Wart they then set fire on it and so burn it to ashes and by this way and order the Warts are eradicated that they never after grow again Marcellus Empiricus taketh Spiders webs that are found in the Cypresse tree mixing them with other convenient remedies so giving them to a podagrical person for the asswaging of his pain Against the pain of a hollow tooth Galen in his first Book De Compos medicam secundum loca much commendeth by testimony of Archigenes the Egges of Spiders being tempered and mixed with Oleum Nardinum and so a little of it being put into the tooth In like sort Kiramides giveth Spiders egges for the curation of a Tertian Ague Whereupon we conclude with Galen in his Book to Piso that Nature as yet never brought forth any thing so vile mean and contemptible in outward shew but that it hath manifold and most excellent and necessary uses if we would shew a greater diligence and not be so squeamish as to refuse those wholesome medicines which are easie to be had and without great charges and travail acquired I will add therefore this one note before I end this discourse that Apes Marmosets or Monkies the Serpents called Lizards the Stellion which is likewise a venomous Beast like unto a Lizard having spots in his neck like unto stars Wasps and the little beast called Ichneumon Swallows Sparrows the little Titmouse and Hedge-sparrows do often feed full favourly upon Spiders Besides if the Nightingale the Prince of all singing Birds do eat any Spiders she is clean freed and healed of all diseases whatsoever In the days of Alexander the Great there dwelled in the City of Alexandria a certain young maid which from her youth up was fed and nourished only with eating of Spiders and for the same cause the King was premonished not to come neer her lest peradventure he might be infected by her poysonous breath or by the venom evaporated by her sweating Albertus likewise hath recorded in his writings that there was a certain noble young Virgin dwelling at Colen in Germany who from her tender years was fed only with Spiders And thus much we English men have known that there was one Henry Lilgrave living not many years since being Clerk of the Kitchen to the right Noble Ambrose Dudley Earl of Warwick who would search every corner for Spiders and if a man had brought him thirty or forty at one time he would have eaten them all up very greedily such was his desirous longing after them Of the STELLION THey are much deceived that confound the green Lizard or any other vulgar Lizard for because the Stellion hath a ru 〈…〉 colour and yet as Matthiolus writeth seeing Aristotle hath left recorded that there are venomous Stellions in Italy he thinketh that the little white Beast with stars on the back found about the City of Rome in the walls and ruines of old houses and is there called Tarantula is the Stellion of which he speaketh and there it liveth upon Spiders Yet that there is another and more noble kinde of Stellion 〈…〉 iently so called of the learned shall afterward appear in the succeeding discourse This Beast or Serpent is called by the Grecians Colottes Ascalobtes and Galeotes and such a one was that which Aristophanes faigneth from the side of a house eased her belly into the mouth of Socrates as he gaped when in a Moon-shine night he observed the course of the stars and motion of the Moon The reason of this Greek name Ascalabotes is taken from Ascalos a circle because it appeareth on the back full of such circles like stars as writeth Perottus Howbeit that seemeth to be a faigned Etymologie and therefore I rather take it that Ascala signifieth impurity and that by reason of the uncleannesse of this beast it was called Ascalabates or as Suidas deriveth it of Colobates because by the help and dexterity of the fingers it climbeth up the walls even as Rats and Mice or as Kiramides will have it from Calos signifying a piece of wood because it climbeth upon wood and trees And for the same reason it is called Galeotes because it climbeth like a Weasil but at this day it is vulgarly called among the Grecians Liakoni although some are also of opinion that it is also known among them by the words Thamiamithos and Psammamythe Among the vulgar Hebrews it is sometimes called Letaah and sometimes Semmamit as Munster writeth The Arabians call it Sarnabraus and Senabras a Stellion of the Gardens And peradventure Guarill Guasemabras Alurel and Gnases And Sylvaticus also useth Epithets for a Stellion And the general Arabian word for such creeping biting things is Vasga which is also rendered a Dragon of the house In stead of Colotes Albertus hath Arcolus The Germans English and French have no words for this Serpent except the Latine word and therefore I was justly constrained to call it a Stellion in imitation of the Latine word As I have shewed some difference about the name so it now ensueth that I should do the like about the nature and place of their abode First of all therefore I must put a difference betwixt the Italian Stellion or Tarentula and the Thracian or Grecian for the stellion of the Ancients is proper to Grecia For they say this Stellion is full of Lentile spots or speckles making a sharp or shrill shrieking noise and is good to be eaten but the other in Italy are not so Also they say in Sicilia that their Stellions inflict a deadly biting but those in Italy cause no great harm by their teeth They are covered with a skin like a shell or thick bark and about their backs there are many little shining spots like eyes from whence they have their names streaming like stars or drops of bright and clear water according to this verse of Ovid Aptumque colori Nomen habet variis Stellatus corpora guttis Which may be Englished thus And like his spotted hiew so is his name The body starred over like drops of rain It moveth but slowly the back and tail being much broader then is the back and tail of a Lizard but the Italian Tarentulaes are white and in quantity like the smallest Lizards and the other Grecian Lizards called at this day among them Haconi is of bright silver colour and are very harmful and angry whereas the other are not so but so meek and gentle as a man may put his fingers into the mouth of it without danger One reason of their white bright shining colour is because they want bloud and therefore it was an error in Sylvaticus to say that they had bloud The teeth of this Serpent are very small and crooked and whensoever they bite they stick fast in the wound and are not pulled forth again except with violence The tail is not very long and yet when by any chance it is broken bitten or cut off then it groweth again They live in houses and neer unto the dores
growing stronger like Beasts fall to fighting for rule and government but when the combate doth shew the victor and strongest the residue do ever after yeeld obedience to him In like sort do the Harts of Epirus swim to Corcyra and of Cilicia to the Island of Curiadactes They are deceived with musick for they so love that harmony that they forbear their food to follow it Also it is amazed at any strange sight for if a Hunter come behinde a Horse or Bullock laying over his back his Bow and Arrows they stand staring upon the new formed Beast untill the Dart do end their lives At the time of their lust or rutting they are above measure fierce fighting naturally for the female and sometimes wounding one another to death and this falleth out most commonly in the latter end of August at which time Arcturus riseth with the Sun and then it is most natural for the Hindes to conceive In some places in October their lust ariseth and also in May and then whereas at other times the males live a part from the females they go about like lascivious woers seeking the company of their females as it were at the Market of Venus The males in their raging desired lust have a peculiar voyce which the French call by a feigned word Reere and the Germans Brulen and the Latines tearm Rancere and the Beasts so affected Ololygones When they finde the females they are received with fear then in short space one male will cover many females continuing in this carnal appetite a month or two their females do seldon admit copulation being herein like unto Cows by reason of the rigour of the males genital and therefore they sink down on their Buttocks when they feel the genital seed as it hath been often observed in tame Harts and if they can the females run away the males striving to hold them back within their fore-feet but surely herein they differ from all other it cannot well be said that they are covered standing lying or going but rather running for so are they filled with greatest celerity When one Month or six Weeks of their rutting is past they grow tame again laying aside all fierceness and return to their solitary places digging every one of them by himself a several hole or Ditch wherein they lie to asswage the strong savour of their lust for they stink like Goats and their face beginneth to wax blacker then at other times and in those places they live untill some showers distill from the clouds after which they return to their pasture again and live in flocks together as before The female being thus filled never keepeth company with the male again untill her burthen be delivered which is eight months for so long doth she bear her young before her Calving she purgeth her self by eating Seselis or Siler of the Mountain and whereas she never purgeth untill that time then she emptieth her self of pituitous and flegmatique humors Then go they to the places neer the high ways and there they cast forth their Calf for the causes aforesaid being more afraid of wilde Beasts then Men whom she can avoid by flying which when they have seen they go and eat the Seselis aforesaid and the skin which cometh forth of her own wombe covering the young one finding in it some notable medicine which the Graecians call Chorion and not the herb Arum and this she doth before she lye down to give her young one suck as Pliny affirmeth They bring forth but one or very seldom twain which they lodge in a stable fit for them of their own making either in some rock or other bushy inaccessible place covering them and if they be stubborn and wilde beating them with their feet untill they lie close and contented Oftentimes she leadeth forth her young teaching it to run and leap over bushes stones and small shrubs against the time of danger and so continueth all the Summer time while their own strength is most abundant but in the Winter time they leave and forsake them because all Harts are feeble in the Winter season They live very long as by experience hath been often mentioned not only because they have no gall as the Dolphin hath none but for other causes also some affirm that a Raven will live nine ages of a Man and a Hart four ages of a Raven whereunto Virgil agreeth in these verses Ter binis deci sque super exit in annos Iusta senescéntum quos implét vita virorum Hos novies superat vivendo garrula cornix Et quater egreditur cornicis saecula cervus Alipedem cervum ter vincit corvus at illum Multiplicat novies Phoenix reparabilis ales That is as the life of a man is threescore and six so a Raven doth live nine times so many years viz. 528 years The Hart liveth four times the age of the Raven viz. 2112 years The Crow exceedeth the Hart three times viz. 6336. But the Phenix which is repaired by her own ashes surmounteth the Crow nine times and so liveth 57524 years The which I have set down not for truth but for report leaving every reader to the chiefest matter of credit as in his own discretion he conceiveth most probable But it is confessed of all that Harts live a very long life for Pliny affirmeth that an hundred years after the death of Alexander Magnus there were certain taken alive which had about their necks golden Collars with an inscription that they were put on by Alexander In Calabria once called Iapygia and Peucetia there was Collar taken off from the neck of a Hart by Agathocles King of Sicily which was covered with the flesh and fat of the Hart and there was written upon it Diomedes Dianae whereby it was conjectured that it was put on by him before the siege of Trey for which cause the King brought the same and did offer it up in the Temple of Iupiter The like was in Arcadia when Arcesilaus dwelt in Lycosura for he confidently affirmed that he saw an old sacred Hinde which was dedicated to Diana having this inscription in her Collar Nebros eoon ealoon ota es Ilion en Agapenor When Agapenor was in Troy then was I a young Calf taken By which it appeareth that a Hart liveth longer then an Elephant for indeed as they live long before they grow to any perfection their youth and weakness cleaving fast unto them so is it given to them to have a longer life for continuance in ripeness and strength of years These Beasts are never annoyed with Feavers because their flesh allayeth all adventitial and extraordinary heat If he eat Spiders he instantly dyeth thereof except he eat also Wilde Ivie or Sea-crabs Likewise Navew-gentil and Oleander kill the Hart. When a Hart is in his chase he is greatly pained in his bowels by reason that the skin wherein they lie is very thin 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
that in Italy in his dayes there was a man that had a Scorpion bred in his brain by continuall smelling to this herb Basill and Gesner by relation of an Apothecary in France writeth likewise a story of a young maid who by smelling to Basill fell into an exceeding head-ache whereof she dyed without cure and after her death being opened there were found little Scorpions in her brain Aristotle remembreth an herb which he calleth Sissimbria out of which putrefied Scorpions are engendred as he writeth And we have shewed already in the history of the Crocodile that out of the Crocodiles egges do many times come Scorpions which at their first egression do kill their Dam that hatched them which caused Archelaus which wrote Epigrams of wonders unto Ptolemaeus to sing of Scorpions in this manner In vos dissolvit morte redigit Crocâ—dilum Natura extinctum Scorpii omnipotens Which may be Englished thus To you by Scorpions death the omnipotent Ruines the Crocodil in natures life extinct And thus much for the generation of Scorpions out of putrefaction Now we will proceed to the second manner of their generation which is by propagation of seed for although Ponzettus make some question about their copulation yet he himself inclineth to that opinion as neerer unto truth which attributeth carnall copulation unto them and therefore he alledgeth the example of flies which admit copulation although they engender not thereby Wherefore we will take it for granted that Scorpions lay egges after copulation which hapneth both in the Spring and Autumne And these are for the most part in number eleven upon which they sit and hatch their young ones and when once they are perfected within those egges which are in sight like the little worms out of which Spyders are engendred then do they break their egges and drive the young out For as Isidorus writeth otherwise the old should be destroyed of the young even as are the Crocodiles Some again say that the old Scorpions do devour their young ones Being thus produced by generation they live upon the earth and those which are bred of the Sea-crab do feed upon the foam of the Sea-water and a continuall white mould or chalk neer the Sea But the Scorpions of Aethiopia do eat all kinde of worms flyes and small Serpents Yea those Serpents whose very dung being troden upon by man bringeth exulcerations And a tryall that Scorpions eat flies was made by Wolphius at Montpelier for having a young one in a boxe for one whole moneth together it lived upon flies and grew by the devouring of them bigger being put into the Glasse unto him They live among tiles and bricks very willingly and for this cause they abound in Rome in the hill called Testaceus They are also in Bononia found in the walls of old houses betwixt the stones and the morter They love also clean clothes as we have said already and yet they abhorre all places whereon the Sun shineth And it seemeth that the Sun is utterly against their nature for the same Scorpion which Wolphius had at Montpeller lived in the Glasse untill one day he set it in the Sun and then presently after it dyed To conclude they love hollow places of the earth neer gutters and sometimes they creep into mens beds where unawares they do much harm and for this cause the Lybians who among other Nations are most of all troubled with Scorpions do use to set their beds far from any wall and very high also from the floor to keep the Scorpions from ascending up into them And yet fearing all devises should be too little to secure them against this evil they also set the feet of their beds â—n vessels of water that so the Scorpion may not attempt so much as to climbe up unto them for fear of drowning And also for their further safeguard they were socks and hose in their beds so thick as the Scorpion cannot easily sting through them And if the bed be so placed that they cannot get any hold thereof beneath then they climbe up to the sieling or cover of the house and if there they finde any hold for their pinching legs to apprehend and fasten upon then in their hatred to man-kinde they use this policy to come unto him First one of them as I have said taketh hold upon that place in the house or sieling over the bed wherein they finde the man asleep and so hangeth thereby putting out and stretching his sting to hurt him but finding it too short and not being able to reach him he suffereth another of his fellowes to come and hang as fast by him as he doth upon his hold and so that second giveth the wound and if that second be not able likewise because of the distance to come at the man then they both admit a third to hang upon them and so a fourth upon the third and a fifth upon the fourth untill they have made themselves like a chain to descend from the top to the bed wherein the man sleepeth and the last striketh him after which stroke he first of all runneth away by the back of his fellow and every one again in order till all of them have withdrawn themselves By this may be collected the crafty disposition of this Scorpion and the great subtilty and malice that it is endued withall in nature and seeing they can thus accord together in harming a man it argueth their great mutuall love and concord one with another wherefore I cannot but marvell at them who have written that the old ones destroy the young all but one which they set upon their own buttocks that so the Dam may be secured from the sting and bitings of her son For seeing they can thus hang upon one another without harm favouring their own kinde I see no cause but that nature hath grafted much more love betwixt the old and the young ones so as neither the old do first destroy the young nor afterward that young one preserved in revenge of his fellowes quarrell killeth his Parents It is reported by Aristotle that there is a hill in Caria wherein the Scorpions do never sting any strangers that lodge there but only the naturall born people of that Countrey And hereunto Pliny and Aelianus seem to subscribe when they write that Scorpiones extraneos leniter mordere that is Scorpions bite strangers but gently And hereby it may be collected that they are also by nature very sagacious and can discern betwixt nature and nature yea the particular differences in one and the same nature To conclude Scorpions have no power to hurt where there is no bloud The naturall amity and enmity they observe with other creatures commeth now to be handled and I finde that it wanteth not adversaries nor it again hath no defect of poyson or malice to make resistance and opposition and to take vengeance on such as it meeteth withall The principall of all other subjects
sharp claws but a very small tail as all other long haired creatures have They are exceeding full of fat or lard-grease which some use superstitiously beaten with Oyl wherewith they anoynt their Grape-sickles when they go to vintage perswading themselves that if no body know thereof their tender Vine-branches shall never be consumed by Caterpillers Other attribute this to the vertue of Bears blood and Theophrastus affirmeth that if Bears grease be kept in a vessel at such time as the Bears lie secret it will either fill it up or cause it to run over The flesh of Bears is unfit for meat yet some use to eat it after it hath been twice sod other eat it baked in pasties but the truth is it is better for medicine then for food Theophrastus likewise affirmeth that at the time when Bears lie secret their dead flesh encreaseth which is kept in houses but Bears fore-feet are held for a very delicate and well tasted food full of sweetness and much used by the German Princes The skins of Bears are used in the far Northern regions for garments in the Winter time which they make so artificially covering themselves with them from the crown of the head to the feet that as Munster affirmed some men deceived with that appearance deemed the people of Lapponia to be hairy all over The souldiers of the Moors wear garments made of Lyons Pardals and Bears skins and sleep upon them and so it is reported of Herodotus Megarensis the Musitian who in the day time wore a Lyons skin and in the night lay in a Bears skin The constitution of the body of a Bear is beyond measure phlegmatique because he fasteth in the Winter time so long without meat His voyce is fierce and fearful in his rage but in the night time mournful being given much to ravening If a Bear do eat of Mandragoras he presently dyeth except he meet with Emmets by licking of whom he recovereth so likewise if he be sick of a Surfeit A Bear is much subject to blindness of the eyes and for that cause they desire the Hives of Bees not only for the Hony but by the stinging of the Bees their eyes are cured It hath not been seen that a female Bear was taken great with young which cometh to pass by reason that they go to their Deâ—â— so soon as they are conceived and come not out thence till they have littered And because of the fierceness of this beast they are seldom taken alive except they be very young so that some are killed in the Mountains by poyson the Countrey being so steep and rocky that Hunters cannot follow them some taken in ditches of the earth and other gins Oppianus relateth that near Tygris and Armenia the Inhabitants use this stratagem to take Bears The people go often to the Woods to find the Den of the Bear following a Leam-hound whose nature is so soon as he windeth the Beast to bark whereby his leader discovereth the prey and so draweth off the Hound with the leam then come the people in great multitude and compassing him about with long nets placing certain men men at each end then tye they a long rope to one side of the net as high from the ground as the small of a mans belly whereunto are fastned divers plumes and feathers of Vultures Swans and other resplendent coloured birds which with the wind make a noise or hissing turning over and glistering on the other side of the net they build four little hovels of green boughs wherein they lay four men covered all over with green leaves then all being prepared they sound their Trumpets and wind their Horns at the noise whereof the Bear ariseth and in his fearful rage runneth to and fro as if he saw fire the young men armed make unto him the Bear looking round about taketh the plainest way toward the rope hung full of feathers which being stirred and haled by them that hold it maketh the Bear much affraid with the ratling and hissing thereof and so flying from that side half mad runneth into the nets where the Keepers entrap him so cunningly that he seldom escapeth When a Bear is set upon by an armed man he standeth upright and taketh the man betwixt his fore-feet but he being covered all over with iron plates can receive no harm and then may easily with a sharp knife or dagger pierce through the heart of the beast If a she Bear having young ones be hunted she driveth her whelps before her untill they be wearied and then if she be not prevented she climbeth upon a tree carrying one of her young in her mouth and the other on her back A Bear will not willingly fight with a man but being hurt by a man he gnasheth his teeth and licketh his fore-feet and it is reported by an Ambassador of Poland that when the Sarmatians find a Bear they inclose the whole Wood by a multitude of people standing not above a cubit one from another then cut they down the outmost trees so that they raise a wall of wood to hem in the Bears this being effected they raise the Bear having certain forks in their hands made for that purpose and when the Bear approacheth they with those forks fall upon him one keeping his head another one leg another his body and so with force muzzle him and tie his legs leading him away The Rhaetians use this policy to take Wolves and Bears they raise up great posts and cross them with a long beam laded with heavy weights unto the which beam they fasten a cord with meat therein whereunto the beast coming and biting at the meat pulleth down the beam upon her own pate The Inhabitants of Helvetia hunt them with mastiff Dogs because they should not kill their Cattel left at large in the field in the day time They likewise shoot them with guns giving a good sum of money to them that can bring them a slain Bear The Sarmatians use to take Bears by this sleight under those trees wherein Bees breed they plant a great many of sharp pointed stakes putting one hard into the hole wherein the Bees go in and out whereunto the Bear climbing and coming to pull it forth to the end that he may come to the Hony and being angry that the stake sticketh so fast in the hole with violence plucketh it forth with both her fore-feet whereby she looseth her hold and falleth down upon the picked stakes whereupon she dieth if they that watch for her come not to take her off There was reported by Demetrius Ambassador at Rome from the King of Musco that a neighbour of his going to seek Hony fell into a hollow tree up to the brest in Hony where he lay two days being not heard by any man to complain at length came a great Bear to this Hony and putting his head into the tree the poor man took hold thereof whereat the Bear suddenly
