Wart they then set fire on it and so burn it to ashes and by this way and order the Warts are eradicated that they never after grow again Marcellus Empiricus taketh Spiders webs that are found in the Cypresse tree mixing them with other convenient remedies so giving them to a podagrical person for the asswaging of his pain Against the pain of a hollow tooth Galen in his first Book De Compos medicam secundum loca much commendeth by testimony of Archigenes the Egges of Spiders being tempered and mixed with Oleum Nardinum and so a little of it being put into the tooth In like sort Kiramides giveth Spiders egges for the curation of a Tertian Ague Whereupon we conclude with Galen in his Book to Piso that Nature as yet never brought forth any thing so vile mean and contemptible in outward shew but that it hath manifold and most excellent and necessary uses if we would shew a greater diligence and not be so squeamish as to refuse those wholesome medicines which are easie to be had and without great charges and travail acquired I will add therefore this one note before I end this discourse that Apes Marmosets or Monkies the Serpents called Lizards the Stellion which is likewise a venomous Beast like unto a Lizard having spots in his neck like unto stars Wasps and the little beast called Ichneumon Swallows Sparrows the little Titmouse and Hedge-sparrows do often feed full favourly upon Spiders Besides if the Nightingale the Prince of all singing Birds do eat any Spiders she is clean freed and healed of all diseases whatsoever In the days of Alexander the Great there dwelled in the City of Alexandria a certain young maid which from her youth up was fed and nourished only with eating of Spiders and for the same cause the King was premonished not to come neer her lest peradventure he might be infected by her poysonous breath or by the venom evaporated by her sweating Albertus likewise hath recorded in his writings that there was a certain noble young Virgin dwelling at Colen in Germany who from her tender years was fed only with Spiders And thus much we English men have known that there was one Henry Lilgrave living not many years since being Clerk of the Kitchen to the right Noble Ambrose Dudley Earl of Warwick who would search every corner for Spiders and if a man had brought him thirty or forty at one time he would have eaten them all up very greedily such was his desirous longing after them Of the STELLION THey are much deceived that confound the green Lizard or any other vulgar Lizard for because the Stellion hath a ru 〈…〉 colour and yet as Matthiolus writeth seeing Aristotle hath left recorded that there are venomous Stellions in Italy he thinketh that the little white Beast with stars on the back found about the City of Rome in the walls and ruines of old houses and is there called Tarantula is the Stellion of which he speaketh and there it liveth upon Spiders Yet that there is another and more noble kinde of Stellion 〈…〉 iently so called of the learned shall afterward appear in the succeeding discourse This Beast or Serpent is called by the Grecians Colottes Ascalobtes and Galeotes and such a one was that which Aristophanes faigneth from the side of a house eased her belly into the mouth of Socrates as he gaped when in a Moon-shine night he observed the course of the stars and motion of the Moon The reason of this Greek name Ascalabotes is taken from Ascalos a circle because it appeareth on the back full of such circles like stars as writeth Perottus Howbeit that seemeth to be a faigned Etymologie and therefore I rather take it that Ascala signifieth impurity and that by reason of the uncleannesse of this beast it was called Ascalabates or as Suidas deriveth it of Colobates because by the help and dexterity of the fingers it climbeth up the walls even as Rats and Mice or as Kiramides will have it from Calos signifying a piece of wood because it climbeth upon wood and trees And for the same reason it is called Galeotes because it climbeth like a Weasil but at this day it is vulgarly called among the Grecians Liakoni although some are also of opinion that it is also known among them by the words Thamiamithos and Psammamythe Among the vulgar Hebrews it is sometimes called Letaah and sometimes Semmamit as Munster writeth The Arabians call it Sarnabraus and Senabras a Stellion of the Gardens And peradventure Guarill Guasemabras Alurel and Gnases And Sylvaticus also useth Epithets for a Stellion And the general Arabian word for such creeping biting things is Vasga which is also rendered a Dragon of the house In stead of Colotes Albertus hath Arcolus The Germans English and French have no words for this Serpent except the Latine word and therefore I was justly constrained to call it a Stellion in imitation of the Latine word As I have shewed some difference about the name so it now ensueth that I should do the like about the nature and place of their abode First of all therefore I must put a difference betwixt the Italian Stellion or Tarentula and the Thracian or Grecian for the stellion of the Ancients is proper to Grecia For they say this Stellion is full of Lentile spots or speckles making a sharp or shrill shrieking noise and is good to be eaten but the other in Italy are not so Also they say in Sicilia that their Stellions inflict a deadly biting but those in Italy cause no great harm by their teeth They are covered with a skin like a shell or thick bark and about their backs there are many little shining spots like eyes from whence they have their names streaming like stars or drops of bright and clear water according to this verse of Ovid Aptumque colori Nomen habet variis Stellatus corpora guttis Which may be Englished thus And like his spotted hiew so is his name The body starred over like drops of rain It moveth but slowly the back and tail being much broader then is the back and tail of a Lizard but the Italian Tarentulaes are white and in quantity like the smallest Lizards and the other Grecian Lizards called at this day among them Haconi is of bright silver colour and are very harmful and angry whereas the other are not so but so meek and gentle as a man may put his fingers into the mouth of it without danger One reason of their white bright shining colour is because they want bloud and therefore it was an error in Sylvaticus to say that they had bloud The teeth of this Serpent are very small and crooked and whensoever they bite they stick fast in the wound and are not pulled forth again except with violence The tail is not very long and yet when by any chance it is broken bitten or cut off then it groweth again They live in houses and neer unto the dores
for the honor of Sheep did neither eat nor sacrifice them and therefore we read in holy Scripture that the Israelites were an abomination to the Egyptians because they both killed and sacrificed Sheep as all Divines have declared There is a noble story of Clitus who when he sacrificed at the Altar was called away by King Alexander and therefore he left his sacrifices and went to the King but three of the Sheep that were appointed to be offered did follow after him even into the Kings presence whereat Alexander did very much wonder and that not without cause for he called together all the Wise-men and Sooth-sayers to know what that prodigy did foreshew whereunto they generally answered that it did foreshew some fearful events to Clitus for as much as the Sheep which by appointment were dead that is ready to die did follow him into the presence of the King in token that he could never avoid a violent death and so afterwards it came to passe for Alexander being displeased with him because as it is said he had railed on him in his drunkenness after the sacrifice commanded him to be slain and thus we see how divine things may be collected from the natures of Sheep These things are reported by Plutarch and Pausanias Another note of the dignity of Sheep may be collected from the custom of the Lacedemonians When they went to the wars they drove their Goats and their Sheep bâ—fore them to the intent that before they joyned battle they might make sacrifice to their Gods the Goats were appointed to lead the way for the Sheep for they were drove formost and therefore they were called 〈◊〉 and on a time this miraculous event fell out for the wolves set upon the flocks and yet contrary to their ravening nature they spared the Sheep and destroyed the Goats which notable fact is worthy to be recorded because that God by such an example among the Heathen Pagans did demonstrate his love unto the good in sparing the Sheep and his hatred unto the wicked in destroying the Goats and therefore he reserved the Sheep to his own Altar Idibus alba Jovi grandior agna cadit So saith Obid Ngram hiemi pecudem zephyris foelicibus albam So saith Virgil. And again Huc castus Hibilla Nigâ—â—â—um multo pecudumte sanguine ducet To Jupiter and to the Sun they were wont to sacrifice white Sheep or Lambs but to Pluto and to the Earth they sacrificed black Sheep or Lambs in token of deadnesse Therefore Tibullus writeth Interea nigras pecudes promittite Diti And Virgil saith Duc nigras pecudes ea prima piacula sunto When the Greoians sent their spies to the tents of the Trojans to discover what order strength and discipline they observed Nestor and the anâ—ients of Greece vowed unto the Gods for every one of the Captains a several gift that was O 〈…〉 melainan thelen hyporrenon that is a black Sheep great with young the reason whereof is given by the Scholiast they vowed saith he a black Sheep because the spies went in the night time blackness being an emblem of darkness and a Sheep great with young because of good fortune for they sped well in Troy In Apollonia there were certain Sheep that were dedicated to the Sun and in the day time they fed neer the river in the best pasture being lodged every night in a goodly spaâ—ious cave neer the City over whom the greatest men both for wealth strength and wit were appointed every night to watch by turns for their better safegard and the reason of this custody and the great account made of these Sheep was for that the Oracle had commanded the Apollonians to do so unto them and make much of them Afterwards Evenius a noble man among them keeping watch according to his turn fell asleâ—p so that threescore of the said Sheep were killed by Wolves which thing came in question among the common Magistrates to know the reason of that fact and how it came to pass whether by negligence or by some other violent incursion Evenius being no wayes able to defend it was condemned to have both his eyes put out that so he might be judged never more worthy to see the light with those eyes which would not wake over their charge but wink and sleep when they should have been open And to conclude I will but add this one thing more that whereas the Egyptians worshipped the Sheep for a god God permitted the same unto the Jews to be eaten among common and vulgar meats and also to be burned at the Altar for sacrifice and whereas the said Egyptians did not only eat but sacrifice swines flesh God himself did forbid his people that they should never eat or tast of Swines flesh as an abominable thing by which he signifieth how contrary the precepts of men are to his own laws for that which he forbiddeth they allow and that which they allow he forbiddeth and therefore how far the people of God ought to be from superstition and from the traditions of men is most manifest by this comparison for that was never sanctified that came not into the Temple and that was never lawful which was not approved by God and those things which in his law have greatest appearance of cruelty yet are they more just and equall then the most indifferent inventions of men which seem to be stuffed but with mercy and gilded over with compassion And these things most worthy Readers I have thought good to express in this place for the dignity and honorable account which the greatest men of the world in former times have made of Sheep and thereby I would incite and stir you up if it were but one noble spirited learned man which is furnished with wit means and opportunity to dive and pierce into the secrets of English Sheep and Shepherds and to manifest unto the world the best and most approved means and medicines for the propulsing and driving away of all manner of diseases from those innocent profitable beasts and for their conservation in all manner of health and welâ—are I am sorry that our times are so far poysoned with Covetousness that there is no regard of God man or beast but only for profit and commodity for as for the service of God we see that the common devotion of men and practise of their Religion is founded upon a meer hope that therefore God will better prosper them in worldly affairs and if it were not for the reward in this world the professors of Religion would not be half so many as now they are and that is true in them which the Devil slanderously objected to Job namely that they do not serve God for nothing and they had rather with Dives have the Devils favour in rich garments and delicate fare then with Lazarus with misery and contempt enjoy the favour of God and to set up their hopes for an other world As for Men we see that the
