about the Rising and Going down of the sun though sometimes at other Hours and sometimes there Appear many little suns like unto stars which are caused by many little divided Clouds as the Reflection of a Man's Face appears in all parts of a broken Glass or as a Multiplying Glass makes one thing seem many The appearing of these Phenomenas naturally betoken Tempests and much Rain to ensue because they cannot appear but in a Watery disposition of the Air. Also if they appear on the south side of the sun they signify more Violent showers than on the North and the reason is the hot southern Vapour is sooner resolved into Water than the colder Northern ones As for a Supernatural signification they have been Noted to have portended the Contention of Princes for Kingdoms as not long before the Contention of Galba Otho and Vitellus for the Empire Rome three Suns appeared also a little before the Slaughter of Lewis King of Hungary in a Battel against the Turks were seen three Suns denoting the three Princes that afterward Contended for the Kingdom viz. Ferdinand King of Bohemia John Vayvode of Transilvania and Solyman Emperor of the Turks The appearing of many Moons in the Night and what they Prognostick of Good or Bad. AS for the cause of many Moons appearing or seeming to do so at once I need not repeat it again but only tell you the cause is the same as that of the Suns Plyne calls these Night suns because they joyn with the Light of the Moon and Augment its Light in wonderful measure whilst they continue They foretell great Rains and a wet season to follow producing Land Floods and doing much Harm to Corn and Grass if grown up also the Overflowing of Rivers and the Breaking in of the sea and in general a moist wet Year or part of a Year as they fall Earlier or Later to ensue to the End which will occasion scarcity of Corn and other Fruits of the Earth Of the Rainbow how caused and what it Prognosticates HAving promised to say something more particularly of the Rainbow which gives a great insight to the weather immediately to follow I shall Treat of it here as it most Probably follows in Order The Rainbow is the Apparition of certain Colours in a Cloud Opposit against the sun in a half Circle as Virgil seems to Hint when he makes Iris or the Rainbow Messengers to Juno viz. From Heaven then Dew-rose wing'd Iris flew She ' gainst the Sun a Thousand Colours drew Plac'd on her Head c. The sun Reflecting on a Cloud at a distance from it side-ways and Refracting its Beams there lively by its Light shews the various Colours the Clouds is Composed of Posidonius Terms the Rainbow the Suns Looking-glass wherein its Image is Represented and that the blue Colour is the proper Colour of the Air or Cloud and the red of the sun that the other are mixed Colours or Colours of Comixtion and indeed the Colours more admirably lively than can be Represented any where else but since Rainbows are so often Visible I think I may spare the Labour of a particular Description of them therefore I proceed to what they Prognosticate in Relation to Weather viz. From that part the Rainbow first begins to break or vanish winds will arise and bring great showers If the Rainbow vanishes as it were altogether fair weather will ensue If it be broken in many parts Tempestuous winds are gathering in the Air. If after it appears the Colours wax grosser and darken Rain is gathering if lighter and the Colours fairer the contrary and guess of other Asspects in the Rainbow Of the Ignis Fatuus or Fires that lead People astray in the Night time called the Will with the Wisp THese in Popish and superstitious times were held to be Souls that had escaped out of Purgatory to desire the prayers of the living upon the earth for their admission to Paradice because they were often seen in Church yards where Unctious vapours arise from the steem of dead bodies since they are called Will with the Wisp or as the Latins call them Ignis Fatuus foolish fire because they are rather a fire in shew than a real one in truth It is a Fire or a resemblance of it that seemeth to go before men or follow them in the Night lead them out of their way into waters or other dangerous places it is a weak exhalation kindled by reason of a violent motion in a cold night in the lowest Region of the Air for in the hot season they appear not It is imbodied by the cold and shut in as it were in a bladder and its motion is from that of the Air for that being as it were of a piece tho' in innumerable particles is agitated with violent motions and as the body of a Man moves in breaking it the whole sensibly suffers which makes this Nocturnal Light move swiftly and press towards the Party moving it dancing and playing about him So that the afright and the many times by that means in a dark Night makes him wonder and being once out he knows not how to get into the right way again and often Mischief ensues by his tumbling into one bad place or another When these Exhalations rise much which they mostly do in moorish or foggy Grounds In Autumn and the beginning of Winter they fore-run a cold sharp winter but a fruitful summer to ensue because it shews the cold Vapours will not rise high but remain nearer the Earth and oppress it with still Frosts more than blustering Winds and again in so doing