affrighted drew the man out of that deadly danger and so ran away for fear of a worse creature But if there be no tree wherein Bees do breed neer to the place where the Bear abideth then they use to anoynt some hollow place of a tree with Hony whereinto Bees will enter and make Hony-combes and when the Bear findeth them she is killed as aforesaid In Norway they use to saw the tree almost asunder so that when the beast climbeth it she falleth down upon piked stakes laid underneath to kill her And some make a hollow place in a tree wherein they put a great pot of water having anoynted it with Hony at the bottom whereof are fastened certain hooks bending downward leaving an easie passage for the Bear to thrust in her head to get the Hony but impossible to pull it forth again alone because the hooks take hold on her skin this pot they binde fast to a tree whereby the Bear is taken alive and blindefolded and though her strength break the cord or chain wherewith the pot is fastened yet can she not escape or hurt any body in the taking by reason her head is fastened in the pot To conclude other make ditches or pits under Apple-trees laying upon their mouth rotten sticks which they cover with earth and strow upon it herbs and when the Bear cometh to the Apple-tree she falleth into the pit and is taken The herb Wolfeban or Libardine is poison to Foxes Wolves Dogs and Bears and to all beasts that are littered blinde as the Alpine Rhaetians affirm There is one kinde of this called Cyclamine which the Valdensians call Tora and with the juyce thereof they poyson their darts whereof I have credibly received this story That a certain Valdensian seeing a wilde Bear having a dart poysoned herewith did cast it at the Bear being far from him and lightly wounded her it being no sooner done but the Bear ran to and fro in a wonderful perplexity through the woods unto a very sharp cliffe of a rock where the man saw her draw her last breath as soon as the poyson had entered to her heart as he afterward found by opening of her body The like is reported of Hen-bane another herb But there is a certain black fish in Armenia full of poyson with the powder whereof they poyson Figs and cast them in those places where wilde beasts are most plentiful which they eat and so are killed Concerning the industry or natural disposition of a Bear it is certain that they are very hardly tamed and not to be trusted though they seem never so tame for which cause there is a story of Diana in Lysias that there was a certain Bear made so tame that it went up and down among men and would feed with them taking meat at their hands giving no occasion to fear or mistrust her cruelty on a day a young maid playing with the Bear lasciviously did so provoke it that he tore her in pieces the Virgins brethren seeing the murther with their darts slew the Bear whereupon followed a great pestilence through all that region and when they consulted with the Oracle the paynim God gave answer that the plague could not cease untill they dedicated some Virgins unto Diana for the Bears sake that was slain which some interpreting that they should sacrifice them Embarus upon condition the Priesthood might remain in his family slew his only daughter to end the pestilence and for this cause the Virgins were after dedicated to Diana before their marriage when they were betwixt ten and fifteen year old which was performed in the month of January otherwise they could not be marryed Yet Bears are tamed for labours and especially for sports among the Roxolani and Lybians being taught to draw water with wheels out of the deepest wels likewise stones upon sleds to the building of walls A Prince of Lituania nourished a Bear very tenderly feeding her from his table with his own hand for he had used her to be familiar in his Court and to come into his own chamber when he listed so that she would go abroad into the fields and woods returning home again of her own accord and would with her hand or foot rub the Kings chamber door to have it opened when she was hungry it being locked it happened that certain young Noble-men conspired the death of this Prince and came to his chamber door rubbing it after the custom of the Bear the King not doubting any evill and supposing it had been his Bear opened the door and they presently slew him There is a fable of a certain wilde Bear of huge stature which terrified all them that looked upon her the which Pythagoras sent for and kept to himself very familiarly using to stroke and milk her at the length when he was weary of her he whispered in her ear and bound her with an oath that being departed she should never more harm any living thing which saith the fable she observed to her dying day These Bears care not for any thing that is dead and therefore if a man can hold his breath as if he were dead they will not harm him which gave occasion to Esope to fable of two companions and sworn friends who travelling together met with a Bear whereat they being amazed one of them ran away and gat up into a tree the other fell down and countetfeited himself dead unto whom the Bear came and smelt at his nostrils and ears for breath but perceiving none departed without hurting him soon after the other friend came down from the tree and merrily asked his companion what the Bear said in his ear Marry quoth he she warn'd me that I should never trust such a fugitive friend as thou art which didst forsake me in my greatest necessity thus far Esop They will bury one another being dead as Tzetzes affirmeth and it is received in many Nations that children have been nursed by Bears Paris thrown out of the City was nourished by a Bear There is in France a Noble house of the Vrsons whose first founder is reported to have been certain years together nourished by a Bear and for that cause was called Vâ—son and some affirm that Arcesius was so being deceived by the name of his mother who was called Arctos a Bear as among the Latines was Vâ—sula And it is reported in the year of our Lord 1274. that the Concubine of Pope Nicholas being with childe as was supposed brought forth a young Bear which she did not by any unlawful copulation with such a beast but only with the most holy Pope and conceived such a creature by strength of imagination lying in his Palace where she saw the pictures of many Bears so that the holy Father being first put in good hope of a son and afterward seeing this monster like himself Rev. 13. for anger and shame defaced all his pictures of those beasts There is a mountain
given this beast in Greek and Latin bv sundry authors do demonstratively shew the manifold conditions of this beast as that it is called a Plower Wilde an earth-tiller brazen-footed by reason of his hard hoofs Cerebrous more brain then wit horned stubborn horn-stiking hard rough untamed devourer of grasse yoak-bearer fearful overtamed drudges wry-faced flow and ill favoured with many other such notes of their nature ordination and condition There remain yet of this discourse of Oxen two other necessary Tractates the one natural and the other moral That which is natural contains the several uses of their particular parts and first for their flesh which is held singular for nourishment for which cause after their labour which bringeth leanness they use to put them by for sagination or as it is said in English for feeding which in all countries hath a several manner or custom Sotion affirmeth that if you give your Cattel when they come fresh from their pasture Cabbage leaves beaten small with some sharp Vinegar poured among them and afterward chaffe winowed in a sieve and mingled with Bran for five daies together it will much fatten and encrease their flesh and the sixth day ground Barly encreasing the quantity by little and little for six daies together Now the best time to feed them in the Winter is about the Cock crowing and afterward in the morning twilight and soon after that let them drink in the Summer let them have their first meat in the morning and their second service at noon and then drink after that second meat or eating and their third meat before evening again and so let them drink the second time It is also to be observed that their water in Winter time be warmed and in the Summer time colder And while they feed you must often wash the roof and sides of her mouth for therein will grow certain Wormes which will annoy the beast and hinder his eating and after the washing rub his tongue well with salt If therefore they be carefully regarded they will grow very fat especially if they be not over aged or very young at the time of their feeding for by reason of age their teeth grow loose and fall out and in youth they cannot exceed in fatness because of their growth above all Heifers and barren Kie will exceed in fatness for Varro affirmeth that he saw a field Mouse bring forth young ones in the fat of a Cow having eaten into her body she being alive the self same thing is reported of a Sow in Arcadia Kie will also grow fat when they are with Calf especially in the middest of that time The Turks use in their greatest feasts and Mariages to roast or seethe an Ox whole putting in the Oxes belly a whole Sow and in the Sowes belly a Goose and in the Goofes belly an Egge to note forth their plenty in great and small things but the best flesh is of a young Ox and the worst of an old one for it begetteth an ill juyce or concoction especially if they which eat it be troubled with a Cough or rheumy fleam or if the party be in a Consumption or for a woman that hath ulcers in her belly the tongue of an Ox or Cow salted and slit asunder is accounted a very delicate dish which the Priests of Mercury said did belong to them because they were the servants of speach and howsoever in all sacrifices the beasts tongue was refused as a profane member yet these Priests made choise thereof under colour of sacrifice to feed their dainty stomachs The horns of Oxen by art of man are made very flexible and straight whereof are made Combes hafts for knives and the ancients have used them for cups to drink in and for this cause was Bacchus painted with horns and Crater was taken for a cup which is derived of Kera a horn In like manner the first Trumpets were made of horns as Virgil alludeth unto this sentence Rauco strepuerunt corâ—ua cantu and now adaies it is become familiar for the cariage of Gunpowder in war It is reported by some husbandmen that if seed be cast into the earth out of an Oxes horn called in old time Cerasbola by reason of a certain coldness it will never spring up well out of the earth at the least not so well as when it is sowed with the hand of man Their skin is used for shooes Garments and Gum because of a spongy matter therein contained also to make Gunpowder and it is used in navigation when a shot hath pierced the sides of the ship presently they clapa raw Ox hide to the mouth of the breach which instantly keepeth the Water from entring in likewise they were wont to make bucklers or shieldes or hides of Oxen and Bugils and the seven-folded or doubled shield of Ajax was nothing else but a shield made of an Ox hide so many times layed one piece upon another which caused Homer to call it Sacos heptabreton Of the teeth of Oxen I know no other use but scraping and making paper smooth with them their gall being sprinkled among seed which is to be sowen maketh it come up quickly and killeth field-mise that tast of it and it is the bane or poison of those creatures so that they will not come neer to it no not in bread if they discern it and birds if they eat corn touched with an Oxes gall put into hot water first of all and the lees of wine they wax thereby astonished likewise Emmets will not come upon those places where there remaineth any savour of this gall and for this cause they anoint herewith the roots of trees The dung of Oxen is beneficial to Bees if the hive be anointed therewith for it killeth Spiders Gnats and drone-bees and if good heed be not taken it will work the like effect upon the Bees themselves for this cause they use to smother or burn this kind of dung under the mouthes of the Hives in the spring time which so displayeth and disperseth all the little enemy-bees in Bee-hives that they never breed again There is a proverb of the stable of Augea which Augea was so rich in Cattel ahat he defiled the Countrey with their dung whereupon that proverb grew when Hercules came unto him he promised him a part of his Countrey to purge that stable which was not cleansed by the yearly labour of 3000 Oxen but Hercules undertaking the labour turned a River upon it and so cleansed all When Augea saw that his stable was purged by art and not by labour he denied the reward and because Phyleus his eldest Son reproved him for not regarding a man so well deserving he cast him out of his family for ever The manifold use of the members of Oxen and Kie in medicine now remaineth to be briefly touched The horn beaten into powder cureth the Cough especially the tips or point of the horn which is also received against the
being about fourteen or twenty dayes old and some have devised a cruel delicate meat which is to cut the young ones out of the dams belly and so to dresse and eat them but I trust there is no man among Christians so inhumanely gluttonous as once to devise or approve the sweetness of so foul a dish but the tame ones are not so good for in Spain they will not eat of a tame Cony because every creature doth partake in tast of the air wherein he liveth and therefore tame Conies which are kept in a close and unsweet air by reason of their own excrements cannot tast so well or be so wholesome as those which run wilde in the mountains and fields free from all infection of evill air They love above all places the rocks and make Dens in the earth and whereas it is said Psal 104 that the stony rocks are for the Cony it is not to be understood as if the feet of the Cony could pierce into the rock as into the earth and that she diggeth her hole therein as in looser ground but that finding among the rocks holes already framed to her hand or else some light earth mingled therewith she more willingly entreth thereinto as being more free from rain and floods then in lower and softer ground for this cause they love also the hils and lower grounds and woods where are no rocks as in England which is not a rocky Countrey but wheresoever she is forced to live there she diggeth her holes wherein for the day time she abideth but morning and evening cometh out from thence and sitteth at the mouth thereof In their copulation they engender like Elephants Tygres and Linxes that is the male leapeth on the back of the female their privie parts being so sramed to meet one another behind because the females do render their urine backward their secrets and the seed of the male are very smal They begin to breed in some Countries being but six moneths old but in England at a year old and so continue bearing every moneth at the least seven times in one year if they litter in March but in the Winter they do not engender at all and therefore the Authors say of these and Hares that they abound in procreation by reason whereof a little store will serve to encrease a great borough Their young being littered are blind and see not till they be nine dayes old and their dam hath no suck for them till she hath been six or seven hours with the male at the least for six hours after she cannot suckle them greatly desiring to go to the Buck and if she be not permitted presently she is so far displeased that she will not be so inclined again for 14 daies after I have been also credibly informed by one that kept tame Conies that he had Does which littered three at a time and within fourteen daies after they littered four more Their ordinary number in one litter is five and sometimes nine but never above and I have seen that when a Doe hath had nine in her belly two or three of them have perished and been oppressed in the womb by suffocation The males will kill the young ones if they come at them like as the Bore cats and therefore the female doth also avoid it carefully covering the nest or litter with gravell or earth that so they may not be discovered there are also some of their females very unnatural not caring for their yong ones but suffer them to perish both because they never provide a warm litter or nest for them as also because they forsake them being littered or else devour them For the remedy of this evill he that loveth to keep them for his profit must take them before they be delivered and pull off the hair or flesh underneath their belly and so put it upon their nest that when the young one cometh forth it may not perish for cold and so the dam will be taught by experience of pain to do the like her self Thus far Thomas Gypâ—on an English Poysician For Conies you may give them Vine-leaves Fruits Herbs Grasse Bran Oatmel Mallows the parings of Apples likewise Cabbages Apples themselves and Lettuce and I my self gave to a Cony blew Wolfe-bane which she did presently eat without hurt but Gallingale and blind Nettle they will not eat In the Winter they will eat Hay Oats and Chaffe being given to them thrice a day when they eat Greenes they must not drink at all for if they do it is hazzard but they will incur the Dropsie and at other times they must for the same cause drink but little and that little must be alway fresh It is also dangerous to handle their young ones in the absence of the dam for her jealousie will easily perceive it which causeth her so to disdain them that either she biteth forsaketh or killeth them Foxes will of their own accord hunt both Hares and Conies to kill and eat them Touching their medicinall properties it is to be observed that the brain of Conies hath been eaten for a good Antidote against poison so also the Hart which is hard to be digested hath the same operation that is in treacle There is also an approved medicine for the Squinancy or Quinsie take a live Cony and burn her in an earthen pot to powder then take a spoonful of that powder in a draught of wine and drink the most part thereof and rub your throat with the residue and it shall cure with speed and ease as Marcellus saith The fat is good against the stopping of the bladder and difficulty of urine being anointed at a fire upon the hairy place of the secrets as Alex. Benedictus affirms Other things I omit concerning this beast because as it is vulgar the benefits thereof are commonly known Of the Indian little PIG-CONY I Received the picture of this beast from a certain Noble-man my loving friend in Paris whose parts it is not needfull to describe seeing the image it self is perspicuous and easie to be observed The quantity of this beast doth not exceed the quantity of a vulgar Cony but rather the body is shorter yet fuller as also I observed by those two which that noble and learned Physician Joh. Munzingerus sent me It hath two little low ears round and almost pild without hair having also short legs five claws upon one foot behind and six before teeth like a mouse but no tail and the colour variable I have seen of them all white and all yellow and also different from both those their voice is much like the voice of a Pig and they eat all kinds of Herbs Fruits Oats and Bread and some give them water to drink but I have nourished some divers moneths together and never given them any water but yet I gave them moist food as Herbs Apples Rapes and such like or else they would incur the Dropsie Their
of the appearance of that Star which is about thirty dayes should be called Dog-dayes but only because then the heat of the Sun doth torment the bodies of men twice so much as at other times whereupon they attribute that to the Star which they call Sirius which rather is to be attributed to the Sun during that time every year Others fable that there is another Star close to him called Orion who was an excellent hunter and after his death was placed among the Stars and the Star Canis beside him was his hunting Dog but by this Star called of the Egyptians Solachim and of the Grecians Astrocynon cometh that Egyptian Cynick year which is accomplished but once in 1460 years Unto this Star were offered many sacrifices of Dogs in ancient time whereof there can be no cause in the world as Ovid well noteth in these Verses Pro Cane sidereo Canis hic imponitur arae Et quare fiat nil nisi nomen habet As among the Carians whereupon came the proverb of Caricum Sacrificium for they sacrificed a Dog in stead of a Goat and the young puppies or whelpes were also accounted amongst the most availeable sacrifices for the pacifying of their Idoll gods The Romans and Grecians had also a custom to sacrifice a Dog in their Lycaean and Lupercal feasts which were kept for the honour of Pan who defended their flocks from the Wolf and this was performed in February yearly either because that the Dogs were enemies to Wolves or else for that by their barking they draw them away in the night time from their City or else because they reckoned that a Dog was a pleasing beast to Pan who was the keeper of Goats so also the Grecians did offer a Dog to Hecate who hath three heads one of a Horse another of a Dog and the third head in the midst of a wilde man and the Romans to Genetha for the safe custody and welfare of all their houshold affairs Their houshold Gods called Lares were pictured and declared to the people sitting in Dogs-skins and Dogs sitting besides them either because they thereby signified their duty to defend the house and houshold or else as Dogs are terrors to Theeves and evill beasts so these by their assistance were the punishers of wicked and evill persons or rather that these Lares were wicked spirits prying into the affaires of every private houshold whom God used as executioners of his wrathful displeasure upon godless men There were Dogs sacred in the Temple of Aesculapius because he was nourished by their milk and Jupiter himself was called Cynegetes that is a Dog-leader because he taught the Arcadians first of all to hunt away noisome beasts by the help of Dogs so also they sacrificed a Dog to Mars because of the boldness of that creature To conclude such was the unmemorable vanity of the Heathens in their gods and sacrifices as it rather deserveth perpetuall oblivion then remembrance for they joyned the shapes of men and beasts together saith Arnobius to make gods Omnigenumque deum monstra latrator Anubis such were their Cynocephali Ophiocephali Anubis Hecate that is as much to say as half Men half Dogs half Serpents but generally all Monsters and for the many imaginary virtues the ancients have dreamed to be in Dogs they also in many places have given unto them solemn funerals in their hallowed Cemiteries and after they were dead they ceased not to magnifie them as Alexander which built a City for the honour of a Dog All this notwithstanding many learned and wise men in all ages have reckoned a Dog but a base and an impudent creature for the Flamen Dialis of Jupiter in Rome was commanded to abstain from touching of Dogs for the same reason that they were prohibited and not permitted to enter into the Castle of Athens and Isle of Delos because of their publick and shameless copulation and also that no man might be terrified by their presence from supplication in the Temples The foolishness of a Dog appeareth in this that when a stone or other thing is cast at him he followeth the stone and neglecteth the hand that threw it according to the saying of the Poet Arripit ut lapidem catulus morsuque fatigat Nec percussori mutua damna facit Sic plerique sinunt vexos elabier hostes Et quos nulla gravant noxia dente petunt Likewise men of impudent wits shameless behaviors in taking and eating meat were called Cynicks for which cause Athenaeus speaketh unto Cynicks in this sort You do not O Cynici lead abstinent and frugal lives but resemble Dogs and whereas this four-footed beast differeth from other creatures in four things you only follow him in his viler and baser qualities that is in barking and license of railing in voracity and nudity without all commendation of men The impudency of a Dog is eminent in all cases to be understood for which cause that audacious Aristogiton son of Cidimachus was called a Dog and the Furies of ancient time were pictured by black Dogs and a Dog called Erinnys Cerberus himself with his three heads signified the multiplicity of Devils that is a Lions a Wolfs and a fawning Dogs one for the Earth another for the Water and the third for the Air for which cause Hercules in slaying Cerberus is said to overcome all temptation vice and wickedness for so did his three heads signifie Other by the three heads understand the three times by the Lion the time present by the Wolf the time past and by the fawning Dog the time to come It is delivered by Authors that the root of Oliander or else a Dogs tooth bound about the arme do restrain the fury and rage of a Dog also there is a certain little bone in the left side of a Toade called Apocynon for the virtue it hath in it against the violence of a Dog It is reported by Pliny that if a live Rat be put into the pottage of Dogs after they have eaten thereof they will never bark any more and Aelianus affirmeth so much of the Weasils tail cut off from him alive and carryed about a man also if one carry about him a Dogs heart or liver or the skin wherein Puppies lie in their dams belly called the Secundine the like effect or operation is attributed to them against the violence of Dogs There is a little black stone in Nilus about the bigness of a Bean at first sight whereof a Dog will run away Such as these I saw at Lyons in France which they called Sea-beans and they prescribed them to be hanged about a Nurses neck to encrease her milk But to conclude the discourse of the baseness of a Dog those two proverbs of holy Scripture one of our Saviour Mat. 7. Give not that which is holy to Dogs and the other of St. Peter 2 Epistle Chap. 2. The Dog is returned to the vomit
