would spoile them Spigelius More cautious and better advised are the Venetian Dames who never lace themselves accounting it an excellency in beauty to be round and full bodied to attaine which comely fulnesse they use all the Art possible and if they be not corpulent by Nature Round and full Bodies affected nor can be really brought to it by Art will yet counterfeit such a Habit of body by the bumbasticall dissimulation of their Garments Purch Pilgr 2. lib. 6. The Egyptian Moorish women discreetly affect the same liberty of Nature who spread their Armes under their Robes to make them shew more corpulent for they thinke it a speciall excellency to be fat and most of them are so in frequenting the Baines for certaine daies together using such frictions and Diet as daily use confirmeth for effectuall And indeed as my Lord Bacon noteth Lord Bacons nat hist cent 9. Frictions make the parts more fleshy and full as we see both in men and in the currying of Horses c. the cause is for that they draw greater quantity of spirits and bloud to the parts And againe because they draw the Aliment more forcibly from within And againe because they relax the Pores and so make better passage for the spirits bloud and aliment Lastly because they dissipate and digest an inutile or excrementitious moisture which lyeth in the flesh all which help assimulation Frictions also do more fill and impinguate the Body than exercise The cause is for that in Frictions the inward parts are at rest How to make a body fleshy and full which in exercise are beaten many times too much and for the same reason Galley-slaves are fat and fleshy because they stir the Limbs more and the inward parts lesse SCENE XXI A modest Apology Strange inventive Contradictions against Nature practically maintained by divers Nations in the ordering of their Privy-parts AFter our Historicall peregrination to discover the use and abuse of Parts being arrived at this place in the Tract of a practicall Metamorphosis I could not see how I should answer it to Nature if I had silently passed by the abuses that have been put upon her in these parts for had I given way to such an unseasonable modesty my designe had proved lame and a great part of my end and aime frustrated it being to make a thorough discovery not only of the pragmaticall vanity of man but of the raging malice of the enemy of mankind who labours to deforme and destroy the worke of Nature while after most wonderfull and strange waies he exerciseth prophane and wicked men by the law of his Tyranny to which he hath enslaved them The cause of frequent Transformations who in the first place hath laid snares for the parts of Generation there being no other part be so deadly hates not only endeavouring as Peucerus rightly notes to encrease the penalty inflicted by God upon Nature but to hinder the propagation of the remaining impression of the Image of the Archetype in man and debar his restitution which is one reason that is given by the learned Bauhinus of the cause of mans so frequent Transformation Bauhin lib. de Hermoph I but some may say this might have been an obstacle to reveale the veile of Nature to prophane her mysteries for a little curious skill pride to ensnare mens minds by sensuall expressions seemeth a thing lyable to heavy constructions But what is this as one saith apollogyzing for himselfe in such a businesse but to arraigne Vertue at the bar of Vice Hath the Holy Scripture it selfe the Wisdome of God as well in the old Law particularly as also in many passages of the New balked this Argument God that created these parts did he not intend their preservation in the state of Nature and can they be preserved so if we know not their naturall perfection Or if the injurious inventions of man have practically depraved these parts can Nature be vindicated or her honesty asserted without knowledge and discovery of the Abuses that have been and are committed in these parts Examples there are of this Concession not only in Latine but in all mother Tongues And the most of my Histories are in English already as appeares by the grave Authours quoted and this hath had an allowance in all Ages and Common-wealths and the opinion of grave and reverend Divines is that such discourses upon fit occasions are not to be intermitted Indeed Yard-Balls it were to be wished that all men would come to the knowledge of these secrets with pure eyes and eares such as they were matched with in their Creation But shall we therefore forfeit our knowledge because some men cannot containe their lewd and inordinate affection Our intention is first and principally to discover the abuses of the parts Secondarily to teach those who are sober minded the naturall use honesty and perfection of parts as well to give glory to him who hath so wonderfully created them as also to explode and detest the mischieves prodigious vanity to which among and above the rest these parts have been notoriously subjected As much as was possible we have endeavoured not frustrating our lawfull scope by honest words and circumlocutions to render the Argument more favourable to the eares of those who are wise indeed and not to discontent any unlesse the Negative ignorance of such who precisely thinke there is no other principle of goodnesse than not to know evill The Inhabitants of Ava in the West-Indies Purch Pilgr 3. lib. 1. weare in their Yards betwixt the skin and flesh Bels of Gold Silver or Brasse of the bignesse of Nuts which they put in when they are of age to use women and in short time cure the place and the men much please themselves to heare the sound of them as they go these Venus-Morris-Dancers frisking often to the tune of their own Codpiece-musique Magin Georgr Ind. orient One Geographer gives in evidence against the Peguans that they are very much given to luxurie and that they in favour of the women weare golden or silver bells hanging at their virile members to the end that they make a sound as they walk through the City Grimston of their manners Another saith the Peguans are wonderfully given to the love of women and for their sakes they weare little bells of Gold and Silver hanging at their members to the end they may make a noise when as they go in the streets Herberts Travels lib. 3. For Siam another Authour reports that to deter these Catamites a late Queene Rectrix commanded that all Male Children should have a bell of Gold in it an Adders Tongue dried put through the prepuce which in short time not only became not contemptible but inway of ornament and for Musique few are now without three or foure so that when they have a mind to marry he hath his choice of what maid he likes but beds her not untill
376 Where women are Circumcised 380 The originall and reason of this invention 381 Where women excise themselves not from a notion of religion but as an ornament ibid. The error sin of this custome 380 How this Circumcision of a woman is done ibid. 381 Men with Members like Asses and where they have a great privy member in great esteem 389 399 Supposed to be nourished by art ibid. The just length and magnitude of the virile member when it is conform'd according to the law of Nature 400 Midwives supposed to be the cause either of the length or shortnes of the virile member according as they knit the navell string 400 401 The Anatomicall reason given thereof with the opinion of Spigelius 400 That whatsoever augmentation of parts is gained by Art besides the will and ordinary allowance of Nature it is commonly attended by some inconveniences 401 The reason of the inconvenience which follow the magnitude and the foule immoderate longitude of the Organ of generation 402 403 Where they use to binde up the Fore-skin of their Privities with a little cord and unty it not but to make water or when they use the act of Generation 381 An expostulation of this unnaturall restraint 382 Men whose Members hang down to their shanks 403 Pygmaei magno veretro 404 Where they adorne their Genitals with pretious stones 383 Where they deprive their secret parts of that which nature intended to make them more secret 383 How this is done and upon what pretence 383 384 Where women never have their flowers 390 By what meanes they prevent their monthly Flux ibid. Their ingratitude to Nature taxed for endeavouring to divert the ordinary course of Nature 391 Nations commended as more respective to nature in this particular 391 Where the women have a most streight and narrow neck of their wombe that they very hardly admit a Man 392 That this happens to them by art not by any benefit of Nature ibid. Where this art is familiarly and commonly practâ—sed 392 393 The miserable and dangerous effects of this artifice 393 Where the virgins use art to distend their Maliebria most capaciously 393 Where they to use sew up the private passage of Nature in their Female child leaving a small passage for their urine 394 â—9 Where the Midwives are wont to breake that