found in the walls of old houses betwixt the stones and the morter They loue also cleane clothes as we haue sayd already and yet they abhorre all places whereon the Sunne shyneth And it seemeth that the sunne is vtterly against their nature for the same Scorpion which Wolphius had at Montpelier liued in the glasse vntill one day he set in the Sunne and then presently after it dyed To conclude they loue hollow places of the earth neere gutters and sometimes they creepe into mens beddes where vnawares they doe much harme and for this cause the Lybians who among other Nations are most of all troubled with Scorpions do vse to set theyr beddes farre from any wall and very high also from the floore to keepe the Scorpions from ascending vp vnto them And yet fearing all deuises should be too little to secure them against this euill they also set the feete of theyr beddes in vessells of water that so the Scorpion may not attempt so much as to climbe vp vnto them for feare of drowning And also for their further safegard they were socks and hose in theyr beddes so thicke as the Scorpion cannot easily sting thorough them And if the bed be so placed that they cannot get any hold thereof beneath then they clymbe vp to the sieling or couer of the house if there they find any hold for their pinching legges to apprehend and fasten vppon then in their hatred to man-kind they vse this pollicie to come vnto him First one of them as I haue said taketh hold vppon that place in the house or sieling ouer the bed wherein they find the man asleepe and so hangeth thereby putting out and stretching his sting to hurt him but finding it too short and not beeing able to reach him he suffereth another of his fellowes to come and hang as fast by him as he doth vpon his hold and so that second giueth 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 vpon them and so a fourth vpon the third and a fift vpon the fourth vntill they haue made themselues like a chayne to descend from the toppe to the bedde wherin the man sleepeth and the last striketh him after which stroke he first of all runneth away by the backe of his fellow and euery one againe in order till all of them haue withdrawne themselues By this may be collected the crafty disposition of this Scorpion and the great subtiltie and malice that it is indued withall in nature and seeing they can thus accord together in harming a man it argueth their great mutuall loue and concord one with another wherfore I cannot but maruell at them who haue written that the old ones destroy the young all but one which they set vpon theyr owne buttocks that so the damme may be secured from the sting and bytings of her sonne For seeing they can thus hang vpon one another without harme fauouring their owne kinde I see no cause but that nature hath grafted much more loue betwixt the old and the young ones so as neither the old do first destroy the young nor afterward that young one preserued in reuenge of his fellowes quarrell killeth his Parents It is reported by Aristotle that there is a hill in Caria wherein the Scorpions doe neuer sting any strangers that lodge there but onely the naturall borne people of that country And heere-vnto Pliny and Elianus seeme to subscribe when they write that Scorpiones extraneos leniter mordere that is Scorpions byte strangers but gently And heereby it may be collected that they are also by nature very sagacious and can discerne betwixt nature and nature yea the particuler differences in one the same nature To conclude Scorpions haue no power to hurt where there is no blood The naturall amity and enmity they obserue with other creatures commeth now to be handled and I find that it wanteth not aduersaries nor it againe 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 subiects of their hatred are virgins and vvomen whom they doe not onely desire to harme but also when they haue harmed are neuer perfectly recouered And this is at all times of the day but vnto men they are most dangerous in the morning fasting before they haue vented their poyson and this is to be obserued that their tayles are neuer vnprouided of stings and sufficient store of venome to hurt vpon all occasions The Lyon is by the Scorpion put to flight wheresoeuer hee seeth it for he feareth it as the enemy of his life and therefore writeth S. Ambrose Exigno Scorpionis aculeo exagitatur Leo the Lyon is much mooued at the small sting of a Scorpion Scorpions doe also destroy other Serpents and are likewise destroyed by them There was one Cellarius a Phisitian in Padua who put together into one viall a Viper and a Scorpion where they continually fought together vntill they had killed one another The Swyne of Scythia which doe safely eate all other kind of Serpents and venomous beasts without all harme yet are destroyed by eating of Scorpions and so great is the poyson of the Sibarite Scopion that the dung thereof beeing trode vppon breedeth vlcers And as in this manner we see the virulence and naturall euill of Scorpions against other liuing creatures so now we are to consider the terrours of the Scorpion for God in nature hath likewise ordained some bodies whereby the Scorpion should be and is dryuen away scarred and destroyed First of all therefore men which are the cheefe and head of all liuing creatures do by naturall instinct kill and destroy Scorpions and therefore Galen wryteth thus Let vs saith he kill Scorpions Spyders and Vipers not because they are euill in themselues but because it is ingrafted in vs by nature to loue that which is good vnto vs but to hate and auert from that which is euill vnto vs Non consider antes genitum ne it a sit an secus not cōsidering whether it were so bred or not As we haue shewed their generation out of putrefaction to be by heate so also is their destruction by heate for they are not able to abide the heate of the sunne and therefore although they cannot liue in cold Northerne Countries but in the hotter yet in the hotter they choose shaddowes holes of the earth couerture of houses and such like vile and obscure places to succour and secure themselues in It is also reported that if Scorpions doe at any time behold a Stellion they stand amazed and wonderfully astonished The Viper also hauing killed a Scorpion becommeth more venomous and the Ibis of Egypt destroyeth Scorpions There are a little kind of Emmets called by the Arabians Gerarets which are eaters of Scorpions The quicke-sighted Hawkes also from whose piercing eye
mouthes vppon euery iawe and with most bright and cleere-seeing eyes vvhich caused the Poets to faine in their writings that these dragons are the watchfull-keepers of Treasures They haue also two dewlappes grovving vnder their chinne and hanging downe like a beard which are of a redde colour theyr bodies are sette all ouer with very sharpe scales and ouer theyr eyes stand certaine flexible eye-liddes When they gape wide with their mouth and thrust foorth their tongue theyr teeth seeme very much to resemble the teeth of Wilde-Swine And theyr neckes haue many times grosse thicke hayre growing vpon them much like vnto the bristles of a VVilde-Boare Their mouth especially of the most tame-able Dragons is but little not much bigger then a pype through which they drawe in theyr breath for they wound not vvith theyr mouth but with theyr tayles onely beating with thē when they are angry But the Indian Ethiopian and Phrygian dragons haue very wide mouthes through which they often swallow in whole foules and beasts Theyr tongue is clouen as if it were double and the Investigators of nature doe say that they haue fifteene teeth of a side The males haue combes on their heads but the females haue none and they are likewise distinguished by their beards They haue most excellent sences both of seeing and hearing and for this cause theyr name Drakon cōmeth of Derkein and this was one cause why Iupiter the Heathens great God is said to be metamorphised into a Dragon whereof there flieth this tale vvhen he fell in loue with Proserpina he rauished her in the likenes of a dragon for hee came vnto her and couered her with the spires of his body and for this cause the people of Sabazij did obserue in their misteries or sacrifices the shape of a dragon rowled vp within the cōpasse of his spires so that as he begot Ceres with child in the likenes of a Bull he likewise deluded her daughter Proserpina in the likenes of a dragon but of these transmutations we shall speake more afterwards I thinke the vanity of these tooke first ground frō the Affricans who beleeue that the originall of dragons tooke beginning from the vnnaturall cōiunction of an Eagle a shee-Wolfe And so they say that the Wolfe growing great by this conception doth not bring forth as at other times but her belly breaketh and the dragon commeth out who in his beake and wings resembleth the dragon his father and in his feete and tayle the vvolfe his mother but in the skin neither of them both but this kind of fabulus generation is already sufficiently confuted Their meates are fruites and herbes or any venomous creature therfore they liue long without foode and when they eate they are not easily filled They grow most fat by eating of egs in deuouring wherof they vse this Art if it be a great dragon he swalloweth it vp whole and then rowleth him selfe whereby hee crusheth the egges to peeces in his belly and so nature casteth out the shells keepeth in the meate But if it be a young dragon as if it were a dragons whelp he taketh the egge within the spire of his tayle and so crusheth it hard holdeth it fast vntill his scales open the shell like a knife then sucketh hee out of the place opened all the meate of the egge In like sort do the young ones pull off the feathers frō the foules which they eate and the old ones swallow them whole casting the feathers out of theyr bellyes againe The dragons of Phrygia when they are hungry turne themselues toward the west gaping wide with the force of their breath doe draw the birdes that flie ouer their heads into their throats which some haue thought is but a voluntary lapse of the fowles to be drawne by the breath of the dragon as by a thing they loue but it is more probable that some vaporous and venomous breath is sent vp from the dragon to them that poysoneth and infecteth the ayre about them whereby their sences are taken from them and they astonished fall downe into his mouth But if it fortune the dragons find not foode enough to satisfie their hunger then they hide themselues vntill the people be returned from the market or the Heard-men bring home their flocks and vppon a suddaine they deuoure eyther men or beastes which come first to their mouthes then they goe againe and hide themselues in their dennes and hollow Caues of the earth for theyr bodies beeing exceeding hote they very sildome come out of the cold earth except to seeke meate and nourishment And because they liue onely in the hottest Countries therefore they commonlie make theyr lodgings neere vnto the waters or else in the coldest places among the Rocks and stones They greatlie preserue their health as Aristotle affirmeth by eating of Wild-lettice for that they make them to vomit and cast foorth of theyr stomacke what-soeuer meate offendeth them and they are most speciallie offended by eating of Apples for theyr bodies are much subiect to be filled with winde and therefore they neuer eate Apples but first they eate Wilde-lettice Theyr sight also as Plutarch sayth doth many times grow weake and feeble and therefore they renew and recouer the same againe by rubbing their eyes against Fennell or else by eating of it Their age could neuer yet be certainely knowne but it is coniectured that they liue long and in great health like to all other Serpents therefore they grow so great They doe not onely liue on the land as we haue said already but also swimme in the water for many times they take the Sea in Ethyopia foure or fiue of them together folding theyr tayles like hurdles and holding vp their heads so swim they ouer to seeke better foode in Arabia We haue said already that when they set vpon Elephants they are taken and killed of men now the manner how the Indians kill the Mountaine-dragons is thus they take a garment of Scarlet and picture vpon it a charme in golden letters this they lay vpon the mouth of the Dragons denne for with the redde colour and the gold the eyes of the dragon are ouer-come and he salleth asleepe the Indians in the meane-season watching muttering secretly words of Incantation when they perceiue he is fast asleepe suddainely they strike off his necke with an Axe and so take out the balls of his eyes wherein are lodged those rare precious stones which containe in them vertues vnvtterable as hath beene euidently prooued by one of them that was included in the Ring of Gyges Manie times it falleth out that the dragon draweth in the Indian both with his Axe and Instruments into his denne and there deuoureth him in the rage whereof hee so beateth the Mountaine that it shaketh When the dragon is killed they make vse of the skin eyes teeth and flesh as for the flesh it is of a vitriall or glassie colour and the Ethiopians doe eate it
any reasonable man that there are winged Serpents and dragons in the world And I pray God that we neuer haue better arguments to satisfie vs by his corporall and liuely presence in our Country least some great calamity followe there-vppon Now therefore we will proceed to the loue and hatred of this beast that is obserued with man and other creatures And first of all although Dragons be naturall enemies to men like vnto all other Serpents yet many times if there be any truth in story they haue beene possessed with extraordinary loue both to men women and children as may appeare by these particulers following There was one Aleua a Thessalian Neatheard which did keepe oxen in Ossa hard by the fountaine Hemonius there was a Dragon fell in loue with this man for his haire was as yellow as any gold vnto him for his hayre did this dragon often come creeping closely as a Louer to his Loue and when he came vnto him he would lick his haire and face so gently and in so sweete a manner as the man professed he neuer felt the like so as without all feare he conuersed with him and as he came so would hee goe away againe neuer returning to him empty but bringing some one gift or other such as his nature and kind could lay hold on There was a Dragon also which loued Pindus the sonne of Macedo King of Emathia This Pindus hauing many Brothers most wicked and lewd persons and he onely beeing a valiant man of honest disposition hauing likewise a comly and goodly personage vnderstanding the trechery of his bretheren against him bethought himselfe how to auoyd theyr hands and tyrannie Now forasmuch as hee knew that the kingdome which hee possessed was the onely marke they all shot at he thought it better to leaue that to them and so to ridde himselfe from enuy feare and perrill then to embrew his hands in theyr blood or to loose his life and kingdome both together Wherefore hee renounced and gaue ouer the gouernment and betooke himselfe to the exercise of hunting for he was a strong man fit to combat with wilde-beastes by destruction of whom hee made more roome for many men vppon the earth so that hee passed all his dayes in that exercise It hapned on a day that he was hunting of a Hind-calfe and spurring his horse with all his might and maine in the eager pursute thereof hee rode out of the sight of all his compapany and suddainely the Hind-calfe leaped into a very deepe Caue out of the sight of Pindus the Hunter and so saued himselfe Then he alighted from his horse and tyed him to the next Tree seeking out as diligently as he could for a way into the Caue whereinto the Hind-calfe had leaped and when he had looked a good while about him could find none he heard a voyce speaking vnto him and forbidding him to touch the Hind-calfe which made him looke about againe to see if hee could perceiue the person from whom the voyce proceeded but espying none hee grew to be afraide and thought that the voyce proceeded from some other greater cause and so leaped vpon his horse hastily and departed againe to his fellowes The day after he returned to the same place and when he came thether beeing terrified with the remembrance of the former voyce hee durst not enter into the place but stoode there doubting and wondering with himselfe what Shepheards or Hunters or other men might be in that place to diswarne him from his game and therefore he went round about to seeke for some or to learne from whence the voyce proceeded While he was thus seeking there appeared vnto him a Dragon of a great stature creeping vpon the greatest part of his body except his necke and head lifted vp a little and that little was as high as the stature of any man can reach and in this fashion hee made toward Pindus who at the first sight was not a little afraid of him but yet did not runne away but rather gathering his wits together remembred that hee had about him birds and diuers parts of sacrifices which instantly he gaue vnto the dragon and so mitigated his furie by these gyfts and as it were with a royall feast changed the cruell nature of the dragon into kind vsage For the Dragon beeing smoothed ouer with these gyfts and as it were ouer-taken with the liberality of Pindus was contented to forsake the old place of his habitation and to goe away with him Pindus also beeing no lesse gladde of the company of the Dragon did daily giue vnto him the greatest part of his hunting as a deserued price and ransome of his life and conquest of such a beast Neither was hee vnrequired for it for Fortune so fauoured his game that whether he hunted foules of the ayre or beastes of the earth hee still obtayned and neuer missed So that his fame for hunting procured him more loue and honour then euer could the Imperiall crowne of his Country For all young men desired to follow him admiring his goodly personage strength the virgins and maydes falling in loue contended among themselues who should marry him the wiues forsaking their husbands contrary to all womanly modestie rather desired his company thē the societie of their husbands or to be preferred among the number of the Goddesses Onely his Bretheren inraged against him sought all meanes to kill destroy him Therfore they watched all opportunities lying in continuall ambush where he hunted to accomplish theyr accursed enterprise which at last they obtained for as he followed the game they enclosed him in a narrow straight neere to a Riuers side vvhere he had no meanes to auoyde their hands they and their company beeing many and hee alone wherefore they drew out their swords and slew him When he saw no remedy but death he cryed out aloude for help whose voyce soone came to the eares of the watchfull Dragon for no beast heareth or seeth better out hee commeth from his denne and finding the murtherers standing about the dead body he presently surprised them and killed them so reuenging the quarrell of Pindus then fell vpon the dead body of his friend neuer forsaking the custodie thereof vntill the neighbours adioyning to the place taking knowledge of the fact came to burie the bodies But when they came and saw the Dragon among them they were afraid and durst not come neere but stoode a farre off consulting what to doe till at last they perceiued that the dragon beganne to take knowledge of their feare who with an admirable curtesie of nature perceiuing their mourning and lamentation for their dead friend and withall their abstinence from approching to execute his exequies or funeralls began to thinke that he might be the cause of this their terror farre standing off from the dead bodies wherefore he departed taking his farewell of the body which he loued and so gaue them leaue by his absence to