against it upon the same foot lay also two or three Bean flowers and let it lie a day and a night and so it shall be cured and the same draweth a poisoned Arrow out of a Horse Andreas reporteth to Gesner that he hath often heard that the sewet of a Hare layed to the crown of a Womans head expelleth her secunds and a dead childe out of the womb The powder made of this wool or Hair stancheth bleeding if the hairs be pulled off from a live Hare and stopped into the nose The powder of the wool of a Hare burned mingled with the Oil of Myrtles the gall of a Bull and Allum warmed at the fire and anoint it upon the head fasteneth the hair from falling off also the same powder decocted with hony helpeth the pain in the bowels although they be broken being taken in a round ball the quantity of a Bean together but these medicines must be used every day Arnoldus preseribeth the hair to be cut short and so to be taken into the body against burstness A perfume made of the dung and hairs of a Hare and the fat of a Sea calfe draweth forth Womens flowers The seed of a wilde Cowcumber and an Oyster shell burned and put into Wine mingled with the hair of a Hare and wool of a Sheep with the flower of Roles cureth inflamations of Womens secrets after their child-birth Also Hippocrates prescribeth the shell of a Cuttle-fish to be beaten into Wine and layed in Sheeps wool and Hares hair helpeth the falling down of the womb of a Woman with childe If a mans feet be scorched with cold the powder of a Hares wool is a remedy for it The head of a Hare burned and mingled with fat of Bears and Vinegar caureth hair to come where it is fallen off and Galen saith that some have used the whole body of a Hare so burned and mingled for the foresaid cure being layed in manner of a plaister By eating of a Hares head the trembling of the Nerves and the losse of motion and sense in the members receiveth singular remedy There things also preserve teeth from aking the powder of a Hares head burned with salt mingled to gether rubbed upon the teeth or if you will put thereunto the whitest Fennel and the dryed beans of a Cutle fish The Indians burn together the Hares head and Mice for this purpose When ones mouth smelleth strong this powder with Spick 〈…〉 rd asswageth the smell The brain is good against poison The heart of a Hair hath in it a theriacal virtue also The brain is proved to have power in it for comforting and repaining the memory The same sod and eaten helpeth trembling which happen in the accessions of sickness such an one as is in the cold shaking fit of an Ague It is to be noted that all trembling hath its original cause from the infirmity or weakness of the Nerves as is apparent in old age although the immediate causes may be some cold constitution as abundance of cold humors drinking of cold drink and such like all which tremblings are cured by eating the brain of a Hare roasted saith Dioscorides and E 〈…〉 a. It also helpeth children to breed teeth easily if the gums be rubbed therewith for it hath the same power against inflamation that hony and better hath being drunk in Wine and the stones thereof rosted and eaten it is good for him that hath any pain in his bladder and if the Urine exceed ordinary for staying thereof take the brain hereof to be drunk in wine The tooth of a Hare layed to that part where the teeth ake easeth them Take the Maw with the dung in it and wash it in old wine so as the dung may mingle there with and then give it to one sick of the Bloudy-flux and it shall eare him The Rennet hath the same virtue that is in a Calves or Kids and whereas Nicander praiseth it in the first place for the virtue it hath in it against poison Nicoon an ancient Physitian giveth it the second place for it is full of sharp digesting power and therefore hath a drying quality It dissolveth the congealed and coag 〈…〉 ted milk in the belly and also clotted bloud within in the stomach more effectually then the Reâ—net of any other beast being alway the better for the age Being mingled with Vinegar it is drunk against poison and also if a Man or Beast be anointed with it no Serpent Scorpion Spider or wilde Mouse whose teeth are venomous will venture to sting the body so anointed or else inwardly take thereof three spoonfuls with Wine against the said bâ—tings or of any Sea-fish or Hemlock after the wound received and with Vinegar it is soveraign against all poison of Chamaeleons or the bloud of Buls The same being drunk in Vinegar or applyed outwardly to womens breasts disperseth the coagulated milk in them also being mingled with Snails or any other shelfish which feed upon green herbs or leaves it draweth forth Thornes Darts Arrowes or Reeds out of the belly or mingled with gum of Frankincense Oil bird lime and Bees-glew of each an equall quantity with Vinegar it stancheth bloud and all issues of bloud flowing out of the belly and it also ripeneth an old sore according to the saying of Serenus Si inducas leporis aspersa coagula vino Being layed to the Kings evill in Lint with Vinegar it disperseth and cureth it also it healeth Cankers it cureth a Quartan Ague also mixed with Wine and drunk with Vinegar against the Falling evill and the stone in the bladder If it be mixed with Sagapanum and Wine Amyny and infused into the ears giveth help as also the pain of the teeth It dissolveth bloud in the lights and easeth the pain of bloud congealed in your stomach when one spitteth bloud if he drink Samia and Myrtle with the Rennet of a Hare it shall give him very present ease The latter learned Physitians take a drink made of Vinegar and Water and give it warm to eject and expell bloud out of the Lights and if any drop thereof cleave in the bowels then do they three or four times together iterate this potion and after apply and minister all binding astringent medicines and emplasters and for the Bloudy flux it is good to be used It is held also profitable by Dioscorides and other the ancients that if the pap or brest of a Woman be anointed therewith it stayeth the sucking Infants looseness in the belly or else given to the childe with Wine or if it have an Ague with Water There is saith Aristotle in the Rennet a fiery quality but not in the highest degree for as fire dissolveth and discerneth so doth this in milk distinguish the airy part from the watery and the watery from the earthy Wherefore when one tasteth an old Rennet he shall think he tasteth an old putrified Cheese but as leaven is to bread which hardneth
another but betwixt every squirting give him liberty to hold down his head and to blow out the filthy matter for otherwise perhaps you may choke him And after this it shall be good also without holding up his head any more to wash and rub his nostrils with a fine clowt bound to a white sticks end and wet in the water aforesaid and serve him thus once a day untill he be whole Of bleeding at the Nose I Have seen Horses my self that have bled at the nose which have had neither sore nor ulcer in their nose and therefore I cannot choose but say with the Physitians that it cometh by means that the vein which endeth in that place is either opened broken or fettered It is opened many times by means that bloud aboundeth too much or for that it is too fine or too subtil and so pierceth through the vein Again it may be broken by some violent strain cut or blow And finally it may be fretted or gnawn through by the sharpness of some bloud or else of some other humor contained therein As touching the cure Martin saith it is good to take a pinte of red Wine and to put therein a quartern of Bole Armony beaten into fine powder and being made luke-warm to pour the one half thereof the first day into his nostril that bleedeth causing his head to be holden up so as the liquor may not fall out and the next day to give him the other half But if this prevaileth not then I for my part would cause him to be let bloud in the breast vein on the same side that he bleedeth at several times then take of Frankincense one ounce of Aloes half an ounce and beat them into powder and mingle them throughly with the whites of Egges untill it be so thick as Honey and with soâ—t Hares hair thrust it up into his nostril filling the hole so full as it cannot fall out or else fill his nostrils full of Asses dung or Hogs dung for either of them is excellent good to restrain any flux of bloud Of the bleeding at the Nose or to stanch Flux of bloud in any sort I Have known many Horses in great danger by bleeding and I have tryed divers remedies for the same yet have I not found any more certain then this take a spoonful or two of his bloud and put it in a Sawcer and set it upon a chafing dish of coals and let it boyl till it be all dryed up into powder then take that powder and if he bleed at the nose with a Cane or Quill blow the same up into his nostrils if his bleeding come of any wound or other accident then into the wound put the same powder which is a present remedy New Horse-dung or earth is a present remedy applyed to the bleeding place and so are Sage leaves bruised and put into the wound Of the diseases in the Mouth and first of the bloudy Rifts or Chops in the Palat of the Mouth THis disease is called of the Italians Palatina which as Laurentius Russius saith cometh by eating hay or provender that is full of pricking seeds which by continual pricking and fretting the furrows of the mouth do cause them to ranckle and to bleed corrupt and stinking matter which you shall quickly remedy as Martin saith by washing first the sore places with Vinegar and Salt and then by anointing the same with Honey Of the Bladders in a Horses mouth which our old Farriers were wont to call the Gigs The Italians call them Froncelle THese be little soft swellings or rather pustules with black heads growing in the inside of his lips next unto the great jaw-teeth which are so painful unto the Horse as they make him to let his meat fall out of his mouth or at the least to keep it in his mouth unchawed whereby the Horse prospereth not Russius saith that they come either by eating too much cold grass or else pricking dusty and filthy provender The cure whereof according to Martin is in this sort Slit them with a lancet and thrust out all the corruption and then wash the sore places with a little Vinegar and Salt or else with Allum water Of the Bladders in a Horses mouth SOme Horses will have bladders like paps growing in the inside of their lips next to their great teeth which are much painful the cure whereof is thus Take a sharp pair of shears and clip them away close to the gum and then wash the sore place with running water Allum and Honey boiled together till it be whole Of the Lampass THe Lampass called of the Italians Lampasous proceedeth of the abundance of bloud resorting to the first furrow of the mouth I mean that which is next unto the upper fore-teeth causing the said furrow to swell so high as the Horses teeth so as he cannot chew his meat but is forced to let it fall out of his mouth The remdy is to cut all the superfluous flesh away with a crooked hot iron made of purpose which every Smith can do Another of the Lampass THe Lampass is a thick spongy flesh growing over a Horses upper teeth hindering the conjunction of his chaps in such sort that he can hardly eat the cure is as follloweth Cut all that naughty flesh away with a hot iron and then rub the sore well with Salt which the most ignorant Smith can do sufficiently Of the Canker in the mouth THis disease as Martin saith is a rawness of the mouth and tongue which is full of blisters so as be cannot eat his meat Which proceeds of some unnatural heat coming from the stomach For the cure whereof take of Allum half a pound of Honey a quarter of a pinte of Columbinâ— leaves of Sage leaves of each a handful boyl all these together in three pintes of water untill a pinte be consumed and wash the sore places therewith so as it may bleed continuing so to do every day once untill it be whole Another of the Canker in the mouth THis disease proceedeth of divers causes as of unnatural heat of the stomach of foul feeding or of the rust or venome of some â—it oâ— snaâ—â—el undiscr 〈…〉 lookt unto The cure is thus Wash the sore place with warm Vinegar made thick with the powder of Allum two or three dayes together every time until it bleed which will kill the poison and vigor of the exulcerated matter then make this water Take of running water a quart of Allum four ounces of Hony four or five spoonfuls of Woodhine leaves of Sage leaves and of Columbine leaves of each half a handful boil all these together till one half he consumed then take it off and every day with the water warmed wash the sore until it be whole Of the heat in the mouth and lips SOmetime the heat that cometh out of the stomach breedeth no Canker but maketh the mouth hot and causeth the Horse to forsake
most good so that he go in a dry warm ground for by feeding alwayes downward he shall purge his head the better as Russius saith Thus much of the Glanders and mourning of the Chine Now we will speak somewhat of the Strangullion according to the opinion of the Authors though not to the satisfaction perhaps of our English Farriars Of the Strangullion or Squinancy THe Strangullion called of the Latines Anginae according to the Physitians is an inflamation of the inward parts of the throat and as I said before is called of the Greeks Cynanche which is as much to say in English as Strangling whereof this name Strangullion as I think is derived for this disease doth strangle every Man or Beast and therefore is numbred amongst the perillous and sharp diseases called of the Latines Morbi acuti of which strangling the Physiâ—ians in Mans body make four differences The first and worst is when no part within the mouth nor without appeareth manifestly to be inflamed and yet the patient is in great peril of strangling The second is when the inward parts of the throat only be inflamed The third is when the inward and outward parts of the throat be both inflamed The fourth is when the muscles of the neck are inflamed or the inward joynts thereof so loosened as they straiten thereby both the throat or wesand or wind-pipe for short breath is incident to all the four kinds before recited and they proceed all of one cause that is to say of some cholerick or bloudy fluxion which comes out of the branches of the throat veins into those parts and there breedeth some hot inflamation But now to prove that a Horse is subject to this disease you shall hear what Absyrtus Hierocles Vegetius and others do say Absyrtus writing to his friend a certain Farriar or Horse-leach called Aâ—storicus speaketh in this manner When a Horse hath the Strangullion it quickly killeth him the signes whereof be these His temples will be hollow his tongue will swell and hang out of his mouth his eyes also will be swollen and the passage of his throat stopt so as he can neither eat nor drink All these signes be also confirmed by Hiâ—rocles Moreover Vegetius rendereth the cause of this disease affirming that it proceedeth of aboundance of subtle bloud which after long travel will inflame the inward or outward muscles of the throat or wesand or such affluence of bloud may come by use of hot meate after great travel being so alterative as they cause those parts to swell in such sort as the Horse can neither eat nor drink nor draw his breath The cure according to Vegeâ—ius is in this sort First bathe his mouth and tongue in hot water and then anoint it with the gall of a Bull that done give him this drink Take of old Oyl two pound of old Wine a quart nine Figs and nine Leeks heads well stamped and brayed together And after you have boiled these a while before you strain them put thereunto a little Nitrum Alexandrinum and give him a quart of this every morning and evening Absyrtus and Hierocles would have you to let him bloud in the palace of his mouth and also to powre Wine and Oyl into his Nostrils and also give him to drink this decoction of Figs and Nitrum sodden together or else to anoint his throat within with Nitre Oil and Hony or else with Hony and Hogs dung mingled together which differeth not much from Galên his medicine to be given unto man For he saith that Hony mingled with the powder of Hogs dung that is white and swallowed down doth remedy the Squinancy presently Absyrtus also praiseth the ointment made of Bdellium and when the inflamation beginneth somewhat to decrease he saith it is good to purge the Horse by giving him wilde Cucumber and Nitre to drink Let his meat be grasse if it may be gotten or else wet hay and sprinkled with Nitre Let his drink also be lukewarm water with some Barley meal in it Of the Cough OF Coughs some be outward and some be inward Those be outward which do come of outward causes as by eating a feather or by eating dusty or sharp straw and such like things which tickling his throat causeth him to cough you shall perceive it by wagging and wrying his head in his coughing and by stamping sometime with his foot labouring to get out the thing that grieveth him and cannot The cure according to Martin is thus Take a Willow wand rolled throughout with a fine linnen clout and then anoint it all over with Hony and thrust it down his throat drawing your hand to and fro to the intent it may either drive down the thing that grieveth him or else bring it up and do this twice or thrice anointing every time the stick with fresh Hony Of the inward and wet Cough OF inward Coughs some be wet and some be dry The wet Cough is that cometh of cold taken after some great heat given to the Horse dissolving humors which being afterward congealed do cause obstruction and stopping in the Lungs And I call it the wet Cough because the Horse in his coughing will void moist matter at his mouth after that it is once broken The signes be these The Horse will be heavie and his eyes will run with water and he will forsake his meat and when he cougheth he thrusteth out his head and reacheth with great pain at the first as though he had a dry Cough untill the fleam be broken and then he will cough more hollow which is a signe of amendment And therefore according to Martins experience to the intent the fleam may break the sooner it shall be necessary to keep him warm by clothing him with a double cloth and by littering him up to the belly with fresh straw and then to give him this drink Take of Barley one peck and boyl it in two or three gallons of fair water untill the Barley begin to burst and boyl therewith of bruised Licoras of Anise seeds or Raisins of each one pound then strain it and to that liquor put of Hony a pinte and a quartern of Sugarcandy and keep it close in a pot to serve the Horse therewith four several mornings and cast not away the sodden Barley with the rest of the strainings but make it hot every day to perfume the Horse withal being put in a bag and â—ied to his head and if the Horse will eat of it it shall do him the more good And this perfuming in Winter season would be used about ten of the clock in the morning when the Sun is of some height to the intent the Horse may be walked abroad if the Sun shine to exercise him moderately And untill his Cough wear away fail not to give him warm water with a little ground Mault And as his Cough breaketh more and more so let his 〈◊〉 every day be lesse warmed then other Of the dry Cough THis seemeth
of the old Moon for it will have the same operation you shall therefore take as much or this dung as you can hold in your hand or fist at one time so that the quantity of the dung be unlike and you shall put it in a morter and beat it to powder and cast twenty grains of Pepper into the same fime being very diligently pounded or bruised and then you shall adde nine ounces of the best Hony unro the aforesaid mixture and four pounds of the best Wine and mix the potion in the manner of a compound Wine and the dung or dirt being dryed and beaten first 〈◊〉 on sha 〈…〉 mingle all the rest and put them together in a vessel made of glass that when you have any need you may have the medicine ready prepared to comfort him or her which is so afflicted Of the ICHNEUMON MArcellus and Solinus do make question of this Beast Ichneumon to be a kinde of Otter or the Otter a kinde of this Ichneumon which I find to be otherwise called Enydros or 〈◊〉 because it liveth in water and the reason of this name I take to be fetched ab investigando because like a Dog or hunting Hound it diligently searcheth out the seats of wilde Beasts especially the Crocodile and the Asp whose Egs it destroyeth And for the enmity unto Serpents it is called Ophi 〈…〉 us Is 〈…〉 is of opinion that the name of this Beast in the Greek is given unto it because by the favour thereof the venom and wholesomess of meates is deseried Whereof Dracontius writeth in this manner Praed 〈…〉 t Suillus 〈…〉 cujuscunque 〈◊〉 The Ic 〈…〉 foretelleth the power and presence of all poyson And it is called Suillus in Latine because like a Hog it hath bristles in stead of hair Albertus also doth call it Neomon mistaking it for Ichneumon There be some that call it an Indian Mouse because there is some proportion or similitude in the outward form between this 〈…〉 st and a Mouse But it is certain that it is bred in no other Nation but only in Egypt about the River Nilus and of some it is called Mus Pharaonis Pharaohs Mouse For Iber 〈…〉 was a common name to all the Egyptian Kings There be some that call it Thyamon and Ans 〈…〉 and also Damula mistaking it for that Weasil which is an enemy to Serpents called by the Italians Do 〈…〉 〈◊〉 yet I know no learned man but taketh these two names to signifie two different Bensts The quantity of it or stature is sometimes as great as a small Cat or Ferret and the hairs of it like the hairs of a Hog the eyes small and narrow which signifie a malignant and crafty disposition the tail of it very long like a Serpents the end turning up a little having no hairs but scales not much unlike the tail of a Mouse Aelianus affirmeth that both sexes bear young having seed in themselves whereby they conceive For those that are overcome in combates one with another are branded with a warlike mark of Villanage or subjection to their Conquerours and on the contrary side they which are conquered and overcome in fight do not only make vassals of them whom they overcome but in token thereof for further punishment fill them with their seed by carnal copulation so putting off from themselves to them the dolours and torments of bearing young This first picture of the Ichneumon was taken by Bellonius except the back be too much elevated The second picture taken out of Oppianus Poems as it was found in an old Manuscript When it is angry the hairs stand upright and appear of a double colour being white and yellowish by lines or rows in equal distance entermingled and also very hard and sharp like the hair of a Wolf the body is something longer then a Cats and better set or compacted the beak black and sharp at the nose like a Ferrets and without beard the 〈…〉 a short and round the legs black having five claws upon his hinder-feet whereof the last or hindmost of the inner 〈…〉 de of the foot is very short his tail thick towards the rump the tongue teeth and stones are like a Cats and this it hath peculiar namely a large passage compassed about with hair on the outside of his excrement hole like the genital of a woman which it never openeth but in extremity of heat the place of his excrements remaining shut only being more hollow then at other times A 〈…〉 it may be that the Authors aforesaid had no other reason to affirm the mutation of feeble or common transmigration of genital power beside the observation of this natural passage in male and female They bring forth as many as Cats and Dogs and also eat them when they are young they live both in land and water and take the benefit of both elements but especially in the River Nilus amongst the Reeds growing on the banks thereof according to the saying 〈◊〉 Nemetian Et placidis Ichneumona quaerere ripis Inter arundineas segetes For it will dive in the water like an Otter and seem to be utterly drowned holding in the breath longer then any other four-footed Beast as appeareth by his long keeping under water and also by living in the belly of the Crocodile until he deliver forth himself by eating through his bowels as shall be shewed afterwards It is a valiant and nimble creature not fearing a great Dog but setteth upon him and biting him mortally but especially a Cat for it killeth or strangleth her with three bites of her teeth and because her beak or snout is very narrow or small it cannot bite any thing except it be less then a mans fist The proportion of the body is much like a Badgers and the nose hangeth over the mouth like as it were always angry the nature of it is finding the Crocodile asleep suddenly to run down into his throat and belly and there to eat up that meat which the Crocodile hath devoured and not returning out again the way it went in maketh a passage for it self through the Beasts belly And because it is a great enemy and devourer of Serpents the common people of that Countrey do tame them and keep them familiarly in their houses like Cats for they eat Mice and likewise bewray all venemous Beasts for which cause as is said before they call it Pharaohs Mouse by way of excellency At Alexandria they sell their young ones in the Market and nourish them for profit It is a little Beast and marvellously studious of purity and cleanliness Bellonius affirmeth that he saw one of them at Alexandria amongst the ruines of an old Castle which suddenly took a Hen and eat it up for it loveth all manner of fowls especially Hens and Chickens being very wary and crafty about his prey oftentimes standing upright upon his hinder-legs looking about for a fit booty and when
it espyeth his prey near him it slideth so close to the ground as is very admirable until it be within the reach and then leapeth upon it with incredible celerity flying to the throat and like a Lion killeth all by strangling It eateth indifferently every living thing as Snails Lizards Camelions all kindes of Serpents Frogs Mice and Asps For Strabo saith when he findeth an Asp by the water side it catcheth hold on the tail and so draweth the Beast into the water and receiveth help from the flouds to devour her enemy and whereas we have said already that the Ichneumon entreth into the belly of the Crocodile Ammianus Marcellinus Strabo Pliny and Oppianus maketh thereof this discourse following When the Crocodile hath filled his belly and over-glutted himself with meat he cometh to the land to sleep Now there is in Egypt a certain Bird called Crochillus whose nature is to wait upon the Crocodile and with her breath and claws gently and with a kinde of delight to pull out the remnants of the meat sticking in the Crocodiles teeth wherewithal the Crocodile being pleased openeth his mouth wide to be thus cleansed by this Bird and so falling fast asleep gaping watched all the while by the vigilant eye of the Ichneumon perceiving him to be deeply plunged in a senseless security goeth presently and walloweth in sand and dirt and with a singular confidence entereth into the gate of death that is the Crocodiles mouth and suddenly pierceth like an Arrow through the Monsters wide throat down into his belly The Crocodile feeling his unlooked for evil awaketh out of sleep and in a rage or madness void of counsel runneth to and fro far and wide plunging himself into the bottom of the river where finding no ease returneth to land again and there breatheth out his untolerable poyson beating himself with all his power striving to be delivered from this unsufferable evil But the Ichneumon careth not for all this sitting close upon the liver of the Crocodile and feeding full sweetly upon his intrails until at last being satisfied eateth out her own passage through the belly of her hoast The self same thing is related by Plutarch but I wonder for what cause the Beast should rowl her self in sand and dirt to enter into the Crocodiles belly For first of all if after her rolling in dirt she dry her self in the Sun yet will not that hard crust be any sufficient armour of proof to defend her small body from the violence of the Crocodiles teeth and besides it encreaseth the quantity of her body making her more unfit to slide down through the Crocodiles narrow throat and therefore the Authors cannot be but deceived in ascribing this quality to her when she is to enter into the Crocodile but rather I believe she useth this defence against the Asp as Aristotle saith and therefore the Author seeing her so covered with mud might easily be mistaken in her purpose For it is true indeed that when she seeth the Asp upon the land she calleth her fellows who arm themselves as before said before the combate by which means they are safely preserved from the bitings of their enemies or if it be true that they wallow themselves in the mud they do not dry themselves in the Sun but while their bodies are moist slide down more easily into the Crocodiles belly Concerning their fighting with Asps and the arming of themselves as aforesaid the Aegyptians make this Hieroglyphick of the Ichneumon to signifie a weak man that wanteth and craveth help of others Pliny also saith that when the Asp fighteth with this Beast the Ichneumon turneth to her her tail which the Asp taking for defiance presently maketh force at it whereby she is overtaken and destroyed by the Ichneumon but in my opinion this combate is better expressed by Oppianus For saith he the Ichneumon covereth her body in the sand as it were in a grave leaving nothing uncovered but her long Serpentine tail and her eyes and so expecteth her enemy When the Aspe espyeth her threatning rage presently turning about her tail provoketh the Ichneumon to combate and with an open mouth and lofty head doth enter the list to her own perdition For the Ichneumon being nothing afraid of this great bravado receiveth the encounter and taking the head of the Asp in his mouth biteth that off to prevent the casting out of her poyson afterwards tearing her whole body in pieces although gathered together wound in a circle for the success of these two combatants lyeth in the first blow If the Asp first bite the Ichneumon then doth her poyson destroy her adversary and so on the contrary if the Ichneumon first bite the Asp then is the Ichneumon conquerour and for this cause she covereth her body as aforesaid Furthermore this Beast is not only enemy to the Crocodile and Asp but also to their Egs which she hunteth out by the sagacity of her nose and so destroyeth them yet doth she not eat them whereby the merciful providence of God doth notably appear for the safeguard of mankinde which in those Countries where these noisome Beasts are bred hath provided such an enemy to destroy them both Egs and Birds as is friendly and tameable by the hand and wit of man For which cause the blinde Pagans consecrated this Beast to Latona and Lucina and the Heracleopolites did think that they possessed all religion the Egyptians themselves did worship them because as their Countrey is above all other plagued with Serpents so they are much eased by the help of this little Beast And when they die they do not only lament them but also bury them religiously And thus much for the description of the Ichneumon Now followeth their medicinal vertues The Medicines of the Ichneumon The skin of the Ichneumon being dryed and beaten into small powder afterwards mingled with Wine Vinegar and anointed upon those which are grieved with the venemous or poysonsome bites of the same Beast doth very effectually and speedily cure them of the same The pretious stone called by the name of Iris which is very hard as Horus saith being burned and afterward beaten or pounded into powder is an excellent remedy against the venemous biting of the Ichneumon It is also said that all Beasts but especially the Crocodile do for the most part hate and detest the society of this Beast There is moreover a very ranck and venemous poyson which proceedeth from the genital or groin of this Beast The hairs of the Ichneumon being taken in a certain perfume doe very much help and cure those which are troubled or grieved with the Maw-worms The dung of a Cat or the dung of this Beast is very medicinable to be put in any salve or potion for the strengthening and confirming of the body The urine or tail of an Ichneumon being mixed with the milk of a black Cow and given unto those which are troubled with that grievous