membrane as unprofitable which Anatomists call Hymen 384 How they doe it ibid. The prodigious conceit of Nero who must needs have a boy cut and made forsooth a woman 407 The naturall change of women into men confuted by demonstration of Anatomy and Nature vindicated from being guilty of any such practicall Metamorphosis 405 That men to be changed into women is very rare 407 Nations of Hermophrodites who have the generative parts of both sexes 386 390 Hereticks that thought the first man was an Hermaphrodite 386 Their opinion confuted by Scripture ibid. and 387 The kindes of Hermophrodites ibid. That those who in old time were called by the name of Androgyni were reputed for prodigious Monsters 389 Ancient Records of such Hermophrodites ibid. The causes of Hermophrodites 390 S Shoulders HIgh-huff Shoulders where in fashion and naturall 280 Where their shoulders are higher then their Heads ibid. Some concurrent affectation suspected in these Nations ibid. Broad shoulders where in request and indeavoured or imitated by art 281 The inconveniences of broad shoulders and why Platonick Men are not affected by women ibid. Narrow and contracted shoulders where affected 282 With what art they of old affected this composure of the Shoulders ibid. This affectation of drawing the shoulder-points too neer noted and condemned ibid. Where the Noble Virgins Right Shoulders are higher and bigger then the left 283 The cause thereof enquired ibid. Crook-back'd Nations 284 T Teeth WHere red Teeth are accounted a great beauty 217 By what industry they attain unto this Dentall bravery ibid. Where the principall women take a pride in black Teeth 217 218 Black Teeth where a singular beauty 218 219 Where so greatly affected that the blacker they are the more beautifull they are esteemed and worthy of greater honour ibid. How they make them black ibid. Where they polish their black teeth which makes them shew like polish'd Ebony 219 Where they colour their Teeth red and black 217 How they colour them so ibid. Where the men and women in a foolish pride black their Teeth because Dogs Teeth forsooth 〈◊〉 white 219 Where the women guild their Teeth 221 White Teeth the true naturall beauty ibid. They condemned that alter the native candor of the Teeth ibid. Nations commended that are carefull to preserve the naturall beauty of the Teeth ibid. Their artifice whereby they make them look like polished Ivory ibid. Dentifrices commended which preserve the native whitenesse and integrity of the Teeth 222 Where they file their Teeth as sharp as needles ibid. Where they file their Teeth above and below as sharp as needles ibid. This custome condemned as contrary to the law of Nature 222 223 Pretended ends for filing of Teeth 213 An example thereof ibid. Where the women pull out foure of their Teeth two above and two below for a bravery And they that have not these Teeth out are loathsome to them 224 Where they pull out five or six Teeth for a fashionable Elegancy ibid. Where they have a custome to pull out all their Teeth 224 Where there are few to be found that have their native Teeth but they are pulled out and filed downe and artificiall ones set in their place 239 Their ingratitude to Nature noted ibid. The Teeth intended by nature to serve for an ornament and beauty to the mouth 225 The blemish and dammage these Nations sustaine by this foolish fashion ibid. What benefits of Nature they renounce for the mischiefe of so ridiculous a fashion ibid. That wantonly to pull out the Teeth is a transgression against the law of Nature 226 That what these have for a fashion some have decreed for a punishment 228 Where the men and women cover their Teeth with thin plates of gold 231 Who first invented the drawing out of aking Teeth 229 Where the Parents make a feast when their childrens Teeth begin to grow 230 A story of a sound tooth drawn out of anothers mouth inserted in the roome of a rotten tooth drawn out and taking root ibid. An example of one who having a tooth longer then the rest cut to cure the deformity fell into convulsion fits with the reasons of it ibid. Tongue VVHere they have cloven Tongues double from the root thought to be done by art as we slit the tongues of those birds wee would teach to speak 232 Hofmans appprobation of the story and linguall advantages they have who have really a double tongue 233 The strange advantages of this peculiar Art 234 That this art granted it is an audacious improvemeÌ„t of the tongue 234 An Infant born with a double Tongue 233 One with 11 tongues 11 mouths and 22 incompleate lips 234 The tongue of maÌ„ naturally double Anatomically approved by Gallen 233 The erronious perswasion of Midwives that the bridle of the tongue needs cutting in all Infants condemned 235 The ill consequences of this pernicious custome as they are noted by many learned Physitians 235 236 237 Camerarius his opinion how this never enough condemned custome might be introduced into the Midwives practise 236 The exact Symetry of the tongue and the providence of Nature in this particular cleered 237 What this ligament of the tongue is and its use 236 When is the true time of dissection of we suspect some defect 238 A cave at in that operation ibid. FINIS Workes of the Author already published CHIROLOGIA Or The Naturall Language of the Hand CHIRONOMIA Or The Art of Manuall Rhetorick PHILOCOPHUS Or The Deafe and Dumbe mans Friend PATHOMYOTOMIA Or A Dissection of the Muscles of the Affections of the Mind ANTHROPOMETAMORPHOSIS Man transform'd or the Artificiall Changling this now published Workes accomplished by the Authour which he may be induced hereafter to communicate CHIRETHNICALOGIA Or The Nationall expressions of the Hand CEPHALELOGIA Or The Naturall Language of the Head being an Extract of the most noble and Practicall Notions of Physiognomy CEPHALENOMIA Or The Art of Cephalicall Rhetorick VOX CORPORIS Or The Morall Anatomy of the Body The Academy of the Deafe and Dumbe Being the manner of Operation to bring those who are so borne to heare the sound of Words with their Eyes and thence to learn to speake with their Tongues VULTISPEX CRITICUS Seu Phisiognomia Medici GLOSSIATRUS Tractatus de removendis Loquelae impedimentis OTIATRUS Tractatus de removendis Auditionis impedimentis Hactenus Sacro Genii impulsui in intellectualem nostram complexionem operantis obsecundans dum in nova ferebat Animus Opera exegi non supererrogationis sed Augmentis scientiarum supplementalia In quibus de Republica literaria aliquid meruisse videor Faciendi librorum nullus multorum est finis eorundemque lectio defatigationi est carni Deinceps de propria aliena salute consultanda totus incumbam Caetera cateri Humanae Naturae Amasii FINIS
made all and when or how he would forme this or that he knowes best having the perfect skill how to Beautifie the Universe by opposition and diversity of parts but he that cannot contemplate the Beauty of the whole stumbles at the deformity of the part and not knowing the Congruence that it hath with the whole Yet God forbid that any one should be so besotted as to think the Maker erred in these Mens Fabrick though we know not why he made them thus be the diversity never so great he knowes what he doth and none must reprehend him therefore what Nations so e're have shapes differing from that which is in most Men and seem to be exorbitant from the Common forme if they be definable to be reasonable Creatures and Mortall they must bee acknowleged for Adams Issue But St. Austin here speaks more like a Divine then a Philosopher for although the supreame efficient and supernaturall cause of Monsters is God and that when Nature seems to deflect from the common Law established shee is rapt by a Divine force and there is aliquid Divini in the peculiar cause of these transfigurations of the Humane forme and that the finall cause of these prodigious apparitions may be the anger of God who is no way bound to the Law of Nature and who in revenge for some crime committed may transforme a Man as he did Nebuchadnezzar or give over a self-deformed Nation to the vanitie of their own inventions yet it sounds very harsh to the principles of our Philosophie that the God of Nature should be so glorified by such strange apparances that evill and imperfect Creatures should concurre to the perfection of the universe since they have no reference to the Beauty of the World because the Beauty of the universe consists in things perfect and permanent and Monsters quatenus Monsters being nothing but defects and privations can contribute no perfection and so consequently appertaine not to the Beauty of the universe if they did conferr any ornament they should for the most part be produced because the great decorum of the World is sustained by frequent effects but Monsters happen rarely and therefore they ought to be segregated from the Ornaments of the World and if they had come to light to adorne the World they had from the beginning of the