advice required lest at any time by their caustick faculty they exulcerate too deep into the flesh Cantharides mingled with Lime serve in stead of a Pen-knife to eradicate and take away those little hard and red swellings rising chiefly in the crown of the head armpits or privy parts called of some Physitians Pani and some there be again that will adventure a little of them in powder to give with such Medicines whose property is to provoke Urine But yet there is hard hold and tough reasoning on both sides whether they ought to be given inwardly with Diuretikes or no considering that being so drunk they are accounted amongst strong poysons tormenting the bladder without any ceasing othersome again hold the contrary assuring us upon their own experience that not exceeding their due quantity they may be taken with other Correctories to serve as a Retricle to transport them to the place affected so that you see either side hath his strength and reasons Justa pari premitur veluti cum pondere libra Prona nec hac plus parte sedet nec surgit ab isla That is to say As when an even scale with equal weight is prized Nor falls it down this way or is it that way raised But being mingled and wrought up with the juyce of Vna Taminea which is a kinde of Berry growing on the herb called Ampelos angria a kinde of Briony Sheeps or Goats sewet there is no doubt but that they do great good Some of my Masters sâ—ith Galen the Prince of all Physitians next to Hippocrates did use to put Cantharides amongst such medicines as they prepared to move urine taking only their wings with the feet but I saith he am wont to take Cantharides wholly as well as some parts of them and so I judge them the more safe to be used and prepared this way especially I misse not to make choyce of such are found among Corn and have as it were a yellow circle or enclosure crossing overthwart their wings lib. 3. lib. 11. de Simplie facult Being applyed rightly they do also provoke the monthly terms and that very eff 〈…〉 ually and put into Antidotes they are thought of many to help Hydropical persons as not only Hippecrates and Dioscorides but also Galen Avicenna Rhazes Pliny and other Physitians of best note and worth have witnessed I cannot here sufficiently enough commend their assured tryed and approved use being commixed with Leaven Salt and Gum Ammoniacum for the diversion of Rhumes or Catarrhs the taking away of all Goutish pains out of the hanch or hip called the Sciatica of the popular sort whilest they draw forth and consume from the center of the body being there throughly and deeply impacted to the surface the matter or offending humours causing these griefs above said They are also good against the venom of a Salamandra as Pliny in his 29. Book and 24. Chapter assureth us They are also highly esteemed of some being duly prepared and orderly mixed with certain other medicines to take away and correct the remisse negligence falling-faintnesse and heartlesse casting down of the Virile part yea they do as they say very much provoke to venerous incitements But here I would counsel each one not to be knack-hardy bold in medling with them for these or the like intentions for as they bring both health and help being duly commixed and orderly tempered not exceeding their dose and first quantity so again if you fail in their due and skilful application or propination they induce and drive men into most intolerable grievous symptomes and accidents and otherwhiles to death it self John Langius setteth down a true and very pleasant story which in this place because it maketh greatly for our matter in hand I will not refuse briefly to describe it There was saith he at Bonony in Italy a certain rich and Noble young man of France which Gallus to use his own words was Gallo quovis gallinaceo salacior who falling extreamly in love with a certain Maid in the same City prevailed so far at length through his earnest importunities and incessant sollicitations that at length they appointed and agreed upon the time and place of their meeting to keep their Revels for one night So this lusty Gallant being thus insnared in the inextricable labyrinth of her beauteous Phisnomy fearing deadly lest his heart should turn into Liver or that he might faint and lose his courage before he should attain to his journeys end in this his doubtful coaping and dangerous skirmishing conflict like a wise man fearing the worst casting all dangers afore-hand what might ensue would needs know of a fellow-souldier and Countreyman of his who had as one may guesse born a standard in the Camp of Venus what were best to be done to move him to a more vigorous courage and to keep his credit for that time lest either he should turn Craven like an overtyred Jade or else be utterly non-suited which was worst of all who presently wished him to take some Cantharides in his Broath which the other at all adventures forth-with did But it was not long before this jolly Yonker felt an itching about his lower parts then being frolike above measure supposed it to be the operation of his medicine that caused this Colt-evil he without any more ado hyed him to his Love minding there indeed to draw the matter to a set battel and to end all controversies by dint of sword Tunc animis opus Acnea tunc pectore firmo In English thus Of courage then indeed Then of stout breast is need But yet for all this in the still of the night when every one besides were at rest my restlesse Frank felt his whole body to be pockily torn and miserably rent with sundry cruel prickings and stingings feeling moreover a strange tast in his mouth like the juyce or liquor that issueth from the Cedar tree stamping and staring raging and faring like a furious mad frantike Bedlam being almost besides himself through the extremity of his pain virtiginy and giddinesse of his brain with inclination to fainting or swounding so being troubled tost and perplexed all sad melancholike and male-content destitute of counsel and comfort like a silly Miser and an impotent Suiter and not like a couragious hot-spur he let his action fall turning hâ—â— back like a Novice and fresh-water Souldier full sore against his will you may be sure but there was no remedy and so with as much speed as he could bidding his Love adiew he trudged home to his own lodging whither being come and finding no relief but rather an encrease of his torments with a continual burning of his Urine and Strangury he lamentably besought and with weeping and tears most humbly craved and cryed out for help requiring the favour and furtherance both of my self and of another Physitian for the cure so I being admitted to visit this poor patient I first gave him some Oyl to drink thereby to provoke vomiting
mouth if then you perceive no amendment then seethe some Laurel and therewith heat his back and afterward with oil and wine scarifie him all over plucking his skin up from the ribs and this must be done in the sunshine or else in a very warm place For the scabs take the juice of Garlick and rub the beast all over and with this medicine may the biting of a Wolf or a mad Dog be cured although other affirm that the hoof of any beast with Brimstone Oil Water and Vinegar is a more present remedy but there is no better thing then Butter and stale Urine When they are vexed with wormes poure cold water upon them afterward anoint them with the juice of onions mingled with Salt If an Ox be wrinched and strained in his sinews in travel or labour by stumping on any root or hard sharp thing then let the contrary foot or leg be let bloud if the sinews swell If his neck swell let him bloud or if his neck be windiug or weak as if it were broken then let him bloud in that ear to which side the head bendeth When their necks be bald grinde two tile together a new one and an old and when the yoak is taken off cast the powder upon their necks and afterward oil and so with a little rest the hair will come again When an Ox hangeth down his ears and eateth not his meat he is troubled with a Cephalalgie that is a pain in his head for which seethe Thyme in Wine with Salt and Garlick and therewith rub his tongue a good space also raw Barly steeped in Wine helpeth this disease Sometime an Ox is troubled with madness for which men burn them betwixt the horns in the forehead till they bleed sometime there is a Flie which biting them continually driveth them into madness for which they are wont to cast Brimstone and bay sprigs sod in water in the Pastures where they feed but I know not what good can come thereby When Oxen are troubled with fleam put a sprig of black Hellebore through their ears wherein let it remain till the next day at the same hour All the evils of the eyes are for the most part cured by infusion of Hony and some mingle therewith Ammoniack Salt and Boetick When the palat or roof of their mouth is so swelled that the beast forsaketh meat and bendeth on the one side let his mouth be paired with a sharpe instrument or else burned or abated some other way giving them green and soft meat till the tender sore be cured but when the cheeks swell for remedy whereof they sell them away to the Butcher for slaughter it falleth out very often that there grow certain bunches on their tongues which make them forsake their meat and for this thing they cut the tongue and afterward rub the wound with Garlick and Salt till all the fleamy matter issue forth When their veins in their cheeks and chaps swell out into ulcers they soften and wash them with Vinegar and Lees till they be cured When they are liver-sick they give them Rubarbe Mushroms and Gentian mingled together For the Cough and short breath they give them twigs of Vines or Juniper mingled with Salt and some use Betony There is a certain herb called Aâ—plenon or Citteraeh which consumeth the milts of Oxen found by this occasion in Crete there is a River called Protereus running betwixt the two Cities Gnoson and Gortina on both sides thereof there were herds of Cattel but those which fed neer to Gortina had no Spleen and the other which feed neer to Gnoson were full of Spleen when the Physitians endevoured to find out the true cause hereof they sound an herb growing on the coast of Gortina which diminished their Spleen and for that cause called it Asplenon But now to come to the diseases of their breast and stomach and first of all to begin with the Cough which if it be new may be cured by a pinte of Barley meal with a raw Egge and half a pinte of sod wine and if the Cough be old take two pounds of beaten Hysop sod in three pints of water beaten Lentils or the roots of Onions washed and baked with Wheat meal given fasting do drive away the oldest Cough For shortness of breath their Neat-herds hang about their neck Deaths-herb and Harts-wort but if their Livers or Lungs be corrupted which appeareth by a long Cough and leaness take the root of Hasell and put it through the Oxes ear then a like or equall quantity of the juyce of Onions and oil mingled and put into a pinte of Wine let it be given to the beast many dayes together If the Ox be troubled with crudity or a raw evill stomach you shall know by these signes he will often belch his belly will rumble he will forbear his meat hanging down his eyes and neither chew the cud or lick himself with his tongue for remedy whereof take two quarts of warm water thirty stalkes of Boleworts seethe them together till they be soft and then give them to the beast with Vinegar But if the crudity cause his belly to stand out and swell then pull his tail downward with all the force that you can and binde thereunto Mother-wort mingled with salt or else give them a Glyster or anoint a Womans hand with oil and let her draw out the dung from the fundament and afterward cut a vein in his tail with a sharp knife When they be distempered with choler burn their legs to the hoofs with a hot Iron and afterward let them rest upon clean and soft straw when their guts or intrails are pained they are eased with the sight of a Duck or a Drake But when the small guts are infected take fifteen Cypres Apples and so many Gauls mingle and beat them with their weight of old Cheese in four pints of the sharpest wine you can get and so divide it into four parts giving to the beast every day one quantity The excrements of the belly do deprive the body of all strength and power to labour wherefore when they are troubled with it they must rest and drink nothing for three daies together and the first day let them forbear meat the second day give them the tops of wilde Olives or in defect thereof Canes or Reeds the stalks of Lentrske and Myrtill and a third day a little water and unto this some add dryed Grapes in six pintes of sharp wine given every day in like quantity When their hinder parts are lame through congealed bloud in them whereof there is no outward appearance take a bunch of Nettles with their roots and put it into their mouths by rubbing whereof the condensate bloud will remove away When Oxen come first of all after Winter to grasse they fall grasse-sick and pisse bloud for which they seethe together in water Barly Bread and Lard and so give them all together in a drink to the beast some praise the