he came to it he found it a sleep so that with no perill he might have killed her with his Musket before she saw him but he like a fool-hardy fellow thought it as little honour to kill a Lyon sleeping as a stout Champion doth to strike his enemy behind the back Therefore with his Musket top he smote the Lion to awake it whereat the beast suddenly mounted up and without any thankes or warning set his forefeet on this Squires brest and with the force of her body overthrew the Champion and so stood upon him keeping him down holding her grim face and bloudy teeth over his face and eyes a sight no doubt that made him wish himself a thousand miles from her because to all likelihood they should be the grinders of his flesh and bones and his first executioner to send his cursed soul to the Devill for denying Jesus Christ his Saviour Yet it fell out otherwise for the Lion having been lately filled with some liberal prey did not presently fall to eat him but stood upon him for her own safegard and meant so to stand till she was an hungry during which time the poor wretch had liberty to gather his wits together and so at the last seeing he could have no benefit by his Musket Sword or Dagger and perceiving nothing before him but unavoidable death thought for the saving of his credit that he might not die in foolish infamy to do some exploit upon the Lion whatsoever did betide him and thereupon seeing the Lion did bestride him standing over his upper parts his hands being at some liberty drew out his long Barbarian knife and thrust the same twice or thrice into the Lions flank which the Lion endured never hurting the man but supposing the wounds came some other way and would not forsake her booty to look about for the means whereby she was harmed At last finding her self sick her bowels being cut asunder within her for in all hot bodies wounds work presently she departed away from the man above some two yards distance and there lay down and dyed The wretch being thus delivered from the jawes of death you must think made no small brags thereof in the Court notwithstanding he was more beholding to the good nature of the Lion which doth not kill to eat except he be hungry then to his own wit strength or valour The Male Lion doth not feed with the female but either of them apart by themselves They eat raw flesh for which cause the Grecians call them Omesteres Omoboroi and Omophagoi the young ones themselves cannot long be fed with milke because they are hot and dry being at liberty they never want meat and yet they eat nothing but that which they take in hunting and they hunt not but once a day at the most and eat every second day whatsoever they leave of their meat they return not to it again to eat it afterwards whereof some assigned the cause to be in the meat because they can endure nothng which is unsweet stale or stinking but in my opinion they do it through the pride of their natures resembling in all things a Princely majesty and therefore scorn to have one dish twice presented to their own table But tame Lions being constrained through hunger will eat dead bodies and also cakes made of meal and hony as may appear by that tame Lion which came to Apollonius and was said to have the soul in it of Amasis King of Egypt which story is related by Philostratus in this manner There was saith he a certain man which in a leam led up and down a tame Lion like a Dog whithersoever he would and the Lion was not only gentle to his leader but to all other persors that met him by which means the man got much gains and therefore visited many Regions and Cities not sparing to enter into the temples at the time of sacrificing because he had never shed bloud but was clear from slaughter neither licked up the bloud of the Beasts nor once touched the flesh cut in pieces for the holy Altar but did eat upon Cakes made with meal and hony also bread Gourds and sod flesh and now and then at customary times did drink wine As Apollonius sat in a Temple he came unto him in more humble manner lying down at his feet and looking up into his face then ever he did to any as if he had some special supplication unto him and the people thought he did it for hope of some reward at the command and for the gain of his Master At last Apollonius looked upon the Lion and told the people that the Lion did entreat him to signifie unto them what he was and wherewithal he was possessed namely that he had in him the soul of a man that is to say of Amasis King of Egypt who raigned in the Province of Sai At which words the Lion sighed deeply and mourned forth a lamentable roaring gnashing his teeth together and crying with abundance of tears whereat Apollonius stroked the Beast and made much of him telling the people that his opinion was forasmuch as the soul of a King had entred into such a kingly Beast he judged it altogether unfit that the Beast should go about and beg his living and therefore they should do well to send him to Leontopolis there to be nourished in the Temple The Egyptians agreed thereunto and made sacrifice to Amasis adorning the Beast with Chains Bracelets and branches so sending him to the inner Egypt the Priests singing before him all the way their idolatrous Hymnes and Anthems but of the transfiguration of men into Lions we shall say more afterward only this story I rehearsed in this place to shew the food of tame and enclosed Lions The substance of such transfigurations I hold to be either Poetical or else Diabolical The food therefore of Lions is most commonly of meek and gentle Beasts for they will not eat Wolves or Bears or such Beasts as live upon ravening because they beget in them melancholy they eat their meat very greedily and devour many things whole without chewing but then they fast afterwards two or three days together never eating untill the former be digested but when they fast that day they drink and the next day they eat for they seldom eat and drink both in one day and if any stick in his stomach which he cannot digest because it is overcharged then doth he thrust down his nails into his throat and by straining his stomach pulleth it out again the self same thing he doth when he is hunted upon a full belly And also it must not be forgotten that although he come not twice to one carcasse yet having eaten his belly full at his departure by a wilful breathing upon the residue he so corrupteth it that never after any beast will taste thereof for so great is the poison of his breath that it putrifieth the flesh and also in
with her snowt and feet with her feet she diggeth and with her nose casteth away the earth and therefore such earth is called in Germany Mâ—lâ—werff and in England Mole-hill and she loveth the fields especially meddowes and Gardens where the ground is soft for it is admirable with what celerity she casteth up the earth They have five toes with claws upon each forefoot and four upon each foot behind according to Albertus but by diligent inspection you shall finde five behind also for there is one very little and recurved backward which a man slightly and negligently looking upon would take to be nothing The palm of the fore feet is broad like a mans hand and hath a hollow in it if it be put together like a fist and the toes or fingers with the nails are greater then any other beasts of that quantity And to the end that he might be well armed to dig the forepart of her fore-legs consist of two solid and sound bones which are fastened to her shoulders and her claws spread abroad not bending downward and this is peculiar to this Beast not competible to any other but in her hinder legs both before and behind they are like a Mouses except in the part beneath the knee which consisteth but of one bone which is also forked and twisted The tail is short and hairy And thus much for the Anatomy and several parts They live as we have said in the earth and therefore Cardan saith that there is no creature which hath blood and breath that liveth so long together under the earth and that the earth doth not hinder their expiration and inspiration for which cause they keep it hollow above them that at no time they may want breath although they do not heave in two or three dayes but I rather believe when they heave they do it more for meat then for breath for by digging and removing the earth they take Wormes and hunt after victuals When the Wormes are followed by Moles for by digging and heaving they foreknow their own perdition they flie to the superficies and very top of the earth the silly beast knowing that the Mole their adversary dare not follow them into the light so that their wit in flying their enemy is greater then in turning again when they are troad upon They love also to eat Toads and Frogs for Albertus saith he saw a great Toad whose leg a Mole held fast in the earth and that the Toad made an exceeding great noise crying out for her life during the time that the Mole did bite her And therefore Toads and Frogs do eat dead Moles They eat also the root of Herbs and Plants for which cause they are called by Oppianus Poiophagi Herbivora herb-eaters In the month of July they come abroad out of the earth I think to seek meat at that time when wormes be scanty They are hunted by Weasils and wilde Cats for they will follow them into their holes and take them but the Cats do not eat them whereas we have said already that they have an understanding of mens speech when they hear them talk of them I may add thereunto a story of their understanding thus related by Gillius in his own experience and knowledge When I had saith he put down into the earth an earthen pot made of purpose with a narrow mouth to take Moles it fortuned that within short space as a blind Mole came along she sell into it and could not get forth again but lay therein whining one of her fellowes which followed her seeing his mate taken heaved up the earth above the pot and with her nose cast in so much till she had raised up her companion to the brim and was ready to come forth by which in that blind creature confined to darkness doth not only appear a wonderful work of Almighty God that endoweth them with skill to defend and wisely to provide for their own safety but also planted in them such a natural and mutual love one to another which is so much the more admirable considering their beginning or creation as we have shewed already Because by their continual hearing and laboring for meat they do much harm to Gardens and other places of their aboad and therefore in the husband-mans and house-wifes common-wealth it is an acceptable labor to take and destroy them For which cause it is good to observe their passages and mark the times of their coming to labor which being perceived they are easily turned out of the earth with a spade and this was the first and most common way Some have placed a board full of pikes which they fasten upon a small stick in the mole hil or passage and when the mole cometh to heave up the earth by touching the stick she bringeth down the pikes and sharp nailed boards upon her own body and back Other take a Wyar of Iron and make it to have a very sharp point which being fastened to a staffe and put into the earth where the Moles passage is they bend and so set up that when the Mole cometh along the pike runneth into her and killeth her The Grecians saith Palladius did destroy and drive away their Moles by this invention they took a great Nut or any other kind of fruit of that quantity receipt and solidity wherein they included Chaffe Brimstone and Wax then did they stop all the breathing places of the Mole except one at the mouth wherein they set this devise on fire so as the smoak was driven inward wherewithal they filled the hole and the place of their walks and so stopping it the moles were either killed or driven away Also Paramus sheweth another means to drive away and take Moles If you take white Hellebor and the rindes of wilde Mercury in stead of Hemlock and dry them and beat them to powder afterward sift them and mix them with meal and with milk-beaten with the white of an Egge and so make it into little morsels or bals and lay them in the Mole-hole and passages it will kill them if they eat thereof as they will certainly do Many use to kill both Moles and Emmets with the froath of new Oyl And to conclude by setting an earthen pot in the earth and Brimstone burning therein it will certainly drive them for ever from that place Unto which I may add a superstitious conceit of an obscure Author who writeth that if you whet a mowing sythe in a field or meddow upon the feast day of Christs Nativity commonly called Christmas day all the Moles that are within the hearing thereof will certainly for ever forsake that field meddow or Garden With the skins of Moles are purses made for the rough and soft hair and also black russes colour is very delectable Pliny hath a strange saying which is this Ex pellibus talparum cubioularis vidimus stragula adeo ne religio quidem a portentis summovâ—â— delicias that is
the flesh to be eaten in meat but also the fat to be anointed upon the belly or navil And for this cause it is used to procure sleep and to strengthen decayed and weak sinews the flesh is always better salted then fresh because the salt drieth up the overmuch humidity and also amendeth the gravity and ranckness of the savour but whether it be salt or whether fresh it is always hard to be digested oppressing the stomach and heating the body overmuch The ventricle or maw of the Mouse Alpine is prescribed to be laid upon the belly against the Colick If the hands of a man be anointed with the fat of this beast it is said he shall be the better able to endure cold all that day after Also the same fat being drunk up in warm broath by a woman in travail are believed to accelerate and hasten her delivery Certain Horse-leeches in the cure of that disease which they call the Worms which are certain ulcers rising in the body do mingle this fat with other medicines which are very drying or stiptick And Mathaeolus doth prescribe it for the softning and mollifying of contracted nerves and joynts in the body By the discourse aforesaid it doth appear that of these Alpine Mice there are two kindes one great like a Badger and the other in stature of a Hare or Cony This lesser seemeth to be proper to Germany which there they call Embdor of the Latine word Emptra a Mouse of the Mountain The story whereof I thought good to express being short out of Stumpsius and Agricola The males and females say they of this kinde do gather together wilde corn which groweth among the Rocks in the Summer time against the Winter and carry the same into the holes of the earth where their lodging is Now the female in this kinde is crafty and more apt to devour the male on the other side more thrifty and sparing wherefore he driveth his female out of the Den in the Winter time and stoppeth the mouth of his Cave to forbid her entrance but she getteth behinde the same and diggeth a secret hole whilest the male lyeth at the mouth asleep she consumeth the whole store behinde him wherefore in the Spring time she cometh forth very fat and comely and he very lean And therefore in my opinion the makers of emblems may very well describe an unthrifty Wife that consumeth her Husbands wealth by the picture of this female as by the picture of the Ass behinde Ocnus biting asunder the cord that he weaveth as we have shewed before in the History of the Ass These beasts give themselves much to sleep and when they are awake they are never idle but always carrying into their Den straw hay sticks rags or pieces of cloth wherewith they fill their mouth so full that it may receive no more and if they meet with any thing which is too big for their mouth by the help of their feet they draw and rowl it to their own Den. Whereas they are nourished tame in houses it it is observed that they are a neat and cleanly kinde of beast for they never defile their lodgings with their excrements but seek out some secret corner wherein they both render urine and empty their bellies With their teeth the gnaw wood and make holes in bords so large as their bodies may pass through and while they live they have a very ranck and strong savour like a Mouse especially in the Summer time while they are lean and before they grow fat for such is the nature of this beast that in the Summer time they labour and grow lean but in the Winter time they sleep and grow fat And thus much for the Alpine Mouse Of the DORMOUSE THe Dormouse is called in Latin Glis and in Greek Myoxes the reason of the Latine name Glis is taken from gliscere which signifieth to grow fat according to the saying of Columella Paleis vero quibus fere omnes regiones abundant Asinus gliscit that is to say an Ass groweth fat by eating chaffe which aboundeth in all Countries This word Glis signifieth not only a beast but a piece of fat earth and also a Thistle whereupon Sylvaticus made this verse Glis animal glis terra tenax glis lappavocatur The Italians call it Lo Galero Lo Gliero or Giero the Spaniards Liron the French likewise Liron and Rat Liron and Vngloyer and Vngratvel the Germans Eingreul the Helvetians Ein rell or Rel 〈◊〉 or Gros haselmus but our English Dormouse seemeth to be a compounded word of Dormiens 〈◊〉 that is a sleeping Mouse The Polonians call him Seurez But concerning his name Myoxus there is some question among the Authors For Saint Jerom writing upon the eleventh chapter of Leviticus and the 66. Chapter of Esay translateth Akbar the Hebrew word for a Mouse Glirem a Dormouse and he giveth this reason because all the Countries of the East meaning Graecia do say that Myoxus is a Dormouse And this Myoxus by Epiphanius in his Anchoret is alleadged to prove the resurrection Myoxus saith he Animal semestre moritur rursus post tempore suo reviviscit The Dormouse at half a year old dyeth and after her full time reviveth again And in his Book against Heresies he speaketh thus to Origen Tradunt naturae rerum experti Myoxum latitare foetus suo simul in eodem loco multos parere quinque amplius Viperas autem hos venari si invenerit totum latibulum ipsa Vipera quum non posset omnes devorare pro una vice ad sacietatem edit unum aut duos reliquorum vero oculos expungit cibos affert excaeatosque enutrit donec voluerit unumquemque eorum devorare Si vero contigerit ut aliqui inexperti in hos incidant ipsosque in cibum sumant venenum sibi ipsis sumunt eos qui à Viperae veneno sunt enutriti Sic etiam ô tu Origenes à Graeca doctrina mente excaecatus venenum his qui tibi crediderunt evomuisti factus es ipsis in edulium venenatum it a ut per quae ipse injuria affectus es per ea plus injuria afficeris The Philosophers which are cunning in the nature of things do write that the Dormouse doth lie hid and bring forth many young ones in the same place where he lyeth five or more at a time and the Vipers do hunt these to destroy them now if the Viper finde their nest because she cannot eat them all at one time at the first she filleth her self with one or two and putteth out the eyes of the residue and afterwards bringeth them meat and nourisheth them being blinde until the time that her stomach serveth her to eat them every one But if it happen that in the mean time any man chance to light upon these Viper-nourishedblinde-Dormice and to kill and eat them they poyson themselves through the venom which the Viper hath
drawing him with one of her feet unto the cave whereinto her young ones were fallen out of which he delivered them to the mother as ransome for his own life and then both she and the young ones did follow him rejoycing out of the danger of all Beasts and out of the Wilderness dismissing him without all manner of harm which is a rare thing in a man to be so thankful and much more in a Beast and unto this story of their love and kindeness to their young ones I may add another worthy to be remembred out of Aelianus There was saith he a man which brought up a tame Panther from a whelp and had made it so gentle that it refused no society of men and he himself loved it as if it had been his wife There was also a little Kid in the House brought up tame of purpose to be given unto the Panther when it was grown to some stature or quantity yet in the mean season the Panther played with it every day at last it being ripe the Master killed it and said it before the Panther to be eaten but he would not touch it whereupon he fasted till the next day and then it was brought unto him again but he refused it as before at last he fasted the third day and making great moan for meat according to his usual manner had the Kid laid before him the third time the poor Beast seeing that nothing would serve the turn but that he must either eat up his chamber-fellow or else his Master would make him continually fast he ran and killed another Kid disdaining to meddle with that which was his former acquaintance yea though it were dead herein excelling many wicked man who do not spare those that have lived with them in the greatest familiarity and friendship to undo and overthrow them alive for the advancement of themselves We have said already that they most of all resemble Women and indeed they are enemies to all creatures The Leopards of Barbary do little harm to men that they meet except they meet them in some path way where the man cannot decline the Beast nor the Beast the Man there they leap most fiercely into his face and pull away as much flesh as they can lay hold upon and many of them with their nails do pierce the brains of a man They use not to invade or force upon flocks of Sheep or Goats yet wheresoever they see a Dog they instantly kill and devour him The great Panther is a terror to the Dragon and so soon as the Dragon seeth it he flyeth to his cave The lesser Panthers or Leopards do overcome Wolves being single and hand to hand as we say but by multitude they over-master and destroy him for if he endevour to run away yet they are swifter and easily overcome it There is also great hatred and enmity betwixt the Hyaena and the Panther for in the presence of the Hyaena the Pardal dareth not resist and that which is more admirable if there be a piece of an Hyaenas skin about either man or beast the Panther will never touch it and if their skins after they be dead be hung up in the presence of one another the hair will fall off from the Panther and therefore when the Egyptians would signifie how a Superiour was overcome by a Inferiour they picture those two skins If any thing be anointed with broath wherein a Cock hath been sodden neither Panthers nor Lions will ever touch it especially if there be mixed with it the juyce of Garlick Leopards are afraid of a certain tree called Leopardi-arbor Leopards-tree Panthers are also afraid of the skull of a dead man and run from the sight thereof yet it is reported that two year before the death of Francis King of France two Leopards a male and a female were â—et escape in France into the Woods either by the negligence or the malice of their Keepers that is a male and a female and about Orleance tore in pieces many men and women at last they came and killed a Bride which was that day to have been marryed and afterward there were found many carkases of Women destroyed by them of which they had eaten nothing but only their breasts Such like things I might express many in this place whereby the vengeance of Almighty God against man-kinde for many sins might seem to be executed by the raging ministery of wilde savage and ungentle Beasts For this cause we read in ancient time how the Senators of Rome gave laws of punishment against them that should bring any Panthers into Italy especially any African Beasts and the first that gave dispensation against those laws was Cneius Ausâ—â—ius the peoples Tribune who permitted them for the sake of the Cirâ—â—nsâ—an games and then Sta 〈…〉 in the office of his aedility brought also in an hundred and fifty After him Poâ—â—pey the great four hundred and ten and lastly Augustus that ever remembred and renowned Emperor four hundred and twenty Thus laws which were first made by great men and good Senators for the safety of the common-wealth became of no great value because as great or greater then the Law-makers had a purpose to advance themselves by the practise of those things which law had justly forbidden for if those decrees had stood effectual as the victorious Champions had lost that part of their vain triumphs so many people had afterward been preserved alive who by the cruelty of these Beasts were either torn in pieces or else received mortal wounds It was not in vain that the blessed Martyr of Jesus Christ Ignatius who was afterwards torn in pieces by wilde Beasts at Rome did write thus in his Epistle to the Roman Christians concerning his handling by the Roman Souldiers as he was brought prisoner out of Syria to Rome A Syria Romam asque cum bestiis depugnoper terram mare die nocteque vinctus cum decem Leopardis hoc est cum militari cusâ—odia qui ex beneficiis deteriores fiunt From Syria saith he to Rome I have fought with Beasts being night and day held in bondage by ten Leopards I mean ten Souldiers who notwithstanding many benefits I bestowed upon them yet do they use me worse and worse and thus much for the cruelty of Panthers and Leopards We have shewed already how they become tame and are used in hunting unto which discourse somewhat out of the place I will adde a true narration of two Panthers or Leopards nourished in France for the King whereof one was of the bigness of a great Calf and the other of a great Dog and that on a day the lesser was brought forth for the King to behold how tame and tractable he was and that he would ride behinde his Keeper upon a cloth or pillow being tyed in a chain and if a Hare had been let loose in his presence and he turned down to her within a