World appeared which we read of no where How this Monstrous alienation from the Humane Form was first introduced and continued is not so easie to conjecture St Augustine de civit Dei St Augustine thinks that the same reason may be given for these deformed Nations as there is for those Monstrous productions of Men which sometimes happen among us of which kind of prodigious productions there are many records wherein Nature seems to have upbraided Mans invention and to retaliate his affectations Anno Dom. 1525 at Wittenberg an Infant was borne without a Head Anno 1554 In Misnia an Infant was born without a Head Fincelius de mirac nostri temporis the Effigies of Eyes expressed in his Breast Anno Domini 1562 in the Calends of November at Villafranc in Vasconia a Monster was borne a Female Acephalon the Pourtraiture of which headlesse Monster Fontanus who religiously affirmed that he had seen it having communicated to Johannes Altinus the Physitian Schenchius de monst capit he presented it to Paraeus when he was writing his Commentarie of Monsters Paraus lib. 24. cap. 6. And reason may perswade us that it is not impossible for it may happen by the constitution of the Climate that the Neck may not be allowed to be eminently advanced above the Shoulders and yet the instruments of Nature may performe their Office in a nearer approach of the Neck unto the Body Kornmannus lib. 1. de vivorum miraculis which is the opinion of Kornmannus But for my own part I much suspect some villanous Artifice and affectation to have been concurrent causes of this non-appearance of the Head and some fantasticall dislike of the Naturall distance between the Head and the Body by the interposition of the Neck which hath been the humour of some other Nations who have in a manner no Neck as appears in this Scene and in the fifteen and sixteenth of this our practicall Metamorphosis where you shall find this very Nation described as if they affected to have their Shoulders higher then their Heads And Sr Walter Rawleigh saith their Heads appeare not above their Shoulders And I conceive that they are not so much headlesse as that their Heads by some Violent and constant Artifice are pressed down between their Shoulders and affecting to have their Shoulders higher then their Heads the Scapula's by the constant endeavour of their Levators grown to a habit hath drowned the Head in the Breast the Head being crowded too close to the Shoulders and as it were growing to them the Neck is quite lost and the Eies seem planted as upon the Shoulders and the Mouth in the Breast a shadow of which resemblance we may sometimes see in very croked short neck'd Men. And consequently all the uses of the Neck in point of circumspection are quite lost by this Artifice and the Donation of Nature therein is made void for they cannot with ease turne their Head about to and fro every way to looke about them the Spondyles or turning round Bones tied and fastened one unto another by joynts and knots cannot possible in this posture accomplish their Motions But this charge and evidence I give in only against them by way of presumption you Gentlemen Readers of the Jury may give up your Verdict according to your judgments and either find Billa Vera or returne Ignoramus Sr. John Mandevils Travels cap. 83. Beyond the Land of Cathay there is a Wildernesse wherein are many wild Men with Hornes on their Heads very hideous and speake not but rout as Swine That men should be so cornuted or have horns grow on their Heads is a thing neither impossible nor incredible for many have been Borne cornuted Amat Lusit cent cur 51. Amatus Lusitanus speaks of a Boy Borne with a little horne on his Head Lycost Chron de prod stent Ann. 1233 In Rathstade a Town in the Norican Alpes which the Inhabitants call Taurus there was an Infant Borne cornuted Jacobus Fincelius de miraculis Anno 1551 in a Village of Marchias call'd Dammenuvald neer Whitstock a Country Mans Wife brought forth a Monster with such a horned Head Among the Subalpians in Quierus a little Town ten Miles distant from Taurin Teurin Anno Dom. 1578 Amb. Paraeus lib. 24. cap. 2. the seventeenth of January about 8 of the clock at Night an honest Matron brought forth a Child having five hornes one against another on his Head like unto Rams hornes Lanfraneus saw a man who came unto him for his advice Lanfraneus tract 3. Doct. 2. cap. 3. Chirur Major who had seven Eminencies in his Head one
is expedient sometimes being harder as not well chawed sometimes gluttinous and clammy and therefore apt to stick in the gullet for many times the meat when it is not well shread is deteined in its passage And to remove downward this deteined Bolus we stand in need of drink and therefore drink may not be only esteemed the Vehicle of aliment through the most narrow regions of the veines but its Vehiculum in all places and not onely through the whole gullet but also where the meat descends from the gullet into the stomack by the benefit of this liquid vehicle it is carried through the whole bottom of the ventricle and runs out also to the right side On the other side the gullet is soft and not open as the rough artery is but easily fals upon it selfe and staies the descent of meat which otherwise it was convenient should descend as soone as may be as well for the compression of the adjacent parts as the stomack lest it should delay the concoction of the meat And although Nature not thinking fit to commit this necessary action to the weight onely of the meat whereby it is moved of it selfe would have it moved of another and notwithstanding that the gullet moveth the meat into the stomack by naturall instruments that is by streight Fibres not only attracting it How Deglutition is performed but thrusting pressing it down by transverse Fibres yet shee hath ordained withall a muscle to wit an instrument of the soule which by a voluntary motion drives and thrusts down the meat into the stomack and this muscule is seated at the beginning of the gullet having a transverse or orbicular position and laid over the gullet it comprehends it and drawes it together and by constringing thrusts the meat forcibly into the stomack pressing it downe and driving it forward Therefore when the meat thrust from the mouth to the beginning of the gullet and streightned in and compressed by the transverse muscule and being constrained to passe by the gullet and forthwith attracted by the right Fibres and by a conveniency of qualitie of the ventricle and driven forward and in a manner compress'd or altogether compress'd by the transverse Fibres comes streight into the stomack the action of the gullet that is deglutition is performed and consummated the action being animall and partly Naturall And that this stronger motion is required in the top of the gullet the Larinx is the cause which being of a thick body cartilagineous and rigid and placed at the beginning of the gullet it had altogether hindred the ingresse of meat into the gullet unlesse Nature had here constituted a muscule the opifex of deglutition neither would this muscule suffice by reason of the thick and hard body of the Larinx opposed unto the gate of the gullet unlesse the Larinx at the instant of deglutition should recurve it selfe upward and unlocke the compressed mouth of the stomack for it appeares that when the meat doth recurve the Larinx side-way to the Epiglottis Drinking without gulping and shuts the chink prohibiting the breath to issue out then that the chink may be opened and respiration made the Larinx as it were compelled ascends upwards and so the gullet gapes neither doth it ascend only upwards but it is moved and deduced outward and forward and drawes together with it the gullet forward and outward therby to draw back and free it from the compressure of the spine and open it in its orifice and so the meat easily enters into it and in the ingresse the transverse muscule riseth up to its work Yet as Brasavola notes Brasav com ad lib. Hip. de rat vict in morb acut there are many that drink without the moving of Transglutition but that which they drink descends as if it were poured into a tankard as the nurse of his eldest son Renatus was wont to doe In this case they need no mandent member But he saies this is rare and besides Nature as it is besides Nature to have any action vitiated for that happens but rarely to men These are the only men who seem able to deny that the gullet or inner pipe of the Neck the meat-pipe or viand-pipe hath any publike action and that it is the way and passage onely and doth nothing but as it is pervious and hallowed along therein it affordeth a way and passage to the meat But action is a motive action which is brought forth of it selfe and it is not an action or to doe to be a way but only a use which is in all that doe nothing If the gullet should act its action would altogether consist about meat and drink but if it carry the unconfected meat it works nothing