the Earth in Winter will spend little of its heat or Evaporate its Unctious quality to any great degree which working with its nitrous part is the cause of Fertility and causes encrease of all kind of Vegetives to a very great degree more than ordinary Of the Flame that appears on the Hair and Beards of Men and upon that of Beasts THis by some has been taken to be wonderfully strange and of such Terror that some hath been extreamly frighted by it supposing it was the Devil come to involve them in sulpherous flames when the cause is really natural for these Fires are sometimes clamy Exhalations scattered abroad in the Air in small parts which in the night by the resistance of the cold agitating in a violent motion are kindled and rushing on where they find opposition by reason of their clamy nature stick and appear a blue fire very affrighting to those at a distance when the persons on whom they fasten perhaps perceive them not or at least not presently When they are much abroad they fore-tell high Winds and a blustering stormy Winter a wet Spring and a dry Summer very sickly but fruitful Strange Apparitions of Armies and other wonderful sights in the Air how caused Apparitions in the Air are only Exhalations in the lowest or highest Regions of it not really Fires but seem so by the Sun
or Moon reflecting Light on them The Light in this case is instead of white and the dark shadow sets off the Figures such Apparitions seem terribly to represent and diversly mixed accordingly to the divers dispositions of the Exhalation they cause variety of colours according to the thickness or thinness of the Exhalation presenting to the imagination of fond fanciful Mortals Armies in Battel Seas and Navys engaging on them spacious Fields Houses Castles and the like though indeed but Airy Phantoms However they fore-run Storms and are accompanied with flashes of Lightning very often and in the hotter weather with prodigious claps of Thunder if the Clouds are gross and full of water looking a greenish dark in the middle tho' about the edges the Light may as in the thinner parts paint various Colours being composed of hot and moist Exhalations and though these are looked on as supernatural causes they are no more than the effect of Nature The Kinds of Earth-Quakes their cause and signs fore-running them and what they pontend IN this Treatise I cannot but make some Observation on the Causes of Earth-Quakes considering of late Years we have been so much alarumed with their prodigious Effects and so few people know what natural Effect produces them for wonderful Things are related by Historians concerning them but the best Opinions given of their Causes and the most probable is That extraordinary quantities of heat and cold shut up in the vast Caverns of the Earth contending for mastery and pressing violently to get out but find Opposition by the too much dryness or moisture of the Porus parts of the Earth seek a way to vent themselves by force and break their way through all Opposition The Signs of an Earth-Quake being at hand is the much tosing of the Sea or other great Waters when no visible cause is seen to occasion it for then the Vapours labouring to force their way to open Air first finding a more easy passage there than on the firm Land first make their way and boyl up the Waters as it were to force through them Also a cold Calmness of the Air is another Sign for then the Exhalation that should be abroad is forcibly pent up in the Earth and struggling to get out with violence Others Observe that when the Sky is as it were Clear some long strakes of Clouds are however seen but the most certain is a rumbling murmuring Noise in the Earth and a kind of whistleing Wind whisking about the Air being troubled for then the fore-runner or thinest part of the Vapour is spining out to make way for the greater Shock and more violent gross shock of it yet however the Cause is the same notwithstanding the manner of shaking the Earth is different as I shall briefly Note The First is when the Earth is shaken Laterally or to one side which is when the whole force of the enclosed Vapour driveth to one side or place and there is no contrary Motion to Let it if the Vapour be weak it only makes a Rocking or Trembling but if violent breaks out overthrowing the mightiest Buildings from their Foundations and by such an Earth-Quake in the Reign of Tyberius the Roman Emperor twelve great Cities in Asia were levelled in one and most of their Inhabitants buried in their Ruins and sad have those been of late at Naples in Italy also in the Island of Scicily at Lima and Jamaica in the West-Indies I will not mention what happened in England lately which was rather a Trepidation than an Earth-Quake Yet it caused much Consternation and the excessive quantity of Vapours that then effused in all probability have occasioned the Climate to be the Colder to this day A second kind of Earth-Quake lifts up the Earth so that falling on a sudden and lets it fall again this happens when the Wind in a great Mass struggles on a sudden to Evaporate but the Opposition is too strong and forces it down again The Third is that which breaks its way violently through causing openings and gaupings of the Earth so that Towers Cities Mountains and huge standing Waters