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
a treble formed monster a Maidens face a Lions legs and the wings of a Fowl or as Ausonius and Varinus say the face and hand of a Maid the body of a Dog the wings of a Bird the voice of a man the claws of a Lion and the tail of a Dragon and that she kept continually in the Sphincian mountain propounding to all travellers that came that way an Aenigma or Riddle which was this What was the creature that first of all goeth on four legs afterwards on two and lastly on three and all of them that could not dissolve that Riddle she presently flew by taking them and throwing them down headlong from the top of the Rock At last Oedipus came that way and declared the secret that it was a Man who in his infancy creepeth on all four afterward in youth goeth upright upon two legs and last of all in old age taketh unto him a staffe which maketh him to go as it were on three legs which the monster hearing she presently threw down her self from the former rock and so she ended Whereupon Oedipus is taken for a subtle and wise opener of mysteries But the truth is that when Cadmus had maried an Amazonian woman called Sphinx and with her came to Thehes and there slew Draco their King and possessed his Kingdom afterward there was a sister unto Draco called Harmona whom Cadmus maried Sphinx being yet alive She in revenge being assisted by many followers departed with great store of wealth into the Mountain SPHINCIVS taking with her a great Dog which Cadmus held in great account and there made daily incursions or spoils upon his people Now Aenigma in the Theban language signifieth an inrode or warlike incursion wherefore the people complained in this sort This Grecian Sphinx robbeth us in setting upon with an Aenigma but no man knoweth after what manner she maketh this Aenigma Cadmus hereupon made Proclamation that he would give a very bountiful reward unto him that would kill Sphinx upon which occasion the CORINTHIAN Oedipus came unto her being mounted on a swist Courser and accompanied with some Thebans in the night season slew her Others say that Oedipus by counterseiting friendship slew her making shew to be of her faction and Pausanias saith that the former Riddle was not a Riddle but an Oracle of Apollo which Cadmus had received whereby his posterity should be inheritors of the Theban Kingdom and whereas Oedipus being the Son of Laius a formeâ— King of that Countrey was taught the Oracle in his sleep he recovered the Kingdom usu ped by Sphinx his Sister and afterward unknown maried his own Mother Jâ—casta But the true moral of this Poetical fiction is by that learned Alciatus in one of his emblems deciphered that her monstrous treble-formed-shape signified her lustful pleasure under a Virgins face her cruel pride under the Lions claws her winde-driven levity under the Eagles or Birds feathers and I will conclude with the words of Suidas concerning such Monsters that the Tritons Sphinges and Centaures are the images of those things which are not to be sound within the compasse of the whole world The true Sphinx first described is of a fierce though a tameable nature and if a man do first of all perceive or discern these natural Sphinges before the beast discern or perceive the man he shall be safe but if the beast first descry the man then is it mortal to the man These Sphinges were of great account for their strangeness with their image did Augustus sign all his Grants Libels and Epistles afterward he left that and signed with the image of Alexander the great and last of all with his own Syclis the King in the City of the Boristhenites had a fair house about which there were Sphinges and Gryphins wrought out of white stone At Athens in the Temple Parthenâ—na there is described the contention betwixt Pallas and Neptune about the earth and the image of Pallas made of Ivory and gold hath in the midst of her shield the picture of a Sphinx Amasis the King of Egypt built in the porch of Pallas an admirable work called Sar where he placed such great Colosses and Aâ—dro-Sphinges that it was afterward supposed he was buried therein and was lively to be seen imputrible To conclude the Egyptians in the porches of their Temples painted a Sphinx whereby they insinuated that their divine wisdom was but dark and uncertain and so covered with fables that there scarce appeared in it any sparkles or footsteps of yerity Of the SAGOIN called GALEOPITHECUS THis figure of the Sagoin I received of Peter Cordenberg a very learned Apothecary at Antwerpe w ch is three times as big as my picture and John Cay that famous English Doctor hath advertised me that it no way resembleth the Sagoin it self which is not much greater then a Rat a little Conny or a young Hedghog for he had seen several ones of that bigness of a grisseld colour a neat beard and somewhat ash coloured a tail like a Rat but hairy the feet of a Squirrel and the face almost like a Martine or Satyre a round ear but very short and open the hair black at the root and white at the end and in other conditions like a Munkey They are much set by among women and by the Brasilians where they are bred and called Sagoins it being very probable that they are conceived by a small Ape and Weasell for in that Countrey by reason of the heat thereof there are many such unnatural commixtions It is a nimble lively and quick spirited beast but fearful it will eat white-bread Apples Sweet-grapes dryed in the Sun Figs or Pears There was one of them at Antwerpe sold for fifty Crowns In France they call a Sagoin a little beast not much bigger then a Squirrel and not able to endure any cold Some other affirme that a Sagoin is a bearded creature but without a tail of an ash-colour not much bigger then a fist but of this beast there is not any author writeth more then is already rehearsed Of the Bear-Ape ARCTOPITHECUS THere is in America a very deformed beast which the inhabitants call Haut or Hauti and the Frenchmen Guenon as big as a great African Munkey His belly hangeth very low his head and face like unto a childs as may be seen by this lively picture and being taken it will sigh like a young child His skin is of an ash-colour and hairy like a Bear he hath but three claws on a foot as long as four fingers and like the thornes of Privet whereby he climeth up into the highest trees and for the most part liveth of the leaves of a certain tree being of anexceeding height which the Americans call Amahut and thereof this beast is called Haut Their tail is about three fingers long having very little hair thereon it hath been often tried that though
Asses are of very foolish conditions and slender capacity but yet very tame not refusing any manner of burthen although it break his back being loaded it will not out of the way for any man or beast and it only understandeth the voice of that man with whom it is laboured knowing also the way whereunto it is accustomed Ammonianus was in such love with an Asse and holdding him of so great a capacity that he had one continually to hear his Lectures of Philosophie Galen affirmeth that an Asse understandeth genus species individuum because if you shew him a Camell that never saw one before he is terrified and cannot indure his sight but if he have been accustomed to such a sight if you shew him never so many he is not moved at them In like sort he knoweth men in general being not affraid of them but if he see or hear his keeper he knoweth him for his keeper or master There was a cunning player in Africa in a City called Alcair who taught an Asse divers strange tricks or feats for in a publick spectacle turning to his Asse being on a scaffold to shew sport said The great Sultan purposeth to build him an house and shall need all the Asses of Alcair to fetch and carry wood stones lime and other necessaries for that business presently the Asse falleth down turneth up his heals into the air groneth and shutteth his eyes fast as if he had been dead while he lay thus the Player desired the beholders to consider his estate for his Asse was dead he was a poor man and therefore moved them to give him money to buy another Asse In the mean time having gotten as much money as he could he told the people he was not dead but knowing his masters poverty counterfeited in that manner whereby he might get money to buy him provender and therefore he turned again to his Asse and bid him arise but he stirred not at all Then did he strike and beat him sore as it seemed to make him arise but all in vain the Asse lay still Then said the player again our Sultan hath commanded that to morrow there be a great triumph without the City and that all the noble women shall ride thither upon the fairest Asses and this night they must be fed with Oates and have the best water of Nilus to drink At the hearing whereof up started the Asse snorting and leaping for joy then said the Player the Governor of this Town hath desired me to lend him this my Asse for his old deformed wife to ride upon at which words the Asse hangeth down his ears and understanding like a reasonable creature began to halt as if his leg had been out of joint why but said the Player had thou lifer carry a fair young Woman The Asse wagged his head in token of consent to that bargain go then said the player and among all these fair Women chuse one that thou mayest carry then the Asse looketh round about the Assembly and at last went to a sober woman and touched her with his nose whereat the residue wondered and laughed shutting up the sport with crying out An Asses Woman An Asses Woman and so the Player went unto another Town Such things do serve to teach us that Asses are not altogether indocible besides in their own nature they know how to refresh themselves in their weariness by wallowing on the ground and being overcome with melancholy humor they naturally look for the hearb Ceterach or Finger-fearne to cure them When the Asses of Maurusium are bound to a journey they set forward so fast that a man would think they rather flew then ran but being overwearyed they are so abased that they send forth tears and then are they drawn at Horses tails to their journeys end The Asse is never at peace with the Crow because it longeth for the Asses eyes likewise the bird Salem for when the Asse cometh to the thornes to rub himself where the said bird buildeth her nest the Asse spoileth it wherefore the said bird maketh continual assault upon him In like sort the Colota or Stellio for it sleepeth in the managers and creepeth up into the Asses nose to hinder him from eating The Wolf is also an enemy to the Asse for he loveth his flesh and with small force doth he compasse the destruction of an Asse for the blockish Asse when he seeth a Wolf layeth his head on his side that so he might not see thinking that because he seeth not the Wolfe the Wolfe cannot see him but the Wolfe upon this advantage setteth upon the beast on the blind side and easily destroyeth the courageless Asse Another argument of an Asses stupidity is that he careth not for his own life but will with quietness starve if meat be not laid before him Wherefore it is apparent that when a dull Scholar not apt to learn is bid to sell an Asse to signifie his blockishness is no vain sentence therefore they which resemble Asses in their head round forehead or great face are said to be blockish in their fleshie face fearful in broad or great eyes simple and like to be mad in thick lips and the upper hanging over the neather Fools and in their voice contumelious and disdainful To conclude the ancients have made many significations of Asses and their shapes making a man with an Asses head to signifie First one ignorant of manners histories and Countryes Secondly immoderate riot of stubborn persons in Scripture is deciphered in an Asse Thirdly impudency and shamelesness because an Asse will not for any stripes forsake his own wayes Fourthly the Jewish people who like Asses could not understand the evident truth of Christ in the plain text of Scripture wherefore our Saviour secretly upbraided their dulness when he rode upon an Asse Fiftly the Egyptians by an Asse noted a man without all divine knowledge wherefore they used to take an Asse and follow him with all despight beating him from place to place till he brake his own neck for they believed that an Asse was possessed of a Devil Sixtly Indocibility by an Asse bridled Seventhly the snares of flatterers for their Priests set an Asse between flowers and ointments neither of both partaining to an Asses skill teaching thereby how mighty men fall by treachery of flatterers Eightly a Woman dissembling her Pregnancy Ninthly by a man weaving a cord and an Asse behind him biting it asunder they signifie a painful husband and a prodigal wife Tenthly a good Vine-dresser for when an Asse did bite of the branch of a vine it was observed that the next year the Vine was more fruitful Finally base servisity trifling sluggishness good fortune Tyrants and fools are Hierogliphically comprized under the discourse of Asses Touching such medicinal vertues as have been tried and found to be in the several parts of Asses by learned and approved writers now in the conclusion of this History they shall
affrighted drew the man out of that deadly danger and so ran away for fear of a worse creature But if there be no tree wherein Bees do breed neer to the place where the Bear abideth then they use to anoynt some hollow place of a tree with Hony whereinto Bees will enter and make Hony-combes and when the Bear findeth them she is killed as aforesaid In Norway they use to saw the tree almost asunder so that when the beast climbeth it she falleth down upon piked stakes laid underneath to kill her And some make a hollow place in a tree wherein they put a great pot of water having anoynted it with Hony at the bottom whereof are fastened certain hooks bending downward leaving an easie passage for the Bear to thrust in her head to get the Hony but impossible to pull it forth again alone because the hooks take hold on her skin this pot they binde fast to a tree whereby the Bear is taken alive and blindefolded and though her strength break the cord or chain wherewith the pot is fastened yet can she not escape or hurt any body in the taking by reason her head is fastened in the pot To conclude other make ditches or pits under Apple-trees laying upon their mouth rotten sticks which they cover with earth and strow upon it herbs and when the Bear cometh to the Apple-tree she falleth into the pit and is taken The herb Wolfeban or Libardine is poison to Foxes Wolves Dogs and Bears and to all beasts that are littered blinde as the Alpine Rhaetians affirm There is one kinde of this called Cyclamine which the Valdensians call Tora and with the juyce thereof they poyson their darts whereof I have credibly received this story That a certain Valdensian seeing a wilde Bear having a dart poysoned herewith did cast it at the Bear being far from him and lightly wounded her it being no sooner done but the Bear ran to and fro in a wonderful perplexity through the woods unto a very sharp cliffe of a rock where the man saw her draw her last breath as soon as the poyson had entered to her heart as he afterward found by opening of her body The like is reported of Hen-bane another herb But there is a certain black fish in Armenia full of poyson with the powder whereof they poyson Figs and cast them in those places where wilde beasts are most plentiful which they eat and so are killed Concerning the industry or natural disposition of a Bear it is certain that they are very hardly tamed and not to be trusted though they seem never so tame for which cause there is a story of Diana in Lysias that