upon the meat and therefore there is no action of the throat Yet in the judgment of the best Anatomists it hath a publick action Words and meat not to be mixed which altogether respects meat and drinke and it is a way inasmuch as it is hollowed but unlesse it should act that way in sooth would be unprofitable and vaine Yet we must confesse that drinke perchance by reason of its thin and fluxile substance would flow downwards although it is well knowne that matter is not traduced thorough the body as it were by stone-gutters but is dispenced and moved by faculties Now although these men cherish not Nature so well as otherwise they might yet the silence which they observe in eating is very admirable and suitable to the cautionary provision of Nature for they deferre their conference untill some other time We saith the Relator who violate their custome by mixing words with our meat were laughed at by them and indeed by their Symposiack silence they better secure themselves in this point then we doe For although eating and speaking be both common actions of the mouth yet Nature cannot mind all things together but would have us hoc agere and therefore the method of the diverb is good First stridor Dentium then altum Silentium and last rumor Gentium Which in Festivals adjournes discourse untill the belly be full at what time men are at better leasure and may more securely venture upon table talke The observation of which Naturall rule might have saved Anacreons life who endangering himselfe this way died by the seed of a Grape In Candou Island the people have a fashion Purchas Pilgr 2. lib. 9. that while they eat none dare spit or cough but they must rise and goe forth contrary to the practicall rule of the Grobians and indeed somewhat against the freedome and libertie of Nature although indeed these actions are somewhat importune and unwelcome guests at Feasts The Maldive SCENE XII Beard-haters Beard-haters or the opinion and practise of diverse Nations concerning the naturall Ensigne of Manhood appearing about the mouth THe Maldives shave their upper and lower lip Purchas Pilgr 2. lib. 9. and all parts about the mouth because they would not
their just and naturall constitution make a Head long short broad accuminate or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 36 That all figures of the Head are not equally naturall as Columbus supposeth 38 That that figure of the Head is naturall which is for the most part which also is commodious to the actions of Nature such being that which constitutes the naturall figure ibid. What naturall benefits they enjoy who have this figure with a decent magnitude ibid. Why this laterally compressed spheare should be the most proper and naturall figure of the head and the finall causes thereof enquired 39 40 41 The Nurses in those nations commended who have been tender in this point of offering violence to nature leaving her free to her own course not using any thing to hinder the naturall growth of the Head 41 A private example of the benefit received by a renunciation of all artificiall contrivance formerly practised on the Head upon imaginary conceits of beauty and generosity 42 A strange History of an artificiall Hydrocephalos 30 31 Horned Nations 28 29 By what art some of them come to have hornes on their Heads 30 Children born with hornes on their Head and men and women cornuted by a disease 28. 29 Bicipites or men with two Heads 31 32 33 The birth of such monsters ever held prodigious 34 The reason of such strange productions ibid. Acephali or headlesse Nations 20 21 22 23 The doubt of their originall resolved and that they are of Adams progeny 24 25 The finall cause of these prodigious apparitions 25 Why such monsters concurre not to the perfection of the universe ibid. A reason given of this monstrous alienation from the humane forme 26 Infants born without Heads ibid. That reason may perswade us that it is not impossible that the instruments of Nature may perform their office although the head be not advanced above the shoulders 26 27 The artifice which is supposed they use to reduce their Heads below their shoulders 27 That the donation of Nature in the use of the Necke is lost by this artifice 27 28 Nations who use art to alter the substance and temper of their Heads 42 Block Heads and Logger Heads where in request ibid. By what severall artifices they purchase this property of a hard head 43 That by the concurrent temper of the Climate and this artifice their sutures doe grow together and are obliterated their skuls growing solid ibid. Soft-heads where a tearme of reproach 42 That it is inconvenient to keep the Head to warm 44 Where the women have the suture Coronalis loose and how they defend it from the injury of the aire The mistake of Celsus affirming these hard-Headed Gallants heads to become hereby more firme and safe from pain moderately expounded by Fallopius 44 45 46 That although they gain a defence against outward injuries more then the ordinary provision of Nature doth afford yet that they thereby become more obnoxions to internall to wit dâ—seases arising from the retention of fuliginous vapours 44 That their thick skuls may render them more indocile and oblivions ib. The justice and wisdome of Nature about Sutures suffering in the opinion of Celsus experimentally vindicated by Columbus 45 46 Haire NAtions esteeming the Hair upon the Head a very great reproach therefore affecting baldnesse 47 48 Where women shave their Heads and not men and are accounted fairest when their heads are shaven 48 49 The Haire maintained an ornament of the Head against those who would have it an abject excrement which Nature never intended for an ornament 49 50 The Haire no extrement and why ibid. The naturall uses of the haire set out 50 51 That they who cut them wholly away doe not onely bring a deformity upon Nature but afford an occasion of defluxions 50 All the waies of decalvation practised by the ancients to the prejudice of Nature condemned 51 Cosmetiques commended as laudable which preserve Haire for the use and intention of Nature ibid. That shaving the Head is a disgrace put upon Nature ibid. That an indeleable character of infamy cleaves to his name who first suffered the Haire of his Head to be shaved ibid. That his wit was misimployed who tooke upon him to commend baldnesse ibid. Nations who shave the foreparts of their Head 53 54 Nations that shave the hinder part of their Head onely ibid. Long dangling Earelocks worne before where a renewed fashion and a pestilent custome 54 Nations who weare their haire long on the right side of their Head and shave the left side ibid. That these men deprive themselves in a manner of halfe the benefit intended them by Nature 55 The vindication of Nature from this affront 57 58 Where the women use to cut their haire and the men weare it long 56 That the Haire was given women for a covering 57 That Haire hanging down by the Cheeks of women of it 's owne Nature is not contrary to the Law of Nature or unlawfull 58 For a woman to be shorne is against the intention of Nature ibid. For men to nourish long haire is quite contrary to the intention of Nature 58 59 60 That such long haire would hinder the actions of common life 60 Tonsure necessary 59 The regulation of the haire of man according to the rules of decorum ibid. 60 What long Haire it is that is repugnant to Nature against her law and above and besides the naturall use 60 The decency of haire stated 62 63 Nations extreamely affecting black Haire 63 64 By what art they make it come so ibid. The practise of blacking gray Haires ridiculous 63 Nations which of old did and at this day doe affect yellow Haire 65 68 By what meanes they introduced this colour ibid. How they were and are punished for this their lasciviousnesse 65 66 67 Tincture of Haire both in men and women a shamefull thing and dishonourable to Nature 66 67 68 69 How the indulgence and licence granted unto women in matters of ornamentall dresses of Haire is to be moderated 69 Painting of Haire an ancient custome with the Indians 68 Inconveniences supposed to happen to women by the affected beauty of the Haire 69 Nations that anoint their Haire 70 The like vanity observed in our gallants ibid. The effeminate powdering of Haire exploded 70 71 Frizling and curling and plating the Hair with hot Irons an old vanity 71 72 Periwigs an ancient vanity 72 73 Hands LIttle Hands where in fashion and accounted a great beauty in women 287 What art they use to have them so ibid. What women are noted to have the least Hands of any women in the World ibid. Nations that paint their Hands red 288 Where they make their Hands of a golden tincture ibid. Hands painted with a tawney colour ibid. Hands painted with flowers and Birds ibid. Monsters borne with 4 Hands 301 Monsters born with three Hands ibid. Nations with two Hands on the right side ibid. Nations with six Hands ibid. Monsters borne with one Hand ibid.