in the folds of their own accord they will lick thereof and it will encrease in them great appetite In the Winter time when they are kept within doores they must be fed with the softest hay such as is cut down in the Autumn for that which is riper is less nourishable to them In some Countries they lay up for themselves especially green Ewe leaves or Elm three-leaved-grass sowed-vines and chaffe or pease when other things fail where there are store of Vines they gather their leaves for Sheep to eat thereof without all danger and very greedily and I may say as much of the Olive both wilde and planted and divers such other plants all which have more vertue in them to fat and raise your beast if they be aspersed with any salt humor and for this cause the Sea-wormwood excelleth all other herbs or food to make fat Sheep And Myndius writeth that in Pontus the Sheep grow exceeding fat by the most bitter and vulgar Wormwood Beans encrease their milk and also Three-leaved-grass for that is most nourishable to the Ews with young And it is observed for the fault which in Latine is called Luxuria segetum and in English ranckness of corn there is no better remedy then to turn in your Sheep in May when the ground is hard if not before for the Sheep loveth well to crop such stalks and also the corn will thrive never the worse for in some places they eat it down twice and in the Countrey about Babylon thrice by reason of the great fertility thereabouts and if they should not do so it would turn or run all into stalk and idle and unprofitable leaves The same extasie is reported to follow Sheep when they have eaten Eringâ—a that we have expressed also in the History of Goats namely that they all stand still and have no power to go out of their pastures till their Keeper come and take it out of their mouths It is reported that they are much delighted with the herb called Laserpitium which first purgeth them and then do fat them exceedingly It is therefore reported that in Cyrene there hath been none of this found for many years because the Publicans that hire the pastures are enemies to Sheep For at the first eating thereof the Sheep will sleep and the Goat will fall a neezing In India and especially in the Region of the Prasians it raineth many times a dew like liquid Honey falling upon the herbs and grass of the earth wherefore the shepheards lead their flocks unto those places wherewithal their cattle are much delighted and such as is the food they eat such also is the taste of the milk they render neither need they to mingle Honey with their Milk as the Graecians are constrained to do for the sweetness of that liquor saveth them of that charge Such a kinde of dew the Hebrews call Manna the Gracians Aeromelos and Drosomelos the Germans Himmelhung and in English Honey-dew but if this be eaten upon the herbs in the month of May it is very hurtful unto them We have shewed already that in some parts of Africk and Aethiopia their Sheep eat flesh and drink milk and it is apparent by Philostratus that when Apollonius travelled towards India in the Region Pegades inhabited by the Orite they fed their Sheep with fishes and so also they do among the 〈…〉 nian Indians which do inhabit the Sea-coasts and this is as ordinary with them as in Caria to feed their Sheep with figs because they want grass in that Country and therefore the flesh of the Sheep doth tast of fish when it is eaten even as the flesh of Sea-fouls The people of that Countrey are called Ichthyâ—phagi that is fish-eaters Likewise the Sheep of Lydia and Macedonia their Sheep grow fat with eating of fishes Aenius also writeth of certain fishes about the bigness of Frogs which are given unto Sheep to be eaten In Arabia in the Province of Aden their Oxen Camels and Sheep eat fishes after they be dryed for they care not for them when they be green the like I might say of many other places generally it must be the care of the shepheard to avoid all thorny and stony places for the feeding of his Sheep according to the precept of Virgil Si tibi lanicium curae primum aspera sylva Lappaeque tribulique absint Because the same thing as he writeth maketh them bald and oftentimes scratcheth their skin asunder his words are these Turpis oves tentat scabies cum tonsis illotus ad haesit Sudor hirsuti secuêrunt corpora vepres Although a Sheep be never so sound and not much subject to the Pestilence yet must the shepheard regard to feed it in choice places for the fat fields breed strait and tall Sheep the hills and short pastures broad and square Sheep the Woods and Mountain places small and slender Sheep but the best places of all are the plowed grounds Although Virgil prescribeth his shepheard to feed his flock in the morning according to the manner of the Countrey wherein he lived for the middle part of the day was over hot and not fit for cattel to eat in yet other Nations especially Germany and England and these Northern parts of the world may not do so The whole cunning of shepheards is excellently described for the ordering of their Sheep in these verses following Ergo omni studio glaciem venâ—osque nivales Quo minus est illis curae mâ—rtalis egestas Avertes victumque feres virgea laetus Pabula nec toâ—a claudes foenilia bruma Al vero Zephyr is cum laeta vocantibus aest is In saltus utrumque gregem atque in pascua mittes Luciferi primo cum sydere frigida rura Carpamus dum mane novum dum gramina canent Et ros in tenera pecori gratissimus herba est Inde ubi quarta sitim coeli collegerit hora Et cantu querulae rumpent arbusta cicadae Ad puteos aut alta greges ad stagna jubâ—to Currentem illignis petare canalibus undam Aestibus at mediis umbrosam exquirere vallem Sicubi magna Jovis antiquo robore quercus Ingentes tendat ramos aut sicubi nigrum Ilicibus crâ—bris sacra nemus occubet umbra Tum tenues dare rursus aquas pascere rursus Solis ad occasum cum frigidus aeâ—a vesper Temperat saltus reficit jam roscida luna Litioraque halcyonem resonant acanthida dumi When they return from their feeding the shepheard must regard that he put them not into the folds hot and if the time of the year be over hot let them not be driven to pastures a far off but seed them in those which are near and adjacent to their folds that so they may easily have recourse unto the shadow they ought not also to be turned out clustering al together but dispersed abroad by little and little neither must they be milked while they are hot until they
Aristotle saith if presently after copulation there fall a showre or if when they are great with young they eat Wallnuts or Acorns they will cast their Lambs and likewise if in time of Thunder the Ewe with young be alone in the field the claps of Thunder will cause abortment and the remedy thereof for the avoiding of that mischief is prescribed by Pliny Tonitâ—us saith he solitariis ovibus abortus inferunt remedium est congregare eas ut coitu juventur that is to call them together in times of Thunder is a remedy against abortment Therefore he requireth of a skilful shepheard a voice or whissel intelligible to the Sheep whereby to call them together if they be scattered abroad feeding at the first appearance and note of thunder It is also reported that there are certain veins under the tongue of a Ram the colour whereof do presage or fore-shew what will be the colour of the Lamb begotten by them for if they be all white or all black or all party coloured such also will be the colour of it that they engender Ewes bring forth for the most part but one at a time but sometimes two sometimes three and sometimes four the reason whereof is to be attributed either to the quality of the food whereof they eat or else to the kinde from which they are derived For there be certain Sheep in the Orcades which always bring forth two at one time and many of them six There are also Sheep in Magnetia and Africk that bring forth twice in the year And Aristotle in his wonders writeth that the Sheep of Vmbria bring forth thrice in a year and among the Illyrians there are Sheep and Goats that bring forth twice in the year two at a time yea sometimes three or four or five and that they nourish them all together with their abundance of milk and besides some of their milk is milked away from them Egypt is so plentiful in grass that their Sheep bring forth twice in a year and are likewise twice lipped so likewise in Mesopotamia and in all moist and hot Countries Many times times it falleth out that the Ewe dyeth in the yeaning of her Lamb and many times they bring forth monsters so also do all other Beasts that are multipara betwixt a Goat and a Ram is a Musmon begotten and betwixt a Goat-buck and an Ewe is the Beast Cinirus ingendered and among the Rhaetians many times there are mixed monsters brought forth for in the hinder-parts they are Goats and in the fore-parts Sheep for Rams when they grow strong old and wanton leap upon the female Goats upon which they beget such monsters but they die for the most part immediately after the yeaning Sometimes wilde Rams come to tame Sheep and beget upon these Lambs which in colour and wooll do most of all resemble the father but afterward when they bear young their wooll beginneth to be like to other vulgar Sheep when the Ewe is ready to be delivered she travaileth and laboureth like a Woman and therefore if the shepheard have not in him some Mid-wives skill that in cases of extremity he may draw out the Lamb when the members stick cross in the matrix or else if that be unpossible because it is dead in the dams belly yet to cut it out without peril and danger to the Ewe in such cases the Graecians call a shepheard Embruoulcos Having thus brought the Sheep to their delivery for the multiplication of kinde it then resteth to provide that the new born Lamb may be secured from Dogs Woolfs Foxes Crows Ravens and all enemies to this innocent Beast and also to provide that the Ewe may render to her young one sufficient food out of her udder therefore they must be well and extraordinarily fed We have shewed already the use of Salt and then also it is very profitable when the Ewe is newly delivered of her Lamb for it will make her drink and eat more liberally In the Winter time for the encrease of their milk in stead of green pastures and such other things as we have expressed it is requisite to give them corn and especially plenty of Beans For this cause some prescribe to be given unto their Sheep the herb Lanaria which they affirm to be profitable to be given to encrease milk some the stone Galacites to be beaten to powder and anointed upon the Ewes udder and some prescribe to sprinkle water and salt upon them every morning in the house or field before the Sun rising But herein I leave every man to his own judgement hoping it will not be offensive to any to relate those things before expressed and resting in opinion that both the food that is received inwardly and also the Ointments that are applyed outwardly will be sufficient means to procure abundance of milk in the Summer and Winter seasons Now therefore it followeth to entreat likewise of the Wintering of Sheep for as there is more cost to keep them in cold weather then in warm so it doth require at our hands some discourse thereof Then it behoveth you to provide for them warm folds and stables whereof the Poet writeth in this manner Incipiens stabulis edico in mollibus herbam Carpere oveis dum mox frondosa reducitur aestas Et multa duram stipula filicumque maniplis Sternere subter humum glacies ne frigida laedat Molle pecus scabiemque ferat turpeisque podagras Whereby it is evident that the cold Winters do beget in Sheep divers and many diseases and for that cause it was the counsel of a wise and learned man that our Sheep should not be turned out to feeding neither in cold or warm weather until the frost were dissolved and thawed from off the grass and earth The Tarentine Graecian and Asian Sheep were wont to be altogether kept in stables within doors lying continually upon plancks and boards bored through that so their precious fleeces might be the better safe-guarded from their own filth and urine and three times in the year they let them out of their stables to wash them and anoint them with Oyl and Wine and to save them free from Serpents they burned in their stables and under their cratches Galbanum Cedar-wood Womans hair and Harts-horns and of these Tarentine and Graecian Sheep Columella writeth in this manner It is in vain for any man to store himself with those Tarentine Sheep for they ask as much or more attendance and costly food then their bodies are worth for as all Beasts that bear wooll are tender and not able to endure any hardness so among all Sheep there are none so tender as the Tarentine or Graecian Sheep and therefooe the Keeper of them must not look to have any playing days nor times of negligence or sluggishness and much less to regard his covetous minde for they are cattel altogether impatient of cold being seldom led abroad and therefore the more at home
Son loveth his Father but for patrimony and that one man maketh much of another for hope to receive benefit and recompence by them and therefore it is no marvell if the silly beasts have obtained so little mercy as to be loved not because they are Gods creatures but for that they are profitable and serviceable for the necessities of men for this cause you nourish them and not like the Apollonians aforesaid for the Oracles sake but for their steeces and their flesh Therefore if you have any compassion learn how to help their miseries and publish them to the world for the general benefit for he cannot be good which is not merciful unto a beast and that mercy doth easily die which groweth but in one heart of one mortall man There were a company of people in Egypt called Lycopolitae who worshipped a Wolf for a God and therefore they alone among all the Egyptians did eat Sheep because the Wolf did eat them even so I can make no better reckoning of those men that nourish Sheep for their profit only then I do of the Lycopolitaes which worshipped a Wolf for such men have no other God but their belly and therefore I trust these reasons shall perswade some one or other to write a larger discourse of our English Sheep Now in the next place we are to discourse of the utilities that cometh by Sheep for as it is the meekest of all other Beasts so as the reward of meekness there is no part of him but is profitable to man his flesh bloud and milk is profitable for meat his skin and wool both together and a sunder for garments his guts and intrails for musick his horns and hoofs for perfuming and driving away of Serpents and the excrements of his belly and egestion or dung for the amending and enriching of plowed lands and for these occasions did the Egyptians worship it for a God for that they could see no creature in the world but had some parts altogether unprofitable unto men but in this they found none at all First of all therefore to begin with their flesh although Physitians have their several conceits thereof as Galen who saith that the flesh of Hares is better then the flesh of Oxen and Sheep and Simeon Zethi who being forced to confess the goodness of Mutton or Sheeps-flesh in the beginning and middle of the Spring yet writeth that it is full of superfluities and evill juice and hurtful to all flegmy and moist stomacks Crescentiensis also writeth that the flesh of Sheep hath an unpleasant tast through overmuch humidity and fit for none but for Countrey-labouring men Indeed I grant the opinion of Platina who writeth thus concerning Rams Ovem arietem dentibus ne attingas non modo enim ejus caro non prodest verum etiam vehementer obest that is That Rams flesh we ought never to touch for it is not only unprofitable but it is much hurtful yet in England the flesh of Rams is usually eaten either through the craft or subtilty of the Butchers or else through Covetousness But in many houses as I have heard there is a kinde of Venison made of the flesh of Rams which is done by this means First they take the Ram and beat him with stripes on all parts till the flesh grow red for such is the nature of the bloud that it will gather to the sick affected places and there stand to comfort them so by this means after the Ram is killed the flesh looketh like Venison But as in other discourses namely Hares and Conies we have already shewed our hatred of all cruel meats so also I utterly dislike this for if it be not sufficient to kill and eat the beast but first of all put it to Tyrannical torments I cannot tell what will suffice except we will deal with beasts as PILATE did with CHRIST who was first of all whipped and crowned with thorns and yet afterward did crucifie him But for the taking away of that Rammy humour and rank moistness which is found in the Male-sheep they use to geld them when they are young and suck their dams or else within the compass of a year after their yeaning whereby the flesh becometh so temperate sweet and savory as any other flesh in the world and if they passe a year then do they use to knit them and so in time their stones deprived of nourishment from the body by reason of knitting do dry and consume away or utterly fall off whereby the whole flesh of the Beast is made very seasonable and wholesome It is granted by all that when they are young that is to say a year old their flesh is very wholesome and fit for nourishment of mans nature but that they increase much phlegm which evill is allaied by eating Vinegar and drinking wine unto it In many places they salt their Muttons when they are killed and so eat them out of the pickle or else roast them in the smoak like Bacon Within the territory of Helvetia there is a publick law whereby the Butchers are forbidden to buy any forain Sheep after the feast of St. James that is the five and twenty day of July for although that after that time they grow fat yet is their flesh then lesse wholesome and their fat more hurtfull then that which is gotten in the Spring of the year It were needless for me to set down the division of a dead Sheep into his quarters shoulders legs loins rackes heads and purtinances for that they are commonly known and the relation of them can minister small learning to the Reader but every part hath his use even the bloud that is taken from him when his throat is cut hath his peculiar use for the nourishment of man and above all other things the fat of his loins commonly called his sewet wherein it excelleth all other beasts whatsoever for their reins are covered all over with fat There is no less use of their milk not only for young but for old persons and as well for the rich to beautifie their tables as for the poor to serve their hungry appetites and there be some people in Africk that have no corn in all their Countrey and therefore in stead of bread their common food is milk the goodness whereof is thus expressed by Fierra Quod praestat Caprae post Oves inde boves Evermore the milk of an Ewe is best that is newest and thickest and that which cometh from a black Sheep is preferred before that which is milked from a white and generally there is no beast whereof we eat but the milk thereof is good and nourishable therefore the milk of Sheep is preferred in the second place and there is no cause that it is put in the second place but for the fatness thereof otherwise it deserved the first for as the fatness maketh it less pleasant to the palate and stomach of Man yet is it more pretious for making of
never used but in the temple of Fortune and that that garment afterwards continued 500 and 60 years being neither consumed by moths nor yet growing threadbare to the great admiration of all which either saw it or heard it And thus much I thought good to adde in this place concerning the diversity of Wool distinguished naturally according to several regions or else artificially after sundry tinctures Likewise of the mixing and mingling of Wool one with another and diversities of garments and lastly of the lasting and enduring of Wool and Garments for it ought to be no wonder unto a reasonable man that a woollen garment not eaten by moths nor worn out by use should last many hundred years for seeing it is not of any cold or earthly nature but hot and dry there is good cause why it should remain long without putrifaction and thus much in stead of many things for the Wool of Sheep As we have heard of the manifold use of the Wool of Sheep so may we say very much of the Skins of Sheep for garments and other uses and therefore when the Wool is detracted and pulled off from them they are applyed to Buskins Brest-plates Shooes Gloves Stomachers and other uses forthey are also dyed and changed by tincture into other colours and also when the Wool is taken off from them they dresse them very smooth and stretch them very thin whereof is made writing parchment such as is commonly used at this day in Engâ—and and I have known it practised at Tocetour called once Tripontium in the County of Northampton and if any part of it will not stretch but remain stiffe and thick thereof they make writing tables whereon they write with a pencil of Iron or Brasse and afterward deface and rase it out again with a spunge or linnen cloth Hereof also I mean the skins of Sheep cometh the coverings of Books and if at any time they be hard stubborn and stiffe then they soften it with the Sheeps sewet or â—allow The bones of Sheep have also their use and employment for the â—asting of knifes The Rhaetians of the urine of Sheep do make a kinde of counterfeit Nitre And Russius faith that if a man would change any part of his Horses hair as on the forehead take away the black hairs and put them into white 〈◊〉 him take a â—innest cloth and wet it in boyling milk of Sheep and put it so hot upon the place that he would have changed so oftentimes together till the hair come off with a little rubbing afterward set him wet the same cloth in cold Sheeps milk and lay it to the place two or three days together and the hair will arise very whâ—â—e thus saith he and there are certain flies or moths which are very hurtful to gardens if a man hang up the panch of a Sheep and leave for them a passage or hole into it they will all forsake the flowers and â—â—erbs and gather into that ventricle which being done two or three times together make a quit riddance of all their hurts if you please to make an end of them The Swallows take off from the backs of Sheep flocks of Wool wherewithal the provident Birds do make their nests to lodge their young ones after they be hatched With the dung of Sheep they compasse and fat the earth it being excellent and above all other dung necessary for the benefit and encrease of Corn except Pigeons and Hens dung which is hotter and the sandy land is fittest to be amended with Sheeps dung also plants and trees if you mingle therewith ashes Now we are to proceed to the gentle disposition of Sheep and to express their inward qualities and moral uses and first of all considering the innocency of this Beast I marvel from whence the Gâ—â—tyniaâ— Cretian custom proceeded which caused Adulterers Por their punishment to ride throughout the whole City crowned with Wool except that so they might signifie his tender and delicate effeminacy and therefore as some are crowned with gold in token of virtue and valiant acts so vice especially the wantonness of the flesh deserveth to be crowned with Wool for the looseness and beastliness thereof not because such a crown was a sufficient punishment for an opprobry and continual badge of ignominy even as forgerers and perjured persons ride with papers on their heads upon bare horse backs and so forth By the behaviour of Sheep at their Rutting or Ramming time the Shepherds observe tempests rains and change of weather If they be very lustful and leap often upon their females but if they be slow and backward then is the poor naked man glad for that thereby he conceiveth hope of a gentle Winter and temperate weather Also if in the end of Autumn they stamp upon the ground with their feet it betokeneth hard weather cold Winter much Frost and Snow about the time of the first rising of the Pleiades of seven Stars Which thing is thus Poetically expressed by Avienus Si denique terram Lanigerae fodiant caput aut tendantur in arcton Cam madidus per marimora turbida condit Pleâ—adas occâ—sus cum brumae in frigoracedit Frugifer Autumnus ruet aethera concitus imber Concerning the simplicity of Sheep I must say more and also of their innocency yet the simplicity thereof is such and so much that it may well be termed folly or Animal ineptisstmum for Aristotle writeth thus of it Repit in deserta sine causa hyeme obstante ipsum saepe egreditur stabulo occupatum a nive nisi pastor compulerit abire non vult sed perit desistens nisi mares a pastore ducantur ita enim reliquus grex sequitur that is Without cause it wandereth into desert places and in the winter-time when the air is filled with cold winds and the earth hardened with hoare frostes then it forsaketh and goeth out of his warm coat or stable and being in the cold Snow there it will tarry and perish were it not for the care of the Shepherd for he taketh one of the Rams by the horns and draweth him in adoors then do all the residue follow after They are also very obedient to the voice and call of the Shepherds and to the barking and cry of their Dogs and no lesse is their love one toward another every way commendable for one of them pityeth and sorroweth for the harm of another and when the heat of Sun offendeth them Albertus writeth that one of them interposeth his body to shadow the other Their Dam or Ewe loveth her Lamb and knoweth it by smelling to the hinder parts and if at any time the Dam do not love or make reckoning of her young one they give her the herb Penny-wort or Water-wall to drink in water and then as the Schollast affirmeth natural affection increaseth in her Of the foolishness of Sheep there was an Emblem to signifie by a man riding upon a golden Fleece one ruled by