be a perpetual slave and drudge to him by whom their impudent idleness was bewrayed and laid against them in publick place lest the insufferable slothfulness of such vagabonds should be burthenous to the people or being so hateful and odious should grow into an example Alfredus likewise in the Government of his Common-wealth procured such encrease of credit to justice and upright dealing by his prudent Acts Statutes that if a man travelling by the high way of the Countrey under his dominion chanced to lose a budget full of Gold or his capcase farsed with things of great value late in the evening he should finde it where he lost it safe sound and untouched the next morning yet which is a wonder at any time for a whole moneths space if he sought for it as Ingulphus Croyladensis in his history recordeth But in this our unhappy age in these I say our devilish days nothing can escape the clawes of the spoiler though it be kept never so sure within the house albeit the doors be lockt and boulted round about This Dog in like manner of the Grecians is called Oikouros Of the Latinists Canis Coltos in English the Dog-keeper Borrowing his name of his service for he doth not only keep Farmers houses but also Merchants mansions wherein great wealth riches substance and costly stuffe is reposed And therefore were certain Dogs found and maintained at the common costs and charges of the Citizens of Rome in the place called Capitolium to give warning of Theeves coming This kind of Dog is called In Latin Canis Laniarius in English the Butchers Dog So called for the necessity of his use for his service affordeth great benefit to the Butcher as well in following as in taking his Cattel when need constraineth urgeth and requireth This kinde of Dog is likewise called In Latin Molossicus or Molossus after the name of a Countrey in Epirus called Molossia which harboureth many stout strong and sturdy Dogs of this sort for the Dogs of that Countrey are good indeed or else there is no trust to be had in the testimony of writers This Dog is also called In Latin Canis Mandatarius a Dog messenger or Carrier upon substancial consideration because at his Masters voice and commandement he carryeth letters from place to place wrapped up cunningly in his leather collar fastned thereto or sowed close therein who lest he should be hindred in his passage useth these helpes very skilfully namely resistance in fighting if he be not overmatched or else swiftness and readinesse in running away if he be unable to buckle with the Dog that would fain have a snatch at his skin This kinde of Dog is likewise called In Latin Canis Lunarius in English the Mooner Because he doth nothing else but watch and ward at an inch wasting the wearisome night season without slumbring or sleeping bawing and wawing at the Moon that I may use the word of Nonius a quality in mine own opinion strange to consider This kind of Dog is also called In Latin Aquarius in English a Water-drawer And these be of the geater and the weightier sort drawing water out of wels and deep pits by a wheel which they turn round about by the moving of their burthenous bodies This Dog is called in like manner Canis Carcinarius in Latin and may aptly be Englished a Tinkers Cur. Because with marvellous patience they bear big budgets fraught with Tinkers tools and metal meet to mend kettels porrage-pots skillets and chafers and other such like trumpery requisite for their occupation and loytering trade easing him of a great burthen which otherwise he himself should carry upon his shoulders which condition hath challenged unto them the foresaid name Besides the qualities which we have already recounted this kind of Dogs hath this principal property ingraffed in them that they love their Masters liberally and hate strangers despightfully where-upon it followeth that they are to their Masters in travelling a singular safegard defending them forcibly from the invasion of villains and Theeves preserving their lives from losse and their health from hazzard their flesh from hacking and hewing with such like desperate dangers For which consideration they are meritoriously termed In Latin Canes defensores Defending Dogs in our mother tongue If it chance that the Master be oppressed either by a multitude or by the greater violence and so be beaten down that he lie groveling on the ground it is proved true by experience that this Dog forsaketh not his Master no not when he is stark dead But induring the force of famishment and the outragious tempests of the weather most vigilantly watcheth and carefully keepeth the dead carkasse many dayes indevouring furthermore to kill the murtherer of his Master if he may get any advantage Or else by barking by howling by furious jarring snarring and such like means betrayeth the malefactor as desirous to have the death of his aforesaid Master rigorously revenged An example hereof fortuned within the compasse of my memory The Dog of a certain wayfaring man travelling from the City of London directly to the Town of Kingstone most famous and renowned by reason of the triumphant coronation of eight several Kings passing over a good portion of his journey was assaulted and set upon by certain confederate Theeves lying in wait for the spoil in Come-packe a perillous bottom compassed about with Woods too well known for the manifold murders and mischievous robberies there committed Into whose hands this passenger chanced to fall so that his ill luck cost him the price of his life And that Dog whose sire was English which Blondus registreth to have been within the banks of his remembrance manifestly perceiving that his Master was murthered this chanced not far from Paris by the hands of one which was a suiter to the same woman whom he was a wooer unto did both bewray the bloudy Butcher and attempted to tear out the villains throat if he had not sought means to avoid the revenging rage of the Dog In fires also which fortune in the silence and dead time of the night or in stormy weather of the said season the older Dogs bark baul howl and yell yea notwithstanding they be roughly rated neither will they stay their tongues till the houshold servants awake rise search and see the burning ' of the fire which being perceived they use voluntary silence and cease from yolping This hath been and is found true by triall in sundry parts of England There was no fainting faith in that Dog which when his Master by a mischance in hunting stumbled and fell toppling down a deep ditch being unable to recover of himself the Dog signifying his Masters mishap rescue came and he was haled up by a rope whom the Dog seeing almost drawn up to the edge of the ditch cheerfully saluted leaping and skipping upon his Master as though he would have imbraced him being glad of his presence whose longer absence he was loath to lack
Amulets which are used to be bound to the arms necks and breasts as the Canine-tooth bound up in a leaf and tyed to the arm a Worm bred in the dung of Dogs hanged about the neck the root of Gentian in an Hyaenaes skin or young Wolfs skin and such like whereof I know no reason beside the opinion of men The inward compound potions or remedies against the bitings of Dogs may be such as these Take Sea-crabs and burn them with twigs of white Vines and save their ashes then put to them the powder of Gentian root well cleansed and small beaten and as oft as need requireth take two spoonfuls of the first and one of the second and put them into a cup of pure and unmixed Wine and so drink it for four days together being well beaten and stirred so as the Wine be as thick as a Cawdle and there is nothing more forcible then Sea-crabs Hiera Diascincum powder of Walnuts in warm rain Water Triacle Castoreum Pills Spurge-seed and a decoction of Indian thorn with Vervine given in water These may serve for several compound inward remedies against these poysons and now sollow the simple First eating of Garlike in our meat drinking of Wormwood Rams flesh burned and put into Wine so drunk There is an Herb called Alysson by reason of the power it hath against this evill which being bruised and drunk cureth it The liver of a Boar dryed and drunk in Wine hath the same operation Jews lime drunk in water Leeks and Onyons in meat Dogs bloud the head the vein under the tongue commonly supposed to be a worm and the liver of the Dog which hath done the hurt are also prescribed for a remedy of this evill but especially the liver or rennet of a young Puppey the rinde of a wilde Fig-tree a dram of Castoreum with Oyl of Roses Centaury or Chamaeleon the root of a wilde Rose called Cynorrhodon and Cynosbaton Ellebor the brain of a Hen drunk in some liquor Sorrel Honey Mints and Plantaine but Pimpinella Germanica is given to all Cattel which are bitten by a mad Dog Besides many other such like which for brevity sake I omit concluding against all superstitious curing by Inchantments or supposed Miracles such as is in a certain Church of S. Lambert in a City of Picardy where the Mass Priests when a man is brought unto them having this evill they cut a cross in his forehead and lay upon the wound a piece of S. Lamberts stole burning which they say though falsly is reserved to this day without diminution then do they sow up the wound again and say another plaister upon it prescribing him a dyet which is to drink water and to eat hard Egs but if the party amend not within forty days they binde him hand and foot in his bed and saying another bed upon him there strangle him as they think without all sin and for preventing of much harm that may come by his life if he should bite another This story is related by Alysius and it is worth the noting how murther accompanieth superstitious humane inventions and the vain presumptuous confidence of Cross-worshippers and thus much of the madness of Dogs and the cure thereof in men and beasts In the next place the conclusion of this tedious discourse followeth which is the natural medicines arising out of the bodies of Dogs and so we will tye them up for this time Whereas the inward parts of men are troubled with many evils it is delivered for truth that if little Melitaean Dogs or young sucking Puppies be laid to the breast of a childe or man that hath infectious passions or pains in his entrails the pain will depart from the man into the beast for which cause they burned them when they were dead Serenus doth express this very elegantly saying Quin etiam catulum lactentem apponere membris Convenit omne malum transcurrere fertur in illum Cui tamen extincto munus debetur humandi Humanos quia contactus mala tanta sequuntur Et junctum vitium ducit de conjuge conjux If a Whelp be cut asunder alive and laid upon the head of a mad melancholike woman it shall cure her and it hath the same power against the Spleen If a woman grow barren after she hath born children let her eat young Whelp-flesh and Polypus fish sod in Wine and drink the broath and she shall have ease of all infirmities in her stomach and womb Water distilled out of Whelps causeth that pieled or shaven places shall never have more hair grow upon them With the fat of whelps bowelled and sod till the flesh come from the bones and then taken and put into another Vessel and the weak resolute or paralytike members being therewith anointed they are much eased if not recovered Alysius saith he made experience of Puppies sod alive in Oyl whereby he cured his Gowty legd Horses and therefore it cannot chuse but be much more profitable for a man The skin of a Dog held with the five fingers stayeth Distillations it hath the same operation in gloves and stockins and it will also ease both Ach in the belly head and feet and therefore it is used to be worn in the shoes against the Gowt The flesh of mad Dogs is salted and given in meat to them which are bitten by mad Dogs for a singular remedy The bloud is commended against all intoxicating poysons and pains in the small guts and it cureth scabs The fat is used against deafness of the ears the Gowt Nits in the head and incontinency of urine given with Alum A plaister made of the Marrow of a Dog and old Wine is good against the falling of the fundament The hair of a black Dog easeth the Falling sickness the Brains of a Dog in Lint and Wool laid to a mans broken bones for fourteen days together doth consolidate and joyn them together again which thing caused Serenus to make these excellent verses Infandum dictu cunctis procul absit amicis Sed fortuna potens omen convertat in hostes Vis indigna novo si parserit ossa fragore Conveniet cerebrum blandi Canis addere fractis Lintea deinde super que inductu nectere lanas Saepius succos conspergere pinguis olivi Bis septem credunt revale scere cuncta diebus The brain-pan or skull of a Dog clove asunder is applyed to heal the pain in the eyes that is if the right eye be grieved thereunto apply the right side of the skull if the left eye the left side The vertues of a Dogs head made into powder are both many and unspeakable by it is the biting of mad Dogs cured it cureth spots and bunches in the head and a plaister thereof made with Oyl of Roses healeth the running in the head it cureth also all tumors in privy parts and in the fear the chippings in the fingers and many other diseases The powder of the teeth of Dogs