there was a certain Bear made so tame that it went up and down among men and would feed with them taking meat at their hands giving no occasion to fear or mistrust her cruelty on a day a young maid playing with the Bear lasciviously did so provoke it that he tore her in pieces the Virgins brethren seeing the murther with their darts slew the Bear whereupon followed a great pestilence through all that region and when they consulted with the Oracle the paynim God gave answer that the plague could not cease untill they dedicated some Virgins unto Diana for the Bears sake that was slain which some interpreting that they should sacrifice them Embarus upon condition the Priesthood might remain in his family slew his only daughter to end the pestilence and for this cause the Virgins were after dedicated to Diana before their marriage when they were betwixt ten and fifteen year old which was performed in the month of January otherwise they could not be marryed Yet Bears are tamed for labours and especially for sports among the Roxolani and Lybians being taught to draw water with wheels out of the deepest wels likewise stones upon sleds to the building of walls A Prince of Lituania nourished a Bear very tenderly feeding her from his table with his own hand for he had used her to be familiar in his Court and to come into his own chamber when he listed so that she would go abroad into the fields and woods returning home again of her own accord and would with her hand or foot rub the Kings chamber door to have it opened when she was hungry it being locked it happened that certain young Noble-men conspired the death of this Prince and came to his chamber door rubbing it after the custom of the Bear the King not doubting any evill and supposing it had been his Bear opened the door and they presently slew him There is a fable of a certain wilde Bear of huge stature which terrified all them that looked upon her the which Pythagoras sent for and kept to himself very familiarly using to stroke and milk her at the length when he was weary of her he whispered in her ear and bound her with an oath that being departed she should never more harm any living thing which saith the fable she observed to her dying day These Bears care not for any thing that is dead and therefore if a man can hold his breath as if he were dead they will not harm him which gave occasion to Esope to fable of two companions and sworn friends who travelling together met with a Bear whereat they being amazed one of them ran away and gat up into a tree the other fell down and countetfeited himself dead unto whom the Bear came and smelt at his nostrils and ears for breath but perceiving none departed without hurting him soon after the other friend came down from the tree and merrily asked his companion what the Bear said in his ear Marry quoth he she warn'd me that I should never trust such a fugitive friend as thou art which didst forsake me in my greatest necessity thus far Esop They will bury one another being dead as Tzetzes affirmeth and it is received in many Nations that children have been nursed by Bears Paris thrown out of the City was nourished by a Bear There is in France a Noble house of the Vrsons whose first founder is reported to have been certain years together nourished by a Bear and for that cause was called Vâ—son and some affirm that Arcesius was so being deceived by the name of his mother who was called Arctos a Bear as among the Latines was Vâ—sula And it is reported in the year of our Lord 1274. that the Concubine of Pope Nicholas being with childe as was supposed brought forth a young Bear which she did not by any unlawful copulation with such a beast but only with the most holy Pope and conceived such a creature by strength of imagination lying in his Palace where she saw the pictures of many Bears so that the holy Father being first put in good hope of a son and afterward seeing this monster like himself Rev. 13. for anger and shame defaced all his pictures of those beasts There is a mountain
taken but by wearisomeness wherefore if men follow them with Pipes and Timbrels playing upon them they so weary themselves with leaping and running to and fro being compassed in by multitudes of men that they fall down for weakness and so are taken They live in flocks together sometimes five hundred and after Faster in the Spring two hundred in a troope having a Snout like a Hogs they endure much hunger but no cold In March they dig up with their Horns a certain root whereof they eat and presently their lust for generation encreaseth unto rage in so much that for satisfying thereof they continue in that act both male and female untill they lose all strength of body lying half dead on the earth by the space of 24 hours not able to go or stand during which time they are often taken alive but when they come again to themselves they rather die then endure to be tamed The flesh of them is very sweet and wholesome they conceive and bring forth for the most part twins or two at a time their greatest enemy is a Wolf for in the Winter and snow they hunt and kill them Their horn are about four palms in length growing upright or bending very little and very sharp wherewithal they can pierce the belly of a Horse or other beast that standeth over them at the root they are about six inches compass and so growing lesse and lesse to the top one of them weigheth about nine ounces the blade toward the point is transparent being held against the light or sun because it is white and thin but the neather part is duskie and thicker and therefore it is not penetrable by the eye of man There are about 14 circles like rings compassing about the horn one above another but the uppermost is not perfect This horn is of great price being a present for any Noble man for in Turkey they are sold for six Cracovian shillings yet I know no other use of them but either to make hafts for knives or else horns for Spectacles This beast liveth altogether in the plains except in snow and then he runneth into the Woods where he may be taken more easily and killed with the stroke of a Staffe When the Tartarians know in what plains they lie their King cometh and with a multitude of men compasseth them and wearyeth them by musick as aforesaid All this was related to me by one that had killed of them above two hundred with his own hand saith that right honorable and most learned Gentleman Johannes Bonarus Baoron of Balszei a Palonian Of the CONY AMong the divers kinds of Hares Conies have the third rank being therefore called in Latin Lepusculi as it were little Hares and sometime Leberidae as it were a Leveret or young Hare as well as Cuniculus whereof the reason is that it maketh holes in the earth for Cuniculus was a Latin word for a hole or cave in the earth before it was taken for a Cony Scaphan in the singular and Schephanim in the plural Levit. 11. and Psal 104. is taken in Hebrew for a Cony or Conies and not for a Hedge hog as the Septuagint translate or for a Porcuspine although they live also in Caves and secret places of the earth and therefore Choerogrillus or Choerogillius or Choerogryllinus cannot signifie a Cony as the Septuagint translate Scaphan but a Hedge-hog as the word derived from the face of a Hog doth most evidently declare which can by no means agree with a Cony In the 14. of Deut. The word Scaphan is joyned with a Hare because it is a beast neer of kind unto it for it is evident that both of them chew the cud howsoever a Cony hath not a simple cloven foot into two parts A Cony also is called Adapes because of the roughness of his feet The Chalde calleth it Thapsa the Arabians Vebar the Persians Beganzerah and the Arabians following sometime the Greek call it Alrareb that is Hares The Grecians call it vulgarly Skele and Dasipos Couniclos Scunax and Lagis Georychios a Hare digging living in the earth The Italians call it Conigli the French Counin the Spaniards Coneio the Germans Kinningle or Kunel and sometime Kunlein the Illyrians Kralik or Kroliik There are few Countries wherein Conies do not breed but the most plenty of all is in England they are also in an Island where are but few men neer unto Dicaearcha or as it is now called Puteoli in Italie Likewise in all Spain especially in those parts neer unto Lombardy whereupon Appius in Varro did write to one of his acquaintance which had tarryed long in Spain that he thought he was there following or hunting of Conies because as their multitude is great so it would aske long time to take them Among the Baleares are also great store of Conies and once they so abounded there that the people were constrained to entreat at the hands of Augustus a military company of Pioners to destroy them and when Camillus was besieging the City Veii in Italy he learned of the Conies which had undermined a whole City in Spain likewise to take and overthrow that City by their example of undermining whereupon Martial said Monstravit tacitas hostibus ille vias Vegetius saith that the proverb Cuniculos agere took his beginning when one by secret underminings and not by open violence overthroweth a Town or Nation There are also saith Albertus great store of wilde Conies in Bohemia so like a Hare as one beast may be like another save only they seem stronger and are shorter and lesser which thing caused Baptista Fiera to write thus Credideram leporem sic forma simillima fallit Ambo superfoetant dente vel aure pares Pet. Martyr likewise affirmeth in his Ocaean Decades that in Curiana a region of the new found world are Conies for colour quantity and hair like a Hares which the inhabitants call Vitias and there are two little Islands called Cuniculariae which seem to be denominated of Conies standing betwixt Corsica and Sardinia For their several parts they are most like unto a Hare except in their head and tail which is shorter and their colour which is alway brighter and lesse brown and sandy or else sometimes Conies are white black griseld tauny blewish yellow spotted ash-coloured and such like And Alysius saith that in some places they are also green and their skins are of great use through the world especially in all the North and East for garments facings and linings The gray and yellowish are the worst but the white and black are more pretious especially of the English if the black be aspersed with some white or silver hairs and in their use the Bucks are most durable yet heavier and harsher The belly is most soft gentle and easie and therefore more set by although of lesse continuance Their flesh is very white and sweet especially of the young ones
legs to the tamed Elephants they are safely led home into stables where they are fastened to great pillars by their necks and if they refuse to eat their meat with Tymbrels Cymbals Harpes and other musical instruments they are so entised from sullen wildeness that they forget their first natures and yeeld all loving obedience to men as to their victorious conquerors and unresistible Masters These beasts by their sagacity and natural instinct do sometime foresee their own peril and discover the trains and secret intentions of the Hunters so as they cannot be drawn into the ditches and fosses by any allurements but presaging their own misfortunes turn back again upon their Hunters even through the midst of them and so seek to save themselves by flight overthrowing their enemies that dare approach unto them At which time there is a fierce fight to the great slaughter many times both of men and beasts for the men to stay his flight bend their spears and charge their darts and arrowes to strike the Elephant directly on the face and if the beast perceive that he hath overthrown any man instantly he maketh to him taketh him in his teeth lifting him up into the air and casting him down again stampeth upon him wounding him many times with his teeth or horns whereby he putteth him to cruel torments and leaveth him not till he be dead And when they invade or set upon a man they spread forth their broadears which are fashioned like the winges of Ostriches as the sails of a ship and drawing up their trunck under their teeth their noses stand forth like the beak of some ship and so rush they with unresistible violence upon the weak bodies of men overturning them in no other sort then a mighty great Hulk or man of war the little Oares or Whirries in the Sea And as the Trumpets in war give the signes of fighting so do these send forth such terrible yelling and roaring clamors as bringeth no mean astonishment to his persecutors beside the lamentable and mournful voices of men by them wounded and fallen to the earth some having their knees and bones broken other their eyes trod out of their head other their noses pressed flat to their faces and their whole visages so disfigured and disfavoured in a moment that their neerest friends kindred and acquaintance cannot know them These also fil the spacious air with dirâ—ful cries that are heard a great way off into the Towns and Cities adjoyning having no other means to escape out of the way and from the teeth of the beast except he strike his tooth into some root and there it stick fast untill the poor overthrown man can creep aside and save himself by flight In this conflict sometime the Elephants and sometimes men are the conquerors by bringing upon the beasts divers terrors and manacles out of which they are not very easily delivered for men also have their trumpets and so make the woods and fields ring with them the ratling of their Armour and Shields and their own howling and whooping kindling fires on the earth casting both fire-brands and burning Torches into the face of the Elephant by all which the 〈◊〉 beast is not a little disgraced and terrified So that being bereft of their wits they turn back and run into the ditch which they so carefully avoided before But if their rage proceed undeterred and men be forced to yeeld unto them forth they go into the woods making the trees to bend unto them as a Dog or an Ox doth the standing corn at harvest breaking off their tops and branches which hinder their course and flight as another beast would crop off the ears of corn but where they are taller then the woods there they strain every joynt and member in them to get ground land overgo their Hunters which they may perform and attain more easily because of their customary aboad in those places and when they are escaped out of the sight of their followers and make account that they are freed from further persecution then cast they off all fear and compound their distracted senses into a remembrance of meat and so gather their food from Palms Trees or bushes afterward betaking themselves to rest and quietness But if their Hunters come again into their sight they also again take them to their heels untill they have gotten more ground from them and then they rest again and if the Sun decline and light of day fail the Hunters and darkness make an end of the chase then do they compasse in the beasts way and set the wood a fire for Elephants fear fire as much as Lions So that by all this it appeareth that the fabulous tales of Gabinius the Roman writer of Elephants are not to be believed when he affirmeth that Elephants will fight against and resist the violence of fire The Troglodytae hunt and take Elephants after another manner for they climbe up into the trees and there sit till the flocks of Elephants passe by and upon the last the Watch-man suddenly leapeth with great courage taking hold upon his tail and so sliding down to his legs and with a sharp Axe which he hath hanging at his back cutteth the nerves and sinews of his legs with so great celerity that the beast cannot turn about to relieve it self before she be wounded and made unable to revenge her harm or prevent her taking and sometimes she falleth down on the wounded side and crusheth the Hunter watch-man to death or else with her force in running dasheth out his brains against a tree The Elephant-eaters called Elephantophagi do observe the like policy for by stealth and secretly they set upon the hindmost or else the wandring solitary Elephant and cut his sinews which causeth the beast so cast down and taken Other among the aforesaid Troglodâ—â—e use a more easie cunning and lesse perillous kinde of taking Elephants for they set on the ground very strong charged bent-bowes which are kept by many of their strongest youngmen and so when the flocks of Elephants passe by they shoot their sharp arrowes dipped in the gall of Serpents and wound some one of them and follow him by the bloud untill he be unable to make resistance There are three at every bow two which hold it and one that draweth the string Other again watch the trees whereunto the beast leaneth when he sleepeth neer some waters and the same they cut half asunder whereunto when he declineth his body the tree is overturned and the beast also and being unable to rise again because of the short nerves and no flexions in his legs there he lyeth till the Watch man come and cut off his head Aristotle describeth another manner of taking Elephants in this sort The Hunter saith he getteth up upon a tamed Elephant and followeth the wilde one till he have overtaken it then commandeth he the tame beast to strike the other and so continueth chasing and beating him till he