of Woods in hedges neere Fountaines and Riuers and some-times they are found among Corne thornes and among Rocks They are sildome seene except it be eyther in the Spring-time or against raine for this cause it is called Animal vernale and Pluuiosum a Spring or raynie creature And yet there were many of them found together in a hole neere vnto the Citty Sneberge in Germanie in the month of February for they loue to liue in flocks and troupes together and at another time in Nouember a liuing Salamander was found in a Fountaine Howbeit if at any time it be seene forraging out of his denne or lodging place it is held for an assured presage of rayne But if the Spring-time fortune to be colde or frostie then they keepe home and goe not visibly abroade Some doe affirme that it is as cold as Ise and that it therefore quencheth heate or fire like a peece of Ise which if it be true then is the old phylosophicall Maxime vtterly false namely that all liuing creatures are hot and moyst beeing compared to creatures without life and sence for there is not any dead or sencelesse body that so quencheth fire as the Ise doth But the truth is that the Salamander is cold and colder then any Serpent yet not without his naturall heate which beeing compared to Armans may truly be said to be hot and therefore the venome of the Salamander is reckoned among Septicks or corroding things It naturally loueth milke and therefore some-times in the Woods or neere hedges it sucketh a Cow that is layde but afterward that Cowes vdder or stocke dryeth vppe and neuer more yeeldeth any milke It also greatly loueth the Honny-combe and some Authours haue affirmed that they vse to gape after ayre or fresh breath like the Camaelion yet they which haue kept Salamanders in glasses neuer perceiued by theÌ„ any such thing They are slow of pace and voyde ground very sluggishlie and therfore it is iustly termed a heauy and slothfull beast But the greatest matter in the Salamander to be inquired after is whethet it can liue and be nourished by and in the fire or whether it can paâ—se thorough the fire without any harme or quench and put out the same Which opinions in the very relation and first hearing doe crosse one another for how can that either be nourished or liue in the fire which quencheth the same beeing put into it Aristotle that neuer saw a Salamander himselfe but wrote thereof by heare-say hath giuen some colour to this opinion because he writeth nonulla corpora esse animalium quae igne non absumantur Salamandra documentâ— est quae vt aiunt ignem inambulans per eum extinguit That is to say the Salamander is an euidence that the bodies of some creatures are not wasted or consumed in the fire for as some say it walketh in the fire and extinguisheth the same Now whether this beseemed so great a Phylosopher to write vppon heare-say vvho tooke vpon him to gather all naturall learning into his owne Graunge or store-house out of the same to furnish both the present and all future ages I leaue it to the consideration of euery indifferent Reader that shall peruse this story I for mine owne part rather iudge it to be lightnes in him to insert a matter of this consequence in the discourse of this beast without either Authours or experience gathered by himselfe This one thing I maruaile at why the Egyptians when they will expresse or signifie a man burnt doe in theyr Hierogliphicks paint a Salamander except eyther fire can burne a Salamander or else contrary to all their custome they demonstrate one contrary by another Nicander plainely affirmeth that the Salamander dooth without all harme passe thorough the fire and the Scholiast addeth that there are certaine passages in the skinne out of vvhich issueth a kind of liquour that quencheth the fire And hee telleth a story of one Andreas who did dippe a peece of cloth in the blood of a Salamander and tried afterward whither it would burne or not but did not find that it would burne wherfore he put it vppon his hand and thrust that into the fire and then also he felt no manner of paine And therefore the said Nicander calleth this creature Ciporrhinon because of a certaine fatte humour which issueth out of it quenching the fire but I rather thinke that this fat humour maketh the skinne to glister for if it were properly fatte it would rather kindle and encrease the fire then quench or extinguish the same Suidas followeth the common receiued opinion that the Salamander quencheth the fire although it be not bredde of the fire as Krekets are like Ise and when the fire is so quenched it is in vaine to blow or kindle the same againe with any bellowes as they say hath beene tryed in the forges of Smithes And this also caused Serenus to write Seu Salamandra potens nullisque obnoxia flammis the potent Salamander is neuer hurt by flames Seneca consenteth heere-vnto and Zoroastres and so great hath beene the dotage about this opinion that some haue written that it ascendeth vp to the fire neere the moone farre aboue the reach of the Eagles or swiftest Fowles Thus say they that write and maintaine the Salamanders abyding in the fire without harme Now on the contrary let vs also heare their opinions vvhich deny this naturall operation in the Salamander Pliny affirmeth that in his owne experience hee found that a Salamander was consumed in the fire and not the fire by it for he saith he burned one to powder and vsed the same powder in medicines Sextius also denyeth that it quencheth the fire and vnto this opinion agreeth Dioseorides Aetius writeth that when it is first put into the fire it deuideth the flame and passeth thorough speedily without harme but if it tarry long therein it is burned and consumed because the liquour or humiditie thereof is wasted And this is also graunted by Galen Theophrastus and Niphus And Matthaeolus affirmeth that hee tryed the same and found that if burning coales were layde vppon it then it burned like vnto any other rawe flesh but beeing cast into the fire it burneth not speedily Albertus writeth that there were some which brought to him a certaine thing which they called Wooll and said that it would not burne but he found it not Laua vvooll but Lamygo that is a vapoury adhaerencie of a thing which flyeth from the strokes oâ— hammers vppon hot burning yron and beeing collected vppon cloth or cleauing to any part of the forge it there becommeth in shew like yellowish pale wooll The said Authour affirmeth that hee tooke a Spyder and layde the same vpon a hot burning yron where it continued vnburned and vnharmed without motion a great while by reason of his thicke skinne and coldnesse and vnto another hee suffered a little Candle to be put which instantly put it out And for the same causes that
vndoubted Antiquaries and also the euidence of all ages not excepting this wherein we liue wherein are and haue beene shewed publiquely many Serpents and Serpents skinnes I receiue warrant sufficient to expresse what they haue obserued and assured aunswere for all future Obiections of ignorant incredulous and vnexperienced Asses Wherefore as the life of Serpents is long so is the time of theyr groweth and as their kindes be many as wee shall manifest in the succeeding discourse so in their multitude some grow much greater and bigger then other Gellius writeth that when the Romanes were in the Carthagenian warre and Attilius Regulus the Consull had pitched his Tents neere vnto the riuer Bragrada there was a Serpent of monstrous quantitie which had beene lodged within the compasse of the Tents and therefore did cause to the whole Armie exceeding great calamitie vntill by casting of stones with slings and many other deuises they oppressed and slew that Serpent and afterward fleyed off the skinne and sent it to Rome which was in length one hundred and twentie feete And although this seemeth to be a Beast of vnmatchable stature yet Possidonius a Christian Writer relateth a storie of another which was much greater for hee writeth that he saw a Serpent dead of the length of an acre of Land and all the residue both of head and bodie were answerable in proportion for the bulke of his bodie was so great and lay so high that two Horsemen could not see one the other beeing at his two sides and the widenes of his mouth was so great that hee could receiue at one time within the compasse thereof a horse and a man on his backe both together The scales of his coate or skinne beeing euery one like a large buckler or target So that now there is no such cause to wonder at the Serpent which is said to be killed by S. George which was as is reported so great that eight Oxen were but strength enough to drawe him out of the Cittie Silena There is a Riuer called Rhyndacus neere the Coasts of Bythinia wherein are Snakes of exceeding monstrous quantitie for when thorough heate they are forced to take the water for their safegard against the sunne and birds come flying ouer the poole suddenlie they raise their heads and vpper parts out thereof and swallow them vp The Serpents of Megalauna are said by Pausanias to be thirtie cubits long and all their other part answerable But the greatest in the world are found in India for there they grow to such a quantitie that they swallow vp whole Bulls and great Stagges Wherefore I doe not maruell that Porus the King of India sent to Augustus Caesar very huge Vipers a Serpent of tenne cubits long a Torteise of three cubits and a Partridge greater then a Vulture For Alexander in his nauigation vpon the Red-Sea saith that hee saw Serpents fortie cubits long and all their other parts and members of the same quantity Among the Scyritae the Serpents come by great swarmes vppon their flocks of sheepe and cattell and some they eate vp all others they kill and sucke out the blood and some part they carry away But if euer there were any thing beyond credite it is the relation of Volateran in his twelfth booke of the New-found Lands wherein he writeth that there are Serpents of a myle long which at one certaine time of the yeere come abroad out of their holes and dennes of habitation and destroy both the Heards and Heard-men if they find them Much more fauourable are the Serpents of a Spanish Island who doe no harme to any liuing thing although they haue huge bodies and great strength to accomplish their desires In the kingdome of Senega their Serpents are so great that they deuoure whole beasts as Goates and such like without breaking any one of their bones In Calechute they are as great as their greatest Swine and not much vnlike them except in their head which doth farre exceede a Swines And because the King of that Country hath made a Lavv that no man kill a Serpent vnder paine of death they are as great in number as they are in quantitie for so great is his error that hee deemeth it as lawfull to kill a Man as a Serpent All kindes of Serpents are referred to their place of habitation which is eyther the earth or the waters of the earth and the serpents of the earth are moe in number then the serpents of the vvater except the serpents of the Sea And yet it is thought by the most learned Rabbines that the serpents of the Sea are fishes in the likenes of Dragons Nowe the places of Serpents abode beeing thus generally capitulated wee must enter into a farther narration of their habitations and regions of their natiue breeding In the first place India nourisheth many and diuers sorts of Serpents especially in the Kingdome of Morfilium and Alexander the Emperour found among other Beasts sundry kinds of serpentâ— in a long Desert which is on the North-side of India But all the Nations of the World may giue place to Ethiopia for multitude and varietie for there they gather together on heapes and lye in compasse like round hills visibly apparant to the eyes of them that behold them a farre off The like is said of all Affrica for in Numidia euery yeere there are many men women and children destroyed by Serpents The Island Pharus is also by the testimony of the Egyptians filled with serpents The Coastes of Elymais are annoyed by serpents and the Caspians are so annoyed by serpents which come swymming in the floods that men cannot sayle that waies but in the Winter-time For from the beginning of the Spring or aequinoctiall they seeme for their number to approch fauening like troupes and Armies There are also certaine Ilands called Ophiusae insulae named after Ophis a serpent for the multitude bred therein And there are serpents in Candy Ephesus and all hot Countries for this priuiledge hath GOD in nature giuen to the colder Countreys that they are lesse annoyed with serpents and their serpents also lesse nocent and hurtfull and therefore the serpents of Europe are fewer in number lesser in quantity and more resistable for their weakenes and strength There were a people in Campania called Osci because of the multitude of serpents bred among them Likewise there are great store in Lombardy and Ferrara And whereas we haue saide that the most nocent and harmfull serpents are breddâ— in the hotest Regions where they engender more speedily and also grow into greater proportions yet is it not to be vnderstood of any speciall propertie appertayning to them alone for I read in Olaus Magnus his description of the Northerne Regions of serpents of as great quantitie as in any other place of the World but yet their poyson is not halfe so venomous hurtfull as in the hoter Regions especially the Affrican serpents In Botina
Winter as well as in Sommer and yet the serpents which run wild in the fieldes eate nothing at all during the time of their Chias or Ehiaus that is their lying hid Greuinus that learned man proponeth this question Si serpentes calidi sunt qui fit vt in regros tres aut quatuor menses id est toto illo tempore quâ— delitescunt absque cibo vivunt If saith he Serpents be hot how commeth it to passe that they can liue three or 4. months without all foode that is all the time of their lying secret He maketh in my opinion a sufficient aunswere 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 beeing full of humor and thicke phlegmaticke matter haue but a little and weake naturall heate yet proportionable to the said humour doe liue a great time by reason thereof without foode or nourishment And for this cause all the hoasts of Philosophers doe define that serpents doe also abstaine from eating a long season For Nature hath clothed them with a more solide skinne and liued them with a more thicke and substantiall flesh to the intent that theyr naturall heate should not easily vanish away and decay in their bodies but remaine therein permanent for the feeding and preseruing of life When they sleepe they seeme to sleepe with open eyes which is elegantly described by Philes in these Greeke verses OpoÌ„s kathéude kai dokeiÌ„ palin blepin Ophis te kai ptox kai thumou pleres león Epipetatai gar he chlamys ton ommaton Allou tinos Chitonos apaloterou Phrorountos autois os dioptras task-óras Which may be englished thus How can the Hare the Serpent and the Lyon bold Both sleepe and see together at one time Within theyr eye-lids a soft skinne their sight doth fold Shielding their apples as glasse doth weakened eyne The foode of Serpents that is permitted them by God is the dust of the earth as may appeare by that first and iust sentence which GOD himselfe gaue vpon them for seducing our first Parents Adam and Eue Gene 3. 14. Because thou hast doone this thing thou art accursed aboue all the Beasts of the field for thou shalt goe vppon thy belly and eate dust all the dayes of thy life And againe Esay 65. 25. Dust shall be meate to the Serpent And least that we should thinke that this curse hath not taken hold vpon the Serpent we may finde the expresse practise heereof Michae 7. 17. Where it is said of Gods enemies that They shall licke the dust like the Serpent Yet Aristotle affirmeth truly that Serpents are Omninori that is deuourers of flesh fish herbes or any other thinges howbeit heerein they passe their kind or else the curse of God reacheth not to any other kinds theÌ„ to that alone which deceiued our first Parents We haue shewed already how they eate and deuour men women children oxen sheepe and goates but whatsoeuer they eate they retaine nothing but the moysture of it and the residue they eiect whole and vndigested VVhatsoeuer is offered them that they take either a bird or a small chicken or an egge hauing it they take hold but of one end as of the head of a chicke or small end of an egge and so set it directly before them then doe they gather themselues together in as short a compasse as may be that so their bodies which seeme long and small beeing extended may appeare great and wide reduced into a short and compacted frame And surely heereby they open and make wider their passage or swallow for then they suddenly goble in the beast or meate before them without any great adoe hauing kept it in their body till it be dryed from all moisture they cast it out againe as they swallowed it vp at another ordinary place But for birds chickens they striue with them till they haue gotten off their feathers or els if they swallowe them whole they eiect the feathers as they doe egge-shells The Serpents of the North doe in the Sommer time eate the flesh of birds herbes and after the eating of them they tast of a little water or milke if they can attaine it or els vvine For this cause they will suck the vdders of Kine or Goates or sheepe as hath been seene in England Yet is their appetite to drinke but smally as is in all other Creatures whose liuers are fungous and soft like Spunges and so are all beastes and creatures which lay egges Aboue all kindes of drinke they loue vvine and thereof they be drunke wherfore in Italy they set pottles of vvine to entrappe Vipers for if once they smell the vvine they enter the vessell gladly and speedily and the vvine or milke whereof they drinke is poysoned by them But in those places of Affrick where it neuer raineth they eate a kinde of black moyst vvorme which hath many legges as is said by Theophrastus And to conclude their meate and drinke is so small that it is receiued for truth Nullum venenatum perit fame vel siti that no venomous beast perrisheth by hunger or thirst The voyce of Serpents is called Sibilus a hyssing and theyr voyce differeth from all other beasts hyssing in the length thereof for the hyssing of a Torreise is shorter and more abrupt Of this hyssing voyce speaketh Lucan saying Quod strident vlulant que ferae quòd sibilat anguis In English thus Gnashing and howling is the voyce of wild beastes Long hyssing in Snakes and Serpents doth rest Among other things notable in a Serpent this is one because it easteth off his old age euery yeere whereof the Graecians tell this fabulous reason Once Man-kinde stroue earnestly with the Gods by supplication for a perpetuall youth that they might neuer waxe old and obtayning their desire they layd the same to be carried vpon an Asse The sillie beast waxing sore athirst in his trauaile at last came vnto a water and thereof endeuoured earnestly to drinke but the keeper of the same water beeing a Serpent denied leaue to the Asse to drinke thereof except he would grant him his carriage which was Perpetuall youth The poore Asse ready to perrish for thirst easily condiscended therevnto Whervppon the Serpent changeth her age for youth and men their youth for old age and the Asse for his punishment is more tormented with thirst then any other beast But to leaue fables and to come more neere the marke the Latines call the casting of their skin Anguina senectus spolium serpentis vernatio the Graecians Opheos derma suphar lebâ—ris geras the Arabeans Geluc Genlut Fulcalhaileb the Italians Spoglia delle serpi and the Spanyards Pelle de la culebra About this Snakes skinne there is great difference among Authors some affirming it to be the very skinne Other that it is nothing but a kind of hard Leprosie growne vpon them during the Winter time vvhile they lye
