caterpiller that liveth in the Pitch trees there will forthwith follow a great pain about his mouth and jaws vehement inflamation of the tongue strong griping and wringing of the Stomach belly and intestines with a sensible itching about the inward parts the whole body is as it were burned and scalded with heat and hot vapours and the stomach abhorreth all meat all which are to be remedied with the same means as those that have taken Cantharides Yet properly as heretofore I have touched Oyl of Quinces given to cause vomiting is the best and safest And if we may credit Pliny new Wine boyled to the third part and Cows milk being drunk are very effectual There is not any one sort of Caterpillers but they are malign naught and venomous but yet they are least hurtful who are smooth and without hairs and the most dangerous of all the rest is that which heretofore I termed a Pityocampe whose poyson for the most part is deadly The daughter of Caelius Secundus living at Basil in Germany as Gesner saith when she had unwarily and greedily eaten some Colewort-leaves or Cabbage in a Garden and with them some Caterpillers after a strong vomit that was given her belly began to swell which swelling having continued these many years could never as yet receive any cure If you will have your Gardens and Trees untouched and preserved from their mischievous quality you must first take clean away in the Winter time their webs or any part thereof though never so little that you can finde cleaving to the bare boughs for if you let them alone till the Spring you shall sooner see them then finde them removed for in a short space of time they devour up all that is green both leaves and flowers Some use to anoint their trees with the gall of a green Lizard and some with a Bulls gall which as some constantly report they can by no means away withall The Countrey people choke them with the vapour of a little Brimstone with straw being fired under the tree and so to smoother them Some there be that make a fumigation with Galbanum Harts-horn the shavings of Ivory and Goats hoofs and Ox-dung Didymus in Georgicis saith that if you bare the roots of your trees and besmear or soyl them with Doves dung they shall never be hurt by any Worms I should willingly have omitted and not renewed with any fresh discovery Columellaes remedy against Caterpillers or rather the immodest deceit and deluding trick of Democritus unlesse experience which is Iterata ejusdem eventus observatio a repeated observation of the same event had approved the verity thereof especially in the Countrey of Stiria And Palladius in his first Book ch 35. and Constantinus neer the end of his 11. and 12. Books whose words be these At si nulla valet medicina repellere pestem Daâ—daniae veniunt artes nudataque plantas Foeina quae justis tum demum operata juventae Legibus obscoeno manat pudibunda eruore Sed resoluta sinus resoluto moesta capillo Ter circum areolas sepem ducitur horti Quae cum lustravit gradiens mirabile visu Non aliter decussa pluit quam ex arbore nimbus Vel teretis mali vel tectaecortice glandis Volvitur ad terram distorto corpore campe Which may be Englished thus But when no medicine can that plague expell Then use they Arts which once the Trojans sound A woman which had Virgin-laws observed well Her bare and naked
turning black into green and green into blew like a Player which putteth off one person to put on another according to these verses of Ovid Id quoque quod ventis animal nutritur aura Protinus assimilat tetigit quoscunque colores In English thus The Beast that liveth by winde and weather Of each thing touched taketh colour The reasons of this change or colour are the same which are given of the Busse and P 〈…〉 Fish namely extremity of fear the thinnesse smoothnesse and baldnesse of the skin Whereupon Tertullian writeth thus Hoc soli Chamaeleonti datum quod vulgo dictum est de suo corio ludere That is to say This is the only gift of nature to a Chamaeleon that according to the common Proverb it deceiveth with his skin meaning that a Chamaeleon at his own pleasure can change the colour of his skin Whereupon Erasmus applyeth the proverb de alieno corio ludere to such as secure themselves with other mens peril From hence also cometh another proverb Chamaileontos rumei ab 〈…〉 s more mutable then a Chamaeleon for a crafty cunning inconstant fellow changing himself into every mans disposition such a one was Alciblades who was said to be in Athens and of such a man resembling this beast did Alciatus make this emblem against flatterers Semper hiat sâ—mper tenuem qua vescitur aurum Reciprocat Chamaleon Et mutat faciem varios sumâ—tque colores Praeter rubrum vel candidum Sic adulator populari vescitur aura Hiansque cuncta devorat Et solum mores imitutur principâ—s atros Albi pudici nescius That is to say It alway gapes turning in and out that breath Whereon it feeds and often changeth hew Now black and green and pale and other colors hath But red and white Chamaeleons do eschew So Clawbacks seed on vulgar breath as 〈◊〉 With open mouth devouring same and right Princes black-vices praise but vertues â—read Designed in nature by colours red and white A Chamaeleon of all Egge-breeding Beasts is the thinnest because it lacketh bloud and the reason here of is by Aristotle referred to the disposition of the soul For he saith through overmuch fear it taketh upon it many colours and fear through the want of bloud and heat is a refrigeration of this Beast Plutarch also calleth this Beast a meticulous and fearful beast and in this cause concludeth the change of his colour not as some say to avoid and deceive the beholders and to work out his own happinesse but for meer dread and terrour Johannes Vrsinus assigneth the cause of the change of Chamaeleons colour not to fear but to the meat and to the air as appeareth by these verses Non timor imâ— cibus nimirum limpidus 〈◊〉 Ambo simul vario membra colore novanâ— Which may be thus Englished Not fear but meat which is the air thin New colours on his body doth begin But I for my part do assign the true cause to be in the thinnesse of their skin and therefore may easily take impression of any colour like to a thin fleak of a horn which being laid over black seemeth black and so over other colours and besides there being no hinderance of bloud in this Beast nor Intrails except the lights the other humors may have the more predominant mutation and so I will conclude the discourse of the parts and colour of a Chamaeleon with the opinion of Kiranides not that I approve it but to let the Reader know all that is written of this Subject his words are these Chamaelem singulis horis diei mutat colorem A Chamaeleon changeth his colour every hour of a day This Beast hath the face like a Lyon the feet and tail of a Crocodile having a variable color as you have heard and one strange continued nerve from the head to the tail being altogether without flesh except in the head cheeks and uppermost part of the tail which is joyned to the body neither hath it any bloud but in the heart eys and in a place above the heart and in certain veins derived from that place and in them also but a very little bloud There be many membranes all over their bodies and those stronger then in any other Beasts From the middle of the head backward there ariseth a three square bone and the fore part is hollow and round like a pipe certain bony brims sharp and indented standing upon either side Their brain is so little above their eyes that it almost toucheth them and the upper skin being pulled off from their eyes there appeareth a certain round thing like a bright ring of Brasse which Niphus calleth Paila which signifieth that part of a Ring wherein is set a pretious stone The eyes in the hollow within are very great and much greater then the proportion of the body round and covered over with such a skin as the whole body is except the apple which is bare and that part is never covered This apple stands immoveable not turned but when the whole eye is turned at the pleasure of the Beast The snout is like to the snout of a Hog-ape always gaping and never shutting his mouth and serving him for no other use but to bear his tongue and his teeth his gums are adorned with teeth as we have said before the upper lip being shorter and more turned in then the other Their throat and artery are placed as in a Lizard their lights are exceeding great and they have nothing else within their body Whereupon Theophrastus as Plutarch witnesseth conceiveth that they fill the whole body within and for this cause it is more apt to live on the air and also to change the colour It hath no Spleen or Milt the tail is very long at the end and turning up like a Vipers tail winded together in many circles The feet are double cloven and for proportion resemble the thumb and hand of a man yet so as if one of the fingers were set neer the side of the thumb having three without and two within behinde and three within and two without before the palm betwixt the fingers is somewhat great from within the hinder-legs there seem to grow certain spurs Their legs are straight and longer then a Lizards yet is their bending alike and their nails are crooked and very sharp One of these being dissected and cut asunder yet breatheth a long time after they goe into the caves and holes of the earth like Lizards wherein they lie all the Winter time and come forth again in the Spring their pace is very slow and themselves very gentle never exasperated but when they are about wilde Fig-trees They have for their enemies the Serpent the Crow and the Hawk When the hungry Serpent doth assault them they defend themselves in this manner as Alexander Mindius writeth they take in their mouths a broad and strong stalk under protection whereof as under a buckler they defend themselves against
upright that he deemed them at first to be an Army of enemies and commanded to joyn battel with them untill he was certified by Taxilus a King of that Countrey then in his Campe they were but Apes In Caucasus there are trees of Pepper and Spices whereof Apes are the gatherers living among those trees for the Inhabitants come and under the trees make plain a plat of ground and afterward cast thereupon boughs and branches of Pepper and other fruits as it were carelesly which the Apes secretly observing in the night season they gather together in great abundance all the branches loaden with Pepper and lay them on heaps upon that plat of ground and so in the morning come the Indians and gather the Pepper from those boughs in great measure reaping no small advantage by the labor of Apes who gather their fruits for them whiles they sleep for which cause they love them and defend them from Lions Dogs and other wild Beasts In the region of Basman subject to the great Cham of Tartaria are many and divers sorts of Apes very like mankind which when the Hunters take they pull of their hairs all but the beard and the hole behind and afterward dry them with hot spices and poudering them sell them to Merchants who carry them about the world perswading simple people that there are men in Islands of no greater stature To conclude there are Apes in Troglodytae which are maned about the neck like Lions as big as great Bel-weathers So are some called Cercopitheci Munkies Choeropitheci Hog Apes Cepi Callitriches Marmosits Cynocephali of a Dog and an Ape Satyres and Sphinges of which we will speak in order for they are not all alike but some resemble men one way and some another as for a Chymaera which Albertus maketh an Ape it is but a figment of the Poets The same man maketh Pigmeys a kind of Apes and not men but Niphus proveth that they are not men because they have no perfect use of Reason no modesty no honesty nor justice of government and although they speak yet is their language imperfect and above all they cannot be men because they have no Religion which Plato saith truly is proper to every man Besides their stature being not past three four or five spans long their life not above eight years and their imitation of man do plainly prove them rather to be Apes then Men and also the flatness of their Noses their combats with Cranes and Partridges for their egges and other circumstances I will not stand upon but follow the description of Apes in general Apes do outwardly resemble men very much and Vesalius sheweth that their proportion differeth from mans in more things then Galen observed as in the muscles of the breast and those that move the armes the elbow and the ham likewise in the inward frame of the hand in the muscles moving the toes of the feet and the feet and shoulders and in the instrument moving in the sole of the foot also in the fundament and mesentery the lap of the liver and the hollow vein holding it up which men have not yet in their face nostrils ears eye-lids breasts armes thumbes fingers and nails they agree very much Their hair is very harsh and short and therefore hairy in the upper part like men and in the neather part like beasts they have teeth before and behind like men having a round face and ey-lids above and beneath which other Quadrupedes have not Politianus saith that the face of a Bull or Lion is more comely then the face of an Ape which is like a mans They have two Dugs their breasts and armes like men but rougher such as they use to bend as a man doth his foot So their hands fingers and nails are like a mans but ruder and nimbler and nature having placed their Dugs in their breast gave them armes to lift their young ones up to suck them Their feet are proper and not like mans having the middle one longest for they are like great hands and consist of fingers like hands but they are alike in bigness except that which is least to a man is greatest to an Ape whose sole is like the hand but that it is longer and in the hinder part it is more fleshy somewhat resembling a heel but put backward it is like a fist They use their feet both for going and handling the neather parts of their armes and their thighes are shorter then the proportion of their elbows and shins they have no Navel but there is a hard thing in that place the upper part of their body is far greater then the neather like other Quadrupedes consisting of a proportion between five and three by reason wereof they grow out of kind having feet like hands and feet They live more downward then upward like other four-footed Beasts and they want Buttocks although Albertus saith they have large ones they have no tail like two legged creatures or a very small signe thereof The genitall or privy place of the female is like a Womans but the Males is like a Dogs their nourishment goeth more forward then backward like the best Horses and the Arabian Seraph which are higher before then behind and that Ape whose meat goeth forward by reason of the heat of heart and liver is most like to a man in standing upright their eyes are hollow and that thing in men is accounted for a signe of a malicious mind as little eyes are a token of a base and abject spirit Men that have low and flat Nostrils are Libidinous as Apes that attempt women and having thick lips the upper hanging over the neather they are deemed fools like the lips of Asses and Apes Albertus saith he saw the heart of a Male Ape having two tops or sharpe ends which I know not whether to term a wonder or a Monster An Ape and a Cat have a small back and so hath a weak hearted man a broad and stong back signifieth a valiant and magnanimous mind The Apes nails are half round and when they are in copulation they bend their Elbowes before them the sinews of their hinder joynts being turned clean about but with a man it is clean otherwise The veins of their armes are no otherwise dissected then a mans having a very small and ridiculous crooked thumb by reason of the Muscles which come out of the hinder part of the leg into the middle of the shin and the fore muscles drawing the leg backward they cannot exactly stand upright and therefore they run and stand like a man that counterfeits a lame mans halting And as the body of an Ape is ridiculous by reason of an indecent likeness and imitation of man so is his soul or spirit for they are kept only in rich mens houses to sport withall being for that cause easily tamed following every action he seeth done even to his own harme without discretion A certain Ape
after a shipwrack swimming to land was seen by a Countrey-man and thinking him to be a man in the water gave him his hand to save him yet in the mean time asked him what Countreyman he was who answered he was an Athenian well said the man dost thou know Piraeus which was a port in Athens very well said the Ape and his wife friends and children where at the man being moved did what he could to drown him They keep for the most part in Caves and hollow places of hils in rocks and trees feeding upon Apples and Nuts but if they find any bitterness in the shell they cast all away They eat Lice and pick them out of heads and garments They will drink wine till they be drunk but if they drink it oft they grow not great specially they lose their nails as other Quadrupedes do They are best contented to sit aloft although tied with chains They are taken by laying for them shoos and other things for they which hunt them will anoint their eyes with water in their presence and so departing leave a pot of lime or hony in stead of the water which the Ape espying cometh and anointeth her eyes therewith and so being not able to see doth the hunter take her If they lay shoos they are leaden ones too heavy for them to wear wherein are made such devises of gins 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 wherewithal they are deceived and taken They bring forth young ones for the most part by twins whereof they love the one and hate the other that which they love they bear in their armes the other hangeth at the damns back and for the most part she killeth that which she loveth by pressing it too hard afterward she setteth her whole delight upon the other The Egyptians when they describe a Father leaving his inheritance to his Son that he loveth not picture an Ape with her young one upon her back The male and female abide with the young one and if it want any thing the male with fist and ireful aspect punisheth the female When the Moon is in the wane they are heavie and sorrowful which in that kind have tails but they leap and rejoyce at the change for as other Beasts so do these fear the defect of the Stars and Planets They are full of dissimulation and imitation of man they readilyer follow the evill then the good they see They are very fierce by nature and yet tamed forget it but still remain subject to madness They love Conies very tenderly for in England an old Ape scarse able to go did defend tame Conies from the Weasel as Sir Thomas More reported They fear a shell fish and a Snail very greatly as appeareth by this History In Rome a certain Boy put a Snail in his hat and came to an Ape who as he was accustomed leaps upon his shoulder and took off his hat to kill Lice in his head but espying the Snail it was a wonder to see with what haste the Ape leaped from the Boys shoulder and in trembling manner looked back to see if the Snail followed him Also when a Snail was tied to the one end of another Apes chain so that he could not chuse but continually look upon it one cannot imagine how the Ape was tormented therewith finding no means to get from it cast up whatsoever was in his stomach and fell into a grievous Fever till it was removed from the Snail and refreshed with wine and water Gardane reporteth that it was an ancient custom in former time when a Parricide was executed he was after he was whipped with bloudy stripes put into a sack with a live Serpent a Dog an Ape and a Cock by the Serpent was signified his extreme malice to mankind in killing his Father by the Ape that in the likeness of man he was a Beast by the Dog how like a Dog he spared none no not his own Father and by a Cock his hateful pride and then were they all together hurl'd headlong into the Sea That he might be deemed unworthy of all the Elements of life and other blessings of nature A Lion ruleth the Beasts of the Earth and a Dolphin the Beasts of the Sea when the Dolphin is in age and sickness she recovereth by eating a Sea-ape and so the Lion by eating an Ape of the earth and therefore the Egyptians paint a Lion eating an Ape to signifie a sick man curing himself The heart of an Ape sod and dryed whereof the weight of a groat drunk in a draught of stale Hony sod in water called Melicraton strengthneth the heart emboldneth it and driveth away the pulse and pusillanimity thereof sharpeneth ones understanding and is soveraign against the salling evill The MUNKEY They are bred in the hils of Constance in the woods of Bugia and Mauritania In Aethiopia they have black heads hair like Asses and voices like to other In India they report that the Munkeys will clime the most steep and high rocks and fling stones at them that prosecute to take them When the King of Ioga in India for Religion goeth on Pilgrimage he carryeth with him very many Munkeys In like sort Munkeys are brought from the new found Lands from Calechut and Prasia and not far from Aden a City of Arabia is a most high hill abounding in these beasts who are a great hinderance to the poor vintagers of the Countrey of Calechut for they will climb into the high Palm trees and breaking the vessels set to receive the Wine pour forth that liquor they find in them they will eat hearbs and grain and ears of grasse going together in great flocks whereof one ever watcheth at the utmost bounds of their camp that he may cry out when the husbandman cometh and then all 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 leap from tree to tree There be of this kind of Munkeys two sorts one greater the other lesser as is accounted in England and Munkeys are in like sort so divided that there be in all four kinds differing in bigness whereof the least is little bigger then a Squirrel and because of their marvellous and divers mowings movings voices and gestures the Englishmen call any man using such Histrionical Actours a Munkey The only difference betwixt these and other Apes aforesaid is their tail they differ from men in their nerves in the joints of their loynes and their processes and they want the third muscle moving the fingers of their hands Mammonets are lesse then an Ape brown on the back and white on the belly having a long and hairy tail his neck almost so big as his body for which cause they are tied by
of them in hunting stood betwixt his horns with two other men not much lesser in quantity then himself who was a goodly well proportioned and personal Prince There are two bunches on his back the former near his shoulders which is the higher and the other near the rump which is somewhat lower I have seen the horns of a Bison which was in the hands of a Goldsmith to tip with silver and gilt that it might be fit to drink in it did bend like the talon of an Eagle or Gryphin or some ravenous bird The flesh in Summer time is most fat but it tasteth so much of wilde Garlick or Ramsens that it is not pleasant to eat being full of small veins and strings and is accounted a noble and strong kind of flesh the bloud is the most purest in the world excelling in colour any purple and yet for all that it is so hot that being let forth when the Beast dyeth within two houres space it putrefieth and the flesh it self in the coldest Winter will not keep sweet many hours by reason of the immoderate heat thereof if the Hunter do not after the fall of the beast separate from it the intrails and which is most strange of all being pierced alive with any hunting spear dart or sword the weapon by the heat of the body is made so weak and soluble that it cometh forth as flexible as lead and to conclude it is a most noble and fierce spirited bâ—ast never afraid or yeelding till breath faileth neither can he be taken with any nets or gins untill they be thoroughly wearyed wherefore they which hunt him must be very strong nimble and skilful men or else that sport will be their own undoing and overthrow Therefore when they go to hunt this Bison they choose a place replenished with large trees neither so great that they cannot easily wind about them nor so little that they shall not be able to cover their bodies from the horn or tongue of the beast behind which the hunters place themselves out of sight and then the Dogs rouze up the beast driving him to that place where the hunters stand whom the beast first espyeth to him he maketh force who must warily keep the tree for his shield and with his spear wound him where he can who will not fall without many mortal strokes but waxe more and more eager not only with horn but with tongue for if he can but apprehend any part of the hunters garment with his tongue he loseth no hold but draweth him unto him and with his horn and feet killeth him but if the fight be long and so the hunter wearied and out of breath then doth he cast a red cap unto the beast who maketh at it with head and feet never leaving till it be all in pieces and if another come to help him as hunters must if they will return alive then shall he easily draw the beast to combate and forsake the first man if he cry Lu-lu-lu Pausanias sheweth how these Bisons are taken alive in this sort The hunters faith he chuse out some steep and slippery down hill whereupon they lay skins of beasts newly taken off and if they want such then anoint they old skins with oil and so leave them spread upon those steeping or bending passages then raise they the beasts and with Dogs and other means on horseback drive them along to the places where they laid their hides and as soon as they come upon the skins they slip and fall down rowling headlong till they come into the valleys from whence they constrain them back again some other way three or four times a day making them fall down the hils as aforesaid and so wearying them with continual hunting and fasting At the last they come unto them when they are no more able to rise for faintness and give them Pine-apples taken out of the shels for with that meat are they delighted and so while they eagerly feed and lie weary on the ground they intoil them in bands and manacles and lead them away alive The medicines coming from this beast may be conjectured to be more forcible then of common and ordinary Oxen but because they were not known to the Grecians and Arabians and we finde nothing recorded thereof we will conclude the story of this great Bison with good opinion of the virtues though we are not able to learn or discover them to others Of the white SCOTIAN BISON. IN the Woods of Scotland called Callender or Caldar and in ancient time Calydonia which reacheth from Monteth and Erunal unto Atholia and Loqubabria there are bred white Oxen maned about the neck like a Lyon but in other parts like ordinary and common Oxen. This wood was once full of them but now they are all slain except in that part which is called Cummirnald This beast is so hateful and fearful of mankind that it will not feed of that grasse or those hearbs whereof he favoureth a man hath touched no not for many days together and if by art or policy they happen to be taken alive they will die with very sullen grief If they meet a man presently they make force at him fearing neither Dogs Spears nor other weapons Their flesh is very pleasant though full of sinews and very acceptable to the greatest Nobles for which cause they are grown to a small number their qualities being like to the former beast excepting their colour and beard I will term them a white Calydonian or Scotian BISON. BONASUS the figure of the Head and Horns The head of this beast is like the head of an Ox or Bull his horns bending round to the sides of the cheek by reason whereof he hath no defence by them neither can a man be hurt that is cast upon them His neck is very thick with a large mane from his eyes down to his shoulders in length like an Horses but the hair thereof is much softer and lyeth more smoothly the uppermost hairs being harsher and the undermost softer like wool Their colour betwixt red and ash colour but black and yellow appeareth not in them They have no upper teeth in this point resembling an Ox and other horned beasts their horns being in compass about nine inches and somewhat more are very smooth and black like varnish Their voice is like the voice of an Ox their legs all hairy and their feet cloven their tail too short for the other members of the body like a Bugles their back stretched out at length is as long as a seat for seaven men their flesh is very sweet for which cause he is much sought for in hunting he will with his feet dig up the ground like an Ox or Bull in his rage when he is once struck he flyeth away fighting with his heels backward and whereas nature hath denyed him the benefit of horns which other beasts have so that he is only adorned
is so hard and thick that of it the Scythians 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 whatsoever thing he seeth as among trees he is like them among green boughs he seemeth green amongst rocks of stone he it transmuted into their colour also as it is generally by most Writers affirmed as Pliny and Sclinus among the Ancient 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 through fear joy anger and other passions do quickly change from ruddy to white from black to pale and from pale to ruddy again Now as this beast hath the head of a Hart so also hath it the fear of a Hart but in a higher degree and therefore by secret operation it may easily alter the colour of their hair as a passion in a reasonable man may alter the colour of his face The same things 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 covered with hair that changeth colour Another reason forcing me to yeeld hereunto is that in the Sea a Polypus-fish and in the earth among creeping things a Chamaeleon do 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 hair and therefore may more easily be verse-coloured but it is a thing impossible in nature for the hair to receive any tincture from the passions but I answer that the same nature can multiply and diminish her power in lesser and smaller Beasts according to her pleasure and reserveth an operation for the nails and feathers of birds and fins and scales of fishes making one sort of divers colour from the other and therefore may and doth as forcibly work in the hairs of a Buffe as in the skin 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 arm and bow higher to shoot farther and therefore it is worthy observation that as this beast hath the best desence by her skin above all other so she hath a weakest and most timerous heart above all other These Buffes are bred in Scythia and are therefore called Tarandi Scythici they are also among the Sarmatians and called Budini and neer Gelonis and in a part of Poland in the Duchy of Mazavia betwixt Oszezke and Garvolyin And if the Polonian Thuro before mentioned have a name whereof I am ignorant then will I also take that beast for a kinde of Bison In Phrygia there is a territory called Tarandros and peradventure this beast had his name from that Countrey wherein it may be he was first discovered and made known The quantity of this beast exceedeth not the quantity of a wilde Ox whereunto in all the parts of his body he is most like except in his head face and horns his legs and hoofs are also like an Oxes The goodness of his hide is memorable and desired in all the cold Countries in the world wherein only these beasts and all other of strong thick hides are found for the thinnest and most unprofitable skins of beasts are in the hot and warmer parts of the world and God hath provided thick warm most commodious and precious covers for those beasts that live farthest from the Sun Whereupon many take the hides of other beasts for Buffe for being tawed and wrought artificially they make garments of them as it is daily to be seen in Germany Of the Vulgar BUGIL ABugil is called in Latine Bubalus and Buffalus in French Beufle in Spanish Bufano in German Buffel and in the Illyrian tongue Bouwol The Hebrews have no proper word for it but comprehend it under To which signifieth any kind of wilde Oxen for neither can it be expressed by Meriah which signifieth fatted Oxen or Bekarmi which signifieth Oxen properly or Jachmur which the Persians call Kutzcohi or Buzcohi and is usually translated a Wilde-Asse For which beast the Hebrews have many words neither have the Graecians any proper word for a vulgar Bugil for Boubatos and Boubatis are amongst them taken for a kinde of Roe-buck So that this Bubalus was first of all some modern or barbarous term in Africk taken up by the Italians and attributed to this beast and many other for whom they knew no proper names For in the time of Pliny they used to call strange beasts like Oxen or Bulls Vri as now a days led with the same error or rather ignorance they call such Bubali or Buffali The true effigies of the vulgar Bugil was sent unto me by Cornelius Sittardus a famous Physitian in Norimberg and it is pictured by a tame and familiar Bugil such as liveth among men for labour as it seemeth to me For there is difference among these beasts as Aristotle hath affirmed both in colour mouth horn and strength This vulgar Bugil is of a kinde of wilde Oxen greater and taller then the ordinary Oxen their body being thicker and stronger and their limbs better compact together their skin most hard their other parts very lean their hair short small and black but little or none at all upon the tail which is also short and small The head hangeth downward to the earth and is but little being compared with the residue of his body and his aspect or face betokeneth a tameable and simple disposition His fore-head is broad and curled with hair his horns more flat then round very long bending together at the top as a Goats do backward insomuch as in Crete they make bows of them and they are not for defence of the beast but for distinction of kinde and ornament His neck is thick and long and his rump or neather part of his back is lower then the residue descending to the tail His legs are very great broad and strong but shorter then the quantity of his body would seem to permit They are very fierce being tamed but that is corrected by putting an Iron ring through his Nostrils whereinto is also put a cord by which he is led and ruled as a Horse by a bridle for which cause in Germany they call a simple man over-ruled by the advise of another to his own hurt a Bugle led with a ring in his nose His feet are cloven and with the formost he will dig the earth and with the hindmost fight like a Horse setting on his blows with great force and redoubling them again if his object remove not His voyce is like the voyce of an Oxe when he is chased he runneth forth right seldom winding or turning and when he is angred he
the body and the hinder legs are covered with longer and harder hairs down to the pastern as I think for no other cause but to defend them from harm in his leaping and the hoof of this beast was more strange for being cloven as was said before the outward hoof in his fore-legs is longer and greater then the inward and contrary in the hinder and the inward clove thereof is longer and greater and the outward smaller and shorter so as on either side you would think one of them was the hoof of a Goat and the other of a Hart both of them hollow and without soals whereof I can give no other reason then the pleasure of nature which hath so provided that whereas this beast liveth among the rocks and sharp places of the Mountains his foot-steps are by his hollow hoofs more firm and stable because by that means the stones and sharp-pointed rock entreth into them to stay them up from sliding but it is more strange in the females hoofs for they have upon the top and upper face of them three or four pleasant impressions as it were of carved or imbroydered flowers if a man mark them earnestly which I think are given unto them only for ornament and delight Either sex loose every year their hoofs and Harts do their horns that nature may shew their resemblance in their feet to a Hart as he doth in their head to a Goat His ear is short like a Goats but his eye genieal stones and tail like a Harts though somewhat shorter The horns like a Rams crooked and distinguished in the middle by a black line all their length which is two Roman feet and one finger and in compass at the root one foot one palm and a half standing one from another where they differ most not above one foot three palms one finger and a half The rugged circles going about them toward the top are bunchy and toward the bottom or root they are low with beaten notches or impressions They are not at the top distant one point from another above one foot and a palm The length of their face from the Crown to the tip of their nose one foot and three fingers the breadth in the fore-head where it is 〈…〉 dest two palms and one finger The height of this beast not above three foot and a half except where his mane standeth and the whole length hereof from the crown of the head to the tail is four feet and a half and two fingers It hath only teeth beneath on the neather chap and those in number not above six neither did I observe any defect in them It cheweth the 〈◊〉 like other cloven-footed beast The nostrils are black from whom the upper lip is divided by a long perpendicular line It is a gentle pleasant wanton beast in the disposition rather resembling a Goat then a Hart desiring the steepest and slipperyest places whereon it leapeth and from whence it is reported that it doth cast down it self head-long upon the horns naturally that by them it may break the violence of his fall or leap and then stayeth his body upon the fore-knees It will run a pace but it is most excellent in leaping for by leaping it ascendeth the most highest Mountains and Rocks The females are greater then the males but not in horn or hair it eateth Grass Oats Cheafil Hay and Bread they bring forth twins every time and this we call in England a Barbary Deer Thus far Doctor Cay Of the HART and HINDE THe male of this beast is called in Hebrew Aial Deut. 14. and the Arabians do also retain that word in their translations the Persians call him Geuazen the Septuagint Elaphos the Graecians at this day Laphe Pelaphe and Saint Jerom for the Latines Cervus the Chaldees Aiclah the Italians Cervo the Spaniards Ciervo the French Cerf the Germans Hirtz or Hirs and Hirsch the Flemmings Hert the Polonians Gelen the Illyrians Ielii elii The female or Hinde likewise termed in Hebrew Aial and sometime Alia and Aielet the Latines and Italians Cerva the Spaniards Cierva the Germans Hinde and Hindin and the Germans more specially Hin and Wilprecht the French Biche and the Polonians Lanii The young Fawns or Calfs of this beast they call in Latine Hinnuli the Graecians Nebros the Hebrews Ofer the Germans Hindcalb Also it is not to be forgotten that they have divers other names to distinguish their years and Countries as for example when they begin to have horns which appear in the second year of their age like bodkins without branches which are in Latin called Subulae they are also called Subulones for the similitude they have with Bodkins and the Germans call such an one Spirzhirtz which in English is called a Spittard and the Italians Corbiati but the French have no proper name for this beast that I can learn untill he be a three yearing and then they call him â—in Gabler which in Latine are called Furcarii And indeed I was once of this opinion that these Subulones were only two-yearing Harts untill I consulted with a Savoyan of Segusium who did assure me from the mouths of men trained up in hunting wilde Beasts from their youth that there are a kinde of Subulones which they call also Brocardi with straight and unforked horns except one branch in the Mountain of Jura near the lake Lemanus and that these also do live among other Harts for there was seen neer a Monastery called the Roman Monastery by certain Hunters in the year 1553. a vulgar Hart with branched horns and his female and likewise with a Subulon or Brocarde which when in pursuit he was constrained to leap from rock to rock to get to the water he brake his leg and so was taken These Brocards are as great in quantity as other vulgar Harts but their bodies are leaner and they swifter in course They have but one branch growing out of the stem of their horn which is not bigger then a mans finger and for this cause in the rutting time when they joyn with their females they easily overcome the vulgar Hart with his branched and forked horns The Hunters call this Brocard the shield-bearer to the residue for by him they are delivered being hunted for whereas it is the nature of the vulgar Hart to get into ditches and hide himself in hollow places when he heareth the Hounds this Beast never coveteth any secret place to cover himself but runneth still in the sight of Dogs who leave the other that hide themselves because they keep this on foot and so when the Hunters are passed by the lurking Harts they return back again being safe both from Nets and Dogs while the poor Brocard is chased unto death The figure of the face and horns I have therefore here expressed the figure of the head of this Beast with his horns which is also called Anamynta or a Burgundian Brocard whose