perswading themselves thereby that they received no small advantage in their Grapes The gall of a female Goat put into a vessel and set in the earth is said by Albertus to have a natural power to draw Goats unto it as though they received great commodity thereby Likewise if you would have white hairs to grow in any part of a Horse shave off the hair and anoint the place with a gall of a Goat so shall you have your desire The Sabaeans by reason of continual use of Myrrhe and Frankincense grow to a loathing of that savour for remedy of which annoyance they perfume their houses by burning storax in Goats-skins And thus much for the several parts of a Goat There were in ancient time three kindes of Heards-men which received dignity one above another the first were called Bucolici Neat-heard because they keep the greater Cattel the second were Opiliones Shepheards of their attendance upon Sheep the third last and lowest kinde were termed Aepoli and Caprarii that is Goat-heards or Keepers of Goats and such were the Locrensians who were called Ozolae because of their filthy smell for they had the most part of their conversation among other Beasts A Goat-heard or Keeper of these Cattel must be sharp stern hard laborious patient bold and chearful and such a one as can easily run over the Rocks through the Wilderness and among the bushes without fear or grief so that he must not follow his flock like other heards but go before them they must also be light and nimble to follow the wandering Goats that run away from their fellows and so bring them back again for Goats are nimble moveable and inconstant and therefore apt to depart away except they be restrained by the herd and his Dog Neither have Goats a Captain or Bell-bearer like unto Sheep whom they follow but every one is directed after his own will and herein appeareth the pride of this Beast that he scorneth to come behinde either Cattel or Sheep but always goeth before and also in their own herds among themselves the Buck goeth before the female for the reverence of his beard as Aelianus saith the labour of the Goat-herd must be to see his Cattel well fed abroad in the day time and well soulded at night the first rule therefore in this husbandry is to divide the flocks and not to put any great number of them together for herein they differ from Sheep who love to live together in multitudes as it were affecting society by which they thrive better and mourn not so much as when they are alone but Goats love singularity and may well be called Schismaticks among Cattel and therefore they thrive best lying together in small numbers otherwise in great flocks they are soon infected with the pestilence and therefore in France they care not to have Magnos Greges sed plures not great flocks but many The number of their flock ought not to exceed fifty whereupon Varro writeth this story of Gab 〈…〉 us a Roman Knight who had a field under the Suburbs containing a thousand Akers of pasture ground who seeing a poor Goat-herd bring his Goats every day to the City and received for their milk a peny a peece he being led with covetousness proponed to himself this gain that if he stored his said field with a thousand Milch-female-goats he also should receive for their milk a thousand pence a day whereupon he added action to his intent and filled his field with a thousand Goats but the event fell out otherways then he expected sor in short time the multitude insected one another and so he lost both milk and flesh whereby it is apparent that it is not safe to feed great flocks of these Cattel together In India in the Region Coitha the Inhabitants give their Milch-goats dryed fishes to eat but their ordinary food is leaves tender branches and boughs of trees and also bushes or brambles where-upon Virgil wrote in this manner Pascuntur verò silvas summa Lycaei Horrenfesque rubos amantes ardua dumos They love to feed on the Mountains better then in the Vallies and green Fields always striving to lick up the Ivie or green plants or to climbe upon trees cropping off with their teeth all manner wilde herbs and if they be restrained and enclosed in fields then they do the like to the plants that they finde there wherefore there was an ancient law among the Romans when a man let out his ground to farm he should always condition and except with the Farmer that he should not breed any Goat in his ground for their teeth are enemies to all tender plants their teeth are also exitiable to a tree and Pliny and Varro affirm that the Goat by licking the Olive-tree maketh it barren for which cause in ancient time a Goat was not sacrificed to Minerva to whom the Olive was sacred There is no creature that feedeth upon such diversity of meat as Goats for which cause they are elegantly brought in by Eupolis the old Poet bragging of their belly chear wherein they number up above five and twenty several things different in name nature and taste and for this cause Eustathius defended by strong argument against Disarius that men and cattel which feed upon divers things have less health then those Beasts which eat one kinde of fruit alone They love Tamerisk Aldern Elm-tree Assaraback and a tree called Alaternus which never beareth fruit but only leaves also three-leaved-grass Ivie the herb Lada which groweth no where but in Arabia whereby it cometh to pass that many times the hair of Goats is found in the gumb called Ladanum for the peoples greedy desire of the gumb causeth them to wipe the juyce from the Goats beard For the increase of milk in them give them Cinquefoyl five days together before they drink or else binde Dittany to their bellies or as Lacuna translateth the words out of Alrieanus you may lay milk to their bellies belike by rubbing it thereupon The wilde Goats of Creet eat Dittany aforesaid against the strokes of Darts and Serapion avoucheth by the experience of Galen that Goats by licking the leaves of Tamarisk lose their gall and likewise that he saw them licking Serpents which had newly lost their skins and the event thereof was that their age never turned or changed into whiteness or other external signes thereof Also it is delivered by good observation that if they eat or drink out of vessels of Tamarisk they shall never have any Spleen if any one of them eat Sea-holly the residue of the flock stand still and will not go forward till the meat be out of his mouth The Grammarians say that 〈…〉 ara was killed by Bellerophon the son of Glaucus in the Mountain Lyoius and the reason hereof is that the Poets faigned Chimera to be composed of a Lyon a Dragon and a Goat and in that Mountain all those three were kept and fell for
said to be derived of these wilde Goats these are called Cynthian Goats because they are bred in the Mountains of Delos called Cynthus There are of these which are found in the tops of the Lybian Mountains as great as Oxen whose shoulders and legs abound with loose shaggy hair their shins small their faces are round their eyes are hollow and hard to be seen Their horns crooking backward to their shoulders not like other Goats for they stand far distant one from another and among all other Goats they are indued with a most singular dexterity of leaping for they leap from one top to another standing a great way asunder and although many times they fall down upon the hard rocks which are interposed betwixt the Mountains yet receive they no harm for such is the hardness of their members to resist that violence and of their horns to break their falls that they neither are offended thereby in head nor legs Such are the Goats of Soractum as Cato writeth which leapeth from Rock to Rock above threescore foot of this kinde are those Goats before spoken of in the History of the tame Goat which are thought to breath out of their ears and not out of their nostrils they are very swift and strong horned the love betwixt the Dams and the Kids in this kinde is most admirable for the Dam doth most carefully educate and nourish her young the young ones again do most thankfully recompense their mothers carefulness much like unto reasonable men which keep and nourish their own Parents in their old decrepit age which the love of God and nature doth enjoyn them for satisfaction of their own education so do these young wilde Goats toward their own mothers for in their age they gather their meat and bring it to them and likewise they run to the rivers or watering places and with their mouths suck up water which they bring to quench the thirst of their Parents and when as their bodies are rough and ugly to look upon the young ones lick them over with their tongues so making them smooth and neat And if at any time the Dam be taken by the Hunters the young one doth not forsake her till he be also insnared and you would think by the behaviour of the imprisoned Dam towards her young Kids and likewise of the Kid towards his Dam that they mutually contend one to give it self for the other for the Dam foreseeing her young one to hover about her in the hands of her enmies and continually to follow with sighs and tears seemeth to wish and perswade them to depart and to save themselves by flight as if they could say in the language of men Fugite filii infostos venatores ne me miseram capti materno nomine private that is to say Run away my sons save your selves from these harmful and greedy Hunters lest if you be taken with me I be for ever deprived of the name of a mother The young ones again on the other side wandring about their Mother bleat forth many a mournful song leaping to the Hunters and looking in their faces with pitiful aspects as if they said unto him We adjure you oh Hunters by the Maker of us all that you deliver our Mother from your thraldom and instead of her take us her unhappy children bend your hard hearts fear the laws of God which forbiddeth innocents to be punished and consider what reverence you owe to the old age of a mother therefore again we pray you let our lives satisfie you for our Dams liberty But poor creatures when they see that nothing can move they unexorable minde of the Hunters they resolve to dye with her whom the cannot deliver and thereupon of their own accord give themselves into the hands of the Hunters and so are led away with their mother Concerning the Lybian Goats before spoken of which live in the tops of Mountains they are taken by nets or snares or else killed by Darts and Arrows or some other art of hunting But if at any time they descend down into the plain fields they are no less troubled then if they were in the waves of some great water And therefore any man of a slow pace may there take them without any great difficulty The greatest benefit that ariseth from them is their skin and their horns with their skins they are clothed in Winter time against Tempests Frosts and Snow and it is a common weed for Shepherds and Carpenters The horns serve them in steed of Buckets to draw water out of the running streams wherewithall they quench their thirst for they may drink out of them as out of cups they are so great that no man is able to drink them off at one draught and when cunning artificers have the handling of them they make them to receive three times as much more The self same things are written of the Wilde Goats of Egypt who are said never to be hurt by Scorpions There is a great City in Egypt called Coptus who were wont to be much addicted to the worship of Isis and in that place there are great abundance of Scorpions which with their stings and poyson do oftentimes give mortal and deadly wounds to the people whilest they mourn about the Chappel for they worship that Goddess with funeral lamentation against the stinging of these Scorpions the Egyptians have invented a thousand devises whereof this was the principal At the time of their assembly they turn in wilde female Goats naked among the Scorpions lying on the ground by whose presence they are delivered and escape free from the wounds of the Serpents whereupon the Coptites do religiously consecrate these female Goats to divinity thinking that their Idoll Isis did wholly love them and therefore they sacrificed the males but never the females It is reported by Plutarch that wilde Goats do above other meat love meal and figs wherefore in Armenia there are certain black fishes which are poyson with the powder or meal of these fishes they cover these figs and cast them abroad where the Goats do haunt and assoon as the Beasts have tasted them they presently dy Now to the Wilde Goat before pictured called in Latine Rupicapra and Capricornus and in Greek a Gargos and Aigastros and of Homer Ixalon of the Germans Gemmes or Gemmus the Rhetians which speak Italian call it Camuza the Spaniards Capramontes the Polonians Dzykakoza the Bohemians Korytanski Kâ—zlik that is to say a Carinthian Goat because that part of the Alpes called Carinthia is neer bordering upon Bohemia Bellonius writeth that the French call him Chambris and in their ancient tongue Ysard this is not very great of body but hath crooked horns which bend backward to his back whereupon he stayeth himself when he falleth from the slippery Rocks or Mountains These horns they are not fit to fight they are so small and weak and therefore nature hath bestowed them upon them for the cause aforesaid Of all