had an Elephant for his rivall and this also did the Elephant manifest unto the man for on a day in the market he brought her certain Apples and put them into her bosom holding his trunk a great while therein handling and playing with her breasts Another likewise loved a Syrian woman with whose aspect he was suddenly taken and in admiration of her face stroked the same with his trunk with testification of farther love the Woman likewise failed not to frame for the Elephant amorous devices with Beads and Corrals Silver and such things as are grateful to these brute Beasts so she enjoyed his labour and dilgence to her great profit and he her love and kindeness without all offence to his contentment which caused Horat. to write this verse Quid tibi vis mulier nigris dignissima barris At last the woman dyed whom the Elephant missing like a lover distracted betwixt love and sorrow fell beside himself and so perished Neither ought any man to marvel at such a passion in this Beast who hath such a memory as is attributed unto him and understanding of his charge and business as may appear by manifold examples for Antipater affirmeth that he saw an Elephant that knew again and took acquaintaince of his Master which had nourished him in his youth after many years absence When they are hurt by any man they seldom forget a revenge and so also they remember on the contrary to recompense all benefits as it hath been manifested already They observe things done both in weight and measure especially in their own meat Agnon writeth that an Elephant was kept in a great mans house in Syria having a man appointed to be his Overseer who did dayly defraud the Beast of his allowance but on a day as his Master looked on he brought the whole measure and gave it to him the Beast seeing the same and remembring how he had served him in times times past in the presence of his Master exactly divided the Corn into two parts and so laid one of them aside by this fact shewing the fraud of the servant to his Master The like story is related by Plutarch and Aelianus of another Elephant discovering to his Master the falshood and privy theft of an unjust servant About Lycha in Africk there are certain springs of water which if at any time they dry up by the teeth of Elephants they are opened and recovered again They are most gentle and meek never fighting or striking Man or Beast except they be provoked and then being angred they will take up a man in their trunk and cast him into the air like an arrow so as many times he is dead before he come to the ground Plutarch affirmeth that in Rome a boy pricking the trunck of an Elephant with a goad the Beast caught him and lift him up into the air to shoot him away and kill him but the people and standers by seeing it made so great a noise and cry thereat that the Beast set him down again fair and softly without any harm to him at all as if he thought it sufficient to have put him in fear of such a death In the night time they seem to lament with sighs and tears their captivity and bondage but if any come to that speed like unto modest persons they refrain suddenly and are ashmed to be found either murmuring or sorrowing They live to a long age even to 200 or 300 years if sickness or wounds prevent not their life and some but to a 120 years they are in their best strength of body at threescore for then beginneth their youth Iuba King of Lybia writeth that he hath seen tame Elephants which have descended from the Father to the son by way of inheritance many generations and that Ptolemaeus Philadelphus had an Elephant which continued alive many Ages and another of Seleucus Nicanor which remained alive to the last overthrow of all the Antiochi The Inhabitants of Taxila in India affirm that they had an Elephant at the least three hundred and fifty years old for they said it was the same that fought so faithfully with Alexander for King Porus for which cause Alexander cald him Aiax and did afterward dedicate him to the Sun and put certain golden chains about his teeth with this inscription upon them Alexander filius Iovis Aiacem Soli Alexander the son of Iupiter consecrateth this Aiax to the Sun The like story is related by Iubo concrrning the age of an Elephant which had the impression of a Tower on his teeth and was taken in Atlas 400 years after the same was engraven There are certain people in the world which eat Elephants and are therefore called of the Nemades Elephantophagi Elephant-eaters as is already declared there are of these which dwell in Daraba neer the Wood Eumenes beyond the City Saba where there is a place called the hunting of Elephants The Troglodytae live also hereupon the people of Africk cald Asachae which live in Mountains do likewise eat the flesh of Elephants and the Adiabarae of Megabari The Nomades have Cities running upon Charriots and the people next under their Territory cut Elephants in pieces and both sell and eat them Some use the hard flesh of the back and other commend above all the delicates of the world the reins of the Elephants so that it is a wonder that Aelianus would write that there was nothing in an Elephant good for meat except the trunck the lips and the marrow of his horns or teeth The skin of this Beast is exceeding hard not to be pierced by any dart whereupon came the Proverb Culicem haud curat Elephas Indiâ—ns the Indian Elephant careth not for the biting of a Gnat to signifie a sufficient ability to resist all evill and Noble mindes must not revenge small injuries It cannot be but in such 〈◊〉 and vast bodies there should also be nourished some diseases and that many as Strabo saith wherefore first of all there is no creature in the world less able to endure cold or Winter for their impatiency of cold bringeth inflamation Also in Summer when the same is hottest they cool one another by casting durty and filthy water upon each other or else run into the roughest Woods of greatest shadow It hath been shewed already that they devour Chamaeleons and thereof perish except they eat a wilde Olive When they suffer inflamation and are bound in the belly either black Wine or nothing will cure them When they drink a Leach they are grievously pained for their wounds by darts or otherwise they are cured by Swines-flesh or Dittany or by Oyl or by the flower of the Olive They fall mad sometime for which I know no other cure but to tye them up fast in Iron chains When they are tyred for want of sleep they are recovered by rubbing their shoulders with Salt Oyl and Water Cows milk warmed and infused into their
in the porch of Jupiters Temple by the Romans and were appointed to be fashioned in earth by the hand of a cunning Potter the which being wrought in earth and put into the furnace they grew so great that they could not be taken out whole at the sight of these the Horses of Ratumena stood still but first of all their master was slain in the course by falling off The Horses of Tartaris are so incredibly swift that they will go twenty German miles in one day There was a race of Horses at Venice called Lupiferae which were exceeding swift and the common same is that they came upon this occasion There was a certain merry fellow which would become surety for every man for which he was commonly jested at in the whole City It fortuned on a day as he travelled abroad in the Woods that he met with certain Hunters that had taken a Wolf they seeing him asked him merrily if he would be surety for the Wolf and make good all his damages that he had done to their flocks and foals who instantly confessed he would undertake for the Wolf if they would set him at liberty the Hunters took his word and gave the Wolf his life where-upon he departed without thanks to the Hunters Afterward in remembrance of this good turn he brought to the house of his surety a great company of Mares without mark or brand which he received and branded them with the Images of a Wolf and they were therefore called Lupiforae from whom descended that gallant race of swift Horses among the Veneti upon these ride the posts carrying the letters of Kings and Emperors to the appointed places and these are said to refuse copulation with any other Horses that are not of their own kinde and linage The Persian Horses are also exceeding swift which indeed have given name unto all others The messengers of the great Cam King of Tartaria have their posts so appointed at every five and twenty miles end of these running light Horses that they ride upon them two or three hundred miles a day And the Pegasarian coursers of France by the like change of Horses run from Lyons to Rome in five or six days The Epithets of a swift running courser are these winged or wing-bearing Lark-footed breathing speedy light stirred covetous of race flying sweating not slow victorious rash violent and Pegasaean Virgil also describeth a swift and sluggish Horse most excellently in these verses sending one of them to the Ring and victory of running without respect of Countrey or food they are to be praised for enriching his master and the other for his dulness to the mill the verses are these following Nempe volucrem Sic laudamus equum facili cui plurima palma Fervet exultat rauco victoria Circo Nobilis hic quocunque venit de gramine cujus Clara fuga ante alios primus in aequore pulvis Sed venale pecus Corithae posteritas Hirpini si rara jugo victoria sedit Nil tibi majorum respectus gratia nulla Vmbrarum dominos pretiis mutare jubentur Exiguis tritoque trahunt Epithediâ— collo Segnipedes dignique molam versare Nepoâ—â—s One of these swift light Horses is not to be admitted to race or course untill he be past three year old and then may he be safely brought to the ring and put to the stretching of his legs in a composed or violent pace as Virgil saith Carpere mox gyrum incipiat gredibusque sonare Compositis sinuetque alterna volumina crurum Pliny affirmeth that if the teeth of Wolves be tyed to these Horses it will make them never to give over in race and when the Sarmatians were to take long journeys the day before they gave their Horses very little drink and no meat at all and so would they ride them an hundred and fifty miles out right The Arabians also in many regions use to ride upon Mares upon whom they perform great journeys and King Darius did also fight his battails upon Mares which had foals for if at any time their affairs went to rack and they in danger the Mares in remembrance of their foals at home would carry them away more speedily then any other Horse and thus much for the light or swift Horses Of the Gelding THey have used to lib their Horses and take away their stones and such an one is called in Latine Canterius or Cantherius which is drived of Cauterium because they were seared with hot irons or else from the stronger boughs or branches of Vines so called because they were pruned In French Cheval Ogre Cantier Cheuron and Soppa doth interpret the Spanish Janetto to be a Gelding It is said of Cato Censorius that he was carryed and rode upon a Gelding and of these the Turkish Horses receive the greatest commendations Forasmuch as many Horses by their seed and stones are made very fierce truculent and unruly by taking away of them they are made serviceable and quiet which before yeelded unto man very little profit and this invention may seem first of all to be taken from them which fed divers together in one herd being taught the intolerable rage of their stoned Horses towards their Colleagues and guides for abating whereof they took from them their male parts Of the manner hereof you may read plentifully in Rusius and he affirmeth that the Scythians and Sarmatians who keep all their Horses in herds were the first devisers thereof For these people using to rob and forrage were many times by the neighing of their unruly Horses discovered for their property is to neigh not only at Mares but also at every stranger that they see or winde and for males they were so head-strong that they would divers times carry away the Rider perforce and against his will to his own destruction in the rage of their natural lust If they he gelded under their dams when they suck it is reported by some that from such their teeth never fall away and beside in the heat of their course their nerves are not hardned for which cause they are the best of all to run withall They use to geld them in March in the beginning of the Spring afterward being well nourished they are no less strong able and couragious then other unlibbed also there is a pretty proverb Cantherius in Fossa a Gelding in a Ditch which is then to be used when a man undertaketh a business which he is not able to manage for a Horse can do much in a plain but nothing at all in a Ditch It is reported that Jubellius Taurea and C. Assellius fought a combate on Horse-back near the City Capua and when one had provoked another a good while in the plain fields Taurea descended into a hollow way telling his fellow combatant that except he came down unto him it would be a fight of Horses and not of Horse-men whereunto Assellius yeelded and came down unto the Ditch