promote the action of the Eie whose action is then better when it exists more free Now the Head compressed the Eie is enlarged to the seeing of things backward to the right and left hand and although not simply to the universall space of a circular vision yet at least to some portion of the same Men may know the truth of this if they first try it in the Cephalicall compression standing with a stiff Neck and turning one Eie to the outward Angle let them endeavour untill they perceive where the visory Rayes doe come in which experiment they had need have the place marked with some note Afterwards remaining fixt in the same place and standing just as in the same experiment he would have them by some device to have their Heads rotunded or rounded that they may obtain a perfect sphericity then let them turne the same Eie to the outward Angle and try to finde whereabout or how farr the Visory Rayes reach the place formerly seen and marking it with some note that done let them consult with Sence what portion of the place is hid from the very Eye by rotunditie of the Head for Sence will apparently teach that in this Cephalicall compression to the sides the Eyes more freely expatiate to the back parts the gaining of which advantage he thinks to be the cause of such compression Having thus presented the artificiall contrivances of Mans Invention practised on the Head upon imaginary conceits of Beauty and generosity and discovered the inconveniences of such foolish and phantasticall devices how derogatorie they are to the honour and Majestie of Nature and prejudiciall to her operations and having set down the Canon of Nature for the true and proper Figure of the Head with the uses and finall cause of such a shape which is the only true and naturall forme of the Head and having condemned them of the crime Laesa Majestatis who have forced Art the usuall Imitator of Nature to turne Praevaricator in humanity wee cannot but commend those Nations who have been tender in this point of offering violence to Nature namely the Lacedemonians whose Nurses had a certain manner of bringing up their Children without having any Crosse-cloaths Plutarch in the life of Lycurgus or any thing to left the Naturall growth of the Head but left nature free to her own course which made their Heads better shap'd The like modest acquiescence in the wisdome of Nature Block-heads Logger-heads I suppose to be the reason why the Switzers Heads for the most part are so conformable to the Canon and intention of Nature I knew a Gentleman had divers sonns and the Midwives and Nurses had with head-bands and strokings so altered the Naturall mould of their Heads that they proved Children of a very weak understanding his last Sonn only upon advice given him had no restraint imposed upon the Naturall growth of his Head but was left free from the coercive power of head-bands and other Artificiall violence whose Head although it were bigger yet he had more Wit and understanding then them all Hitherto of those Nations who have tampered with the Figure of their Heads and have laboured to introduce a change and alteration in the most Noble part of the Humane Fabrick There be other Nations fit to be brought on this Stage who use Art to alter the substance and temper of their Heads For Blockheads and Loggerheads are in request in Brasil Purchas pilgr. 4. lib. 1. and Helmets are of little use every one having an Artificialized Naturall Morian of his Head for the Brasilians Heads some of them are as hard as the wood that growes in their Country for they cannot be broken and they have them so hard that ours in comparison of theirs are like a Pompion and when they will injure any white Man they call him soft Head so that hard-head and blockhead termes of reproach with us attributed to them would be taken for termes of Honour and Gentleman-like qualifications This property they purchased by Art with going bare headed which is a certaine way to attaine unto the quality of a Brasilian Chevalier and to harden the tender Head of any Priscian beyond the feare of breaking or needing the impertinent plaister of predantick Mountebanks The Indians of Hispaniola De Bryin Hist occid Ind. Cardan lib. 5. de subtil the skuls of their Heads are so hard and thick that the Spaniards agreed that the Head of an Indian although bare was not to be struck for feare of breaking their Swords which I suppose to happen through the same Artifice The Aegyptians also are hard Heads for their Heads are so hard that a Stone can hardly break the skin which they attaine unto by having their haire shaved from their childhood so that the futures of their skuls grow firme and hard with the heat Hence wee read that in the Battailes that passed between the Aegyptians and Persians Herodotus and divers others tooke speciall notice that of such as lay slaine on the ground the Aegyptians skuls were without comparison much harder then the Persians by reason these goe covered with Coyfes and Turbants and those from their Infancy ever shaved and bare-headed King Massinissa the Emperour Severus Caesar and Hanniball in all weathers were wont to goe bare-headed and Plato for the better health and preservation of the Body doth earnestly perswade that no Man should ever give the Head other cover then Nature had allotted it And Varro is of opinion that when we were appointed to stand bare-head before the gods or in the presence of the Magistrates it was rather done for our health and to inure and harden us against the injuries of the weather then in respect of reverence And I suppose wee in this Kingdome incurr some inconveniences by keeping our Heads so warme as generally we doe neither I believe doe the Brasilians or Aegyptians escape the affliction of Head-aches for by this their Artifice the sutures grow together and be obliterated in them as they are found to be many times in those who have suffered incurable Head-aches strangling Cathars Apoplexes and other Maladies for no other cause then that their sutures began to close and their skuls to grow solid the skull growing dry many times in young Men even as it is wont to doe by reason of Age. A thing usuall in hot Countries as Celsus notes and Paraeus affirmes that the Ethiopians and Moores and those that inhabit the hot Regions about the Meridian and Equinoctiall have their skuls harder and parted with none or few sutures by which temper of their climates and their concurring Artifice they obtaine indeed a notable defence against outward injuries more then the ordinary provision of Nature doth affoord but thereby they become more obnoxious to internall injuries to wit to those diseases which arise from the retention of fuliginous vapours and their thick skuls may render them more indocile and oblivious as the Indians of Hispancola are
have seen men with Necks of a Cubit long the other parts of their body being proportionable thereunto In Eripia as some write or according to Lycosthenes in the extreame part of Siricana or as it pleaseth others in some of the Valleys of Tartaria there harbours a Nation of so long a Neck that it wholly resembles the neck of a Crane afterwards in the top of the Neck there is a ferine Face Long gangrell necks inconvâ—nient with the Eyes and Nostrils of a man as also with a bill adorned with Gils like a Cock Aldrovandus indeed saies it will more availe one to read than believe this Relation yet he denies not but there are halfe-men with a long Neck and a ferine Face do live in those Regions their women being not so deformed as the men and they are said to be very seldome seen This Nation is carried with great force against their Enemies and chiefly against the Tartars Aldrovandus hath exhibited the Effigies of these Gangrell-Neck'd men to be considered of by his Readers Aldrov monst Hist lib. 1. which puts me in mind of that ridiculous wish of Philoxones that grumbled at Nature for the shortnesse of his Neck who would have had the Neck of a Crane that thereby he might have taken more pleasure in his meat or as some thinke to obtaine advantage in singing or warbling and dividing the notes in Musick which Cavill of Philoxones against Nature for not having respect unto the Taste or singing in the contrivance of his Neck is absurd and in the very foundation of the fancy to be condemned D. Brown Pâ—â—udodoxia Epid. lib. 7. cap. 14. as it is ingeniously observed by the late Enquirer into vulgar errours And if he had obtained this foolish request yet the justnesse of Nature could not have suffered him to have been a gainer by the bargaine for a long gangrell neck which would have made the head look as set upon a pole would by such an elongation caused a very inconvenient distance between the braine and the heart but the Epicure surely had a more reaching conceit Nations that have no Neck knowing that they are more greedy of meat and have better stomacks who have a greater space from the mouth to the paunch They that inhabit those Alpes which divide France from Italy their throats are encreased to that bulke and largenesse that both in men and women those gutturall bottles hang down even to their Navels and they can cast them over their shoulders and this is not commonly seen in the Allobroges Carinthians Syrians and Nations living about the Alpes but it is also familiar to some places of Spaine Fabricius ab Aqua pend Fabricius saith that such Tumours are frequent among the Bergomensians where the men and women all for the most part have such great pendent bags in the fore-part of their Throats Joan. Stumpf. lib. Chr. 10. cap. 20. Among the Rucantians a people of Helvetia now called Rhaeti the Inhabitants especially about the Town Ciceres are troubled with the same gutturall deformity M. Pol. lib. 1. cap. 31. Neither doth this happen only in Europe but also in Asia for the men there have such great wallets of flesh after a wonderfull manner hanging at their throats But in Syria the women have their throats so protended that they cast it behind their back as it were a