out of Athens by reason of the Persians war in Greece and so they sailed with him to Salamine and as they sailed by the way he commanded one of them to be cast into the Sea who continued swimming after the Ship untill he dyed for which cause his Master buryed him When Gelon the Syracusan in his sleep had a fearful dream that he was strucken with fire from Heaven and with impression of fear cryed out very lamentably his Dog lying beside him and thinking that some peril or theef was doing violence to his Master he presently leaped up to the bed and with scratching and barking awaked him and so was he delivered from a horrible fear by the barking of his Dog The Tyrians which have the best and the first purple in the world are said in History to have it by the first occasion of Hercules Dog Hercules falling in love with a Nymph called Tyro and travelling toward her with his Dog he saw the purple fish creeping upon a stone the hungry Dog caught the fish to eat it and having devoured it his lips were all dyed or coloured with the same when the Virgin Nymph saw that colour upon the Dogs lips she denyed the love of Hercules except he could bring her a garment of that colour whereupon the valiant man knowing by what occasion the Dogs lips received such a tincture went and gathered all the purple fishes and worms he could finde and pressing their blood out of them therewithal coloured a garment and gave it to the Nymph for reward whereof he possessed the Virgin being by this means the first inventor of the Phoenician tincture Among these are to be remembred those loving Dogs who either have fought for their Masters and so defended them or else declared them that murdered their keepers or that which is more admirable leaped into the burning fires which consumed the dead bodies of their nourishers Such an one was the Dog of Calvus who being slain in a certain civil War at Rome and his enemies coming about him to cut off his head his poor Dog interposed his body betwixt the blows and would not suffer any foe once to touch his Masters carcass untill by more then six hundred souldiers the Dog was cut in pieces so living and dying a most faithful companion and thankful friend to him that fed him The like was in a Dog of Darius the last King of the Persians after he was slain by Besus and Narbazanes in the battel against Alexander so did the Dog of Silanien fight for his Master against theeves and when he was slain he departed not from the body but kept it warily from Dogs Birds or wilde Beasts sitting upon his privy parts and covering them untill the Roman Captains came and buryed it But most admirable was the love of a certain Dog to his Master punished with death for the fact against Germanicus Among other this Dog would never go from the prison and afterward when his Masters dead body was brought in the presence of many Romans the Cur uttered most lamentable and sorrowful cryes for which cause one of the company threw unto him some meat to see if that would stop his mouth and procure silence but the poor Dog took up the meat and carryed to his masters mouth not without the singular passion of the beholders at last the body was taken up and cast into the river Tiber the poor Dog leaped in after it and endeavoured by all the means his weakness could afford to keep it from sinking in the presence of an innumerable multitude which without tears could not look upon the loving 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 masters dead bodies Nicias a certain Hunter going abroad in the Woods chanced to fall into a heap of burning coals having no help about him but his Dogs there he perished yet they ran to the high ways and ceased not with barking and apprehending the garments of passengers to shew unto them some direful event and at last one of the travellers followed the Dogs and came to the place where they saw the man consumed and by that conjectured the whole story The like did the Dogs of Marius Caesarinus for by howling they procured company to draw him out of a deep Cave whereinto he was fallen on Horse-hack and had there perished being alone except his Hounds had released him But that Dogs will also bewray the murtherers of their friends and masters these stories following may evidently manifest As King Pyrrhus by chance travelled in his Countrey he found a Dog keeping a dead corps and he perceived that the Dog was almost pined by tarrying about the body without all food wherefore taking pity on the beast he caused the body to be interred and by giving the Dog his belly full of meat he drew him to love him and so led him away afterward as Pyrrhus mustered his souldiers and every one appeared in his presence the Dog also being beside him he saw the murtherers of his master and so not containing himself with voyce tooth and nail he set upon them the King suspecting that which followed examined them if ever they had seen or known that Dog they denyed it but the King not satisfied charged them that surely they were the murtherers of the Dogs Master for the Dog all this while remained fierce against them and never barked before their appearance at the last their guilty consciences brake forth at their mouths and tongues end and so confessed the whole matter The like was of two French Merchants which travelled together and when they came into a certain Wood one of them rose against the other for desire of his money and so slew him and buryed him His Dog would not depart from the place but filled the Wood with howlings and cries the murtherer went forward in his journey the people and Inhabitants neer the said Wood came and sound both the murdered corps and also the Dog which they took up and nourished till the Fair was done and the Merchants returned at which time they watched the high wayes having the Dog with them who seeing the murtherer instantly made force at him without all provocation as a man would do at his mortal enemy which thing caused the people to apprehend him who being examined confessed the fact and received condign punishment for so foul a deed To conclude this discourse with one memorable story more out of Blondus who relateth that there was a certain woman neer Paris who was beloved of two young men one of them on a day took his staffe and his Dog and went abroad as it was thought of purpose to go to his love but it happened that by the way he was murthered and buryed and the Dog would not depart from the grave of his Master at the last he
into a basket if their keeper have any which being filled like dainty and neat men they also desire to wash and so will go and seek out water to wash themselves and of their own accord return back again 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 untill they take of their flowers and dresse the brims of their mangers therewith and likewise strew their room or standing place pleasing themselves with their meat because of the savour of the flowers stuck about their cratch like dainty fed persons which set their dishes with green herbs and put them into their cups of wine Their pace is very slow for a childe may overtake them by reason of their high and large bodies except in their feare and for that cause cannot swim as also by reason that the toes of their feet are very short and smally divided When they are brought into a Ship they have a bridge made of wood and covered with earth and green boughs are set on either side so that they imagine they go upon the land untill they enter into the Ship because the boughs keep them from sight of the Sea They are most chast and keep true unto their males without all inconstant love or separation admitting no adulteries amongst them and like men which tast of Venus not for any corporal lust but for desire of heirs and successors in their families so do Elephants without all unchast and unlawful lust take their venereal complements for the continuation of their kinde and never above thrice in all their dayes either male or female suffer carnall copulation but the female only twice Yet is their rage great when the female provoketh them and although they fight not among themselves for their females except very seldom yet do they so burn in this fury that many times they overthrow trees and houses in India by their tuskes and running their head like a Ram against them wherefore then they keep them low and down by subtraction of their meat and also bring some stranger to beat them There was a certain cunning Hunter sent into Mauritania by the Roman Emperor to hunt and take Elephants on a day he saw a goodly young Elephant in copulation with another and instantly a third approached with a direful braying as if he would have eaten up all the company and as it afterward appeared he was an arrival to the female which we saw in copulation with the other male when he approached neer both of them set themselves to combat which they performed like some unresistable waves of the Sea or as the hils which are shaken together by an earthquake wherein each one charged the other most furiously for their love to the terror and admiration of all the beholders and so at last became both disarmed of their teeth and horns by their often blowes before one had overcome the other and so at last by the hunters were parted asunder being ever 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 overthrow their houses They are modest and shamefast in this action for they seek the Deserts Woods and secret places for procreation and sometimes the waters because the waters do support the male in that action whereby he ascendeth and descendeth from the back of the female with more ease and once it was seen that in Virgea a Countrey of the Corascens two Elephants did engender out of India otherwise they couple not out of their own Countries When they go to copulation they turn 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 covered They begin to engender the male at six ten twelve fifteen or twenty year old the female not before ten years old They couple but five dayes in two years and never after the female is filled till she have been clear one whole year and after the second copulation he never more toucheth his female At that time the male breatheth forth at his nose a certain fat humour like a menstruous thing but the female hath them not till her place of conception be opened and alway the day after her filling she washeth herself before she return to the flock The time of their going with young is according to some two years and according to other three the occasion of this diversity is because their time of copulation cannot certainly be known because of their secrecy for the greater bodies that beasts have they are the lesse fruitful She is delivered in great pain leaning upon her hinder legs They never bring forth but one at a time and that is not much greater then a great Cow-calfe of three monthes old which she nourisheth six or eight year As soon as it is Calved it seeth and goeth and sucketh with the mouth not with the trunck and so groweth to a great stature The females when they have calved are most fierce for fear of their young ones but if a man come and touch them they are not angry for it seemeth they understand that he toucheth them not for any desire to take or harm them but rather to stroke and admire them Sometimes they go into the water to the belly and there calve for fear of the Dragon the male never forsaketh her but keepeth with her for the like fear of the Dragon and feed and defend their young ones with singular love and constancy unto death as appeareth by the example of one that heard the braying of her calf fallen into a ditch and not able to arise the female ran unto it and for hast fell down upon it so crushing it to death and breaking her own neck with one and the same violent love As they live in herds so when they are to passe over a river or water they send over the least or youngest first because their great bodies together should not cause the deep water to swell or rise above their height the other stand on the bank and observe how deep he wadeth and so make account that the greater may with more assurance follow after the younger and smaller then they the elder and taller and the females carry over their Calves upon their snowts and long eminent teeth binding them fast with their truncks like as with ropes or male girts that they may not fall being sometime holpen by the male wherein appeareth an admirable point of natural wisdom both in the cariage of their young and in sending of the lesser foremost not only for the reason aforesaid but also because they being hunted and prosecuted it is requisite that the greatest and strongest come in the rear and hindmost part for the safegard of
great facility being set on with the strength of so able an adversary The Tygre also feareth not an Elephant but is fiercer and stronger for he leapeth upon his head and teareth out his throat but the Gryphins which overcome almost all beasts are not able to stand with the Lions or Elephants The females are far more strong chearful and couragious then the males and also they are apt to bear the greater burthens but in War the male is more graceful and acceptable because he is taller giving more assured ensignes of victory and fortitude for their strength is admirable as may be conjectured by that which is formerly recited of their trunck as Vartoman affirmeth that he saw three Elephants with their only heads drive a great Ship out of the Sea-water where it was fastened unto the shore When he is most loaded he goeth surest for he can carry a wooden Tower on his back with thirty men therein and their sufficient food and warlike instruments The King of India was wont to go to war with 30000 Elephants of war and beside these he had also followed him 3000 of the chiefest and strongest in India which at his command would overthrow Trees Houses Wals or any such thing standing against him and indeed upon these were the Indians wont to fight for the defence of their Coast and Countrey The farthest region of that continent is called Partalis inhabited by the Gangarides and Calingae the King whereof was wont to have seven hundred Elephants to watch his Army and there was no mean Prince in all India which was not Lord of many Elephants The King of Palibotrae kept in stipend eight thousand every day and beyond his Territory was the King of Modubae and Molindae which had four hundred Elephants These fight with men and overthrow all that come within their reach both with their truncks and teeth There were certain officers and guiders of these Elephants which were called Elephantarchae who were the governors of sixteen Elephants and they which did institute and teach them Martial discipline were called Elephantagogi The Military Elephant did carry four persons on his bare back 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 rains and guiding the beast to the descretion of the Souldiers even as the Pilot in a Ship guideth the stern wherein was required an equall knowledge and dexterity for they understand any language quickly for when the Indian which ruled them said Strike here on the right hand or else on the left or refrain and stand still no reasonable man could yeeld readier obedience They did fasten by iron chains first of all upon the Elephant that was to bear ten fifteen twenty or thirty men on either side two panniers of iron bound underneath their belly and upon them the like panniers of wood hollow wherein they place their men at armes and covered them over with small boards for the trunck of the Elephant was covered with a mail for defence and upon that a broad sword and two cubits long this as also the wooden Castle or panniers aforesaid were fastened first to the neck and then to the rump of the Elephant Being thus armed they entred the battel and they shewed unto 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 above all measure then at the sound of the Trumpet he beginneth with teeth to strike tear beat spoil take up into the air cast down again stamp upon men under feet ovethrow with his trunck and make way for his riders to pierce with Spear Shield and Sword so that his horrible voice his wonderful body his terrible force his admirable skill his ready and inclinable obedience and his strange and seldom seen shape produced in a main battel no mean accidents and overturns For this cause we read how that Pyrrhus first of all produced Elephants against the Romans in Lucania afterward Asdrubal in Africa Antiochus in the East and Jugurtha in Numidia Against this new kinds of Castle-fighting and Souldier-bearing beasts on the contrary they invented new kinds of stratagems as is before set down and also new instruments of war for a Centurion in Lucania with a new devised sharp Sword cut off the trunck of this beast again other invented that two armed Horses should draw a Chariot and in the same armed men with Javelins and sharp Spears the speedy Horses should with all force run upon the Elephants and the spear-men directing their course and weapons some upon the beast other upon the riders did not only wound the beast but also by celerity of the Horses escape all danger Other again sent against him armed Souldiers having their Armour made full of sharp pricks or piercing piked Nailes so that when the beast did strike at them with his trunck he received grievous wounds by his own blowes Again there were certain young men Souldiers armed with light armour which being mounted upon swift Horses could cast Darts with singular facility and without the reach of the beast many times wounding him with long Spears and so by example of the Horse-men the Foot-men grew more bold and with piles in the earth annoyed the belly of the beast and utterly vanquishing it and the rider Again they devised slings to cast stones whereby they beat off the riders and many times overthrew the Castle-bearer as it were by some violent stroke of a Cannon shot neither was there ever any more easie way to disaster these monster-seeming Souldiers then by casting of stones and lastly they would suffer their Elephants and their riders by poor hopes and appearances of fear to enter into the midst among them and so begirt and inclose them that they took the Elephants alive and also more shooters of Darts carryed in Chariots with the strong course of horses did so annoy them that whereas their bodies were great and unweildy not nimble to stir out of place it became more easie to kill an Elephant then a Horse because many shooters at one time could pierce so fair a mark with unresistible weapons And these things are related by Vegetius At the last the fight with Elephants turned into a publick game or pastime both to see them fought withall by men and also among themselves When certain prisoners of the Romans were taken by Annibal he first constrained them to skirmish among themselves and so slew one another except only one and he was by the like commandement forced to fight with an Elephant but upon condition of liberty if he escaped alive and thereupon joyned combate and slew the Elephant to the great grief and amazement of all the Carthaginians but going home according to agreement Annibal fearing that by this fact those great beasts would grow
said to be derived of these wilde Goats these are called Cynthian Goats because they are bred in the Mountains of Delos called Cynthus There are of these which are found in the tops of the Lybian Mountains as great as Oxen whose shoulders and legs abound with loose shaggy hair their shins small their faces are round their eyes are hollow and hard to be seen Their horns crooking backward to their shoulders not like other Goats for they stand far distant one from another and among all other Goats they are indued with a most singular dexterity of leaping for they leap from one top to another standing a great way asunder and although many times they fall down upon the hard rocks which are interposed betwixt the Mountains yet receive they no harm for such is the hardness of their members to resist that violence and of their horns to break their falls that they neither are offended thereby in head nor legs Such are the Goats of Soractum as Cato writeth which leapeth from Rock to Rock above threescore foot of this kinde are those Goats before spoken of in the History of the tame Goat which are thought to breath out of their ears and not out of their nostrils they are very swift and strong horned the love betwixt the Dams and the Kids in this kinde is most admirable for the Dam doth most carefully educate and nourish her young the young ones again do most thankfully recompense their mothers carefulness much like unto reasonable men which keep and nourish their own Parents in their old decrepit age which the love of God and nature doth enjoyn them for satisfaction of their own education so do these young wilde Goats toward their own mothers for in their age they gather their meat and bring it to them and likewise they run to the rivers or watering places and with their mouths suck up water which they bring to quench the thirst of their Parents and when as their bodies are rough and ugly to look upon the young ones lick them over with their tongues so making them smooth and neat And if at any time the Dam be taken by the Hunters the young one doth not forsake her till he be also insnared and you would think by the behaviour of the imprisoned Dam towards her young Kids and likewise of the Kid towards his Dam that they mutually contend one to give it self for the other for the Dam foreseeing her young one to hover about her in the hands of her enmies and continually to follow with sighs and tears seemeth to wish and perswade them to depart and to save themselves by flight as if they could say in the language of men Fugite filii infostos venatores ne me miseram capti materno nomine private that is to say Run away my sons save your selves from these harmful and greedy Hunters lest if you be taken with me I be for ever deprived of the name of a mother The young ones again on the other side wandring about their Mother bleat forth many a mournful song leaping to the Hunters and looking in their faces with pitiful aspects as if they said unto him We adjure you oh Hunters by the Maker of us all that you deliver our Mother from your thraldom and instead of her take us her unhappy children bend your hard hearts fear the laws of God which forbiddeth innocents to be punished and consider what reverence you owe to the old age of a mother therefore again we pray you let our lives satisfie you for our Dams liberty But poor creatures when they see that nothing can move they unexorable minde of the Hunters they resolve to dye with her whom the cannot deliver and thereupon of their own accord give themselves into the hands of the Hunters and so are led away with their mother Concerning the Lybian Goats before spoken of which live in the tops of Mountains they are taken by nets or snares or else killed by Darts and Arrows or some other art of hunting But if at any time they descend down into the plain fields they are no less troubled then if they were in the waves of some great water And therefore any man of a slow pace may there take them without any great difficulty The greatest benefit that ariseth from them is their skin and their horns with their skins they are clothed in Winter time against Tempests Frosts and Snow and it is a common weed for Shepherds and Carpenters The horns serve them in steed of Buckets to draw water out of the running streams wherewithall they quench their thirst for they may drink out of them as out of cups they are so great that no man is able to drink them off at one draught and when cunning artificers have the handling of them they make them to receive three times as much more The self same things are written of the Wilde Goats of Egypt who are said never to be hurt by Scorpions There is a great City in Egypt called Coptus who were wont to be much addicted to the worship of Isis and in that place there are great abundance of Scorpions which with their stings and poyson do oftentimes give mortal and deadly wounds to the people whilest they mourn about the Chappel for they worship that Goddess with funeral lamentation against the stinging of these Scorpions the Egyptians have invented a thousand devises whereof this was the principal At the time of their assembly they turn in wilde female Goats naked among the Scorpions lying on the ground by whose presence they are delivered and escape free from the wounds of the Serpents whereupon the Coptites do religiously consecrate these female Goats to divinity thinking that their Idoll Isis did wholly love them and therefore they sacrificed the males but never the females It is reported by Plutarch that wilde Goats do above other meat love meal and figs wherefore in Armenia there are certain black fishes which are poyson with the powder or meal of these fishes they cover these figs and cast them abroad where the Goats do haunt and assoon as the Beasts have tasted them they presently dy Now to the Wilde Goat before pictured called in Latine Rupicapra and Capricornus and in Greek a Gargos and Aigastros and of Homer Ixalon of the Germans Gemmes or Gemmus the Rhetians which speak Italian call it Camuza the Spaniards Capramontes the Polonians Dzykakoza the Bohemians Korytanski Kâ—zlik that is to say a Carinthian Goat because that part of the Alpes called Carinthia is neer bordering upon Bohemia Bellonius writeth that the French call him Chambris and in their ancient tongue Ysard this is not very great of body but hath crooked horns which bend backward to his back whereupon he stayeth himself when he falleth from the slippery Rocks or Mountains These horns they are not fit to fight they are so small and weak and therefore nature hath bestowed them upon them for the cause aforesaid Of all
nor eat their meat upon the ground except they bend down upon their knees The males in this kinde do only bear horns and such as do not grow out of the Crowns of their head but as it were out of the middle on either side a little above the eyes and so bend to the sides They are sharp and full of bunches like Harts no where smooth but in the tops of the speers and where the veins run to carry nutriment to their whole length which is covered with a hairy skin they are not so rough at the beginning or at the first prosses specially in the fore-part as they are in the second for that only is full of wrinckles from the bottom to the middle they grow straight but from thence they are a little recurved they have only three speers or prosses the two lower turn away but the uppermost groweth upright to heaven yet sometimes it falleth out as the Keepers of the said Beast affirmed that either by sickness or else through want of food the left horn hath but two branches In length they are one Koman foot and a half and one finger and a half in breadth at the root two Roman palms The top of one of the horns is distant from the top of the other three Roman feet and three fingers and the lower speer of one horn is distant from the lower of the other two Roman feet measured from the roots in substance and colour they are like to Harts horns they weighed together with the dry broken spongy bone of the fore-head five pound and a half and half an ounce I mean sixteen ounces to the pound they fall off every year in the month of April like to Harts and they are not hollow The breadth of their fore-heads betwixt the horns is two Roman palms and a half the top of the crown betwixt the horns is hollow on the hinder part and in that siecel lyeth the brain which descendeth down to the middle region of the eyes Their teeth are like Harts and inwardly in their cheeks they grow like furrows bigger then in a Horse the tooth rising out sharp above the throat as it should seem that none of his meat should fall thereinto unbruised This Beast in young age is of a Mouse or Ass colour but in his elder age it is more yellowish especially in the extream parts of his body the hair smooth but most of all on his legs but under his belly in the inner part of his knee the top of his neck breast shoulders and back-bone not so smooth In height it was about twenty two handfuls and three fingers being much swifter then any Horse the female beareth every year as the Keeper said in Norway two at a time but in England it brought forth but one The flesh of it is black and the fibres broad like an Oxes but being dressed like Harts flesh and baked in an Oven it tasted much sweeter It eateth commonly grass but in England seldom after the fashion of Horses which forbear hay when they may have bread but leaves rindes of trees bread and oats are most acceptable unto it It reacheth naturally thirty hand breadths high but if any thing be higher which it doth affect it standeth up upon the hinder-legs and with the fore-legs there imbraceth 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 drunkenness and there were that gave it Wine but if it drink plentifully it became drunk It is a most pleasant creature being tamed but being wilde is very fierce and an enemy to mankinde persecuting men not only when he seeth them by the eye but also by the sagacity of his nose following by foot more certainly then any Horse for which cause they which kept them near the high ways did every year cut off their horns with a saw It setteth both upon Horse and Foot-men trampling and treading them under-foot whom he did over-match when he smelleth a man before he seeth him he uttereth 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 discerned sexes In Norway they call it an Elk or Elend but it is plain they are deceived in so calling it because it hath not the legs of an Elk which never bend nor yet the horns as by conference may appear Much less can I believe it to be the Hippardius because the female wanteth horns and the head is like a Mules but yet it may be that it is a kinde of Elk for the horns are not always alike or rather the Elk is a kinde of Horse-hart which Aristotle calleth Arrochosius of Arracolos a region of Assya and herein I leave every man to his judgement referring the Reader unto the former discourses of an Elk and the Tragelaphus Of the SEA-HORSE THe Sea-horse called in Greek Hippotomos and in Latine Equus Fluviatilis It is a most ugly and filthy Beast so called because in his voyce and mane he resembleth a Horse but in his head an Oxe or a Calf in the residue of his body a Swine for which cause some Graecians call him some-times a Sea-horse and sometimes a Sea-oxe which thing hath moved many learned men in our time to affirm that a Sea-horse was never seen whereunto I would easily subscribe such Bellon 〈…〉 were it not that the antient figures of a Sea-horse altogether resembled that which is here expressed and was lately to be seen at Constantinople from whom this picture was taken It liveth 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 legs it seemeth rather to be made for going then for swimming for in the night time it eateth both hay and fruits sorraging into corn fields and devouring whatsoever cometh in the way and therefore I thought it fit to be inserted into this story As for the Sea-calf which cometh sometimes to land only to take sleep I did not judge it to belong to this discourse because it feedeth only in the waters This picture was taken out of the Colossus in the Vatican at Rome representing the River Nilus and eating of a Crocodile and thus I reserve the farther discourse of this beast unto 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 Horses in their heads seeing therein are also creatures like unto Grapes and Swords The Orsean Indians do hunt a Beast with one horn having the body of a Horse and the head of a Hart. The Aethiopians likewise have a Beast in the neck like unto a Horse and the feet and legs like unto an Ox. The Rhinocephalus hath a neck like a Horse and also the other parts of his body but it is said to breath
Troy Sinon the counterfeit runnagate being then within the wals among the Trojans perswaded them to pull down their wals and pull in that wooden Horse affirming that if they could get it Pallas would stand so friendly to them that the Grecians should never be able to move war against them wherefore they pull down their gates and part of their wall and by that means do bring the Horse into the City while the Trojans were thus revelling and making merry with themselves and not thinking of any harm might ensue upon them the leaders of the Grecian Army who by deceit all this while kept themselves close hid ever since which time the Grecians are tearmed of all Nations deceitful on a suddain rose out of their lurking places and so going forward invaded the City being destitute of any defence and by this means subdued it Others are of opinion that the Poets fiction of the Trojan Horse was no other but this that there was a mountain neer Troy called Equus and by advantage thereof Troy was taken whereunto Virgil seemeth to allude saying Instar montis Equum divina Palladis arte Aedificant For they say that Pallas and Epeus made the Horse and therefore I conjecture that the Trojan Horse was nothing else but an engine of War like unto that which is called Aries For Pausanias saith that Epeus was the inventer thereof And Higinus saith that the Trojan Horse was Machina oppugnatoria a devise of war to overthrow the wals Of this Horse there was a brazen image at Athens in Acropolis with this inscription Chaeridemus Fuangeli filius caelen 〈…〉 dicavit When Alexander looked upon his own picture at Ephesus which Apelles had drawn with all his skill the King did not commend it according to the worth thereof It fortuned that a Horse was brought into the room who presently neighed at the picture of Alexanders Horse smelling unto it as to a living Morse whereat Apelles spake thus to the King Ho men Hippos â—oice sou graphicoteros cata polu That is to say The Horse is a better discerner of truth then you There was one Phormis which went from Maeâ—alus in Arcadia into Sioilla to serve Gelon the Son of Dinomenes under whom and his brother Hierâ— he arose to great estate of wealth and therefore he gave many gifts to Apollo at Delphos and made two brazen Horses with their riders at Olympia setting Dionisius the Grecian upon one and Simon Egineta upon the other Aemilius Censorinus a cruel Tyrant in Sicilia bestowed great gifts upon such as could invent new kinde of torments there was one Aâ—untius Paterculus hoping to receive from him some great reward made a brazen Horse and presented it to the Tyrant to include therein such as he should condemn to death at the receipt whereof Aemilius which was never just before first of all put the Author into it that he might take experience how cursed a thing it was to minister unto cruelty Apelles also painted Clytus on Horse-back hastening to war and his Armour-bearer reaching his helmet unto him so lively that other dumb beasts were affraid of his Horse And excellent was the skill of Nealces who had so pictured a Horse foaming that the beholders were wont to take their handkerchefs to wipe it from his mouth And this much for the moral uses of Horses Of the several diseases of Horses and their cures SEeing in this discourse I have principally aimed at the pleasure delight and profit of Englishmen I have thought good to discourse of the diseases of Horses and their cures in the words of our own Countreymen M. Blundevile and M. Markham whose works of these matters are to be recorded like the Iliads of Homer in many places and several Monuments to the intent that envy of Barbarism may never be able to bury them in oblivion or neglect to root them out of the world without the losse of other memorable labours Wherefore good Reader for the ensuing Tructure of diseases and cures compiled by them after that I had read over the labours of C. Gisner 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 History I have thought good to follow them 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 Markham methodically one after the other in the same place wherewithal I trust the living authors will not be displeased that so you may with one labour examine both and I hope that neither they nor any of their friends or Scholars shall receive any just cause of offence by adding this part of their studies to our labours neither their books imprinted be any way disgraced or hindered but rather revived renobled and honoured To begin therefore saith Master Blundevile after the discourse of the nature of a Horse followeth those things which are against nature the knowledge whereof is as needfully profitable as the other Things against nature be those whereby the healthful estate of a Horses body is decayed which are in number three that is the causes the sickness and the accidents of the two first in order and the other promiscuously as need requireth Of causes and kinds thereof THe causes of sickness be unnatural affects or evill dispositions preceding sickness and provoking the same which of themselves do not hinder the actions of the body but by means of sickness coming betwixt Of causes some be called internal and some external Internal be those that breed within the body of the Beast as evil juice External 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 every disease consisteth the chief skill of the Farriar For unlesse he knoweth the cause of the disease it is impossible for him to cure it well and skilfully And therefore I wish all Farriars to be diligent in seeking to know the causes of all diseases as well in the parts similar as instrumental 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 sickness what it is and how many general kinds there be also with what order the diseases of Horses are herein declared And finally of the four times belonging to every sickness SIckness is an evill affect contrary to nature hindering of it self some action of the body Of sickness there be three general kinds where of the first consisteth in the parts similar the second in the parts instrumental and the third in both parts together The first kind is called of the Latins Intemperies that is to say evil temperature which is either simple or compound It is simple when one quality only doth abound or exceed too much as to be too hot or too
one day called by the Greek name Ephemera or else by the Latin name Diaria chanceth many times through the rashness and small discretion of the keeper or some other that letteth not to ride a Horse unmeasurably either before or after watering whereby the Horse afterward in the stable entreth into an extream heat and so falleth into his Fever which you shall know partly by his waterish and bloud-shotten eyes and partly by his short violent and hot breathing and panting Moreover he will forsake his meat and his legs will wax stiffe and feeble The cure Let him have rest all the next day following and be comforted with warm meat then let him be walked up and down fair and softly and so by little and little brought again to his former estate Of the Fever continual THe Fever continual is that which continueth without intermission and is called in Italian by the Latin name Febris continua which springeth of some inflamation or extream heat bred in the principal members or inward parts about the heart which is known in this sort The Horse doth not take his accustomed rest whereby his flesh doth fall away every day more and more and sometime there doth appear hot inflamations in his flanks and above his withers The cure Purge his head by squirting into his Nostrils Mans urine or the Water of an Ox that hath been rested a certain time to the intent such water may be the stronger and then give him the drink written in the next Chapter Of the Fever taken in the Autumn that is to say at the fall of the leaf IF a Horse chance to get a Fever at the fall of the leaf cause him immediately to be let bloud in the neck vein and also in the third furrow of the roof of his mouth and then give him this drink Take of Jermander four 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 Oil-olive four ounces and of Hony as much and give it the Horse lukewarm Of the Fever in Summer season A Fever taken in Summer season is much worse then in any other time and especially if it be taken in the Dog days for then the accidents be more furious The signes be these his arteries will beat evidently and he will shed his seed when he staleth and his going will be unorderly The cure Let him bloud in a vein that he hath in his hinder hanch about four fingers beneath the fundament or if you cannot finde that vein let him bloud in the neck vein toward the withers and if it be needful you may also give him this drink Take the juyce of a handful of Parslein mingled with Gum-dragant with Ensens and a few Damask roses beaten all into fine powder and then put thereunto a sufficient quantity of Ale made sweet with Hony Of the Fever in Winter FOr the Fever in Winter it shall be good to take the powder of the drugs last mentioned and with a quill or reed to blow it up into his left nostril to make him to neese It shall be good also to let him bloud in the neck vein and in the palat of the mouth and then give him one of these drinks here following Take of Ireos six ounces of round Pepper one ounce of Bay berries and of the seed of Smallage of each one ounce and let him drink them with sodden Wine Or else take a pinte of good Milk and put therein of Oile four ounces of Saffron one scruple of Myrrhe two scruples of the seed of Smallage a spoonful and make him drink that or make him this drink Take of Aristoloch otherwise called round Hartwort one ounce of Gentian of Hysop of Worm-wood of Sothernwood of each one ounce of dry fat figs six ounces of the seed of Smallage three ounces of Rue a handful boil them all in a clean Vessel with River Water untill the third part be consumed and when you see it look black and thick take it from the fire strain it and give the Horse to drink thereof lukewarm As touching his diet let his water be alwayes lukewarm wherein would be put a little Wheat meal and remember to give him no meat so long as his fit continueth And because in all Agues it is good to quicken the natural heat of the Horse by rubbing and fretting his body it shall not be amisse in some fair day to use this Friction called of the ancient writers Apotorapie which is made in this sort Take of Damaske Roses one pound of old Oil a pinte of strong Vinegar a pinte and a half of Mints and Rue beaten into powder of each one ounce and a half together with one old dry Nut beat them and mingle them together then being strained and made lukewarm rub and chafe all the Horses body therewith against the hair untill he beginneth to sweat then set him up in the warmest place of the stable and cover him well Of the Fever which cometh of raw Digestion or of Repletion YOu shall know if the Fever proceedeth of any such cause by these signes here following The Horse will blow at the nose more then he is accustomed to do seemeth to fetch his winde only at his nose and his breath will be short hot and dry you shall see his flanks walk and his back to beat The cure Cause him to be let bloud abundantly in the head and palat of his month and by squirting warm Vinegar in the morning into his nostrils force him to neese and if he be costive let his fundament be raked or else give him a Glyster to ease the pain in his head And as touching his diet give him but litttle provender 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 use the Friction declared in the last Chapter before in such sort as there is said it shall do him very much good Of the Fever accidental coming of some Vlcer in the mouth or throat THe Horse not being well kept and governed after that he hath been let bloud in the upper parts yea and also besides that of his own nature is subject unto the distillation in his throat or parts thereabout the painful swelling or Ulcer whereof causeth the Horse to fall into a grievous Ague Whereof besides the former remedies apt to purge humors it shall be necessary also to let him bloud in the vein of the head and in the palat of his mouth and to be short in all those places where the disease causeth most grief And if the Horse be so sore pained as he cannot swallow down his meat it shall be good to give him lukewarm water mingled with Barley meal or Wheat meal and beside that to make him swallow down seven sops sopped in Wine one after another at one