lost or left some poyson vppon the Cats skinne the Monkes by stroking of the Cat were infected there-with And the cause why the Catte was not harmed thereby was for that shee receiued the poyson from the sport and not from the anger of the serpent And this thing surely is not so maruailous seeing that little Mice and Rats doe also play with Serpents and heerein Politicians play the serpents vvho hold correspondence and peace both with the Catte and the Mouse that is with two sworne and naturall enemies together The like peace and league they are also saide to keepe with Eeles as may more plainely appeare by this following historie of a certaine Monke called Rodolphus a Will Monachus Capellensis There vvas as this Monke affirmeth one of his fellowe Monks which did often tell him that beeing a little boy and vsing to sport himselfe by the water side hee hapned to catch an Eele which he attempted for his owne pleasure to carry to another water and by the way as he went hee passed thorough a vvood at which time when hee was in the vvood the Eele began to hisse cry mainelie at the hearing wheteof there gathered together very many serpents round about him insomuch that he was afraid and set downe his basket fast pinned and ranne away afterward he came againe and sought for his basket but he found not the Eele therein wherefore it was supposed that the Serpents deliuered the same Eele out of the basket by some sleight of nature the onely doubt is whether Eeles doe hysse or not seeing they are fishes and Omnes pisces mâ—ti all fishes are mute or dumbe But for answer to this obiection it is most certaine that Ecles haue a voyce as all they knowe which vse fishing in the night for I my selfe haue not onely heard such a voyce in the night time in Riuers and other waters where Eeles abounded but haue had it confirmed by diuers other of greater practise experience in fishing The reason wherof may be their manner of generation for they engender not by spawne as other fishes but of the slyme of the earth or vvater and differ not froÌ„ serpents in their externall forme except in their colour and therefore may be said to partake with fishes serpents in both their natures that is hauing a voyce like a serpent a substance like a fish Such is theyr confederacie with liuing Creatures and with no more that I euer read or heard of But moreouer it is said that they loue some plants or herbes aboue measure as the Fenell and Iuy and for this latter both Pliny and Textor doe not without great cause wonder that euer there was any honour ascribed or giuen to the Iuy seeing that serpents the most vnreconcileable enemies of man-kind delight so much therein But herein the deuil blinded their reason as hee did the modest women that worshipped Priapus or the Tartars which at this day worship the deuill to the end that he should do theÌ„ no harme Thus much I can onely say of the friends and louers of Serpents by the multitude whereof wee may coniecture how among other parts of the curse of God vpon 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 betweene them and other creatures and first I will beginne with their arch enemie I meane Man-kind For vvhen GOD at the beginning did pronounce his sentence against the Serpent for deceiuing our first Parents among other things he said I will put enmity betwixt thee and the Woman betwixt thy seed the womans seede Whereby he did signifie that perpetuall warre and vnappeaseable discord vvhich should be for euer by his owne appoyntment betwixt them And the truth heereof is to be seene at this day for by a kind of secret instinct and naturall motion a man abhorreth the sight of a Serpent a serpent the sight of a man And as by the tongue of the serpent was wrought mans confusion so by the spettle of a mans tongue is wrought a serpents astonishment For indeed such is the ordinance of God that men Serpents should euer annoy and vexe each other And this Erasmus saith shall continue as long as meminerimus illius inauspicati pomi we shall remember that vnfortunate Apple Isidorus saith that serpents are afraid of a man naked but will leape vpon and deuoure a man clothed Which thing is also affirmed by Olaus Magnus for he saith that when he was a boy hee often tryed it that when hee was naked hee found little or no resistance in serpents and did safely without all danger combat with them hand to hand I my selfe also in my younger time when I was about tenne or twelue yeeres old vsed many times in the Spring and Sommer time to wash my selfe with other my colleagues in certaine fish-ponds wherein I haue seene and met with diuers water-snakes without all harme and I did neuer in my life heare of any harme they did to any of my fellowes beeing naked neither did I euer see any of them runne away so fast on the Land as they did fly from vs in the vvater and yet are not the vvater-snakes lesse hurtfull then the Land-Adders And this was well knowne to many About the beginning or Fountaine Springs of Euphrates it is said that there are certaine serpents which know strangers from the people of the Country wherefore they doe no harme to the naturall borne Country-men but with strangers men of other countryes they fight with might and maine And along the bankes of Euphrates in Syria they also do the like sauing that if they chaunce to be trode vpon by any of the people of those parts they bite like as a dogge doth without any great harme but if any other forrainer or stranger annoy them they also repay him with malice for they bite him and intollerably vexe him wherefore the Country-men nourish them and doe them no harme 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 venome 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 iawes of a serpent he certainly dieth thereof And of this thus writeth the Poet Lucretius Est vtique vt serpens hominis quae tacta saliuis Disperit ac sese mandendo conficit ipsa In English thus As serpent dyeth when spittle of man he tasteth Gnashing his teeth to eate himselfe he wasteth The cause of this the Philosophers which knew nothing of Adams fall or the forbidden Apple doe assigne to be in the contrarietie betwixt the liuing soules or spirits of these Creatures for
the sight of the serpent the hedge-hogge foldeth himselfe vp round so as nothing appeareth outwardly saue onelie his prickles and sharpe bristles the angry serpent setteth vpon him and biteth him with all her force the other againe straineth herselfe aboue measure to annoy the serpents teeth face eyes and whole body and thus when they meete they lie together afflicting one another till one or both of them fall downe dead in the place For some-time the serpent killeth the hedge-hogge and sometime the hedge-hogge killeth the serpent so that many times she caâ—rieth away the serpents flesh and skin vpon her backe The Wesills also fight with serpents with the like successe the cause is for that one other of them liue vpon iuyce and so for their pray or bootie they fall together in mortall warre Heerein the Wesill is too cunning for the Serpent because before she fighteth she seeketh Rue and by eating thereof quickly discomforteth her aduersarie But some say that shee eateth Rue afterward to the intent to auoyde all the poyson shee 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 runne away from the Hurt the most fearefull of all other â—easts and yet ouer-come the Lyon King of all the residue The Ichneumon or Pharoes Mouse is an enemy to serpents eateth them and because he is too feeble to deale with a snake alone therefore when hee hath found one hee goeth and calleth as many of his fellowes as he can find so when they find themselues strong enough in companie they set vpon theyr pray eate it together for which cause when the Egyptians will signifie weakenes they paint an Ichneumon The Peacock is also a profested terrour and scourge to Snakes Adders and they will not endure neere those places where they heare their voyce The Sorex and Swine doe also hate and abhorre serpents and the little Sorex hath most aduantage against them in the Winter-time vvhen they are at the weakest To conclude the horse is wonderfully afraid of all kinds of Serpents if he see them and will not goe ouer but rather leape ouer a dead snake And thus I will end the warre betwixt serpents and foure-footed beastes and fowles Novv least their curse should not be hard enough vnto them God hath also ordained one of them to destroy another and therefore now it followeth to shewe in a word the mutuall discord betwixt themselues The Spider although a venomous creature yet is it an enemie to the serpent for when shee seeth a serpent lye vnder her tree in the shadow she weaueth or twisteth a thred downe from her vveb vppon the head of the serpent and suddenly byteth into his head a mortall wound so that he can do nothing but onely roule to and fro beeing strooken with a Megrim whereby hee hath not so much power as to breake the Spiders thred hanging ouer his head vntill he be dead and ouerthrowne The The Cockatrice is such an enemie to some kind of serpents that he killeth them vvith his breath or hyssing The Lyzard a kind of serpent is most friendly to man very irefull against serpents to the vttermost of his power whereof Erasmus in his booke of friendshippe telleth this storie I saw saith hee on a day a very great Lyzard fighting with a serpent in the verie mouth of a Caue at the first sight whereof I maruailed at the matter for the serpent was not visible our of the earth there was with me an Italian who said that surely the Lyzard had some enemy within the Caue After a little while the Lizard came vnto vs shewed vs his side all wounded as it were crauing helpe for the serpent had bitten him sore for of greene he made him appeare redde and this Lyzard did suffer himselfe to be touched of vs. Thus saith Erasmus Againe in the same place he saith that when a Lyzard saw a serpent lye in waite to set vpon a man beeing a sleepe the Lyzard ranne to the man and neuer ceased running vpon the mans face scratching his necke and face gentlie with his clawes vntill he had awaked the man and so discouered to him his great danger The Locust also fighteth with a serpent and killeth him when he lusteth for he getteth hold with his teeth vppon his lower chappe and so destroyeth him but this is not to be vnderstood of euery kinde of Locust but onely of one kind which for this cause is called Ophiomachum genus The Serpent is also an enemy to the Chamaeleon for in the extremitie of famine shee setteth vpon them and except the Chamaeleon can couer herselfe from his rage hee hath no defence but death Albertus calleth a certaine vvorme Spoliator colubri because as he saith it will take fast hold vpon a serpents necke vnder-neath his iawes and neuer giue ouer till he hath wearied and destroyed his aduersarie The Torteises are enemies to Serpents and will fight with them but before they enter combat they arme themselues with wild Marioram or Peniroyall But there is not any thing in the worlde that fighteth more earnestly against serpents then Sea-crabbes Creuises for when the Sunne is in Cancer serpents are naturally tormented with paines and feauers and therefore if swine be stunge or bitten with serpents they cure themselues by caâ—ing of Sea-crabs There is a great water neere Ephesus at the one side whereof there is a Caue full of many noysome irefull serpents whose bytings by often probation haue beene very deadly both to men and beastes These serpents doe oftentimes endenour to crawl ouer the poole now on the other side there are great store of Crabbes who when they see the serpents come crawling or swimming they instantly put out their crooked legges as it were with tonges or pynsars reach at the slyding serpent where-withall the serpents are so deterred that through their sight often remembrance of their vnhappy successe with them they turne backe againe and neuer dare any more aduenture to the other side Where wee may see the most wise prouidence of the Creator who hath set Sea crabs the enemies of serpents to guard both men and cattell which are on the opposite sides for otherwise the inhabitants would all perrish or els be droue away from their dwellings To conclude not onely liuing creatures but also some kind of earth and plants are enemies to serpents and therfore most famous are Ebusus Creete as some say although Bellonius say that there are Scolopendraes Vipers and Slow-wormes in Creete yet he saith they are without venome and there are very fewe in England Scotland but none at all in Ireland neither will they liue if they be brought in thether from any other Country This antipathy with Serpents
lodged Army Besides the small Wormes of the Drones are far smaller at their first bringing forth then those that are of the kingly race and linage of their Dukes Who yet at length grow greater then any of them all in regard that by labour and trauaile they wast and diminish nothing of superfluous matter and those grosse humours wherewith they abound as also that both day and night like Oxen lying at racke and Manger they gluttonously rauen stuffe themselues with the hony-liquor which they againe pay for full dearely in time of any general dearth and scarsity of vittaile and prouision Further this is to be added that the Drone is of a more shining black colour then the true labouring Bee he is also greater then the greatest without sting sluggish idle slothfull without hart or courage cowardous and vnapt to war not daring to venture life limbe in manly Martiall trade as the true Ligitimate Bees will Aristotle saith that they breed and liue amongest the true Bees and when they flye abroad they are carryed scatteringly here and there aloft in the aire as it were with some violence or tempest so exercising themselues for a time they returne from whence they came ther greedily feeding vpon the hony Now why the droues may be compared with the Dukes and Princes in respect of their corporature and Bees like vnto them in theyr sting let vs heare Aristotles reason Nature would saith he there should be some difference least alwaies the same stock should encrease one of another confusedly without order or consideration which is impossible For so the whole stocke would either be dukes or Drones And therefore the true Bees in strength and power of engendering and bree-ding are comparable to their Dukes and the Drones onely in greatnesse of body resemble them to whom if you allow a sting you shall make him a Duke These Drones further of the Graecians are called Cothouroi because he putteth not forth any sting whereof Hesiodus hath these verses thus interpreted Hinc vero Dij succenset homines quicunque ociasus Viuat fucis ac aleo-carentibus similis studio Qui apuni laborem absumunt ociosi Vorantes In English thus Both God and men disdaine that man VVhich Drone like in the hiue Nor good nor ill endeuour can Vpon himselfe to liue But idle is and without sting And grieues the labouring Bee Deuouring that which he home brings Not yeelding help or fee. So that either he hath no sting at all or else maketh no vse of it for reuengement Pliny saith flatly that they are stinglesse and would haue them called imperfect Bees the famous Poet Virgill stileth them Ignauumpecus that is idle and vnprofitable good for nothing Columella maketh them a race or stocke of a larger size very like vnto Bees and accounteth them very aptly to be placed in the ranke of ordinary sorts of Creatures of the same kinde and company with Bees They suffer punnishment and are scourged many times in the whole Bee-common-wealth not onely for pretence of idlenesse gluttony extertion and rauenous greedinesse to which they are too much adicted but because lacking their sting and by that defect being as is were emaculated they dare shew themselues in publique Pliny doth not expresse their nature and quality The Drones are stinglesse and so to be reckoned imperfect Bees and of the basest sort taking their originall from tyred and worne-out Bees and such as be past labour and seruice liuing onely vpon a bare pension◠we may call them the very slaues and bond-men of the true Bees to whom they owe all due homage and subiection wherefore they exercise their authority ouer them thrusting them first out of doores by head and shoulders like a company of drudges to theyr worke and if they be any thing negligent not bestirring themselues quickly and liuely they giue them correction and punnish them without all pitty and mercy For in the moneth of Iune two or three Bees especially of the younger sort will hale out of the Hiue one Drone there beating of him with there winges pricking and tormenting him with their stinges and if he offer any resistance to their Lordly rule then they violently cast him downe from the shelfe or step whereon he holdeth down to the earth as though they would breake his necke Thus when they haue glutted their wils and punished him at the full they at length put him to a shamefull death all which we haue often beheld not without great admiration and pleasure Sometimes the Drones remaine like banished persons before the enterance of the hiue and dare not venture to presse in For three causes specially the Bees do driue and cast out the drones either when they multiply aboue measure or when they haue not place ynough left for their labourers or that they be pinched with hunger and famine for lacke of Hony And as they carry a deadly hatred against the Drones so to make it more apparant they will not hurt such persons as offer either to take away with their bare handes any of the drones and to cast them away yea though they be in the greatest heat of their fight Aristotle in his ninth Booke De histo Animal Cap. 40. affirmeth that Bees are engendered apart one from another if their Captaine liueth but in case their King and Captaine dies some say they breed in the Bees celles and that of all others of this kinde they are the most noble and couragious The young drones are bred without any King but the true younger Bees neuer for they deriue their originall and petigree from the kingly stocke Some will say that the young drones doe fetch their originall from the flowers of the Herbe Cerinthe described by Pliny which is a kind of Hony suckle hauing the tast of the Hony and Waxe together from the Oliue tree and Reede but this opinion is weakely grounded and standeth vpon small reason Aristotle affirmeth that they proceede from the longer and bigger Bees yea and those that are tearmed Thieues which without question he receiued either from the Auncient Philosophers or some others that had the charge and were skilfull of ordering Honny that liued in his time Some will haue them to breed and come from putrifaction as Isidore from stinking and putrified Mules Cardan frō Asses Plutarke and Seruius from Horses Othersome are of opinion that they first proceede of Bees and that afterwards they degenerate bastardlike from them after they haue lost their stings for then they become Drones neither are they afterwardes knowne to gather any Honny but being as it were depriued of their strength they grow effeminate ceasing either to hurt or to do any good at all Some againe hold the contrary side assuring vs vppon their knowledge that the true labouring Bee fetcheth his beginning from the Drone because long experience the Maisters of wisedome hath taught vs that there is yearely knowne to be the greater swarme when there is