in their Liver which is very broad and insatiable and there is nothing that hath a duller sense of smelling then this Beast and therefore it is not offended with any carrion or stinking smell but with sweet and pleasant ointments as we shall shew afterwards Concerning their generation or copulation it is to be noted that a Boar or male Swine will not remain of validity and good for breed past three year old by the opinion of all the antient for such as he engendereth after that age are but weak and not profitable to be kept and nourished At eight moneths old he beginneth to leap the female and it is good to keep him close from other of his kinde for two moneths before and to feed him with Barly raw but the Sow with Barly sodden One Boar is sufficient for ten Sowes if once he hear the voice of his female desiring the Boar he will not eat untill he be admitted and so he will continue pining and indeed he will suffer the female to have all that can be and groweth lean to fatten her for which cause Homer like a wise hushandman prescribeth that the male and female Swine be kept asunder till the time of their copulation They continue long in the act of Copulation and the reason thereof is because his lust is not hot nor yet proceeding from heat yet is his seed very plentiful They in the time of their copulation are angry and outragious fighting with one another very irefully and for that purpose they use to harden their ribs by rubbing them voluntarily upon trees They choose for the most part the morning for copulation but if he be fat and young he can endure it in every part of the year and day but when he is lean and weak or old he is not able to satisfie his females lust for which cause she many times sinketh underneath him and yet he filleth her while she lyeth down on the ground both of them on their buttocks together They engender oftentimes in one year the reason whereof is to be ascribed to their meat or some extraordinary heat which is a familiar thing to all that live familiarly among men and yet the wilde Swine couple and bring forth but once in the year because they are seldom filled with meat endure much pain to get and much cold for Venus in men and beasts is a companion of satiety and therefore they only bring forth in the spring time and warm weather and it is observed that in what night soever a wilde Hog or sow farroweth there will be no storm or rain There be many causes why the tame domestical Hogs bring forth and ingender more often then the wilde first because they are fed with ease secondly because they live together without fear and by society are more often provoked to lust on the other side the wilde Swine come seldom together and are often hungry for which cause they are more dull and lesse venereous yea many times they have but one stone for which cause they are called by Aristotle and the antient Grecians Chlunes and Monorcheis But concerning the Sow she beginneth to suffer the Boar at eight moneths of age although according to the diversity of Regions and air they differ in this time of their copulation for some begin at four moneths and other again tary till they be a year old and this is no marvel for even the male which engendereth before he be a year old begetteth but weak tender and unprofitable Pigs The best time of their admission is from the Calends of February unto the Vernal Equinoctial for so it hapneth that they bring forth the young in the Summer-time for four months she goeth with young and it is good that the Pigs be farrowed before harvest which you purpose to keep all the year for store After that you perceive that the Sows have conceived then separate them from the Boars lest by the raging lust of their provoking they be troubled and endangered to abortment There be some that say a Sow may bear young till she be seven year old but I will not strive about that whereof every poor Swineherd may give full satisfaction At a year old a Sow may do well if she be covered by the Boar in the moneth of February But if they begin not to bear till they be twenty moneths old or two years they will not only bring forth the stronger but also bear the longer time even to the seventh year and at that time it is good to let them go to rivers sens or miery places for even as a Man is delighted in washing or bathing so doth Swine in filthy wallowing in the mire therein is their rest joy and repose Albertus reporteth that in some places of Germany a Sow hath been found to bear young eight years and in other till they were fifteen years old but after fifteen year it was never seen that a Sow brought forth young Pigs If the Sow be fat she is always the lesse prone to conceive with young whether she be young or old When first of all they begin to seek the Boar they leap upon other Swine and in process cast forth a certain purgation called Aprya which is the same in a Sow which Hippomanes is in a Mare then they also leave their herdfellows which kinde of behavior or action the Latins call by a peculiar Verb Subare and that is applyed to Harlots and wanton Women by Horace Jamque subando Tenta cubilia tectaque rumpit We in English call it Boaring because she never resteth to shew her desire till she come to a Boar and therefore when an old Woman lusteth after a man being past lust by all natural possibility she is cald Anus subans And the Beast is so delighted with this pleasure of carnal Copulation that many times she falleth asleep in that action and if the male be young or dull then will the female leap upon him and provoke him yea in her rage she setteth many times upon men and women especially if that they do wear any white Garments or if their Aprya and privy place be wetted and moistned with Vinegar They have their proper voices and cries for this time of their Boaring which the Boar or male understandeth presently They are filled at one Copulation and yet for their better safegard and to preserve them from abortment it is good to suffer the Boar to cover her twice or thrice and moreover if she conceive not at the first then may she safely be permitted three or four times together and it is observed that except her ears hang down flagging and carelessely she is not filled but rejecteth the seed but if her ears fall downward and so hang all the time that the Boar is upon her then is it a most certain token that she is filled and hath conceived with young After four moneths as we have said the Sow farroweth her Pigs that is to say
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
broath of them The Bur pulled out of the earth without Iron is good also for them if it be stamped and put into milk and so given them in their wash They give their Hogs here in England red-lead red-Oker and in some places red loam or earth And Pliny saith that he or she which gathereth the aforesaid Burre must say this charm Haec est herba Argemon Quam Minerva reperit Suibus his remedium Qui de illa gustaverint At this day there is great praise of Maiden-hair for the recovery of Swine also holy Thistle and the root of Gunban and Harts-tongue Of leannesse or pining SOmetime the whole herd of Swine falleth into leannesse and so forsake their meat yea although they be brought forth into the fields to feed yet as if they were drunk or weary they lie down and sleep all the day long For cure whereof they must be closely shut up into a warm place and made to fast one whole day from meat and water and then give them the roots of wilde Cucumber beaten to powder and mixed with water let them drink it and afterward give them Beans pulse or any dry meat to eat and lastly warm water to procure vomit as in men whereby their stomacks are emptied of all things both good and bad And this remedy is prescribed against all incertain diseases the cause whereof cannot be discerned and some in such cases do cut off the tops of the tails or their ears for there is no other use of letting these beasts bloud but in their veins Of the Pestilence THese beasts are also subject to the Pestilence by reason of earth-quakes and sudden infections in the air and in such affection the beast hath sometime certain bunches or swellings about the neck then let them be separated and give them to drink in water the roots of Daffadill Quatit aegros tussis anbela sues Ac faucibus angit obesis tempore pestis Some give them Night-shade of the wood which hath great stalks like cherry twigs the leaves to be eaten by them against all their hot diseases and also burned snails or Pepper-wort of the Garden or Lactuca foetida cut in pieces sodden in water and put into their meat Of the Ague IN ancient time Varro saith that when a man bought a Hog he covenanted with the seller that it was free from sicknesse from danger that he might buy it lawfully that it had no manngie or Ague The signs of an Ague in this beast are these WHen they stop suddenly standing still and turning their heads about fall down as it were by a Megrim then you must diligently mark their heads which way they turn them that you may let them bloud on the contrary ear and likewise under their tail some two fingers from their buttocks where you shall finde a large vein fitted for that purpose which first of all we must beat with a rod or piece of wood that by the often striking it may be made to swell and afterwards open the said vein with a knife the blood being taken away their tail must be bound up with Osier or Elm twigs and then the Swine must be kept in the house a day or two being fed with Barly meal and receiving warm water to drink as much as they will Of the Cramp WHen Swine fall from a great heat into a sudden cold which hapneth when in their travel they suddenly lie down through wearinesse they fall to have the Cramp by a painfull convulsion of their members and the best remedy thereof is for to drive them up and down till they wax warm again and as hot as they were before and then let them be kept warm still and cool at great leisure as a horse doth by walking otherwise they perish unrecoverably like Calves which never live after they once have the Cramp Of Lice THey are many times so infested and annoyed with Lice that their skin is eaten and gnawn through thereby for remedy whereof some annoynt them with a confection made of Cream Butter and a great deal of Salt Others again anoynt them after they have washed them all over with the Lees of wine and in England commonly the Countrey people use Stavesaker red Oaker and grease Of the Lethargy BY reason that they are much given to sleep in the Summer time they fall into Lethargies and die of the same the remedy whereof is to keep them from sleep and to wake them whensoever you finde them asleep Of the head-aches THis disease is called by the Grecians Scotemia and Kraura and by Albertus Fraretis Herewith all Swine are many times infected and their ears fall down their eyes are also dejected by reason of many cold humours gathered together in their heads whereof they die in multitudes as they do of the pestilence and this sicknesse is fatall unto them if they be not holpen within three or four dayes The remedy whereof if there be any at all is to hold Wine to their nostrils first making them to smell thereof and then rubbing it hard with it and some give them also the roots of white Thistles cut small and beaten into their meat but if it fall out that in this pain they lose one of their eyes it is a sign that the beast will die by and by after as Pliny and Aristotle write Of the Gargarisme THis disease is called by the Latines Raucedo and by the Grecians Branchos which is a swelling about their chaps joyned with Feaver and Head-ache spreading it self all over the throat like as the Squinancy doth in a man and many times it begetteth that also in the Swine which may be known by the often moving of their feet and then they die within three dayes for the beast cannot eat being so affected and the disease creepeth by little and little to the Liver which when it hath touched it the beast dieth because it putrifieth as it passeth For remedy hereof give unto the beast those things which a man receiveth against the Squinancy and also let him blood in the root of his tongue I mean in the vein under the tongue bathing his throat with a great deal of hot water mixed with Brimstone and Salt This disease in Hogs is not known from that which is called Struma or the Kings evil at the first appearance as Aristotle and Pliny write the beginning of this disease is in the Almonds or kernels of the throat and it is caused through the corruption of water which they drink for the cure whereof they let them bloud as in the former disease and they give them the Yarrow with the broadest leaves There is a Hearb called Herba impia all hoary and outwardly it looketh like Rosemary some say it is so called because no beast will touch it this being beaten in pieces betwixt two tiles or stones groweth marvellous hot the juice thereof being mixed in milk and Wine and so given unto the Swine to drink cureth them of this disease
feed upon little small and weak creatures but there are also wilde common Wolves who lie in wait to destroy their herds of Cattell and flocks of Sheep against whom the people of the Countrey do ordain generall huntings taking more care to destroy the young ones then the old that so the breeders and hope of continuance may be taken away And some also do keep of the Whelps alive shutting of them up close and taming them especially females who afterwards engender with Dogs whose Whelps are the most excellent keepers of flocks and the most enemies to Wolves of all other There be some have thought that Dogs and Wolves are one kinde namely that vulgar Dogs are tame Wolves and ravening Wolves are wilde Dogs But Scaliger hath learnedly consuted this opinion shewing that they are two distinct kindes not joyned together in nature nor in any natural action except by constraint for he saith that there are divers wild Dogs that are not Wolves and so have continued for many years in a hill called Mountfalcon altogether refusing the society and service of men yea sometimes killing and eating them and they have neither the face nor the voyce nor the stature nor the conditions of Wolves for in their greatest extremity of hunger they never set upon flocks of Sheep so that it is unreasonable to affirm that Wolves are wilde Dogs although it must needs be confessed that in outward proportion they are very like unto them Some have thought that Wolfs cannot bark but that is false as Albertus writeth upon his own knowledge the voyce of Wolfs is called Vlulatus howling according to these verses Ast Lupus ipse ululat frendet agrestis aper And again Per noctem resonare Lupis ululantibus urbes It should seem that the word Vlulatus which the Germans translate Heulen the French Hurler and we in English howling is derived either from imitation of the beasts voice or from a night whooping Bird called Vlula I will not contend but leave the Reader to either of both for it may be that it cometh from the Greek word Ololu zein which signifieth to mourn and howl after a lamenrable manner and so indeed Wolfs do never howl but when they are oppressed with famin And thus I leave the discourse of their voyce with the Annotation of Servius Vlulare Canum est Furiarum To howl is the voyce of Dogs and Furies Although there be great difference of colors in Wolfs as already I have shewed yet most commonly they are gray and hoary that is white mixed with other colours and therefore the Grecians in imitation thereof do call their twy-light which is betwixt day and night as it were participating of black and white Lycophos Wolf-light because the upper side of the Wolfs hair is brown and the neather part white It is said that the shaggy hair of a Wolf is full of vermin and worms and it may well be for it hath been proved that the skin of a Sheep which was killed by a Wolf breedeth worms The brains of a Wolf do decrease and increase with the Moon and their eyes are yellow black and very bright sending forth beams like fire and carrying in them apparent tokens of wrath and malice and for this cause it is said they see better in the night then in the day being herein unlike unto men that see better in the day then in the night for reason giveth light to their eyes and appetite to beasts and therefore of ancient time the Wolf was dedicated to the Sun for the quickness of his seeing sense and because he seeth far And such as is the quickness of his sense in seeing such also it is in smelling for it is reported that in time of hunger by the benefit of the winde he smelleth his prey a mile and a half or two mile off for their teeth they are called Charcharodontes that is sawed yet they are smooth sharp and unequal and therefore bite deep as we have shewed already for this cause the sharpest bits of Horses are called Lupata All beasts that are devourers of flesh do open their mouths wide that they may bite more strongly and especially the Wolf The neck of a Wolf standeth on a straight bone that cannot well bend therefore like the Hyaena when he would look backwards he must turn round about the same neck is short which argueth a treacherous nature It is said that if the heart of a Wolf be kept dry it rendreth a most fragrant or sweet smelling savour The liver of a Wolf is like to a Horses hoof and in the bladder there is called a certain stone call'd Syrites being in colour like Saffron or Hony yet inwardly contains certain weak shining stars this is not the stone called Syriacus or Indicus which is desired for the vertue of it against the stone in the bladder The fore-feet have five distinct toes and the hinder-feet but four because the fore-feet serve in stead of hands in Lions Dogs Wolfs and Panthers We have spoken already of their celerity in running and therefore they are not compared to Lions which go foot by foot but unto the swiftest Dogs It is said they will swim and go into the water two by two every one hanging upon anothers tail which they take in their mouths and therefore they are compared to the days of the year which do successively follow one another being therefore called Lucabas For by this successive swimming they are better strengthened against impression of the flouds and not lost in the waters by any over-flowing waves or billows Great is the voracity of this beast for they are so insatiable that they devour hair and bones with the flesh which they eat for which cause they render it whole again in their excrements and therefore they never grow fat It was well said of a learned man Lupus vorat potius quam comedit carnes pauco utitur potu That is A Wolf is said rather to raven then to eat his meat When they are hungry they rage much and although they be nourished tame yet can they not abide any man to look upon them while they eat when they are once satisfied they endure hunger a great time for their bellies standeth out their tongue swelleth their mouth is stopped for when they have drove away their hunger with abundance of meat they are unto men and beasts as meek as Lambs till they be hungry again neither are they moved to rapine though they go through a flock of sheep but in short time after their bellies and tongue are calling for more meat and then saith mine Author In antiquam figuram redit iterumque Lupus existit That is They return to their former conditions and become as ravening as before Neither ought this to seem strange unto any man for the like things are formerly reported of the Lion and it is said that Wolfs are most dangerous to be met with all towards the
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
express practise hereof Mich. 7. 17. where it is said of Gods enemies that They shall lick the dust like the Serpent Yet Aristotle affirmeth truly that Serpents are Omnitori that is devourers of flesh fish herbs or any other things howbeit herein they pass their kinde or else the curse of God reacheth not to any other kindes then to that alone which deceived our first Parents We have shewed already how they eat and devour men women and children Oxen Sheep and Goats but whatsoever they eat they retain nothing but the moisture of it and the residue they eject whole and undigested Whatsoever is offered them that they take either a bird or a small chicken or an egge having it they take hold but of one end as of the head of a chick or small end of an egge and so set it directly before them then do they gather themselves together in as short a compass as may be that so their bodies which seem long and small being extended may appear great and wide reduced into a short and compacted frame And surely hereby they open and make wider their passage and swallow for then they suddenly goble in the beast or meat before them without any great ado and having kept it in their body till it be dryed from all moisture they cast it out again as they swallowed it up at another ordinary place But for birds and chickens they strive with them till they have gotten off their feathers or else if they swallow them whole they eject the feathers as they do egge-shells The Serpents of the North do in the Summer time eat the flesh of birds and herbs and after the eating of them they taste of a little water or milk if they can attain it or else Wine For this cause they will suck the udders of Kine or Goats or Sheep as hath been seen in England Yet is their appetite to drink but small as is in all other creatures whose livers are fungous and soft like spunges and so are all beasts and creatures which lay egges Above all kindes of drink they love Wine and thereof they be drunk wherefore in Italy they set pottles of Wine to entrap Vipers for if once they smell the Wine they enter the vessel gladly and speedily and the Wine or Milk whereof they drink is poysoned by them But in those places of Africk where it never raineth they eat a kinde of black moist worm which hath many legs as is said by Theophrastus And to conclude their meat and drink is so small that it is received for truth Nulluns venenatum perit fame velsiti that no venomous beast perisheth by hunger or thirst The voyce of Serpents is called Sibilus a hissing and their voyce differeth from all other Beasts hissing in the length thereof for the hissing of a Tortoise is shorter and more abrupt Of this hissing voyce speaketh Lucan saying Quod strident ululantque ferae quod sibilat anguis In English thus Gâ—â—shing and howling is the voyce of-wilde Beasts Long hissing in Snakes and Serpents doth rest Among other things notable in a Serpent this is one because it casteth off his old age every year whereof the Grecians tell this fabulous reason Once Man-kinde strove earnestly with the Gods by supplication for a perpetual youth that they might never wax old and obtaining their desire they laid the same to be carryed upon an Ass The silly Beast waxing sore athirst in his travail at last came unto a water and thereof endevoured earnestly to drink but the keeper of the same water being a Serpent denyed leave to the Ass to drink thereof except he would grant him his carriage which was Perpetual youth The poor Ass ready to perish for thirst easily condescended thereunto Whereupon the Serpent changeth her age for youth and Men their youth for old age and the Ass for his punishment is more tormented with thirst then any other Beast But to leave fables and to come more neer the mark the Latines call the casting off their skin Anguina senectus spolium Serpentis vernatio the Grecians Opheos derma Suphar Leberis Geras the Arabians Geluc Genlut Fulcalhaileb the Italians Spoglia delle Serpi and the Spaniards Pelle de la culebra About this Snakes skin there is great difference among Authors some affirming it to be the very skin Other that it is nothing but a kinde of hard Leprosie grown upon them during the Winter time while they lie hid Some again say that they cast it twice a year first in the Spring and then secondly in the Autumn But by conference of all together it appeareth that while the Serpents he hid by reason of their drought now in the beginning of the Spring when they come first abroad they rub off this skin by sliding betwixt two stones or underneath some root of a tree or else betwixt some boughs or small trees beginning at the head and so continuing to the tail And within four and twenty hours that which was raw and bald beginneth to have another skin upon it and so as a young childe or beast cometh out of the Secondine doth a Serpent come out of the skin As concerning their eye-sight they naturally do take the juyce of Fennel which they eat and by that recover their seeing again and if it happen that they caanot finde sufficient they rub their dim eyes thereupon And if it happen that any of his scales be bruised or fall senseless then do they rub themselves upon the thorns of Juniper And whereas it is thought that they cast their skins again in Autumn that is to be attributed either to Vipers alone which cast their skins twice a year or else to those which are long before they cast and so it falleth off in Harvest or Autumn the first time which by reason of the unseasonableness is thought to be a second coat And this have I my self often found here in England in the Summer time The casting off this skin is thus elegantly described by Tibullus Crudeles Divi Serpens novus exuit annos Forma non ullam fata dedere moram Anguibus exuitur tenui cum pelle vetustas Cur uos angusta conditione sumus Which may thus be Englished O cruel Gods sith Serpents change their yearly age And Fates delay not to resine their form Sith Snakes with tender skin excuss'd their years enlarge Why unto worser hap is Mankinde born Of the inward disposition of Serpents and of their concord and discord with other Creatures IT is ever to our woe to be remembred that which the Lord himself hath left recorded in Genesis that The Serpent was more subtile then all the beasts which God had made By which is expressed the natural disposition of this beast above other to subtilty and policy For I cannot approve the saying of them who think that the Devil at the beginning might as well have used the tongue of an Ass or a Dog to have deceived Man
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
Many of those which have stings do forgoe and quite lose them when Winter draweth on as some make reckoning but it was never my hap to see this saith the Philosopher in his 9. Book De hist Animal capit 41. If you catch a Wasp holding her fast by the feet suffering her to make her usual humming sound you shall have all those that lack stings presently come flying about you which the stinged Wasps never are seen to do Therefore some hold this as a good reason to prove that the one should be the male the other the female Both these sorts both wilde and unwilde have been seen to couple toger after the manner of flies Besides in respect of sex both kindes of Wasps are divided into Captains or Ring-leaders and into labourers those former are ever greater in quantity and of more calm disposition these other both lesser more froward testy peevish and divers The males of labourers never live one whole year out but all of them die in the Winter time which is evident by this because in the very beginning of cold weather they are as it were frozen or benummed and in the depth or midst of hard winter a man shall hardly or never see any of them But yet for all that their Dukes or principal Chieftains are seen all the Winter long to lie hid in their lurking holes under the earth and indeed many men when they plowed or broke up the ground and digged in Winter have found of this sort But as for the labouring Wasp I never as yet heard of any that could finde them Their Principal or Captain is broader thicker more ponderous and greater then the male Wasp and so not very swift in flight for the weightinesse of their bodies is such an hinderance to them that they cannot flie very far whereby it cometh to passe that they ever remain at home in their hives there making and devising their combes of a certain glutinous matter or substance brought unto them by the Work-wasps thus spending their time in executing and doing all those duties that are meet intheir Cells Wasps are not long lived for their Dukes who live longest do not exceed two years And the labouring that is the male Wasps together with Autumn make an end of their days Yea which is more strange whether their Dukes or Captains of the former year after they have ingendered and brought forth new sprung up Dukes do die together with the new Wasps and whether this do come to passe after one and the self same order or whether yet they do and may live any longer time divers men do diversly doubt All men hold the wilder kinde to be more strong of nature and to continue and hold out the longer For why these other making their nests neer unto common high-ways and beaten paths do live in more hazard lie open to divers injuries and so more subject to shortnesse of life The brevity of their life is after a sort recompensed and some part of amends made by the rare clammy glewishnesse of the same for if you separate their bulks from the head and the head from the breast they will live a long while after and thrust out their sting almost as strongly as if they were undivideable and free from hurt and deaths harm Apollonius calleth Wasps Omotoroi and Aristotle Meloboroi although they do not only feed on raw flesh but also on Pears Plums Grapes Raisins and on divers and sundry sorts of flowers and fruits of the juyce of Elms Sugar Honey and in a manner of all things that are seasoned tempered made pleasant or prepared with either of these two last rehearsed Pliny in his 11. Book capit 53. is of opinion that some Wasps especially those of the wilder and feller kinde do eat the flesh of Serpents which is the cause that death hath sometimes ensued of their poysonous stinging They also hunt after great flies not one whit sparing the harmlesse Bees who by their good deeds have so well deserved According to the nature of the soyl and place they do much differ in their outward form and fashion of their body and in the manner of their qualities and dispositions of their minde for the common Wasps being acquainted and familiarly used to the company of Men and Beasts are the gentler but the Hermites and solitary Wasps are more rude churlish and tempestuous yea Nicander tearmeth them Oloous that is pernicious They are also more unhappy dangerous and deadly in very hot Countries as Ovidius reporteth and namely in the West-Indies where both in their magnitude and figure there is great difference betwixt theirs and ours so that they are accounted far more poysonous and deadly then either the English French Spanish or Barbarian Wasps Some of these dangerous generation do also abound in exceeding cold Countries as Olaus Magnus in his 22. Book telleth us Their use is great and singular for besides that they serve for food to those kind of Hawks which are called Kaistrels or Fleingals Martinets Swallows Owls to Brocks or Badgers and to the Camelion they also do great pleasure and service to men sundry ways for the kill the Phalangium which is a kinde of venomous Spider that hath in all his legs three knots or joynts whose poyson is perilous and deadly and yet Wasps do cure their wounds Raynard the Fox likewise who is so full of his wiles and crafty shifting is reported to lie in wait to betray Wasps after this sort The wily thief thrusteth his bushy tail into the Wasps nest there holding it so long until he perceive it to be full of them then drawing it slily forth he beateth and smiteth his tail full of Wasps against the next stone or tree never resting so long as he seeth any of them alive and thus playing his Fox like parts many times together at last he setteth upon their combes devouring all that he can finde Pliny greatly commendeth the so litary Wasp to be very effectual against a Quartain Ague if you catch her with your left hand and tie or fasten her to any part of your body always provided that it must be the first Wasp that you lay hold on that year Mizaldus memor Cent. 7. attributeth great vertue to the distilled water and likewise to the decoction of common Wasps affirming expresly that if any part be therewith anointed it straight ways causeth it to swell monstrously and to be pussed up that you would imagine them to be sick of a Dropsie and this course crafty drabs and queans use to perswade their sweet hearts that they are forsooth with childe by them thus many times beguiling and blinding the eyes of wary and expert Midwives Whereupon we may very confidently conclude that their poyson is very hot flatulous or windy Some do prole after Wasps and kill them by other sleights and devises For when the labourers do much use and frequent Elms which they do very often about the Summer solstice to gather