time some use at the second time to dip such sops in sweet Sallet Oil. Thus far Vâ—getius Of the Pestilent Ague IT seemeth by Laurentius Russius that Horses be also subject to a Pestilent Fever which almost incurable is called of him Infirmitas Epidemialis that is to say a Contagious and pestiferous disease whereof there dyed in one year in Rome above a thousand Horses which as I take it came by some corruption of the air whereunto Rome in the chief of Summer is much subject or else corrupt humours in the body ingendered by unkind food by reason perhaps that the City was then pesteted with more Horse-men then there could be conveniently harbored or fed Laurentius himself rendreth no cause thereof but only sheweth signes how to know it which be these The Horse holdeth down his head eateth little or nothing his eyes waterish and his flanks do continually beat The Cure First give him this Glyster Take of the pulp of Coloquintida one ounce of Dragantum one ounce and a fals of Ceutaury and Wormwood of each one handful of Castore 〈…〉 half an ounce boil them in Water then being strained dissolve therein of Gerologundinum six ounces of Salt an ounce and a half and half a pound of Oil-olive and minister it lukewarm with a horn or pipe made of purpose Make also this Plaister for his head Take of Squilla five ounces of Elder of Castoreum of Mustard seed and of Eusorbium of each two ounces dissolve the same in the juice of Daffodil and of Sage and lay it to the Temples of his head next unto his eares or else give him any of these three drinks following Take of the best Triacle two or three ounces and distemper it in good Wine and give it him with a horn or else let him drink every morning the space of three dayes one pound or two of the juyce of Elder roots or else give him every morning to eat a good quantity of Venus hair called of the Latins Capillus Veneris newly and fresh gathered but if it be old then boil it in Water and give him the decoction thereof to drink with a horn Martins opinion and experience touching a Horses Fever THough Martin have not seen so many several kinds of Fevers to chance to Horses yet he confesseth that a Horse will have a Fever and saith that you shall know it by these signes For after the Horse hath been sick two or three dayes if you look upon his tongue you shall see it almost raw and scalt with the heat that comes out of his body and he will shake and trembles reel and stagger when his fit cometh which fit will keep his due hours both of coming and also 〈◊〉 continuance unlesse you prevent it by putting the Horse into a heat which would be done so soon as you see him begin to tremble either by riding him or tying up his legs and by chasing him up and down in the stable untill he leave shaking and then let him be kept warm and stand on the bit the space of two houres that done you may give him some hay by a little at once and give him warm water with a little ground malt twice a day the space of three or four dayes and once a day wash his tongue with Alomwater Vinegar Sage But if you see that all this prevaile not then purge him with this drink after that he hath fasted all one night Take of Aloes one ounce of Agarick half an ounce of Licoras and Annis seeds of each a dram beaten to powder and let him drink it with a quart of white wine likewarme and made sweet with a little hony in the morning fasting and let him be chafed a little after it and be kept warm and suffered to stand on the bit meatlesse two or three hours after and he shall recover his health again quickly Of sickness in general and the Fever IN general sickness is an opposite foe to nature warring against the agents of the body and mind seeking to confound those actions which uphold and maintain the bodies strength and livelyhood Who coveteth to have larger definition of sickness let him read Vegetius Rusius or excellent Master Blundevile who in that hath been admirably well-deserving painful For mine one part my intent is to write nothing more then mine own experience and what I have approved in Horses diseases most availeable and first of the Fever or Ague in a Horse though it be a disease seldom or not at all noted by our Mechanical Horse Farriars who cure many times what they know not and kill where they might cure knew they the cause yet I have my self seen of late both by the demonstrate opinions of others better learned and by the effects of the disease some two Horses which I dare avouch were mightily tormented with a Fever though divers Leeches had thereof given divers opinions one saying it was the Bots by reason of his immoderate languishment another affirmed him to be bewitched by reason of great shaking heaviness and sweating but I have found it and approved it to be a Fever both in effect nature and quality the cure whereof is thus for the original cause of a Fever is surfet breeding putrifaction in the bloud then when his shaking beginneth take three new laid Egges break them in a dish and beat them together then mix thereto five or six spoonfuls of excellent good Aquavitae and give it him in a horn then bridle him and in some Close or Court chafe him till his shaking cease and he begin to sweat then set him up and cloath him warm And during the time of his sickness give him no water to drink but before he drink it boil therein Mallowes Sorrel Purslain of each two or three handfuls As for his food let it be sodden Barly and now and then a little Rie in the sheaf to clense and purge him chiefly if he be dry inwardly and grow costive This I have proved uneffectless for this disease and also much availeable for any other inward sickness proceeding either of raw digestion too extream riding or other surfet Divers have written diversly of divers Agues and I could prescribe receipts for them but since I have not been experimented in them all I mean to omit them intending not to exceed mine own knowledge in any thing Of the Pestilence THe Pestilence is a contagious disease proceeding as Pelaganius saith sometime of overmuch labour heat cold hunger and sometime of sudden running after long rest or of the retention or holding of stale or urine or of drinking cold water whiles the Horse is hot and sweating for all these things do breed corrupt humors in the Horses body whereof the Pestilence doth chiefly proceed or else of the corruption of the air poisoning the breath whereby the Beasts should live which also happeneth sometime of the corruption of evill vapors and exhalations that spring out of the earth and
after great floods or earthquakes and sometime by means of some evill distillation or influence of the Planets corrupting sometime the plants and fruits of the earth and sometime divers kind of Cattle and sometime both Men Women and Children as we dayly see by experience It seemeth that this evill or mischief in times past came suddenly without giving any warning for none of mine Authors doth declare any signes how to know whether a Horse hath this disease or not but only affirm that if one Horse do die of it all his fellows that bear him company will follow after if they be not remedied in time so that as far as I can learn the sudden death of one or two first must be the only mean to know that this disease doth reign And the remedy that they give is this First separate the whole from the sick yea and have them 〈◊〉 out of the air of those that be dead the bodies whereof as Vegetius saith if they be not 〈◊〉 buryed will infect all the rest And let them bloud as well in the neck as in the mouth and then give them this drink Take of Gentian of Aristoloch of Bay 〈…〉 es of 〈…〉 of the scraping of Ivory of each like quantity beat them into fine powder and give as 〈◊〉 to the sick as to the whole whom you would preserve from this coâ—tagion every day a spoonful 〈◊〉 two of this powder in a pinte of good Wine so long as you shall see it needful This 〈◊〉 before rehearsed is called of the ancient writers Diapente that is to say a composition 〈…〉 simples and is praised to be a soveraign medicine and preservative against all inward diseases and therefore they would have such as travell by the way to carry of this powder alwayes 〈◊〉 them There be many other medicines which I leave to write because if I should rehearse every 〈◊〉 medicine my book would be infinite I for my part would use no other then that before expressed or else Wine and Treacle only Of the Diseases in the Head THe head is subject to divers diseases according to the divers parts thereof for in the panicles or little fine skins cleaving to the bones and covering the brain do most properly breed head-ach and Migram Again in the substance of the brain which in a Horse is as much in quantity as is almost the brain of a mean Hog do breed the Frensie madness sleeping evill the Palsie and forgetfulness Finally in the ventricles or cels of the brain and in those conducts through which the spirits animal do give feeling and moving to the body do breed the Turnsick or staggers the Falling-evill the Night-mare the Apoplexy the Palsie and the Convulsion or Cramp the Catar or Rhume which in a Horse is called the Glaunders but first of Head-ach Of Head-ach THe Head-ach either cometh of some inward causes as of some cholerick humor bred in the the panicles of the brain or else of some outward cause as of extream heat or cold of some blow or of some violent savour Eumelus saith that it cometh of raw digestion but Martin saith most commonly of cold the signes be these the Horse will hang down his head and also hang down his ears his sight will be dim his eyes swollen and waterish and he will forsake his meat The cure Let him bloud in the palat of his mouth also purge his head with this perfume Take of Garlike stalks a handful all to broken in short pieces and a good quantity of Frankincense and being put into a chafing-dish of fresh coals hold the chafing-dish under the Horses nostrils so as the fume may ascend up into his head and in using him thus once or twice it will make him to cast at the nose and so purge his head of all filth Pelagonius saith that it is good to pour into his nostrils Wine wherein hath been sodden Euforbium Centaury and Frankincense Of the Frenzy and Madness of a Horse THe learned Physitians do make divers kindes as well of Frensie as of Madness which are not needful to be recited sith I could never read in any Author nor learn of any Farriar that a Horse were subject to the one half of them Absyrtus Hierocles Eumelus Pelagonius and Hippocrates do write simply de furore rabie that is to say of the madness of a Horse But indeed Vegetius in his second Book of Horse-leach-craft seemeth to make four mad passions belonging to a Horse intituling his Chapters in this sort de Appioso de Frenetico de Cardiacis de Rabioso the effects thereof though I fear me it will be to no great purpose yet to content such as perhaps have read the Author as well as I my self I will here briefly rehearse the same When some naughty bloud saith he doth strike the film or pannicle of the brain in one part only and maketh the same grievously to ake then the beast becometh Appiosum that is to say as it seemeth by his own words next following both dull of minde and of sight This word Appiosum is a strange word and not to be found again in any other Author and because in this passion the one side of the head is only grieved the Horse turneth round as though he went in a Mill. But when the poyson of such corrupt bloud doth infect the mid brain then the Horse becometh Frantick and will leap and fling and will run against the wals And if such bloud filleth the veins of the stomach or breast then it infecteth as well the heart as the brain and causeth alienation of minde and the body to sweat and this disease is called of Vegetius Passocardiaca which if Equus Appiosus chance to have then he becometh Rabiosus that is to say stark-mad For saith he by overmuch heat of the liver and bloud the veins and arteries of the heart are choaked up for grief and pain whereof the Horse biteth himself and gnaweth his own flesh Of two sorts of mad Horses I believe I have seen my self here in this Realm For I saw once a black Sweatbland Horse as I took him to be in my Lord of Hunsdons stable at Hunsdon coming thither by chance with my Lord Morley which Horse would stand all day long biting of the manger and eat little meat or none suffering no man to approach unto him by which his doings and partly by his colour and complexion I judged him to be vexed with a melancholy madness called of the Physitians Mania or rather Melancholia which cometh of a corrupt Melancholy and filthy bloud or humor sometime spread throughout all the veins of the body and sometimes perhaps remaining only in the head or else in the spleen or places next adjoyning The other mad Horse was a Roan of Master Ashlies Master of the Jewel house which with his teeth crushed his Masters right fore-finger in pieces whilest he offered him a little Hay to eat whereby he lost in a manner
it be a melancholy humor and abounding over-much it waxeth every day thicker and thicker causing obstruction not only in the veins arteries which is to be perceived by heaviness and grief on the left side but also in the Spleen it self whereas by vertue of the heat it is hardned every day more and more and so by little and little waxeth to a hard knob which doth not only occupy all the substance of the Spleen but also many times all the left side of the womb and thereby maketh the evill accidents or griefs before recited much more than they were Now as touching the inflamation of the Spleen which chanceth very seldom for so much as every inflamation proceedeth of pure bloud which seldom entereth into the Spleen I shall not need to make many words but refer you over to the Chapter of the Liver for in such case they differ not but proceeding of like cause have also like signes and do require like cure The old Writers say that Horses be often grieved with grief in the Spleen and specially in Summer season with greedy eating of sweet green meats aâ—d they call those Horses Lâ—enoâ—os that is to say Spleenetick The signes whereof say they are these hard swelling on the left side short breath often groning and greedy appetite to meat The remedy whereof according to Absyrtus is to make a Horse to sweat once a day during a certain time by riding him or otherwise travelling him and to pour into his left nostril every day the juyce of Mirabolans mingled with Wine and Water amounting in all to the quantity of a pinte But me thinks it would do him more good if he drank it as Hierocles would have him to do Eumelius praiseth this drink Take of Cummin seed and of Honey of each six ounces and of Laserpitium as much as a Bean of Vinegar a pinte and put all these into three quarts of water and let it stand so all night and the next morning give the Horse thereof to drink being kept over night fasting Theomnestus praiseth the decoction of Capers especially if the bark of the root thereof may be gotten sodden in water to a syrup Or else make him a drink of Garlick Nitrum Hore-hound and Wormwood sodden in harsh Wine and he would have the left side to be bathed in warm water and to be hard rubbed And if all this will not help then to give him the fire which Absyrtus doth not allow saying the Spleen lyeth so as it cannot easily be fired to do him any good But for so much as the Liver and Spleen are members much occupied in the ingendring and separating of humors many evill accidents and griefs do take their first beginning of them as the Jaundise called in a Horse the yellows driness of body and Consumption of the flesh without any apparent cause why which the Physitians call Atrophia also evill habit of the body called of them Cachexid and the Dropsie But first we will speak of the Jaundise or Yellows Of the Yellows THe Physitians in a mans body do make two kindes of Jaundise that is to say the Yellow proceeding of choler dispersed throughout the whole body and dying the skin yellow and the Black proceeding of melancholy dispersed likewise throughout the whole body and making all the skin black And as the yellow Jaundise cometh for the most part either by obstruction or stopping of the conduits belonging to the bladder of the gall which as I said before is the receptacle of choler or by some inflamation of the Liver whereby the bloud is converted into choler and so spreadeth throughout the body even so the black Jaundise cometh by mean of some obstruction in the Liver-vein that goeth to the Spleen not suffering the Spleen to do his office in receiving the dregs of the â—loud from the Liver wherein they abound too much or else for that the Spleen is already too full of dregs and so sheddeth them back again into the veins But as for the Black Jaundise they have not been observed to be in Horses as in Men by any of our â—arriers in these days that I can learn And yet the old Writers of Horse-leech-craft do seem to make two kindes of Jaundise called of them Cholera that is to say the dry choler and also the moist choler The signes of the dry choler as absyrtus saith is great heat in the body and costiyeness of the belly whereof it is said to be dry Moreover the Horse will not covet to ly down because he is so pained in his body and his mouth will be hot and dry It cometh as he saith by obstruction of the conduit whereby the choler should resort into the bladder of the gall and by obstruction also of the urine vessels so as he cannot stale The cure according to his experience is to give him a Glyster made of Oyl Water and Nitrum and to give him no provender before that you have raked his fundament and to pour the decoction of Mallows mingled with sweet Wine into his nostrils and let his meat be grass or else sweet Hay sprinkled with Nitre and Water and he must rest from labour and be often rubbed Hierocles would have him to drink the decoction of wilde Coleworts sodden in Wine Again of the moist choler of Jaundise these are the signes The Horses eyes will look yellow and his nostrils will open wide his ears and his flancks will sweat and his stale will be yellow and cholerick and he will grone when he lyeth down which disease the said Absyrtus was wont to heal as he saith by giving the Horse a drink made of Thyme and Cumin of each like quantity stampt together and mingled with Wine Honey and Water and also by letting him bloud in the pasterns This last disease seemeth to differ nothing at all from that which our Farriers call the Yellows The signes whereof according to Martin be these The Horse will be faint and sweat as he standeth in the stable and forsake his meat and his eyes 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 bloud in the neck-vein a good quantity and then give him this drink Take of white Wine of Ale a quart and put thereunto of Saffron Turmerick of each half an ounce and the juyce that is wrung out of a handful of Celandine and being luke-warm give it the Horse to drink and keep him warm the space of three or four days giving him warm water with a little Bran in it Of the Yellows THe Yellows is a general disease in Horses and differ nothing from the yellow Jaundise in men It is mortal and many Horses die thereof the signes to know it is thus pull down the lids of the Horses eyes and the white of the eye will be yellow the inside of his lips will be yellow and gums the cure followeth First let him bloud
in the palat of his mouth that he may suck up the same then give him this drink Take of strong Ale a quart of the green or dure of Geese strained three or four spoonfuls of the juyce of Celandine as much of Saffron half an ounce mix these together and being warm give it the Horse to drink Of the evill habit of the Body and of the Dropsie AS touching the driness and Consumption of the flesh without any apparent cause why called of the Physitians as I said before Atrophia I know not what to say more then I have already before in the Chapter of Consumption of the flesh and therefore resort thither And as for the evill habit of the body which is to be evill coloured heavy dull and of no force strength nor liveliness cometh not for lack of nutriment but for lack of good nutriment for that the bloud is corrupted with flegm choler or melancholy proceeding either from the Spleen or else through weakness of the stomach or liver causing evill digestion or it may come by foul feeding yea and also for lack of moderate exercise The Evill habit of the body is next cousen to the Dropsie whereof though our Farriers have had no experience yet because mine old Authors writing of Horse-leech-craft do speak much thereof I think it good here briefly 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 proceeds I think it meet first therefore to declare unto you the causes thereof according to the doctrine of the learned Physitians which in mans body do make three kindes of Dropsies calling the first Anasarca the second Ascites and the third Timpanias Anasarca is an universal swelling of the body through the abundance of the water sying betwixt the skin and the flesh and differeth not from the disease last mentioned called Cachexia that is to say Evill habit of the bloud saving that the body is more swoln in this then in Cachexia albeit they proceed both of like causes as of coldness and weakness of the liver or by means that the heart spleen stomach and other members serving to digestion be grieved or diseased Ascites is a swelling in the covering of the belly called of the Physitians Abdomen comprehending both the skin the fat eight muscles and the film or panicle called Peritoneum through the abundance of some whayish humor entred into the same which besides the causes before alleadged proceedeth most chiefly by means that some of the vessels within be broken or rather cracked out of the which though the bloud being somewhat gross cannot issue forth yet the whayish humor being subtil may run out into the belly like water distilling through a cracked pot Timpanias called of us commonly the Timpany is a swelling of the aforesaid covering of the belly through the abundance of winde entred into the same which winde is inge 〈…〉 ered of crudity and evill digestion and whilest it aboundeth in the stomach or other intrails finding no issue out it breaketh in violently through the small conduits among the panicles of the aforesaid covering not without great pain to the patient and so by tossing to and fro windeth at length into the space of the covering it self But surely such winde cannot be altogether void of moisture Notwithstanding the body swelleth not so much with this kinde of Dropsie as with the other kinde called Ascites The signes of the Dropsie is shortness of breath swelling of the body evill colour lothing of meat and great desire to drink especially in the Dropsie called Ascites in which also the belly will sound like a bottle half full of water but in the Timpany it will sound like a Taber But now though mine Authors make not so many kindes of Dropsies yet they say all generally that a Horse is much subject to the Dropsie The signes according to Absyrtus and Hierocles be these His belly legs and stones will be swoln but his back buttocks and flancks will be dryed and shrunk up to the very bones Moreover the veins of his face and temples and also the veins under his tongue will be so hidden as you cannot see them and if you thrust your finger hard against his body you shall leave the print thereof behinde for the flesh lacking natural heat will not return again to his place and when the Horse lyeth down he spreadeth himself abroad not being able to lie round together on his belly and the hair of his back by rubbing will fall away Pelagonius in shewing the signes of the Dropsie not much differing from the Physitians first recited seemeth to make two kindes thereof calling the one the Timpany which for difference sake may be called in English the Winde Dropsie and the other the Water Dropsie Notwithstanding both have one cure so far as I can perceive which is in this sort Let him be warm covered and walked a good while together in the Sun to provoke sweat and let all his body be well and often rubbed alongst the hair and let him feed upon Coleworts Smallage and Elming boughs and on all other things that may loosen the belly or provoke urine and let his common meat be grass if it may be gotten if not then Hay sprinkled with Water and Nitrum It is good also to give 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 have him to drink Parsly stampt with Wine or the root of the herb called in Latine Panax with Wine But if the swelling of the belly will not decrease for all this then slit a little hole under his belly a handful behinde the navil and put into that hole a hollow reed or some other pipe that the water or winde may go out not all at once but by little and little at divers times and beware that you make not the hole over wide lest the kall of the belly fall down thereunto and when all the water is clean run out then heal up the wound as you do all other wounds and let the Horse drink as little as is possible Of the Evil habit of the Stomach IF your Horse either by inward sickness or by present surfeit grow to a loath of his meat or by weakness of his stomach cast up his meat and drink this shall be the cure for the same First in all the drink he drinks let him have the powder of hot Spices as namely of Ginger Anise seeds Licoras Cinamon and Pepper then blow up into his nostrils the powder of Tobacco to occasion him to neese instantly after he hath eaten any meat for an hour together after let one stand by him and hold at his nose a piece of sowre leaven steept in Vinegar then anoint all his breast over with the Oyl of Ginnuper and Pepper mixt
matter Of this kinde is that disease called before Tenasmus for that is an ulcer in the right gut serving the fundament and doth proceed even as the flux doth of some sharp humors which being violently driven and having to pass through many crooked and narrow ways do cleave to the guts and with their sharpness fret them causing exulceration and grievous pain The flux also may come of some extream cold heat or moistness or by mean of receiving some violent purgation having therein over-much Scammony or such like violent simple or through weakness of the Liver or other members serving to digestion Now as touching the falling out of the fundament the Physitians say that it cometh through the resolution or weakness of the muscles serving to draw up the fundament which resolution may come partly by over-much straining and partly they may be loosened by over-much moisture for which cause children being full of moisture are more subject to this disease then men And for the self same cause I think that Horses having very moist bodies be subject thereunto Thus having shewed you the causes of the diseases before recited I will shew you the cure prescribed by the old Writers Absyrtus would have the fundament on the outside to be cut round about but so as the inward ring thereof be not touched for that were dangerous and would kill the Horse for so much as his fundament would never abide within his body and that done he would have you to give him to drink the powder of unripe Pomgranate shels called in Latine Malicorium together with Wine and Water which indeed because it is astringent is not to be misliked but as for cutting of the fundament I assure you I cannot judge what he should mean thereby unless it be to widen the fundament by giving it long slits or cuts on the outside but well I know that it may cause more pain and greater inflamation And therefore me thinks it were better in this case to follow the Physitians precepts which is first to consider whether the fundament being fallen out be inflamed or not for if it be not inflamed then it shall be good to anoint it first with Oyl of Roses somewhat warmed or else to wash it with warm red Wine But if it be inflamed then to bathe it well first with a spunge dipt in the decoction of Mallows Camomile Linseed and Fenigreek and also to anoint it well with Oyl of CÃ momile and Dill mingled together to asswage the swelling and then to thrust it in again fair and softly with a soft linnen cloth That done it shall be good to bathe all the place about with red red Wine wherein hath been sodden Acatium Galles Acorn cups parings of Quinces and such like simples as be astringent and then to throw on some astringent powder made of Bole Armony Frankincense Sanguis Draconis Myrrhe Acatium and such like yea and also to give the Horse this drink much praised of all the old Writers Take of Saffron one ounce of Myrrhe two ounces of the herb called in Latine Abrotonum named in some of our English Herbals Southernwood 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 Hysop of each two ounces of Cassia which is like Cinamon one ounce Let all these things be beaten in fine powder and then mingled with Chalk and strong Vinegar wrought into paste of which paste make little cakes and dry them in the shadow and being dryed dissolve some of them in a sufficient quantity of Barly milk or juyce called of the old Writers and also of the Physitians Cremor Ptisanae and give to the Horse to drink thereof with a horn for the medicine as the Authors write doth not only heal the Bloudy-flix and the other two diseases before recited but also if it be given with a quart of warm water it will heal all grief and pain in the belly and also of the bladder that cometh for lack of staling And being given with sweet Wine is will heal the biting of any Serpent or mad Dog Of the Worms IN a Horses guts do breed three kindes of Worms even as there doth in Mans body though they be not altogether like in shape The first long and round even like to those that children do most commonly void and are called by the general name Worms The second little worms having great heads and small long tails like a needle and be called bots The third be short and thick like the end of a mans little finger and therefore be cald Troncheons and though they have divers shapes according to the diversity of the place perhaps where they breed or else according to the figure of the putrified matter whereby they breed yet no doubt they proceed all of one cause that is to say of a raw gross and flegmatick matter apt to putrifaction ingendered most commonly by foul feeding and as they proceed of one self cause so also have they like signes and like cure The signes be these The Horse will forsake his meat for the Troncheons and the Bots will covet always to the maw and pain him sore He will also lie down and wallow and standing he will stamp and strike at his belly with his hinder-foot and look often toward his belly The cure according to Martin is thus Take of sweet Milk a quart of Honey a quartern and give it him luke-warm and walk him up and down for the space of an hour and so let him rest for that day with as little meat or drink as may be and suffer him not to lie down Then the next day give him this drink Take of Herb-grace a handful of Savin as much and being well stampt put thereunto a little Brimstone and a little Soot of a Chimney beaten into fine powder and put all these things together in a quart of Wort or Ale and there let them lie steep the space of an hour or two then strain it well through a fair cloth and give it the Horse to drink luke-warm then bridle him and walk him up and down the space of an hour that done bring him into the stable and let him stand on the bit two or three hours then give him a little Hay Laurentius Russius saith that it is good to give the Horse the warm guts of a young Hen with a Salt three days together in the morning and not to let him drink untill it be noon Some say that it is good to ride him having his bit first anointed with dung coming hot from the man some again use to give him a quantity of Brimstone and half as much Rozen beaten into powder and mingled together with his provender which he must eat a good while before he drinketh I have found by often tryal that if you give the Horse with a horn a good pretty dishful of Salt brine be it flesh brine or Cheese
to drink Absyrtus would have you to give him white Pepper Rhue and Thyme to drink with the Wine Of drinking of Horse-leaches IF a Horse chance to drink Horse-leaches they will continually suck his bloud and kill him The remedy according to Absyrtus is to pour Oyl into the Horses mouth which will make them to fall away and kill them Of swallowing down Hens dung IF a Horse swallow down Hens dung in his Hay it will fret his guts and make him to avoid filthy matter at the fundament For remedy whereof Absyrtus would have you to give him drink made of Smallage-seed Wine and Hony and to walk him throughly upon it that he may empty his belly Of Lice and how to kill them THey be like Geese Lice but somewhat bigger they will breed most about the ears neck and tail and over all the body They come of poverty and the Horse will be alwayes rubbing and scratching and will eat his meat and not prosper withal and with rubbing he will break all his mane and tail The cure according to Martin is thus Anoint the place with Sope and Quicksilver well mingled together and to a pound of Sope put half an ounce of Quicksilver Of Lousiness THere be Horses that will be Lousie and it cometh of poverty cold and ill keeping and it is oftnest amongst young Horses and most men take little heed unto it and yet they will die thereon The cure is to wash them three mornings together in Stau-aker and warm water How to save Horses from the stinging of flies in Summer ANoint the Horses coat with Oyle and Bay-beries mingled together or tie to the headstal of his collar a sponge dipt in strong Vinegar or sprinkle the stable with water wherein Herb-grace hath been laid in steep or perfume the stable with Ivie or with Calamint or with Gith burned in a pan of coles Of bones being broken out of joynt FEw or none of our Farriers do intermeddle with any such griefs but do refer it over to the Bonesetter whose practised hand I must needs confesse to be needful in such business Notwithstanding for that it belongeth to the Farriers art and also for that the old writers do make some mention thereof I thought good not to passe it over altogether with silence Albeit they speak only of fractures in the legs beneath the knee For they make little mention or none of bones above the knee taking them to be incurable unlesse it be a rib or such like If a bone then be broken in the leg it is easie to perceive by feeling the roughness and inequality of the place grieved one part being higher then another The cure whereof according to Absyrtus and Hierocles is in this sort First put the bone again into his right place that done wrap it about with unwash't wool binding it fast to the leg with a small linnen roller soaked before in Oyl and Vinegar mingled together And let that roller be laid on as even as is possible and upon that again lay more wool dipt in Oyl and Vinegar 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 days and let not the bonds be loosened above three times in twenty days unless it shrink and so require to be new drest and bound again But fail not every day once to pour on the sore place through the splents Oyl and Vinegar mingled together And at the forty dayes end if you perceive that the broken place be â—owdered together again with some hard knob or gristle then loosen the bonds so as the Horse may go fair and softly using from that time forth to anoint the place with some soft grease or Ointment Of broken bones I Have not for mine own part had any great experience in broken bones of a Horse because it chanceth seldom and when it doth chance what through the Horses brutish unruliness and the immoderate manner of the act it is almost held incurable yet for the little experience I have I have not found for this purpose any thing so soverain or absolute good as Oyl of Mandrag which applyed conglutinateth and bindeth together any thing especially bones being either shivered or broken Of bones out of joynt IF a Horses knee or shoulder be clean out of joynt and no bone broken Martin saith the readiest way is to bind all the four legs together in such sort as hath been taught before in the Chapter of Incording and then to hoise the Horse somewhat from the ground with his heels upward so shall the weight and poise of his body cause the joynt to shoot in again into the right place for by this means he pleasured not long since a friend and neighbour of his who going with his Cart from S. Albons towards his own house his Thiller fell and put his shoulder clean out of joynt so as he was neither able to rise nor being holpen up could stand on his legs to which mischance Martin being called made no more ado but taking his friends Cart-rope bound the Horses legs all four together and with a lever being staid upon the Cart wheel they putting their shoulders to the other end hoised up the Horse clean from the ground the poise of whose body made the bone to return into his right place with such a loud knack or crack as it might be heard a great way off and the Horse immediately had the use of his leg so as he drew in the Cart and went also safe home without complaining thereof ever after Certain receipts of Plaisters very good for broken bones taken out of the old Authors writing of Horse-leach craft TAke of Spuma argenti of Vinegar of each one pound of Sallet Oyl half a pound of Ammoniacum and Turpentine of each three ounces of Wax of Rosin of each two ounces of Bitumen of Pitch of Verdigrease of each half a pound Boyl the Vinegar Oyl and Spuma argenti together until it wax thick then put thereunto the Pitch which being molten take the pot from the fire and put in the Bitumen without stirring it at all and that being also molten then put in all the rest and set the pot again to the fire and let them boyl all together until they be all united in one that done strain it and make it in a plaister form and this is called Hierocles Plaister Another receit for broken bones TAke of liquid Pitch one pound of Wax two ounces of the purest and finest part of Frankincense one ounce of Ammoniacum four ounces of dry Roses and of Galbanum of each one ounce of Vinegar two pintes Boyl first the Vinegar and Pitch together then put in the Ammoniacum dissolved first in Vinegar and after that all the rest of the aforesaid drugs and after they have boyled together and be united in one strain it and make it plaisterwise and this is