apply very warme to the wound a Spiders web bruised with a vvhite Onion sufficient Salt and vineger will perfectlie cure it Guil Placentinus will warrant that a Plate of cold Iron laid vppon the wound or Lead steeped in vineger will doe the deed Gordonius counsell is to rub the place with sage and vineger and afterwards to foment it with water and vineger sod together Varignana would haue vs to apply Chalk in powder and invvardly to take the seedes of Mallovves boyled in vvine water and a little vineger Matthiolus much commendeth Sperage being beaten and wrought vp with Hony to annoint the place Likewise Flyes beaten and annointed on the place vvinter Sauoury VVater-cresses with oyle of Momerdica giue most speedie helpe Arnoldus Villanouanus assureth vs that any fresh earth especially Fullers earth is very auayleable and the herbe called Poley vsed as an vnguent or else Goats Milke And Marcellus Empiericus is not behinde his commendations for the vse of Bullockes dung to be applyed as a poulteisse to the stinged part These and many others any man ascribe that hath hadde but an easie tast of the infinity of Physickes speculation for the store-house of Nature and truely learned Physitions which way soeuer you turne you will Minister and giue sufficient store of alexyteriall medicines for the expulsing of this griefe In conclusion one and the selfe same medicament will serue indifferently for the curation of waspes Bees sauing that when we are stung with Waspes more forceable remedies are requyred and for the hurts that Bees doe vs then weaker and gentler are sufficient In the hundreth and nintith yeare before the byrth of our blessed Sauiour an infinite multitude of Waspes came flying into the Market place at Capua as Iulius witnesseth and lighted on the temple of Mars all which when with great regard diligence they were gathered together and solemnly burnt yet for all that they presignified the comming of an enemy and did as it were foretell the burning of the Citty which shortly after came to passe And thus much for the Historie of the Waspe OF HORNETS AHornet is called of the Hebrewes Tsirhah Of the Arabians Zabor and Zambor Of the Germans Ein hornauss Horlitz Froisln Ofertzwuble Of the Flemminges Horsele Of the French-men Trellons Troisons Foulons Of the Italians Calauron Crabrone Scaraffon and Galanron Of the Spaniards Tabarros ò Moscardos Of the Illirians Irssen Of the Slauonians Sierszen Of vs Englishmen Hornets great waspes The Graecians cal them Anthrénas and Anthrenoùs because with their sting they raise an Anthrar or Carbuncle with a vehement inflamation of the whole part about it The Latines call them Crabrones peraduenture of Crabra a Towne so named in the territory of Tusculanum where there is great plenty of them or it may be they are tearmed Crambrones of Caballus a horse of whom they are first engendered according to that of Ouid 15. Metamorphos Pressus humo bellator equus Crabronis origo est That is to say When war horse dead vpon the earth lies Then doth his flesh breed Hornet flyes Albertus tearmeth a Hornet Apis citrina that is a yellow or Orenge coloured Bee Cardan laboureth much to proue that dead Mules are their first beginners Plutarke is of opinion that they first proceed from the flesh of dead Horses as Bees do out of a Buls belly and I thinke that they haue their breeding from the harder more firme and solide parts of the flesh of Horses as Waspes do from the more tender or soft Hornets are twice so great as the common Waspes in shape and proportion of body much resembling one another They haue foure winges the inward not beeing halfe so large as the outward beeing all ioyned to their shoulders which are of a darke brownish and of a Chestnut-like colour these wings are the cause of their swift flight they haue also sixe feete of the same colour and hew that their breast and shoulders are of Their is somewhat long of the colour of Saffron their eyes and lookes are hanging or bending downewards crooked and made like a halfe Moone from which grow forth two peakes like vnto Sithes or two sickles nothing varying in colour frō their feet Their belly is as though it were tied to their shoulders with a very fine thred the forward and middle part whereof is ouercast with a browne colour begirt as it were with a girdle of Saffron The hinder part is altogether yellow easily discerned and remarkable for those eight browne pricks or specks euery one of them being much like vnto a small triangle besides they haue certain clefts or slits on both sides both before and behind by which they can at their pleasure when they list either shrinke vp themselues or draw and gather themselues together and with the same againe lengthen and stretch out their bodies They haue also neere to their belly on both sides foure blacke spots and in their taile they are armed with a strong piercing sting and the same very venomous They make a sound or a buzzing strange noyse more hydeous and dreadfull then waspes doe They are shrewd fierce and cruell quickly angry and wrathfull and although they liue in companies together yet notwithstanding they are euer known to be but of an homely rude curft and vntractable disposition and nature and will neuer be brought by any Art or fashioning to lay aside their vplandish wildenesse as some Herbes will doe that are transplanted into Gardens They are besides this of such a mischeeuous malignity and venemous quality that as some affirme nine of their stings will kill a man and three time nine will be able to kill a strong Horse especially at the rising of the Dog-star and after at which time they haue a more fiery hasty and inflaming nature and men at that season by reason of their large exaltation and sending forth of spirits grow more weake and faint And therefore it is no maruaile though in holy Scripture they are compared or likened to most fierce cruell enemies which should put cast forth the Cananites Hettites and Cheuits Exod. 23. 28. So likewise Ouid in the eleuenth Booke of his Metamorphos hath these words Spicula carbronum ardentia The burning stings of Hornets And Virgill in the fourth booke of his Georgiks calleth them Asperrima most sharp and violent Terence the most eloquent of all Comicall Poets in his Comedy intituled Phormio and Plautus in his Amphytrio haue this Prouerbe Irritaui crabrones I haue prouoked or incensed the great Waspes to anger which I suppose they vsed as a by-word against the properties natures and froward behauiours of women who beeing in their wonted sumish mood if once you go about to ouerthwart them or a little to contrary their wilfulnesse you shall pull an old house ouer your owne head by a further prouocation perhaps if you get you not the sooner out of their sight and reach of
themselues they containe and carry about Thus saith Pliny in his eleuenth booke and 35 chapter And peraduenture for the same cause Galen in his eleuenth Booke which hee entituled De Simplic Medicament facultatibus aduiseth vs expresly and learnedly that Cantharides should be taken whole as they are and so to be vsed either for inward or outward vses For why it is far better euen in the outward applycation of them that they should more gently and slowly corrode gnaw or fret asunder and that their burning vertue and quality should be a little corrected and weakened then to performe their full effect to the great danger of the patient and many times to his vtter vndoing and destruction Therefore they are cleane out of the way who when they wold vse them for any inward cause doe cast away their winges and feete whereas indeede they ought to take all of them not reiecting any one part of them For being giuen whole they neede not so much any correctiues to bridle and lessen their powerfull operation in regard of their wings and feete the proper resisters and expellers of their owne or other poyson The safest course is to vse all and euery part of them without exception vnlesse you would haue them to corrode fret inflame or burne any part Lycus Neapolitanus is of opinion that Purcelane is their proper counter-poyson which vertue Pliny in his twentith Booke Chapter 13. ascribeth to the Herbe called wilde Basill who also many waies commendeth Acetum Scylliticum Oleum Oenanthium Cowes milke and brothes made of Goates flesh for these intentions in his 23. Booke Chapter the second and fourth and likewise in his 28. Booke and tenth Chapter And for our History of Cantharides let this for this time suffice which I much wonder that the famous learned Gesner hath in such deepe silence passed ouer neuer so much as mentioning them whereof notwithstanding so many Authours both of the Auncientes and Neoterickes doe so much ring Many moe authorities could I haue alledged concerning this my discourse of Cantharides but that I supposed it a labour as endlesse in toyle as needlesse in vse the one sauoring of too much curiosity the other of a fryuolous affectation so that I hope euen amongest the whole Colledge of Physitions wheresoeuer in England if their eares be not to dainty to find some few graynes of their good wordes and such curteous construction as that I may neither bee charged with partiality of concealing where it is meete I should be mute nor be suspected of vnsufficiency for not pursuing where I can finde no good footing OF CATERPILLERS OR PALMER Wormes called of some Cankers NOw I am come to speake of Caterpillers sometimes the destroiers and wasters of Egypt as well in regard of the great differēce that is found in their seuerall sorts as for their great dignity and vse wherein some of them are most notable and excellent Some thinke that Eruca which is Englished a Catterpiller hath his deriuation Ab erodendo which is not altogether improbable For they gnaw of and consume by eating both leaues boughes and flowers yea and some fruits also as I haue often seene in peaches Ouidius the famous Poet styleth them by the name of Tineae agrestes Quaque solent canis frondes intexere filis Agrestes Tineae res obseruata colonis Feraci mutant cum papilione figuram In English thus And those wilde mothes by husbandmen obserued Which fold themselues in hoary springing leaues Gainst force of famine and storme to be preserued A shape from fruitfull Butterflyes receiues The Graecians call a Catterpiller Kámpe by reason of his crooked winding or bending pace in wauing sort whereby in creeping they bow wry and lift vp themselues Of the Hebrewes it is termed Ghazain because it sheareth pilleth deuoureth the fruites of the earth as Kimhi vpon the first of Ioell writeth The Italians call it Rugauerme and Brucho for so Marcellus Virgilius vpon Dioscorides saith expresly that in his time all the people of Italy named it Erucae Bruchi The Spanyards terme it Oruga The French-men Chenille and Chattpleuse Of the English they are commonly called Catterpillers of what kind soeuer they be of But the English-Northren-men call the hairie Catterpillers Oubuts and the Southern-men vsually terme them Palmer-wormes Of the Polonians it is called by the name of Ruphansenka In the Germaine tongue Ein Raup in the Belgian Ruipe Of the Illerians Gasienica And Siluaticus will haue it called Certris and Cedebroa If I should goe about to describe and set downe all the differences and varieties of Catterpillers I might perhaps vndertake an endlesse and tedious labour I thinke it therefore fittest to bend my slender skill and to imploy my best forces in speaking of such as are more notable and common with vs in this Country For some of them in touching are rough hard and stiffe and other-some againe are soft smooth and very tender Some are horned either in the head or in the tayle and againe others haue no hornes at all Some haue many feete and some fewer and none at all haue aboue sixteene feete Most of them haue a bending swift pace and like vnto waues and others againe keepe on their way very plainely softly by little and little without any great hast Some change their skinnes yeerely others againe there be that neither change nor cast their old dry skinnes but keepe them still Some of them ceasing altogether from any motion and giuing ouer to eate any thing at all are transformed very strangely into a kind of vermin or wormes who beeing couered with a hard crust or shell lye as it were dead all the winter from these come in the beginning of hot weather our vsuall Butter-flyes Many of these Catterpillers are bred of the egges of Butter-flyes and some againe do breede in the leaues of trees of their owne proper seede beeing left there in the time of Autumne included in a certaine webbe or els by meanes of the dew or ayre therein shut and putrified as commonly the little hairie Cankers or Caterpillers which are so full of feete doe breede Besides some of them doe feede on leaues some on flowers there are some which deuoure fruites All smooth Catterpillers which are not hairie are of a yellow or greene colour some againe are found of a reddish colour or brownish or else they be of sundry hewes But of all others the most excellent is the greene coloured Catterpiller which is found vppon that great bushy plant vsually termed Priuet or Primprint which hath a circle enclosing round both his eyes and all his feete hauing also a crooked horne in his tayle these Catterpillers are blackish-redde with spots or streakes going ouerthwart theyr sides beeing halfe white and halfe purpelish the little pricks in these spots are inclining to redde The rest of theyr body is altogether greene There is another Catterpiller feeding altogether vpon Elder-trees not much differing from
to a thin fleake of a horne which beeing layde ouer blacke seemeth blacke and so ouer other colours and besides there being no hinderaunce of bloud in this beast nor Intrals except the Lights the other humours may haue the more predominant mutation and so I will conclude the discourse of the partes and colour of a Chamaelion with the opinion of Kiranides not that I approoue it but to let the Reader know all that is written of this Subiect his wordes are these Chamaelem singulis horis diei mutat colorem A Chamaelion changeth his colour euery houre of a day This beast hath the face like a Lyon the feet and tayle of a Crocodile hauing a variable colour as you haue heard and one strange continued Nerue from the head to the tayle beeing altogether without flesh except in the head cheekes and vppermost part of the tayle which is ioyned to the body neither hath it any bloud but in the hart eyes and in a place aboue the hart and in certaine vaynes deriued from that place and in them also but a very little bloud There be many membranes all ouer theyr bodies and those stronger then in any other Beastes From the middle of the head backward there ariseth a three square bone and the fore part is hollow and round like a Pipe certaine bony brimmes sharpe and indented standing vpon either side Theyr braine is so little aboue their eyes that it almost toucheth them and the vpper skinne beeing pulled off from their eyes there appeareth a certaine round thing like a bright ring of Brasse which Niphus calleth Palla which signifieth that part of a Ring wherein is set a pretious stone The eyes in the hollow within are very great and much greater then the proportion of the body round and couered ouer with such a skinne as the whole body is except the apple which is bare and that part is neuer couered This apple stands immoueable not turned but when the whole eye is turned at the pleasure of the beast The snoute is like to the snoute of a Hog-ape alwayes gaping and neuer shutting his mouth and seruing him for no other vse but to beare his tongue and his teeth his gumbes are adorned with teeth as we haue said before the vpper lippe beeing shorter and more turned in then the other Their throate and arterie are placed as in a Lizard their Lights are exceeding great and they haue nothing els within their body Whervpon Theophrastus as Plutarch witnesseth conceiueth that they fill the whole body within for this cause it is more apt to liue on the ayre and also to change the colour It hath no Spleene or Melt the tayle is very long at the end and turning vp like a Vipers tayle winded together in many circles The feete are double clouen for proportion resemble the thumbe and hand of a man yet so as if one of the fingers were set neere the side of the thumbe hauing three without and two within behind and three vvithin and two without before the palme betwixt the fingers is somewhat great from within the hinder legges there seeme to growe certaine spurres Their legges are straight and longer then a Lizards yet is theyr bending alike and theyr nayles are crooked and very sharpe One of these beeing dissected and cut asunder yet breatheth a long time after they goe into the caues and holes of the earth like Lizards wherein they lie all the winter time and come forth againe in the Spring theyr pace is very slow and themselues very gentle neuer exasperated but when they are about wild-figge-trees They haue for theyr enemies the Serpent the Crow and the Hawke When the hungry â—erpent doth assault them they defend themselues