otherwise there cometh no benefit by her taking With the same skin flead off brushes are made for garments so that they complain ill which affirm that there is no good or profitable condition coming to mankind by this beast Again this is to be reserved and used for dressing of flax as Massarius saith and also it is set upon a Javeline at the dore to drive away Dogs In ancient time they did not eat the flesh of Hedge-hogs but now a dayes men eat thereof of them which are of the swinish kind When the skin is off their bodies they scald it a little in Wine or Vinegar afterward lard it and put it upon a spit and there let it be roasted and afterwards eaten but if the head be not cut off at one blow the flesh is not good The Epithets belonging to this beast are not many it is called red sharp marine volible and rough whereupon Erasmus said Ex hirco in laevem nunquam mutabis Eâ—hinum And thus much for the natural and moral parts of this beast Now followeth the medicinall Ten sprigs of Lawrel seven grains of Pepper and of Opepanax as big as a Pease the skin of the ribs of a Hedge-hog dryed and beaten cast into three cups of Water and warmed so being drunk of one that hath the Colick and let rest he shall be in perfect health but with this exception that for a man it must be the membrane of a male Hedge-hog and for a woman a female The same membrane or the body of all Hedge-hogs burnt to ashes hath power in it of cleansing digesting and detracting and therefore it is used by Physitians for taking down of proud swelling wounds and also for the cleansing of Ulcers and Boyles but specially the powder of the skin hath that virtue also it being roasted with the head and afterwards beat unto powder and anointed on the head with hony cureth the Alopecias The same powder restoreth hair upon a wound if it be mingled with Pitch and if you add thereunto Bears grease it will restore unto a bald man his head of hair again if the place be rubbed untill it be ready to bleed The same powder cureth the Pistula and some mingle red Snails with this dust applying it in a plaister to Ruptures and Swellings in the cods and being mingled with oil by anointment it taketh away the burles in the face and being drunk in wine is a remedy against the pains of the reins or the water betwixt the skin and the flesh A suffumigation made of a Hedge-hogs skin under them that have their Urine stopped by Gods help saith my Author the stopping shall be removed if it proceed not from the stone nor from an impostume The flesh salted dryed and beat to powder and so drunk with sweet Vinegar helpeth the pain in the reins the beginning of Dropsies Convulsions and Leprosies and all those affections which the Grecians call Cachectae The Mountain Hedge-hog is better then the domestical having prickles like Needles points but legs like to the other the meat is of better taste and doth more help to the stomach softning the belly and provoking the Urine more effectually and all this which is attributed to Hedge-hogs is much more powerful in the Porcupine The Hedge-hog salted and eaten is good against the Leprosie the Cramp and all sickness in the Nerves and Ptisick and pain in the belly rising of windiness and difficulty of digestion the powder anointed on Women with childe alwayes keepeth them from abortment The flesh being stale given to a mad Man cureth him and being eaten keepeth one from the Strangury also being drunk in wine expelleth the stone in the bladder and is good against the Quotidian Feaver and the bitings of Serpents The fat of a Hedge-hog stayeth the flux of the bowels If the fat with warm water and hony be gargarized it amendeth a broken and hoarse voice the left eye being fryed with Oil yeeldeth a liquor which causeth sleep if it be infused into the ears with a quill The gall with the brain of a Bat and the milk of a Dog cureth the reins likewise the said gall doth not suffer uncomely hairs to grow again upon the eye-browes where once they have been pulled up It maketh also a good eye salve Warts of all sorts are likewise taken away by the same the milt fod and eaten with meat it healeth all pains in the milt and the reins dryed are good against a Leprosie or Ptisick coming by Ulcer or the difficulty of Urine the Bloudy flux and the Cough The dung of a Hedge-hog fresh and Sandaracha with Vinegar and liquid pitch being layed to the head stayeth the falling away of the hair When a man is bitten with a mad Dog or pricked with prickles of a Hedge-hog his own Urine laid thereunto with a spunge or wool is the best cure or if the thornes stick in the wound of his foot let him hold it in the warm Urine of a Man and it shall easily shake them forth and Albertus and Rasis affirm that if the right eye of a Hedge-hog be fryed with the oil of Alderne or Linseed and put in a vessel of red brasse and afterward anoint his eyes therewith as with an eye-salve he shall see as well in the dark as in the light And thus I will conclude this discourse with one story that a Hedge-hog of the earth was dedicated to the good God among the foolish Pagans and the water Hedge-hog to the evill and that once in the City of Phrygia called Azanium when a great famine troubled the inhabitants and no sacrifice could remove it one Euphorbus sacrificed a Hedge-hog whereupon the famine removed and he was made Priest and the City was called Traganos upon the occasion of that sacrifice Of the HORSE WHen I consider the wonderful work of God in the creation of this Beast enduing it with a singular body and a noble spirit the principal whereof is a loving and dutiful inclination to the service of Man wherein he never faileth in Peace nor War being every way more neer unto him for labour and travel and therefore more dear the food of man only excepted we must needs account it the most noble and necessary creature of all four-footed Beasts before whom no one for multitude and generality of good qualities is to be preferred compared or equalled whose commendations shall appear in the whole discourse following It is called in Hebrew Sus and a Mare Susah the which word some derive from Sis signifying Joy the Syrians call it Rekesh and Sousias the Arabians Ranica and the Caldeans Ramakâ—n Susuatha the Arabians Bagel the Persians Asbaca the Grecians Hippos and at this day Alogo the Latins Equus and Caballus the Italians and Spaniards Cavallo the French Chevall the Germans Kossz the Bohemians Kun the Illyrians Kobyla the Polonians Konii Optat ephippia bos piger optat arare
stop suddenly for there are Horses so instructed that they can stay themselves in their speediest course upon an instant without any circumambulation shaking off the violence of their course like an ordinary trotting Nag by mounting up a little with their forefeet And alway it is to be remembred that after the mounting on horse-back you must first of al begin on the left hand bending your hand that way and also to the right hand when you would have your Horse to turn on that side And above all other things Horses are delighted with crooked bending and round courses such as are in circles and Rings and he must be accustomed to run from other Horses leaving them behind him and likewise turning toward them and making at them with his face to them but hâ—adlong and precipitate courses such as hunters make without guiding body hand or Horse are evermore to be avoided for many men have perished from theis Horses as the Poets witness of Nipheus Leucaguâ— Liger Clonius Remulus 〈◊〉 And also among the Historiographers Agenor Fulco of Jerusalem Philip son of Ludovicus Crassus King of France and Bela King of Pa 〈…〉 nia Of Horse-men and the orders of Chivalry and Knighthood THe principal Horse-men of the world celebrated in stories for training ruling and guiding their Horses according to the art of War may for the dignity of Knighthood wherewithal they are honoured and from whom that Equestrial order is derived be recited in this place It is manifest by Sipontinus that the Roman Equestrial order was in the middle betwixt the Senatours and the common people for at the first there was no difference betwixt Equites and Judices for both of them had for a badge cognisance or note of their honour power to wear a ring of gold and in the Consulship of Marcus Cicero the title was turned to Equestrial or name of a Knight or man at Armes by that means reconciling himself to the Senate and affirming that he was derived from that order and from that time came the Equester ordo being as is said before the people and recorded after the people because of the latter creation thereof yet had they not their beginning at this time but only now they first came into the orders of the Common-wealth for they were called Celeres under Romulus of one Celer who at the command of Romulus slew Remus and he was made the chief Judge of three hundred They were afterward called Flexanimes either because they swayed the minds of them whom they judged or else which is more probable because of martialling and instructing their Horses for war afterward because they took a great company of horse-men without all and of footmen at the City Trossulum in Thuscia they were called Trossulani and Trossuli and yet some ignorant persons honoured with the title of Trossuli in remembrance of that victory were ashamed thereof as unworthy their dignities They were forbidden to wear purple like as were the Senatours and their golden Ring was a badge both of Peace and War The Master of the Horse among the Romans called by the Grecians Hipparchus and by the Latins Magister Equitum was a degree of honour next to the 〈◊〉 and Marcius the Dictator made the first Master of horse-men who was called Spurius and set him in place next to himself These Equestrial men or Knights of State were wont to be publicans at the least and it was ordained that no man should be called into that order except both he his Father and Grandfather were free men and were worth in value twenty thousand pound Turon and Tiberius made this law but afterward it grew remisse and not observed whereby both Bondmen and Scribes were rewarded with this dignity from the Emperour for Orations and preasing speeches yet were the Decurial Judges chosen out of this rank for indeed by primary institution they were the flower and seminary of the Roman Gentry Pliny complaineth that this dignity which was wont to be a reward for Military men who had adventured their lives for the honour of their Countrey was now bestowed corruptly and for money upon mean bribing persons It should seem they had every one a Horse of honour given to him for his note for if one of them had grown fat and unweeldy not able to manage and govern this Horse it was taken from him And Cato took away the Horse from Scipio Asiaticus because he had intercepted money and from hence came the terms of their allowance as Equestre aes for that money which was paid for a Horse to one Knight and Pararium aes for a double fee to an Equestrial man Among the Athenians the highest order was of them which were called Pentacosiomedy 〈…〉 which had plowed so much sand as had sowed an 100 bushels of Corn and the next degree were their Equites Knights or Horse-men because for the defence of their City they were able every one to nourish a Horse of war There were of these in ancient time but 600 and afterward they were increased unto 1200. and the sacrifices which were made for their pomps and triumphs were called Hippades and they had liberty to nourish their long hair which was forbidden to other men and their tax to the sacrifice was at the least half a talent which is at the least 300 Crowns and this sacrifice was made for the health of their Horses There were two Masters created over these to wage and order war and ten inferiour Governours or Wardens to look to the provision and nourishing of Horses Among the Lacedemonians they had four Governments the Monarchy for the Kings the Aristocraty for the Old-men the Oligarchie for their Ephori or Commissioners the Democratie for their Young-men which governed managed and instructed Horses Nestor that ancient Knight was commended for his skill and had therefore given him the title of Hippotes Among the Calcidensians there was not a rich man but they took him into this Order and the Cretians likewise did ever highly account hereof and made it their highest degree of honour for even the Romans did sometime govern whole Provinces with no other then these and Egypt had this in peculiar that no other Order no not a Senator might be President or Govern among them The Achaeans had this degree in high estimate like as the Germans their Batavi or States The Citizens of Capua were and are disguised with a perpetuity of this honour because in the Latins war they did not revolt from the Romans and among all other the Gaditan were most honoured herewith for at one time and for one battle they created 400. This title hath spred and adorned it self with many more degrees as that among the French Caballarii and Equites aurati and such as are Knights of Jerusalem and divers others some for Religion and some for feats of Armes whereas the Persians used a certain kind of garment in War called Manduas from hence cometh the
at whom his adversary jested asking him if he did not know that a Gelding could do nothing in a ditch from whence came the common proverb aforesaid There is also another proverb Cantherius in Porta A Gelding in the gate to signifie a man who after he had undertaken the performance of a great exploit his heart faileth in the very entrance for it is reported of one Sulpicius Galba who riding out of the City his Horse tyred in the gate There is likewise another adage in Plautus which is this Crete bac mulier Cantherino ritu estans somniat That is to say this Woman sleeps standing like a new dressed Horse and is applyed against them which in a kinde of foolish jesture shut their eyes when they talk or work and thus much for the Gelding Of Careering Horses for Pomp or Triumph THe nature of these Horses is to lift up themselves and rise before standing upon their hinder legs which is not possible for any to do without a generous and gallant spirit and also nimble and strong loins to bear up the hinder legs for it is not as many suppose that this power of rising before from the softness of his legs but rather from his loins and hips betwixt his hinder legs for when his mouth is a little checked with the bridle he presently bendeth his hinder pasterns and anckles and so lifteth up his fore-parts that his belly and yard do appear and in doing hereof the Rider must not bear his hand hard but give him the bridle that so he may do it willingly and with greater grace of the beholders There are some which teach Horses to lift up themselves by knocking their pasterns with a rod which the Horse understandeth as well as he doth his race when he is stroke on the back by the Rider And in teaching of a Horse this feat it must be observed that he never have rest untill he have learned it and that at certain signs and tokens he be taught of his own accord to perform divers and sundry gestures but if after long riding and copious labour he begin to understand his Masters pleasure and rise twice or thrice together then you may give him the rains nothing doubting but that he understandeth and will be obedient to the pleasure of the Rider And in this kinde he is accounted the best careering Horse which will rise high and oftnest together neither is there any quality so commendable in a Horse as this or that so draweth and as it were so imprisoneth the eyes of old and young and other beholders for which cause Martial Horses for service of War are to be instructed herein and thus much for this Horse Of load or Pack-horses WHere they keep Horses in herds and flocks they have some which are not fit for the faddle nor for the wars and therefore are to be employed for the carrying of burthens or to the Cart although as Festus saith Mules were first used for carrying and draught but forasmuch as all Nations have not Mules they are therefore inforced to use Horses and for this purpose the Geldings are much better then the stoned Horses wherefore the Countrey-men of most Nations take Horses for this purpose after they be old past breeding or have some other blemish in winde or limb whereby they are disabled to travel under a man for so great is the greediness of our age that Horses are not spared so long as they be able to live according to the common proverb Asinis equis Mulis feriae nullae Horses Mules and Asses keep no Holy-days where the