doth also very well drive away the corruption in mens body which doth cause the bloud to stinke if it be well and justly applyed unto the corrupt place The same also being mingled with Oyl of Roses and new made and so applyed unto the ears doth not only drive away the pain but also doth very much help for hearing There is another remedy also for the hearing which is this to take the dung of a Horse which is new made and to make it hot in a furnace and then to 〈◊〉 it on the middle of the head against the Vvâ—â—a and afterward to 〈◊〉 the aforesaid dung 〈…〉 woollen cloth unto the top of the head in the night time The dung of a young Asse when he is first foaled given in Wine to the quantity or magnitude of a Bean is a present remedy for either man or woman who is troubled with the Jaundice or the over-flowing of the gall and the same property hath the dung of a young Horse or Cost when he is new foaled But the dung of an old Horse being boiled in fair w 〈…〉 and afterward strained and so given to the party to drink who is troubled with Water in his belly or stomach doth presently make vent for the â—ame There is also an excellent remedy against the Colick and Stone which is this to â—ake a handfull of the dung of a Horse which hath been fed with 〈◊〉 and Barly and not with grasse and mingle very well it with half a pinte of Wine all which I do 〈◊〉 will amount unto the weight of eight 〈…〉 ounces and then boyl them all together untill half of them be boyled or consumed away and then drink the same by little and little until it be all drunk up but it will be much better for the party that is troubled to drink it up all together if he be able There is moreover a very good and easie way by Horse dung to cure the Ague or 〈…〉 which is thus to burn the foresaid dung and to mingle the very 〈◊〉 it self thereof in old wine and then beat it unto small powder and so give it 〈◊〉 the party who is 〈…〉 bled therewith to drink or suck without any water in it and this will very speedily procure ease and help â—f that a woman supposeth her childe which is in her womb to be dead let her drink the milt or spleen of a Horse in some sweet water not to the smell but to the taste and she will presently cast the childe The same virtue are in the persume which is made of a Horses hoof as also in the dry dung of a Horse There is some which do use this means against the falling sickness or the sickness called Saint Johns evill that is to mingle the water or urine which a Horse doth make with the water which cometh from the Smiths trough and so to give it the party in a potion There is a very good help for Cattel which do avoid bloud through their Nostrils or secret parts which is this to make a paste of Wheat flowre and beat it and mingle it together with â—utter and Egges in the urine of a Horse which hath lately drunk and afterward to give that paste or 〈…〉 tess baked even to ashes to the beast so grieved To provoke urine when a mans yard is stopt there is nothing so excellent as the dung or filth which proceedeth from the urine 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 certain Tetters or Ring-wormes in the knees of Horses and a little above the hoofs in the bending of these parts there are indurate and hardned thick skins which being beaten into small powder and mingled with Vinegar and so drunk are an exceeding good preservative against the Falling-sickness the samé is also a very good remedy for them which are bitten with any wilde Beast whatsoever By the Tetter or Ring-worm which groweth in a Horses knees or above the hoofs beaten and mingled with Oyle and so poured in the ears the teeth of either man or woman which were weak and loose will be made very strong and fast The aforesaid Tetter without any mingling with Oyl doth also heal and cure the head-ache and Falling-sickness in either man or woman The same also being drunk out of Clarret Wine or Muscadel for forty dayes together doth quite expell and drive away the Colick and Stone If that any man do get and put up the shooe of a Horse being struck from his hoof as he travelleth in his pace which doth many times happen it will be an excellent remedy for him against the sobbing in the stomach called the Hicket Of the HYAENA and the divers kinds thereof WE are now to discourse of a Beast whereof it is doubtful whether the names or the kinds thereof be more in number and therefore to begin with the names it seemeth to me in general that it is the same Beast which is spoken of in Holy Scripture and called Zeeb-ereb and Araboth Zephan 3. Principes urbis Hierosolymae velut Leones Iâ—gientes judices ejus similes sunt lupis Vesper 〈…〉 is qui ossa non relinquunt ad diluculum Their Princes are roaring Lions and their Judges are like to night-wolves which leave not the bones till the morning as it is vulgarly translated In like sort Jer. 5. calleth them Zeeb-Araboath Wolves of the wilderness and the Prophet Habakkuk Cap. 1. useth the word Zeeb-ereb Wolves of the evening By which it is made easie to consider and discusse what kinde of Beasts this Hyaena may be deemed for the Hyaena as I shall shew afterward is a Greek word And first of all I utterly seclude all their opinions which translate this word Arabian Wolves for the Hebrew notes cannot admit such a version or exposition But seeing we read in Oppianus and Tzetzes that there are kinds of Wolves which are called Harpages more hungry then the residue living in Mountains very swift of foot and in the Winter time coming to the gates of Cities and devouring both flesh and bones of every living creature they can lay hold on especially Dogs and men and in the morning go away again from their prey I take them to be the same Beasts which the Grecians call Hyaenae which is also the name of a Fish much like in nature hereunto It is also called Glanos and by the Phrygians and Bythinians Ganos and from one of these came the Illyrian or Sclavonian word San and it seemeth that the Grecians have given it a name from Swine because of the gristles growing on the back for an Hyaena can have no better derivation then from Hus or Hyn. Julius Capitolinus calleth it Belbus in Latin in the same place where he recordeth that there were decem Belbi sub Gordiano ten Hyaenaes in the days of
came gaping at him to devour him having wrapped his arme in his linnen garment held him fast by the tongue untill he stopped his breath and slew him for which cause he was ever afterwards the more loved and honored of Alexander having at the time of his death the command of all his treasure In like sort I will not be afraid to handle this Lion and to look into him both dead and alive for the expressing of so much of his nature as I can probably gather out of any good writer First of all therefore to begin with his several names almost all the Nations of Europe do follow the Greeks in the nomination of this Beast for they call him Leon the Latines Leo the Italians Leone the French and English Lion the Germans and Illyrians Lew the reason of the Greek name Leon is taken â—ara to leussein from the excellency of his sight or from Laoo signifying to see and Alaos signifyeth blinde for indeed there is no creature of the quantity of a Lion that hath such an admirable eye-sight The Lionesse called in Greek Leaena which word the Latines follow from whence also they derive Lea for a Lionesse according to this Verse of Lucretius Irritata Leae jaciebant corpora saltu The Hebrews have for this Beast male and female and their young ones divers names and first of all for the male Lion in Deut 33. they have Ari and Atieh where the Caldeans translate it Ariavan the Arabians Asad the Persians Gehad and plurally in Hebrew Araiius Araâ—ot Araâ—th as in the first of Zeph. Araoth Scbojanim roaring Lions and from hence comes Ariel signifying valiant and strong to be the name of a Prince and Isai 20. Ezek. 43. it is taken for the Alcar of Burnt-offerings because the fire that came down from heayen did continually lie upon that Altar like a Lion in his den or else because the fashion of the temple was like the proportion of the Lion the Assyrians call a Lionesse Arioth the Hebrews also call the male Lion Lâ—bi and the female Lebia and they distinguish Ari and Labi making Ari to signifie a little Lion and Labi a great one and in Num. 23. in this verse containing one of Gods promises to the people of Israel for victory against their enemies Behold my people shall arise like Labi and be lifted up like Ari there the Caldee translation rendereth Labi Leta the Arabian Jebu the Persians Seher and Munster saith that Labi is an old Lion In Job 38 Lebaim signifieth Lions and in Psal 57. Lebaâ—â— signifieth Lionesses In the Prophet Nahum the 2. Leisch is by the Hebrews translated a Lion and the same word Isa the 30. is by the Caldees translated a Lions whelpe and in the aforesaid place of the Prophet Nihum you shall finde Arieb for a Lion for a Lionesse Cephirim for little Lions 〈◊〉 and Gur for a Lions whelp all contained under one period The 〈◊〉 call a Lion at this day Sebey And thus much for the name In the next place we are to consider the kinds of Lions and those are according to Aristotle two the first of a lesse and well compacted body which have curled manes being therefore called Acro-Leonies and this is more sluggish and fearful then the other The second kinde of Lion hath a longer body and a deeper loose hanging mane these are more noble generous and couragious against all kinds of wounds And when I speak of manes it must be remembred that all the male Lions are maned but the females are not so neither the Leopards which are begotten by the adultery of the Lionesse for from the Lion there are many Beasts which receive procreation as the Leopard or Panther There is a beast called Leontophonus a little creature in Syria and is bred no where else but where Lions are generated Of whose flesh if the Lion taste he loseth that Princely power which beareth rule among four-footed beasts and presently dyeth for which cause they which lie in waite to kill Lions take the body of this Leontophonus which may well be Englished Lion-queller and burneth it to ashes afterwards casting those ashes upon flesh whereof if the Lion taste she presently dyeth so great is the poison taken out of this beast for the destruction of Lions for which cause the Lion doth not undeservedly hate it and when she findeth it although she dare not touch it with her teeth yet she teareth it in pieces with her claws The urine also of this beast sprinkled upon a Lion doth wonderfully harm him if it doth not destroy him They are deceived that take this Lion-queller to be a kinde of Worm or reptile creature for there is none of them that render urine but this excrement is meerly proper to four-footed living-beasts And thus much I thought good to say of this beast in this place which I have collected out of Aristotle Pliny Solinus and other Authors aforesaid although his proper place be afterward among the Lions enemies The Chimaera is also faigned to be compounded of a Lion a Goat 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 Isle Taprobane having the heads of Lions Panthers Rams and other beasts The Tygers of Prasta are also engendred of Lions and are twice so big as they There are also Lions in India called Formicae about the bigness of Egyptian Wolves Camalopardales have their hinder parts like Lions The Mantichora hath the body of a Lion The Leucrocuta the neck tail and breast like a Lion and there is an allogorical thing cald Daemonium Leoninum a Lion Devil which by Bellunensis is interpreted to be an allegory signifying the mingling together reasonable understanding with malicious hurtful actions It is reported also by Aelianus that in the Island of Cheos a Sheep 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 seen and considered of many whereof divers gave their opinions what it did portend namely that Nicippus of a private man should effect superiority and become a Tyrant which shortly after came to passe for he ruled all by force and violence not with fraud or mercy for Fraus saith Cicero quasi Vulpeculae vis Leonis esse videtur that is Fraud is the property of a Foâ— and violence of a Lion It is reported that Meles the first King of Sardis did beget of his Concubine a Lion and the Sooth-sayers told him that on what side soever of the City he should lead that Lion it should remain inexpugnable and never be taken by any man whereupon Meles led him about every tower and rampier of the City which he thought was weakest except only one tower standing towards the River Tmolus because he thought that side was invincible and could never by any force be
Ardentesque faces quas quamvia savids horret For as they are inwardly filled with natural fire for which cause by the Egyptians they were dedicated to Vulcan so are they the more afraid of all outward fire and so suspicious is he of his welfare that if he tread upon the rinde or bark of Oke or the leaves of Osyer he trembleth and standeth amazed And Democritus affirmeth that there is a certain herb growing no where but in Armenia and Cappadocta which being laid to a Lion maketh him to fall presently upon his back and he upward without stirring and gaping with the whole breadth of his mouth the reason whereof Pliny faith is because it cannot be bruised There is no Beast more desirous of copulation then a Lioness and for this cause the males oftentimes fall forth for sometimes eight ten or twelve males follow one Lioness like so many Dogs one salt Bitch for indeed their natural constitution is so not that at all times of the year both sexes desire copulation although Aristotle seemeth to be against it because they bring forth only in the spring The Lioness as we have shewed already committeth adultery by lying with the Libbard for which thing she is punished by her male if she wash not her self before she come at him but when she is ready to be delivered she flyeth to the lodgings of the Libbards and there among them 〈◊〉 deth her young ones which for the most part are males for if the male Lion finde them he knoxeth them and destroyeth them as a bastard and adultenous issue and when she goeth to give them suck she saigneth as though she went to hunting By the copulation of a Lioness and an Hyaena is the Ethiopian Crocuta brought forth The Arcadian Dogs called Leontomiges were also generated betwixt Dogs and Lions In all her life long she beareth but once and that but one at a time as Esop seemeth to set down in that fable where he expresseth that contention between the Lioness and the Fox about the generosity of their young ones the Fox objecteth to the Lioness that she bringeth forth but one whelp at a time but he on the contrary begetteth many cubs wherein he taketh great delight unto whom the Lioness maketh this answer Parere se quidem unum sed Leonem that is to say she bringeth sorth indeed but one yet that one is a Lion for one Lion is better then a thousand Foxes and true generosity consisteth not in popularity or multitude but in the gifts of the minde joyned with honorable descent The Lionesses of Syria bear five times in their life at the first time five afterwards but one and lastly they remain barren Herodotus speaking of other Lions saith they never bear but one and that only once whereof he giveth this reason that when the whelp beginneth to stir in his Dams belly the length of his claws pierce through her matrix and so growing greater and greater by often turning leaveth nothing whole so that when the time of littering cometh she casteth forth her whelp and her womb both together after which time she can never bear more but I hold this for a fable because Homer Pliny Oppianus Solinus Philes and Aelianus affirm otherwise contrary and besides experience sheweth the contrary When Apollonius travelled from Babylon by the way they saw a Lioness that was killed by hunters the Beast was of a wonderful bigness such a one as was never seen about her was a great cry of the Hunters and of other neighbours which had flocked thither to see the monster not wondering so much at her quantity as that by opening of her belly they found within her eight whelps whereat Apollonius wondring a little told his companions that they-travelling now into India should be a year and eight moneths in their journey for the one Lion signified by his skill one year and the eight young ones eight moneths The truth is that a Lion beareth never above 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 proveth greater and fuller of stomach then the other before him wherefore nature having in that accomplished her perfection giveth over to bring forth any more Within two moneths after the Lioness hath conceived the whelps are perfected in her womb and at six moneths are brought forth blinde weak and some are of opinion without life which so do remain three dayes together untill 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 dayes and three nights after their littering they do nothing but sleep and at last are awaked by the roaring of their father so that it should seem without controversie they are senseless for a certain space after their whelping At two moneths old they begin to run and walk They say also that the fortitude wrath and boldness of Lions is conspicuous by their heat the young one containeth much humidity contrived unto him by the temperament of his kinde which afterwards by the driness and calidity of his complection groweth viscous and slimie like bird-lime and through the help of the animal spirits prevaileth especially about his brain whereby the nerves are so stopped and the spirits excluded that all his power is not able to move him untill his parents partly by breathing into his face and partly by bellowing drive away from his brain that viscous humor these are the words of Physiologus whereby he goeth about to establish his opinion but herein I leave every man to his own judgment in the mean season admiring the wonderful wisdom of God which hath so ordered the several natures of his creatures that whereas the little Partridge can run so soon as it is out of the shell and the duckling the first day swim in the water with his dam yet the harmful Lions Bears Tygres and their whelps are not able to see stand or go for many moneths whereby they are exposed to destruction when they are young which live upon destruction when they are old so that in infancie God clotheth the weaker with more honor There is no creature that loveth her young ones better then the Lioness for both shepherds and hunters frequenting the mountains do oftentimes see how irefully she fighteth in their defence receiving the wounds of many Darts and the stroaks of many stones the one opening her bleeding body and the other pressing the bloud out of the wounds standing invincible never yielding till death yea death it self were nothing unto her so that her young ones might never be taken out of her Den for which cause Homer compareth Ajax to a Lioness fighting in the defence of the carcass of Patroclus It is also reported that the male will
of Claudius Caesar both of them in their several times tamed the untamed Beasts and escaped death Macarius being in the Wilderness or Mountains it fortuned a Lioness had a den neer unto his cell wherein she had long nourished blinde whelps to whom the holy man as it is reported gave the use of their eye and sight the Lioness requited the same with such gratification as lay in her power for she brought him very many sheep-skins to clothe and cover him Primus and Foelicianus Thracus Vitus Modestus and Crescentia all Martyrs being cast unto Lions received no harm by them at all but the beasts lay down at their feet and became came gentle and meek not like themselves but rather like Doves When a Bear and a Lion fell upon Tecla the Virgin a Martyr a Lioness came and fought eagerly in her defence against them both When Martina the daughter of a Consul could not be terrified or drawn from the Christian faith by any imprisonment chains or stripes nor allured by any fair words to sacrifice to Apollo there was a Lion brought forth to her at the commandment of Alexander the Emperor to destroy her who assoon as he saw her he lay down at her feet wagging his tail and fawning in a loving and fearful manner as if he had been more in love with her presence then desirous to lift up one of his hairs against her The like may be said of Daria a Virgin in the days of Numerian the Emperor who was defended by a Lioness but I spare to blot much paper with the recital of those things which if they be true yet the Authors purpose in their allegation is most profane unlawful and wicked because he thereby goeth about to establish miracles in Saints which are lone agone ceased in the Church of God Some Martyrs also have been devoured by Lions as Ignatius Bishop of Autioch Satyrus and Perpetua he under Trajan the Emperor and they under Valerian and Galienus 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 unto Jereboam to cry out against the Altar at Bathol and him that erected that Altar with charge that he should neither eat nor drink in that place Afterward an old Prophet which dwelt in that place hearing thereof came unto the Prophet and told him that God had commanded him to go after him and fetch him back again to his house to eat and drink wherewithal being deceived he came back with him contrary to the commandment of the Lord given to himself whereupon as they sat at meat 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 Ass not eating of them till the old Prophet came and took him away to bury him In the twentieth chapter of the same Book of Kings there is another story of a Prophet which as he went by the way he met with a man and â—ade him in the name of the Lord to wound and smite him but he would not preferring pity before the service of the Lord Well said the Prophet unto him seeing thou refusest to obey the voyce of the Lord Behold as soon as thâ—â— art departed a Lion shall meet thee and destroy thee and so it came to pass for being out of the presence of the Prophet a Iaon met him and tore him in pieces The Idolatrous people that were placed at Jerusalem by the King of Babel were destroyed by Lions and unto these examples of God his judgements I will adde other out of humane stories Paphages a King of Ambracia meeting a Lionese leading her whelps was suddenly set upon by her and torn in pieces upon whom Ovid made these verses Foeta tibi occurrat patrio popularis in arvo Sitque Paphageae causa leaena necis Hyas the brother of Hyades was also slain by a Lioness The people called Ambraciotae in Africk do most religiously worship a Lioness because a notable Tyrant which did opprese them was slain by such an one There is a Mountain neer the River Indus called Lnaus of a Shepheard so named which in that Mountain did most superstitiously worship the Moon and contemned all other Gods his sacrifices were performed in the night season at length saith the Author the Gods b 〈…〉 angry with him sent unto him a couple of Lions who tore him in pieces leaving no monument behinde but the name of the Mountain for the accident of his cruel death The Inhabitans of that Mountain wear in their ears a certain rich stone called 〈◊〉 which is very black and bred no where else but in that place There is a known story of the two Babylonian lovers Pyramus and Th 〈…〉 who in the night time had covenanted to meet at a Fountain new the sepulchre of Ninus and T 〈…〉 coming thither first as she â—ate by the Fountain a Lioness being thirsty came thither to drink water after the slaughter of an Ox at sight whereof Thisbe ran away and let fall her mantle which the Lioness finding tore it in pieces with her bloudy teeth Afterward came Pyramus and seeing her mantle all bloudy and torn asunder suspecting that she that loved him being before him at the appointed place had been killed by some wilde beast very inconsiderately drew forth his sword and thrust the same through his own body and being scarce dead Thisbe came again and seeing her lover lie in that distress as one love one cause one affection had drawn them into one place and there one fear had wrought one of their destructions she also sacrificed her self upon the point of one and the same sword There was also in Scythia a cruel Tyrant called Therodomas who was wont to cast men to Lions to be devoured of them and for that cause did nourish privately many Lions unto this cruelty did Ovid allude saying Therodomantaeos ut qui sensere Leones And again Non tibi Therodomas crudusque vocabitur Atreus Unto this discourse of the bloud-thirsty cruelty of Lions you may add the puissant glory of them who botlâ— in Sacred and prophane stories are said to have destroyed Lions When Sampson went down to Timnath it is said that a young Lion met him roaring to destroy him but the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he tore it in pieces like a Kid wherein he was a Type of Jesus Christ who in like sort being set upon by the roaring of the Devil and his members did with facility through his divine nature utterly overthrow the malice of the Devil Afterward Sampson went down to the Philistine woman whom be loved and returning found that Bees had entred into the Lions carcass and there builded whereupon he propounded this Riddle A vâ—raci exiit cibus ex forti egressa est
he smote them with Emrods in the bottom of their belly that is God punished them with Mice for he afflicted their bodies and the fruits of the earth for which cause cap. 6 they advice with themselves to send back again the Ark of the Lord with a present of Golden Mice Ovid Homer and Orpheus call Apollo Smyntheus for the Cretians in ancient time called Mice Smynthae Now the faigned cause thereof is thus related by Aelianus There was one Crinis which was a Priest of Apollo who neglected his daily sacrifice for the which through abundance of Mice he was deprived of the fruits of the earth for they devoured all At which loss Apollo himself was moved and taking pity of the misery appeared to one Hoâ—da a Neat-heard commanding 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 duty to offer them again diligently or else it would be far worse afterward Crinis upon the admonition amended the fault and immediately Apollo killed all the devouring Mice with his darts whereupon he was called Smyntheus Others again say that among the Aeolians at Troas and Hamaxitus they worshipped Mice and Apollo both together and that under his Altar they had meat and nourishment and also holes to live in safely and the reason was because once many thousand of Mice invaded the corn fields of Aeolia and Troy cutting down the same before it was ripe and also frustrating the husbandman of fruit and hope this evil caused them to go to Delphos to ask counsel at the Oracle what they should do to be delivered from that extremity where the Oracle gave answer that they should go sacrifice to Apollo Smyntheus and afterward they had sacrificed they were delivered from the Mice and that therefore they placed a statue or figure of a Mouse in the Temple of Apollo When the Trojans came out of Creet to seek a habitation for themselves they received an Oracle that they should there dwell where the Inhabitants that were born of the earth should set upon them the accomplishing whereof fell out about Hamaxitus for in the night time a great company of wilde Mice set upon their bows quivers and strings leathers of their bucklers and all such soft instruments whereby the people knew that that was the place wherein the Oracle had assigned them to build the City and therefore there they builded Ida so called after the name of Ida in Creet and to conclude we do read that Mice have been sacrificed for the Arcadians are said first of all to have sacrificed to their Gods a Mouse and secondly a white Horse and lastly the leaves of an Oak And to conclude Aelianus telleth one strange story of Mice in Heraclea that there is not one of them which toucheth any thing that is consecrated to Religion or to the service of their Gods Insomuch that they touch not their Vines which are sacred to religious uses but suffer them to come to their natural maturity but depart out of the Island to the intent that neither hunger nor folly cause them to touch that which is dedicated to divine uses And thus much for the natural and moral hory of Mice now followeth the medicinal The Medicines of the Mouse The flesh of a Mouse is hot and soft and very little or nothing fat and doth expel black and melancholy choler A Mouse being flead or having his skin pulled off and afterwards cut through the middle and put unto a wound or sore wherein there is the head of a Dart or Arrow or any other thing whatsoever within the wound will presently and very easily exhale and draw them out of the same Mice being cut and placed unto wounds which have been bitten by Serpents or put to places which are stinged by them do very effectually and in short space of time cure and perfectly heal them Mice which do lurk and inhabit in Houses being cut in twain and put unto the wounds which are new made by Scorpions doth very speedily heal them A young Mouse being mingled with Salt is an excellent remedy against the biting of the Mouse called a Shrew which biting Horses and labouring Cattel it doth venome until it come unto the heart and then they die except the aforesaid remedy be used The Shrew also himself being bruised and laid unto the place which was bitten is an excellent and very profitable remedy against the same A Mouse being divided and put or laid upon Warts will heal them and quite abolish them of what kinde soever they shall be The fat which is distilled from Mice being mixed with a little Goose-grease and boyled together is an excellent and medicinable cure for the asswaging and mollifying of swellings and hard lumps or knots which do usually arise in the flesh Young Mice being beaten into small bits or pieces and mixed with old Wine and so boyled or baked until they come unto a temperate and mollifying medicine if it be anointed upon the eye-lids it will very easily procure hair to grow thereon The same being unbeaten and roasted and so given to little children to eat will quickly dry up the froath or spittle which aboundeth in their mouth There are certain of the wise men or Magâ— who think it good that a Mouse should be flead and given to those which are troubled with the Tooth-ach twice in a month to be eaten The water wherein a Mouse hath been sod or boyled is very wholesome and profitable for those to drink who are troubled with the inflammation of the jaws or the disease called the Squincy Mice but especially those of Africk having their skin pull'd off and well steeped in Oyl and rubbed with Salt and so boiled and afterwards taken in drink are very medicinable for those which have any pain or trouble in their lights and lungs The same medicine used in the aforesaid manner is very profitable for those which are troubled with a filthy mattery and bloudy spitting out with retching Sodden Mice are exceeding good to restrain and hold in the urine of Infants or children being too abundant if they be given in some pleasant or delightsome drink Mice also being cut in twain and laid unto the feet or legs of those which are gowty is an excellent remedy and cure for them Mice being dryed and beaten to powder doe very effectually heal and cure those which are scalded or burned with hot water or fire Cypres nuts being burned and pounded or beaten into dust and mixed with the dust of the hoof of a male or female Mule being dryed or stamped small and the Oyl of Myrtle added unto the same with the dirt or dung of Mice being also beaten and with the dung of a Hedge-hog new made and with red Arsenick and all mingled together with Vinegar and moist or liquid Pitch and put unto the head of any one who
Musk. The skin pulled from the flesh smelleth best by it self and yet the flesh smelleth well also and so do the excrements But to return to the Greek name why it should be call'd 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 Weesil and therefore it is compounded of two words Mys a Mouse and Galee a Weesil Amyntas is of opinion that it is so called because it is begot betwixt a Mouse and a Weesil but this is neither true nor probable For is it likely that Weesils and Mice will couple together in carnal copulation whose natures are so contrary the one living upon the death of another that is the Weesil upon the Mouse And beside the difference of quantity betwixt them maketh it impossible to have such a generation The other derivation of Mygal◠which is made by Rodolphus writing upon Leviticus fetching Mygale from Mus gulosus that is a devouring Mouse it is against the order of all good Linguists to derive Greek words from Latine but rather consonant to learning to fetch the Latine from the Greek There is no less inquiry about the Latine name why it should be called Mus araneus seeing Aranea signifieth a Spider This Mouse saith Albertus is a red kinde of Mouse having a small tail a sharp voice and is full of poyson or venom For which cause Cats do kill them but do not eat them Sipontinus writeth thus of this Shrew Mus araneus exiguum animal atque leviss 〈…〉 est quod araneae modo tenuissimum filum gladil aciem conscendit That is to say this Shrew-mouse is a little and light creature which like a Spider climeth up upon any small thread or upon the edge of a sword and therefore you see they derive the Latine name from his climing like a Spider But in my opinion it is more reasonable to derive it from the venom and poyson which it containeth in it like a Spider For which cause Silvaticus writeth thus Mugali id est draco marinus animal venenosum pusillum muri simile nam araneum piscem propter venenum pungentibus in 〈…〉 um spinis veteres ophim id est serpentem nominarunt hodie quam vulgo draconem vel dracaenam That is to say There is a fish of the Sea and a little Beast on the Earth like a Mouse which by a general word are called Mugale and the Spider-fish called at this day a Dragon or Dragonist was in ancient time called a Serpent because by his prickly fins 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 ancient English Physitian called Doctor William Turner I have seen saith he in England the Shrew-mouse of colour black having a tail very short and her snowt very long and sharp and from the venemous biting of this Beast we have an English Proverb or Imprecation I beshrow thee when we curse or wish harm unto any man that is that some such evil as the biting of this Mouse may come unto him The Spaniards call this Beast Ralon Pequenno the Illyians Viemed kamys and the Polonians Kerit They were wont to abound in Britany as Hermolaus writeth They are also plentiful in Italy beyond the Mountains Apennine but not on this side as Pliny writeth yet in the hither parts of Italy and Germany there are many found especially in the Country neer Trent in the Valley Anania where this is admirable that by reason of the coldness of that Country their bitings are not venemous For the Scorpions there are not venemous although in other places of Italy they poyson deeply This Beast is much less then a Weesil and of an ash colour in most places like a Mouse although the colour be not always constant The eyes are so small and beneath the proportion of her body that it hath not been unjustly doubted of the Ancients whether they were blinde or no but in their best estate their sight is very dull And for this cause the ancient Egyptians did worship it for as they held opinion that darkness was before light so they deemed that the blinde creatures were better then the seeing And they also believed that in the wane of the Moon the liver of this beast consumed It hath a long and sharp 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 have four rows of teeth two beneath and two above which are not only apparent by their dissection or Anatomy but also by their bitings for their wounds are Quadruple wheresoever they fasten their teeth Their tail is slender and short But the description of this Beast was better apprehended by Gesner at the sight of one of them which he relateth on this manner The colour saith he was partly red and partly yellow mingled both together but the belly white The hinder-feet seemeth to cleave to the body or loins It smelleth strongly and the savour did bewray or signifie some secret poyson The tail about three fingers long beset with little short hairs The residue of the body was three fingers long The eyes very small and black not much greater then Moles so that next to the Mole they may justly be called the least sighted creature among all four footed Beasts so that in old age they are utterly blinde by the Providence of God abridging their malice that when their teeth are grown to be most sharp and they most full of poyson then they should not see whom nor where to vent it They differ as we have said in place and number from all four-footed Beasts so that they seem to be compounded and framed of the teeth of Serpents and Mice The two fore-teeth are very long and they do not grow single as in vulgar Mice but have within them two other smal and sharp teeth And also those two long teeth grow not by themselves as they do in other Mice but are conjoyned in the residue in one continued rank They are sharp like a saw having sharp points like needles such as could not be seen by man except the tips of them were yellow Of either side they have eight teeth whereas the vulgar Mice have but four beside the two long fore-teeth which also seem divided into two or three which except one mark diligently he would think them to be all one It is a ravening Beast feigning it self gentle and tame but being touched it biteth deep and poysoneth deadly It beareth a cruel minde desiring to hurt any thing neither is there any creature that it loveth or it loveth him because it is feared of all The Cats as we have said do hunt it and kill it but they eat not them for if
they have another property if they do not breed and engender before the casting of their Colts-teeth they remain steril and barren all their life long for so doth the generative power of the Asses body rest upon a tickle and nice point apt to rise or easie to fall away to nothing And in like sort is a Horse prone to barrenness for it wanteth nothing but cold substance to be mingled with his seed which cometh then to pass when the seed of the Ass is mixed with it for there wanteth but very little but that the Asses seed waxeth barren in his own kinde and therefore much more when it meeteth with that which is beside his nature and kinde This also hapneth to Mules that their bodies grow exceeding great especially because they have no menstruous purgation and therefore where there is an annual breeding or procreation by the help and refreshing of these flowers they both conceive and nourish now these being wanting unto Mules they are the more unfit to procreation The excrements of their body in this kinde they purge with their urine which appeareth because the male Mules never smell to the secrets of the female but to their urine and the residue which is not voided in the urine turneth to encrease the quantity and greatness of the body whereby it cometh to pass that if the female Mule do conceive with foal yet is she not able to bring it forth to perfection because those things are dispersed to the nourishment of her own body which should be imployed about the nourishment of the foal and for this cause when the Egyptians describe a barren woman they picture a Mule Alexander Aphrodiseus writeth thus also of the sterility of Mules Mules saith he seem to be barren because they consist of Beasts divers in kinde for the commixtion of seeds which differ both in habit and nature do evermore work something contrary to nature for the abolishing of generation for as the mingling together of black and white colours doth destroy both the black and white and produce a swart and brown and neither of both appear in the brown so is it in the generation of the Mules whereby the habitual and generative power of nature is utterly destroyed in the created compound which before was eminent in both kindes simple and several These things saith he Alcmaeon as he is related by Plutarch saith that the male Mules are barren by reason of the thinness and coldness of their seed and the females because their wombs are shut up and the veins that should carry in the seed and expel out the menstruous purgation are utterly stopt And Empedocles and Diocles say that the womb is low narrow and the passages crooked that lead into it and that therefore they cannot receive seed or conceive with young whereunto I do also willingly yeeld because it hath been often found that women have been barren for the same cause To conclude therefore Mules bear very seldom and that in some particular Nations if it be natural or else their Colts are prodigious and accounted monsters Concerning their natural birth in hot regions where the exterior heat doth temper the coldness of the Asses seed there they may bring forth And therefore Collumella and Varro say that in many parts of Africk the Colts of Mules are as familiar and common as the Colts of Mares are in any part of Europe So then by this reason it is probable unto me that Mules may ingender in all hot Countries as there was a Mule did engender often at Rome or else there is some other cause why they do engender in Africk and it may be that the African Mules are like to the Syrian Mules before spoken of that is they are a special kinde by themselves and are called Mules for resemblance and not for nature It hath been seen that a Mule hath brought forth twins but it was held a prodigy Herodotus in his fourth Book recorded these two stories of a Mules procreation When Darius saith he besieged Babylon the Babylonians scorned his Army and getting up to the top of their Towers did pipe and dance in the presence of the Persians and also utter very violent opprobrious speeches against Darius and the whole Army amongst whom one of the Babylonians said thus Quid istic desidetis ô Persâ— quin potius absceditis tunc expugnaturi nos cum pepererint Mulae O ye Persians why do you sit here wisdom would teach you to depart away for when Mules bring forth young ones then may you overcome the Babylonians Thus spake the Babylonian believing that the Persians should never overcome them because of the common proverb epcan emionoi tekâ—sin when a Mâ—le beareth young ones But the poor man spake truer then he was aware of for this followed after a yeer and seven months While the siege yet lasted it hapned that certain Mules belonging to Zâ—pirus the son of Megabizus brought forth young ones whereat their Master was much moved while he remembred the aforesaid song of the Babylonian and that therefore he might be made the Author of that fact communicated the matter with Darius who presently entertained the device therefore Zopirus cut off his own nose and ears and so ran away to the Babylonians telling them that Darius had thus used him because he perswaded him to depart with his whole Army from Babylon which he said was in expugnable and invincible The Babylonians seeing his wounds and trusting to their own strength did easily give credence unto him for such is the nature of men that the best way to beguile them is to tell them of those things they most desire for so are their hopes perswaded before they receive any assurances But to proceed Zopirus insinuated himself further into the favour of the Babylonians and did many valiant acts against the Persians whereby he got so much credit that at last he was made the General of the whole Army and so betrayed the City unto the hands of Dirius Thus was Babylon taken when Mules brought forth Another Mule brought forth a young one at what time Xerxes passed over Hellespont to go against Graecia with his innumerable Troops of Souldiers and the said Mule so brought forth had the genitals both of the male and female Unto this I may adde another story out of Suetonius in the life of Galba Caesar As his father was procuring Augurisms or divinations an Eagle came and took the bowels out of his hands and carryed them into a fruit-bearing-oak he enquiring what the meaning of that should be received answer that his posterity should be Emperours but it would be very long first whereunto he merrily replyed Sane cum Mula pepererit I sir when a Mule brings forth young ones which thing afterwards happened unto Galba for by the birth of a Mule he was confirmed in his enterprises when he attempted the Empire so that that thing which was a prodigy and cause of sorrow and