in this manner as Alexander Mindius writeth they take in their mouthes a broad strong stalk vnder protection whereof as vnder a buckler they defend themselues against theyr enemy the Serpent by reason that the stalke is broader then the Serpent can gripe in his mouth and the other parts of the Chamaeleon so firme and hard as the Serpent cannot hurt them he laboureth but in vaine to get a prey so long as the stalke is in the Chamaeleons mouth But if the Chamaeleon at any time see a Serpent taking the ayre and sunning himselfe vnder some greene tree he climbeth vp into that tree and setleth himselfe directly ouer the Serpent then out of his mouth he casteth a thred like a Spyder at the end whereof hangeth a drop of poyson as bright as any pearle by this string he letteth downe the poyson vpon the Serpent which lighting vppon it killeth it immediatly And Scaliger reporteth a greater vvonder then this in the description of the Chamaeleon for he sayth if the boughes of the Tree so grow as the perpendiculer line cannot fall directlie vpon the Serpent then hee so correcteth and guideth it with his fore-feete that it falleth vpon the Serpent within the mark of a hayres breadth The Rauen and the Crow are also at variance with the Chamaeleon so great is the aduerse nature betwixt these twaine that if the crow eate of the chamaeleon beeing slaine by him he dyeth for it except he recouer his life by a Bay-leafe euen as the Elephant after he hath deuoured a chamaeleon saueth his life by eating of the Wile-oliue-tree But the greatest wonder of all is the hostility which Pliny reporteth to be betwixt the Chamaeleon and the Hawke For he writeth that when a Hawke flyeth ouer a Chamaeleon she hath no power to resist the Chameleon but falleth downe before it yeelding both her life and limbes to be deuoured by it and thus that deuourer that liueth vpon the prey blood of others hath no power to saue her owne life from this little beast A Chamaeleon is a fraudulent rauening and gluttonous beast impure and vncleane by the law of GOD and forbidden to be eaten in his owne nature wilde yet countersetting meekenes when he is in the custodie of man And this shall suffise to haue spoken for the description of this beast a word or two of the Medicines arising out of it and so a conclusion I find that the Auncients haue obserued two kindes of Medicines in this beast one magicall and the other naturall and for my owne part although not able to iudge of either yet I haue thought good to anex a relation of both to this History And first of the naturall medicines Democritus is of opinion that they deserue a peculier Volume and yet he himselfe telleth nothing of theÌ„ worthy of one page except the lying vanities of the Gentiles superstitions of the Graecians With the gall if the suffusions and Leprous parts of the body be annointed three dayes together and the whitenesse of the eyes it is beleeued to giue a present remedy and Archigenes prescribeth the same for a medicine for the taking away of the vnprofitable and and pricking hayres of the eye-browes It is
rumors of perrill vnto guiltie consciences such as all wee mortall men beare are many times as forcible as the sentence of a Iudge to the hart of the condemned prisoner and therefore it vvere happy that either we could not feare except when the causes are certaine or else that wee might neuer perrish but vpon premonition And therefore I conclude with the example of this man that it is not good to holde a superstitious feare least God see it and beeing angry there-with bring vppon vs the euill which wee feare But this is not the end of the story for that fire-drake as by the sequell appeareth prooued as euill to the seruaunts as he did to the Maister These two sonnes of the deuill made thus rich by the death of their Maister foorth-with they sayled towards the Coasts of Fraunce but first of all they broke the Chayre in peeces and wrapped it vppe in one of theyr Nettes making account that it was the best fish that euer was taken in that Net and so they layde it in one end of theyr Barcke or fisher-boate And thus they laboured all that night and the next day till three or foure of the clocke at what time they espied a Port of Brittaine whereof they were exceeding gladde by reason that they were wearie hungry and thirstie with long labour alvvaies rich in their owne conceit by the gold which they had gotten which had so drawne their harts from God as they could not feare any thought of his iudgement And finallie it so blinded theyr eyes and stopped theyr eares that they did not see the vengeance that followed them nor heare the cry of theyr Maisters-blood Wherefore as they were thus reioycing at the sight of Land behold they suddainely espyed a Man-of-Warre comming towards them whereat they were appalled and beganne to thinke with themselues that theyr rich hopes were now at an end and they had laboured for other but yet resolued to die rather then to suffer the bootie to be taken from them And while they thus thought the Man-of-Warre approched 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-warre shot certaine Muskets at them and not preuailing nor they yeelding sent after them his Long-boate vppon the enterance whereof they fought manfully against the assaylants vntill one of them vvas slaine and the other mortallie wounded who seeing his fellow kild himselfe not like lie to liue yet in enuy against his enemy ranne presently to the place where the Chayre lay in the Nette and lyfting the same vp with all his might cast it from him into the Sea instantly falling downe after that fact as one not able through weakenesse to stand any longer wherevppon he was taken and before his life left him hee related the whole storie to them that tooke him earnestly desiring thē to signifie so much into England which they did accordingly and as I haue heard the whole story was printed so this second History of the punishment of murder I haue related in this place by occasion of the fire-drake in the history of the Dragon A second cause why poyson is supposed to be in Dragons is for that they often feede vppon many venomous rootes and therfore theyr poyson sticketh in theyr teeth where-vppon many times the partie bytten by them seemeth to be poysoned but this falleth out accidentally not from the nature of the dragon but from the nature of the meate which the dragon eateth And this is it which Homer knewe and affirmed in his verses when hee described a dragon making his denne neere vnto the place where many venomous rootes and herbes grew and by eating whereof hee greatly annoyeth man-kinde when hee byteth them Os de Drokoon espi Xein oresteros andra menesi Bebrocos kaka pharmaka Which may be thus englished And the dragon which by men remaines Eates euill herbes without deadly paines And therefore Elianus saith well that when the dragon meaneth to doe most harme to men he eateth deadly poysonfull herbes so that if he bite after them many not knowing the cause of the poyson and seeing or feeling venome by it doe attribute that to his nature which doth proceede from his meate Besides his teeth which bite deepe he also killeth with his tayle for bee will so be-girt and pinch in the body that hee doth gripe it to death and also the strokes of it are so strong that either they kill thereby foorth-with or else wound greatly with the same so that the strokes of his tayle are more deadly then the byting of his teeth which caused Nicander to write thus Nec tamen ille graues vt caetera turba doloris Si velit infixo cum forte momorderit ore Suscitat exiguus non noxia vulner a punctus Qui ceu rodentes noctu quaeque obvia muris In fligit modicum tenui dat plaga cruorem Which may be thus englished Nor yet he when with his angry mouth Doth byte such paines and torments bringeth As other Serpents if Auncients tell the truth When with his teeth and speare he stingeth For as the holes which byting-myse doe leaue When in the night they light vpon a prey So small are Dragons-byts which men receiue And harmelesse wound makes blood to runne away Their mouth is small and by reason thereof they cannot open it wide to byte deepe so as their byting maketh no great paine and those kind of dragons which do principallie fight with Eagles are defended more with their tayles then with their teeth but yet there are some other kind of dragons whose teeth are like the teeth of Beares byting deepe and opening theyr mouth wide where-withall they breake bones and make many bruses in the body and the males of this kinde byte deeper then the famales yet there followeth no great paine vpon the wound The cure hereof is like to the cure for the byting of any other beast wherin there is no venome and for this cause there must be nothing applyed there-vnto which cureth venomous bytings but rather such things as are ordinary in the cure of euery Vlcer The seede of grasse commonly called Hay-dust is prescribed against the byting of dragons The Barble beeing rubbed vppon the place where a Scorpion of the earth a Spyder a Sea or Land-dragon byteth doth perfectly cure the same Also the heade of a dogge or dragon which hath bytten any one beeing cutte off and fleyed and applyed to the wound with a little Euphorbium is said to cure the wound speedily And if Albedisimon be the same that is a dragon then according to the opinion of Auicen the cure of it must be very present as in the cure of Vlcers And if Alhatraf Haudem be of the kind of dragons then after theyr byting there followeth great coldnes and stupiditie and the cure thereof must be the same meanes which is obserued in colde poysons For
Their panch which is the greatest part of all their trunke is gray And so they vp and downe the pond made newly Frogs do play Whatsoeuer the wisedome of Frogs is according to the vnderstanding of the Poets this is certain that they signifie impudent contentious persons for this cause there is a pretty fiction in hel betwixt the two Poets Erupides Aesculus for the ending of which cotrouersie Bacchus was sent downe to take the worthyest of them out of Hell into Heauen and as he went ouer Charones Ferry he heard nothing but the croaking of Frogges for such contentious spirits doe best befitte Hell And thus much shall suffice to haue spoken of the wisedome of Frogs Their common enimies are the Weasels Poule-cats and Ferrets for these do gather them together and lay of them great heapes within their dens whereupon they feede in Winter The Hearne also and Bittor is a common destroyer of Frogges and so likewise are some kind of Kites The Night-Birds Gimus and Gimeta the Water-Snake at whose presence in token of extreame terrour the Frogge setteth vppe her voyce in lamentable manner The Moles are also enemies to Frogs it is further said that if a burning Candle be set by the water side during the croaking of Frogs it will make them hold their peace Men do also take Frogs for they were wont to baite a hooke with a little red wooll or a peece of red cloth also the gall of a Goat put into a vessell and set in the earth will quickly draw vnto it all the Frogs that be neare it as if it were vnto them a very gratefull thing And thus much shal suffice to haue spoken of the enemies of frogs Now in the next place we are to consider the seuerall Vses both naturall Medicinall and Magicall which men do make of Frogs And first of all the Greene Frogs and some of the yellow which liue in flouds Riuers Lakes and Fish-pooles are eaten by men although in ancient time they were not eaten but onely for Physicke for the broth wherein they were sod the flesh also was thought to haue vertue in it to cure thē which were strucken by any venomous-creeping-beast especially mixed with Salt and Oyle but since that time Aetius discommendeth the eating of Frogs prouing that some of them are venomous and that by eating thereof extream vomits hath followed and they can neuer be good except when they are newly taken their skins diligently flayed off and those also out of pure running waters and not out of muddy stinking puddles and therefore aduiseth to forbeare in plenty of other meate this wanton eating of Frogs as thinges perilous to life and health and those Frogs also which are most white when the skin is taken off are most dangerous fullest of venom according to the cousell of Fiera saying vltima sed nostros non accessura lebetes Noluimus succi est pluuij limosa maligni Ni saliat putris ranae parabatiter Irata est ad huc rauca coaxat aquis In English thus We will not dresse a Frog vnlesse the last of all to eate Because the iuyce thereof is muddy and of raine vncleane Except it go on earth prepared way to leape For angry it euer is and hath hoarse voyce amid the streame They which vse to eate frogs fall to haue a colour like Lead and the hotter the countries are the more venomous are the Frogs in colder Countries as in Germany they are not so harmefull especially after the spring of the yeare and their time of copulation passed Besides with the flesh of frogs they were wont in ancient time to baite their hookes wherewithall they did take Purple Fishes and they did burne the young Frogs putting the powder thereof into a Cat whose bowels was taken out then rosting the Cat after she was rosted they annointed her all ouer with Hony then laide her by a wood side by the odour and sauour whereof all the Wolues and Foxes lodging in the said Wood were allured to come vnto it and then the hunters lying ready in wait did take destroy kill them When Frogs do croak about their vsuall custome either more often or more shrill then they were wont to do they do foreshew raine and tempestuous weather Wherefore Tully saith in his first book of Diuination who is it that can suspect or once thinke that the little Frogge should know thus much but there is in them an admirable vnderstanding nature constant and open to it selfe but more secrets obscure to the knowledge of men and therefore speaking to the Frogs he citeth these verses Vos quoque signa videtis aquai dulcis alumnae Cum clamore paratis inanes fundere voces Absurdoque sono fontes stagna cietis In English thus And you O water-birds which dwell in streames so sweet Do see the signes whereby the weather is foretold Your crying voyces wherewith the waters are repleate Vaine sounds absurdly mouing pooles and fountaines cold And thus much for the naturall vse of Frogs Now followeth Magicall It is said that if a man take the tongue of a Water-Frog and laie it vpon the head of one that is asleep he shall speake in his sleep reueile the secrets of his hart but if he will know the secrets of a woman then must hee cut it out of the Frog aliue and turne the Frog away againe making certaine Charactars vpon the Frogs tongue and so lay the same vppon the panting of a womans hart and let him aske her what questions he will she shall answer vnto him all the truth reueale all the secret faults that euer she hath committed Now if this magicall foolery were true we had more need of Frogs then of Iustices of Peace or Magistrates in the common-wealth But to proceede a little further and to detect the vanity of these men they also say that the staffe wherewith all a Frog is strucke our of a Snakes mouth laide vpon a woman in trauaile shall cause an easie deliuerance and if a man cut off a foot of a frog as he swims in the water and binde the same to one that hath the gout it will cure him And this is as true as a shoulder of Mutton worne in ones Hat healeth the tooth-ach Some againe doe write that if a Woman take a Frogge and spit three times in her mouth she shall not conceiue with Childe that yeare Also if Dogges eate the Pottage wherein a Frogge hath beene sodde it maketh him dumbe and cannot barke And if a man cast a sodde Frogge at a Dogge vvhich is ready to assault him it will make him runne away I thinke as fast an olde hungry Horse from a bottle of Hay These and such like vanities haue the Auncient Heathens ignorant of GOD firmely beleeued till eyther experience disapprooued theyr inuentions or the sincere knovvledge of Religion in lightening theyr darkenesse made them to forsake theyr former vaine errours vvhich
meanes of the violence and ranknesse of the poyson suffer a convulsion The parts seruing to generation are made so impotent and weake as that they are not able to retaine the seede nor yet to containe their vrine which they voyde forth much like in colour to a Spyders-webbe and they feele the like paine as they doe which are stunge vvith Scorpions Of the wounding of the Starre-Spyder feeblenes and weakenes followeth so that one cannot stand vpright the knees buckle sleepe and shaking drousines seaseth vpon the hurt parts and yet the worst of all is the blewish Spyder for this bringeth dimnesse of the eye-sight and vomiting much like vnto Spyders and cobwebs in colour fainting and swounding weakenes of the knees heauy sleepes and death it selfe If a man be wounded of the Tetragnathian-Spyder the place waxeth whitish vvith an intollerable vehement and continuall paine in it and the member it selfe withereth and pyneth away euen to the very ioynts Finally the whole body by receiuing any wholesome sustenaunce is nothing at all relieued thereby yea and after a man hath recouered his health yet is he neuerthelesse disquieted by much watching for a long time after as Aetius writeth Nicander in expresse wordes confesseth that the Ash-coloured Tetragnath doth not by his byting infuse any venome or like hurt If the speckled Phalangie of Apulia which is vsually knowne by the name of Tarantula doe byte any one there will follow diuers and contrary accidents and symptomes according to the various constitution different complexion and disposition of the partie wounded For after they are hurt by the Tarantula you shall see some of them laugh others contrariwise to weepe some will clatter out of measure so that you shall neuer get them to hold their tongues and othersome againe you shall obserue to be as mute as fishes this man sleepeth continuallie and another cannot be brought to any rest at all but runneth vp and downe raging and rauing like a mad man There be some that imagine themselues to be some great Lords or Kings that their authoritie Empire and signory extendeth it selfe farre and wide and for that cause they will seeme to charge others by vertue of their absolute and kingly authoritie and as they tender theyr fauours and will auoyde their displeasure to see this or that busines dispatched and with others againe the contrary conceite so much preuaileth as by a strong imagination they cannot be otherwise diswaded but that they are taken prisoners that they lye in some deepe dungeon or prison with bolts and shackles about their feete so many as their legges can beare or that their necke and feete lye continually in the stocks You shall see some of them to be cheerefull quicke of spirit and liuely with dauncing swinging and shaking themselues With others againe you shall haue nothing but sadnesse and heauinesse of mind browne-studies vnaptnes to doe any thing as if one were astonied so that nothing but numnesse and dulnes of