Law of God concerning the Sabbath is not observed for the nourishing of Horses doth countervail the charges Among these may be remembred those little Nags called Hinni and Ginni spoken of already in the discourse of Asses whereof some are generated betwixt a Horse and an Ass and others fall to be very little through some sickness which happeneth unto them in their dams belly these are used with shorn manes according to the saying of Propertius huc mea detonsis aucta est Cynthia mannis They are used for pleasure to carry the young sons of Noble-men and Gentle-men There are also Horses called Equi funales because in their triumphs they were led with a halter next after the triumph Of Wilde-horses the Sea-horse and the Hart-horse called Hippelaphus IN the days of Gordianus there were brought to Rome forty wilde Horses and in the map of Gordianus Wood there were pictured three hundred They are called in Latine Equiferi and in Greek Hippagroi they abound in Spain and in the Alpes and in the Deserts of Aethiopia there are many of them which have two long venomous teeth standing out of their mouth they differ also in their hoofs from other Horses for they are cloven-footed like Harts and they have a long mane growing all along their back to their tail And if at any time the Inhabitants take them by gins and other slights they fall so sullen that they abstain from meat and drink disdaining to be kept in any servitude or bondage the Wilde Horses of India have but one horn In the Alpes they are of an ash-colour with a black list down their backs The wilde Horses of Scythia near the River Hypanis are clean white The wilde Horses of Syria live in flocks and herds together and in every herd they have one Captain or Master over the residue and if it fortune that any of the younger Horses leap upon a Mare this Captain-horse runneth after him never giving over till he hath bit off his stones There are wilde Horses in Brushia which are like to other Horses in all parts excepting their backs which are so soft and weak that they cannot endure to be sat upon neither are they easily tamed and the people of the Countrey eat their flesh In Polonia there is a kinde of wilde Horse which hath horns like a Hart and therefore I take it to be the same which is called Hippelaphus whose picture is here described as it was taken here in England by that learned Physitian Doctor Cay The figure of HIPPELAPHUS THis beast was brought out of Norway having a mixt form betwixt a Hart and a Horse having a well compacted body a long and lean leg a cloven hoof a short tail and in all parts you would judge him to be a Hart but in his head and ears you would judge him to be a Mule and in his horns a Roe the upper lip hanging over the neather almost as much as an Elks his mane like a Horses but thinner and standing more upright without other alteration from their shoulders to their tail they have a like bristling mane growing on the back-bone as long as their other hair a bunch under their chaps and upon that a bunch or shaggy hair the hair about their shoulders is more longer then ordinary but their necks so short that they can neither drink their drink
Centaures are who are described by the Poets to have their forepart like men and their hinder part like Horses the occasion whereof is thus related by Pindarus that Centaurus the Son of Ixion committed buggery with the Mares of Magnetia under the mountain Pelius from whence came that monstrous birth in the upper part resembling the Father and in the neather the mother These saith he possessed the Mountains and Desert places of Thessaly being given to all manner of Latrociny and Depraedation They were called also Hippocentauri And some say that they were first of all nourished by the Nymphes in the mountain Pelius who afterwards being the first that tamed Horses were thought to be half Men and half Horses because they were seen backward and from hence came the fable that they were tamed by Hercules which was one of his greatest labours But yet that no man may wonder or think it impossible that such monstrous creatures should have existence in nature these authorities following may perswade sufficiently Plutarch in his Banket of Wisemen affirmeth there was a Horse-keeper which brought into the house of Periander an Infant or rather a Monster which he had got upon a Mare which had the head neck hands and voice of a childe and the other parts like a Horse Diocles presently judged it to be a Monster and signified contentions and strifes in the world But Thales told Periander he was of another opinion namely that it was no Monster but a meer natural birth from such a copulation and therefore advised Periander that either he should keep no Riders or else let them have Wives Claudius Caesar also writeth that in the time of his reign there was such a one born in Thessaly which dyed the same day it was born and Pliny that he afterwards saw it seasoned in hony brought out of Egypt to be shewed to the Emperor These Centaures Homer calleth Fera that is Ferae wilde persons The Lapithae and the Centaures are said to be very like the one to the other and were also once very loving but they fell afterwards to deadly war by reason the Centaures in a banket being drunk offered to ravish the females of the Lapithae for which cause the Lapithae slew them in their jealousie whereon fell a mortal war whereby the Poets signifie how intemperancy in Men and Beasts doth not only bring with it other sins but also causeth much slaughter And so I conclude the story of Centaures holding it possible that such should be generated by unclean and natural copulation but unpossible that they should live long after birth and therefore the Centaures of the Poets are nothing else but men sitting on Horseback mistaken for one entire creature which were divided and so conclude with the Verse of Horace Humano Capiti cervicem pictor Equinam Jungere si velit Hoc monstrum puto Centaurus foret Of the statues and figures of Horses IT was no small dignity that the ancient Cephalenes did stamp their money with the picture of a Horse for surely from them it came that coin was first of all called currant because of the image of a speedy Horse wherewithal it was imprinted Textor also writeth that amongst the ancients there was a custom to make the Charcter of a Horse in the forehead of a bondslave there was also images of Horsemen and Horses renowned in many Countries for the honour of both such were the statues of the Amazons cald Hippiades who by Lysias the Orator are said to be the first that ever backed Horses Such was the statue of Claelia Quintus Martius Tremulus Domitianus and many other both Men and Women for the Romans had the Equestrial statues in great reverence and ceremony no doubt in imitation of the Grecians but with this difference that they pictured none but the swift Horses but the Romans Horses and Chariots and from hence came the custome to have Chariots in triumph But this custome to have six Horses in a Chariot was brought in last of all by Augustus Aristodemus pictured the Chariots and Wagoner Pisicrates the woman Pitho with a Wagon Euthycrates the Son of Lysippus expressed the Equestrial combate at the Oracle of Trophonium with singular art also many Chariots of Medea the Horse and his carriage There were also earthen Chariots at Rome in the porch of Jupiters Temple as we have shewed before in the discourse of Chariots When Constantinus the great took a view of the City of Rome and passing from place to place came at length to Forum Trajani the most exquisite building of all the world he stood amazed at the admirable frame of Giants which were lineally deciphered therein whereof despairing to imitate any part of that work he chose only to erect the picture of such a Horse and Prince as in the middle of the same was erected in remembrance of Trajane and so much he intimated to his followers close by him stood that Princely Hormisda a Persian who made the Emperour this answer Ante imperator stabulum tale condi jubeto si vales Equus quem fabricare disponis ita â—â—te succedat ut iste quem videmus O Noble Emperour before you make such a Horse first of all build such a stable that your work in all parts may be correspondent to this which you propose unto your self to imitate Metellus the Macedonian raised two porches which were compassed about with two Horses without inscription or dedication which now are compassed with the porches of Octavia and the row of Equestrial statues in the front of the said buildings now the greatest ornament of that place he also brought out of Macedonia And it is said that Alexander the great caused Lysippus that singular workman to frame the pictures of all those Knights which in his company were slain at the River Granicum and also to place his own picture among them In the City of Rome there are two mountains called Equilini in one of them are the bathes of Diocletian and the great Marble Horses with two men half naked holding their rains being most singular wormanship whereof one hath this inscription in Latin letters Opus Praxitelis the work of Praxitelis the other Opus Phidiae the work of Phidias and it is clear that they were brought thither by Tyâ—â—dates King of Armenia for whose entertainment Nero caused the Theatre of Pompey to be covered all over with gold in the space of one day The story of the Trojan Horse is vulgarly known which is also called Equus Durateus or Dureus wherein the Grecian Princes hid themselves when they took Troy according to these Verses Nec cum durateus Trojanis Pergama p 〈…〉 Inflammascit Equus nocturno Grajugenarum The truth whereof standeth thus The Grecians making shew that they had vowed a vow unto Pallas framed a Horse of so great higness that it could not be taken into Troy except the gates were pulled down and this they placed hard to the wals of
entred scaled or ruinated Afterwards in the reign of Cresus the City was taken in that place by Darius There are no Lions bred in Europe except in one part of Thracia for the Nemaean or Celonear Lion is but a fable yet in Aristotles time there were more famous and valiant Lions in that part of Europe lying betwixt the Rivers Achelous and Nessus then in all Africa and Asia For when Xerxes led his Army through Paeonia over the River Chidorus the Lions came and devoured his Camels in the night time But beyond Nessus towards the East or Achelous towards the West there was never man saw a Lion in Europe but in the region betwixt them which was once called the Countrey of the Abderites there were such store that they wandered into Olympus Macedonia and Thessalia but yet of purpose Princes in Castles and Towers for their pleasures sake do nourish and keep Lions in Europe where sometimes also they breed as hath been seen both in England and Florence Peloponnesus also hath no Lions and therefore when Homer maketh mention of Dianâ—ts hunting in the mountains of Erimanthus and Taygetus he speaketh not of Lions but of Harts and Boars Ethiopia also breedeth Lions being black coloured having great heads long hair rough feet firy eyes and their mouth betwixt red and yellow Cilicia Armenia and Parthia about the mouth of Ister breed many fearful Lions having great heads thick and rough necks and cheeks bright eyes and eye-lids hanging down to their noses There are also plenty of Lions in Arabia so that a man cannot travel neer the City Aden over the mountains with any security of life except he have a hundred men in his company The Lions also of Hircania are very bold and hurtful and India the mother of all kinde of beasts hath most black fierce and cruell Lions In Tartaria also and the Kingdom of Narsinga and the Province of Abasia are many Lions greater then those of Babylon and Syria of divers and sundry intermingled colours both white black and red There be many Lions also in the Province of Gingui so that for fear of them men dare not sleep out of their own houses in the night time For whomsoever they finde they devour and tear in pieces The ships also which go up and down the River are not tyed to the bank side for fear of these Lions because in the night time they come down to the waterside and if they can finde any passage into the barks they enter in and destroy every living creature wherefore they ride at Ancor in the middle of the River The colour of Lions is generally yellow for these before spoken of black white and red are exorbitant Their hair some of them is curled and some of them long shaggy and thin not standing upright but falling flat longer before and shorter behind and although the curling of his hair be a token of sluggish timidity yet if the hair be long and curled at the top only it portendeth generous animosity So also if the hair be hard for beasts that have soft hair as the Hart the Hare and the Sheep are timorous but they which are harder haired as the Boar and the Lion are more audacious and fearless There is no four footed beast that hath hairs on his neather eye-lids like a man but in stead thereof either their face is rough all over as in a Dog or else they have a foretop as a Horse and an Asse or a mane like a Lion The Lionesse hath no mane at all for it is proper to the male and as long hairs are an ornament to a Horses mane so are they to the neck and shoulders of a Lion neither are they eminent but in their full age and therefore Pliny said Turrigeros elephantorum miramur humeros leonum jubas We wonder at the Tower-bearing shoulders of Elephants and the long hanging manes of Lions And Aelianus Rationis expertibus mari praestantiam quandam natura largita est juba Leo antecellit foeminam serpens crista Nature hath honoured the Male even in creatures without reason to be distinguished from the female as the mane of the male Lion and the comb of the male Serpent do from their females Martial writeth thus of the Lions mane O quantum per colla decus quem sparsit honorem Aurea lunatae cum stetit unda jubae A Lion hath a most valiant and strong head and for this occasion when the Nymphes were terrified by the Lions and fled into Carystus the Promontory wherein they dwelled was called Coleon that is the Lions-head where afterwards was built a goodly City It fortuned as Themistocles went thither to manage the affairs of the Grecians Epiries the Persian president of Phrygia intended his destruction and therefore committed the business unto one Pisis with charge that he should behead Themistocles who came thither to execute that murder but it happened as Themistecles slept at the noon day he heard a voice crying out unto him O Themistocles effuge leonum caput ne ipse in leonem incurras that is to say O Themistocles get thee out of the Lions head lest thou fall into the Lions teeth whereupon he arose and saved his life The face of a Lion is not round as some have imagined and therefore compared it unto the Sun because in the compasse thereof the hairs stand out eminent like Sunbeams but rather it is square figured like as his forehead which Aristotle saith you may chuse whether you will call it a forehead or Epipedon frontis that is the superficies of a forehead for like a cloud it seemeth to hang over his eyes and nose and therefore the Germans call a man that looketh with such a countenance Niblen of Nubilare to be cloudy and it betokeneth either anger or sorrow also it is called Scythicus aspectus because the Scythians were alwayes wont to look as though they were ready to fight The eyes of a Lion are red firy and hollow not very round nor long looking for the most part awry wherefore the Poets style the Lioness Torva leaena The pupils or apples of the eye shine exceedingly insomuch as beholding of them a man would think he looked upon fire His upper eye-lid is exceeding great his Nose thick and his upper chap doth not hang over the neather but meet it just his mouth very great gaping wide his lips thin so that the upper parts fall in the neather which is a token of his fortitude his teeth like a Wolves and a Dogs like sawes losing or changing only his canine teeth the tongue like a Cats or Leopards as sharp as a file wearing through the skin of a man by licking his neck very stiffe because it consisteth but of one bone without joynts like as in a Wolfe and on Hyaena the flesh is so hard as if it were all a sinew There are no knuckles or turning joynts in it called Spondyli and