by taking of Swines dung mixed and made soft like morter with the urine of a man layed unto the root it is recovered and the Wormes driven away and if there be any rents or stripes visible upon trees so as they are endangered to be lost thereby they are cured by applying unto the stripes and wounds this dung of Swine When the Apple trees are loose pour upon their roots the stale of Swine and it shall establish and settle them and wheresoever there are Swine kept there it is not good to keep or lodge Horses for their smell breath and voice is hateful to all magnanimous and perfect spirited Horses And thus much in this place concerning the use of the several parts of Swine whereunto I may add our English experiments that if Swine be suffered to come into Orchards and dig up and about the roots of the Apple trees keeping the ground bare under them and open with their noses the benefit that will arise thereby to your increase of fruit will be very inestimable And here to save my self of a labor about our English Hogs I will describe their usage out of Mr. Tussers husbandry in his own words as followeth and first of all for their breeding in the Spring of the year he writeth in general Let Lent will kept offend not thee For March and April breeders be And of September he writeth thus To gather some mast it shall stand thee upon With servant and children yer mast be all gone Some left among bushes shall pleasure thy Swine For fear of a mischief keep Acornes fro kine For roâ—ting of pasture ring Hog ye have need Which being well ringled the better doth feed Though young with their elders will lightly keep best Yet spare not to ringle both great and the rest Yoke seldome thy swine while shacke time doth last For divers misfortunes that happen too fast Or if you do fancy whole eare of the Hog Give ear to ill neighbor and ear to his Dog Keep hog I advise thee from medow and Corne For out alowd crying that ere he was borne Such lawlesse so haunting both often and long If dog set him chaunting he doth thee no wrong And again in Octobers husbandry he writeth Though plenty of Acornes the Porkelings to fat Not taken in season may perish by that If ratling or swelling get once in the throat Thou losest thy porkling a Crown to a Groat What ever thing fat is again if it fall Thou venterest the thing and the fatnesse withall The fatter the better to sell or to kill But not to continue make proof if you will In November he writeth again Let Hog once sat lose none of that When mast is gone Hog falleth anon Still fat up some till Shrovetide come Now Porke and sowce bears tacke in a house Thus far of our English husbandry about Swine Now followeth their diseases in particular Of the diseases of Swine HEmlock is the bane of Panthers Swine Wolves and all other beasts that live upon devouring of flesh for the Hunters mix it with flesh and so spread or cast the flesh so poysoned abroad in bits or morsels to be devoured by them The root of the white Chamelion mixed with fryed Barly flour Water and oyl is also poyson to Swine The black Ellebor worketh the same effect upon Horses Oxen and Swine and therefore when the beasts do eat the white they forbear the black with all wearisomeness Likewise Henbane worketh many painful convulsions in their bellies therefore when they perceive that they have eaten thereof they run to the waters and gather Snails or Sea-crabs by vertue whereof they escape death and are again restored to their health The hearb Goosefoot is venemous to Swine and also to Bees and therefore they will never light upon it or touch it The black Night-shade is present destruction unto them and they abstain from Harts tongue and the great bur by some certain instinct of nature If they be bitten by any Serpents Sea-crabs or Snails are the most present remedy that nature hath taught them The Swine of Scythia by the relation of Pliny and Aristotle are not hurt with any poyson except Scorpions and therefore so soon as ever they are stung by a Scorpion they die if they drink And thus much for the poyson of Swine Against the cold of which these beasts are most impatient the best remedy is to make them warm sties for if it be once taken it will cleave faster to them then any good thing and the nature of this beast is never to eat if once he feel himself sick and therefore the diligent Master or keeper of Swine must vigilantly regard the beginnings of their diseases which cannot be more evidently demonstrated then by forbearing of their meat Of the Measels THe Measels are called in Greek Chalaza in Latin Grandines for that they are like hailstones spred in the flesh and especially in the leaner part of a Hog and this disease as Aristotle writeth is proper to this Beast for no other in the world is troubled therewith for this cause the Grecians call a Measily Hog Chaluros and it maketh their flesh very loose and soft The Germans call this disease Finnen and Pfinnen the Italians Gremme the French Sursume because the spots appear at the root of the tongue like white seeds and therefore it is usuall in the buying of Hogs in all Nations to pull out their tongue and look for the Measels for if there appear but one upon his tongue it is certain that all the whole body is infected And yet the Butchers do all affirm that the cleanest hog of all hath three of these but they never hurt the swine or his flesh and the Swine may be full of them and yet none appear upon his tongue but then his voice will be altered and not be was wont These abound most of all in such Hogs as have fleshy legs and shoulders very moist and if they be not over plentiful they make the flesh the sweeter but if they abound it tasteth like stock-fish or meat over-watered If there be no appearance of these upon their tongue then the chap-man or buyer pulleth off a bristle from the back and if bloud follow it is certain that the beast is infected and also such cannot well stand upon their hinder legs Their tail is very round For remedy hereof divers days before their killing they put into their wash or swill some ashes especially of Hasel trees But in France and Germany it is not lawful to sell such a Hog and therefore the poor people do only eat them Howbeit they cannot but engender evill humors and naughty bloud in the body The roots of the bramble called Ramme beaten to powder and cast into the holes where Swine use to bath themselves do keep them clear from many of these diseases and for this cause also in antient time they gave them Horse-flesh sodden and Toads sodden in water to drink the
more to be doubted in the kinde of Unicorns for the horns of Harts are not only solid as Aristole supposed but also the horns of Unicorns as here I have said The horn of an Unicorn is at this day used although age or longinquity of time hath quite abolished it from the nature of a horn There are some which mingle the Rhinoceros with the Unicorn for that which is named the Rhinoceros horn is at this day in Physical use of which notwithstanding the Authors have declared no effectual force Some say that the Unicorns horn doth sweat having any poyson coming over it which is false it doth perhaps sometimes sweat even as some solid hard and light substance as also stones and glass some external vapour being about them but this doth nothing appertain to poyson It is in like manner reported that a kinde of stone called the Serpents tongue doth sweat having poyson come over it I have heard and read in a certain book written with ones hands that the true horn of a Unicorn is to be proved in this manner To give to two Pigeons poyson red Arsnick or Orpin the one which drinketh a little of the true Unicorns horn will be healed the other will die I do leave this manner of trial unto rich men For the price of that which is true is reported at this day to be of no less value then gold Some do sell the weight thereof for a floren or eight pence some for a crown or twelve pence But the marrow thereof is certainly of a greater price then that which is of harder substance Some likewise do sell a dram thereof for two pence half penny so great is the diversity thereof For experience of the Unicorns horns to know whether it be right or not put silk upon a burning coal and upon the silk the aforesaid horn and if so be that it be true the silk will not be a whit consumed The horns of Unicorns especially that which is brought from new Islands being beaten and drunk in water doth wonderfully help against poyson as of late experience doth manifest unto us a man who having taken poyson beginning to swell was preserved by this remedy I my self have heard of a man worthy to be believed that having eaten a poysoned cherry and perceiving his belly to swell he cured himself by the marrow of this horn being drunk in Wine in very short space The same is also praised at this day for the curing of the Falling sickness and affirmed by Aelianus who called this disease cursed The ancient Writers did attribute the force of healing to cups made of this horn Wine being drunk out of them but because we cannot have cups we drink the substance of the horn either by it self or with other medicines I happily sometime made this Sugar of the horn as they call it mingling with the same Amber Ivory dust leaves of gold coral certain other things the horn being included in silk and beaten in the decotion of Raisins and Cinamon I cast them is water the rest of the reason of healing in the mean time not being neglected It is moreover commended of Physitians of our time against the pestilent feaver as Aloisius Mundellus writeth against the bitings of ravenous Dogs and the strokes or poysonsome stings of other creatures and privately in rich mens houses against the belly or maw worms to conclude it is given against all poyson whatsoever as also against many most grievous diseases The King of the Indians drinking out of a cup made of an Indian Unicorns horn and being asked wherefore he did it whether it were for the love of drunkenness made answer that by that drink drunkenness was both expelled and resisted and worser things cured meaning that it clean abolished all poyson whatsoever The horn of a Unicorn doth heal that detestable disease in men called S. Johns evill otherwise the cursed disease The horn of an Unicorn being beaten and boiled in Wine hath a wonderful effect in making the teeth white or clear the mouth being well cleansed therewith And thus much shall suffice for the medicines and vertues arising from the Unicorn Of the VRE-OX THis beast is called by the Latines Vrus by the Germans Aurox and Vrox and Grossevesent by the Lituanians Thur the Scythians Bubri and these beasts were not known to the Grecians as Pliny writeth of whom Seneca writeth in this manner Tibi dant variae pectora Tigres Tibi villosi terga Bisontes Latisque feri cornibus uri And Viâ—gil also maketh mention of them in his Georgicks writing of the culture or tilling of Vines Texenda saepes etiam pecus omne tenendum Praecipuâ— cum frons tenera imprudensâ— laborum Cui super indignas hyemes â—olemque potentem Silvestres uri assidue capreaeque sequaces Illudunt These wilde beasts or Ure-oxes are wilde Oxen differing from all other kindes already rehearsed in the story of Oxen Bugles Bisons or any other although some have unskilfully taken them for Bisons and Sir Thomas Eliot in his Dictionary doth English Vrus a Bugil but beside him no body that I know and for this cause he is reprehended by other Now although there be nothing in this beast but ordinary yet seeing it is a creature so well known we have less reason to omit his shape and story lest we should justly be condemned of negligenee and carelesneâ—s In outward proportion of the body it differeth little from the Bull It is very thick and his back somewhat bunched up and his length from the head to the tail is short no ways answerable to the proportion of his stature and sides the horns as some say are but short yet black broad and thick his eyes red a broad mouth and a great broad head his temples hairy a beard upon his chin but short and the colour thereof black his other parts as namely in the face sides legs and tail of a reddish colour These are in the wood Hercynia in the Pyrâ—ney Mountains and in Mazovia near Lituania They are call'd Vri of Oron that is the Mountains because their savage wildeness so great that they seldom descend from those safeguards They far excel Bulls and other wilde Oxen coming nearer to the quantity or stature of Elephants then to the Bull. In resemblance a man would think them to be compounded of a Mule and a Hart for their outward resemblance so seem It is said they could never be taken by men although they were taken when they were young yet they love other heards of Cattel and will not forsake them easily after they have once joyned themselves unto them whereby many times they are deceived and killed twenty thirty or forty at a time Caligula Caesar brought of these alive to Rome and did shew them in publick spectacle to the people and at that time they were taken for wilde Bulls Some affirm that there are of these in Prussia and that they are so wilde cruel and
alive they put them into some tub or great mortar and there kill them by bruising them to pieces afterwards they make a fire of coals in the Mountains where the VVolfs haunt putting into the same some of these fishes mixed with bloud and pieces of Mutton and so leaving it to have the savour thereof carryed every way with the winde they go and hide themselves whilest that in the mean time the VVolfs enraged with the savour of this fire seek to and fro to finde it because of the smell the fire before they come is quenched or goeth out naturally and the VVolfs by the smoak thereof especially by tasting of the flesh bloud and fish which there they finde do fall into a drowsie dead sleep which when the Hunters do perceive they come upon them and cut their throats The Armenians do poyson them with black fishes and some do take a cat pulling off her skin taking out the bowels they put into her belly the powder of Frogs this Cat is boyled a little upon coals and by a man drawn up and down in the Mountains where VVolfs do haunt now if the VVolfs do chance to meet with the train of this Cat they instantly follow after him inraged without all fear of man to attain it therefore he which draweth the Cat is accompanyed with another Hunter armed with a Gun Pistol or Cross-bow that at the appearance of the VVolf and before his approach to the train he may destroy and kill him I will not discourse of VVolf bane commonly called Aconitum in Latine wherewithall both men and beasts are intoxicated and especially VVolfs but referring the Reader to the long discourse of Conradus Gesner in his History of the VVolf I will only remember in this place an Epigram of Ausonius wherein he pleasantly relateth a story of an adulterated woman desiring to make away her jealous husband and that with speed and vehemency gave him a drink of VVolf-bane and Quick-silver mingled together either of both single are poyson but compounded are a purgation the Epigram is this that followeth Toxica zelotypo dedit uxor moecha marito Nec satis ad mortem credidit esse datum Miscuit argenti letalia pondera vivi Cogeret ut celerem vis geminata necem Dividat haec si quis faciunt discreta venenum Antidotum sumet qui sociata bibet Ergo inter sese dum noxia pocula certant Cessit letalis noxa salutiferae Protinus vacuos alvi petiere recessus Lubrica dejectis qua vita nota cibis Concerning the enemies of Wolfs there is no doubt but that such a ravening beast hath few friends for except in the time of copulation wherein they mingle sometime with Dogs and some-time with Leopards and sometime with other beasts all beasts both great and small do avoid their society and fellowship for it cannot be safe for strangers to live with them in any league or amity seeing in their extremity they devour one another for this cause in some of the inferiour beasts their hatred lasteth after death as many Authors have observed for if a Sheep skin be hanged up with a Wolfs skin the wool falleth off from it and if an instrument be stringed with strings made of both these beasts the one will give no sound in the presence of the other but of this matter we have spoken in the story of the sheep shewing the opinion of the best learned concerning the truth hereof The Ravens are in perpetual enmity with Wolfs and the antipathy of their natures is so violent that it is reported by Philes and Aelianus that if a Raven eat of the carcase of a beast which the Wolf hath killed or formerly tasted of she presently dyeth There are certain wilde Onions called Scillae and some say the Sea-Onion because the root hath the similitude of an Onion of all other things this is hateful to a Wolf and therefore the Arabians say that by treading on it his leg falleth into a cramp whereby his whole body many times endureth insufferable torments for the Cramp increaseth into Convulsions for which cause it is worthy to be observed how unspeakable the Lord is in all his works for whereas the VVolf is an enemy to the Fox and the Turtle he hath given secret instinct and knowledge both to this Beast and Fowl of the vertuous operation of this herb against the ravening VVolf for in their absence from their nests they leave this Onion in the mouth thereof as a sure gard to keep their young ones from the VVolf There are certain Eagles in Tartaria which are tamed who do of their own accord being set on by men adventure upon VVolves and so vex them with their talons that a man with no labour or difficulty may kill the beast and for this cause the VVolves greatly fear them and avoid them and thereupon came the common proverb Lupus fugit aquilam And thus much shall suffice to have spoken in general concerning their taking Now we will proceed to the other parts of their History and first of all of their carnal copulation They engender in the same manner as Dogs and Sea-calves do and therefore in the middle of their copulation they cleave together against their will It is observed that they begin to engender immediately after Christmass and this rage of their lust lasteth but twelve days whereupon there was wont to go a fabulous tale or reason that the cause why all of them conceived in the twelve days after Christmass was for that Latona so many days together wandered in the shape of a she VVolf in the Mountains Hyperborei for fear of Juno in which likeness she was brought to Delus but this fable is confuted by Plutarch rehearsing the words of Antipater in his Book of Beasts for he saith when the Oaks that bear Acorns do begin to cast their flowers or blossomes then the VVolves by eating thereof do open their wombs for where there is no plenty of Acorns there the young ones dye in the dams belly and therefore such Countries where there is no store of Oaks are freed from VVolves and this he saith is the true cause why they conceive but once a year and that only in the twelve days of Christmass for those Oaks flower but once a year namely in the Spring time at which season the VVolves bring forth their young ones For the time that they go with young and the number of whelps they agree with Dogs that is they bear their young nine weeks and bring forth many blinde whelps at a time according to the manner of those that have many claws on their feet Their legs are without Articles and therefore they are not able to go at the time of their littering and there is a vulgar opinion that a she VVolf doth never in all her life bring forth above nine at a time whereof the last which she bringeth forth in her old age is a Dog through weakness and
or warmth then in other whose leaves fall off and decay in the cold weather except in the roots of Birth And by reason of their multitude gathered together at the root of this tree it falleth out that their breath heateth the same and so preserveth the leaves from falling off Wherefore in ancient time the ignorant multitude seeing a Birch tree with green leaves in the Winter did call it our Ladies Tree or a holy tree attributing that greenness to miracle not knowing the former reason or secret in Nature Solinus reporteth of such a like Wood in a part of Africa where in all the Winter time the leaves of all the trees abide green the cause is as before recited for that the Serpents living at the roots of the trees in the earth do heat them with their breath Neither ought any man to wonder that they should so friendly live together especially in the Winter and cold time seeing that by experience in England we know that for warmth they will creep into bed-straw and about the legs of men in their sleep as may appear by this succeeding discourse of a true history done in England in the house of a worshipful Gentleman upon a servant of his whom I could name if it were needful He had a servant that grew very lame and feeble in his legs and thinking that he could never be warm in his bed did multiply his clothes and covered himself more and more but all in vain till at length he was not able to go about neither could any skill of Physitian or Chirurgeon finde out the cause It hapned on a day as his Master leaned at his Parlour window he saw a great Snake to slide along the house side and to creep into the chamber of this lame man then lying in his bed as I remember for he lay in a low chamber directly against the Parlour window aforesaid The Gentleman desirous to see the issue and what the Snake would do in the chamber followed and looked into the chamber by the window where he espyed the Snake to slide up into the bed-straw by some way open in the bottom of the bed which was of old boards Straightway his heart rising thereat he called two or three of his servants and told them what he had seen bidding them go take their Rapiers and kill the said Snake The serving men came first and removed the lame man as I remember and then the one of them turned up the bed and the other two the straw their master standing without at the hole whereinto the said Snake had entered into the chamber The bed was no sooner turned up and the Rapier thrust into the straw but there issued forth five or six great Snakes that were lodged therein Then the serving-men bestirring themselves soon dispatched them and cast them out of doors dead Afterward the lame Mans legs recovered and became as strong as ever they were whereby did evidently appear the coldness of these Snakes or Serpents which came close to his legs every night did so benum them as he could not go And thus for heat they pierce into the holes of chimneys yea into the tops of hills and houses much more into the bottoms and roots of trees When they perceive that Winter approacheth they finde out their resting places wherein they lie half dead four months together until the Spring sun again communicating her heat to all Creatures reviveth and as it were raiseth them up from death to life During which time of cold Winter as Seneca writeth Tuto tractari postifera Serpens potest non desunt tuno illi venena sed 〈◊〉 They may be safely handled without fear of harm not because they want poyson at that time but because they are drouzy and deadly astonished But there is a question whether when they be in this secresie or drouziness they awake not to eat or else their sleep be unto them in stead of food Olaus Magnus affirmeth of the Northern Serpents that they eat not at all but are nourished with sleep Cardan saith that they take some little food as appeareth by those which are carryed up and down in boxes to be seen and are fed with bran or cheasil But this may be answered that Serpents in boxes are not so cold as those in Woods and Deserts and therefore seeing cold keepeth them from eating the external heat of the box-house or humane body which beareth them about may be a cause that inclosed Serpents feed in Winter as well as in Summer and yet the Serpents which run wilde in the fields eat nothing at all during the time of their Chias or Ehiaus that is their lying hid Grevinus that learned man proponeth this question Si Serpentes calidi sunt qui fit ut integros trâ—t aut quatuor menses id est toto illo tempore quo delitescunt absque cibo vivunt If saith he Serpents be hot how cometh it to pass that they can live three or four moneths without all food that is all the time of their lying secret He maketh in my opinion a sufficient answer to this question which for me shall conclude the cause saying Doth it not fall out with Serpents as it doth with some women who being full of humor and thick phlegmatick matter have but a little and weak natural heat yet proportionable to the said humor do live a great time by reason thereof without food or nourishment And for this cause all the hoasts of Philosophers do define that Serpents do also abstain from eating a long season For Nature hath clothed them with a more solid skin and lined them with a more thick and substantial flesh to the intent that their natural heat should not easily vanish away and decay in their bodies but remain therein permanent for the feeding and preserving of life When they sleep they seem to sleep with open eyes which is elegantly described by Philes in these Greek verses Opos kathéude kai dokei palin blepein Ophis te kai ptox kaâ— thumou pleres león Epipetatai gar he chlamys ton ommaton Allou tinos Chitonos hapaloterou Phrorountos autois os dioptras task-óras Which may be Englished thus How can the Hare the Serpent and the Lion bold Both sleep and see together at one time Within their eye-lids a soft skin their sight doth fold Shilding their apples as glass doth weakened eyne The food of Serpents that is permitted them by God is the dust of the earth as may appear by that first and just sentence which GOD himself gave upon them for seducing our first Parents Ad 〈…〉 and Eve Gen. 3. 14. Because thou hast done this thing thou art accursed above all the Beasts of the field for thou shalt go upon thy belly and eat dust all the days of thy life And again Esay 65. 25. Dust shall be meâ—t to the Serpent And lest that we should think that this curse hath not taken hold upon the Serpent we may finde the
Fennel and Ivy and for this later both Pliny and Textor do not without great cause wonder that ever there was any honour ascribed or given to the Ivy seeing that Serpents the most unreconcileable enemies of man-kinde delight so much therein But herein the Devil blinded their reason as he did the modest women that worshipped Priapus or the Tartars which at this day worship the Devil to the end that he should do them no harm Thus much I can only say of the friends and lovers of Serpents by the multitude whereof we may conjecture how among other parts of the curse of God upon them they are held accursed both by man and Beast Now then it followeth that we enter into a more particular description or rather a relation of that hatred which is between them and other creatures and first I will begin with their arch enemy I mean Man-kinde For when GOD at the beginning did pronounce his sentence against the Serpent for deceiving our first Parents among other things he said I will put enmity betwixt thee and the Woman betwixt thy seed and the Womans seed Whereby he did signifie that perpetual war and unappeasable discord which should be for ever by his own appointment betwixt them And the truth hereof is to be seen at this day for by a kinde of secret instinct and natural motion a man abhorreth the sight of a Serpent and a Serpent the sight of a man And as by the tongue of the Serpent was wrought mans confusion so by the spittle of a mans tongue is wrought a Serpents astonishment For indeed such is the Ordinance of God that Men and Serpents should ever annoy and vex each other And this Erasmus saith shall continue as long as meminerimus illius inauspicati pomi we shall remember that unfortunate Apple Isidorus saith that Serpents are afraid of a man naked but will leap upon and devour a man clothed Which thing is also affirmed by Olaus Magnus for he saith that when he was a boy he often tryed it that when he was naked he found little or no resistance in Serpents and did safely without all danger combat with them hand to hand I my self also in my younger time when I was about ten or twelve years old used many times in the Spring and Summer time to wash my self with other my Colleagues in certain fish-ponds wherein I have seen and met with divers Water-snakes without all harm and I did never in my life hear of any harm they did to any of my fellows being naked neither did I ever see any of them run away so fast on the land as they did fly from us in the water and yet are not the Water-snakes less hurtful then the Land-adders And this was well known to many About the beginning or Fountain Springs of Euphrates it is said that there are certain Serpents which know strangers from the people of the Countrey wherefore they do no harm to the natural born Country-men but with strangers and men of other Countreys they fight with might and main And along the banks of Euphrates in Syria they also do the like saving that if they chance to be trode upon by any of the people of those parts they bite like as a Dog doth without any great harm but if any other forainer or stranger annoy them they also repay him with malice for they bite him and intolerably vex him wherefore the Countrey-men nourish them and do them no harm Such as these are also found in Tirinthus but they are very little ones and are thought to be engendered of the earth The first manifestation in nature of Mans discord with Serpents is their venom for as in a Serpent there is a venom which poysoneth a Man so in a Man there is the venom of his spittle which poysoneth a Serpent For if the fasting spittle of a Man fall into the jaws of a Serpent he certainly dyeth thereof And of this thus writeth the Poet Lucretius Est utique ut Serpens hominis quae tacta salivis Disperit ac sese mandendo conficit ipsa In English thus As Serpent dyeth when spittle of Man he tasteth Gnashing his teeth to eat himself he wasteth The cause of this the Philosophers which knew nothing of Adams fall or the forbidden Apple do assign to be in the contrariety betwixt the living souls or spirits of these Creatures for the Serpents life is cold and dry and the Humane life hot and moist wherefore either of both abhorreth one the other and the Serpent leapeth as far from a Mans spittle as it would do out of a vessel of scalding water Agatharsides writeth that there was a King in Africk called Psyllus whose Sepulchre was preserved in the greater Syrtes From this King there were certain people named Psyllians in whose bodies there was a certain inbred and natural power to kill or at the least to astonish Serpents Spiders Toads and such like and lay them for dead even by the savour or smell of them And the manner of these men to try the chastity of their Wives was to take their children newly born and to cast them unto direful Serpents for if they were of the right line and lawfully begotten then did the Serpents die before them but if they were adulterous and the children of strangers the Serpents would eat and devour them Pliny affirmeth that even in his days there were some of those people alive among the Nasamons who destroyed many of them and did possess their places yet some running from death escaped Generally such people were called Marsi and Psilli for the Marsi were a people of Italy descended of Circes as is said in whom there was a vertue to cure all the stinging of Serpents by touching the wounded places Such saith Crates Pergamenus are in Hellespont about the River Parius And some are of opinion that at the beginning they were Ophiogenes born or bred of Serpents or that some great Nobleman father of that Countrey was of a Serpent made a man And Vario saith that in his time there were some few men alive in whose spittle was found that vertue to resist and cure the poyson of venomous Beasts But having named Ophiogenes or Anguâ—genae that is Men bred of Serpents or Snakes I see no cause why it should be judged that those which cure Serpents poyson should be so misjudged for to cure poyson is not the work of poyson but of an Antidote or contrary power to poyson and therefore curers and resisters of poyson are without all learning called Ophiogenes that is Serpents brood but rather that term belongeth more justly to those people whose nature is sociable with Serpents and Serpents agree with them as they would do with their own kinde Such an one was Exagon the Embassadour of Rome who at the commandement of the Consuls for their experience was cast naked into a vessel or tun of Snakes who did him no harm but licked him with their
the Glosse upon the 42. Psalm which beginneth Like as the Hart desireth the water springs so longeth my soul after my GOD. But for the ending of this question we must consider and remember that there are two kindes of Harts one eateth Serpents and feeling the poyson to work straight-way by drinking casteth up the poyson again or else cureth himself by covering all his body over in water The other kinde only by nature killeth a Serpent but after victory forbeareth to eat it and returneth again to feed in the Mountains And thus much for the discord betwixt Harts and Serpents In the next place great is the variance betwixt Serpents Dragons and Elephants whereof Pliny and Solinus write as followeth When the Elephants called Serpent-killers meet with the Dragons they easily tread them in pieces and overcome them wherefore the Dragons and greater Serpents use subtilty in stead of might for when they have found the path and common way of an Elephant they make such devises therein to intrap him as a man would think they had the devise of men to help them for with their tails they so ensnare the way that when the beast cometh they intangle his legs as it were in knots of ropes now when the beast stoopeth down with his trunk to loose and untie them one of them suddenly thrusteth his poysoned head into his trunk whereby he is strangled The other also for there are ever many which lie in ambush set upon his face biting out his eyes and some at his tender belly some winding themselves about his throat and all of them together sting bite tear vex and hang upon him untill the poor beast emptyed of his blood and swollen with poyson in every part fall down dead upon his adversaries and so by his death kill them at his fall and overthrow whom he could not overcome being alive And whereas Elephants for the most part go together in flocks and troops the subtile Serpents do let passe the foremost of every rank and set only upon the hindermost that so one of the Elephants may not help another and these Serpents are said to be thirty yards long Likewise forasmuch as these Dragons know that the Elephants come and feed upon the leaves of trees their manner is to convey themselves into the trees and lie hid among the boughs covering their foreparts with leaves and letting their hinder parts hang down like dead parts and members and when the Elephant cometh to brouze upon the tree-tops then suddenly they leap into his face and pull out his eyes and because that revenge doth not satisfie her thirsting only after death she twineth her gable-long body about his neck and so strangleth him It is reported that the blood of Elephants is the coldest bloud in the world and that the Dragons in the scorching heat of Summer cannot get any thing to cool them except this bloud for which cause they hide themselves in Rivers and Brooks whither the Elephants come to drink and when he putteth down his trunk they take hold thereof and instantly in great numbers leap up into his ears which only of all his upper parts are most naked and unarmed out of which they suck his bloud never giving over their hold till he fall down dead and so in the fall kill them which were the procurers of his death So that his and their bloud is mingled both together whereof the Ancients made their Cinnabaris which was the best thing in the World to represent bloud in painting Neither can any devise or art of man ever come neer it and beside it hath in it a rare vertue against poyson And thus much for the enmity betwixt Serpents and Elephants The Cat also by Albertus is said to be an enemy to Serpents for he saith she will kill them but not eat thereof howbeit in her killing of them except she drink incontinently she dyeth by poyson This relation of Albertus cannot agree with the Monks of Mesuen their relation about their Abby-cat But it may be that Albertus speaketh of wilde-cats in the Woods and Mountains who may in ravin for their prey kill a Serpent which followeth with them the same common game The Roes or Roe-bucks do also kill Serpents and the Hedge-hog is enemy unto them for some-times they meet both together in one hole and then at the sight of the Serpent the Hedge-hog foldeth himself up round so as nothing appeareth outwardly save only his prickles and sharp bristles the angry Serpent fetteth upon him and biteth him with all her force the other again straineth herself above measure to annoy the Serpents teeth face eyes and whole body and thus when they meet they lie together afflicting one another till one or both of them fall down dead in the place For sometime the Serpent killeth the Hedgehog and sometime the Hedge-hog killeth the Serpent so that many times she carrieth away the Serpents flesh and skin upon her back The Weasels also fight with Serpents with the like successe the cause is for that one and other of them live upon juyce and so for their prey or booty they fall together in mortall warre Herein the Weasel is too cunning for the Serpent because before she fighteth she seeketh Rue and by eating thereof quickly discomforteth her adversary But some say that she eateth Rue afterward to the intent to avoyd all the poyson she contracted in the combat The Lyon also and the Serpent are at variance for his rufling mane is discouraged by the extolled head of the Serpent to his breast And therefore as S. Ambrose saith this is an admirable thing that the Snake should run away from the Hart the most fearfull of all other beasts and yet overcome the Lyon King of all the residue The Ichneumon or Pharos Mouse is an enemy to Serpents and eateth them and because he is too seeble to deal with a Snake alone therefore when he hath found one he goeth and calleth as many of his fellowes as he can finde and so when they find themselves strong enough in company they set upon their prey and eat it together for which cause when the Egyptians will signifie weaknesse they paint an Ichneumon The Peacock is also a professed terror and scourge to Snakes and Adders and they will not endure neer those places where they hear their voice The Sorex and Swine do also hate and abhor Serpents and the little Sorex hath most advantage against them in the Winter-time when they are at the weakest To conclude the Horse is wonderfully afraid of all kindes of Serpents if he see them and will not go over but rather leap over a dead Snake And thus I will end the warre betwixt Serpents and Four-footed beasts and Fowls Now lest their curse should not be hard enough unto them God hath also ordained one of them to destroy another and therefore now it followeth to shew in a word the mutuall discord betwixt themselves The Spider although