moouing and feeling seemeth to pinch them beeing to see to very sencelesse In conclusion as dronkennesse to sundry persons is not all one but much different according to the diuersitie of complexions naturall constitution of the braine so neyther is the madnes or frenzie-fits of these persons all one that be infected with a Tarantulaes poyson but some of them are fearefull silent euer trembling and quaking and others againe are more foole-hardie rash presumptious clamorous full of noyse dooing nothing else but call and cry out and some fewe seeme to be very graue constant stedfast that will not alter their purposes for a world of wealth But let thē be affected eyther with this or that passion yet this is common to them all as well to one as to another that they are generally delighted with musicall instruments and at their sound or noyse vvill so tryp it on the toes dauncer-like applying both their mindes and bodies to dauncing frisking vp downe that during the time of any musicall harmony they will neuer leaue mouing their members lymbes like a Iack-an-apes that cannot stand still And which is more strange they will vse these motions and gestures when they are ready to depart this life through the lingering stay and vehement crueltie of the poysons operation and yet for all this though they be so neere vnto death yet if they heare any musicke they come againe to themselues newly gathering their spirits and strength and with a greater alacritie promptnes of mind and cheere they foote it as frolickly as euer they did or could haue done And thus dooing and dauncing both day and night without any notorious intermission by their continued sweating the poyson being dispersed into the pores of the skin and euaporated by insensible transpiration or breathing out are arlength by this meanes recouered to their former health state of body And if the Pypers of Fidlers cease playing with their musicke though neuer so little awhile before the matter of the poyson be in some part exhausted then will they make a recidiuation and returning to their former passions and griefes with which they were at first tormented and disquieted But yet this is the most strange deseruing the greatest admiration of all that all those persons vvhich are bytten or wounded by any Tarantula they wil daunce so wel with such good grace measure and sing so sweetly and withall descant it so finely and tunably as though they had spent all their life-time in some dauncing and singing-schoole Neuerthelesse Cardan contrary to all authoritie and experience calleth in doubt and question this poynt and at last concludeth that they cannot be restored to health againe by musicke Wherein he doth maruailously repugne and contrary both Foelix Platerus Theodorus Zuingerus Andreas Matthiolus Bellunensis Ponzettus Paracelsus and manie other famous learned men Trulie a bare contradiction against so great authorities is fatre vnworthy and vnbeseeming a man any thing though neuer so little seene or exercised in Philosophy much more so great a Philosopher and Phisitian as Cardan was Yet surely I am of the opinion that Cardan did not erre in Philosophy through ignoraunce but hauing a desire continually to appeare more learned he did euer bend himselfe to impugne that which he knew the soundest and best part of men did hold and maintaine But this little which I haue heere spoken shall serue sufficiently for the discussing of Cardans opinion And surely if the harmonicall sound and melodie of warlike drummes and trumpets hath cured furious madde and enraged horses and mittigated the paine of their legges and hyppes as Asclepiades hath written I see nothing to the contrarie but that it may helpe those persons that are wounded of any Tarantula The Pope with his poll-shorne generation haue mustered diuers of the Saints together and haue assigned and appointed to each his sundry charge and seuerall office apart for the cure of sundry diseases As for example S. Anthony can heale the burning
Spyders mercy I will not omit their temperance a vertue in former ages proper onely to men but now it should seeme peculiar to Spyders For who almost is there found if age and strength permit that contenteth himselfe with the loue of one as hee ought but rather applyeth his minde body and wandering affections to strange loues But yet Spyders so soone as they grow to ripenesse of age doe choose them Mates neuer parting till death it selfe make the separation And as they cannot abide corriualles if any wedlocke breakers Cockold-makers dare bee so snappish to enter or so insolently proude as to presse into anothers House or Cottage they reward him iustly with condigne punnishment for his temeratious enterprize flagitious fact First by their cruell bytings then with banishment or exile and oftentimes with death it selfe So that there is not any one of them that dare offer villany or violence to anothers Mate or seeke by any meanes vnlawfully to abuse her There is such restraint such strict orders such faithfull dealing vprightnesse of conscience and Turtle loue amongest them Further if you looke into theyr house-keeping you shall finde there is nothing more frugall then a Spyder more laborious cleanely and fine For she cannot abide that euen the least end or peece of her thred to be lost or to be placed and set to no vse or profit and they ease and releeue themselues by substitutes that supply their roomes and take paines for them for whilest the Female weaueth the Male applyeth himselfe to hunting if either of theÌ„ fall sicke and be weak the one of them doth the worke of both that their merits and desarts may be alike So some-times the female hunteth whilest the male is busie about Net-making if the one stand in neede of the others help and furtherance But yet commonly the Female-Spyder being enstructed of her Parents when shee vvas young and docible the art of spinning and weauing which custome was amongst vs also in times past beginneth the cobweb her belly is sufficient to minister matter inough for such a peece of worke whether it be that the nature or substance of the belly groweth to corruption at sunne set and appointed time as Democritus thought or whether there be within them a certaine lanigerous fertility naturally as in Silke-wormes Aristotle is of opinion that the matter is outward as it were a certaine Shell or pill and that it is vnwound loosened and drawne out by their fine weauing and spinning But how soeuer it be certaine it is they will not by their good-wils loose the least iot of a threds end but very prouidently see to all though neuer so little The loue they beare to their young breed is singuler both in the care they haue for their fashioning and framing to good orders for their education otherwise for the auoydance of idlenesse For the Male and Female doe by turnes sit vppon their Egges and so by this way enterchangeably taking courses they doe stirre vp quicken moue and encrease naturall and liuely heate in them and although it hath beene sundry times obserued that they haue brought forth three hundereth young ones at once yet do they traine them vp al alike without exception to labour parsimony and paynes taking and invre them in good order to fashion and frame all thinges fit for the weauing craft I haue often wondred at their cleanlines when to keepe all things fâ—om nastinesse or stinking I haue beheld with mine eyes those that were leane ill-fauored and sickly â—o come glyding downe from the vpper to the lower part of theyr buildings and there to exonerate nature at some hole in the web least either their shop work-house or frame might be distained or anoyed And this is sufficient to haue spoken of their politicall ciuill domesticall vertues now will I proceede to discourse of their skill in weauing wherewith Pallas was so much offended for the Scholler excelled her Maisters and in fine cunning and curious worke-manship did far surpasse her First then let vs consider the matter of the web whose substance is tough binding and glutinous plyant and will sticke to ones fingers like Birdlime and of such a matter it is compounded as it neither looseth his clamminesse and fast-holding quality eyther by siccity or moysture The matter whereof it is made is such as can neuer bee consumed wasted or spent whilest they liue and being so endlesse wee must needes heere admire and honor the neuer ending and infinite power of the great God for to seeke out some naturall reason for it or to ascribe it to naturall causes were in my minde meere madnesse and folly The Autumnall Spyders called Lupi or Holci Wolues or Hunters are thought to be the most artificiall and ingenious For these draw out a thred finer and thinner then any Silke and of such a subtilty that theyr whole vveb being folded together vvill scarce be so heauy as one fine thred of Linnen being vveighed together Edouardus Monimius hath very finely and eloquently described both the Males and Females Heptam Lib. 7. in these vvordes following Ille domum venatu pascit at ista Moeonio graciles orditur tegmine telas Stanniparus venter vomifilus lanifer ipsi Palladiam cumulatque colum calatosque ministrat Ipsius est fusum pondus quod fila trahendo Nectit intorquet parili sub tegmine ducta Illo suam à medijs orditur Daedala telam Et gracili tenues intendit stamine tractus Tela iugo iuncta est stamen secernit arundo Inseritur medium radijs subtegmen acutis Atque oram à centro panum sibi staminat illam Peruia tela patet gemina de parte feroci Ne concussa euro frangantur stamina quoque Musca vâ—lax tenij stretur sinuamine cassis Reticulâ— primam vix muscula contigit oram Mors abit in telae centrum vt discrimine parua Vinciat ipse suo perigrinam Casse volucrem Which may be englished thus The Spider-male by hunting game the houses charge doth feede The female with Moeonian art begins to spin fine thred Out of web-breeding-belly breast woolly vp-casting twine Whereto the distaffe she applyes by art of Pallas fine To her belongs the pressed waight which doth the teale out draw Both matter art and substance she doth shield by natures Law Like Daedala out of her middest her web she doth begin And stretching out her tender worke by pressing it full thin The which is ioyned as in yoke yet parted by a cane And planted is the middle roofe in a sharp beamy frame And from the Center draweth a thred like wooll to lye vpon While double worke on euery part doth fortifie her wone Wherewith the blasts of Easterne wind vnbroken web resists And tender Fly ensnarled is fallen into those lists While scarce vpon the edge or brim this little Flie doth fall But by and by death seazeth her within webs center thrall And so the stranger winged flye with little or
time do grow from the bignesse of a little Pease to a very great bulk and thicknesse There are also found in all places of this Countrey Long-legged-Spyders who make a very homely and disorderly Web. This kind of Spyder liueth altogether in the fields her body is almost of a round figure and somewhat brownish in colour liuing in the grasse and delighting in the company of Sheepe and for this cause I take it that we Englishmen do call her a Shepheard either for that she keepeth and loueth to be among their flockes or because that Shepheards haue thought those grounds and feedings to bee very holesome wherein they are most found and that no venomous or hurtfull creature abideth in those fields where they be And herein their iudgment is to be liked for they are indeed altogether vnhurtfull whether inwardly taken or otherwise outwardly applyed and therefore because I am tyed within a Teather and thereby restrained from all affectionate discoursing or dilating vnlesse of poysonous and harmefull Creatures I will come into my path againe and tell you of another certaine blacke Spyder that hath very short feete carrying about with her an Egge as white as Snow vnder her belly and running very swiftly the Egge being broken many Spyders creepe forth which goe forth with their damme to seeke their liuing altogether and climing vpon her back when night approcheth there they rest and so they lodge In rotten and hollow trees there are also to be found exceeding blacke Spyders hauing great bodies short feet and keeping together with Cheese-lips or those creeping vermine with many feet called of some Sowes We haue seene also saith the learned Gesner Spyders that were white all ouer of a round compact and well knit body somewhat broad liuing in the flowers of Mountaine Parsely amongst Roses in the greene grasse their Egges were little slender and very long their mouth speckled and both their sides were marked with a red line running all alongest He tooke them to bee very venomous because hee saw a Marmoset or Monky to eate of them and by eating thereof hardly to escape with life yet at length it did well againe and was freed from further daunger onely by pouring downe a great deale of Oyle into his throat I my selfe haue also seene some Spyders with very long bodies and sharp tailes of a blackish or darke red colour I haue noted other-some againe to be all ouer the body greene-coloured I will not deny but that there are many other sorts of Spyders and of many moe different colours but I neuer reade or yet euer saw them Neque enim nostra fert omnia tellus The ages ensuing peraduenture will find more I will onely put you in remembrance of this one thing worthy to be obserued that all weauing and Net-making Spyders according as they grow in yeares so do they acquire more knowledge and attaine to greater cunning and experience in their spinning trade but carrying a resolute and ready will to keepe both time and measure with that Musicke which best contents most eares I will now passe to speake of the propagation and vse of Spyders and so I will close vp this discourse The propagation of Spyders for the most part is by coupling together the desire and action whereof continueth almost the whole Spring time for at that time by a mutuall and often drawing and easie pulling of their Web they do as it were woe one another then approch they nearer together and lastly are ioyned with their hippes one agaynst another backwards as Camels do for that is the most fit for them iu regard of the round proportion and figure of their bodies In like sort do the Phalangies ioyne together and are generated by those of the same kinde as Aristotle saith But the Phalangies couple not in the Spring-season as the other Spyders doe but towardes Winter at what time they are very swift quicke nimble and of most certaine hurt more dangerous more venomous in their bytinges Some of them after their coupling together doe lay one Egge onely carrying it vnder their belly it is in colour as white as Snow and both Male and Female sit vpon it by turnes Some Spyders do exclude many little Egges very like vnto the seedes of Poppy out of which it hath beene obserued that sometimes there haue beene hatched three hundereth Spyders at one time which after their vaine and idle plying and sporting together in their Webbe at length come foorth with their Damme and towardes euening they all trudge home vntill each one hath learned and perfectly attained to the skill to spinne his owne webbe that therein he may spend the residue of his dayes in more pleasure ease and security They make exclusion of their young breede in hopping or skipping-vvise they sitte on their egges for three dayes space together and in a months space their young ones come to perfection The domesticall or House-Spyder layeth her egges in a thinne webbe and the wilde-Spyder in a thicker and stronger because they are more exposed to the iniuries of winds and lie more open to the rage of and fury of stormes and showers The place and country where they are helpeth much and is very auaileable to their generation There is no country almost but there be many Spyders in it For in the country about Arrha which is in Arabia foelix there is an infinite number of them to be found and all the Iland of Candie swarmeth with Palangies Strabo saith that in Ethiopia there be great number of Phalangies found of an exceeding bignes although as Pliny saith in his eight booke and 58. chapter there are neither Wolfes Foxes Beares nor no hurtful creature in it and yet wee all know that in the I le of Wight a member of England the contrary is to be found for although there were neuer dwelling in it Foxes Beares nor Wolfes yet there be Spyders ynow The Kingdome of Ireland neuer saw Spyders and in England no Phalangies will liue long nor yet in the I le of Man neere vnto the Citty of Grenoble in that part of France which lyeth next Italy Gaudentius Merula saith there is an old Tower or Castle standing wherein as yet neuer any Spyder hath beene seene nor yet any other venomous creeping creature but rather if any be brought thether from some other place they forth-with die Our Spyders in England are not so venomous as in other parts of the world and I haue seene a madde man eate many of them without eyther death or deaths harme or any other manifest accident or alteration to ensue And although I will not denie but that many of our Spyders beeing swallowed downe may doe much hurt yet notwithstanding we cannot chuse but confesse that their byting is poysonlesse as being without venome procuring not the least touch of hurt at all to any one whatsoeuer and on the contrarie the byting of a Phalangie is deadly We see the harmelesse Spyders almost