Sack or Wallet Ortel in Illyrico lest it should hinder their Infants when they suck This swelling or Throat-Dropsie The cause of swelling throats is occasioned by the drinking of crude waters of dissolved Snow as most Authors suppose which although it be a reason not to be rejected Platerus yet Platerus to this Cause addes the Seed and the Facultie Formatrix in the wombe where they are familiar to any place and that they are rather propagated from the Parents in their Children then that they happen by reason of any meat or drinke or any other peculiar cause which Sennertus thinkes doth not seldome fall out so indeed yet the first cause seemes valid because it is observed that they that come well into any such places after they have abode there a while they contract such a water between the skin and rough Artery which is called by Physitians Bronchocele and Bocium à Bocii ventricosi poculi similitudine from the similitude of a great-bellied drinking Cup. Shoulders higher than the Head SCENE XVII Humerall or Shoulder-Affectations Lycost Append Chron. prodig IN the Island Taprobana High huff-Shoulders are in Fashion and Naturall Whether these Nations are guilty or not of using Art to this purpose I shall not conclude although I halfe suspect some concurrent affectations My apprehension of this businesse I have already exprest in the History of the Acephali which appeare to be the same Nation In all the parts of Tartaria the men are broad-shouldered which being Nationall is held there in good repute And if it were not at first affected and introduced among them by Art Broad shoulders where affected yet in other Countries where it is noted to be extremely affected there hath been some endeavour used to that intent and where that hath failed they have had recourse to outward supplements Concerning the Italians Cresol vacat Autumn Cresollius hath informed us of their ridiculous affectation in this kind Behold saith he what the improvident curiosity of men hath thought on who that they might seeme Plato's that is broad-shouldred full square and somewhat strong and mighty men they bumbast their Doublets and after a childish or rather womanish manner adhibent Analectides use little Bolsters or Pillows for to seeme more fat and comly bolstring so up their prominent shoulders as little women were wont to do of old as Ovid describes the Custome Conveniunt tenues scapulis Analectides altis Angustum circa fascia pectus erat Well could these men be Masters of their wish yet it is a question whether it would please their Mistrisses For the women of other Countries and among us are not so well affected to broad shoulders for it is worth the noting what women by long use have observed to wit that men that have broad shoulders for the most part get great Children Hence the Mother-in-Law of Forestus a fruitfull woman would not match her Daughters to Platonique men by reason she feared least in their Delivery they should be endangered by reason of the greatnesse of the Child which Forestus had often seene to happen the broad shoulders dangerously sticking in the Birth Narrow shoulders affected the cause whereof Riolanus thinks to be difficult whence you may see what worke they make for the women who endeavour by Art to purchase thick and broad shoulders Franciscus Hernandus in his Manuscript makes report of certaine Nations in India who are all buncht-backt crooked and crump-shouldered Arme-gallanry SCENE XVIII Strange Inventions of certain Nations in ordering their Armes Hands and Nailes The
put off the very Nature of woman since another use of the Paps according to Hippocrates was to receive excrementitious moisture For if saith Hippocrates any disease or other event take away a womans Paps her voice becomes shriller she proves a great spitter and it much troubled with the paine in her head Men that pierce their Paps Before this Scene goes off I ought to take notice of a prophane Cavill of Momus against the Fabrique of the Breast of man who found fault that Nature had not made a Window in the Breast of man that one might have seen the motions of his heart and discovered the affections of his mind And amongst other things which King Don Alonso would who was Surnamed the Wise indiscreetly reforme in Nature this was one among the rest that he did blame her that she had not made a Window in mans Breast that he might see that which he was plotting in his heart and whether his manner of proceeding were faire and sincere or whether his words were feigned No need of a window in the Breast or whether like Janus he had two faces under one hood Alas the desired Window in the Breast would have been of little or no use since it stands not with the conveniency of most Nations to go with an open and bare Breast and say that the Breasts were generally exposed to the Eye Are not the Eyes two Casements that looke down into the Heart And hath not the Countenance a sufficient declaration of the Affection The Eyes being two severall Indexes of the same Nature in recompence and analogically to answer the curiosity of these mens Phantsies hath established a certaine Art of Physiognomy whereby a man may attaine unto a sufficient intelligence of the thoughts and affections of others SCENE XX. What mischief by swathing of Infants Dangerous Fashions and desperate Affectations about the Breast and Waste THe Pergamits as it appeares by Galens observation had a great affectation of old instreight swathing of their Children The walls saith he of the Breasts are for the most part depraved by Nurses while they from the first education do over-strictly bind them about with swathing bands espeicially saith he is this daily done among us to Virgins for while their Nurses are carefull to encrease their Hips and sides that they may exceed the Breast in magnitude they roll them all over with certaine bands and more vehemently restraine and compresse all the parts of the Scapula and Thorax whence it comes to passe sometimes that when all the parts are not equally compressed the Breast is made to bunch out forward or else the hinder parts that belong to the Back-bone are made Gibbous Swathing a cause of crookednesse so that they become crook-backt Another inconvenience also follows that the Back becomes as it were quite broken and brought to one side insomuch indeed as one of the Scapula's is not increased but appeares small and compressed We have the judgement of Frabicius Hildanus and Sennertus both learned men touching this matter In certaine Regions saith Hildanus and Families Hild. lib. de morb puer it is a custome by involving their little Infants as soone as they are born for what cause they know not to pen them up in too streightswathing Bands Whence it often happens that their bodies and limbs protuberate with crooked bunches and other deformities of the Knees Legs and other parts but also by reason of the more strict involution it happens which no man need to doubt of that their bones being yet tender soft and cartilaginious are easily wrested and drawn out of their naturall scituation which afterwards by degrees harden into an excrescence which he had observed in many Hereupon becomming crook-backt and lame the naturall proportion of the body is depraved and the body made incommensurate for whereas a measure taken from the Crown of mans head to the sole of his foot should answer to the distance between the middle finger of his right hand to the middle finger of his left hand when the Armes are stretched out to the full length this proportion cannot be observed in crook-backt men and hence they are justly accounted unproportioned The providence that is to be used in the swathing of Infants is a thing of high concernment and therefore there cannot be too much said thereof Take therefore what Mercatus hath of this matter This Cautions in ordering Infants saith he ought alwaies to be the care of Nurses Mercat de Infant Educat l. 1. that when they swathe their Children they endeavour to touch and handle every part of their body gently and carefully to divide that lightly which is to be divided and to extend that which is to be extended and depresse that which is to be depressed and to fashion every part according to the innate and more comly proportion of each part yet they must do it with a tender compression and with the very ends of their fingers too But swath-bands being provided for that purpose for the right ordering of the structure of the body if there be need they must gently and softly rewake and rectifie the members but if they be formed according to Nature they ought in no wise inconsiderately to touch them because oftentimes they fall into worse condition through the carelesnesse of those that handle them and for that cause they must not only be very carefull to swathe their Children but also in laying of them down when they are swathed lest some part should chance to remain awry or ill figured They must also gently squeese the bladder that they may the more easily make water Moreover the hands and armes are to be extended to the knees They must lightly bring the feet on both sides backward to the back and before to the head that they may learne to bend every part which ought to be bent yet they ought not to remaine setled upon the belly lest they prejudice the Entralls neither againe ought they to hold them with their face downwards untill they are swathed all over For it is better first to compose the swathbands that being laid they may receive the Infant upon his back yet they must observe this caution lest in swathing them a leg or an arme the backe or the neck be by any meanes distorted Our Custome of swathing children condemned they ought to cleane the Nose and to wipe the eyes with a gentle linnen cloath and thus after they have suckt sufficiently to lull them asleep by very gentle motions of the Cradle for by violent rockings the Epilepsie ariseth And it is better from the third month that they should be carried and in the Nurses armes lull'd asleep also you must take heed that you bind them not too strictly for that oftentimes is the cause of gibbosity and crookednesse neither therefore ought they to be too loose because their members are wont to lose the naturall figure and acquire that which in the relaxed