them untill the Vinegar be consumed then strain them putting to them of Turpentine three ounces Frankincense Mastick and Sarcocolla three ounces Saffron two ounces working them with a Spathuler till they be cold The powder of a burnt Serpent is likewise good against Fistulaes The fat of a Snake or Serpent mixt with Oyl is good against Strumes as Pliny saith The fat of Snakes mixt with Verdegrease healeth the parts about the eyes that have any rupture To which agreeth the Poet when he saith Anguibus â—reptos adipes aerugine misce Hi poterant ruptas oculorum jungere partes Which may be thus Englished The sat of Snakes mingled with Iron rust The parts of eyes doth mend which erst were burst It is certain that barrenness cometh by means of that grievous torment and pain in childe-birth and yet Olympias of Thebes is of opinion that this is remedied with a Bulls gall the fat of Serpents and Verdigrease with some Hony added to them the place being therewith anointed before the coming together of both parts When a Woman is not able to conceive by means of weakness in the retentive vertue then there is no doubt but there must needs grow some membrane in the bellies entrance for which it is not amiss to make a Pessary of the fat of a Serpent Verdigrease and the fat of a Bull mixt together c. and to be applyed Hippocrates in lib. de Sterilibus Gesner had a friend who signified to him by his Letters that the fat of a Serpent was sent to him from those sulphureous bathes which were neer unto Cameriacum and was sold at a very dear rate namely twelve pounds for every ounce and sometimes deerer They use to mix it with the emplaister of John de Vigo that famous Chirurgeon for all hardnesses and other privy and unseen though not unfelt torments proceeding of the Spanish pox They use it yet further against leprous swellings and pimples and to smooth and thin the skin Matthiolus saith that the fat of a black Serpent is mixt to good purpose with those Ointments that are prepared against the French or Spanish pox And Pliny mixeth their fat with other convenient medicines to cause hair to grow again The suffmigation of an old Serpent helpeth the monthly course Michael Aloisius saith that Oyl of Serpents decocted with the flowers of Cowslips ever remembring to gather and take that which swimmeth at the top is singular to anoint podagrical persons therewith Now followeth the preparing of Serpents Take a Mountain Serpent that ha 〈…〉 black back and a white belly and cut off his tail even hard to the place where he sendeth forth his excrements and take away his head with the breadth of four fingers then take the residue and squeese out the bloud into some vessel keeping it in a glass carefully then fley him as you do an Eele beginning from the upper and grosser part and hang the skin upon a stick and dry it then divide it in the middle and reserve all diligently You must wash the flesh and put it in a pot boyling it in two parts of Wine and being well and throughly boyled you must season the broth with good Spices and Aromatical and Cordial powders and so eat it But if you have a minde to rost it it must be so rosted as it may not be burnt and yet that it may be brought into powder and the powder thereof must be eaten together with other meat because of the loathing and dreadful name and conceit of a Serpent for being thus burned it preserveth a Man from all fear of any future Lepry and expelleth that which is present It keepeth youth causing a good colour above all other Medicines in the world it cleareth the eye-sight gardeth surely from gray hairs and keepeth from the Falling-sickness It purgeth the head from all infirmity and being eaten as before is said it expelleth scabbiness and the like infirmities with a great number of other diseases But yet such a kinde of Serpent as before we have described and not any other being also eaten freeth one from deafness You may also finely mince the heads and tails of Serpents and feed therewith Chickens or Geese being mingled with crums of Bread or Oates and these Geese or Chickins being eaten they help all to take away the Leprosie and other foulness in Mans body If you take the dryed skin and lay it upon the tooth on the inner side it will mitigate the pain thereof specially if it proceed from any hot cause In like sort the same skin washed with spittle and with a little piece of the tail laid upon any Impostume or Noli me tangere it will tame and master the pain causing it to putrefie more easily and gently and scarcely leaving behind any cicatrice or skar And if a Woman being in extremity of pain in Childe-birth do but tie or binde a piece of it on her belly it will cause the birth immediately to come away So the skin being boyled and eaten performeth the same effects that the Serpent doth The bloud of a Serpent is more precious then Balsamum and if you anoint your lips with a little of it they will look passing red and if the face be anointed therewith it will receive no spot or fleck but causeth to have an orient or beautifull hew It represseth all scabbiness of the body stinking in the teeth and gums if they be therewith anointed The far of a Serpent speedily helpeth all redness spots and other infirmities of the eyes and being anointed upon the eye-lids it cleereth the eyes exceedingly Item put them into a glassed Pot and fill the same with Butter in the Moneth of May then lute it with well with Paste that is Meal well kneaded so that nothing may evaporate then set the Pot on the fire and let it boil welnigh half a day after this is done strain the butter through a cloth and the remainder beat in a mortar and strain it again and mix them together then put them into water to cool and so reserve it in silver or golden boxes that which is not evaporated for the older the better it is and so much the better it will be if you can keep it forty years Let the sick Patient who is tooubled either with the Gowt or the Palsie but anoint himself often against the fire with this unguent and without doubt he shall he freed especially if it be the Gout All these prescriptions were taken from the writings of a certain nameless Author Hippocrates saith that a Hart or Stag having eaten any Serpents the worms in their guts are thereby expelled And Absyrtus hath the same words that Harts by eating of a Serpent do kill and expell worms from their guts Hierocles to a certain medicine which he prepared for the Strangulion in a Horse mingled the dung of a Lyzard and Stear herpetuou that is as I interpret it the fat of a Serpent the bloud of a Dove c. Laurence
draweth out the poyson of Wasps The leaves of Marsh-mallows as Aetius saith being bruised and applyed do perform the same The juyce of Rue or Balm about the quantity of two or three ounces drunk with Wine and the leaves being chewed and laid on with Honey and Salt or with Vinegar and Pitch do help much Water-cresses Rosemary with Barley meal and water with Vinegar sod together the juyce of by leaves Marigolds the bloud of an Owl all these are very effectual against the stingings of Wasps as Pliny lib. 31. cap. 9. telleth us the buds of the wilde Palm-tree Endive with the root and wilde Thyme being applyed plaister-wise do help the stinging of Wasps After the venom is drawn out by sucking the place affected must be put into hot water the space of an hour and then suddenly they must be thrust into Vinegar and Brine and forthwith the pain will be asswaged the tumor cease and the malice of the venomous humor clean extinguished Rhazes saith that the leaves of Night-shade or of Sengreen do very much good in this case And in like sort Bole Armony with Vinegar and Camphire and Nuts beaten with a little Vinegar and Castoreum Also take the Combe with Honey applying to the place and hold the grieved place neer the fire immediately and laying under them a few ashes binde them hard and forthwith the pain will be swaged Serapio saith that Savory or Cresses applyed and the seed thereof taken in drink and the juyce of the lesser Centory mixt with Wine are very meet to be used in these griefs he also commendeth for the same purpose the leaves of Basil the herb called Mercury and Mandrakes with Vinegar Ardoynus is of opinion that if you take a little round ball of Snow and put it into the fundament the pain will cease especially that which proceedeth by Wasps Let the place be anointed with Vinegar and Camphire or often fomented and bathed with Snow-water Take of Opium of the seed of Henbane and Camphire of each alike much and incorporate them with Rose-water or the juyce of Willows and lay it upon the wounded place applying on the top a linnen cloth first throughly wetted in wine Johannes Mesue who of some is called Evangelista medicorum prescribed this receipt of the juyce of Sisimbrium two drams and a half and with the juyce of Tartcitrons make a potion The juyce also of Spina Arabica and of Marjoram are nothing inferiour to these forementioned Aaron would in this grief have water Lintels called by some Ducks meat to be stamped with Vinegar and after to be applyed Constantine assureth us that Alcama tempered with Barley meal and Vinegar and so bound to the place as also Nuts leaves of Wall-nuts and Bleets are very profitable in this passion Item apply very warm to the wound a Spiders web bruised with a white Onion and sufficient Salt and Vinegar will perfectly cure it Guil. Placentinus will warrant that a plate of cold Iron laid upon the wound or Lead steeped in Vinegar will do the deed Gordonius counsel is to rub the place with Sage and Vinegar and afterwards to foment it with water and Vinegar sod together Varignana would have us to apply Chalk in powder and inwardly to take the seeds of Mallows boiled in Wine Water and a little Vinegar Matthiolus much commendeth Sperage being beaten and wrought up with Honey to anoint the place Likewise flies beaten and anointed on the place winter Savory Water-cresses with Oyl of Momerdica give most speedy help Arnoldus Villanovanus assureth us that any fresh earth especially Fullers earth is very available and the herb called Poley used as an Unguent or else Goats milk And Marcellus Empirious is not behinde his commendations for the use of Bullocks dung to be applyed as a poultesse to the stinged part These and many others may any Man ascribe that hath had but an easie tast of the infinity of Physicks speculation for the store-house of Nature and truly learned Physitians which way soever you turn you will minister and give sufficient store of alexiterial medicines for the expulsing of this grief In conclusion one and the self same medicament will serve indifferently for the curation of Wasps and Bees saving that when we are stung with Wasps more forcible remedies are required and for the hurts that Bees do us then weaker and gentler are sufficient In the hundreth and nintieth year before the birth of our blessed Saviour an infinite multitude of Waspes came flying into the Market place at Capua as Julius witnesseth and lighted on the Temple of Mars all which when with great regard and diligence they were gathered together and solemnly burnt yet for all that they presignified the coming of an enemy and did as it were fore-tell the burning of the City which shortly after came to passe And thus much for the History of the Wasp of HORNETS A Hornet is called of the Hebrews Tsirbah Of the Arabians Zabar and Zambor Of the Germans Ein hornauss Horlitz Froisin Ofertzwuble Of the Flemings Horsele Of the Frenchmen Trellons Fonlons Of the Italians Calauron Crabrone Scaraffon and Galanron Of the Spaniards Tabarros ò Moscardos Of the Illyrians Irssen Of the Sclavonians Sierszen Of us Englishmen Hornets and great Wasps The Grecians call them Anthrénas and Anthrenoùs because with their sting they raise an Anthrar or Carbuncle with a vehement inflamation of the whole part about it The Latines call them Crabrones peradventure of Crabra a Town so named in the Territory of Tusculanum where there is great plenty of them or it may be they are tearmed Crambrones of Caballus a Horse of whom they are first engendered according to that of Ovid 15. Metamorphos Pressus humo bellator equus Crabronis origo est That is to say When War-horse dead upon the Earth lies Then doth his flesh breed Hornet flies Albertus tearmeth a Hornet Apis citrina that is a yellow or Orange coloured Bee Cardan laboureth much to prove that dead Mules are their first beginners Plutarch is of opinion that they first proceed from the flesh of dead Horses as Bees do out of a Bulls belly and I think that they have their breeding from the harder more firm and solid parts of the flesh of Horses as Wasps do from the more tender or soft Hornets are twice so great as the common Wasps in shape and proportion of body much resembling one another They have four wings the inward not being half so large as the outward being all joyned to their shoulders which are of a dark brownish and of a Chestnut-like colour these wings are the cause of their swift flight they have also six feet of the same colour and hew that their breast and shoulders are of There is somewhat long of the colour of Saffron their eyes and looks are hanging or bending downwards crooked and made like a half Moon from which grow forth two peaks like
they have beards of a yellow golden colour being full of bristles and the Mountain-dragons commonly have more deep eye-lids then the Dragons of the Fens Their aspect is very fierce and grim and whensoever they move upon the earth their eyes give a sound from their eye-lids much like unto the tinckling of Brasse and sometimes they boldly venture into the Sea and take Fishes Of the WINGED DRAGON Saint Augustine saith that Dragons abide in deep Caves and hollow places of the earth and that some-times when they perceive moistnes in the air they come out of their holes beating the air with their wings as it were with the strokes of Oars they forsake the earth and flie aloft which wings of theirs are of a skinny substance and very voluble and spreading themselves wide according to the quantity and largenesse of the Dragons body which caused Lucan the Poet in his verses to write in this manner following Vos quoque qui cunctis innoxia numina terris Serpitis aurato nitidi fulgore Dracones Pestiferos ardens facit Africa ducitis altum Aera cum pennis c. In English thus You shining Dragons creeping on the earth Which fiery Africk holds with skins like gold Yet pestilent by hot infecting breath Mounted with wings in th' air we do behold The Inhabitants of the Kingdom of Georgia once called Media do say that in their Vallies there are divers Dragons which have both wings and feet and that their feet are like unto the feet of Geese Besides there are Dragons of sundry colours for some of them are black some red some of an ash-colour some yellow and their shape and outward appearance very beautiful according to the verses of Nicander â—or 〈…〉 u apparet species pulchro illius ore Triplice conspicui se produni ordine dentes Magna sub egregia scintillant lumina fronte Tinctaque felle tegunt imum palearia mentum Which may be Englished thus Their form of presence outwardly appears All beautiful and in their goodly mouth Their teeth stand double all one within another Conspicuous order so doth bewray the truth Vnder their brows which are both great and wide Stand twinckling eyes as bright as any star With red galls tincture are their dewlaps dyed Their chinor under-chap to cover far Gillius Pierius and Grevinus following the authority of this Poet do affirm that a Dragon is of a black colour the belly somewhat green and very beautiful to behold having a treble row of teeth in their mouths upon every jaw and with most bright and cleer seeing eyes which caused the Poets to faign in their writings that these Dragons are the watchfull keepers of Treasures They have also two dewlaps growing under their chin and hanging down like a beard which are of a red colour their bodies are set all over with very sharp scales and over their eyes stand certain flexible eye-lids When they gape wide with their mouth and thrust forth their tongue their teeth seem very much to resemble the teeth of wilde Swine And their necks have many times grosse thick hair growing upon them much like unto the bristles of a wilde Boar. Their mouth especially of the most tameable Dragons is but little not much bigger then a pipe through which they draw in their breath for they wound not with their mouth but with their tails only beating with them when they are angry But the Indian Aethiopian and Phrygian Dragons have very wide mouths through which they often swallow in whole fowls and beasts Their tongue is cloven as if it were double and the Investigators of nature do say that they have fifteen teeth of a side The males have combes on their heads but the females have none and they are likewise distinguished by their beards They have most excellent senses both of seeing and hearing and for this cause their name Drakon cometh of Derkein and this was one cause why Jupiter the Heathens great God is said to be metamorphosed into a Dragon whereof their flyeth this tale when he fell in love with Proserpina he ravished her in the likenesse of a Dragon for he came unto her and covered her with the spires of his body and for this cause the people of Sabazii did observe in their mysteries or sacrifices the shape of a Dragon rowled up within the compasse of his spires so that as he begot Ceres with childe in the likenesse of a Bull he likewise deluded her daughter Proserpina in the likenesse of a Dragon but of these transmutations we shall speak more afterwards and I think the vanity of these took first ground from the Africans who believe that the original of Dragons took beginning from the unnatural conjunction of an Eagle and a she Wolf And so they say that the Wolf growing great by this conception doth not bring forth as at other times but her belly breaketh and the Dragon cometh out who in his beak and wings resembleth the Dragon his father and in his feet and tail the Wolf his mother but in the skin neither of them both but this kinde of fabulous generation is already sufficiently confuted Their meats are fruits and herbs or any venomous creature therefore they live long without food and when they eat they are not easily filled They grow most fat by eating of egges in devouring whereof they use this Art if it be a great Dragon he swalloweth it up whole and then rowleth himself whereby he crusheth the egges to pieces in his belly and so nature casteth out the shells and keepeth in the meat But if it were a young Dragon as if it be a Dragons whelp he taketh the egge within the spire of his tail and so crushed it hard and holdeth it fast untill his scales open the shell like a knife then sucketh he out of the place opened all the meat of the egg In like sort do the young ones pull off the feathers from the fowls which they eat and the old ones swallow them whole casting the feathers out of their bellies again The Dragons of Phrygia when they are hungry turn themselves towards the West and gaping wide with the force of their breath do draw the Birds that flie over their heads into their throats which some have thought is but a voluntary lapse of the Fowls to be drawn by the breath of the Dragon as by a thing they love but it is more probable that some vaporous and venomous breath is sent up from the Dragon to them that poysoneth and infecteth the air about them whereby their senses are taken from them and they astonished fall down into his mouth But if it fortune the Dragons finde not food enough to satisfie their hunger then they hide themselves until the people be returned from the market or the heard-men bring home their flocks and upon a sudden they devour either Men or Beasts which come first to their mouths then they go again and hide themselves in their dens and hollow Caves
successively together in one day and did hang in the air over a Town called Sanctogoarin shaking his tail over that Town every time it appeared visibly in the sight of many of the Inhabitants and afterwards it came to passe that the said Town was three times burned with fire to the great harm and undoing of all the people dwelling in the same for they were not able to make any resistance to quench the fire with all the might Art and power that they could raise And it was further observed that about that time there were many Dragons seen washing themselves in a certain Fountain or Well neer the Town and if any of the people did chance to drink of the water of that Well their bellies did instantly begin to swell and they dyed as if they had been poysoned Whereupon it was publiquely decreed that the said Well should be filled up with stones to the intent that never any man should afterwards be poysoned with that water and so a memory thereof was continued and these things are written by Justinus Goblerus in an Epistle to Gesner affirming that he did not write faigned things but such things as were true and as he had learned from men of great honesty and credit whose eyes did see and behold both the Dragons and the mishaps that followed by fire When the body of Cleomenes was crucified and hung upon the Crosse it is reported by them that were the watch-men about it that there came a Dragon and did winde it self about his body and with his head covered the face of the dead King oftentimes licking the same and not suffering any Bird to come neer and touch the carkasse For which cause there began to be a reverent opinion of divinity attributed to the King until such time as wise and prudent men studious of the truth found out the true cause hereof For they say that as Bees are generated out of the body of Oxen and Drones of Horses and Hornets of Asses so do the bodies of men ingender out of their marrow a Serpent and for this cause the Ancients were moved to consecrate the Dragon to Noble-spirited men and therefore there was a monument kept of the first Africanus because that under an Olive planted with his own hand a Dragon was said to preserve his ghost But I will not mingle fables and truths together and therefore I will reserve the moral discourse of this Beast unto another place and this which I have written may be sufficient to satisfie any reasonable man that there are winged Serpents and Dragons in the world And I pray God that we never have better arguments to satisfie us by his corporal and lively presence in our Countrey lest some great calamity follow thereupon Now therefore we will proceed to the love and hatred of this Beast that is observed with man and other creatures And first of all although Dragons be natural enemies to men like unto all other Serpents yet many times if there be any truth in story they have been possessed with extraordinary love both to men women and children as may appear by these particulars following There was one Aleva a Thessallan Neatherd which did keep Oxen in Ossa hard by the Fountain Hemonius there was a Dragon fell in love with this man for his hair was as yellow as any gold unto him for his hair did this Dragon often come creeping closely as a Lover to his Love and when he came unto him he would lick his hair and face so gently and in so sweet a manner as the man professed he never felt the like so as without all fear he conversed with him and as he came so would he go away again never returning to him empty but bringing some one gift or other such as his nature and kinde could lay hold on There was a Dragon also which loved Pindus the son of Macedo King of Emathia This Pindus having many Brothers most wicked and lewd persons and he only being a valiant man of honest disposition having likewise a comely and goodly personage understanding the treachery of his Brethren against him bethought himself how to avoid their hands and tyranny Now forasmuch as he knew that the Kingdom which he possessed was the only mark they all shot at he thought it better to leave that to them and so to rid himself from envy fear and peril then to embrew his hand in their bloud or to lose his life and Kingdom both together Wherefore he renounced and gave over the government and betook himself to the exercise of hunting for he was a strong man fit to combate with wilde Beasts by destruction of whom he made more room for many men upon the earth so that he passed all his days in that exercise It hapned on a day that he was hunting of a Hind-calf and spurring his Horse with all his might and main in the eager persuit thereof he rode out of the sight of all his company and suddenly the Hind-calf leaped into a very deep Cave out of the sight of Pindus the Hunter and so saved himself Then he alighted from his Horse and tyed him to the next Tree seeking out as diligently as he could for a way into the Cave whereinto the Hind-calf had leaped and when he had looked a good while about him and could finde none he heard a voyce speaking unto him and forbidding him to touch the Hind-calf which made him look about again to see if he could perceive the person from whom the voyce proceeded but espying none he grew to be afraid and thought that the voyce proceeded from some other greater cause and so leaped upon his Horse hastily and departed again to his fellows The day after he returned to the same place and when he came thither being terrified with the remembrance of the former voyce he durst not enter into the place but stood there doubting and wondering with himself what Shepheards or Hunters or other men might be in that place to diswarn him from his game and therefore he went round about to seek for some or to learn from whence the voyce proceeded While he was thus seeking there appeared unto him a Dragon of a great stature creeping upon the greatest part of his body except his neck and head lifted up a little and that little was as high as the stature of any man can reach and in this fashion he made toward Pindus who at the first sight was not a little afraid of him but yet did not run away but rather gathering his wits together remembred that he had about him Birds and divers parts of Sacrifices which instantly he gave unto the Dragon and so mitigated his fury by these gifts and as it were with a royal feast changed the cruel nature of the Dragon into kinde usage For the Dragon being smoothed over with these gifts as it were overtaken with the liberality of Pindus was contented to forsake the old place of his habitation
they kill thereby forthwith or else wound greatly with the same so that the strokes of his tail are more deadly then the biting of his teeth which caused Nicander to write thus Nec tamen illegraves ut caetera turba dolores Si velit infixo cum forte momorderit ore Suscitat exiguus non noxia vulnera punctus Qui ceu rodentes noctu quaeque obvia muris Infligit modicum tenuis dat plaga cruorem Which may be thus Englished Nor yet he when with his angry mouth Doth bite such pains and torments bringeth As other Serpents if Ancients tell the truth When with his teeth and spear he stingeth For as the holes which biting Mice do leave When in the night they light upon a prey So small are Dragons-bites which men receive And harmlesse wound makes bloud to run away Their mouth is small and by reason thereof they cannot open it wide to bite deep so as their biting maketh no great pain and those kinde of Dragons which do principally fight with Eagles are defended more with their tails then with their teeth but yet there are some other kinde of Dragons whose teeth are like the teeth of Bears biting deep and opening their mouth wide wherewithall they break bones and make many bruises in the body and the males of this kinde bite deeper then the females yet there followeth no great pain upon the wound The cure hereof is like to the cure for the biting of any other Beast wherein there is no venom and for this cause there must be nothing applyed thereunto which cureth venomous bitings but rather such things as are ordinary in the cure of every Ulcer The seed of grasse commonly called Hay-dust is prescribed against the biting of Dragons The Barble being rubbed upon the place where a Scorpion of the earth a Spider a Sea or Land-dragon biteth doth perfectly cure the same Also the head of a Dog or Dragon which hath bitten any one being cut off and flayed and applyed to the wound with a little Euphorbium is said to cure the wound speedily And if Alberdisimon be the same that is a Dragon then according to the opinion of Avicen the cure of it must be very present as in the cure of Ulcers And if Alhatraf and Haudem be of the kinde of Dragons then after their biting there follow great coldnesse and stupidity and the cure thereof must be the same means which is observed in cold poysons For which cause the wound or place bitten must be embrewed or washed with luke-warm Vinegar and emplaistered with the leaves of Bay anointed with the Oyl of herb Mary and the Oyl of Wilde-pellitory or such things as are drawn out of those Oyls wherein is the vertue of Nettles or Sea-onions But those things which are given unto the patient to drink must be the juyce of Bay-leaves in Vinegar or else equall portions of Myrrhe Pepper and Rew in Wine the powder or dust whereof must be the full weight of a golden groat or as we say a French Crown In the next place for the conclusion of the History of the Dragon we will take our farewell of him in the recital of his medicinal vertues which are briefly these that follow First the fat of a Dragon dryed in the Sun is good against creeping Ulcers and the same mingled with Honey and Oyl helpeth the dimnesse of the eyes at the beginning The head of a Dragon keepeth one from looking asquint and if it be set up at the gates and dores it hath been thought in ancient time to be very fortunate to the sincere worshippers of GOD. The eyes being kept till they be stale and afterwards beat into an Oyl with Honey made into Ointment keep any one that useth it from the terrour of night-visions and apparitions The fat of a Hart in the skin of a Roe bound with the nerves of a Hart unto the shoulder was thought to have a vertue to fore-shew the judgement of victories to come The first spindle by bearing of it procureth an easie passage for the pacification of higher powers His teeth bound unto the feet of a Roe with the nerves of a Hart have the same power But of all other there is no folly comparable to the composition which the Magitians draw out of a Dragon to make one invincible and that is this They take the head and tail of a Dragon with the hairs out of the fore-head of a Lyon and the marrow of a Lyon the spume or white mouth of a conquering Horse bound up in a Harts skin together with a claw of a Dog and fastned with the crosse nerves or sinew of a Hart or of a Roe they say that this hath as much power to make one invincible as hath any medicine or remedy whatsoever The fat of Dragons is of such vertue that it driveth away venomous beasts It is also reported that by the tongue or gall of a Dragon sod in Wine men are delivered from the spirits of the night called Incubi and Succubi or else Night-mares But above all other parts the use of their bloud is accounted most notable But whether the Cynnabaris be the same which is made of the bloud of the Dragons and Elephants collected from the earth when the Dragon and Elephant fall down dead together according as Pliny delivereth I will not here dispute seeing it is already done in the story of the Elephant neither will I write any more of this matter in this place but only refer the Reader unto that which he shall finde written thereof in the History of our former Book of Four-footed Beasts And if that satisfie him not let him read Langius in the first book of his Epistles and sixty five Epistle where that learned man doth abundantly satisfie all men concerning this question that are studious of the truth and not prone to contention And to conclude Andreas Balvacensis writeth that the Bloud-stone called the Haematite is made of the Dragons bloud and thus I will conclude the History of the Dragon with this story following out of Porphyrius concerning the good successe which hath been signified unto men and women either by the dreams or sight of Dragons Mammea the Mother of Alexander Severus the Emperor the night before his birth dreamed that she brought forth a little Dragon so also did Olympia the Mother of Alexander the Great and Pomponia the Mother of Scipio Africanus The like prodigy gave Augustus hope that he should be Emperor For when his Mother Aetia came in the night time unto the Temple of Apollo and had set down her bed or couch in the Temple among other Matrons suddenly she fell asleep and in her sleep she dreamed that a Dragon came to her and clasped about her body and so departed without doing her any harm Afterwards the print of a Dragon remained perpetually upon her belly so as she never durst any more be seen in any bath The Emperor Tiberius Caesar had a Dragon
Bees full wilde or Locusts spoylers bred But yet to look upon all horrible in seams For why the cruel Bore they shew in head They keep in rocks and stony places of the houses and earth making their dens winding and hanging according to these Verses Rimosas colit illa Petras sibique aspera tecta Et modice pendens facit inflexumque cubile In English thus The chinks of Rocks and passages in stone They dwell wherein their lodgings bare A little hanging made for every one And bending too their sleepy harbours are It is said that Canobus the Governour of Menelaus chanced to fall upon this Serpent in revenge whereof Helen his charge the wife of Menelaus broke his back-bone and that ever since that time they creep lamely and as it were without loyns which fable is excellently thus described by Nicander Quondam animosa Helene cygni Jovis inclyta proles Eversa rediens Troia nisi vana vâ—tustas Huic indignata est generi Pharias ut ad oras Venit adversi declinans flamina venti Fluctivagam statuit juxta Nili ostia classem Namque ubi nauclerus se fessum forte Canobus Sterneret et bibulis fusus dormiret arenis Laesa venenosos Hâ—morrhois impulit ictus Illatamque tulit letali dente quietem Protinus oâ—iperae cernens id filla Ledae Oppressae medium serpenti fervida dorsum Infregit tritaeque excussit vinculae spinae Quae fragili illius sic dempta è corpore fugit Et graciles Haemorrhoiae obliquique Cerastae Ex hoc clauda trahunt jam foli tempore membra Which may be Englished thus Once noble Helen Joves childe by Swan-like shape Returning back from Troy destroyed by Grecian war If that our ancients do not with fables us beclap This race was envied by Pharias anger farre When to his shores for safety they did come Declining rage of blustring windy seas Water-biding-Navy at Nilus mouth gan run Where Canobus all tyred sainted for some ease For there this Pilot or Master of the Fleet Did hast from boat to sleep in â—rery sand Where he did feel the teeth of Hemorrhe deep Wounding his body with poyson deaths own hand But when egge-breeding Ledaes wench espyed This harm she prest the Serpents back with stroke Whereby the bands thereof were all 〈◊〉 Which in just wrath for just revenge she broke So ever since out of this Serpents fr 〈…〉 And body they are taken which is the cause That Cerasts and lean Haemorrhs are ever 〈◊〉 Drawing their parts on earth by natures lawes They which are stung with these Haemorrhs do suffer very intolerable torments for out of the wound continually floweth bloud and the excrements also that cometh out of the belly are bloudy or sometimes little rouls of bloud in stead of excrements The colour of the place bitten is black or of a dead bloudy colour out of which nothing floweth at the beginning but a certain watery humour then followeth pain in the stomack and difficulty of breathing Lastly the powers of the body are broken and opened so that out of the mouth gums ears eyes fingers ends nayls of the feet and privy parts continually issueth bloud untill a cramp also come and then followeth death as we read in Lucan of one Tellus a young noble man slain by this Serpent described as followeth Impressit dentes Haemorrhois aspera Tullo Magnanimo juveni miratorique Catonis Vâ—que solet pariter totis se effundere signis Coricii pressura croci sic omnia membra Emisere simul rutilum pro sanguine virâ—s Sanguis erant lachrymae quâ—cunque foramina novit Humor ab iis largus manat cruor ora redundant Et patulae nares sudor rubet omnia plenis Membra fluunt venis totum est pro vulnere corpâ—s In English thus The Haemorrhe fierce in noble Tullus fastened teeth That valiant youth great Catoes scholar deer And as when Saffron by Corycians skeeth Is prest and in his colour on them all appear So all his parts sent forth a poyson red In stead of bloud Nay all in bloud went round Bloud was his tears all passages of it were sped For out of mouth and ears did bloud abound Bloud was his sweat each part his vein out-bleeds And all the body bloud that one wound feeds The cure of this Serpent in the opinion of the Ancients was thought impossible as writeth Dioscrides and thereof they complain very much using only common remedies as scarification â—stions sharp meats and such things as are already remembred in the cure of the Dipsas But besides these they use Vine-leaves first bruised and then sod with Honey they take also the head of this Serpent and burn it to powder and so drink it or else Garlick with Oyl of Flower-de-luce they give them also to eat Reisins of the Sun And besides they resist the eruption of the bloud with plaisters laid to the place bitten made of Vine-leaves and Honey or the leaves of Purslane and Barley-meal But before their urine turn bloudy let them eat much Garlick stamped and mixed with Oyl to cause them to vomit and drink wine delayed with water then let the wound be washed with cold water and the bladder continually fomented with hot Spunges Some do make the cure of it like the cure of the Viper and they prescribe them to eat hard Egges with Salt fish and besides the seed of Radish the juice of Poppy with the roots of Lilly also Daffadil and Rue Trefolie Cassia Opoponax and Cinnamon in potion and to conclude the flowers and buds of the bush are very profitable against the biting of the Haemorrhe and so I end the history of this Serpent Of the Horned SERPENT THis Serpent because of his Horns although it be a kinde of Viper is called in Greek Rerastes and from thence cometh the Latine word Cerastes and the Arabian Cerust and Cerustes It is called also in Latine Ceristalis Cristalis Sirtalis and Tristalis All which are corrupted words derived from Cerastes or else from one another and therefore I think it not fit to stand upon them The Hebrewes call it Schephiphon the Italians Cerastes the Germans En geâ—urnte schlâ—â—g the French Vn Ceraste un serpent Cornu that is a horned Serpent and therefore I have so called it in English imitating herein both the French and Germans I will not stand about the difference of Authors whether this Serpent be to be referred to the Asps or to the Vipers for it is not a point materiall and therefore I will proceed to the description of his nature that by his whole history the Reader may choose whether he will account him a subordinate kinde unto others or else a principall of himself It is an African Serpent bred in the Lybian sandy seas places not inhabited by men for the huge Mountains of sands are so often moved by the windes that it is not only impossible for men to dwell there but also very dangerous and perilous to travel through them for
ditches and other simple medicines such as are applyed to the curing of the Yellow-jaundise The eyes must be washed with the urine of a childe or young man which never knew any woman carnally and this may be applyed either simply and alone or else by Brine and Pickle so also must the head After that the body is purged anoint it with Balsamum and Honey and take an Eye-salve to sharpen again and recover the sight and for this cause it is very good to weep for by evacuation of tears the venom also will be expelled But if the eyes grow to pain then let their Eye-salve be made more temperate and gentle to keep the head and brain from stupefaction And thus much for the Pelias out of Aetius Of the PORPHYRE THere is among the Indians a Serpent about the bignesse of a span or more which in outward aspect is like to the most beautiful and well coloured Purple the head hereof is exceeding white and it wanteth teeth This Serpent is fought for in the highest Mountains for out of him they take the Sardius stone And although he cannot bite because he wanteth teeth yet in his rage when he is persecuted he casteth forth a certain poyson by vomit which causeth putrefaction where ever it lighteth But if it be taken alive and be hanged up by the tail it rendereth a double one whiles it is alive the other when it is dead both of them black in colour but the first resembleth black Amber And if a man take but so much of the first black venom as is the quantity of a Sesamine seed it killeth him presently making his brains to fall out at his nostrils but the other worketh neither so speedily nor after the same manner for it casteth one into a Consumption and killeth within the compasse of a year But I finde Aelianus Volateran and Textor to differ from this relation of Ctesias for they say that the first poyson is like to the drops of Almond trees which are congealed into a gum and the other which cometh from it when he is dead is like to thin mattery water Unto this Porphyre I may add the Palmer Serpent which Strabo writeth doth kill with an unrecoverable poyson and it is also of a Scarlet colour to the loyns or hinder-parts Of the PRESTER ALthough there be many Writers which confound together the Prester the Dipsas and make of them but one kinde or Serpent of divers names yet seeing on the contrary there he as many or more which do distinguish or divide them and make them two in nature different one from another the Dipsas killing by thirst and the Prester by heat as their very names do signifie therefore I will also trace the steps of this latter opinion as of that which is more probable and consonant to truth The Grecians call it Prester of Prethein which signifieth to burn or inflame and Tremellius and Junius think that the Serpents called fiery Serpents which did sting the Israelitos in the Wildernesse were Presters We finde in Suidas Prester for the fire of Heaven or for a cloud of fire carryed about with a vehement strong winde and sometimes lightenings And it seemeth that this is indeed a fiery kinde of Serpent for he himself always goeth about with open mouth panting and breathing as the Poet writeth Oraque distendens avidus fumantia Prester Inficil ut laesus tumida membra gorat Which may be Englished thus The greedy Presters wide-open foming mouth Infects and swelleth making the members by unâ—outh When this Serpent hath struck or wounded there followeth an immeasurable swelling distraction conversion of the bloud to matter and corrupt inflamation taking away freedom or easinesse of aspiration likewise dimming the sight of making the hair to fall off from the head at last suffocation as it wereby fire which is thus described by Mantuan upon the person of one Narsidus saying as followeth Ecce subit facies leto diversa fluenti Narsidium Marsi cultorem torridus agri Percussit prester illi rubor igneus ora Succendii tenditque cutem pereunte figura Misoens ouncta tumor toto jam corpore major Humanumque egressa modum super omnia membra Efflatur Sanies latè tollente veneno Ipse late penitus congesto corpore mersus Nec lorica tenet distenti corporis auctum Spumeus accenso non sic exundat aheno Vndarum cumulus nec tanto carbasa Core Curvavere sinus tumides j am non capit artus Informis globus confuso pondere triâ—â—â— Intactum voluctum rostris epulasque duturum Haud impune feris non aufi tradere busto Nondum siante modo crescens fugere cadaver Which may be thus Englished Lo suddenly a divers fate the joyful current stayed Narsidius which Marsinus mirror did adere By burning sting of scorching Prester dead was layed For fiery colour his face enflam'd not as before The first appearing visage faild all was out-stretcht Swelling cover'd all and bodies grosnesse doubled Surpassing humane bounds and members all ore reacht Aspiring venom spreads matter blown in carkasse troubled The man lyeth drownd within swoln bodies banks No girdle can his monstrous growth contain Not so are waters swoln with rage of sandy flanks Nor sails bend down to blustering Corus wain Now can it not the swelling sinews keep in hold Deformed globe it is and trunk ore-come with waight Vntoucht of flying Fowls no beaks of young or old Do him dare eat or beasts full wilde upon the body bait But that they die No man to â—ury in earth or fire Durst once come nigh nor stand to look upon that haplesse cste For never ceased the heat of corps though dead to swell Therefore afraid they ran away with speedy pace The cure of the poyson of this Serpent is by the Physitians found out to be wilde Purslain also the flowers and stalk of the bush the Beavers stone called Castoreum drunk with Opoponax and Rew in Wine and the little Sprat-fish in diet And thus much of this fire-burning venomous Serpent Of the RED SERPENT THis kinde of Serpent being a Serpent of the Sea was first of all found out by Pelicerius Bishop of Montpelier as Rondoletus writeth and although some have taken the same for the Myrus or Berus of which we have spoken already yet is it manifest that they are deceived for it hath gills covered with a bony covering and also fins to swim withal much greater then those of the Myrus which we have shewed already to be the male Lamprey This Serpent therefore for the outward proportion thereof is like to the Serpents of the land but of a red or purplish colour being full of crooked or oblique lines descending from the back to the belly and dividing or breaking that long line of the back which beginneth at the head and so stretcheth forth to the tail The opening of his mouth is not very great his teeth are very sharp and like a saw his gils like scaly fishes