he came to it he found it a sleep so that with no perill he might have killed her with his Musket before she saw him but he like a fool-hardy fellow thought it as little honour to kill a Lyon sleeping as a stout Champion doth to strike his enemy behind the back Therefore with his Musket top he smote the Lion to awake it whereat the beast suddenly mounted up and without any thankes or warning set his forefeet on this Squires brest and with the force of her body overthrew the Champion and so stood upon him keeping him down holding her grim face and bloudy teeth over his face and eyes a sight no doubt that made him wish himself a thousand miles from her because to all likelihood they should be the grinders of his flesh and bones and his first executioner to send his cursed soul to the Devill for denying Jesus Christ his Saviour Yet it fell out otherwise for the Lion having been lately filled with some liberal prey did not presently fall to eat him but stood upon him for her own safegard and meant so to stand till she was an hungry during which time the poor wretch had liberty to gather his wits together and so at the last seeing he could have no benefit by his Musket Sword or Dagger and perceiving nothing before him but unavoidable death thought for the saving of his credit that he might not die in foolish infamy to do some exploit upon the Lion whatsoever did betide him and thereupon seeing the Lion did bestride him standing over his upper parts his hands being at some liberty drew out his long Barbarian knife and thrust the same twice or thrice into the Lions flank which the Lion endured never hurting the man but supposing the wounds came some other way and would not forsake her booty to look about for the means whereby she was harmed At last finding her self sick her bowels being cut asunder within her for in all hot bodies wounds work presently she departed away from the man above some two yards distance and there lay down and dyed The wretch being thus delivered from the jawes of death you must think made no small brags thereof in the Court notwithstanding he was more beholding to the good nature of the Lion which doth not kill to eat except he be hungry then to his own wit strength or valour The Male Lion doth not feed with the female but either of them apart by themselves They eat raw flesh for which cause the Grecians call them Omesteres Omoboroi and Omophagoi the young ones themselves cannot long be fed with milke because they are hot and dry being at liberty they never want meat and yet they eat nothing but that which they take in hunting and they hunt not but once a day at the most and eat every second day whatsoever they leave of their meat they return not to it again to eat it afterwards whereof some assigned the cause to be in the meat because they can endure nothng which is unsweet stale or stinking but in my opinion they do it through the pride of their natures resembling in all things a Princely majesty and therefore scorn to have one dish twice presented to their own table But tame Lions being constrained through hunger will eat dead bodies and also cakes made of meal and hony as may appear by that tame Lion which came to Apollonius and was said to have the soul in it of Amasis King of Egypt which story is related by Philostratus in this manner There was saith he a certain man which in a leam led up and down a tame Lion like a Dog whithersoever he would and the Lion was not only gentle to his leader but to all other persors that met him by which means the man got much gains and therefore visited many Regions and Cities not sparing to enter into the temples at the time of sacrificing because he had never shed bloud but was clear from slaughter neither licked up the bloud of the Beasts nor once touched the flesh cut in pieces for the holy Altar but did eat upon Cakes made with meal and hony also bread Gourds and sod flesh and now and then at customary times did drink wine As Apollonius sat in a Temple he came unto him in more humble manner lying down at his feet and looking up into his face then ever he did to any as if he had some special supplication unto him and the people thought he did it for hope of some reward at the command and for the gain of his Master At last Apollonius looked upon the Lion and told the people that the Lion did entreat him to signifie unto them what he was and wherewithal he was possessed namely that he had in him the soul of a man that is to say of Amasis King of Egypt who raigned in the Province of Sai At which words the Lion sighed deeply and mourned forth a lamentable roaring gnashing his teeth together and crying with abundance of tears whereat Apollonius stroked the Beast and made much of him telling the people that his opinion was forasmuch as the soul of a King had entred into such a kingly Beast he judged it altogether unfit that the Beast should go about and beg his living and therefore they should do well to send him to Leontopolis there to be nourished in the Temple The Egyptians agreed thereunto and made sacrifice to Amasis adorning the Beast with Chains Bracelets and branches so sending him to the inner Egypt the Priests singing before him all the way their idolatrous Hymnes and Anthems but of the transfiguration of men into Lions we shall say more afterward only this story I rehearsed in this place to shew the food of tame and enclosed Lions The substance of such transfigurations I hold to be either Poetical or else Diabolical The food therefore of Lions is most commonly of meek and gentle Beasts for they will not eat Wolves or Bears or such Beasts as live upon ravening because they beget in them melancholy they eat their meat very greedily and devour many things whole without chewing but then they fast afterwards two or three days together never eating untill the former be digested but when they fast that day they drink and the next day they eat for they seldom eat and drink both in one day and if any stick in his stomach which he cannot digest because it is overcharged then doth he thrust down his nails into his throat and by straining his stomach pulleth it out again the self same thing he doth when he is hunted upon a full belly And also it must not be forgotten that although he come not twice to one carcasse yet having eaten his belly full at his departure by a wilful breathing upon the residue he so corrupteth it that never after any beast will taste thereof for so great is the poison of his breath that it putrifieth the flesh and also in
near the way and place of his harm perceiving a return of the Army went furiously among them and found out the man whose hand had wounded him and could not by any help of his associates be stayed from a revenge but tore the young souldier in pieces and departed away safe for the residue seeing his rage ran all away thinking him to be some Devil in the likeness of a Lion After the taking of Lions it followeth that we should intreat of their taming and first of all they which are tamed in their infancy while they are whelps are most meek and gentle full of sport and play especially being filled with meat so that without danger a stranger may meet with them but being hungry they return again to their own nature for as it is true which Seneca saith Leonibus manus magister inserit osculatur Tigrim suus custos that is to say The Master of a Lion may put his hand in his mouth and the Keeper of a Tyger may kiss him yet is it also to be feared Tigres Leonesque nunquam feritatem exuunt aliquando submittunt cum minime expectaveris torvitas maligna redibit Lions and Tygers do never leave off their wildeness although sometimes they yeeld and seem to be submiss yet upon a sudden when a man expecteth not their malignant wrath breaketh forth and they are exasperated Wherefore after they grow to be old it is impossible to make them utterly tame yet we read in divers stories of tame Lions whether made so from their littering or else constrained by the Art of man such are these which follow Hanno had a certain Lion which in his expeditions of war carryed his baggage and for that cause the Carthaginians condemned him to banishment for said they Male credi libertas ei cui in tantum cessit etiam seritas It is not safe to trust such a man with the government of the Common-wealth who by wit policy or strength was able to overcome and utterly to alter the wilde nature of a Lion for they thought he would prove a Tyrant that could bring the Lion to such meekness as to wait on him at Table to lick his face with his tongue to smooth his hand on his back and to live in his presence like a little Dog The Indians tame Lions and Elephants and set them to plough Onomarchus the Tyrant of Cattana had Lions with whom he did ordinarily converse In the Countrey of Elymis there was a Temple of Adonis wherein were kept many tame Lions which were so far from wildeness and fierceness that they would imbrace and salute the people that came in there to offer Also if any one called them to give them meat they would take it gently and depart from them with quietness Likewise in the Kingdom of Fes in a plain called Adecsen there are certain Forrests wherein live tame and gentle Lions which if a man meet he may drive away with a small stick or wand without receiving any harm And in another region of Africk the Lions are so tame that they come daily into Cities and go from one street to another gathering and eating bones from whose presence neither women nor children run away Likewise in many parts of India they have Lions so tame that they lead them up and down in learns and accustom them to the hunting of Boars Bulls and wilde Asses like Dogs for their noses are as well fitted for that purpose as the best Hounds as we have shewed before of the King of Tartary And the best means of taming them is the rule of Apollonius which he said was the precept of Phareotes which is that they be neither handled too roughly nor too mildely for if they be beaten with stripes they grow over stubborn and if they be kept in continual flatteries and used over kindely they grow over proud For they held opinion that by an equal commixtion of threatning and fair speaking or gentle usage by which means they are more easily brought to good desired conditions and this wisdom the Ancients did not only use in the taming of Lions but also in restraining of Tyrants putting it as a bridle to their mouths and a hook in their nostrils to restrain them from fury and madness Albertus saith that the best way to tame Lions is to bring up with them a little Dog and oftentimes to beat the same Dog in their presence by which discipline the Lion is made more tractable to the will of his Keeper It is said of Heliogabalus that he nourished many tame Lions and Tygers and other such noisome beasts calling himself their great mother and when he had made any of his friends drunk in the night time he shut them up together who quickly fell asleep through the heaviness of their heads who being so asleep he turned in amongst them some of his foresaid children both Lions Bears Tygers and such like at whose presence in the morning his drunken friends grew so amazed that oft-times some of them fell dead for fear and to conclude there is a story in a certain Epigram of a Lion wandering abroad in the night time for the avoiding of frost and cold came into a fold of Goats at the sight whereof the Goat-heards were much afraid calling in question not only the lives of the flock but also their own because every one of them thought himself bound to fight unto death in defence hereof whereupon according to the manner of men in extremity they all made their prayers desiring God to be delivered from the Lion and according to their wishes so it came to pass for after the Lion had lodged in the warm fold of Goats a whole night he departed in the morning without doing any harm to man or beast wherefore I take this Lion to be of the tame kinde and as in all beasts there are differences both of natures and inclinations as we may see in Dogs some of them being more apt after the manners of men and to be ruled by them then others so also I see no reason but that in the fierce and royal nature of Lions some of them should be more inclinable to obedience subjection and submission whereunto being once won they never afterwards utterly shake off their vassasage and yoke of them which overcome them From hence it came that there were so many spectacles at Rome as first of all Lucius Sylla in the office of his aedility or oversight of the Temple brought into the Roman circle or ring one hundred great maned Lions loose which always before that time were turned in bound or muffled And King Bochus sent so many valiant Archers and Dart-casters to fight with them and destroy them After him Pompey the great in the same place brought in a combate consisting of six hundred great Lions and among them there were three hundred fifty maned Lions Also he instituted hunting of Lions at Rome wherein were slain five hundred