taken out and tyed or bound to the teeth of any who is grieved therein is commended by the Magi or Wise-men to be an excellent remedy and cure for the same The heart of a Mole being eaten nine days together doth very speedily and effectually cure either him or her which shall so eat it of that pestiferous disease call'd the Kings Evil if it be so that it hath not been of too long continuance with them The same is also very good and profitable for the asswaging of Wens being used in the aforesaid manner The liver of a Mole being beaten between the hands of him that is troubled with bunches or swellings in his back and afterwards put upon the same is a present help and cure The same effect hath the right foot of a Mole for the asswaging of bunches and swellings arising in the flesh Of the vulgar little MOUSE AS we have handled the natures and delivered the figures of the great beasts so also must we not disdain in a perfect History to touch the smallest For Almighty God which hath made them all hath disseminated in every kinde both of great and small beasts seeds of his Wisdom Majesty and glory The little Mouse therefore is justly tearmed Incola domus nostrae an inhabitant in our own houses Et rosor omnium rerum and a gnawer of all things And therefore from the sound of her teeth which she maketh in gnawing she is called Sorex Although we shall shew you afterwards that Sorex is a special kinde and not the name of the general Wherefore seeing there be many kindes of Mise and every one of them desireth a particular tractate I thought good to begin with the Vulgar little Mouse and so to descend to the several species and kindes of all according to the method of the Philosopher A notioribus ad minus nota from things that are most known to them that are less known In Hebrew it is called Achar Levit. 11. where the Septuagints translate it Muys the Chaldee Acbera the Arabians Fer or Phar from whence cometh the Saracen word Fara The Persians An Mus the Latines Mus the Italians Topo or Sorice Alsorgio O Rato Di cas◠although Rato signifieth a Rat both among the Germans French and English The Spaniards cal the little Mouse Ra 〈…〉 and the great Rat Ratz the French the little Mouse Souris which word seems to be derived from the Latine Sorex and the great Mouse they call Ra 〈…〉 The Germans the great ones Raiz and the little one Muss the Illyrians and Polonians Myss which is the Greek word and the great one they call Sczurcz the Venetians call the Rat Pantegana of Pontis the vulgar Greek name and the Romans Sourco Now the dignity of this little beast may appear by the name which hath spread it self both to beasts fishes men herbs and Cities To beasts as we have shewed before in the Ichneumon which is vulgarly called the Indian Mouse or Pharaohs Mouse And to fishes for there is a little fish called Musculus and in Greek Mystocetos the Whale-mouse because it leadeth the way and sheweth the Whale whither soever she swimmeth for the avoiding of Rocks according to Pliny although Rondoletius affirmeth otherwise namely that that guide of the Whale is called Egemon and Egetur and Mystocetus he saith is a shell-fish Generally most kinde of Oysters are also called Myss because sometimes they gape and make a noise like a Mouse and close their shels again The purple fishes be also called Myss there is likewise a kinde of pretious stone called Mya about Bosphorus Thracius and many other such dignities hath the the name of this beast attained There was one Mys the servant of that famous Philosopher Epicurus likewise the name of a Champion or Challenger in Suidas and Varinus and there was another called Mus of excel-cellent skill for ingraving in Silver and therefore did draw upon the shield of Min 〈…〉 a the fight betwixt the Lapithae and the Centaurs and many other things Whereupon Martial made this verse Quis labor in Phiala docti Myos anne Myronis There was a Consul of Rome whose name was Mus and therefore Camerarius made this Riddle of the Mouse Parva mihi domus est sed janua semper aperta Acciduo sumptu furtive vivo sagina Quod mihi nemen inest Romae quoque Consul habebat The Thracians call'd Argilus a Mouse and the City which he builded Argelus Myes was a City of Ionia and a Citizen of that City was called Myetius Myon a City of Locri in Epirus and the people thereof are called Myones Myon sus a little Region betwixt Teon and Lebedon and according to Stephanus an Island near Ephesus the first Port or Haven of Egypt opening to the Red Sea is called Muos armos the Mouses haven and Mysia also seemeth to be derived from their stem There is an Island under the Equinoctial line called Insuia Murium the Mouse Island because of the abundance of Mice therein and to conclude even the herbs and plants of the earth have received names from this little beast as Hordeum Murinum Myacantha Sperage Myopteton Myuoos Myortocon Mouse-ear Mouse-foot and such like There have been also Comedies made of Myss as that of Carsinus called Myes wherein the Weasil strangleth the night-wandering Myss And another Greek called Galeomyomachia that is a fight betwixt Cats and Mice wherein the Poet doth most pleasantly faign names of Mice as their King he calleth Greilius that is a flesh-eater and his eldest son Psicarpax a corn-eater and his second son Psitodarpes bread-eater and his eldest daughter Lyenogluphe candle-eater and all his Ancestors Carpodaptai that is fruit-eaters And then he bringeth other Mice in as Turolicos Psicolices Cholecoclophos Homer in his Batrachomyomachia that is a fight betwixt Frogs and Mice doth very elegantly describe divers proper names of Mice As Piscarpax whose father was Tuoxaties and his mother Lychomile daughter of Pternotrocta the King and then other Mice as Lychopinax Terogliphus Embaschitrus Lychenor Troglodites Artophagus Ptermogliphus Pternophagus Cnissodioctet Sitophagus Artophilus Meridarpax and Thulacotrox all which are not only out of the abundance of the Authors wit but invented for the expressing of the Mouses nature The Epithets of Mice are these short small fearful peaceable ridiculous rustick or Country Mouse urbane or City Mouse greedy wary unhappy harmful black obscene little whiner biter and earthly And the Greek ones are expressed before in the proper names and thus much may suffice for the names of Mice Now to come to their several nature and significations First of all concerning their colour It is divers for although Color murinus be a common tearm for a Mouse colour of Asses yet notwithstanding Mice are sometimes blackish sometimes white sometimes yellow sometimes brown and sometime ash colour There are white Mice among the people of Savoy and Dauphin in France called
Persia a female Mouse being slit asunder alive all the young females within her belly are also found pregnant conceived with young It is very certain that for the time they go with young and for the number they bring forth they exceed all other beasts conceiving every fourteen or sixteen days so that it hath been found by good experience that a female Mouse having free liberty to litter in a vessel of millet-seed within less compass then half a year she hath brought forth one hundred and twenty young ones They live very long if they be not prevented of their natural course and dying naturally they perish not all at once but by little and little first one member and then another Pliny saith Evolucirbus hirundines sunt indociles 〈…〉 terrestribus Mures among the Fowls of the air the Swallows are undocible and among the creatures of the earth a Mouse Athertus writeth that he saw in upper Germany a Mouse hold a burning Candle in her feet at the commandment of her Master all the time his guests were at Supper Now the only cause why they grow not tame is their natural fear such as is in Conies Hares and Deer For how can any man or beast love or hearken unto him who they are perswaded lyeth in wait for their life and such is the perswasion of all them that fear which perswasion being once removed by continual familiarity there is no cause in nature but that a Mouse may be docible as well as a Hare or Cony which we have shewed heretofore in their stories It is also very certain that Mice which live in a House if they perceive by the age of it it be ready to fall down or subject to any other ruin they foreknow it and depart out of it as may appear by this notable story which happened in a Town called Helice in Greece wherein the Inhabitants committed this abominable act against their neighbours the Greeks For they slew them and sacrificed them upon their Altars Whereupon followed the ruine of the City which was premonstrated by this prodigious event For five days before the destruction thereof all the Mice Weesils and Serpents and other reptile creatures went out of the same in the presence of the Inhabitants every one assembling to his own rank and company whereat the people wondered much for they could not conceive any true cause of their departure and no marvail For God which had appointed to to take vengeance on them for their wickedness did not give them so much knowledge nor make them so wise as the beasts to avoid his judgement and their own destruction and therefore mark what followed For these beasts were no sooner out of the City but suddenly in the night time came such a lamentable Earth-quake and strong tempest that all the houses did not only fall down and not one of them stood upright to the slaughter of men women and children contained in them but lest any of them should escape the strokes of the timber and house tops God sent also such a great floud of waters by reason of the tempestuous winde which drove the waters out of the Sea upon the Town that swept them all away leaving no more behinde then naked and bare significations of former buildings And not only the City and Citizens perished but also there was ten ships of the Lacedemonians in their port all drowned at that instant The wisdom of the Mouse appeareth in the preparation of her house for considering she hath many enemies and therefore many means to be hunted from place to place she committeth not her self to one lodging alone but provideth many holes so that when she is hunted in one place she may more safely repose her self in another Which thing Plautus expresseth in these words Sed tamen cogitato Mus pusillus quam sapiens sit bestia aetatem qui uni cubili nunquam committit suam cum unum obsidetur aliunde perfugium quaerit that is to say it is good to consider the little Mouse how wise a beast she is for she will not commit her life to one lodging but provideth many harbors that being molested in one place she may have another refuge to flie unto And as their wisdom is admirable in this provision so also is their love to be commended one to another for falling into a vessel of water or other deep thing out of which they cannot ascend again of themselves they help one another by letting down their tails and if their tails be too short then they lengthen them by this means they take one anothers tail in their mouth and so hang two or three in length until the Mouse which was fallen down take hold on the neathermost which being performed they all of them draw her out Even so Wolves holding one another by their tails do swim over great Rivers and thus hath nature granted that to them which is denyed to many men namely to love and to be wise together But concerning their manners they are evil apt to steal insidious and deceitful and men also which are of the same disposition with these beasts fearing to do any thing publickly and yet privately enterprise many deceits are justly reproved in imitation of such beasts For this cause was it forbidden in Gods Law unto the Jews not only to eat but to touch Mice and the Prophet Esai ch 66. saith Comedentes carnem suillam abominationem atque murem simul consumentur inquit Dominus that is they which eat Swines flesh abomination and the Mouse shall be destroyed together saith the Lord wherein the Prophet threatneth a curse unto the people that broke the first Law of God in eating flesh forbidden and the Physitians also say that the eating of the flesh of Mice engendereth forgetfulness abomination and corruption in the stomach The eating of bread or other meat which is bitten by Mice doth encrease in men and children a certain disease in their face and in the flesh at the roots of the nails of their fingers certain hard bunches called by the Venetians Spelli and by the Germans Leidspyssen and by the Latines Dentes Muris yet it is affirmed that the flesh of Mice is good for Hawks to by given them every day or every each other day together with the skin for it helpeth their intrails purgeth fleam and choler restraineth the fluxions of the belly driveth out stones and gravel stayeth the distillation of the head to the eyes and finally corroborateth the stomach Yet we have heard that in the Kingdom of Calecut they do eat Mice and Fishes roasted in the Sun And it is said by some Physitians and Magicians that the flesh is good against melancholy and the pain of the teeth but the medicinal vertues we reserve it to its proper place Pliny affirmeth a strange wonder worthy to be remembred and recorded that when Hannibal besieged Casselinum there was a