have been swallowed up and lost All these are very Terrible and are in the hot season accompanied with prodigious Thunders and Lightnings the Vapours pressing too much infection upon the Air before it can be refined and purged it Infects the Bodies of Men and Beasts causing mortal Diseases and the Earth having spent so much that it cannot in a plentiful manner assist to produce fertility a scarcity ensues not only for the present but for some Years after till the Recruit comes to make the Ground more fertil c. Signs fore-running Thunder Lightning c. MEteors shooting in the Night in summer time denotes the Air Inflamed with much Heat and that Thunder and Lightning will ensue Many Clops and Clefts in the Ground signify that the fiery Vapours are Ascended from the Earth and have so Dryed and Parched it in their passage so that the fire being mounted so soon as thick Clouds Over-cast the Sky the grosser part of the fire Descending and strugling with the watery Clouds to get a passage through is that which is called the Lightning If no Clouds appear in sultry Weather and the Sun sets Red and Fiery great Flashes will appear in the North North West which is called Fulgetrum and is Lightning but not meeting with Opposition it carrys no Thunder with it though springing from the same Cause but wanting Opposition the Noise is not heard Of sudden Whirl-winds and surprizing Tempests VVHirl-winds are Vapours suddenly Rising out of the Earth and gathering in the Air imbodyed in Clouds and stretching them break forth Violently so forcing their way to the Earth with much Fury in a Narrow Compass as it were inclosed they Circle Round and Hurry things about Violently often Over-turning Houses Barns Sheep Cots and Lifting People and Cattle into the Air letting them Fall again many times to their Destruction though in these Countrys they are not so Violent as others nearer the Line where Vapours are carryed up more violently by the Heat The sings that fore-run them is a troubled Sky the Whisking and Circling Light Things about when as yet there appears little or no Wind a Murmering heard in the Air the Air beating down right as it were upon the Water and making it Wrinkle Trees Whisking in one place and not in another Approved Rules for Manageing Husbandry or Rural Affairs during the Twelve Months of the Year for ever In JANUARY LAY Warm Dung to the Roots of your Young Choice Trees and Plants Lop and take off Superfluous Branches in the New Moon if the weather be Open set Beans sow Pease Parsnip Seeds dig and trench your Ground especially in Gardens give your Cattle gentle Drenches and to the more Sickly and Weak warm Mashes of Bran and Mault sodden in Water keep them warm Housed if the weather be extream Cold and Cover your Choice Plants and Flowers In
or Bladder Drink to prevent it the Juice of parsley in Rhenish or White Wine 5th A clear Perspicuous or Transparent Urine shows a good Concoction and perfect Digestion and withal a Healthful Constitution 6th Bloody spots in Urine denotes an Ulceration in the Reins or Neck of the Bladder 7th The Urine Blackish shows much a Dust melancholly and fore-runs some Violent Disease that often brings Death or a Long Tedious Sickness 8th The Urine Clammy-and Sweet denotes a Consumption of the Internal parts by bad Digestion 9th Urine of a Lead Colour signifies the Body to be in an Ill Habit and threatens Death without speedy Remedys Applyed 10th Urine that has Yellow sparkles or sediment in it shows Choler has the Predominancy and much Afflicts the Body threatens Feavours and other hot Diseases and by these kinds you may perfectly learn the state of the Body as to Health or Sickness present or approaching for the Urine passing through those parts where the Distempers are Generating carry a Tincture along with it of the Humours Predominant that is Encreasing or Propagating the Disease or on the contrary shows a healthful Constitution though few are so Skilful to descern it which puts me in mind of a pleasant Story viz. A Woman whose Husband had a Bruise by a fall down Stairs carryed his Urine to a Urine Casting Doctor who pretended likewise to be a Conjurer he after shaking seeing little specks of Blood Float in it had so much Understanding to tell her the Party had Received some Internal Hurt the Woman agreed to this as Truth but demanding by what means he came by it upon this he erected his Scheme and in the mean time asked her so many Questions that by the drift of her Discourse he gathered he had Tumbled down Stairs the Woman not minding well what she had said in the Consternation she was in at the hard Words he uttered supposing he was Conjuring up the Devil to be Resolved in the Matter told her her own Words again in a different Stile the Woman acknowledged it True with some Admiration but desired to know how many Pair of Stairs he might fall down she had told him before where she Lived and he considering the place consisted mostly of Low Buildings answered Two Pair nay now said she you are out in your Art he fell Three Story I 'll promise this put our Doctor to his Trumps when having Mused a while for an Excuse he shook the Urinal again and asked her if there was all the Water her Husband made No Replyed she I spilt a little in pouring it in O hoe did you so said he why that