it is natural to Pea-cocks and Panthers to have divers colours in them for there are in Hircania Panthers with little round spots like eyes both black white blew and green as both Solinus and Claudius testifie which caused Martial to write thus Picto quod juga delicata collo Pardus sustinet There is a land called Terra eremborum inhabited by the Troglodytes and Sarazens in Lybia where the upper face of the earth is compared unto the Panthers skin because through the heat of the Sun it is burned and died as it were into divers colours so that ye shall see divers spots of white black and green earth as if it were done of purpose by the hand of man The teeth of the Panther are like saws as are also a Dogs and a Lions their tongue of such incredible sharpness that in licking it grateth like a file The females have four udders in the midst of their belly the heart is great in proportion because he is a violent Beast terrifying man There are many fissures in their feet Their former feet have five distinct claws or fingers and their hinder-feet but four for little ones among four-footed beasts have five fingers upon their hinder-feet when they go they hide their nails within the skin of their feet as it were in sheaths never bringing them forth but when they are in their prey to the intent they should never be broken nor dulled Their tails have no long hairs at the end like a Lions or Oxes and the Leopard hath a wider mouth then the Pardal The female is oftener times taken then the male the reason is given by Volaterran because she is inforced to seek abroad for her own meat and her young ones The place of their aboad is among the Mountains and Woods and especially they delight in the tree Camphory They raven upon flesh both Birds and Beasts for which cause they hide themselves in trees especially in Mauritania where they are not very swift of foot and therefore they give themselves to take Apes which they attain by this policy when they see the Apes they make after them who at their first approaching climbe up into the tops of trees and there sit to avoid the Panthers teeth for she is not able to follow them so high but yet she is more cunning then the Apes and therefore deviseth more shifts to take them that where nature hath denyed her bodily power there she might supply that want by the gifts of the minde Forth therefore she goeth and under the tree where the Apes are lodged she lyeth down as though she were dead stretching out her limbs and restraining her breath shutting her eyes and shewing all other tokens of expiration The Apes that sit on the tops of the tree behold from on high the behaviour of their adversary and because all of them wish her dead they more easily believe that which so much they desire and yet dare not descend to make tryal Then to end their doubts they chuse out one from among them all whom they think to be of the best courage and him they send down as it were for an espy to certifie all the residue forth then he goeth with a thousand fears in his minde and leapeth from bough to bough with no great hast for dread of an ill bargain yet being come down dareth not approach high but having taken a view of the counterfeit and repressed his own fear returneth back again After a little space he descendeth the second time and cometh nearer the Panther then before yet returneth without touching him Then he descendeth the third time looking into his eyes and maketh trial whether he draweth breath or no but the Panther keepeth both breath and limbs immoveable by that means imâ—oldning the Apes to their own destruction for the Spie-ape sitteth down beside the Panther and stirreth not now when those which are above in the tree see how their intelligencer abideth constantly beside their adversary without harm they gather their spirits together and descend down in great multitudes running about the Panther first of all going upon him and afterwards leaping with great joy and exultation mocking this their adversary with all their apish toys and testifying their joy for her supposed death and in this sort the Panther suffereth them to continue a great season till he perceiveth they are throughly wearied and then upon a sudden he leapeth up alive again taking some of them in his claws destroying and killing them with teeth and nails till he have prepared for himself a rich dinner out of his adversaries flesh And like as Vlysses endured all the contumelies and reproaches both of his maids and Wives suiters until he had a just occasion given him of revenge so doth the Panther the disdainful dealing of the Apes whereupon came the proverb Pardi mortâ—ni dissimulat Thanaton Pardaleos hypoâ—rinetai against a cunning dissembling fellow such a one as Brutuâ— was who counterfeited madness that he might get the Empire So great is the love of this Beast to all Spices and Aromatical trees that they come over all the Mountain Taurus through Armenia and Silia when the windes bring the savour of the sweet gum unto them out of Pamphilia from the tree Storax whereupon lyeth this story There was a certain Panther which was taken by King Arsaces and a golden collar put upon his neck with this inscription Rex Arsaces Deo Nisaeo that is King Arsaces to the God Bacchus for Bacchus was called Nisaeuâ— of a City Nisae in India This Beast grew very tame and would suffer himself to be handled and stroked by the hands of men until the Spring time that he winded the savour of the Aromatical trees and then he would run away from all his acquaintance according to his kinde and so at last was taken in the neather part of the Mountain Taurus which was many hundred miles distant from the Kings Court of Armenia We have shewed already how they love the gum of Camphory watching that tree to the end to preserve it for their own use and indeed as Aelianus saith Admirabâ—lem quantam odâ—ris suavitatem oâ—et Pardalis quam bene olendi praestantiam divino munere donatam cum sibi propriam plane tenet tam 〈◊〉 â—â—tera animalia ejus hanc vim praeclare sentiunt that is to say The Panther or Pardal smelleth most sweetly which savour he hath received from a divine gift and doth only feel the benefit of it himself but also bewray it unto other Beasts for when he feeleth himself to be hungry and stand in need of meat then doth he get up into some rough tree and by his savour or sweet smell draweth unto him an innumerable company of wilde Goats Harts Roes and Hindes and such other Beasts and so upon a sudden leapeth down upon them when he espyeth his convenient time And Solinus saith that the sweetness of his savour worketh the same effect
engine like a Mouse-trap but much greater through which there is a cord where they hang a bait of flesh or pullen or some such thing which the VVolf loveth when he cometh unto it he suddenly snatcheth at it and so pulleth the trap upon his own pate The Teuorians Mysians and Thraseans Inhabitants of Asia were wont to carry short weapons to kill VVolfs and they used also the strongest Dogs who by the incouragement of the Huntters would tear the VVolfs in pieces for there is hardly any Dog so couragious as to adventure upon a VVolf at single hand The Dogs have therefore certain collers made unto them of leather stuft full of sharp Iron nails to the intent that their necks may be safe guarded from the VVolfs biting Now Blonus saith that all hunting of VVolfs with Dogs is in vain except there be also set up certain great nets made of strong cords stretched out and standing as stiffe as may be immoveably fastned to the bodies of trees or strong pillars in the earth and in divers places of these nets they must set boughs to cover them to the end the VVolf descry them not and at either end of the net must be made a little shed with boughs to cover a man wherein the hunter must lodge with his Spear ready to pierce through the VVolf when he perceiveth him in the net for if the VVolf be not instantly wounded he will deliver himself and escape and then also he must be followed with the cry of Men and Dogs that he may not return back again into his den and the Hunters observe this order in hunting of a VVolf and driving him to their nets VVhen they are far from their nets they hunt them but gently and let them go at leisure but when they are closer and nearer unto them they follow them with all speed and violence for by that means many are intrapped and suddenly killed and these are those hunting observations which I finde to be recorded in Authors for the taking of VVolfs And this is the nature of this beast that he feareth no kinde of weapon except a stone for if a stone be cast at him he presently falleth down to avoid the stroke for it is said that in that place of his body where he is wounded by a stone there are bred certain worms which do kill and destroy him and therefore the Egyptians when they do decipher a man that feareth an eminent danger they picture a VVolf and a stone as Orus writeth VVolfs do likewise fear fire even as Lions do and therefore they which travel in woods and secret places by night wherein there is any suspicion of meeting of VVolfs they carry with them a couple of flints wherewithal they strike fire in the approach of the ravening beast which so dazleth his eyes and danteth his courage that he runneth away fearfully It is said that VVolfs are afraid of the noise of swords or iron struck together and it may well be for there is a true story of a man travelling near Basil with a bell in his hand who when he saw that the throwing stones at the VVolf which followed him would nothing avail and by chance fell down in the mean time a bell which he carryed about him did give a sound at which sound the VVolf being affrighted ran away which when he perceived he sounded the bell aloud and so drove away the wilde ravening beast As the Lion is afraid of a white Cock and a Mouse so is the VVolf of a Sea-crab or shrimp It is said that the pipe of Pithocaris did repress the violence of VVolfs when they set upon him for he sounded the same unperfectly and indistinctly at the noise whereof the raging VVolf ran away and it hath been believed that the voyce of a singing man or woman worketh the same effect Horace testifieth so much of himself that by singing he drove away a VVolf as in these verses Namque me sylva Lupus in Sabina Dum meam canto Lalagen ultra Terminum curis vagor expeditus Fugir inermem Quale portenium neque militaris Daunia in latis alit esculetis Nec Jubae tellus generat Leonum Arida nutrix If at any time a VVolf follow a man afar off as it were treacherously to set upon him suddenly and destroy him let him but set up a stick or staffe or some such other knowledgable mark in the middle space betwixt him and the VVolf and it will scare him away for the suspicious beast feareth such a man and thinketh that he carryeth about him some engin or trap to take away his life and therefore also it is said that if a traveller do draw after him a long rod or pole or a bundle of sticks and clouts a VVolf will never set upon him worthily mistrusting some deserved policy to overthrow and catch him Aesculapius writeth that if a man do anoint himself with the fat or sewet taken out of the reins of a Lion it will drive away from him all kinde of Wolfs There be some that take VVolfs by poysoning for they poyson certain pieces of meat and cast them abroad whereof when the Wolfs do eat they die immediately There were certain Countrey men which brought the skins of Wolfs into the City of Rome and carryed them up and down the streets publiquely to be seen affirming that they had killed those Wolfs with the powder of a certain herb call'd Cardus Varius and that therewithall also they would kill Rats and Mice Pausanias saith that there was a Temple of Apollo Lyceus at Sicyon and that on a time the Inhabitants were so annoyed with Wolfs that they could receive no commodity by their flocks whereupon Apollo taking pity of them told them that there was in their Temple a certain piece of dry wood commanding them to pull off the rinde or bark of that wood and beating it to powder to mingle it with convenient meat for VVolfs and so cast it abroad in the fields The people did as they were commanded by the Oracle and thereby destroyed all the VVolfs but what kinde of wood this was neither Pausanias nor any of the Priests of Sicyon could declare In one part of the world the Ewe-tree and certain fragments of Juniper The Spindle tree and Rododaphne do yeeld poyson unto VVolfs mixed in their drink and besides them we know no trees that are venemous and yet plants innumerable especially VVolf-bane And the occasion why there are more poysonful herbs then trees is in the juyce or liquor whereby they are nourished for where the juyce is wholesome and well tempered there it increaseth into a great tree but where it is imperfect and venomous there it never groweth tall nor bringeth forth any great stock There are certain little Fishes called by the Grecians Lycoi and by the Latinists Blenni which we may English VVolf-fishes and these the Hunters use to take Wolfs in this manner when they have taken a great many of them