he smote them with Emrods in the bottom of their belly that is God punished them with Mice for he afflicted their bodies and the fruits of the earth for which cause cap. 6 they advice with themselves to send back again the Ark of the Lord with a present of Golden Mice Ovid Homer and Orpheus call Apollo Smyntheus for the Cretians in ancient time called Mice Smynthae Now the faigned cause thereof is thus related by Aelianus There was one Crinis which was a Priest of Apollo who neglected his daily sacrifice for the which through abundance of Mice he was deprived of the fruits of the earth for they devoured all At which loss Apollo himself was moved and taking pity of the misery appeared to one Hoâ—da a Neat-heard commanding him to tell Crinis that all the cause of that penury was for that he had omitted his accustomed sacrifice and that it was his duty to offer them again diligently or else it would be far worse afterward Crinis upon the admonition amended the fault and immediately Apollo killed all the devouring Mice with his darts whereupon he was called Smyntheus Others again say that among the Aeolians at Troas and Hamaxitus they worshipped Mice and Apollo both together and that under his Altar they had meat and nourishment and also holes to live in safely and the reason was because once many thousand of Mice invaded the corn fields of Aeolia and Troy cutting down the same before it was ripe and also frustrating the husbandman of fruit and hope this evil caused them to go to Delphos to ask counsel at the Oracle what they should do to be delivered from that extremity where the Oracle gave answer that they should go sacrifice to Apollo Smyntheus and afterward they had sacrificed they were delivered from the Mice and that therefore they placed a statue or figure of a Mouse in the Temple of Apollo When the Trojans came out of Creet to seek a habitation for themselves they received an Oracle that they should there dwell where the Inhabitants that were born of the earth should set upon them the accomplishing whereof fell out about Hamaxitus for in the night time a great company of wilde Mice set upon their bows quivers and strings leathers of their bucklers and all such soft instruments whereby the people knew that that was the place wherein the Oracle had assigned them to build the City and therefore there they builded Ida so called after the name of Ida in Creet and to conclude we do read that Mice have been sacrificed for the Arcadians are said first of all to have sacrificed to their Gods a Mouse and secondly a white Horse and lastly the leaves of an Oak And to conclude Aelianus telleth one strange story of Mice in Heraclea that there is not one of them which toucheth any thing that is consecrated to Religion or to the service of their Gods Insomuch that they touch not their Vines which are sacred to religious uses but suffer them to come to their natural maturity but depart out of the Island to the intent that neither hunger nor folly cause them to touch that which is dedicated to divine uses And thus much for the natural and moral hory of Mice now followeth the medicinal The Medicines of the Mouse The flesh of a Mouse is hot and soft and very little or nothing fat and doth expel black and melancholy choler A Mouse being flead or having his skin pulled off and afterwards cut through the middle and put unto a wound or sore wherein there is the head of a Dart or Arrow or any other thing whatsoever within the wound will presently and very easily exhale and draw them out of the same Mice being cut and placed unto wounds which have been bitten by Serpents or put to places which are stinged by them do very effectually and in short space of time cure and perfectly heal them Mice which do lurk and inhabit in Houses being cut in twain and put unto the wounds which are new made by Scorpions doth very speedily heal them A young Mouse being mingled with Salt is an excellent remedy against the biting of the Mouse called a Shrew which biting Horses and labouring Cattel it doth venome until it come unto the heart and then they die except the aforesaid remedy be used The Shrew also himself being bruised and laid unto the place which was bitten is an excellent and very profitable remedy against the same A Mouse being divided and put or laid upon Warts will heal them and quite abolish them of what kinde soever they shall be The fat which is distilled from Mice being mixed with a little Goose-grease and boyled together is an excellent and medicinable cure for the asswaging and mollifying of swellings and hard lumps or knots which do usually arise in the flesh Young Mice being beaten into small bits or pieces and mixed with old Wine and so boyled or baked until they come unto a temperate and mollifying medicine if it be anointed upon the eye-lids it will very easily procure hair to grow thereon The same being unbeaten and roasted and so given to little children to eat will quickly dry up the froath or spittle which aboundeth in their mouth There are certain of the wise men or Magâ— who think it good that a Mouse should be flead and given to those which are troubled with the Tooth-ach twice in a month to be eaten The water wherein a Mouse hath been sod or boyled is very wholesome and profitable for those to drink who are troubled with the inflammation of the jaws or the disease called the Squincy Mice but especially those of Africk having their skin pull'd off and well steeped in Oyl and rubbed with Salt and so boiled and afterwards taken in drink are very medicinable for those which have any pain or trouble in their lights and lungs The same medicine used in the aforesaid manner is very profitable for those which are troubled with a filthy mattery and bloudy spitting out with retching Sodden Mice are exceeding good to restrain and hold in the urine of Infants or children being too abundant if they be given in some pleasant or delightsome drink Mice also being cut in twain and laid unto the feet or legs of those which are gowty is an excellent remedy and cure for them Mice being dryed and beaten to powder doe very effectually heal and cure those which are scalded or burned with hot water or fire Cypres nuts being burned and pounded or beaten into dust and mixed with the dust of the hoof of a male or female Mule being dryed or stamped small and the Oyl of Myrtle added unto the same with the dirt or dung of Mice being also beaten and with the dung of a Hedge-hog new made and with red Arsenick and all mingled together with Vinegar and moist or liquid Pitch and put unto the head of any one who
Cheisthai to proceed out of their middle because the true liquor cometh out of the navel as we shall shew but I rather think they derive it from the Arabian words Mesch and Misch and Almisch The Italians French and Spaniards use Musci and Muschi which is derived from the later Latines and beside the Italians call it Capriolo del Musco and the French Cheureul du musch the Musk it self is called in Italy Muschio of the Latine Muschum and Muscatum the Illyrians Pizmo and the Germans Bisem The Arabians were the first that wrote any discovery of this Beast and therefore it ought not to seeme strange that all the Graecians and Latines derive the name from them And although there be an unreconcilable difference amongst Writers about this matter yet is it certain that they come neerest unto the truth that make it a kinde of Roe for the figure colour stature and horns seem to admit no other similitude except the teeth which are like a Dogs whereof two are like a Boars teeth very white and straight And there be some as Simeon Seiâ—â—t and Aetins which say he hath also one horn but herein is a manifest error because no man that ever saw one of these Beasts doth so much as make mention thereof and therefore the original of this error came from the words of Avicen who writeth that his teeth bend inward like two horns Cardan writeth that he saw one of these dead at Millain which in greatness fashion and hair resembled a Roe except that the hair was more thick and the colour more gray Now the variety of the hair may arise from the Region wherein it was bred It hath two teeth above and two beneath not differing absolutely from a Roe in any thing except in the savour It is called Gazella they are lesser thinner and more elegant creatures then the Roes are Paulus Venetus writeth thus of this Beast The creature out of whom the Musk is gathered is about the bigness of a Cat he should say a Roe having gross thick hair like a Hart and hoofs upon his feet It is found in the province of Cathay and the Kingdom of Cergoth which is subject to the great King of Tartars Likewise there was a most odoriferous Musk-cat at Venice which a Merchant there had to be seen brought as he said out of Cathay and for proof whereof he shewed the way that he went namely through the Euxine Sea Colchis Iberia and Albania even to the entrance of Scythia For the Countrey Cathay is a part of Scythia beyond Imaus neither ought this to seem wonderful for in that place there was a Region called by Ptolemeus Randa marcostra wherein he placeth the eleventh Table of Asia This Region is watered by the River Sotus and therein aboundeth Spikenard and the Inhabitants call the Countrey wherein the best Musk-cats are bred Ergimul and the greatest City of that Countrey Singuy The same Author writeth also that Musk-cats are brought out of Egypt and out of many places of Africk In Thebeth also there are many Cities and Beasts about those Cities called Gadery which do bring forth the Musk and the Inhabitants hunt them with Dogs The Province of Canicluet doth also yeeld many of these Beasts and likewise Syria S. Jerom also writeth thus Muscus Oenanthe peregrini muris pellicula by which skin of the strange Mouse he meaneth the little bag or skin wherein the Musk of the Musk-cat is included The Princes of Europe do nourish these tame being brought out of the New-found World and many other rich men especially in Italy be delighted with the odoriferous savour which cometh from it Brassavolus saith that he saw a Merchant offer one of these to be sold unto Alphonsus Dake of Ferrara which had the Navel full of Musk. And Catherinus Zenus an ancient Nobleman of Venice had a Roe of this kinde which he left after his death unto his heirs and by this it doth plainly appear that the Musk-cat is neither like a Cat nor a Mouse and that all those which have affirmed so much thereof have been deceived of their own conjectural derivation of Moscus or Muscus or by the errour of some Writer of the ancient Books which instead of Magnitudo Capreoli a Roe have inserted Catti a Cat. And thus much shall suffice for the description of this Beast and for the Regions where it is bred except I may adde the Relation of Ludovicus Romanus who affirmeth that the Musk-cats of Calecut are brought out of the Countrey Pegus These Roes of the New-found-land are wonderful nimble and quick and so swift that they are seldom taken alive but after they are taken by pulling out their longer teeth they wax tame When they are prosecuted with the Hunters and with Dogs they defend themselves with their teeth In some places they take them in snares and in ditches also kill them with darts and so having killed them they cut off the little bag wherein the Musk groweth for that Musk doth exceed in sweetness of odor all things that were ever made by the art of man and therefore the use of it is more plentiful then of any other thing for they carry it about in Garments They make perfume of it they anoint Beads whereupon they tell their prayers they also make Bals of it and include it in Gold or Silver carrying it about either to be seen or because they are delicate and wanton or to shew their riches and abundance or to preserve themselves from putrified and stinking airs or else against cold and moist diseases of the brain With this the luxurious women perfume themselves to entrap the love of their Wooers for as the thing it self is a vice or sickness of the Breast so also by men it is used to vice and wickedness yet the Venetian Matrons will never use it and he that beareth it about him shall never perceive it himself We haye shewed already that it groweth in the navâ—l â—or in a little bag neer unto it and it is true by Gyraldus and Varinus that when the Beast beginneth to be luxurious and prone to the rage of venery and carnal copulation then the bloud floweth to the navel and there putteth the Beast to pain because it swelleth above measure The Beast then abstaineth from all meat and drink and rowleth himself upon the ground and so by the waight of his body presseth forth the humor that troubled him which after a certain time doth coagulate and congeal together and then rendereth such an acceptable savour as you see it hath The relation whereof you shall hear out of the words of Serapion The wilde Roes saith he which wander to and fro in the Mountains freely without the government of man have in a little bag certain putrified matter or bloud which of it self groweth to be ripe whereunto when it is come the Beast itcheth and is pained as it were with launcing therefore
few jumps or leaps he would attain and take her When the Keeper was to take up the Leopard again he did come to him backward lest if he should see his face he should leap upon him and wound him for as we have said they are angry being chafed and are ready to fly into the Hunters face therefore he turneth his face away from him and betwixt his legs reacheth him a piece of bread or flesh and so he gently taketh him into his chain and collar again leading him away to his house and assoon as the man was mounted the Beast also knew his seat and leaped up after him And the same party also related that when as a Lion was turned forth to a Bull the Lion very quietly without stirring lay down and did no harm or offer any violence or combate with the Bull but afterward when as the two Leopards were turned forth to the same Bull they instantly ran and took the Bull by the throat and without all doubt they had strangled and pulled out his throat had not their Keepers which had long chains tyed about their necks in their hands restrained and pulled them off again By this may be conjectured how great is the rage of the wilde and untamed Leopards and Panthers seeing the tame and gentle are so cruel and therefore the Lord in the Prophets did most wisely compare the siege of the Assyrians about Jerusalem to a Leopard watching at the gates of the City to destroy all that came out thereat Having thus discoursed of the nature parts kindeness love and hatred of these Beasts in general it now followeth to express the best means to avoid and destroy them that so we may not only know our enemy but also learn the way to overmatch and curb him There is a kinde of Henbane which is called Pardalianches or Libbard-bane which the Inhabitants of Phaâ—nacus and the Mount Ida were wont to lay in the Mountains for the destroying of Leopards Pardals and Panthers This herb is not much known at this day yet I take it to be the same which groweth in many places of France and Savoy and it is called Tora by the root thereof beaten to powder and stopped up in flesh not only Beasts but also Wolves and Swine as wilde Boars are destroyed if they tast thereof when the Beast perceiveth himself poysoned presently he seeketh for mans dung for without that he cannot be delivered wherefore the Hunters do also place near unto it some vessel of it hanging in a tree with the mouth or way open that leadeth into it whereinto the greedy Beast leapeth and being in cannot get forth again but rather dyeth with hunger or else is taken and killed or else the vessel is hanged up so high that the Beast by straining himself to leap into it and get his desired medicine but all in vain spendeth out the time of his recovery till the poyson hath throughly corrupted his body and every part and member for otherwise so great is the life spirit and stomach of this Beast that he will fight and not yeeld to his adversary although his guts and intrails hang about his legs out of his belly Therefore the Panthers of Hâ—reania do more often perish by poyson then by other violence of Swords Spears or Dogs for by this poyson the Beast many times falleth to such a looseness of his belly and withall such a weakness thereby that he is taken alive Likewise in Armenia there are certain Fishes which are poyson to Lions Bears Wolves Lynces and Panthers the powder of this fish the Inhabitants out into the sides and flesh of their Sheep Goats and Kyds without all harm to these beasts but if the Panthers or any ravening Beast come and devoure any of those Sheep so dressed presently they die by poyson When they are hunted and forced in the presence of the Hunters then they leap directly unto their heads and therefore the Hunter taketh great care both of his standing and also of holding his spear for if he receive not the Panther in his leap and gore him to the heart or else otherwise wound him mortally he is gone and his life is at an end Oppianus also sheweth that he is taken as Lions are especially by these means following for when the Hunters perceive the way or path which he useth to his water therein they make a deep ditch but not so great as they make for a Lion wherein they erect a woodden pillar or great post unto that they tie certain engins and withall a male little Dog whose stones or tender cods they binde with some string or cord so as the young beast may whine and cry for pain by which voyce he inviteth and calleth the Panther to his destruction For the greedy beast winding the voice of the Dog bestirreth himself to meet with his desired prey or booty at last finding the ditch and seeing the Dog down he leapeth where the engins take present hold upon him and destroy him and so he describeth the same means to take great fishes by the sight of little fishes swimming in a Net In hunting of wilde beasts the wary Wood-man must make good choice of his Horse not only for the metal and agility which are very necessary but also for the colour as we have already expressed in the story of the Horse for the gray Horse is fittest for the Bear and most terrible to him the yellow or fire colour against the Bore but the brown and reddish colour against the Panther The Moores also use other devises to take Panthers and all such noisome beasts they enclose in a little house certain rotten flesh which by the savour thereof when it stinketh draweth the wilde beasts unto it For they make a dore or a gate of reeds unto the said house through which the filthy smell breaketh out and disperseth it self into the wide air presently the wilde beasts take it up and follow it with all speed they can for there is not any Musk or other sweet thing wherewithal men are so much delighted as ravening beasts are with the savour of carrion therefore like an amorous cup it draweth them to the snare of perdition for beside the rotten flesh they erect many engins and unavoidable traps to snare in the beast when he cometh to raven The Christians of Africk did institute a general hunting of Leopards inclosing the ends of the ways through which the beasts were to pass The Leopard when he was stirred ran to and fro distracted because in all his passages he found Horse-men ready to resist him neither left they any way for him to escape at length wearyed with many windings turnings and provocations the Horse-men might easily come unto him and pierce him with their spears but if it fortuned that the Leopard escaped and brake away from the Hunters then he at whose corner he brake forth was bound by ancient custome to make the residue a dinner or