prius locum Men whose members hang down to their shanks sed caute procedendum ne nimis trahant vel nimis calefaciant qui nutrimentum attractum resolveret volentes membrum magnificare minus ipsum efficerent sicut nimius motus frigiditatem inducit moderatus calorem Eadem res effectos oppositos producit Nimia ergo attractio nimia loci calefactio resolvit dum magnificare quaeritis parvitatem efficietis moderata autem attractione facietis magnitudinem Ars etiam est curativa de elonganda mentula cum pondere plumbeo The Floridians so love the Feminine Sex The Author of the Descrip of Nova Francia lib. 2. that for to please them the more they busie themselves very much about that which is the primary signe of uncleane desires and that they may the better do it they furnish themselves with Ambergreece whereof they have great store which first they melt at the fire then inject it with such paine that it maketh them to gnash their Teeth even so far as to the Os sacrum and with a whip of Nettles or such like thing make that Idoll of Maacha to swell on the other side the women use certaine herbs and endeavour themselves as much as they can to make restrictions for the use of the said Ityphalles and to give either party their due Nescio an revera constat quod diverbio fertur Arvum Genitale in mulieribus Belgicis altiorem in pube scituationem obtinere sed Medicus quidam ex observatione propria mihi communicata affirmat Genitalia in viris Hybernicis alliora in pube apparere In the Isle of Hermes the mens members hang down to their shanks Sr Joh. Mand. Travels cap 53. insomuch that the men of that Country who knew better manners do bind them streight Pygmaei magno veretro and annoint them with ointments made there for to hold them up wherby they may live more civilly which is supposed to be by reason of the heat of the climate dissolving the body Ctesias Indicus Ionst Thaumatograph Ctesias saith that the Negro Pigmies who dwell in the midst of India who are saddle-nosed and deformed have a veretrum so great and long that it hangs down even unto their Ankles Hinc de Nanis Pygmaeis quaerendum cur majorem penem habeant An quia ut scripsit Aristoteles quemadmodum homo non habens caudam illa materia in nates conversa sit similiter materia quae augmentaioni staturae Nani non est famulata in penem transmutata sit But concerning these and other strange corporall properties of Nations mentioned in this book Quaere Card. Comment in Hip. li. de Aere Aquis locis I wish some Commentator on Hippocrates Book De Aere Aquis locis would arise who supplying the losse of the much desired Comment of Galen upon that Booke might render some account of these matters What Cardan in his Comment upon that Book hath done I can give no account having never after much enquiry had the hap to meet with it That women have been metamorphosed into men is not only confirmed by Pliny and the credit of other ancient Authors but of later times many examples are to be found very evident in moderne Writers Skenck observ med lib. 4. Korn de mirac vivorum fol. 41 Marc. Donat. med Hist mirab Tulp observ Delrio Inquisit Mag. Iordanus and for all that I perceive there are few that are willing to have it accounted a Fable And the conceit is grounded upon the Authorities of Aristotle and Galen which Anatomists little approve of which is that Nature alwaies intends the Generation of the Male but if she erre from her scope and cannot generate a Male then bringeth she forth the Female Women no monster which is the first and most simple imperfection of a Male which therefore they call a Creature lame occasionall and accessory as if she were not of the maine but made by the bye concluding the Woman or Female to be nothing else but an errour or aberration of Nature which the Peripatetiques call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a Metaphor taken from Travellers which misse of their way and yet at length attaine their journies end yea they proceed further and say that the Female is a by-worke or prevarication yea the first monster in Nature which is unworthily said of them for the perfection of all naturall things is to be esteemed and measured by the end Now it is necessary that the woman should be so formed or else Nature must have missed of her scope because she intended a perfect Generation which without a woman cannot be accomplished But now it is to be enquired how in terminis naturalibus it can be done that women should be turned into men as the infinite examples of such Cases seeme to prove which since it is monstrous we must have recourse to the causes of Monsters which happen by the errour of Nature occasioned either through the disobedience of matter or debility of the Agent and therefore they properly and modestly enough define a Monster to be a certaine oblaesion of Nature And that it is monstrous for women to be turned into men is apparent by Aristotles Definition for that is monstrous which is besides Nature to wit that Nature which for the most part is for besides that which alwaies and necessary is nothing is done therefore Monstrosity happens when any thing besides Nature appeares in those things which for the most part are so done How women are turned into men but may also be done otherwise wherefore since it is against the order of Humane Nature that a woman should degenerate into a man yet notwithstanding it being not impossible that we call monstrous and it hath the same cause which other Monsters according to Quality Number Magnitude or Scituation of Members wherefore for this reason the Learned reduce the cause of this Humane Metamorphosis to the errour of the virtue Agent and the aptitude of superfluous matter If this happened while every Animall existed in Generation it would cleare all doubts But since it is done when the Animall is borne how the virtue Formatrix can effect it is not easie to explaine but seemes a great Difficulty Therefore Anatomists and Physitians say that the virile member in such women was from the first ingenite the Agent virtue working on superfluous matter that forme upon it but by such a Law of Nature that it cannot come forth untill such a determinate time which ought not to seeme impossible to any man since we see in Embrions even in the mothers wombe Teeth formed and yet lie hid until the appointed time of their extramission which is very true and known by ocular Faith from the dissections of Abortives and Infants new-born Barth Eustachius de dentibus libello cap. 15. 17 c. as many Anatomists affirme Therefore even as all Teeth have their beginning
white So that you cannot say but that he is cruell brave nay devillish fine for whatsoever is done by abuse of Nature is diabolicall for as the right use of the naturall endowments of the body is from God so the abuse of them is from the Devill The Boyes of Siam paint themselves with a Herberts Travels Coelestiall colour from top to toe Slash'd bodies like cut leather Jerkins and as an augmentation of beauty cut gash and pinck their naked skins which in the Relators contrarying their opinion rather breeds horrour than affectation in any Traveller Lindscot lib. 1. cap. 22. The people of Cambaia and Sian that dwell up-upon the hils called Gueos marke all their bodies with hot irons which they esteeme a freedome I very easily see how many of these relations will seeme horrible untruths but let them thinke that such narrations which consist with the reason of depraved nature are not too sceptically to be entertained for because you have seen no such thing done to withdraw your beliefe Bodies painted with faire branches is a signe of singular pride and impudence and he who concludes that these actions were done or not done in these places according to his own froward opinion and assent is halfe mad and fit to begin a voyage to Anticyra I confesse writing of things that seeme so strange a man had need walke with his Guides which you see I have orderly done I have brought many witnesses that give evidence point-blanck to my purpose I alleadge Authorities and have said nothing but what stands with some reason and is made good by the Relators the burthen of the lye if there be any must rest upon other mens shoulders and not on mine Purch Pilgr 4. lib. 7. The Brasil women to make themselves gallant paint their bodies with the juyce of a certaine fruit wherewith they remaine black making in their bodies many white stroakes after the fashion of round hose and other kind of garments their children presently as soone as they are borne are painted with red and black colour Lindscot lib. 1. Pet. Mart. Decad. 8. Idem Decad. 