Woman is the business that made me Mistake for there went away the other Pair of Stairs in the Urine you spilt Cautions against much Bleeding and Physicking and what necessary Rules are to be taken to supply the Defect THough I have often in this Book set down Rules for Health and particularly Blood Letting with the Times and Seaesons proper since Health is the Rarest Jewel of Life yet for once let me give a Caution that none by Ignorance or too much Forwardness instead of Preserving Prejudice their Health Though Physical Medicines are properly Good in their Order and helpful to Nature whose Handmaid they are to help her expell any Noxious Humour that may produce a Virulent Distemper yet over-doing may be more Injurious than under doing therefore my Advice is that none do Accustom themselves over-much to Purging Medicines or Blood-letting except without them there will be some great Prejudice or Defect in Nature for when once the Body is often accustomed to them they will be worse if it be not continued which by often Repitition must waste the Vital Spirits as well as they carry off the bad Humours Therefore chuse rather to take such apt things as are proper to keep the Body open and a wholsom moderate Dyet Bread and Butter strewed with Rosemary Sage Rue or Scurvygrass is an excellent preservative of Health and in the Spring or at other Convenient Seasons Pottage with Clivers Water-crosses Elder-buds Nettle-tops Brooklime Smallage and such like cooling and moderate refreshing Herbs are great Refreshers of Nature gently Cooling and Purging the Blood and keep off Sickness for a long Season though the Bodys of Men and Women have before been Accustomed to them but above all things be Temperate in Eating and Drinking Moderate-in Labour and Exercise for these are main Contributers to Health and indeed we need not be beholding to Out-landish Drugs if we rightly consider we have sufficient of our own and that God in his Goodness has so Ordered it that Nature in every place produces Remedys suitable to the Diseases of the Climate How to Dyet and Order our Bodys for the preservation of Health for every Month in the Year the most Approved Rules IT will among these useful things be highly Necessary to speak something of the Ordering of Man's Body during the Circle of the Year under the several signs and planets that Govern them and dispose to Health or Sickness more at one time than another The first part of the Year that is from the 25th of December till the 25th of March is under Capricorn Aquarius and Pisces Signs partly Moist and partly Dry and those born under them are subject to Diseases of that Nature Therefore from DECEMBER to the end of the Month. Take wholsome Dyet and neither Eat nor Drink Immoderately for fear of Fluxes Rhumatisms Catarrhs or Husky Dry Coughs that Waste and Consume the Lungs let not Blood unless in great Necessity then do it Moderately and keep very Warm rather Bleed often if Necessity require it than two much at once left the Veins filling with Cold Air cause dangerous Diseases and in this as in all the following Months take Care not to Bleed nor purge on the Unfortunate Days which are set down in this Book properly for every Month let your purgings be Gentle and take great Care of Catching Cold. In JANUARY If the Weather be open Necessity requiring it Bleed Moderately as in the former Month but if hard Frosts set in forbear it if possible and Cheer up your Spirits with Wine and Cordials but not to any Excess taking them for the most part in a Morning Fasting and be Temperate in Dyet with Moderate purgations if Necessity require it and so shall you with God's Blessing prevent and escape Sickness observing the Critical Days In FEBRUARY You may this Month if ther be no hard Frosts be more bolder in bleeding than before but not over much purge gently with purging Ales and other purging Drinks and in the Morning Fasting Eat warm Broaths into which such wholsome Herbs as the Season affords have been shred which will purify the Blood Cooling and Refreshing the Body to prepare it for a Healthful Constitution in the Spring and keeping off such Diseases as then are Rife Abroad In MARCH This Month brings in the Vernal Equinox and from the
by it they are on all hands concluded to be creatures of much hardiness but not long Lived they much delight to Earth themselves in a Loamy Ground mixed with Sand so that it is very well binding and no Springs in it to hinder their working or earthing themselves for wet is a great enemy to them and moist Burrows with their Dampness or Mustiness cause the Rot amongst them which soon thins the Warren by sweeping them away in great Numbers though in a Clay mixed with a little Gravel Exempted from such Wet or Dampness they thrive best and are the Largest and Fullest fine short sweet Hay in Winter layed near the mouths of their Holes is a great comfort to them both to preserve them from Diseases by drying up the over much moisture they contract and making them feed the better so Exempted from Sickness The cause of Madness is caused by wind and wet which getting in great quantity into the porous parts of the Body arises by Vapours to the Brain and causes a Frenzy or Madness in the Creature which is known by its tumbling and rowling about when out of the Burrow and