swelling of the Spleene He writeth also further that if a man catch a Spyder as she is glyding and descending downe-wards by her thred and so being crushed in the hand then applied to the nauell that the belly will be prouoked to the stoole but beeing taken as shee is ascending and applyed after the same former manner that any loosenes or fluxe is stayed and restrayned thereby The same Pliny also writeth that if a man take a Spyder and lay it vppon a fellon prouided that the sick patient may not know so much that within the space onely of three dayes that terrible and painefull griefe will be cleane taken away And besides he affirmeth that if the head and feete of a spyder be cast away and the rest of the body rubbed and bruised that it will thoroughly remedie the swelling in the fundament proceeding of inflamation If any be vexed with store of lyce and doe vse a suffumigation made onely with Spyders it will cause them all to fall and come away neither will there afterwards any moe breede in that place The fat of a Goose tempered and mixed with a Spyder and oyle of Roses together beeing vsed as an oyntment vpon the breasts preserueth them safelie as that no milke will coagulate or curdle in them after any birth Anonymus Yea that same knotty scourge of rich men the scorne of Phisitians I meane the Gowte which as some learned men hold can by no meanes be remedied yet feeleth mitigation and diminution of paine and curation also onely by the presence of a Spyder if it be taken aliue and her hinder legges cut off and afterward inclosed in a purse made of the hyde of a Stag. Moreouer we see which all other medicines can neuer doe that all they are freed for the most part both from the Gowte in the legges and hands where the spyders are most found where they are most busie in working framing their ingenious deuised webs Doubtlesse this is a rare miracle of nature a wonderfull vertue that is in this contemptible little creature or rather esteemed to be so vile abiect and of no estimation Rich men were happy indeede if they knew how to make vse of their owne good Antonius Pius was wont to say that the sharpe words wittie sayings quirkes subtilties of Sophisters were like vnto Spyders webbes that containe in them much cunning Art and artificiall conceit but had little other good besides If any one be newly dangerously wounded and that the miserable partie feareth a bleeding to death what is a more noble medicine or more ready at hand then a thicke Spyders webbe to bynde hard vpon the wound to stay the inordinate effusion of blood Questionlesse if we were as diligent and greedy to search out the true properties and vertues of our owne domesticall remedies which we would buy of others so deerely we would not enforce our selues with such eager pursute after those of forraine Countries as though things fetcht farre off were better then our owne neere at hand or as though nothing were good wholesome vnlesse it came frō Egypt Arabia or India Surely vnlesse there were some wild worme in our brames or that we were bewitched and possessed with some Furie we would not so farre be in loue with forraine wares or be so much besotted as to seeke for greedy new phisicke and phisicall meanes considering that one poore Spyders webbe will doe more good for the stanching of blood the curation of vlcers the hindering of sanies slyme or slough to grow in any sore to abate and quench inflamations to conglutinate and consolidate wounds more then a cart-loade of Bole fetcht out of Armenia Sorcocolla Sandaracha or that earth vvhich is so much nobilitated by the impresse of a seale and therefore called Terra Sigillata the clay of Samos the durt of Germany or the loame of Lemnos For a cobwebbe adstringeth refrigerateth soldereth ioyneth and closeth vppe wounds not suffering any rotten or filthy matter to remaine long in them And in regard of these excellent vertues and qualities it quickly cureth bleedings at the nose the Haemorrhoides and other bloodie-fluxes whether of the opening of the mouthes of the veines their opertions breakings or any other bloody euacuation that too much aboundeth beeing either giuen by it selfe alone in some Wine eyther inwardlie or outwardly or commixed with the Blood-stone Crocus Martis and other the like remedies fit for the same intentions The cobwebbe is also an ingredient into an vnguent which is made by Phisitians against the disease called Serpego and beeing bound to the swellings of the fundament if there be inflamation ioyned withall it consumeth them without any paine as Marcellus Empiricus testifieth It likewise cureth the watering or dropping of the eyes as Pliny reporteth and beeing applyed with oyle it consolidateth the wounds of the ioynts and some for the same intent vse the ashes of cobwebbes with fine Meale and White-vvine mixed together Some Surgeons there be that cure Warts in this manner They take a Spyders-web roling the same vppe on a round heape like a ball and laying it vppon the wart they then set fire on it and so burne it to ashes and by this way and order the vvarts are eradicated that they neuer after grow againe Marcellus Empiricus taketh Spyders webbes that are found in the Cypresse-tree mixing them with other conuenient remedies so giuing them to a podagricall person for the asswaging of his paine Against the paine of a hollovv tooth Gallen in his first booke De Compos medicum secundum loca much commendeth by the testimony of Archigenes the egges of Spyders beeing tempered and mixed with Oleum Nardinum and so a little of it beeing put into the tooth In like sort Kiramides giueth Spyders egges for the curation of a Tertian-Ague Where-vpon we conclude with Gallen in his booke to Piso that Nature as yet neuer brought foorth any thing so vile meane and contemptible in outward shew but that it hath manifold and most excellent necessary vses 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 trauaile acquired I will adde 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 vnto a Lizard hauing spots in his necke like vnto starres Waspes and the little beast called Ichneumon Swallowes Sparrowes the little Titmouse and Hedge-sparrowes doe often feede full sauourlie vppon Spyders Besides if the Nightingale the Prince of all singing-byrds doe eate any Spyders shee is cleane freed and healed of all diseases vvhatsoeuer In the dayes of Alexander the Great there dwelled in the Cittie of Alexandria a certaine young mayde which from her youth vp was fed and nourished onely with eating of Spyders and for the same cause the King was premonished not to come neere
Emperour And all fraudes whatsoeuer are likevvise taxed by this name vvhich were not punishable but by the doome of the supreame or highest Iudge and there-vppon Alciatus made this Embleme following Parua lacerta atris Stellatus corpore guttis Stellio qui latebras caua busta colit Inuidiae prauique doli fert symbola pictus Heu nimium nuribus cognita Zelotypis Nam turpi obtegitur faciem lentigine quisquis Sit quibus immersus Stellio vina bibat Hinc vindicta frequens decepta pellice vino Quam formae amisso flore relinquit amans Which may be englished thus The little Lyzard or Stellion starred in body graine In secrete holes and graues of dead which doth remaine When painted you it see or drawne before the eye A symbole then you view of deepe deceit and cursed enuy Alas this is a thing to iealous wiues knowne too well For whosoeuer of that Wine doth drinke his fill Wherein a Stellion hath beene drencht to death His face with filthy lentile spots all vgly it appeareth Here-with a Louer oft requites the fraude of concubine Depriuing her of beauties hiew by draught of this same wine The Poet Ouid hath a pretty fiction of the originall of this cursed enuy in Stellions for he writeth of one Abas the sonne of Metaneira that receiued Ceres kindly into her house and gaue her hospitalitie whereat the said Abas beeing displeased derided the sacrifice which his mother made to Ceres the Goddesse seeing the wretched nature of the young man and his extreame impietie against the sacrifice of his Mother tooke the Wine left in the goblet after the Sacrifice and poured the same vppon his head wherevpon he was immediatly turned into a Stellion as it is thus related by Ouid Metam 5. Combibit os maculas quae modo brachia gessit Crura gerit cauda est mutatis addita membris Inque breuem formam ne sit vis magna nocendi Contrahitur paruaque minor mensura lacerta est In English thus His mouth suckt in those spots and now where armes did stand His legges appeare and to his changed parts was put a tayle And least it should haue power to harme small was the bodies band And of the Lizards poysonous this least in shape did vayle Their bodyes are very brittle so as if at any time they chaunce to fall they breake their tayles They lay very small egges out of which they are generated and Pliny writeth that the iuyce or liquor of these egges layde vppon a mans body causeth the hayre to fall off and also neuer more permitteth it to grow againe But whereas wee haue said it deuoureth the skinne to the damage hurt of men you must remember that in auncient time the people did not want their pollicies and deuises to take away this skinne from them before they could eate it And therfore in the Sommer-time they watched the lodging place and hole of the Lyzard and then in the end of the winter toward the Spring they tooke Reedes and did cleaue them in sunder these they composed into little Cabonets and set them vppon the hole of the Serpent Now when it awaked and would come forth it being grieued with the thicknes and straightnes of his skinne presseth out of his hole thorough those Reedes or Cabonet and finding the same some-what straight is the more gladde to take it for a remedie so by little and little it slydeth thorough and beeing thorough it leaueth the skinne behind in the Cabonet into the which it cannot reenter to deuoure it Thus is this wylie Serpent by the pollicie of man iustly beguiled loosing that which it so greatly desireth to possesse and changing nature to line his guttes vvith his coate is preuented from that gluttony it beeing sufficient to haue had it for a couer in the Winter and therefore vnsufferable that it should make foode thereof and it the same in the Sommer These Stellings like as other Serpents haue also theyr enemies in nature as first of all they are hated by the Asses for they loue to be about the maungers and rackes on which the Asse feedeth and from thence many times they creepe into the Asses open nostrills and by that meanes hinder his eating But aboue all other there is greatest antipathy in nature betwixt this Serpent and the Scorpion for if a Scorpion doe but see one of these it falleth into a deepe feare and a cold sweat out of which it is deliuered againe very speedily and for this cause a Stellion putrified in oyle is a notable remedie against the byting of a Scorpion and the like warre and dissention is affirmed to be betwixt the Stellion and the Spyder Wee haue shewed already the difference of Stellions of Italie from them of Greece how these are of a deadly poysonous nature and the other innocent and harmelesse and therefore now it is also conuenient that wee should shew the nature and cure of this poyson which is in this manner Whensoeuer any man is bytten by a Stellion hee hath ache and payne thereof continually and the wound receiued looketh very pale in colour the cure whereof according to the saying of Aetius is to make a playster of Garlicke and Leekes mixed together or else to eate the said Garlice and Leekes drinking after them a good draught of svveete Wine vnmixed and very pure or else apply Nigella Romana Sesamyne and sweet water vnto it Some as Arnoldus writeth prescribe for this cure the dunge of a Faulcon or a Scorpion to be bruised all to peeces and layd to the wound But sometimes it happeneth that a mans meate or drinke is corrupted with Stellions that fall into the same from some high place where they desire to be clymbing and then if the same meate or Wine so corrupted be eaten or drunk it causeth vnto the partie a continuall vomiting payne in the stomacke Then must the cure be made also by vomits to auoyd the poyson and by Glysters to open the lower passage that so there may be no stoppe or stay to keepe the imprisoned meate or drinke in the body And principally those thinges are prescribed in this case which are before expressed in the Cantharides when a man hath by any accident beene poysoned by eating of them The remedies which are obserued out of this Serpent are these Beeing eaten by Hawkes they make them quickly to cast theyr old coates or feathers Others giue it in meate after it is bowelled to them that haue the Falling-sicknesse Also when the head feete and bowels are taken away it is profitable for those persons which cannot hold in their vrine and beeing sodden is giuen against the Bloody-flixe Also sodde in wine with blacke Poppy-seede cureth the payne of the loynes if the wine be drunke vp by the sicke patient The oyle of Stellions beeing annoynted vpon the arme-holes or pittes of chyldren or young persons it restraineth all hayre for euer growing in those places Also the
this busines or History There be of Torteyses three kinds one that liueth on the Land the second in the sweet waters and the third in the Sea or salt-waters There are found great store of these in India especially of the Wateâ— Torteyses and therefore the people of that part of the Country are called Chelonophagi that is Eaters of Torteyses for they liue vpon them and these people are sayd to be in the East-part of India And in Carmania the people are likewise so called And they do not onely eare the flesh of them but also couer their houses with their shells and of their abundance doe make them all manner of vessels And Pliny and Solinus write that the Sea Torteyses of India are so bigge that with one of them they couer a dwelling Cottage And Strabo sayth they also row in them on the waters as in a Boate. The Islands of Serapis in the Redde-Sea and the farthest Ocean Islands towardes the East of the Red Sea hath also very great Torteyses in it and euery where in the Red-Sea they so abound that the people there doe take them and carry them to their greatest Marts and Fayres to sell them as to Rhaphtis to Ptolemais and the Island of Dioscorides whereof some haue white and small shels In Lybia also they are found and in the night time they come out of their lodgings to feede but very softly so as one can scarcely perceiue their motion And of one of these Scaliger telleth this story One night saith he as I was trauayling being ouer-taken with darkenesse and want of light I cast about mine eyes to seeke some place for my lodging safe and secure from Wild-beasts and as I looked about I saw as I thought a little â—ill or heape of earth but in truth it was a Torteyse couered all ouer with mosse vpon that I ascended and saâ—e downe to rest where-vppon after a little watching I feâ—l asleepe and so ended that nights rest vppon the backe of the Torteyse In the morning when light approched I perceiued that I was remooued farre from the place whereon I first chose to lodge all night and therefore rising vp I beheld with great admiration the face and countenaunce of this Beast in the knowledge whereof as in a new nature I went foreward much comforted in my wearisome iourney The description of the Torteyse and the seuerall partes thereof now followeth to bee handled Those creatures saith Pliny which bring forth or lay egs eyther haue feathers as Fowles or haue scales as Serpents or thicke hides as the Scorpion or else a shell like the Torteyse It is not without great cause that this shell is called Scutrem and the Beast Scutellaria for there is no buckler and shield so hard and strong as this is And Palladius was not deceiued when he wrote thereof that vppon the same might safelie passe ouer a Cart-wheele the Cart being loadâ—d And therefore in this the Torteyse is more happy then the Crocodile or any other such Beast Albertus writeth that it hath two shellâ—s one vppon the backe the other on the belly which are conioyned together in foure places and by reason of this so firme a couer and shell the flesh thereof is dry and firme also long lasting and not very easie or apt to putrefaction This shell or couer is smooth except some-times when it is growne old it hath mosse vppon it and it neuer casteth his coate in old age as other creeping thinges do In the head and tayle it resembleth a Serpent and the great Torteyses haue also shelles vpon thâ—ir heads like a shield yet is the head but short and the espect of it very fearefull vntil a man â—e well acquainted there with And by reason of the hardnesse of their eyes they mooue none but the neather eye lidde and that without often winking The Liuer of it is great yet without any blood It hath but one belly without diuision and the Liueris alwaâ—es foule by reason of the vitious temperature of the body The Melt is exceeding small comming far short of the bodies proportion Beâ—…e the common nature of other thicke-hided-creatures It hath also reynes except that kind of Tortoyce called Lutaria for that wanteth both Reynes and bladder for by reason of the softnesse of the couer thereof the humour is ouer fluent but the Tortoyâ—e that bringeth foorth Egges hath all inward partes like a perfect Creature and the Females haue a singular passage for theyr excrementes which is not in the Males The Egges are in the body of their belly which are of a party-colour like the Egges of Birds Theyr stones cleaue to theyr loynes and the tayle is short but like the tayle of a Serpent They haue foure Legges in proportion like the Legges of Lizards euery foot haâ—ing fiue fingers or diuisions vpon them with nayles vpon euery one And thus much for the seuerall parts They are not vniustly called Amphibia because they liue both in the water and on the Land and in this thing they are by Pliny resembled to Beauers but this must bee vnderstood of the general otherwise the Tortoyces of the Land doe neuer dare come into the Water and those of the Water can breath in the water but want respiration and likewise they lay theyr Egges and sleepe vppon the dry Land They haue a very slowe and easie pace and thereupon Pauuiuâ— calleth it Tardigrada and also there is a Prouerbe Testudineus incessus for a slow and soft pace when such a motion is to be expressed The Tortoyce neuer casteth his coate no not in his old age The voyce is an abrupt and broken hissing not like to the Serpents but much more loud and diffused The Male is very salacious and giuen to carnall copulation but the Female is not so for when shee is attempted by the Male they fight it out by the teeth and at last the Male ouercommeth whereat he reioyceth as much as one that in a hard conflict fight or battaile hath won a fayre Woman the reason of this vnwillingnesse is because it is exceeding paynefull to the Female They engender by riding or couering one another When they haue layde theyr Egges they doe not sit vpon them to hatch them but lay them in the Earth couered and there by the heat of the Sun is the young one formed and commeth foorth at due time without any further help from his parents They are accounted crafty and suâ—tle in theâ—r kinde for subtlenesse is not onely ascribed to thinges that haue a thinne bloud but also to those that haue thicke skinnes hides and Couers such as the Tortoyce and Crocodile haue The Tortoyce is an enemy to the Bariridge as Philes and Aelianus write Also the Ape is as frayde thereof as it is of the Snayle and to conclude whatsoeuer enemy it hath it is safe inough as long as it is couered with his Shell and clyngeth fast to the Earth beneath and therefore came the Prouerbe Oikos philos