3. The Chiribichenses all dye themselves with divers juyces of herbs and he that seemeth most filthy and ugly in our eyes they judge him to be the most neat and trim The people of the Regions Tuia and Maia in the West Indies who are of high and goodly stature well limbed and proportion'd both men and women that they may seeme more comely and beautifull as they take it they paint their bodies red and black with the juyce of certaine Apples which they plant in their Gardens for the same purpose some of them paint their whole bodies some but part and other some draw the portraicture of herbs flowers and knots every one as it seemes best unto his own phantasie Grimston of their manners The Inhabitants of St Croix of the Mount some of them to seeme more terrible Azure white roane and Tawney Gallants paint their bodies Thus we read of those kind of Canibals that are called Pories Purch Pilg. 4. lib. 6. that they paint themselves with red and black The Virginians especially when they enter into Battle are painted some black some red Capt Smiths hist of Virg. some white and some party coloured In the Land of the Labourer vulgarly called Tranlopez de Gomora descript novi orbis De Labrador both men and women for ornament paint themselves with divers colours In the Island of Dominica in the West Indies Sr Francis Drake the Salvage people go all naked their skin coloured with a reddish Tawney all very personable and handsome strong men As for the Floridians Ribaults discovery of Florida the sore-part of their bodies and armes be painted with pretty devised workes of Azure Red and Black so well and so properly as the best Painter of Europe could not amend it the women have their bodies painted with a certaine herb like unto Mosse wherewith the Cedar trees and all other Trees are covered The people of Whitesands Island paint themselves with certaine roane colours In a narration of new France The Margasates in Brasilea paint themselves with black streakes like the Tartarians Lindscot Travels lib. 2. The Inhabitants of the Island La Trinidade paint their bodies red and black with colours made of the juyce of herbs and the filthier it sheweth the fairer they esteeme it to be Idem eodem And in the Gothick warre ferroque notatas Perlegit exanimes Picto moriente figuras Some thinke that the Celtique Poiteveins called by the Latines Pictones though they be not descended of this race yet had their name given them for the same occasion of that of the Picts And as customes once brought in among a people are not lost but by the length of many Ages So in Brunzwich they sometimes grease their faces with painting and make their Vizage all black from whence perchance that word Bronzer may be derived which signifies in Picardy to black And generally it is beleeved that all those Northerly people did use painting when they would make themselves brave for the Gelons Agathyrses Nations of Scythia like the Picts Iohan. Bohem. de rit gent. lib. 3. were of this Fraternity with Iron Instruments did colour their bodies We English men likewise then called Britons by the saying of Tertullian Tert. de veland virg Jornand de bello Gotico Isidor lib. 16. cap. 23. affected the same cruell bravery The Goths besides the Iron Instruments did use Vermilion to make their faces and bodies red Briefely it was a sport in old time to see so many Anticks men and women for there are found yet old pictures which in the Virginia History you may find Painting with faire incisions an old humour of our Auncestors cut in brasse where the Picts of both Sexes are painted out with their faire incisions as Herodian describeth them So that you see this humour of painting hath been generall in these parts There being no cause of mocking if the Indians have done and yet do the like By which things above recited we may know that this hither world hath anciently been as much deformed and savage as any of the Indians and may come about to the same point of cuticular bravery Why some men and they a mighty and considerable part of mankind should first acquire and still retaine the glosse and tincture of blacknesse they who have strictly enquired into the cause Enquity how so great a part of mankind became Black have found no lesse darkenesse in it than blackness in the effect it selfe there arising unto examination no such satisfactory and unquarrellable reasons as may confirme the causes generally received which are but two in number that is the heat and the scorch of the Sun or the curse of God on Cham and his Posterity That the most common imputation to the heat of the Sun in
many inches this is confirmed by Solinus who writes that the Syrbotae of Aethiopia grew to the height of twelve feet and in another place that there was certaine people of India so great that they easily ascended Elephants Onosicrit c. 5. Onosicritus reports that in certaine places of India where there are no shadows there are men of five Cubits and two Palmes high Olaus Mag. lib. 5. cap. 2. Olaus Magnus placeth such men also in the Northerne parts and especially in the Kingdome of Helsingori which is under the command of the King of Swethland he makes mension of a Giant that was nine Cubits high Isidore confesseth that there are men to be found of twelve foot high Isidorus Etymolog l 11. c. 3. Isid lib. de rerum natur but in another Tract he delivers a strange report of an admirable procerity in these words In the Westerne parts saith he there was found a maid whom the raging waves of the sea had cast up from the Ocean unknown and wounded in the head and dead who was fifty Cubits long and between the shoulders foure Cubits broad cloathed in a purple garment which thing seemes incredible Vincent hist Nat. l. 31. c. 125. Korn ex Odoric yet some Historians of credit subscribe unto it Odoricus reports that he saw with the Great Cham a Giant of twenty foot high In former Ages to wit She-Giants Zonaras in Iustino under Iustin the Thracian a certaine woman of Cilicia appeared Giant-like both in tallnesse of body as also in proportion of the other members for she exceeded the height of the tallest men a Cubit with breasts and shoulders above the usuall manner broad all the rest as the Voice and Face and firmenesse and magnitude of her Armes and Cubits and the thicknesse of her fingers and other parts answering to her Longitude and Latitude Saint Austin hath left upon record the memoriall of a Giant-like woman St Aug. de Civitat dei c. 23. which to the great admiration of all men was seen at Rome before the City was sacked by the Goths The Author of the Book entitled De natura rerum makes mention of a remarkable stature found in the Westerne Regions such tall Viragoes were the Bradamantes Marfisa and our long Meg of Westminster but of many of these we may say they are rather mountaines of flesh than men The Question is why such men of such vast bodies and strength are not found in our daies many reasons are alleadged for it but the most rationall is the luxury and lasciviousnesse of the times which hardly suffers Nature to get any thing perfect not that there is any decay in Nature but it may well be that in these parts of the world where Luxury hath crept in with Civility there may be some diminution of strength and stature in regard of our Ancestours And here I cannot but take occasion to condole the injury done to Nature in the generative procacity to Rathe marriage used in England and elsewhere which is the cause why men be now of lesse stature than they have been before time The cause of small stature Arist polit lib. 7. cap. 16. for we observe not the rule of Aristotle in his Politiques who would have men so marry that both the man and the woman might leave procreation at one time the one to get Children the other to bring forth which would easily come to passe if the man were about eight and thirty yeares of age when he married and the woman about eighteen for the ability of getting Children in the most part of men ceaseth at seventy yeares and the possibility of conception in women commonly ceaseth about fifty so the man and the woman should have like time for generation and conception But this wholsome rule is not followed but rather the liberty of the Civill Law put in practice that the woman at twelve yeares of age and the man at fourteen are marriageable Which thing is the cause that men and women in these daies are both weake of body and small of stature yea in respect of those that lived but forty yeares ago in this Land much more then in comparison of the ancient Inhabitants of Brittaine who for their talenesse of stature were called Giants so dwarfed are we in our stature and fall short of them that that of the Poet is verified on us Terra malos homines nunc educit atque pusillos Which thing is also noted by Aristotle in the same place Est adolescentium conjunctio improba ad filiorum procreationem In cunctis enim animalibus juveniles partus imperfecti sunt Et feminae crebrius quam mares parva corporis forma gignuntur The cause of tallnesse of stature quocirca necesse est hoc idem in hominibus evenire Hujus autem conjectura fuerit quod in quibuscunque civitatibus consuetudo est adolescentes mares puellasque Conjugari in iisdem inutilia pusilla hominum corpora existunt In Florida they are not joyned in marriage untill forty yeares old Hier. Giran Cosmogr and they suckle their Children untill twelve yeares or untill they can provide for their own sustentation But if we cast our eyes abroad upon those Nations which still live according to Nature though in fashions more rude and barbarous we shall find by the relation of those that have lived among them that they much exceed us in stature still retaining as it seemes the vigorous constitution of their Predecessors which should argue that if any decay be it is not universall and consequently not naturall but rather adventitious and accidentall For proofe hereof to let passe other stories of Giants of late yeares as that which Amatus Lusitanus speakes of Amat Lusitan Curat 95. borne in Senogallia Parsons Evans the late Kings Porter c. We will content our selves with the Indies Melchior Nunnez in his Letters where he discourseth of the affaires of China reports that in the chiefe City called Paguin the Porters are fifteene foot high and in other letters written the same yeare 1555 he doth averre that the King entertaines and feeds five hundred such men for Archers of his Guard In the West Indies in the Region of Chica neare the mouth of the Streights Ortelius describes a people whom he termes Pentagones from their huge stature Nations of Giants being ordinarily of five Cubits long which make seven foot and an halfe whence their Country is known by the name of the Land of Giants Americus Vesputius who searched into the unknown parts of the world found out an Island at this day called the Island of Giants it may be them which Ortelius describes Sir Francis Drake his voyage about the world Magellane as the great Encompasser of the World observes was not altogether deceived in naming of them Giants for they generally differ from the common sort of men both in stature bignesse and strength of body as also in the