some peculiar Snakes such are those in the Indian Sea where they have broad tayls and they harm more by biting with the sharpnesse of their teeth then by any venom that is contained in them and therefore in this they somewhat resemble the Snakes of the earth And Pliny writeth that once before Persis upon the coasts of certain Islands there were seen of these Sea-hyders very many of the length of twenty cubits wherewithall a whole Navy or fleet of ships were mightily affrighted And the like is reported of three other Islands lying betwixt the promontory of Carmania and Arabia and such were those also in the African Sea who are said by Aristotle not to be afraid of a Gally but will set upon the men therein and over-turn it And he himself saw many bones of great wilde Oxen who had been destroyed by these kinde of Sea-snakes or Hyders The greatest River that falleth into the red Sea is called Sinthus the fall whereof afar off seemeth to the beholders to be like winding Snakes as though they were coming against the passengers to stay them from entrance into that Land and there is not only a sight or resemblance of Serpents there but also the very truth of them for all the Sea-men know when they are upon these coasts by the multitude of Serpents that meet them And so do the Serpents called Graae about Persis And the Coast of Barace hath the same noysome premonstration by occurrence of many odious black and very great Sea-serpents But about Barygaza they are lesse and of yellow earthy colour their eyes bloody or fiery red and their heads like Dragons Keranides writeth of a Sea-Dragon in this manner saying The Dragon of the Sea is a fish without scales and when this is grown to a great and large proportion whereby it doth great harm to other creatures the winds or clouds take him up suddenly into the air and there by violent agitation shake his body to pieces the parcels whereof so mangled torn asunder have been often found in the tops of the Mountains And if this be true as it may well be I cannot tell whether there be in the world a more noble part of Divine providence and sign of the love of God to his creatures who armeth the clouds of heaven to take vengeance of their destroyers The tongue of this Sea-Dragon saith he is like a Horses tayl two foot in length the which tongue preserved in Oyl and carried about by a man safeguardeth him from languishing infirmities and the fat thereof with the herb Dragon annoynted on the head or sick parts cureth the head-ache and driveth away the Leprosie and all kinde of scabs in the skin There be also in the Swevian Ocean or Balthick sea Serpents of thirty or forty foot in length whose picture is thus described as it was taken by Olaus Magnus and he further writeth that these do never harm any man untill they be provoked The same Author also expresseth likewise the figure of another Serpent of a hundred and twenty foot long appearing now and then upon the coasts of Norway very dangerous and hurtfull to the Sea-men in calms and still weather for they lift up themselves above the hatches and suddenly catch a man in their mouths and so draw him into the Sea out of the Ship and many times they overthrow in the waters a laden Vessel of great quantity with all the wares therein contained And sometimes also they set up such a spire above the water that a Boat or little Bark without sayls may passe through the same And thus much for the Sea-serpents Of the SEPS or SEPEDON ALthough I am not ignorant that there be some which make two kindes of these Serpents because of the two names rehearsed in the title yet when they have laboured to describe them severally they can bring nothing or very little wherein their story doth not agree so as to make twain of them or to handle them asunder were but to take occasion to tautologize or to speak one thing twice Wherefore Gesner wisely pondering both parts and after him Carronus deliver their opinions that both these names do shew but one Serpent yet according to their manner they expresse them as if they were two For all their writings do but minister occasion to the Readers to collect the truth out of their labours wherefore I will follow their opinion and not their example Sepedon and Seps cometh of Sepein because it rotteth the body that it biteth in colour it neerly resembleth the Haemorrhe yet it usually goeth by spires and half-hoops for which cause as it goeth the quantity cannot be well discerned the pace of it being much swifter then the Haemorrhe The wound that it giveth is smarting entring deep and bringing putrefaction for by an inexplicable celerity the poyson passeth over all the body the hair rotteth and falleth from all parts darknesse and dimnesse is in the eyes and spots upon the body like as if a man had been burned in the Sun And this Serpent is thus described unto us by Nicander Jam quae Sepedonis species sit qualeque corpus Accipe diversa tractum ratione figurat Quin etiam mutilae nulla insunt cornua fronti Et color hirsuti qualem est spectare tapetis Grande caput brevior dum currit cauda videtur Quam tamen obliquo majorem tramite ducit Quod fit ab hoc vulnus magnos nocuosque dolores Excitat interimens quia fundit ipse ve 〈…〉 Quo sata marcentes tabes depâ—soitur artus Indeque siccata resolutus pelle capillus Spargitur volitans candentis pappus achantae Praeterea foedum turpi vitiligine corpus Et veluti urenti maculas a sole videre est Which may be Englished thus Sepedons shape now take and what his form of body is It doth not go as Haemorrhe doth but traileth diversly His powled head of Haemorrhs horns full happily doth misse And colours are as manifold as works of Tapestry Great is his head but running seems the tail but small Which winding it in greater path draws after to and fro But where it wounds by pains and torments great it doth appall Killing the wounded infusing poyson so Whereby consumed are the lean and slender sinews And dryed skin lets hair fall off apace Like as the windes drive whites from top of thistle Cardus Besides the body filth as with Sun parched looseth grace Thus doth Nicander describe the Sepedon now also we will likewise relate that which another Poet saith of the Seps that both compared together may appear but one therefore thus writeth Lucan upon occasion of one Sabellus wounded by this Serpent Miserique in crure Sabelli Seps stetit exiguus quem flexo dente tenacem Auuâ—sitque manu piloque affixit arenis Parva modò Serpens sed qua non ulla cruenvae Tantum mortis habet nam plagae proxima circum Fugit rapta cutis pallentiaque ossa retexit Jamquae sinu
for separating dividing picking carding or suting their stuffe they are very Bunglers to the first mentioned They apprehend and take their preyes rather casually then take any great pains to seek farre for it because their hole being great outwardly seemeth to be a good and convenient lurking-corner and a safe corner for Flies to hide themselves in but being entangled and arrested in the very entry they are snatched up suddenly by the watchfull Spider and carryed away into the more inward places of their dens there to be slaughtered For they watch and ward aloft in high walls and buildings as well to deceive such Birds as lye in wait to intrap and take them at unawares as Sparrowes Robin-red-breasts Wrens Nightingales and Hedge-Sparrowes which are all sworn enemies to Spiders and besides the more easily to beguile the silly flies suspecting no harm at all There be certain other sorts of Spiders which as yet I have not described as for example there is one the greatest of all that ever I saw which spreadeth her artificiall nets in the Harvest-time amongst the leaves and branches of Roses and entangleth either any other little Spider that is running away or else Gnat-flies and such like being caught at unawares and hanged by a kinde of thred whom she first pursueth and layeth hold on with a wonderfull dexterity and quicknesse and being fast hanged and so made sure she there leaveth them for the satisfying of her hungry appetite till another time The body of this Spider is in colour somewhat whitish resembling scumme or frothy some and almost of an Oval-figure the head very little placed under her belly being withall crooked or bending like hooks as is to be seen in the Crab-fish and her back garnished with many white spots This is one kinde of Autumnall Lupi or Wolf-Spider which in a very short space of time do grow from the bignesse of a little Pease to a very great bulk and thicknesse There are also found in all places of this Countrey long-legged Spiders who make a very homely and disorderly Web. This kinde of Spider liveth altogether in the fields her body is almost of a round figure and somewhat brownish in colour living in the grasse and delighting in the company of Sheep and for this cause I take it that we English men do call her a Shepheard either for that she keepeth and loveth to be among their flocks or because that Shepheards have thought those grounds and feedings to be very wholesome wherein they are most found and that no venemous or hurtfull creature abideth in those fields where they be And herein their judgement is to be liked for they are indeed altogether unhurtfull whether inwardly taken or otherwise outwardly applyed and therefore because I am tyed within a Teather and thereby restrained from all affectionate discoursing or dilating unlesse of poysonous and harmfull Creatures I will come into my path again and tell you of another certain black Spider that hath very short feet carrying about with her an Egge as white as Snow under her belly and running very swiftly the Egge being broken many Spiders creep forth which go forth with their dam to seek their living al together and climbing upon her back when night approacheth there they rest and so they lodge In rotten and hollow trees there are also to be found exceeding black Spiders having great bodies short feet and keeping together with Cheeselips or those creeping vermine with many feet called of some Sowes We have seen also saith the learned Gesner Spiders that were white all over of a round compact and well knit body somewhat broad living in the flowers of Mountain Parsely amongst Roses and in the green grasse their Egges were little slender and very long their mouth speckled and both their sides were marked with a red line running all alongest He took them to be very venemous because he saw a Marmoset or Munkey to eat of them and by eating thereof hardly to escape with life yet at length it did well again and was freed from further danger only by powring down a great deal of Oyl into his throat I my self have also seen some Spiders with very long bodies and sharp tayls of a blackish or dark red colour and I have noted other-some again to be all over the body green-coloured I will not deny but that there are many other sorts of Spiders and of many more different colours but I never read or yet ever saw them Neque enim nostra fert omnia tellus The ages ensuing peradventure will finde more I will only put you in remembrance of this one thing worthy to be observed that all weaving and Net-making Spiders according as they grow in years so do they acquire more knowledge and attain to greater cunning and experience in their spinning trade but carrying a resolute and ready will to keep both time and measure with that Musick which best contents most ears I will now pass to speak of the propagation and use of Spiders and so I will close up this discourse The propagation of Spiders for the most part is by coupling together the desire and action whereof continueth almost the whole Spring-time for at that time by a mutuall and often drawing and easie pulling of their Web they do as it were wooe one another then approach they neerer together and lastly are joyned with their hippes one against another backwards as Camels do for that is the most fit for them in regard of the round proportion and figure of their bodies In like sort do the Phalangies joyn together and are generated by those of the same kinde as Aristotle saith But the Phalangies couple not in the Spring-season as the other Spiders doe but towards Winter at what time they are very swift quick nimble and of most certain hurt more dangerous and more venemous in their bitings Some of them after their coupling together do lay one Egge only carrying it under their belly it is in colour as white as Snow and both Male and Female sit upon it by turns Some Spiders do exclude many little Egges very like unto the seeds of Poppy out of which it hath been observed that sometimes there have been hatched three hundred Spiders at one time which after their vain and idle plying and sporting together in their web at length come forth with their Dam and towards evening they all trudge home until each one hath learned and perfectly attained to the skill to spin his own web that therein he may spend the residue of his days in more pleasure ease and security They make exclusion of their young breed in hopping or skipping-wise they fit on their Egges for three days space together and in a moneths space their young ones come to perfection The domestical or House-spider layeth her egges in a thin web and the wilde-spider in a thicker and stronger because they are more exposed to the injuries of windes and lie more open to the rage and
〈◊〉 Master Bee go out first and challenge 〈◊〉 priviledge of precedency For I am scarce of Aristotles 〈…〉 indâ— that the King never goes abroad except it be with the whole Swarm which is a very â—are thing But when the Swarm by reason of the tyranny of their P 〈…〉 ce are forc'd to remove to some other place changing their soyâ— and habitation as unwilling so toâ—dd then they make 〈…〉 noise as it might be of a 〈…〉 peâ— some daies before and two or three daies before a few of 〈…〉 up and down about the Hive But when all things aâ—â— ready for flight away they fly all together and 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 whom they left behinde 〈◊〉 and follow them they kill him But a good King they never desert and if he die by any infection sicknesse treachery or old age the Nobles together with the common people lament and bewail him neither do they afterwards go abroad at all or fetch in any provision but fill all their houses with a sorrowful murmur and througing about the Corps make most tragical lamentation Afterwards privately conveying him from the common multitude they carry him out of the Hive and make a most dolefull cry all about the place Nor doth a day put a period to or abate their sorrow but they continue it so long till by reason of grief and hunger they all die Take the King or Master-Bee and you take all the Swarm if you misse of him all the rest convey themselves away and go to others They cannot endure more Kings then one the house of the usurpers they throw down and destroy their family But if it be so that there be two Kings or Master-Bees in one Swarm as sometimes it falls out one part adheres to one King and the other to the other whence it comes to passe that in one Hive divers forms of combs are found where they so behave themselves that the one doth not entrench upon the others bounds or invade his Terrirories And as for their Oeconomick or houshold vertues they use Parsimony as the chief stay of their family and having in the summer season gathered a sufficient stock or store of honey they do not profusely lavish it but sustain themselves with it in the winter and that very sparingly and so feeding themselves with a sparing diet and that of the best and purest food they gain that as a reward of their sobriety thereby to lengthen their lives and prolong their daies Neither are they so gripple or sordidly parsimonious but that when they finde that they have gathered more honey then will serve the number of their family they do freely impart and communicate some portion thereof to the Dors or Drones These also are arguments of their cleanlinesse that they never lay the excrements of their bodies unlesse sicknesse extremity of weather or meer necessity compell them in their Hives as also that as soon as any of them dye they presently carry them forth and quit the Hive of them no flesh or putrid matter no withering herb no fading or stinking weed do they touch or come near They never kill their enemy in the Hives they drink nothing but the purest running water they can get they will by no means remain or dwell in an unclean sluâ—tish nasty house or room The ordure of those that labour and of those that are sick within they lay upon a heap together without doors and as soon as they have any leisure the bearers carry it away Neither are they altogether impatient of musical sounds as other ruder sorts of creatures are 〈◊〉 are very much taken and delighted therewith provided it be without variety simple and unaffected And although they cannot dance by measure or according to the just number of paces as the Elephant is said to do yet according as he that tinks on the braâ—â—â—â—â—ttle pleaseth so they slack or quicken their flying if 〈◊〉 fast and shrill then they mend their motion if dully and slowly then they abate it Neither hath nature only made them the most ingehious of all other creatures but very tame and tractable by discipline and education to the keeper of them for they are all at both his beck and his call and whatsoeuer he pleaseth to do none of them gainsay or forbid If her beat them they complain not and if he rob them and spoyl their combs they make not the least murmuring or shew the least discoâ—â—tent Who would not say this were an argument of a most noble and generous disposition so to suffer the rigid commands of their keeper and yet by no means to obey or subject themselves unto the discipline of any stranger whatsoever It is wonderful what some do observe as touching the temperance and chastâ—â—y of them for whereas all other beasts the Elephant only excepted do couple in open view and the Wasps not much differing in kinde from them do the like the Bee is never seen to generate openly but either doth it within doors with modesty or without when none shall be by to observe it Neither as the report goes of them are they lesse valourous then they are chaste or temperate Whilest they expose their bodies in the war And nobly dye receiving many a skar Their war is either intestine or civil or foreign and with strangers Of their Civil wars there are divers causes as the multitude of the nobility treacherous to King and State dearth of 〈◊〉 al 's narrownesse of place when they are not able to live by one another as also comption of manners and sluggishnesse Now if they super a bound in Nobility as sometimes it falls one they put to death so many of them as seem to be superfluous lest their number still increasing they should force and over-power the King himself or entice the common people into sediâ—ion But they destroy them then chiefly when they have but a small issue and have not where else to bestow them those together with their combs if at least they have gotten any they throw down and pluck to pieces The Dors also and Drones they kill as often as they want room for their works for they take up the innermost part of the Hive and take away from them both their honey and their victuals As also when their honey fails and there is a dearth then they go to pell mell amongst themselves and fight as it were for life and bloud the short Bees they fall upon the long the smaller sort set upon the Drones as idle and unprofitable with all their skill and force they can use In which conflict if it so come to passe that the short Bees have the better they will prove an excellent Swarm but if fortune give the longer the day they will live ever after idly and make no hopy worth any thing But that side which overcomes is so mightily bent upon rapine and reverge that it puts all to the sword yeelding no quarter or truce at all As concerning their war
Thyme Galen rejects and yet is of it self a most sweet and fragrant smell and not without a certain spirituous fragrancy such is that which in the middle of the spring is perceived to be in the air about break of day But if it have an ill savour it is putrefied not being well kept If it smell strong it hath contracted some contagion from Hemlock if it sting as it were and prick the nose with its sent it is an argument of some poyson or too much acrimony couched in it If it smell not at all it is stark dead no spirit in it If it smell of Thyme Linden or Teil-tree Rosemary Box Wormwood c. it shewes that it is degenerated into their nature The like is to be said of the Taste of honey which is known either by the herbs age of it or by the colour of it to be mixt or adulterate or natural that is to say striking and filling the tongue with a certain fine and lively sweetness so that it may seem to some to be a little tart As for what concerns the colour of the best honey in the Tigremahonick and Tagodostick Region that of a milky colour is preferred in hotter Countreys that which is white and transparent but commonly that which carries away the garland and is esteemed above the rest is yellow and of the colour of Gold And in the second rank is that which is white and transparent which I with Aristotle should put in the first place For that it is a sign of pure honey and not infected with any tincture of herbs The bright shining is also by him commended if it be not summer honey for the honey that is gathered at that season of the year like wax or butter either by reason of the abundance of yellow flowers or the scorching heat of the air it comes to be of a deep and full yellow yea almost quite red But if the Erycaean or Anthine appear reddish it is not without cause accounted unwholsome because it is not in its season Suspected and of ill name are the black duskie bright red and above all the lead colours which whether they appear in the comb or in the honey sometimes are evident signs of corruption and putrefaction and sometimes of poyson That honey is best in touch that is fat clammy glutinous heavy and most like to the clear liquor of Turpentine every where like it self that is pure without any or with very few dregs that is melted with a very soft fire and with the least cold as it were congealed into little stones The Energetical or operative qualities of honey are seen in the use of it the which is of divers sorts whether you turn you to the Apothecaries shop or to the Kitchen for so mightily doth it nourish and preserve health entire and men long-lived that the Greeks thought the Cyrneans by reason of their constant using of it lived long being old men as Herodotus Athenaus and Diodorus Siculus testifie Pollio indeed being asked how it came to pass that he lived to be so old as he was made answer Because from his youth he used Oyl without his body and Wine mingled with Honey within More then this all flowers fruits simples and compounded medicaments or confections by mingling them with honey are preserved entire from putrefaction in which faculty or virtue it so excells that even the Babylonians were wont to bury the dead corpses of their noble men in it as Herodotus witnesseth in Thalia Vintners also and such as deal in Wines that will play the knaves when they observe a piece of Wine decaying and at its last almost then they put honey to it to bring it to life again by which means the sophisticate wine appears pure and relisheth very well upon the palat though never so critical and curious It is not subject to putrefaction Fruits and all other bodies are kept in it very long yet if it be but touched by its enemy bread it putrefies They therefore that sell honey are very wary lest children as they pass by should dip their bread in it for so it will presently corrupt and turn into Ants or such like creatures if we will believe Paracelsus for his natural skill in the nature of things a most famous Philosopher With admixtion of honey also Galen amendeth the naughtiness of sweet meats when they begin to fail Honey mingled with other things doth both nourish and cause a good colour but taken by it self without any other thing it doth rather make the body lean than nourish it because it doth cause urine and purge the belly beyond all measure Hippocrates saith if you take the seeds of Cucumers or the seeds of any other plant and keep them for some time in honey and afterwards sow or set them the fruit that groweth of them will taste the sweeter As for the medicinal and Physical vertues of Honey It causeth heat cleanseth sores and ulcers excellently wears them away and removes them in what part of the body soever gathered as Galen Avicen Celsus and Pliny have observed It perfectly cureth the disease which causeth the hair of the head or beard to come off by the roots called the Foxes evill and other filthy ulcers of the head Plin. To regain hair lost by the disease aforesaid and for long Agues it is very effectual if the party be anointed with it raw as it is or with the honey-comb newly dreined or emptied Galen But above and beyond all the Oyl of honey distilled doth effect it The water that droppeth from the honey doth excellently cleanse the skin provoke urine extinguish the burning heat of Feavers open the obstructions of the bowels quench thirst The chaulk or salt of it as it is of all corrosives the least painful so it is most energetical and operative and therefore is very much commended by Chymicks and Chirurgeons for to cure that kernell or tumour of flesh which groweth upon the yard But how many and how ample virtues that quintessence of Honey as they call it hath attained against the strength of all diseases whatsoever is excellently described by Isaacus Belga the predecessor of Paracelsus Nay without doubt if wilde honey and raw was able so to prolong the health and life of Democrates Pollio John the Baptist in a word of the Pythagoreans and Cyrneans as aforementioned how much more will it do being refined and heightned to the highest degree of nutrition The Epicureans who took the best way they could to provide for their health and their pleasure fed alwaies upon Ambrosia as Tzetzes reports which did consist of a tenth part of honey as if they meant by the use of it to stave off all pains and griefs and live free from all diseases and maladies It doth wonderfully help the ulcers in the ears if it be powred warm into them and especially if an ill sent be joyned with them Moreover in their histing noyses inflamations Galen commands to instill
wind creeps between the skin and flesh which hapneth no doubt by the flux of humours melted by the poison and the vapours elevated upwards The lips are of a strong colour to wit of a dead violet In the mouth there is the like poysonous taste the stomach belly and guts do ake extremely the urine is stopt the body is ill all over as also the head and brain are sensible of it A remedy of this is Salt-peter taken in Wine and Oxe gall Useful to that purpose is womans milk suckt out abundantly and in defect cowes goats or sheeps milk Womans urine drank and vomited up again but before a vomit they ought not be given because by that means the Feaver would be more sharp Dioscor First of all therefore of good store of Wine sodden or with oyl of Myttle Bacon lard or fat Pork broth or with good store oyl of Olive or boyled Wine a Vomit is to be made New Wine drank freely is held to be a special remedy against the Buprestis Galen and Ardoynus Pliny commends Nitre with water or Laserwort Asa dulcis Wine and Honey or Bezoin dissolved in warm water or take red Nitre 4. drams and in warm water or Posca cause Vomit After vomit there must be means used for purgation afterwards use dry Figs as Galen prescribeth or a decoction of them in old generose Wine when the fit begins to bate The Thebane date is prescribed to eat alone or bruised in sweet Wine or womans Milk all kinde of Pears and oyl of blossomes of Apples are much commended for this use Nicander commends wood-pears for that I think he means by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and especially Myrtle berries following the authority of Dioscorides For that they do refrigerate and bind and by that means do asâ—wage the hot nature of the Buprestis and help the weakness of the stomach But heed must be taken they be not eaten while the body is yet swoln lest the disease be increased by the poyson being kept in Some with good reason give 31. berries of bladder Nightshade and with Almonds the make Almond-milk together with the decoction of Lettice Violets Borage Bugloss garden Nightshade Plantain Raisins and the great cold Seeds Aetius gives the root of Scorpion grass in sweet Wine to drink Many extoll the wings and feet of the Cantharides for an Antidote against the Buprestis but either it hath an opposite quality by antipathy which makes good that opinion or else we may suspect it to be false If an Horse or an Oxe eat one of these flies presently he swels growes mad and shortly after bursteth and dieth So Aelian 6. de Anim. c. 35. and Hierocles a Greek writer witnesseth it He bids to binde the horses head and to open the veins about his nostrils that the bloud may run forth of his mouth and to rub it with Coleworts and give him Fish-pickle and Oyl and Vegetius likewise almost in the same words If a Horse or an Oxe eat a Buprestis with the grass his belly will instantly swell he is inflated all over he refuseth his meat and he often and by little and little sends forth his dung To cure this Absyrtus and Vigetius prescribe one and the same remedy presently get upon the Horse and cause him to gallop as fast as he is able afterwards let him bloud a little in the roof of his mouth and let him swallow the bloud as it runs forth chewing it in his mouth then keep him continually walking let his diet be wheat steeped in sweet Wine with Leeks given him with a horn in Wine warm well beaten with Raisins Some as Praxanus taught them pour Oyl into the nostrils of the Oxe l. 17. c. 17. To Goats that are swoln with the Buprestis apply Bacon-lard or pour the fat broth of it down their throat saith the same Author The Cynoprestis seems to be the same with the Buprestis for that works the same effects in Dogs as this doth in Cattel or if it be a different sort of creature from this I confess ingenuously I have not met with it CHAP. XX. Of the Cantharides or Spanish Fly I Know not what the reason was that the Cantharides above the rest so well known of so great use in Physick were omitted by Pennius and Gesner Which task notwithstanding I shal willingly undertake and thus I begin their History The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek is the same in Latine in French it is Cantaride in Italian Catarella in Spanish Cubillo in the German Tongue Grune Kefer Goldkefer in Low Dutch Spaensche Vlieghe in English Cantharides or Spanish Fly Of the Cantharides two sorts have come to our knowledge the one greater the other lesse Of the greater sort there are some thick and long taken in wheat and fat likewise as the Blats are drawn with variety of golden lines which in the wings run athwart and those are accounted of the best use in Physick Others are lesse and lean hairy called the innermost not so fit for medicine Of the greater sort also not all are of a glittering green but some of them of a sad red but all of them of an inexpressible splendor and very pleasant to the eye Their virtue consists in burning the body causing a crust or as Dioscorides will have it to corrode cause exulceration and provoke heat and for that reason are used mingled with medicines that are to heat the Lepry Tettars and Cancerous sores And in being mixt with Cecots or fit plaisters they do cure deformities of the nails causing them to fall off They are used in medicines for Corns on the feet or hands Some anoint the places where the hair 〈◊〉 off with Cantharides bruised and liquid Pitch the skin being prepared with Nitre they are good for Cauteries but care must be had that they do not ulcerate so deep then some command to annoint those ulcers made with the heads of with the gall or dung of Mice mixt with Helleboâ—e and Pepper Cantharides mixt with quick Lime cure Botches as if you should cut them off with a razour Some use to cast a little of them into Medicaments to provoke urine But there is a great question of it because they are poyson drank in respect of the bladder that they afflict with perpetual tomentâ— But these is no question but in oyntment they may do good with the juyce of wilde Vine or with Sheeps or Goats suet Some of my Masters put only their wings and their feet into Medicaments that provoke urine We saith Galen are wont to cast in the Cantharides whole and we judge those to be the best that are found in wheat and have a yellow girdle running athwart their wings to adorn them L. 3. l. 11. desimpl fac also put under they mightily provoke the terms and put to medicaments for the Dropsie they are a very good antidote against it as not only Hippocrates and Dioscorides but Galen Avicenna Rhasis
can be perceived it is both what it was and is now somewhat more for a Worm doth not dye that a Catterpiller may be bred but adds a greater magnitude to its former body and feet colour wings so life remaining it gets other parts and other offices so the off-spring of man I use Scaligers words after some daies at first of a man in posse is made a man actually you must understand its generation in which time the intellective soul doth not yet act but it bears the same proportion to a man that shall be as a Worm doth to a Catterpiller or Bee So also Pennius derided the opinion of Pliny when he writ that Catterpillers were bred of dew yet all Philosophers with one consent agree that the more imperfect small creatures are bred of dew And not without cause For the Sun by heating acts being like the form and the humour is like the matter The Suns heat is different from the fire for it gives life or it preserves the souls in their likeness For the dew hath the proportion and softness of the air where Theophrastus alledgeth the affect of softness in his Book of Plants as proper for generating air Also nothing is more nourishing than dew by which alone some little creatures live which also the divine Poet said How much doth dew lay up in the night Therefore as it is humour it is the matter as it is thin it enters as it is drawn by the Sun and concocted it is the fitter for generation for the preparation of the form carries the matter along with it and these going together it fals out that a living creature is generated And it is not only an off-spring of dew but the daughter of Butterflies as we said and as experience testifieth and the greatest part of Catterpillers come from them besides the Cabbage and Vine-fretters few are bred otherwise For these that the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are made of dew or a humour shut up in webs and putrefying especially when the wind is East and the air warm that hastneth corruption For then such a mighty army of them breaks forth in our Countrey that we cannot truly say or think so many could be bred any way but from corruption They are all gluttonous devourers of herbs and trees whence Philip the Parasite boasts of himself in Athenaeus in his Pythago ist for feeding on Thyme and Pot-herbs I am a Catterpiller Martial speaks to the same purpose One garden will hardly feed a Catterpiller When their time of eating is over they wander up and down here and there hungry and by degrees growing lean with hunger some within some above the earth seek for a fit place where they are transformed into an Aurelia covered with a Membrane and hanging by a thred or into a bare case if this happen in the midst of Summer after 24 daies the shell breaking a Butterfly presently flies out but if Autumn be well spent the Aurelia lasts all the Winter and shuts out nothing till the heat of the Spring Yet all Catterpillers are not changed into Aurelia's but some are contracted as Vine-fretters and corrupt from whom oft-times three blackish eggs fall that are the mothers of Flies or Cantharides when your Butter-flies copulate very late they bring forth eggs even untill the next Spring that have life if you take diligent care of them as it is usual in Silk-worms whose eggs are sold commonly amongst the Spaniards by ounces and pounds Theophrastus distinguisheth the transformation of these Catterpillers rightly in these words in his second of Plants First of a Catterpiller is made an Aurelia and of this a Butterfly then of that a Catterpiller again But whether this Aurelian Chryfallis be a living creature or not we shall dispute when we come to speak of Insects without feet CHAP. V. Of the quality and use of Catterpillers and of their Antidotes ALL Catterpillers have a burning quality and pilling of the skin and raising of blisters The most deadly is the Pine Catterpiller yet they are all venomous but least of all those that are smooth and without hair The daughter of Caelius secundus being at Basil saith Gesner when she had devoured some Cabbage Catterpillers in the garden after much vomiting her belly swelled the swelling troubled her many years and no cure would be found for it William Turner a Divine and a learned Physician the happy father of one Peter who was born to give physick to Physick it self prescribed a purging porion for a noble Woman of England by the help whereof she vomited up a hury Catterpiller which being swallowed by negligence had long afflicted her with cruel torments yet we may remember saith Marcellus Virgilius that there are beasts in the sea of the same names and called Catterpillers and are far from being poyson and amongst those men that live by the sea side are the last dish at their tables We have shewed remedies against the mischievous and venomous ones before in the Histories of Cantharides Buprestis and Pityocampes for they admit of and require the same cure If you would have your garden or trees free from them what webs you see hang on the naked boughs you must sweep off in Winter for if you let them remain till the Spring they will breed before you can remove them In a short space they devour all green things and consume the flowers some anoint their trees with the gall of a green Lizard or of a Bull which as it is commonly reported they cannot endure The Countreymen use to stisle them with some brimstone and straw set a fire under the trees The earth dug up under the root of the great bearing mast tree if it be strewed in a garden drives away Catterpillers saith Hildegard I should pass over the Remedy Columella hath prescribed as a shameless delusion of Democritus did not Pliny and almost all the rest approve of it who meddle with husbandry the words are these But if against this plague no Art prevail The Trojan Arts will do 't when others fail A woman barefoot with her hair untied And naked breasts must walk as if she cried And after Venus sports she must surround Ten times the garden beds and orchard ground When she hath done 't is wonderful to see The Catterpillers fall off from the tree As fast as drops of rain when with a crook For Acorns or Apples the tree is shook They touch not Plants that are besprinkled with Wine Theophrast They presently dye with the smoke of the herb Psora Aetius Hence it appears saith Silvius that the vulgarly called Scabious is not Psora The Cabbage is free from Catterpillers if it be fenced with Vetches The Worms found in Fullers Teasels make them fall if they but touch the Cabbage Catterpillers Pliny Strew your Cabbage with Nitre or salt earth whilest it hath lost but three leaves or strew it with ashes and by the saltness of it it will drive away Catterpillers Geopon