unto this which is thus Take of Bryony Opopanax of the root of Iris Illirica and of the root of Rosemary and of Ginger of each of these three drams of Aristolochia five drams of the best Turpentine of wilde Rue of each three drams of the meal of Orobus two drams make them into Trochisces with Wine every one weighing one scruple and a half or two scruples to be given in Wine Galen in his second Book De antidotis chapter 49. discourseth of a certain Theriacal medicament called Zopyria antidotus so taking the name of one Zopyrus which was notable against all poysons and bitings of venomous creeping creatures This Zopyrus in his Letters written unto Mithridates sollicited him very much that he would make some experiment of his Antidote which as he put him in minde he might easily do by causing any one that was already condemned to die to drink down some poyson aforehand and then to take the Antidote or else to receive the Antidote and after that to drink some poyson And put him in remembrance to try it also in those that were wounded any manner of way by Serpents or those that were hurt by Arrows or Darts anointed or poysoned by any destroying venom So all things being dispatched according to his praemonition the Man notwithstanding the strength of the poyson was preserved safe and sound by this alexipharmatical medicine of Zopyrus Matthiolus in his Preface upon the sixth Book of Dioscorides entreating of Antidotes and preservatives from poyson saith that at length after long study and travail he had found out an Antidote whose vertue was wonderful and worthy admiration and it is a certain quintessence extracted from many simples which he setteth down in the same place He saith it is of such force and efficacie that the quantity of four drams being taken either by it self or with the like quantity of some sweet senting Wine or else with some distilled water which hath some natural property to strengthen the heart if that any person hath either been wounded or strucken of any venomous living thing and that the patients life be therewith in danger so that he hath lost the use of his tongue seeing and for the most part all his other senses yet for all that by taking this his Quintessence it will recover and raise him as it were out of a dead sleep from sickness to health to the great astonishment and admiration of the standers by They that desire to know the composition of this rare preservative let them read it in the Author himself for it is too long and tedious to describe it at this time There be besides these compounds many simple medicines which being taken inwardly do perform the same effect as namely the Thistle whereupon Serenus hath these verses following Carduus nondum doctis fullonibus aptus Ex illo radix tepido potatur in amni That is to say The root of Teasil young for Fullers yet unfit Drunk in warm water venom out doth spit That Thistle which Qu. Serenus here understandeth is properly that plant which of the Greeks is called Scolymos Yet it is taken sometimes for other prickly plants of the same kinde as for both the Chamaeleons Dipsacos or Labrum Veneris Spina alba Eryngium and some other But Dioscorides attributeth the chiefest vertue against poysons to the Thistle called Chamaeleon albus and to the Sea-thistle called Eryngium marinum which some call Sea-hul or Hulver for in his third book and ninth chapter entreating of Chamaeleon albus he saith thus The root of it taken with Wine inwardly is as good as Treacle against any venom and in the 21 chapter of the same Book Eryngium is saith he taken to good purpose with some Wine against the biting of venomous creatures or any poyson inwardly taken And the same Serenus adscribeth to the same vertue to the Harts curd or rennet as followeth Cervino ex soetu commixta coagula viâ—o Sumantur quaeres membris agit atra venena In English thus Wine mixt with Rennet taken from a Hart So drunk doth venom from the members part He meaneth a young Hart being killed in the Dams belly as Pliny affirmeth also the same in his 8. Book and 30. chapter in these words The chiefest remedy against the biting of Serpents is made of the Coagulum of a Fawn kill'd and cut out of the belly of his Dam. Coagulum is nothing else but that part in the belly which is used to thicken the Milk Proderit caulem cum vino haurire sambuci Qu. Serenus Which may be Englished thus In drink the powder of an Elder-stalk Gainst poison profiteth as some men talk That vertue which Serenus here giveth to the stalk of Dwarf Elder for that is meant in this place the same effect Dioscorides attributeth to the root in his fourth Book and Pliny to the leaves The herb called Betony is excellent against these foresaid affects and by good reason for the greatest part of poysons do kill through their excess of coldness and therefore to overcome and resist them such means are necessary by which natural and lively heat is stirred up and quickned and so the poyson hindred from growing thick together and from coagulation Again all men do agree that those medicines are profitable which do extenuate as all those do which have a property to provoke urine and Betony is of this quality and therefore being taken with Wine it must needs do good in venomous bitings and that not only in the bitings of Men and Apes but in Serpents also Radish also hath the same quality being taken with Vinegar and Water boiled together 〈◊〉 else outwardly applyed as Serenus affirmeth Sive homo seu similis turpissima bestia nobis Vulnera dente dedit virus simul intulit atrum Vetonicam ex duro prodest assumere Baccho Nec non raphani cortex decocta medetur Si trita admorâ—is fuerit circumlita membris In English thus If Man or Ape a filthy beast most like to us By biting wound and therein poyson thrust Then Betony in hard Wine steeped long Or rinde of Radish sod as soft as pap Do heal applyed to the members stâ—â—g There be certain herbs and simples as wilde Lettice Vervin the root called Rhubarb Agarick Oyl of Oliander and the leaves of the same the seeds of Peony with a great number a little before described that being taken either inwardly or outwardly in juyce or powder do cure poyson yea though it be received by hurt from envenomed arrows shafts or other warlike engines and weapons for the Arabians Indians the Galls now tearmed French-men and Scythians were wont to poyson their arrows as Paulus Orosius in his third Book testifieth of the Indians where he writeth how Alexander the Great in his conquering and winning of a certain City under the government of King Ambira lost the greatest part there of his whole Army with envenomed darts and quarrels And Celsus in his fifth Book saith that
fulfild And let it dry before Grashoppers green Thus made is good for Sinews cold Or nummed fingers whose force hath been By heat extending what cold band did hold The wounds that come by the biting or stinging of this Serpent are not great but very small and scarcely to be discerned outwardly yet the accidents that follow are like to those which ensue the bitings of Vipers namely inflamation and a lingering death The cure thereof must be the same which is applyed unto the sting of Vipers And peculiarly I finde not any medicine serving for the cure of this poyson alone except that which Pliny speaketh of namely Coriander drunk by the patient or laid to the sore It is reported by Galen and Grevinus that if a woman with childe do chance to go over one of these Double-headed Serpents dead she shall suffer abortment and yet that they may keep them in their pockets alive without danger in boxes The reason of this is given by Grevinus because of the vapour ascending from the dead Serpent by a secret antipathy against humane nature which suffocateth the childe in the mothers womb And thus much for this Serpent Of the DRAGON AMong all the kindes of Serpents there is none comparable to the Dragon or that affordeth and yeeldeth so much plentiful matter in History for the ample discovery of the nature thereof and therefore herein I must borrow more time from the residue then peradventure the Reader would be willing to spare from reading the particular stories of many other But such is the necessity hereof that I can omit nothing making to the purpose either for the nature or mortality of this Serpent therefore I will strive to make the description pleasant with variable history seeing I may not avoid the length hereof that so the sweetnesse of the one if my pen could so expresse it may countervail the tediousnesse of the other The Hebrews call it Thanin and Wolphius translateth Oach a Dragon in his Commentaries upon Nehemiah The Chaldees call it Darken and it seemeth that the Greek word Dracon is derived of the Chaldâ—â— We read of Albedisimon or Ahedysimon for a kinde of Dragon and also Alhatraf and Hauden Haren carnâ—m and such other terms that may be referred to this place The Grecians at this day call it Drakos the Germans Trach Lindtwarm the French Vn Dragon the Italians Drago and Dragone The derivation of the Greek word beside the conjecture afore expressed some think to be derived from Derkein because of their vigilant eye-sight and therefore it is faigned that they had the custody not only of the Golden-fleece but also of many other treasures And among other things Alciatus hath an emblem of their vigilancy standing by an unmarried Virgin Vera haec effigies innuptae est Palladis ejus Hic Draco qui dominae constitit ante pedes Cur Divae comes hoc animal custadia rerum Huic data sic lucos sâ—craque templa colit Innuptas opus est cura asservare puellas Pervigili laqueos undique tendit amor Which may be Englished thus This Dragon great which Lady Pallas stands before Is the true picture of unmarried Maids But why a consort to the Goddesse is this and more Then other beasts more meek who never fades Because the safegard of all things belong to this â—et Wherefore his house in Groves and sacred Temples Vnmarried Maids of guards must never misse Which watchful are to void loves snares and net For this cause the Egyptians did picture Serapis their God with three heads that is to say of a Lyon in the middle on the right hand a meek fawning Dog and on the left hand a ravening Wolf all which forms are joyned together by the winding body of a Dragon turning his head to the right hand of the God which three heads are interpreted to signifie three times that is to say by the Lyon the present time by the Wolf the time past and by the fawning Dog the time to come all which are guarded by the vigilancy of the Dragon For this cause also among the fixed Stars of the North there is one called Draco a Dragon all of them ending their course with the Sun and Moon and they are in this Sphear called by Astronomers the Intersections of the Circles the superior of these ascending is called the head of the Dragon and the inferior descending is called the tail of the Dragon And some think that GOD in the 38. of Job by the word Gneish meaneth this Sign or Constellation To conclude the ancient Romans as Vegetius writeth carryed in all their Bands the Escutchion of a Dragon to signifie their fortitude and vigilancy which were born up by certain men called for that purpose Draconarii And therefore when Constantius the Emperor entered into the City of Rome his souldiers are said to bear up upon the tops of their spears Dragons gaping with wide mouths and made fast with golden chains and pearl the winde whistling in their throats as if they had been alive threatning destruction and their tails hanging loose in the air were likewise by the winde tossed to and fro as though they strove to come off from the spears but when the winde was laid all their motion was ended whereupon the Poet saith Mansuescunt varii vento cessante Dracones In English thus When whistling winde in air ceast The Dragons tamed then did rest The tale also of the Golden-fleece if it be worth any place in this story deserveth to be inserted here as it is reported by Diodorus Siculus When Aetes reigned in Pontus he received an answer from the Oracle that he should then dye when strangers should come thither with ships and fetch away the Golden-fleece Upon which occasion he shewed himself to be of a cruel nature for he did not only make Proclamation that he would sacrifice all strangers which came within his Dominions but did also perform the same that by the fame and report of such cruelty he might terrifie all other Nations from having accesse unto that Temple Not contented herewith he raised a great strong wall round about the Temple wherein the Fleece was kept and caused a sure watch or guard to attend the same day and night of whom the Grecians tell many strange fables For they say there were Bulls breathing out fire and a Dragon warding the Temple and defending the Fleece but the truth is that these watchmen because of their strength were called Bulls because of their cruelty were said to breath out fire and because of their vigilancy cruelty strength and terror to be Dragons Some affirm again that in the Gardens of Hesperides in Lybia there were golden Apples which were kept by a terrible Dragon which Dragon was afterward slain by Hercules and the Apples taken away by him and so brought to Eurystheus Others affirm that Hesperides had certain flocks of sheep the colour of whose wooll was like gold and they were kept by a valiant shepheard