King of India sent many great Vipers for a gyft vnto Augustus it is profitable to expresse the meanes whereby Vipers are safely taken without dooing any harme Wherefore Aristotle writeth that they are very much desirous of Wine and for that cause the Country-people set little vessels of vvine in the hedges and haunts of Vipers where-vnto the vipers comming easily drinke thēselues tame and so the Hunters come and kill them or else so take them as they are without danger of harme Pliny reporteth that in auncient time the Marsians in Lybia did hunt vipers and neuer receiued harme of them for by a secrete innate vertue all vipers serpents are afraid of their bodies as we haue already shewed in other places Yet Gallen in his discourse to Piso writeth that the Marsians in his time had no such vertue in them as hee had often tryed saue onely that they vsed a deceit or slight to beguile the people which vvas in this manner following Long after the vsuall time of hunting Vipers they vse to goe abroade to take them when there is no courage nor scant any venome left in them for the Vipers are then easily taken if they can be found and them so taken they accustome to their owne bodies by giuing them such meates as doth euacuate all their poyson or at the least-wise doth so stop vp their teeth as it maketh the harme very small and so the simple people beeing ignorant of this fraude and seeing them apparantly carrying vipers about them did ignorantly attribute a vertue to their natures which in truth did not belong vnto them In like manner there were as hath already in another place beene said certaine Iuglers in Italy which did boast themselues to be of the linage of Saint Paule who did so deceitfully carrie themselues that in the presence and sight of many people they suffered Vipers to bite them without any manner of harme Others againe when they had taken a Viper did drowne her head in mans spettle by vertue whereof the viper beganne to grow tame and meeke Besides this they made a certaine oyntment which they set foorth to sale affirming it to haue a vertue against the byting of Vipers and all other Serpents which oyntment was made in this manner Out of the oyle of the seede of Wild-radish of the rootes of Dragons the iuyce of Daffadill the braine of a Hare leaues of Sage sprigges of Bay and a few such other things whereby they deceiued the people and got much money and therefore to conclude I cannot find any more excellent way for the taking and destroying of vipers then that which is already expressed in the generall discourse of Serpents Wee doe reade that in Egypt they eate Vipers diuers other Serpents with no more difficultie then they would doe Eeles so doe many people both in the Easterne and weasterne parts of the New-found-Lands And the very selfe-same thing is reported of the Inhabitants of the Mountaine Athos the which meate they prepare and dresse on this manner First they cut off their heads and also their tayles then they bowell them and salt them after which they seeth them or bake them as a man would seeth or bake Eecles but some-times they hang them vppe and dry them and then when they take them downe againe they eate them with Oyle Salt Annyseedes Leckes and vvater with some such other obseruations Whose dyet of eating vipers I doe much pittie if the want of other foode constraine them there-vnto but if it arise from the insatiable and greedy intemperancie of their owne appetites I iudge them eager of dainties which aduenture for it at such a market of poyson Now it followeth that wee proceede to the handling of that part of the Vipers storie which concerneth the venome or poyson that is in it which must beginne at the consideration of themperament of this Serpent It is some question among the learned vvhether a viper be hot or cold and for aunswere heereof it is said that it is of cold constitution because it lyeth hid and almost dead in the Winter-time wherein a man may carry them in his hands without all hurt or danger vnto this opinion for this selfe same reason agreeth Gallen Mercuriall maketh a treble diuersitie of constitution among Serpents whereof the first sort are those which with their wound doe infuse a mortall poyson that killeth instantly and without delay a second sort are those that kill but more leysurelie without any such speede and the third are those whose poison is more slow in operation then is the second among which he assigneth the Viper But although by this slownes of operation hee would inforce the coldnes of the poyson yet it is alwaies to be considered that the difference of vipers and of their venome ariseth from the place and Region in which they are bredde and also from the time of the yeere wherein they byte wound so that except they fortune to hurt any one during the time of the Caniculer dayes in which season their poyson is hotest and themselues most full of spyrit the same it but weake and full of deadnes And againe it is to be considered whether the viper harme in her moode and furie for anger doth thrust it foorth more fully and causeth the same to worke more deadly Likewise the Region wherein they liue begetteth a more liuely working spirit in the Serpent and therefore before all other the Vipers of Numidia are preferred because of the heate of that Country Also their meate causeth in them a difference of poyson for those that liue in the woods and eate Toades are not so vigorous or venomous but those that liue in the mountaines and eate the rootes of certaine herbes are more poysonfull and deadly And therefore Cardan relateth a story which he saith was told him by a Phaenecian that a Mountaine-Viper chased a man so hardly that he was forced to take a tree vnto the which when the Viper was come and could not climbe vppe to vtter her malice vppon the man she emptied the same vppon the Tree and by and by after the man in the tree dyed by the sauour and secret operation of the same But of the Arabian Vipers which haunt the Baulsom-trees I haue read that if at any time they byte they onely make a wound like the pricks of yron voyde of poyson because while they sucke in the iuyce of that tree the acerbitie and strength of the venom is abated About the Mountaine Helycon in Greece the poyson also of Vipers is infirme and not strong so that the cure thereof is also ready and easie But yet for the nature of Vipers poyson I can say no more thē Wolphius hath said that it is of it selfe and in it selfe considered hot and his reason is because hee saw a combat in a glasse betwixt a Viper and a Scorpion and they both perished one by the others poyson Now he saith that it is granted
which cause the wound or place bitten must be embrewed or washed with luke-warme Vineger and emplaistered with the leaues of Bay annoynted with the oyle of herbe Mary and the oyle of Wilde-pellitory or such things as are drawne out of those oyles wherein is the vertue of Nettles or Sea-Onyons But those thinges which are giuen vnto the patient to drinke must be the iuyce of Bay-leaues in Vineger or else equall portions of Myrrhe Pepper and Rewe in Wine the powder or dust whereof must be the full vveight of a golden-groat or as we say a French-Crovvne In the next place for the conclusion of the history of the dragon we will take our farewell of him in the recitall of his medicinall vertues which are briefely these that follow First the fatte of a Dragon dryed in the sunne is good against creeping Vlcers and the same mingled with Hony and Oyle helpeth the dimnesse of the eyes at the beginning The head of a dragon keepeth one from looking a squint and if it be sette vp at the gates and dores it hath beene thought in auncient time to be very fortunate to the sincere worshippers of GOD. The eyes beeing kept till they be stale and afterwards beate into an Oyle with Hony and made into an oyntment keepe any one that vseth it from the terrour of night-visions and apparisions The fatte of a Hart in the skinne of a Roe bound with the nerues of a Hart vnto the shoulder was thought to haue a vertue to fore-shew the iudgement of victories to come The first spindle by bearing of it procureth an easie passage for the pacification of higher powers His teeth bound vnto the feete of a Roe with the nerues of a Hart haue the same power But of all other there is no folly comparable to the composition which the Magitians draw out of a dragon to make one invincible and that is this They take the head and tayle of a dragon with the hayres out of the fore-head of a Lyon and the marrow of a Lyon the spume or white mouth of a conquering horse bound vppe in a Harts-skinne together with a clawe of a dogge and fastned with the crosse nerues or sinew of a Hart or of a Roe they say that this hath as much power to make one invincible as hath anie medicine or remedy whatsoeuer The fatte of dragons is of such vertue that it driueth away venomous beastes It is also reported that by the tongue or gall of a dragon sodde in wine men are deliuered from the spirits of the night called Incubi and Succubi or else Night-mares But aboue all other parts the vse of theyr blood is accounted most notable But whether the Cynnabaris be the same which is made of the blood of the dragons and Elephants collected from the earth when the dragon and the Elephant fall downe dead together accordings as Pliny deliuereth I will not heere dispute seeing it is already done in the story of the Elephant neither will I write any more of this matter in this place but onely referre the Reader vnto that which hee shall finde written thereof in the history of our former booke of Foure-footed-beastes And if that satisfie him not let him read Langius in the first booke of his Epistles and sixtie-fiue Epistle where that learned man doth abundantly satisfie all men concerning this question that are studious of the truth and not prone to contention And to conclude Andreas Baluacensis writeth that the Blood-stone called the Haematite is made of the dragons blood and thus I will conclude the history of the dragon with this storie following out of Porphyrius concerning the good successe which hath beene signified vnto men and women eyther by the dreames or sight of dragons Mammea the Mother of Alexander Seuerus the Emperour the night before his birth dreamed that she brought forth a little dragon so also did Olympia the Mother of Alexander the great and Pomponya the Mother of Scipio Affricanus The like prodigie gaue Augustus hope that he should be Emperor For when his mother Actia came in the night time vnto the Temple of Apollo and had sette downe her bedde or couch in the Temple among other Matrons suddainely shee fell asleepe and in her sleepe shee dreamed that a dragon came to her and clasped about her bodie and so departed without dooing her any harme Afterwards the print of a dragon remained perpetually vppon her belly so as shee neuer durst any more be seene in any bath The Emperour Tyberius Caesar had a dragon which hee daily fedde with his owne handes and nourished like good fortune at the last it happened that this dragon was defaced with the byting of Emmets and the former beautie of his body much obscured Wherefore the Emperour grewe greatly amazed thereat demaunding a reason thereof of the Wisemen hee was by them admonished to beware the insurrection of the common people And thus with these stories representing good and euill by the dragon I will take my leaue of this good and euill Serpent OF THE DRYINE THere be some that confound this Serpent with the water-snake and say it is none other then that which of auncient time vvas called Hidrus for so long as they liue in the water they are called Hidri that is Snakes of the water but when once they come to the land they are called Chelidri and Chersydri but it is certaine that the Chelidrus is different from the Chersydrus by the strong smell and sauour which it carrieth with it wheresoeuer it goeth according to these verses made of Vmbo the Priest in Virgill Viperio generi et grauiter spirantibus Hydris Spargere qui somnos cantuque manuque solebat Which may be englished thus Who could by song and hand bring into deadly sleepe All kind of Vipers with Snakes smelling strong and deepe Which beeing compared with that instruction which hee giueth to Shepheards teaching them how to driue away the strong-smelling-serpents from the foldes hee calleth them Chelydri when he writeth in this manner Disce et odoratam stabulis accendere Cedrum Galbanioque agitare graues nidore Chelydros That is to say in English thus Learne how to driue away strong smelling Cheliders From folds by Galbanum and sauourie Cedars So that it is cleere that these Dryines are the same which are called Chelydri vvho doe stincke on the face of the earth whereby they are oftentimes disclosed although they be not seene howbeit some thinke that this filthy sauour doth not proceede from any fume or smoake comming out of their bodies but rather from their motion according to the opinion of Macer in these following verses Seu terga ex pirant spumantia Virus Seu terra fumat quateter labitur Anguis Which may be englished in this manner Whether their foming backs that smell Doe send abroade such poyson pestilent Or whether th' earth whereon this Snake full fell Doth slyde yeeldes that vnwholsome scent It is sayd that these Dryines doe
It hath eyght feete foure on the one side and foure on the other from whence as we haue shewed already it is called Octopos For the feete and armes therof is very much like vnto the Sea-crabbe and therefore may not vnfitly be called eyther the Mother or the Daughter thereof They haue also tongues where-withall they vse often to licke and smooth ouer theyr owne bodyes And seeing of all other things they loue fresh cleane linnen whereinto they insinuate and wrappe themselues when they can come vnto it then also first of all they clense theyr whole bodyes all ouer with theyr tongues and next to their flesh put on this cleane linnen as a man would put on a shirt As wee haue said alreadie it hath a tayle wherein the sting thereof is placed but what this sting is diuers Authours are of diuers opinions concerning the same some affirming it to be hollow others denying it finding in it no passage at all to containe or couay poyson Aelianus againe sayth that there must needs be in it a passage or cauitie although it be so small as by no meanes it can be perceiued with the eyes of any mortall man and in that sting is the poyson lesse visible which when it striketh disperseth it selfe instantly into the wound But what should this poyson be whether a substance or spirituall humor surely a substaunce which although it be Mole minima yet facultate maxima that is of great power although of small quantitie And therefore another Authour namely Gerardus writeth thereof after this manner Scorpius è centro quod cauum esse creditur emittit humorem venenosum That is to say the Scorpion out of a hollow center sendeth foorth a venomous humour And of this venom wee will afterwards discourse more at large Thus much in this place may serue to make knowne the seuerall parts and members of this Serpent Now then it followeth that we enquire about the manner of their breede or generation which I find to be double as diuers Authors haue obserued one way is by putrefaction and the other by laying of egges and both these wayes are consonant to nature for Lacinius writeth that some creatures are generated onely by propagation of seed such are men Vipers Whales the Palme-tree some againe onely by putrefaction as the louse the flye grasse such like imperfect things some both wayes as myce scorpions emmets spyders Purslaine which first of all were procuced by putrefaction and since their generation are conserued by the seede and egges of their owne kind Now therefore wee will first of all speake of the generation of Scorpions by putrefaction and afterward by propagation Pliny saith that when Sea-crabbes dye and theyr bodyes are dryed vppon the earth when the Sunne entereth into Cancer and Scorpius out of the putrefaction thereof ariseth a Scorpion so out of the putrified body of the Creuish burned arise Scorpions which caused Ouid thus to write Concaua littoreo si demas brachia cancro Caetera supponas terrae de parte sepulta Scorpius exibit caudaque minabitur vnca And againe Obrutus exemptis Cancer tellure lacertis Scorpius exiguo tempore factus erit In English thus If that the armes you take from Sea-crab-fish And put the rest in earth till all consumed be Out of the buried part a Scorpion will arise With hooked tayle doth threaten for to hurt thee And therefore it is reported by Elianus that about Estamenus in India there are abundance of Scorpions generated onely by corrupt raine-water standing in that place Also out of the Baziliske beaten into peeces and so putrified are Scorpions engendered And when as one had planted the herbe Basilica on a wall in the roome or place thereof hee found two Scorpions And some say that if a man chaw in his mouth fasting this herbe Basill before he wash and afterward lay the same abroade vncouered where no sun commeth at it for the space of seauen nights taking it in all the day time hee shall at length find it transmuted into a Scorpion with a tayle of seauen knots Hollerius to take away all scruple of this thing writeth that in Italy in his dayes there was a man that had a Scorpion bredde in his braine by continuall smelling to this herbe Basill and Gesner by relation of an Apothecary in Fraunce writeth likewise a storie of a young mayde who by smelling to Basill fell into an exceeding head-ach whereof shee dyed without cure and after her death beeing opened there were found little Scorpions in her braine Aristotle remembreth an herbe which he calleth Sisimbriae out of which putrified Scorpions are engendered as he writeth And wee haue shewed already in the history of the Crocodile that out of the Crocodiles egges doe many times come Scorpions which at their first egression doe kill theyr dam that hatched them which caused Archelaus which wrote Epigrams of wonders vnto Ptolomaeus to sing of Scorpions in this manner In vos dissoluit morte redigit Crocodilum Natura extinctum Scorpij omnipotens Which may be englished thus To you by Scorpions death the omnipotent Ruines the Crocodill in natures life extinct And thus much for the generation of Scorpions out of putrefaction Now we wil proceede to the second manner of their generation which is by propagation of seede for although Ponzettus make some question about their copulation yet he himself inclineth to that opinion as neerer vnto truth which attributeth carnall copulation vnto them and therefore he alledgeth the example of flyes which admitte copulation although they engender not thereby Wherefore wee will take it for graunted that Scorpions lay egges after copulation which hapneth both in the Spring and Autumne And these are for the most part in number eleuen vpon which they sit and hatch their young ones and when once they are perfected within those egges which are in sight like the little wormes out of which Spyders are engendered then doe they breake theyr egges and driue the young out For as Isidorus writeth otherwise the olde should be destroyed of the young euen as are the Crocodiles Some againe say that the old Scorpions doe deuour theyr young ones Beeing thus produced by generation they liue vppon the earth and those which are bredde of the Sea-crabbe doe feede vppon the foame of the Sea-water and a continuall white mould or chalke neere the Sea But the Scorpions of Ethyopia doe eate all kind of wormes flyes and small Serpents Yea those Serpents whose very dunge beeing troden vpon by man bringeth exulcerations And a tryall that Scorpions eate flyes was made by Wolphius at Montpelier for hauing a young one in a boxe for one whole month together it liued vpon flyes and grew by the deuouring of them bigger beeing put into the glasse vnto him They liue among tyles and bricks very willingly and for this cause they abound in Rome in the hill called Testaceus They are also in Bononia