of bitter choler innumerable worms are oft-times found And I see no reason why Worms may not breed from yellow choler as well as in Wormwood from melancholy as well as in stones from bloud as well as in sugar But if they be not bred from them whence have they matter that they breed of The Physician of Padua will answer It remains therefore that they can breed only of raw flegm which either ariseth from too great quantity of the best meats for want of heat or quantity of bad meats corrupt by depravation which opinion though it well agree with Galen Aegineta Aetius Avenzoar Avicenna Coluâ—nella Celsus Alexander and chiefly with our Mercurialis yet in my judgement Hippocrates is in the right who thought that living creatures are bred in the little world as well as they are in the great Therefore as in the earth there are all kinde of humours heat and spirit that it may nourish living creatures that breed so hath man all kinde of moisture that mourisheth things that breed Moreover when as these living creatures do represent perfectly Earth-worms no man in his wits will deny but that they have both the same original What flegm is there in the earth yet it breeds round Worms and Gourd-fushioned and Ascarides and all sorts of Worms and the best and warmest earth abounds with them so far is it that they should breed only of raw and corrupt humours Do we not also daily see that Worms are voided by men that are in health For I knew a woman of Flanders that at Francfort on the Main which from her youth till she was forty years old did daily void some round Worms without any impairing of her health and she was never sick of them I conclude therefore that from every raw humour of the body Worms may breed and not only from crude or corrupted flegm The formal cause depends from internal heat which is weak gentle pleasing and fit to breed living creatures wherein that plastick force of Caleodick Nature to use the word of Avicennas doth make the colours by the degrees of secret heat and sporting her self doth make that broad form of Gourd-worms and some-times of Lizards Toads Grass-worms Catterpillers Snakes Eels as we read in Histories This doth give them taste feeling and motion this gives them that force of attracting whereby they forcibly draw forth with greediness the juices that slip into the guts If it were not so that heat that consumes all things might perhaps dispose the matter that is changed by putrefaction but it would never give the form and figure of a living creature For it is not because the guts are round that round Worms are bred in them as some men dream but the external form depends from the internal and the spirit drawn forth of the bosome of the soul it self doth frame the shapes without a Carver or Smith This spirit is the mediate efficient cause but God himself is the principal cause in this and other things in whom as well as we the Worms are move and have their being The final cause shewes their use which declares Gods omnipotency Natures majesty and the singular providence of both for mans good For there are collected in us some putrefied excremental superfluous parts which the more bountiful hand of Nature changeth into Worms and so cleanseth our bodies as we account it a good sign of health to be full of lice after a long disease also they consume much superfluous moisture in mans body and unless they grow too many for then they feed on our nutrimental juice they are a great help to the guts so far is it that they should be accounted by physitians amongst diseases or the beginnings of diseases Amongst the concomitant causes I reckon the place and the countrey For though they are more common to children than to those that are of years to women than men in a pestilential than a healthful time in Autumn than in the Spring to such as use an ill diet rather than to those that keep an exact diet yet they accompany all ages sexes conditions seasons diets for no man is priviledged from them yet some places or climates are free for according to the nature of them in some many in others no Worms will breed for all kinde of Worms will not breed in each part of the guts but round Worms only in â—he small guts Ascarides in the Longanum the Gourd-worms only are bred in all Also as Theophrastus and Pliny testifie there are no small differences amongst Nations and Countreys lib. hist pl. 9. c. 2. Lib. Nat. hist 27. cap. 13. For broad or Gourd-worms are common amongst the Egyptians Arabians Syrians and Cilicians again they of Thracia and Phrygia know them not And though the Boeotians and Athenians are under the same Confines they are frequently full of Worms and these are by a priviledge as it were freed from them He only will admire at this or think it a Fable who knowes not that the nature of Countreys vary according to the position of the stars the nature of the winds and the condition of the earth There is a River saith Aristotle lib. de nat anim c. 28. in Cephalenia that parts an Island and on one side of it there is great abundance of Grashoppers but none on the other In Prodoselena there is a way goeth between and on one side of it a Cat will breed but not on the other side In the Lake Orchomenius of Boeotia there are abundance of Moles but in Lebadius that is hard by there are none and brought from other parts they will not dig the earth In the Island Ithaca Hares cannot live nor in Sicily flying Ants nor in the Countrey of Cyrene vocal Frogs nor in Ireland as we know any kinde of venomous creature The reason of all this he can only tell who hath hanged the earth in the air without a foundation for it is not my eye that can see so far nor have I any minde to affect to know things above my understanding I leave that work to those that dare aspire To know Gods secrets let me them admire CHAP. XXXIII Of the signs and cure of Worms out of Gabucinus LEt us therefore shew the signs of Worms beginning from those that are called round Worms both because these do more frequently vex children and because they produce more cruel symptomes of which Paulus writes thus they that are troubled with round Worms are cruelly torn in their bellies and guts and they have a tickling cough that is troublesome and somewhat tedious some have a hickop others when they sleep leap up and rise without cause sometimes they cry out when they rise and then they fall asleep again their Arteries beat unequally and they are sick of disorderly Feavers which with coldness of the outward parts come thrice or four times in a day or a night without any reason for them Children will eat in their sleep and put forth their tongues
gnash their teeth wink with their eyes they will be very silent and are angry with those that rowse them up the balks of their cheeks in a short time are sometimes red sometimes wan-coloured If the Worms run up to the stomach they cause nauseating gnawing and want of appetite and if the sick are forced to eat they scarse can swallow it and if they swallow it down they vomit it up again they void many corruptions of meat by their bellies and they are swoln like a drum the rest of the body growes unreasonable lean not by reason of hunger nor immoderate evacuations These things happen when these creatures creep and gnaw in the belly A feaverish heat sends up ill vapours to the brain that arise from putrid moisture collected in the stomach So writes Paulus But Aetius out of Herodotus writes thus Those that are troubled with Worms have a most cruel pain of their stomach and bellies and they have a little frequent tickling cough and yet they spit up nothing iâ— their sleep they shiver and rise preternaturally some again put out their tongues and shut their eyes and are silent and cannot endure to be rowsed and cannot watch for weakness some have their eyes bloudshed their pulses unequal obscure deficient and recurrent some want an appetite children whilest they sleep bite their tongues and move their mouthes as if they sucked or eat meat But these things are done for a short time and by circuits Moreover some children besides reason rise with crying and presently fall down again some crash their teeth which it seems happens when the Worms suck and gnaw their bellies and guts And now it appears that some are come up into the stomach and cause loathing and bitings oft-times also by themselves they are cast upward but sometimes with some flegmatick humour Some Infants neglected lose their motion and are benummed and like those that are in a swound they sweat a cold thin humour and most commonly they are wan-coloured sometimes the face will be red especially about the cheeks but this colour again is changed into more than ordinary paleness Others again like dotards speak strange words in their sleep others change their places they 〈…〉 y on still sleeping and they are vexed and turn from place to place but very few of those do cry for most of them are void of reason and are silent Also they that are vexed with round Worms loath their meat and if they eat any thing they cast it up again or â—oath it so much they can hardly swallow it for they fall into Feavers with vehement cold in the outward parts some have their bellies swoln like a drum So saith Aetius But these are the marks he reckons from Hippocrates opinion Worms in the belly are discovered by these marks If they be sleepy and the disease will not let them and their outward parts be cold and there be gnawing at their hearts the urine troubled and the tongue full of moisture also they that have Worms in their stomach are full of spittle and if any little Worm comes forth they spit no more therefore all those that have Worms in the mouth of their stomach do commonly cast them up all by vomit but those that have belly Worms void them by siege But they all nauseate and vomit up what they take in They are like to those that are pricked that have contractions all over their bodies and move suddenly and confusedly and they have torments and pains of their guts Vapours carried to the head cause Vertigoes Moreover the manner of diet that the party used will shew the generation of Worms and all the rest These are the signs of round Worms but all these signs must not be sought for in every one as Paulus saith but some and the principal of them I might joyn here many things out of our new writers unless what they say and more also were not to be found in Avicenna whence they borrowed it Paulus gives us these notes of broad Worms sometimes they abound in those that have Feavers and sometimes in those that have none In Chronical diseases they breed gnawing the stomach and causing a greedy appetite They eat the meat so fast that we need more and if it be not present they bite shrewdly the body growes lean and weak and unequal But the most certain sign is that some bodies like Gourd-seeds come forth with our excrements so saith Paulus and Aetius doth not differ from him but that he saith that they gnaw the stomach continually and cause an insatiable appetite and that the meats eaten soon turn to excrements They that are affected grow weak of body and sluggish and are alwaies hungry for what is living in the guts when it hath consumed the meat feeds on the body but this sign will not fail us if some things like Gourd-seeds be voided by stool The signs Hippocrates gives are these He writes after this fashion There is another kinde of this that comes forth like the white shavings of the guts which hath these marks The party voids seed like Cucumer-seed and when he is fasting he is vexed and spits much his liver being affected sometimes not and sometimes when this vehemently affects his liver it stops his speech and he spits much and after that it stops and sometimes there is great pains in the guts sometimes the shoulders ake and then it stops again Sometimes these are the signs of the broad Worms He that is affected with this Worm is almost alwaies in health but when he growes weak he can hardly endure it or be recovered For this broad Worm takes some part of those things that go down into the stomach and if care be taken it may be cured but if not the Worm will not come forth it self nor doth it kill a man but growes old with him c. Ascarides are alwaies about the bottome of the belly as we said and there they cause a great itching almost continually as Paulus and Aetius have written and sometimes as it is reported they will make one faint For that is shewed by their name For they moving alwaies do continually exercise a man and tire him out They that are troubled with these feel alwaies a heaviness about their Praecordia and backs The signs of these are chiefly taken from the filthy smelling of the excrements They that have Worms their eyes at first shine their cheeks are wan in the night they have cold sweats their mouth is pale they start in their sleep in the day they are more feaverish their tongues and are dry lips their breath commonly stinks their face is pale they nauseate and vomit often they loath meat they crash their teeth especially in the night they put forth their tongues and they seem to eat they are angry with those that awake them they speak strange words sometimes they are in a lethargy and pick straws and their heads ake they cry out in their
be well disposed nor can this be unlesse the whole body be so and this is excellent well performed by good diet wherefore that in the first place must be well ordered for without that all helps are in vain for the preserving and repairing our health For this is so famous and almost the best part of Physick that that admirable Cous Celsus Galen Pliny and almost all the old Physicians could never give it commendations enough Asclepias formerly esteemed it so much that he almost took away the method of curing by Physick and wholly turned all curing upon diet Now this consists not only in the quantity and quality of meats and drinks but also in all those things that befall us whether we will or no as in sleeping and waking motion and rest as also in the repletion and emptinesse of the whole body and of every part and in the affects of the minde but chiefly in the Air that is about us which not only sticks fast to us outwardly but continually enters into the inmost parts of our body by the drawing in of our breath As for what concerns those things that we take because they are such things that every man knows I shall say nothing of them For there is no man ignorant that divers meats and of ill and naughty juice and disorderly taken will breed crudities and that gluttony and drunkenness do our bodies great hurt yet many kinde of meats that are hurtfull in other diseases are profitable in these Wherefore we shall as it were besides our purpose and by the way touch upon these first adding what Paulus writes Let the meats of those that have Worms be of good juice that may easily be dispersed and passe to the parts and neither foster the cause nor weaken our forces Wherefore we grant them wine mingled with water and let them eat often both for their need and that the Worms may not gnaw them If there be a scowring of the belly it is a sign that many are bred the meat being not dispersed and in that case Pears or Quinces must be mingled with our broths Wheaten bread is a wonderfull help having Anniseed mingled with it or Fennel or Salt or bread that is between Bran and Wheat called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because there are joyned together in it the Bran the Hulls and the Flour Men call also this bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because all the Wheat without taking any thing from it is made into bread Also the wheat it self that the meal is taken from must be the best for some of these have much Bran which is the courser wheat but the finer wheat is the best But wine that is mingled with water because it gently bindes is held to be very convenient Mountain birds are fit for their meat and young wood Pigeons green Groundsel and Goats-beard the broth of black Chiches and Coleworts and Capers and pickled Olives eaten and if there be no Feaver let them eat their other meats with Mustard also sowr and oyly things are commended Also Panick which Diocles called the honey of Corn is most durable if so be it may be reckoned amongst Corn. Also Spelt in the decoction of Myxie and a Ptisane with a great quantity of Oyl of unripe Olives besides these Lupines Cresses Betes Mints Smallage Radish and sawce eaten are good Give children before all meat a decoction of Sebestens with Mints Milk is very hurtful as also Fish and Pulse and whatsoever is of a cold grosse substance and hard to be digested Bread unleavened breeds Worms for it is good for no man and so are all moyst meats that easily turn to corruption within For all kinde of Worms it is most convenient to use abstinence from such things as breed them And when they are bred it is good to eat often a little at a time and that is best when they leave off gnawing But those that have Ascarides must eat meats of good juice and of easie digestion that the force of them may not reach so farre as the right gut For the matter fit to breed them is so consumed Thus far for meats and drinks to be taken But the other five kindes that are not so manifest shal be handled by us also with all brevity And we shal begin from sleep It must not be too little nor too much and in the night rather than in the day at least two hours after meat Moreover to be long idle is naught let exercise precede meats and rest after meats Nor is every motion to be taken for exercise but that which makes us breath more unlesse it be when we have taken Physick against Worms for then we must ride or run to shake our bodies for they are more easily cast forth by hard exercise or labour but children will hardly observe these rules Care also must be had that the belly may twice be unburdened and if that will not do of it self we must use a Suppository or Clyster to provoke it made of such ingredients that are fit for this purpose All affections of the minde whatever they be must be set aside as quarrelling anger sorrow great cares and thoughts sadnesse fears envy and all such kinde of perturbations and chiefly after meat For these change and turn the body from its natural state Let men beware of cold North windes and let them not go barefoot The air because it alwayes is about us cannot be chosen at our pleasure for it is sometimes a defence for us and sometimes the cause that makes Worms or fosters them It wil be a defence if it be very hot and dry pure clear and calm and it wil chiefly foster the disease when it is very cosd or moyst or moved by the North or South winde or by too great heat dissolves our forces and then by art it must be thus prepared To burn in our Chambers wood of Juniper tree or of Citrons or Peach-trees and such wood as is against Worms Also to perfume the place with tops of Worm-wood Peach-tree leaves Citron pills roots of Pomegranate-trees also with Fern and Ivy. But that is the best that is made with Myrrhe and Aloes Another remedy that succours the fainting spirits by reason of Worms Amber-greece two penny-weight Musk one peny weight Gum Arabick four peny-weight Roses Sanders Cloves Privet Frankincense of each one peny-weight Gallia Moschata so called six peny-weight Lignum Aloes burnt to a cole twenty peny-weight the quenched coles of Vine-branches what is sufficient make them up with Rose Vinegar Worms are oft-times exasperated with vehement remedies that they bring children to Convulsions swoundings and death wherefore they are not rashly to be given and at all adventures But because that remedies by reason of their different qualities are thought to be good to kill and bring forth Worms therefore in general such remedies as heat drie cut and are sharp bitter salt or sowr and attenuating are to be used For either they kill the
exulcerate were a present remedy lib. 20. c. 13. and lib. 28. c. 10. Their use in physick is manifold For some I use Galens words lib. de different sanguinis detrahendi modis Tract 10. take Horsleeches and put them up and they use them diversly For when they are made tame they are easily put upon the skin but those that are taken must be kept one day and must be fed with a little bloud and so it will be that whatsoever venome they have in them they will soon cast forth But when we have need to use them that part to which you will apply your Leeches must be first rubbed with Nitre and must be anoynted and scratched with your fingers that by this means they may fasten the more greedily but you must cast them into warm water that is contained in a large and a clean vessel then you must lay hold of them with a Sponge you must cleanse them with your hand from all filth and dirt and so they will be fit to be applyed And when you have set them on lest that part they stick to should grow cold you must powr on warm Oyl But if they be to be applyed to your hands or feet you must thrust them into the warm water that the Leeches are cast into And if they will not hold â—ast you must cut off their tails with a pair of Cizzers for when the bloud so runs forth they will not leave off sucking until you sprinkle salt or ashes upon their mouth When they are fallen off that venemous quality they use to leave behinde must be drawn sorth with a Cupping glasse and if that may not be done you must use a Sponge to foment the place And if yet any bloudy drops run forth apply meal and Cummin and then binde on some Wooll wet with a little Oyl But if yet the bloud will not stop lay on a linnen clo 〈…〉 et in Vinegar or burnt glasse or a Sponge first put into liquid pitch and afterwards burnt And this also you must observe that Leeches draw that bloud that is next the flesh and not that which is contained in the Centre of the body Men use them commonly in stead of Cupping glasses Mark also that you must take them off when they have drawn half the bloud And you must beware that the bloud run not forth so long untill it be sufficient For the part it self will grow cold both by reason of the Leeches that are naturally cold and because of the air that compasseth us about So far Galen But Cardan bids us not to anoynt the place with Nitre but with milk that they may fasten the sooner and withall to pinch the Leech close that striving for revenge he may open the vein lib. 7. de rer var. c. 28. What help they were to Dionysius the Tyrant of Heracleot 〈…〉 we may read in Histories who representing rather a beast than a man sor he died with a mightâ— great paunch had been eaten by the Worms long before unlesse Horsleeches had been applyed to both his sides and drawn forth daily some quantity of the humours he was charged with It were too tedious to reckon up all the melancholique and mad people that have been cured by applying Leeches to the Hemorrods in their fundaments Yet I may not over-passe the Noble Richard Cavendish the most learned Unkle by the fathers side of that famous Navigator through the world Thomas Cavendish who was perfectly cured of his Gowt that had held him many years only by applying Horsleeches to the Emrods in Ano every moneth so that now to the great wonder of all the Court he walks alone without any help and being sound and void of all pain he lives an old man Also Horsleeches set upon the fundament will so wonderfully pluck back the humours that run from the whole body to the joynts that they will presently ease the pains like a Charm This I proved at Lions upon an excellent Musitian one Rosolus who for the great pains he endured and by continual waking fell into a burning Feaver with raving in the Dog-dayes at which time Hippocrates saith it is dangerous to purge It is in this case such a remedy that it is to be preferr'd before all others for they draw from the whole body without any trouble or losse of a mans forces Jac. Aubert Exercit. 50. progymnasm Fernel Abdit Godfridus a Cenami a Venetian a famous man and my very great friend for just and lawfull causes who told me that he saw one who had the joynt Gowt who lived many years free of all his pains only by applying Leeches to the part that was in pain Math. de Grad and Savanrola Jacob Dournet Apolog. lib. c. 3. perswade the same remedy Also Gilbertus Anglicus reports that the Lowsie disease generally is to be cured with the ashes of Horsleeches boyled with Storax For they are not only usefull for men whilest they are alive but when they are dead and burnt to ashes Pliny reports lib. 32. c. 7. that Horsleeches will black ones hair if they be corrupted in black wine for sixty dayes Others bid us take one fextarius of Leeches and let them lie to corrupt in two sextarii of Vinegar in a leaden vessel for so many dayes and then to anoynt with them in the Sun Sornatius relates that this medicament is of so great force that ulesse they hold Oyl in their mouths that die the hair it will also black their teeth Meges writes that live Frogs putrefied in Vinegar will take off the hair but the ashes of Leeches anoynted with Vinegar will doe the same CHAP. XLII Of Water-worms IN waters both salt and fresh great and small Worms will breed of putrefaction especially in Summer very like Earth-worms but they want that knot or chain about their necks Also they are by far more sharp and lean oft-times they lie in the sand and they cast up earth out of their holes as Earth-worms do In sweet waters that are standing and not deep there is found a kinde of Worms of a full red that resemble in shape the Teredo without feet but that they have greater heads Their tail is forked whereby they stay themselves till lifting up their heads they may finde a place to fasten the rest of their body and so they creep upon the mud and stones and so they move in a brandishing manner crookedly In Summer when it is clear weather and hot they come forth together in great numbers but if the mud move never so little they presently withdraw themselves The English call them Summer-worms either because they are seen only in Summer or they die in Winter In the Mediterranean Sea there is a round Worm found as great as a great Snake and of the same colour but it hath neither head nor tayl as Weckerus observes Sometimes it is twenty foot long What may be the use or nature of these I have not yet observed But I hope that others will
Ponzettus At Seaven-oak in Kâ—nt which â—oâ— belongs to Sir Ralph Bossâ—vile Knight c. Aelianus Pliny Pierius Coelius Rho. Diod. Sicul. Aelianus Herodotus Aeneas Syl. Gellius Lampridius Pierius P. Venetus Aristotle Philostratus Solinus Philes Marcedi Simocratus Diodorus Zoroaster Crescentius Textor Oppianus Aelianus Aristotle Perottus Isidorus Aelianus Bellonius Crus Pliny Erasmus Aelianus Thrafillus Pliny Aelianus Aelianus Constantinus Aelianus Elecampane in English Remedies to be had and taken from Serpents Suffumigations to expell Serpents Of such things as are laid under us that will expel Serpents Of Unguents and things born about us from which Serpents will run away All this medicinal description of Serpents was written by Tho. Bonham Doctor in Physick Herodotus Mela. Pliny Solinus Scaliger Boemus Aeneas Syl. Nicander Venetus P. Martyr Florentinus Caelius Rho. Aelianus Constantinus Pliny Textor Plutarch Pierius Pierius Suidas Isidorus Herodotus Pliny Silvius Virgil. Olaus Mag. Avicenna Galen Hippocrates Cael. Rhod. Diodorus Pierius Aelianus Aetius Aegineta Pliny Aetius Avicenna Arnoldus Srabo Aetius Olaus Am. Paraeus Bellonius Aelianus Gillius 〈◊〉 Pliâ—y Suidas Textor Aelianus Mercurial Aetius Ponzettus Galen Dioscorid Actuarius Aegineta Mercurialis Paraeus Aetius Mercurialis Andreas Aetius Cor. Celsus Olaus Mag. Pliny Orpheus Dr. Bonban his discourse of Bees Wasps and Drones Names Dâ—fferences of Bees from nature Description of the King Differences in regard of sex The difference of the form of Bees according to the place Bees of America The government of Bees The use of Bees Medicinal uses The Names The Description Arist l. 3. de gâ—ner Anâ—m c. 10. Their generation Their uses Of Bees called Theeves Their uses D. Bonham Lucretius In Hoediporis Mizaldus 〈◊〉 Allens wife Salomon The curation of their stings Gilbertus Anglus Haly Abbas Rhazes Serapio Ardoynus Mesus Aaron Constantine Gulielmus Placentinus Gordonius Varignana Matthiolus Arnoldus deÌ„ villa nova Marcellus The names Their description In bellis civilibus omnna sunt misera Tul. ep femal Their uses Remedies against their stings The error of some medicine-givers Their name Their differences The description of Pityocampes Their qualities Their use in Physick Aristotle Solinus Aristotle Pliny Solimis Aristotle Marcellus Rhazes Kiranides Trallianus Pliny Solinue Pliny Textor Avicenna Aelianus Solinus Solinus Scaliger Aelianus Ponzettus Aurelianus Aristotle Mela. Diod. Sicul. Marcellinus Herodotus Isidore Coelius Rho. Herodotus Pliny Solinus Marcellinus Albertus Herodotus P. Martyr Aelianus Herodotus Pliny Orus Strabo Orus Aelianus Solinus Plutarch Solinus P. Martyr Marcellinus Caelius Herodotus Orus Aelianus Aristotle Marcellinus Aelianus Leo Afric Plutarch Calcagninus Diod. Sicul. Strabo Strabo Solinus Seneca Strabo Orus Aelianus Crescenst Diodorus Herodotus Pliny Capitolinus Lampridius Vadianus Aetius P. Martyr Herodotus Dioscorides Pliny Arnoldus Aetius Rhazes Aetius Arnoldus Bellonius Aristotle Aelianus Rhazes Marcellinus Bellonius Olaus Mag. Olaus Mag. Aelianus Stuâ—psius Aelianus Scaliger Aelianus Herodotus Brodeus Scaliger Criniâ—us Stumpsius Aelianus Gillius Suetonius Stumpsius Aristotle Vincensius Solinus Aetius Grevin Avicen Aetius Albertus Albertus â—iranides Democritus A story A story Pliny Avicenna Marcellus Strabo Solinus Aelianus Polycletus Marcellus Palladius Pliny Marcellus Nicander Gillius Lucan Matthiolus Willichius Orus Cordus Dioscorid Cardan Pliny Aelianus Gillius Aelianus Pliny Aristotle Pliny Aelianus Ia. Lacinius Kiramides Philes Aelianus Pliny Aelianus Albertus Aelianus Galen Ponzettus Arnoldus Aetius Palladius Rasis Strabo Plutarch Gillius Actius Solinus Gyraldus Cardan Aetius Aelianus Brasavolus Kiranides Alexius Galenus Aelianus Solinus Aetius Scaliger Oswaldus Phurnut Lea Afric Olaus Doctor Bonhams discourse of Spiders The signes to know when one is bitten of any Phalaangie and the effects of the same Their use Aetius Crescen Pliny Actorius Caelius Rho. Amatus Strabo Aelianus Aelianus Palladius Brasavolus Aristotle Oppianus Plinius Plutarch Aelianus Boemus Mercuriall Cardan Herodotus Scaliger Cardan Aelianus Galen Aristotle Aristotle Avicenna Coelius Aelianus Strabo Aelianus Gallen Dioscorid Rasis Pausanias Pliny Nicander In Vipera Funamellus Avicen Amatus Galen Galen Hellideus Pliny Porphyrius Dioscorides Pliny Aetius Albertus Pliny Galen Aetius Avicenna Leonell Faventin Galen Avicen Galen Aetius Doctor Bonhams discourse of Worms In Aulularia In Theriaca Ovi amo l. 3. In Bacchide Lib 11. c. 35. The Name Apes or Bees whence so called The Definition of the Bee The Description of the Bee The difference of their shapes from nature The difference of their minds from the place Differences of the corporeal form from the place Difference from their Sex Creation Genetation Propagation Conservation Drink Exercise of Bees Placing of the Bees Fear DiseaÌ„ es of Bees â—nd the cures The Use Their use in Medicine The Definition of Honey The best Honey how known Accidental properties of Honey In what countreys the best Honey is tobe found What Countreys produce bad honey The signs of poysoned Honey and the remedies against it The temper of Honey The medicinal vertues of Honey See Huonymus his Nectar in Wickerus his special Antidote fol. 191. 195. The Use The description of the Drone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist l. 5. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist l. 9. hist c. 40. Their Generation Plin. l. 11. c. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greeks very many of them have written l. de Animal 1. c. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chil. 8. Hist 217. Plat. l. 8. de Repub. Arist l. 9. c. 25. Plin l. 11. c. 17. Aristotle calis fur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from thence I think the Latine name was derived Their Use Aristoph in Vespis The gifts of his minde and wit Lib. 1. hist c. 1. Love to one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love to their young 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iliad 13. Love to their wives or females Strom. 2. Their difference from others Lib. 2. Albertus l. 15. tract 1. L. 11. c. 21. Hist 9. c. 41. Their Age. Their Food The place of Wasps The use of the Wasp Preservatives against the stinging of Wasps Tetrab 4. seâ—m 1. c. 11. Remedies against the stings of Wasps Habitation L. 11. c. 21. Their Use Remedies against the stinging of Hornets In Alexiph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Description The commendation of the Fly The Flesh-fly The Dog-fly Brees or Beast-fly Difference of Asilus and Tabanus The second kinde of Tabanus Gnat like Tabanus Presaging of weather Their use in Medicine Remedies against Fly-bitings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And then the Gnats with their great Trumpets sound alarm to the battle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Generation of Gnats The Use Description Copulation Difference of Butterflies The middle sort of Day-Butterflies The smaller Day-Butterflies Their Copulation and Generation Their Death The mischief they do How the Locusts make a noise Kindes of Bruchi The mischiefs Locusts do Their Use Levit. 12. Their use in Physick How they may be killed and driven away Their Copulation and Generation Their use in Physick The name of the Kricket The Use Name Their Use Remedies against them The Use The signs of a Buprestis being drank The Remedy 1 2. de Amid in Alex. 1. 2. 78. Câ—enate Signs and cure of Cantharides drank The Name Their Sex and Description Their use for our understandings and by example The Name The Name The Description Their Use The Name The difference and description Their Use The medicinal use The way to make the Oyl is found in Rhasis and Barthol Montag l. 5. tract 18. c. 7. Their Medicinal use The Name The differences Edward Moni 〈…〉 Beresish lib. 5. The Name Yellowish are 3. Vinula Dark 2. Various coloured 10. Signs of a Pine Catterpiller drank and the cure Ionas The Name The Name The Usâ— The Name The Description Lib. 11. c. 25. Lib. 19 c. 4. Their Generation Nature L. 10. c. 12. Their Food Their Use Their use in Physick Preventions against the stinging of Scorpions Cure-of the stingings of Scorpions The Name The differences Signs of the bitings of Phalangia This is the sense of Galen but not the same words The cure The praise of the house Spider taken from the body of it The praise of the house Spider from the goods of Fortune Prayses of the Spider from the gifts of her minde Generation Copulation The use Their praise from their minde Their Physicall use Fig-tree Worms The Name Description of their differences Causes of a general lowsie disease L. de Plant. c. 2. Prevention and Cure Use of Lice The Use L. 9. subtil Exer. 94. n. 8. ad subtil Cardan 23. In Navig hist The Use The Name The Description Remember the Cook oâ— Qâ—een Mark that cast out a Scolopendra by her nostrils c. Mr. Crane See de Vera Mâ—dâ—nd Use Signs of broad Worms Ascarides Prognosticks The cure A general cure of Worms Simple hot medicaments against Worms out of Dioscorides Celsus Pliny Scâ—ibonius Largus Galen Oribasius Paulus Aetius Cold Simples against Worms Simples severally that bring forth Worms round Ascarides and broad Worms The methodical Cure of round Worms chiefly out of Paulus and Aetius Compound internal Remedies to kill and sorce out Worms Compound external Medicaments against Worms The Cure of broad Worms chiefly out of Celsus Oribasius Scribonius Paulus and Actius Victoriatus is a piece of Money of 3 oboli or half a dram The Name and Description Their Originall Their End The Name and Description The kindes Their Originall Their End Their Use
a Womans neck it maketh that her womb shall suffer no abortments but these things are trivial and not to be believed but at pleasure I know that the tail of a Dragon tyed to the Nerves of a Hart in a Roes skin the suet of a Roe with Goose-grease the marrow of a Hart and an Onyon with Rozen and running Lime do wonderfully help the falling Evill if it be made into a plaister Sextus saith that if one give the brain of a Roe drawn or pressed through a ring to an Infant it will preserve him for ever from the Falling sickness and apparitions The liver of a Roe sod in salt water and the eyes of a purblinde man held over the fume or reek thereof are cured of their blindeness and some seethe it in a little cup and anoint the eyes with the scum or froth coming from it The same liver being burned to powder and the dust cast on a man bleeding stayeth the issue or flux The gall of this beast mixed with Wine and the Meal of Lupines the weight of a groat and Hony take away the spots of the face and the same gall mixed with water helpeth a Sun-burned-face and freck les The same with Hony Attick taketh away the dimness from the eyes and with the juyce of a gourd anointed upon the eye-brows causeth that where the hair hath been pulled off that it never shall grow again and this gall is alway the better for the age thereof and as Hippocrates did prescribe it must be kept in a silver pipe or box For the tingling of the ears take with this gal the Oyl of Roses with the juyce of an Onyon beaten together and instilled warm into the ears for a present remedy so also with the Oyl of Roses only it helpeth the pain in the teeth and with the Hony Attick all swellings or pains in the jaws or chaps putting thereto Myrrhe Saffron and Pepper The same gall with a little Hogs-bread and the powder of burnt Allum with Anise-seed made into a Suppository procureth looseness if the party have not the Hemerrhoides Also the gall taken with Hony and the juyce of Eglantine cureth the exulceration of the virile member by anointing it The Spleen being drunk helpeth windiness and the milt is commended against the Colick and biting of Serpents Against the Jaundise they take the dung of a Roe dryed and sifted and drink it in Wine the same also so drunk cureth the Ague and because the Roe-buck doth wonderfully love his female there be some that affirm that if a woman eat the bladder of a Roe it will likewise make her husband to love her exceedingly Of the first kinde of TRAGELAPHVS which may be called a DEER-GOAT THere is another kinde so like a Deer although conceived of a Buck-Goat and a female Hart that I cannot but express the figure and brief narration thereof as is in the foregoing page It is like a Deer except the beard and bristles growing about the shoulders and Pliny affirmeth that they are found about the river Phasis in Arabia and Arachotae which is a City of India so called of Arachoâ—us a river issuing from Caucasus which the Graecians call Tragelaphos and the Germans Ein Brandhirse and some think this beast to be mentioned by the name of Ako in Deut. 14. This doubtless is the same beast which Aristotle calleth Hippelaphus because he attributeth the self same things to it that Pliny ascribeth to this both for the beard the bristles and deep hair about the shoulders which hangeth down like the mane of a Horse The similitude both in proportion and quantity holdeth with a Hart in the feet which are cloven and that the female thereof doth want horns The horns of the male are like the horns of a Roe Therefore howsoever some have imagined that there is no such beast to be found in the world they are rather to be pitied then confuted for it is not to be doubted that neither the Ancients nor other ever have seen all the divers and marvailous shapes of Beasts which are to be found in many remote and far distant places of the world especially in Arabia and India where are many Deserts and therefore the reason why they affirm this is because they never saw any such and so it is to be understood for the rare pictures of these beasts called in ancient time Canathra whereupon children were carried in Pageants and shews gave them occasion to think that these were but mens devises and that God never ordained such creatures Georgius Fabritius which sent me this picture doth among other things write unto me very probably that this kinde is only distinguished from other in form name and strength and not in kinde and this being more strange and less known among men was called by the Graecians Tragelaphus being greater then the vulgar Deer deeper haired and blacker in colour and this saith he is taken in the Ridings or Forrests of Misena bordering upon Bohemia and the common sort of hunters hold opinion that by reason it loveth to lie where Coals are made and in their dust feeding upon such grass as groweth in those places that therefore the Germans call it Brandhirze and so the Foxes which resemble them in colour are called Brandfusche It is for certain that these are greater and stronger then Harts their upper part of the back being black and the neather neer the belly not white as in a Hart but rather blackish but about his genitals very black I have seen the horns to have seven spires or branches growing out of one of them being palmed at the top These are like to those which are called Achaeines in Greek by reason of their pain and sorrow and Kummerer in German because they live in continual sorrow for their young ones while they are not able to run out of their dens belike fearing by some instinct of nature lest their tender and weak age should betray them to the Hunters before they be able to run away The Figure of another TRAGELAPHUS or DEER-GOAT expressed by Bellonius I do rather approve the relation of another of this kinde which was sent unto me by that most learned English Physician Iohn Cay which as he writeth unto me was brought in the year 1561. out of the Countrey of Mauritania which was cloven-footed and liveth for the most part in the Mountain parts of that Countrey being in quantity betwixt a fallow-Deer and a Hart the body more like a Hart and the side branded and hanging down a shorter and thick neck the colour in the Winter black and red set one with another the beard like a Goat but more divided and turned backward his hair very long even to his knees a mane full of bristles stretched out in length through his whole neck but especially about the top of his shoulder-blades where it standeth like bunches being in colour darker then in other parts of