particularly tumbling over its Head and bouncing about in an unusual posture and this Kills many of them therefore when this Sign appears apply the following Remedy and the Distemper will cease A Cure for Madness in Coneys TAke Sweet Hay cut it a little but not too short let it be as dry as possibly you can get it mix with it Hare-Thistle an Herb so called and scatter a little fine dry Bran amongst it and lay it near their Burrows if it be in Winter Snowey weather sweep the Ground clean where you lay it or put it into the mouth of the Burrows lightly so as not to stop them up that they may come to it without coming abroad to Expose themselves to the Cold Air and this will restore them from this Distemper A Cure for the Rot in Coneys THe other Disease Incident to these Creatures is the Rot the more dangerous of the two because it sweeps more fatally This comes when it is very Moist and Rainey in the Spring or Autumn for then much water hanging on the Grass in their feeding they suck it in which softening their Flesh with a kind of a Dropsical Watery Humour which also gets between the Skin and the Flesh putrefying the Liver c. and so causes them to dye of the Rot to Remedy this give them Parsley dryed Hay and Hare-Thistle lay warm Litter near their Holes with Boughs over it to shelter themselves in at pleasure against the wet and fogs or moist winds c. and renew it as often as it grows wet or musty and when the Snow lyes on the ground Shovel and sweep it from their Burrows that they may come at the Grass And thus have I briefly shewed you how to manage these profitable Creatures to keep them in good case cause them to Breed well and to be free from the sickness incident to them which cannot but prove profitable to one or other of my Readers though not to all To keep and order Hares in Warrens or Tame them in all respects as the Coney AS for Hares if kept Tame or in Warrens they may be ordered in all respects as the Coney they being much of the same nature and their Diseases the same but seeing many are desirous to find them wild in the Fields for their Sport and advantage of getting them and are Ignorant of their haunts and there forms whereby they lose much labour in a fruitless fearch and are often disappointed I thought in convenient to say something as to this particular a thing desired of me by so many When you goe about to find a Hare that you may not lose your Labour but be more certain in the Event If you attempt to do it go not into the thickest of the Cover but to be more certain beat the Bushey close or Shruby Ground Adjacent For if you should find a Hare in a close Woody Cover you will hardly bring her out to shew you Sport and consequently lose her but if you find her in the Shrubs she will when Started or Chased immediately take to the Champion ground because a Hare naturally delights not in Cover till she is tired and therefore the Champion grounds are the most likely places to find them and Run them down and in such grounds resort to the Goss Brakes low Brambles or Broom and if they afford no such shelter repair to the Stubble at the beginning of Hunting time and about Christmas to the Fallows and in March to the Green Corn and in these places the best Hares haunt and are usually to be found and many times you may find a Form when the Hare is absent or gone abroad a feeding and if you would know whether she haunts it or has left it take these Directions To know the New or Old Form whether Retained by a Hare or left her Shifts c. THis is a main point to be Discovered therefore mark in your search very narrowly the following Directions to know if it be New or Old observe if the form or seat be plain and smooth the Pad before it flat and worn and the Pricks of her feet so New and Plain to be discovered that the Earth appears black or so Newly broken that the Hare cannot be long gone then the Form is new she is not far from it nor will delay long returning unless frighted away by some Accident but the contrary appearing it is old and if you expect any advantage by it you will in all likelyhood lose your labour and another thing is worthy of Remark and that is the Hare has divers Slights and Shifts to avoid pursuit as her Windings and Doublings you must also when she is pursued observe her Leaps and Skips before she Squats and beat the places most likely to give her shelter for being reduced to these hard shifts she is tired come to her last cast and can hold out but a little longer for she never uses them till she finds her strength so failing her that she grows heartless and has but this way to hope avoiding the pursuers To know whether a Coney or Rabit be Old or Young or New or Stale Killed c. THis is a Nice point and many have been deceived in it and therefore having treated of these Creatures in other matters this as very useful will be convenient enough to set down in the close of it If a Coney be old her Claws are very long and rough and long greyish hairs will stand out amongst the wool but young and a right Coney or Rabit it will have a small gristly knot on the out side of the Foot a little above the Joynt the Claws middleing and smooth and no grey hairs appearing pinch the inside of the Belly and it will break tender but if it be old in pinching it will be tough ruckle up If stale