where the Inhabitants abhor and condemn the worship of Crocodiles for when they take any of them they hang them up and beat them to death notwithstanding their tears and cryings and afterwards they eat them but the reason of their hatred is because Typhon their ancient enemy was clothed with a Crocodiles shape Others also say the reason of their hatred is because a Crocodile took away and devoured the daughter of Psamnites and therefore they enjoyned all their posterity to hate Crocodiles To conclude this discourse of Crocodiles inclination even the Egyptians themselves account a Crocodile a savage and cruel murthering Beast as may appear by their Hieroglyphicks for when they will decipher a mad man they picture a Crocodile who being put from his desired prey by forcible resistance he presently rageth against himself And they are often taught by lamentable experience what fraud and malice to mankinde liveth in these Beasts for they cover themselves under willows and green hollow banks till some people come to the Waters side to draw and fetch water and then suddenly or ever they be aware they are taken and drawn into the water And also for this purpose because he knoweth that he is not able to over-take a man in his course or chase he taketh a great deal of water in his mouth and casteth it in the path-wayes so that when they endevour to run from the Crocodile they fall down in the slippery path and are over-taken and destroyed by him The common proverb also Crocodili lachrymae the Crocodiles tears justifieth the treacherous nature of this Beast for there are not many brute Beasts that can weep but such is the nature of the Crocodile that to get a man within his danger he will sob sigh and weep as though he were in extremity but suddenly he destroyeth him Others say that the Crocodile weepeth after he hath devoured a man Howsoever it be it noteth the wretched nature of hypocritical hearts which before-hand will with faigned tears endevour to do mischief or else after they have done it be outwardly sorry as Judas was for the betraying of Christ before he went and hanged himself The males of this kinde do love their females above all measure yea even to jealousie as may appear by this one History of P. Martyr About the time that he was in those countries there were certain Mariners which saw two Crocodiles together in carnal copulation upon the sands neer the River from which the water was lately fallen into a certain Island of Nilus the greedy Mariners forsook their ship and be took themselves to a long boat and with great shouting hollowing and crying made towards them in very couragious manner the male at the first assault fell amazed and greatly terrified ran away as fast as he could into the waters leaving his female lying upon her back for when they ingender the male turneth her upon her back for by reason of the shortnesse of her legs she cannot do it her self so the Mariners finding her upon her back and not able to turn over her self they easily slew her and took her away with them Soon after the male returned to the place to seek his female but nor finding her and perceiving bloud upon the sand conjectured truly that she was slain wherefore he presently cast himself into the River of Nilus again and in his rage swam stoutly against the stream untill he over-took the ship wherein his dead female was which he presently set upon lifting up himself and catching hold on the fides would certainly have entered the same had not the Mariners with all their force battered his head and hands with clubs and staves until he was wearyed and forced to give over his enterprise and so with great sighing and sobbing departed from them By which relation it is most clear what natural affection they bear one to another and how they choose out their fellows as it were fit wives and husbands for procreation And it is no wonder if they make much of one another for besides themselves they have few friends in the world except the Bird Trochilus and Swine of whom I can say little except this that followeth As for the little Bird Trochilus it affecteth and followeth them for the benefit of his own belly for while the Crocodile greedily eateth there sticketh fast in his teeth some part of his prey which troubleth him very much and many times ingendereth Worms then the Beast to help himself taketh land and lyeth gaping against the Sun-beams westward the Bird perceiving it flyeth to the jaws of the Beast and there first with a kinde of tickling-scratching procureth as it were licence of the Crocodile to pull forth the Worms and so eateth them all out and clenseth the teeth throughly for which cause the Beast is content to permit the Bird to go into his mouth But when all is clensed the ingrateful Crocodile endevoureth suddenly to shut his chaps together upon the Bird and to devour his friend like a cursed wretch which maketh no reckoning of friendship but the turn served requiteth good with evill But Nature hath armed this little Bird with sharp thorns upon her head so that while the Crocodile endevoureth to shut his chaps and close his mouth upon it those sharp thorns prick him into his palate so that full sore against his unkinde nature he letteth her flye safe away But whereas there be many kindes of Trochili which are greedy of these Worms or clensings of the Crocodiles some of them which have not thorns on their heads pay for it for there being not offence to let the closing of the Crocodiles mouth they must needs be devoured and therefore this enforced amity betwixt him and the Crocodile is only to be understood of the Cledororynchus as it is called by Hermolaus There be some that affirm that he destroyeth all without exception that thus come into his mouth and othersome say he destroyeth none but when he feeleth his mouth sufficiently clensed he waggeth his upper chap as it were to give warning of avoidance and in favour of the good turn to let the bird flie away at his own pleasure Howbeit the other and the former narration is more likely to be true and more constantly affirmed by all good Authors except Plutarch And Leo Afric saith that it was the constant and confident report of all Africa that the Crocodile devoureth all for their love and kindenesse except the Cledororynchi which they cannot by reason of the thorns upon their head That there is an amity and natural concord betwixt Swine and Crocodiles is also gathered because they only among all other living four-footed Beasts do without danger dwell feed and inhabit upon the banks of Nilus even in the midst of Crocodiles and therefore it is probable that they are friends in nature But oh how small a sum of friends hath this Beast and how unworthy of love among all creatures
they set their Grab-hooks unto them to loose them for the day before they remembred that a Ship was cast away in the same place and therefore they thought that it might be the Nets were hanged upon some of the tacklings thereof and therein they were not much deceived for it happened that finding the place whereupon the Net did stay they pulled and found some difficulty to remove it but at last they pulled it up and found it to be a chair of beaten gold At the sight hereof their spirits were a little revived because they had attained so rich a booty and yet like men burdened with wealth especially the old man conceived new fears and wished he were on land lest some storm should fall and lay both it and them the second time in the bottom of the Sea So great is the impression of fear and the natural presage of evill in men that know but little in things to come that many times they prove true Prophets of their own destruction although they have little reason till the moment of perill come upon them and so it fell out accordingly in this old man for whilest he feared death by storms and tempests on the Sea it came upon him but by another way and means For behold the Devill entred into the hearts of his two servants and they conspired together to kill the old man their Master that so between themselves they might be owners of that great rich chair the value whereof as they conceived might make them Gentlemen and maintain them in some other Countrey all the days of their life For such was the resolution that they conceived upon the present that it would not be safe for them to return home again after the fact committed lest they should be apprehended for murder as they justly deserved their Master being so made away by them The Devill that had put this wicked motion into their mindes gave them likewise present opportunity to put the same in execution depriving them of all grace pity and piety still thrusting them forward to perform the same So that not giving him any warning of his death one of them in most savage and cruel manner dashed out his brains and the other speedily cast him into the Sea And thus the fear of this old man conceived without all reason except superstition for the sight of a Fiery-drake came upon him in a more bloudy manner then he expected but life suspected it self and rumors of peril unto guilty consciences such as all we mortal men bear are many times as forcible as the sentence of a Judge to the heart of the condemned prisoner and therefore it were happy that either we could not fear except when the causes are certain or else that we might never perish but upon premonition And therefore I conclude with the example of this man that it is not good to hold a superstitious fear lest God see it and being angry therewith bring upon us the evill which we fear But this is not the end of the story for that Fire-drake as by the sequel appeareth proved as evill to the servants as he did to the Master These two sons of the Devill made thus rich by the death of their Master forthwith they sailed towards the Coast of France but first of all they broke the Chair in pieces and wrapped it up in one of their Nets making account that it was the best fish that ever was taken in that Net and so they laid it in one end of their Bark or Fisher-boat And thus they laboured all that night and the next day till three or four of the clock at what time they espyed a Port of Britain whereof they were exceeding glad by reason that they were weary hungry and thirsty with long labour always rich in their own conceit by the gold which they had gotten which had so drawn their hearts from God as they could not fear any thought of his judgement And finally it so blinded their eyes and stopped their ears that they did not see the vengeance that followed them nor hear the cry of their Masters bloud Wherefore as they were thus rejoycing at the sight of land behold they suddenly espyed a Man of War coming towards them whereat they were appalled and began to think with themselves that their rich hopes were now at an end and they had laboured for other but yet resolved to die rather then to suffer the booty to be taken away from them And while they thus thought the Man of War approached and hailed them summoning them to come in and shew what they were they refused making forward as fast to the Land as they could Wherefore the Man of War shot certain Muskets at them and not prevailing nor they yeelding sent after them his Long-boat upon the entrance thereof they fought manfully against the assaylants until one of them was slain and the other mortally wounded who seeing his fellow kill'd and himself not likely to live yet in envy against his enemy ran presently to the place where the Chair lay in the Net and lifting the same up with all his might cast it from him into the Sea instantly falling down after that fact as one not able through weaknesse to stand any longer whereupon he was taken and before his life left him he related the whole story to them that took him earnestly desiring them to signifie so much into England which they did accordingly and as I have heard the whole story was printed and so this second History of the punishment of murder I have related in this place by occasion of the Fiery-drake in the History of the Dragon A second cause why poyson is supposed to be in Dragons is for that they often feed upon many venomous roots and therefore their poyson sticketh in their teeth whereupon many times the party bitten by them seemeth to be poysoned but this falleth out accidentally not from the nature of the Dragon but from the nature of the meat which the Dragon eateth And this is it which Homer knew and affirmed in his verses when he described a Dragon making his den neer unto the place where many venomous roots and herbs grew and by eating whereof he greatly annoyeth mankinde when he biteth them Os de Drakoon espi Xein oresteros andra menesi Bebrocos kaka pharmaka Which may be thus Englished And the Dragon which by men remains Eats evill herbs without deadly pains And therefore Aelianus saith well that when the Dragon meaneth to do most harm to men he eateth deadly poysonful herbs so that if he bite after them many not knowing the cause of the poyson and seeing or feeling venom by it do attribute that to his nature which doth proceed from his meat Besides his teeth which bite deep he also killeth with his tail for be will so begirt and pinch in the body that he doth gripe it to death and also the strokes of it are so strong that either
leaves not discerning it because it is of the same colour but presently after they have eaten it their Bellies begin to swell which must needs proceed from the poysoned Frog A second reason proving it to be venomous is for that many Authors do affirm that hereof is made the Psilothrum for the drawing out of teeth by the roots and for this cause is concluded to be venomous because this cannot be performed without strong poyson But for the cure of the poyson of this Frog we shall expresse it afterward in the history of the Toad and therefore the Reader must not expect it in this place Always before rain they climbe up upon the trees and there cry after a hoarse manner very much which caused the Poet Serenus to call it Rauco gaâ—rula quâ—sâ—u at other times it is mute and hath no voyce wherefore it is more truly called Manlis that is a Prophet or a Diviner then any other kinde of Frog because other Frogs which are not altogether mute do cry both for fear and also for desire of carnal copulation but this never cryeth but before rain Some have been of opinion that this is a dum Frog and therefore Vincentius Belluâ—censis faith that it is called a mute Frog from the effect for there is an opinion that this put into the mouth of a Dog maketh him dum which if it be true it is an argument of the extreme poyson therein contained overcoming the nature of the Dog whose chiefest senses are his taste and his smelling And thus much shall suffice for the description of this Frog The medicinal vertues observed herein are these that follow First if a man which hath a cough do spet into the mouth of this Frog it is thought that it doth deliver him from his cough and being bound in a Cranes skin unto a mans thigh procureth venereous desires but these are but magical devices and such as have no apparent reason in nature wherefore I will omit them and proceed to them that are more reasonable and natural First for the Oyl of Frogs that is the best which is made out of the green Frogs as it is observed by Silvius and if they are held betwixt a mans hands in the fit of hot burning Ague do much refresh nature and ease the pain For Fever-hecticks they prepare them thus they take such Frogs as have white bellies then cut off their heads and pull out their bowels afterwards they seethe them in water until the flesh fall from the bones then they mingle the said flesh with Barley meal made into paste wherewithal they cram and feed Pullen with that paste upon which the sick man must be fed and in default of Frogs they do the like with Eels and other like Fishes But there is no part of the Frog so medicinable as is the bloud called also the matter or the juyce and the humor of the Frog although some of them write that there is no bloud but in the eyes of a Frog First therefore with this they kill hair for upon the place where the hair was puld off they pour this bloud and then it never groweth more And this as I have said already is an argument of the venom of this Frog and it hath been proved by experience that a man holding one of these Frogs in his hands his hands have begun to swell and to break out into blisters Of this vertue Serenus the Poet writeth thus Praeterea quascunque voles avertere setas Atque in perpetuum rediviva occludere tela Corporibus vulsis saniem perducito ranae Sed quae parva situ est rauco garrula questu That is to say Besides from whatsoever bodies hairs thou will Be clean destroyed and never grow again On them the mattery bloud of Frogs all spread and spill I mean the little Frog questing hoarse voyce amain The same also being made into a Verdigrease and drunk the weight of a Crown stoppeth the continual running of the urine The humor which cometh out of the Frog being alive when the skin is scraped off from her back cleareth the eyes by an Ointment and the flesh laid upon them easeth their pains the flesh and fat pulleth out teeth The powder made of this Frog being drunk stayeth bleeding and also expelleth spots of bloud dryed in the body The same being mingled with Pitch cureth the falling off of the hair And thus much shall suffice for the demonstration of the nature of this little green Frog Of the Padock or Crooked back FROG IT is apparent that there be three kindes of Frogs of the earth the first is the little green Frog the second is this Padock having a crook back called in Latine Rubeta Gibbosa and the third is the Toad commonly called Rubetax Bufo This second kinde is mute and dumb as there be many kinde of mute Frogs such as is that which the Germans call Feurkrott and our late Alchymists Puriphrunon that is a Firefrog because it is of the colour of fire This is found deep in the earth in the midst of Rocks and stones when they are cleft asunder and amongst metals whereinto there is no hole or passage and therefore the wit of man cannot devise how it should enter therein only there they finde them when they cleave those stones in sunder with their wedges and other instruments Such as these are are found near Tours in France among a red sandy stone whereof they make the Milstones and therefore they break that stone all in pieces before they make the Milstone up lest while the Padock is included in the middle and the Milstone going in the mill the heat should make the Padock swell and so the Milstone breaking the corn should be poysoned Assoon as these Padocks come once into the air out of their close places of generation and habitation they swell and so die This crook-backed Padock is called by the Germans Gartonfrosch that is a Frog of the Garden and Grasfrosch that is a Frog of the grasse It is not altogether mute for in time of peril when they are chased by men or by Snakes they have a crying voyce which I have oftentimes proved by experience and all Snakes and Serpents do very much hunt and desire to destroy these also I have seen a Snake hold one of them by the leg for because it was great she could not easily devour it and during that time it made a pitiful lamentation These Padocks have as it were two little horns or bunches in the middle of the back and their colour is between green and yellow on the sides they have red spots and the feet are of the same colour their belly is white and that part of their back which is directly over their breast is distinguished with a few black spots And thus much may serve for the particular description of the Padock not differing in any other thing that I can read of from the former Frogs it being venomous as they
wherein they say is the picture of a Toad with her legs spread before and behinde And it is further affirmed that if both these stones be held in ones hand in the presence of poyson it will burn him The probation of this stone is by laying of it to a live Toad and if she lift up her head against it it is good but if she run away from it it is a counterfeit Geor. Agricola calleth the greater kinde of these stones Brontia and the lesser and smoother sort of stones Ceraunie although some contrary this opinion saying that these stones Brantia and Ceraunia are bred on the earth by thundering and lightning Whereas it is said before that the generation of this stone in the Toad proceedeth of cold that is utterly unpossible for it is described to be so solid and firm as nothing can be more hard and therefore I cannot assent unto that opinion for unto hard and solid things is required abundance of heat and again it is unlikely that whatsoever this Toad-stone be that there should be any store of them in the world as are every where visible if they were to be taken out of the Toads alive and therefore I rather agree with Salveldensis a Spaniard who thinketh that it is begotten by a certain viscous spume breathed out upon the head of some Toad by her fellows in the Spring time This stone is that which in ancient time was called Batrachites and they attribute unto it a vertue besides the former namely for the breaking of the stone in the Bladder and against the Falling-sicknesse And they further write that it is a discoverer of present poyson for in the presence of poyson it will change the colour And this is the substance of that which is written about this stone Now for my part I dare not conclude either with it or against it for Hermolaus Massarius Albertus Sylvaticus and others are directly for this stone ingendered in the brain or head of the Toad on the other side Cardan and Cesner confesse such a stone by name and nature but they make doubt of the generation of it as others have delivered and therefore they being in sundry opinions the hearing whereof might confound the Reader I will refer him for his satisfaction unto a Toad which he may easily every day kill For although when the Toad is dead the vertue thereof be lost which consisted in the eye or blew spot in the middle yet the substance remaineth and if the stone be found there in substance then is the question at an end but if it be not then must the generation of it be sought for in some other place Thus leaving the stone of the Toad we must proceed to the other parts of the story and first of all their place of habitation which for them of the water is neer the water-side and for them of the earth in bushes hedges rocks and holes of the earth never coming abroad while the Sun shineth for they hate the Sun-shine and their nature cannot endure it for which cause they keep close in their holes in the day time and in the night they come abroad Yet sometimes in rainy weather and in solitary places they come abroad in the day time All the Winter time they live under the earth feeding upon earth herbs and worms and it is said they eat earth by measure for they eat so much every day as they can gripe in their fore-foot as it were sizing themselves lest the whole earth should not serve them till the Spring Resembling herein great rich covetous men who ever spare to spend for fear they shall want before they die And for this cause in ancient time the wise Painters of Germany did picture a woman sitting upon a Toad to signifie covetousnesse They also love to eat Sage and yet the root of Sage is to them deadly poyson They destroy Bees without all danger to themselves for they will creep to the holes of their Hives and there blow in upon the Bees by which breath they draw them out of the Hive and so destroy them as they come out for this cause also at the Water-side they lie in wait to catch them When they come to drink in the day time they see little or nothing but in the night time they see perfectly and therefore they come then abroad About their generation there are many worthy observations in nature sometimes they are bred out of the putrefaction and corruption of the earth it hath also been seen that out of the ashes of a Toad burnt not only one but many Toads have been regenerated the year following In the New-world there is a Province called Dariene the air whereof is wonderful unwholesome because all the Countrey standeth upon rotten marishes It is there observed that when the slaves or servants water the pavements of the dores from the drops of water which fall on the right hand are instantly many Toads ingendered as in other places such drops of water are turned into Gnats It hath also been seen that women conceiving with childe have likewise conceived at the same time a Frog or a Toad or a Lizard and therefore Platearius saith that those things which are medicines to provoke the menstruous course of women do also bring forth the Secondines And some have called Bufonem fratrem Salernitanorum lacertam fratrem Lombardorum that is a Toad the Brother of the Salernitâ—ns and the Lizard the Brother of the Lombards for it hath been seen that a woman of Salernum hath at one time brought forth a Boy and a Toad and therefore he calleth the Toad his Brother so likewise a woman of Lombardy a Lizard and therefove he calleth the Lizard the Lombards Brother And for this cause the women of those Countries at such time as their childe beginneth to quicken in their womb do drink the juyce of Parsley and Leeks to kill such conceptions if any be There was a woman newly marryed and when in the opinion of all she was with childe in stead of a childe she brought forth four little living creatures like Frogs yet she remained in good health but a little while after she felt some pain about the rim of her belly which afterward was eased by applying a few remedies Also there was another woman which together with a Man-childe in her Secondines did bring forth such another Beast and after that a Merchants wife did the like in Aneonitum But what should be the reason of these so strange and unnatural conceptions I will not take upon me to decide in nature lest the Omnipotent hand of God should be wronged and his most secret and just counsel presumptuously judged and called into question This we know that it was prophesied in the Revelation that Frogs and Locusts should come out of the Whore of Babylon and the bottomlesse pit and therefore seeing the seat of the Whore of Babylon is in Italy it may be that God would have manifested