minde more then the common sort Philosophical and despising death took it exceeding grievously and said it were better once to suffer death then to live so miserable a life and drinking Wine so mingled with poyson he became a Leper and afterward we cured his Leprosie by our accustomed medicines Also a fourth man took Vipers alive but that man had only the beginning of this disease therefore our care and industry was very speedily to restore him to health wherefore having let him bloud and by a medicine taken away melancholy we bad him use the Vipers he had taken being prepared in a pot after the manner of Eels And he was thus cured the infection evaporating through the skin Lastly also a certain other man very rich not our Country-man but of the middle of Thracia admonished by a dream came to Pergamus where God commanded him by a dream that he should daily drink the medicine which was made of Vipers and outwardly he should anoint his body and not many days after his disease became the Leprosie And again also this infirmity was afterward cured by the medicines which God commanded Matthew Grady fed Chickins and Capons with the broth and flesh of Vipers mingled with bread till they cast their feathers purposing by them to cure the Leprosie A certain Noble-woman in this City infected with this malady â—he Leprosie after divers infortunate attempts of many came to my hands in whose cure when generous medicines availed nothing at last with consent of her husband I purposed to try her with Vipers flesh whereupon a female Viper being cleansed and prepared after that sort as Galen prescribeth in his Book De Theriaca mingling the flesh of the Viper with Galangal Saffron c. I sod her very well then I took a Chicken which I commanded well to be sod in the juyce and broth of the Viper And lest she should take any harm thereby I first ministred unto her Mithridate then the Chicken with the broth by eating whereof she said she felt herself better Which when I saw I took another male Viper whom I sod alone without adding any other thing and the broth thereof I ministred to her three days whereupon she began to sweat extreamly the sweat I restrained by syrup of Violets and pure water After six days scales fell from her and she was healed Moreover she soon after conceived a man-childe having been barren before the space of forty years Antonius Musa a Physitian when he met with an incurable Ulcer he gave his patients Vipers to eat and cured them with marvailous celerity When the servants of Craterus the Physitian fell into a strange and unusual disease that his flesh fell from his bones and that he had proved many medicines which profited him nothing he was healed by eating a Viper dressed as a fish Vipers flesh if it be sod and eaten cleareth the eyes helpeth the defects of the sinews and represseth swellings They say they that eat Vipers become lousie which is not so though Galen affirm it Some adde them to live long who eat that meat to wit Vipers Isogonus affirmeth the Cirni a kinde of Indians to live an hundred and forty years Also he thinketh the Ethiopians and Seres and the Inhabitants of Mount Athos to be long lived because they eat Vipers flesh The Scythians cleave the head of the Viper betwixt the ears to take out a stone which they say she devoureth when she is affrighted The heads of Vipers burnt in a pot to ashes and after beaten together with the grossest decoction of bitter Lupines spred as an ointment on the temples of the head stayeth the continual rheume of the eys Their ashes lightly beaten alone and applyed as a dry medicine for the eys greatly amendeth a dim sight The head of a Viper kept dry and burned and after being dipped in Vinegar and applyed cureth wilde fire The gall of the Viper doth wonderfully cleanse the eye and offendeth not by poyson It is manifest against the stinging of all Serpents though incurable that the bowels of the very Serpents do help and avail and yet they who at any time have drunk the liver of a sod Viper are never stung of Serpents The fat of a Viper is effectual against the dimnesse and suffusions of the eyes mixed with Rosin Honey-attick and a like quantity of old Oil. For the Gowt they say it availeth much to anoint the feet with the fat of Vipers Vipers fat healeth them that are burned The slow of the Viper cureth the Ring-worm The skin of the Viper beaten to powder and laid upon the places where the hair is fallen it doth wonderfully restore hair again Some extend and dry whole Vipers and after beat them to powder and minister them in drink against the Gowt Others about the rising of the Dog-star cut off the head and tail of Vipers and burn the middle then they give those ashes to be drunk 21. days so much at a time as may be taken up with three fingers and so cure the swelling in the neck Joynts pained with the Gowt are profitably anointed with Oyl wherein a Viper hath been sodden for this cureth perfectly The making of the Oyl of Vipers is described in these words Take three or four Vipers cut off their extream parts the head and the tail in length four fingers divide the rest into four gobbets and put them in a pot open above and below which pot must be put into another greater pot then the mouth of them must be well shut with clay that they breath not forth then put them into a Caldron full of seething water and there let them continue boiling two hours in those pots then will distil a liquor from the Vipers which were in the pot open above and below with that Oily liquor anoint the members of the party molested with the Palsie for by a secret property it cureth the grief of that disease Of Triacle and Trochuks of Vipers Theriace or Triacle not only because it cureth the venomous biting of Serpents but also because the Serpents themselves are usually mingled in the making thereof fitly is so named of both significations Here also we will insert something concerning Trochuks of Vipers which are mingled in the making of Triacle Triacle is very ancient and hath always very carefully and not without ambition been refined by the Physitians till Andromochus Nero his Physitian added the flesh of Vipers as the full accomplishment of this drug The flesh of Vipers alone is mingled in Triacle and not the flesh of other Serpents because all the rest have something malignant more then Vipers Vipers are thought to have lesse poyson in them then other Serpents Vipers for Triacle must not be taken at any time but chiefly in the beginning of the Spring when having left their dens they come forth into the Snn-shine and as yet have not poyson much
they cannot live nor will they breed there as in the Territory Tefethor of Sigelunum Contrarily the City Hea by the sea-side unlesse John Leo deceives us is most fruitfull for Fleas by reason of the abundance of Goats as also Dede In Hispaniola Fleas are found but neither many nor great ones but they bite more fiercely by farre than ours doe they love hot places where the Sun shines In the Spring they multiply at the beginning of Winter they die for they cannot endure the cold They copulate the male ascending upon the female as Flies doe and they both goe leap and rest together They stick long together and are hardly pulled asunder After copulation presently almost the female full of Egges seems fatter which though in her belly they seem long very small very many and white yet when they are layd they turn presently black and turn into littles Fleas if we may grant what Pennius saith that bite most cruelly Philoponus in lib. de generat maintains that Fleas breed not Egges but Nits and Niphus saith the same But they endeavouring to prove this because they crack when they are crusht doth not confirm their opinion for Egges will not break under the nail without cracking Aristotle thinks that from them be they Egges Nits or little Worms no other Creature breeds and I should willingly subscribe to him but that I think Nature made nothing in vain Those Fleas seem to be more rare that India produceth neer the River Nigua as we learn from Thevet They chiefly seize upon the softest parts of the feet under the nails and bite venomously After four dayes they raise a swelling as great as a pease or a Chich pease and young ones like to white Nits and if all these be not forthwith picked out and the place affected burned with hot ashes the part will be lost as it falls out often with the Slaves in Numidia He also in the Province of Peru was subject to this mischief and could not recover but by washing himself in the River very often Cardan writes of a little Flea The West-Indies saith he brings forth a kinde of Flea called Nigua a very shrewd plague This creature is far lesse then a Flea that sticking to a man will so torture him that some lose their hands others their feet The remedy is to anoynt the part with Oyl and shave it with a Rasor To whom Scaliger answers thus Thy story of Nigua is lame yet not unprofitable if you consider Philologie I shall adde what you have omitted This little Flea hath a most sharp nib and invades chiefly the feet seldome other parts not only when men goe but lye down also Therefore the Indians lie high Most frequently they bite that part which is under the nails The fourth day the swelling begins to increase and grows to the bignesse of a great pease This swelling is full of young Nits they pick out these and lay on hot ashes Benzo seems to say the same The Indians are mightily troubled with venomous Insects Amongst the rest the Niguae about the bignesse of a Flea insensibly creep in between the flesh and the nails especially and they are bred in the dust It falls out ost times that no pain is felt by them till they grow as great as Chich peasen or Lentils and then with a wonderfull plenty of Nits bred they are hardly pickt out with a needle or thorn and this mischief is cured with hot ashes Moreover the slaves of Africa that the Spaniards have in their families because they go barefoot are shrewdly troubled with this plague and they breed such numbers in their feet that there is no remedy for them but the iron instrument of the fire whence many of them want their toes or their feet Fleas will dye from extreme cold and therefore in the colder winter they are not to be seen or else we kill them when we can catch them And one dog will as willingly bite out the Fleas of another dog as they will scratch one the other Also most bountiful Nature hath supplied us with a large field of remedies that the Fleas that hide themselves and leap away from us may be destroyed by us and we preserved from them For we have herbs Dwarf Elder-leaves Fern-root or Anchusa flowers of Penniroyal Rue Coloquintida Brambles Oleander Mints Horse-mints Hops Rape-seed Cumin Staves-acre Fleabane Conyta Saffron Coriander Celendine sweet Cods wilde Cicers Arsemart Mustard Lupins roots of Chamaelea Hellebore leaves of black Poplar-tree Bayes Walnut-tree with the oyls of these or the boyl'd decoctions if the pavement be sprinkled or the house be perfumed the Fleas will be gone and most of them are killed Above all the dregs of Mares-pisse or sea-water are commended if they be sprinkled up and down also Harts-horn burnt is very good Goats bloud set in a bason or a pit drawes all the Fleas to it as also a staffe anointed with the fat of a Hedgehog or Cony Ape Bear Bull or Fox will do the like The water of the decoction of Arsenick or Sublimate sprinkled is a certain experiment to destroy them Quicklime mingled with the juice of white Hellebore doth the same A Gloeworm set in the middle of the house drives away Fleas Fleawort in the City of Clâ—tire is powdred and the powder is strew'd about the beds which by its smell doth astonish the Fleas that they will not bite If a Flea get into ones ear pour in Oyl mingled with a little Vinegar or juice of Rue oyl of Spike Turpentine or oyl of Peter is very useful These remedies may serve the turn which are taken from Apsyrtus Varro Columella Galen Aetius Palladius Avicenna Rhasis Kiramides Guilielmus Placentinus Joanicius Bellunensis Hermotaus Barbarus and Pliny The Barbarians saith Leneus that the Fleas may not bite them anoint themselves with oyl that is thick and red pressed out of fruit which they call Courog Petrus Gallisardus Caelius Chalcagninus and Tzetzes are reported to have written the commendation of a Flea it was my desire to have seen this but it was never my chance CHAP. XXIX Of Insects that want feet and first of Earth-worms SOme earthly Insects that have no feet are bred in the earth some in living creatures some in plants Earth-worms by Plautus and Columella are called Lumbrici may be from their lubricity Also they are called the entrails of the earth both because they are bred in the bowels of the earth and because being pressed like the entrails of living creatures they cast forth excrements also because they are like them in form and fashion The Greeks call these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesichius and the Syracusians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the English Meds Earth-worms the French Vers de Terre the Italians Lumbrichi the Spaniards Lombriz the Germans and those of Flanders Erdwurmen the Arabians Charatits Manardus writes l. 2. ep 4. that Earth-worms were called Ovisculi Earth-worms are greater or lesser The great ones