treatherous persons They are afraid of every noise they are enemies to Bees for they live upon them and therefore in ancient time they mixed Meal and juyce of Mallows together and laid the same before the Hives to drive away Lizards and Crocodiles They fight with all kinde of Serpents also they devour Snails and contend with Toads and Scorpions The Night-owls and Spiders do destroy the little Lizards for the Spider doth so long winde her thred about the jaws of the Lizard that he is not able to open his mouth and then she fasteneth her stings in her brains The Storks are also enemies to Lizards according to this saying of the Poet Serpente ciconia pullos Nutrit inventa per deviarura lâ—certa In English thus With Lizards young and Serpents breed The Stork sâ—eketh her young ones to feed Notwithstanding that by the law of God men were forbidden to eat the Lizard yet the Trogladites Ethiopians did eat Serpents and Lizards and the Amazons did eat Lizards and Tortoises for indeed those women did use a very thin and slender diet and therefore Coelius doth probably conjecture that they were called Amazons because Mazis carebant that is they wanted all manner of delicate fare We have also shewed already that the Inhabitants of Dioscorides Isle do eat the flesh of Lizards and the fat after it is boyled they use in stead of Oyl Concerning the venom or poyson of Lizards I have not much to say because there is not much thereof written yet they are to be reproved which deny they have any poyson at all for it is manifest that the flesh of Lizards eaten I mean of such Lizards as are in Italy do cause an inflamation and apostumation the heat of the head-ach and blindenesse of the eyes And the Egges of Lizards do kill speedily except there come a remedy from Faulkons dung and pure Wine Also when the Lizard biteth he leaveth his teeth in the place which continually aketh until the teeth be taken out the cure of which wound is first to suck the place then to put into it cold water and afterward to make a plaister of Oyl and Ashes and apply the same thereunto And thus much for the natural description of the Lizard The medicines arising out of the Lizard are the same which are in the Crocodile and the flesh thereof is very hot wherefore it hath vertue to make fat for if the fat of a Lizard be mixed with Wheat 〈…〉 al Halinitre and Cumin it maketh Hens very fat and they that eat them much fatter for Gordan saith that their bellies will break with fatnesse and the same given unto Hawks maketh them to change their feathers A Lâ—zard dissected or the head thereof being very well beaten with Salt draweth out Iron points of nails and splents out of the flesh or body of man if it be well applyed thereunto and it is also said that if it be mingled with Oyl it causeth hair to grow again upon the head of a man where an Ulcer made it fall off Likewise a Lizard cut a sunder hot and so applyed cureth the stinging of Scorpions and taketh away Wens In ancient time with a Field-lizard dryed and and cut asunder and so bruised in pieces they did draw out teeth without pain and with one of these sod and stamped and applyed with Meal or Frankincense to the fore-head did cure the watering of the eyes The same burned to powder and mixed with Cretick Hony by an Ointment cureth blindenesse The Oyl of a Lizard put into the eat helpeth deafnesse and driveth out Worms if there be any therein If children be anointed with the bloud fasting it keepeth them from swellings in the belly and legs also the liver and bloud lapped up in Wooll draweth out nails and thorns from the flesh and cureth all kinde of freckles according to this verse of Serenus Verrucam poâ—erit sarguis curare Laceâ—ta That is to say The bloud of Lizards can Cure feeckles in a man The urine if there be any at all helpeth the Rupture in Infants The bones taken out of the Lizards head in the full Moon do scarifie the teeth and the brain is profitable for suffusions The liver laid to the gums or to hollow teeth easeth all pain in them The dung purgeth wounds and also taketh away the whitenesse and itching of the eyes and so sharpneth the sight and the same with water is used for a salve Arnoldus doth much commend the dung of Lizards mixed with Meal the black thereof being cast away and so dryed in a furnace and softned again with water of Nitre and froth of the Sea afterwards applyed to the eyes in a cloth is very profitable against all the former evils And thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the first and vulgar kinde of Lizard for killing of whom Apollo was in ancient time called Sauroctonos Of the GREEN LIZARD THe greater Lizard which is called Lacerta Virâ—dis the green Lizard by the Grecians Chlorosaura by the Italians Gez and by the Germans Gruner Heydox is the same which is called Ophiomachus because it fighteth with Serpents in the defence of man They are of colour green from whence they are named and yet sometimes in the Summer they are also found pale They are twice so big as the former Lizard and come not neer houses but keep in Medows and green fields They only abound in Italy and it is a beast very loving and friendly unto man and an enemy to all other Serpents For if at any nime they see a man they instantly gather about him and saying their heads at the one side with great admiration behold his face and if it chance a man do spit they lick up the spittie joyfully and it hath been seen that they have done the like to the urine of children and they are also handled of children without danger gently licking moisture from their mouths And if at any time three or four of them be taken and so set together to fight it is a wonder to see how eagerly they wound one another and yet never set upon the man that put them together If one walk in the fields by hollow ways bushes and green places he shall hear a noise and see a motion as if Serpents were about him but when he looketh earnestly upon them they are Lizards wagging their heads and beholding his person and so if he go forward they follow him if he stand still they play about him One day as Frasmus writeth there was a Lizard seen to fight with a Serpent in the mouth of his own Cave and whilest certain men beheld the same the Lizard received a wound upon her cheek by the Serpent who of green made it all red and had almost torn it all off and so hid herself again in her den The poor Lizard came running unto the beholders and shewed her bloudy side as it were desiring help and commiseration standing still when they stood still
and windows thereof make their lodgings and sometims in dead-mens graves and Sepulchres but most commonly they climbe and creep aloft so as they fall down again sometimes into the meat as it is in dressing and sometimes into other things as we have already said into Socrates mouth and when they descend of their own accord they creep side-long They eat Honey and for that cause creep into the Hives of Bees except they be very carefully stopped as Virgil writeth Nam saepe favos ignotus adedit Stellio Many times the Stellion at unawares meeteth with the Honey-combs They also of Italy many times eat Spiders They all lie hid four months of the year in which time they eat nothing and twice in the year that is to say both in the Spring time and Autumn they cast their skin which they greedily eat so soon as they have stripped it off Which Theophrastus and other Authors write is an envious part in this Serpent or creeping creature because they understand that it is a noble remedy against the Falling-sicknesse wherefore to keep men from the benefit and good which might come thereby they speedily devour it And from this envious and subtile part of the Stellion cometh the crime in Vlpianus called Crimen Stellionatus that is when one man fraudulently preventeth another of his money or wares or bargain even as the Stellion doth man kinde of the remedy which cometh unto them by and from his skin The crime is also called Extortion and among the Romans when the Tribunes did withdraw from the Souldiers their provision of victual and corn it is said Tribunes qui per Stellaturas Militibus aliquid abstulissent capitali poena affecit And therefore Budeus relateth a History of two Tribunes who for this stellature were worthily stoned to death by the commandment of the Emperor And all frauds whatsoever are likewise taxed by this name which were not punishable but by the doom of the Supream or highest Judge and thereupon Alciatus made this Emblem following Parva lacerta atris Stellatus corpare guttis Stellio qui latebras cava busta colit Invidiae pravique doli fert symbola pictus Heâ— nimium nuribus cognita Zelotypis Nam turpi obtegitur faciem lentigine quisquis Sit quibus immersus Stellio vina bibat Hinc vindicta frequens decepta pellice vino Quam forma amisso flore relinquit amans Which may be Englished thus The little Lizard on Stellion starred in body grain In seoret holes and graves of dead which doth remain When painted you it see or drawn before the eye A symbole then you view of deep deceit and cursed envy Alas this is a thing to jealous wives known too well For whosoever of that Wine doth drink his fill Wherein a Stellion bath been drencht to death His face with filthy Lentile spots all ugly it appeareth Herewith a Lover oft requites the fraud of concubine Depriving her of beauties biew by draught of this samâ— Wine The Poet Ovid hath a pretty fiction of the Original of this cursed envy in Stellions for he writeth of one Abas the son of Motaneira that received Ceres kindely into her house and gave her hospitality whereat the said Abas being displeased derided the sacrifice which his mother made to Cores the Goddesse seeing the wretched nature of the young man and his extream impiety against the sacrifice of his Mother took the Wine left in the goblet after the sacrifice and poured the same upon his head whereupon he was immediately turned into a Stellion as it is thus related by Ovil Metam 5. Combibit â—s maculas quae mode brachia gessit Crura gerit cauda est mutatis addita membris Inque brevem formam ne sit vis magna nocendi Contrahitur parvaque minor mensura lacerta est In English thus His â—cuah suckt in those spots and now where arms did stand His legs appear and to his changed parts was put a tail And lest it should have power to harm small was the bodies band And of the Lizards poysonous this least in shape did vail Their bodies are very brittle so as if at any time they chance to fall they break their tails They lay very small egges out of which they are generated and Pliny writeth that the juyce or liquor of these egges laid upon a mans body causeth the hair to fall off and also never more permitteth it to grow again But whereas we have said it devoureth the skin to the damage and hurt of men you must remember that in ancient time the people did not want their policies and devises to take away this skin from them before they could eat it And therefore in the Summer time they watched the lodging place and hole of the Lizard and then in the end of the Winter toward the Spring they took Reeds and did cleave them in sunder these they composed into little Cabinets and set them upon the hole of the Serpent Now when it awaked and would come forth it being grieved with the thicknesse and straightnesse of his skin presseth out of his hole through those Reeds or Cabinet and finding the same somewhat straight is the more glad to take it for a remedy so by little and little it slideth through and being through it leaveth the skin behinde in the Cabinet into the which it cannot re-enter to devour it Thus is this wily Serpent by the policy of man justly beguiled losing that which it so greatly desireth to possesse and changing nature to line his guts with his coat is prevented from that gluttony it being sufficient to have had it for a cover in the Winter and therefore unsufferable that it should make food thereof and eat the same in the Summer These Stellions like as other Serpents have also their enemies in nature as first of all they are hated by the Asses for they love to be about the Mangers and racks on which the Asse feedeth and from thence many times they creep into the Asses open Nostrils and by that means hinder his eating But above all other there is greatest antipathy in nature betwixt this Serpent and the Scorpion for if a Scorpion do but see one of these it falleth into a deep fear and a cold sweat out of which it is delivered again very speedily and for this cause a Stellion putrified in Oyl is a notable remedy against the biting of a Scorpion and the like war and dissension is affirmed to be betwixt the Stellion and the Spider We have shewed already the difference of Stellions of Italy from them of Greece how these are of a deadly poysonous nature and the other innocent and harmlesse and therefore now it is also convenient that we should shew the nature and cure of this poyson which is in this manner Whensoever any man is bitten by a Stellion he hath ach and pain thereof continually and the wound received looketh very pale in colour the cure whereof according to the
showres and very much rain a thing fatall to Islands do yeeld such extraordinary pure honey that it hath not the least mixture of venome and doth last a long time before it be corrupted or putrified that we do not speak of its excellent whiteness hardness sweetness hanging well together viscosity and ponderousness and other principal signs of the goodness of it But let us leave off to commend our own Countrey wherein good is to be found and set forth those Countreys which are infamous for the badness of it For the extreme bitterness the Cholchian honey and next the Corsican and in some places the Hungarian and the Sardinian hath an ill name For in Sardinia Wormwood in Corsica Rose-lawrel in Colâ—his the venomous Yew and all of them in Hungary Also the honey is venomous in Heraclea of Pontus and in the flowers of Goats-bane fading with the wetness of the spring for then the flowers contract that hurtfull venome which doth presently infect the honey-dew that falls upon them There is also another kinde of pernicious honey made which from the madness that it causeth is termed Mad-honey which Pliny conceiveth to be contracted from the flower of a certain shrub very frequently growing there in the woods Dioscorides and Aetius do not amiss impute this poyson to be caused of great plenty of the venomous herb called Libbardsbane or Wolf-wort which groweth there in that it is cured with the very same remedies as the venome of that herb is In Carina Persis Mauritania and Getulia bordering to Massesulia either by reason of vapours of the earth or by reason of the virulent and poysonous juice of the plants poysoned honey-combs are produced but are descried by their duskie or blackish colour In Trapezuntum in the Countrey of Pontus Pliny reports of a certain honey that is gathered of the flowers of the Box-tree which as it doth make those that are well sick with the noysome smell of it so those that are not well it restores to health On the trees of the Heptocometanes a people near unto Cholchis there growes a kinde of infectious honey The which poyson being drank makes men stupid and out of their wits This was sent by the enemy to the three Legions of Pompey with a token for the desire of peace they drinking very freely of it were put both besides their wits and their lives too as Strabo saith Ovid makes mention of the Corsick honey very infamous being extracted from the flower of Hemlock speaking thus I think it 's Corsick Honey and the Bee From the cold Hemlocks flowers gathered thee But yet it may seem to be not so much for Dame Natureâ— honour that she should bring forth a thing so desired of all men as honey is and so ordinarily to temper it with poyson Nay but in so doing she did not amiss so to permit it to be that thereby she might make men more cautious and lesse greedy and to excite them not only to use that which should be wholesome but to seek out for Antidotes against the unwholsomeness of it And for that cause she hath hedged the Rose about with prickles given the Bees a sting hath infected the Sage with Toad-spittle mixed poyson and that very deadly too with Honey Sugar and Manna The signs of poysoned honey are these it staines the honey-comb with a kinde of Lead-colour doth not become thick it looks of a bright shining glistering hew sharp or bitter in taste and hath a strange and 〈…〉 th smell it is far more ponderous then the other as soon as it is taken it causeth neâ—sing and a loosness of the belly accompanied with excess of sweating They which have drunk it dâ— tumble themselves up and down upon the cold earth very desirous of refrigeration The 〈◊〉 poy 〈…〉 honey hath the same symptomes with the poyson of Wolfâ—â—ane and hath the same way of cure Galen reports that two Physicians in Rome tasted but a very small quantity of poysoned honey and fell down dead in the open Market-place Against madness from eating honey Dioscorides prescribes Rue to be eaten and salt fish and honey and water to be drank but being taken they must be vomited up again and he prescribes the same remedie against this disease as he doth against Wolfs-bane and Rose-lawrel and Pliny agrees with him also he adds one singular antidote to eat a fish called a Gilt-head which also wonderfully corrects the loathing of good honey Gulielmus Placontia bids to cause vomit abundantly with syrup of Violets acetosus simplex and warm water eating salt fish before vo-miting Afterwards he gives Theriac with hot vinegar Christophanus de honest is perswades vo-miting and to set cold water under the nosthrils with the flowers of Violets Water-lillies and Fleawort But his Bezoar stone are Quince kernels bruised and given with hot water as Sanctus Ardoinas relates Avicenna hath prescribed nothing worth speaking of but what he had from others for I understand not what he means by his Aumeli But what if I a youth and an English man after so many grave and experienced Physicians should asseâ—t this for a certain Antidote viz. to take nothing down but the Bees themselves The likelyhood of the conjecture doth perswade and reason it self doth somewhat seem to favour it For unless that Dame Nature had given to these Bees a very marvellous power against poysoned honey as amongst men to the Psilli against Serpents to Storks and Peacocks amongst the Birds without all doubt with gathering of it swallowing of it and for some time keeping of it in their bodies yea concocting of it there they would be grievously pained and the poyson running and dispersing it self through all the parts would kill them Now the Terrestrial honey although it be not alwaies poysonous yet by reason of the blackness and clamminess of it 't is not much to be commended also it is often found to be subject to be infected by the venomous breath of Serpents Toads red Toads and therefore is carefully to be avoided Now let us come to the Qualities of Honey whereof some are first or primary others derived from them some formal some specifical which we deservedly call Energetical or operative In respect of the first Crasis or temper Honey is thought to be hot and dry in the second degree for which cause Galen did forbid those that are in Hectick Feavers and in all Feavers young men or those that have the yellow Jaundies to use it whereas in cold distempers he doth very much commend it and did prescribe it to those that were troubled with a raw and watry stomach whom if you gently anoint therewith it doth very much nourish and causeth a good colour and constitution of body If you desire to know the second qualities of honey viz. the smelling tasting visible tactile the best honey ought not to have the eminent quality of any herb or other thing whatsoever and therefore the honey that doth strongly smell of
c. These hurt especially great trees as the Oak the Pear-tree the Apple-tree the Chesnut the Larch Walnut Beech the Medlar the Elm and broad leafed Willowes in which cut unseasonably or planted a â—oft and ill fatty humour breeds which Wood-men call the sap and the white which is the matter and nourishment of all the Teredines Trees that are drier more bitter more oily and hard are thought to be so much the freer from these Worms yet some-times they will offer violence to the Cypress-tree the Walnut the Guaiacum the Tiele-tree and to Ebony it self The manner of their breeding in wood is thus Many are bred within and do not come from without and they eat up their original that of what they were bred they may live by the same The material and conjunct cause is the sweet moisture of wood that is fit for their nourishment being corrupted even as of sweet flegm worms are bred in the belly Now that sweet humour purrenes from a twofold cause either by distemper or solution of continuity By distemper the quality is corrupted and by cutting not only the inbred humour runs forth but some strange humour enters by rain and mists and corrupts the wood In old spongy and dry trees by reason of age are the greater Worms both because the radical moisture is more diminished and because the distemper heat and moisture that are strangers are more augmented as oft-times old men are troubled with cruel scabs and eating sores and Worms Wood lying open to the Moon in the night sooner breeds Worms because of the over much moisture of the air and in the hotter Sun from too much heat Those that breed within breed at all times but for those that come from without and are bred of the seed of Gnats and Flies the Spring and Summer are the chief times for them for in Winter they are frozen and dye Also the climate and the ground aâ—e of great force for the Irish wood seldome corrupts there is such vertue in the ground and in Arabia in the climate Now we shall describe the particulars Of those Worms that are in Fig-trees some are bred of the trees themselves and another is bred withall that is called Cerastes For since the greatest part of Worms do differ in shape and form one from another yet the principal difference amongst them is this that those which are bred in one kinde of tree or fruit if they be translated to another kinde they will not live yet men affirm that Cerastes is bred in the Olive-tree and will breed in the Fig-tree wherefore the Fig-tree hath its Worms and sends forth those also that it receives from other trees yet they are all like to Cerastes and they make a small shrill sound Sypontinus saith he hath two horns on his head when he hath eaten the place so hollow that he can well turn himself he begets another little creature and changeth one kinde into another as Catterpillers do The Service tree is infested with red Worms and hairy and then it dyes Also the Medlar-tree being old produceth such Worms but they are greater then in other trees as Theophrastus writes The sap produceth a Worm like to a Thrips from whence Gnats and kindes of Phaleuci are bred wilde Pear-tree Worms some sort of living Creatures that feed on wood saith Hesychius for they extremely hurt wilde Pear-trees A little Worm in the Oke-like tree Suetonius calls it Galbus is wonderfull slender whence the first of the Sulpitii was called Galba from his extreme slendernesse The Palm-tree produceth the Carabus as Hesychius and Aristotle testifie a Worm like to Sea-lobsters having only six feet by this means the Carabick Worm of Hesychius is known Theophrastus writes that they cut off the small boughs of the Cinamon tree two fingers length and when they are green they sow them up in Ox-hides then they say that these boughs corrupting will breed Worms that eat the wood and will by no means touch the bark because it is sharp This wood was seen in Pennius his house eaten by a Worm that was of an Ash-colour it was not very hard but had neither taste nor smell contrary to that some Portingal Merchants and Quacksalvers that are ignorant of simples affirm The Worms called Raucae breed in the root of the Oak and hurt it Pliny faith an Olive-tree is ill planted where an Oake is dug up for the Worm Raucae left in the roots of the Oak creep into the roots of the Olive-tree and endamage them Johannes de Chaeul affirms the same The Ancients reckon up but few worms that feed on bark except the Scolopendrae Jâ—li and those Moths that are like little Scorpions whose nature we explained in the Chapter of the Scorpion The Germans call these Clopâ— they are not much greater than a Flea of a red colour with ten feet they are frequent in the wood and horses of the Muâ—covites built of Pine-tree in the day they feed on the moisture of the wood that sweats forth between the bark In the night they creep out and if they light upon men that are asleep they will suck out their bloud biting painfully The Worms called Syrones feed on the leaves and flowers of trees how small they are in thickness we may conjecture from this that it creeps between the membranes of the thinnest leaf digging and not hurting either outward skin Next to the Worms in vinegar saith Joach Came 〈…〉 us I never saw a Worm so compact The mines that it makes do sometimes represent the most fine lines and fibres They hurt exceedingly the leaves of the Cherry-tree and the Apple-tree that are spotted and when they are full they fall off and they seem to be formed of many Pompion-seeds glewed broad waies together but that they are far smaller From these when they are dead another small Insect ariseth as they grew from another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are like to Syrones which the English whether they breed in wood or bark leaf or flower or fruits of trees as in Cheese or Wax call Mites that is very little ones or Alomes they differ from Syrones by this that they seem to be made of many Acari But the Acarus it self is a round white six-footed little creature like to a little Lowse of almost no substance that if you press it violently between your fingers and your thumb it is so small that you cannot feel it nor hurt it Antigonus and Aristctle call it Jupiters Butler it may be because it will eat with its nib into the thickest Wine-cask And certainly if there were not something of God in it and of divine vertue how could we finde so great force in so little and almost no body Also in the leaves of the Beech little knots are found wherein there are small Worms The fruits of trees as Theophrastus saith are sometimes worm-eaten when they are yet green as we see in Services Medlers Pears and Apples The Olive both in the