of edged tools Lycaon the brother of Nestor another the son of Priamus slain by Achilles But the famous and notorious among all was Lycaon the King of Arcadia the son of Titan and the earth whose Daughter Calisto was deflowred by Jupiter and by Juno turned into a Bear whom afterwards Juno pitying placed for a sign in heaven and of whom Virgil made this Verse Pleiadas Hyadas claramque Lycaonis Arcton There was another Lycaon the son of Pelasgus which built the City Lycosui in the Mountain Lyceus this man called Jupiter Lyceus upon a time sacrificed an Infant upon his Altar after which sacrifice he was presently turned into a Wolf There was another Lycaon after him who did likewise sacrifice another childe and it was said that he remained ten years a Wolf and afterwards became a man again whereof the reason was given that during the time he remained a beast he never tasted of mans flesh but if he had tasted thereof he should have remained a beast for ever I might adde hereunto Lycophron Lycastus Lycimnius Lycinus Lycomedes Lycurgus Lycus and of womens names Lyca Lyce Lycaste Lycoris Lycias and many such others besides the names of people as Irpinia of Mountains and places as Lycabetus Lyceus Lycerna Lycaonia Lycaspus Lyceum Aristotles School Of flouds and Rivers as Lycus Lycormas Of Plants as Wolfbane Lupum salictarium Lupinus Lycantheum Lycophrix Lycophone Lycopsis Lycoscitalion and many such others whereof I have only desired to give the Reader a taste following the same method that we have observed in other beasts And thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the names of this beast The Countreyes breeding Wolves are for the most part these that follow The inhabitants of Crete were wont to say that there was neither Wolves Bears nor Vipers could be bred in their Island because Jupiter was born there yet there is in a City called Lycastus so named for the multitude of Wolves that were abiding therein It is likewise affirmed of Sardinia and Olympus a Mountain of Macedonia that there come no Wolves in them The Wolves of Egypt are lesser then the Wolves of Greece for they exceed not the quantity of Foxes Africa likewise breedeth small Wolves they abound in Arabia Swevia Rhetia Athesis and the Earldome of Tyrol in Muscovia especially that part that bordereth upon Lituania The Wolves of Scanzia by reason of extremity of cold in those parts are blinde and lose their eyes There are no Wolves bred in Lombardy beyond the Alpes and if any chance to come into that Countrey presently they ring their Bells and arm themselves against them never giving over till they have killed him or drove him out of the Countrey In Norway there are three kinde of Wolves and in Scandinavia the Wolves fight with Elks. It is reported that there are Wolves in Italy who when they look upon a man cause him to be silent that he cannot speak The French men call those Wolves which have eaten of the flesh of men Encharnes Among the Crotoniatae in Meotis and divers other parts of the world Wolves do abound there are some few in France but none at all in England except such as are kept in the Tower of London to be seen by the Prince and people brought out of other Countreys where there fell out a rare accident namely a Mastive Dog was limed to a she-Wolf and she thereby conceived and brought forth six or seven young Whelps which was in the year of our Lord 1605. or thereabouts There are divers kindes of Wolves in the world whereof Oppianus in his admonition to Shepherds maketh mention of five the first is a swift Wolf and runneth fast called therefore Toxeuter that is Sagittarius a shooter The second kinde are called Harpages and these are the greatest raveners to whom our Saviour Christ in the Gospel compareth false Prophets when he saith Take heed of false Prophets which come unto you in Sheeps clothing but are inwardly Lyce Harpages ravening Wolves and these excell in this kinde The third kinde is called Lupus aureus a golden Wolf by reason of his colour then they make mention of two other kindes called Acmonae and one of them peculiarly Ictinus The first which is swift hath a greater head then other Wolves and likewise greater legs fitted to run white spots on the belly round members his colour betwixt red and yellow he is very bold howleth fearfully having fiery-flaming eyes and continually wagging his head The second kinde hath a greater and larger body then this being swifter then all other betimes in the morning he being very hungry goeth abroad to hunt his prey the sides and tail are of a silver colour he inhabiteth in the Mountains except in the Winter time wherein he descendeth to the gates of Cities or Towns and boldly without fear killeth both Goats and Sheep yet by stealth and secretly The third kinde inhabiteth the white Rocks of Taurua and Silicia or the the tops of the hill Amanus and such other sharp and inaccessible places being worthily for beauty preferred before the others because of his golden resplendent hairs and therefore my Author saith Non Lupus sed Lupo praestantior fera That he is not a Wolf but some wilde beast excelling a Wolf He is exceeding strong especially being able with his mouth and teeth to bite asunder not only stones but Brasse and Iron He feareth the Dog star and heat of Summer rejoycing more in cold then in warm weather therefore in the Dog dayes he hideth himself in some pit or gaping of the earth untill that Sunny heat be abated The fourth and fifth kindes are called by one common name Acmone now Acmon signifieth an Eagle or else an Instrument with a short neck and it may be that these are so called in resemblance of the ravening Eagle or else because their bodies are like to that instrument for they have short necks broad shoulders rough legs and feet and small snowts and little eyes herein they differ one kinde from the other because that one of them hath a back of a silver colour and a white belly and the lower part of the feet black and this is Ictinus canus a gray Kite-wolf the other is black having alesser body his hair standing continually upright and liveth by hunting of Hares Now generally all Authors do make some two some three some four and some five kindes of Wolves all which is needlesse for me to prosecute and therefore I will content my self with the only naming of such differences as are observed in them and already expressed except the Thus and the sea-Wolf of whom there shall be something said particularly in the end of this History Olaus Magnus writeth in his History of the Northern Regions that in the Mountains called Dâ—ffrini which do divide the Kingdomes of Swetia and Norway there are great flocks or heards of Wolves of white colour whereof some wander in the Mountains and some in the vallies They
evening because of their fasting all the day before and for this is alleadged the saying of holy Scripture where the Prophet makes mention of Lupi Vespertini but we have shewed already in the story of the Hyaena what those signifie It is said that Wolfs do also eat a kinde of earth called Argilla which they do not for hunger but to make their bellies waigh heavy to the intent that when they set upon an Horse an Ox a Hart an Elk or some such strong beast they may weigh the heavier and hang fast at their throats till they have pulled them down for by vertue of that tenacious earth their teeth are sharpened and the weight of their bodies encreased but when they have killed the beast that they set upon before they touch any part of his flesh by a kinde of natural vomit they disgorge themselves and empty their bellies of the earth as unprofitable food The remainder of their meat they always cover in the earth and if there be many of them in hunting together they equally divide the prey among them all and sometimes it is said that they howl and call their fellows to that feast which are absent if their prey be plentiful Now this they have common with Lions in their greatest extremity of hunger that when they have election of a man and a beast they forsake the man and take the beast Some are of opinion that when they are old they grow weary of their lives and that therefore they come unto Cities and Villages offering themselves to be killed by men but this thing by the relation of Niphus is a very fable for he professeth that he saw an old Wolf come into a Village and set upon a Virgin to destroy and eat her yet he was so old that he had scarse any teeth in his head but by good hap company being at hand the Maid was saved and the Wolf was killed Now those Wolfs that are most sluggish and least given to hunting are most ready to venture upon men because they love not to take much pains in getting their living This Wolf is called Vinipeta but the industrious hunting Wolf Kunegeiseia It is reported that a Wolf will never venture upon a living man except he have formerly tasted of the flesh of a dead man but of these things I have no certainty but rather do believe the contrary that like as Tyrants in an evill grieved estate do pick quarrels against every man that is rich for the spoil of their goods accounting them their enemies how well soever they have deserved at their hands In like manner Wolfs in the time of their hunger fall upon all creatures that come in the way whether they be men or beasts without partiality to fill their bellies and that especially in the winter time wherein they are not afraid to come to Houses and Cities They devour Dogs when they get them alone and Elks in the Kingdom of Norway but for Dogs it hath been seen that they have lived in a kinde of society and fellowship with Wolfs but it was to steal and devour in the night time like as Theeves do cover their malice and secret grudges one to other when they are going about to rob true men Wolfs are enemies to Asses Bulls and Foxes for they feed upon their flesh and there is no beast that they take more easily then an Ass killing him without all danger as we have shewed already in the story of an Ass They also devour Goats and Swine of all sorts except Boars who do not easily yeeld unto Wolfs It is said that a Sow hath resisted a Wolf and that when he fighteth with her he is forced to use his greatest craft and subtlety leaping to and from her with his best activity lest she should lay her teeth upon him and so at one time deceive him of his prey and deprive him of his life It is reported of one that saw a Wolf in a Wood take in his mouth a piece of Timber of some thirty or forty pound weight and with that he did practise to leap over the trunk of a tree thas lay upon the earth at length when he perceived his own ability and dexterity in leaping with that weight in his mouth he did there make his cave and lodged behinde that tree at last it fortuned there came a wilde Sow to seek for meat along by that tree with divers of her Pigs following her of different age some a year old some half a year and some less When he saw them near him he suddenly set upon one of them which he conjectured was about the weight of wood which he carryed in his mouth and when he had taken him whilest the old Sow came to deliver her Pig at his first crying he suddenly leaped over the tree with the Pig in his mouth and so was the poor Sow beguiled of her young one for she could not leap after him and yet might stand and see the Wolf to eat the Pig which he had taken from her It is also said that when they will deceive Goats they come unto them with the green leaves and small boughs of Osiers in their mouths wherewithal they know Goats are delighted that so they may draw them therewith as to a bait to devour them Their manner is when they fall upon a Goat or a Hog or some such other Beast of small stature not to kill them but to lead them by the ear with all the speed they can drive them to their fellow Wolfs and if the beast be stubborn and will not run with him then he beateth this hinder-parts with his tail in the mean time holding his ear fast in his mouth whereby he causeth the poor Beast to run as fast or faster then himself unto the place of his own execution where he findeth a crew of ravening Wolfs to entertain him who at his first appearance seize upon him and like Devils tear him in pieces in a moment leaving nothing uneaten but only his bowels But if it be a Swine that is so gotten then it is said that they lead him to the waters and there kill him for if they eat him not out of cold water their teeth doth burn with an untolerable heat The Harts when they have lost their horns do lie in secret feeding by night for fear of the Wolfs untill their horns do grow again which are their chiefest defence The least kinde of Wolfs we have shewed already do live upon the hunting of Hares and generally all of them are enemies to sheep for the foolish sheep in the day time is easily beguiled by the Wolf who at the sight of the Sheep maketh an extraordinary noise with his foot whereby he calleth the foolish Sheep unto him for standing amazed at the noise he falleth into his mouth and is devoured but when the Wolf in the night time cometh unto a fold of Sheep he first of all compasseth it round about watching both the
easily They cannot be said properly to have any neck yet something they have which in proportion answereth that part They have tails like all other creatures except Men and Apes and some say that their poyson is contained in their tails and is from thence conveyed into little bladders in their mouths therefore the Mountebanks or Juglers break that bladder that they may keep them without poyson but within the space of twenty four hours they are recollected and grow anew again Their bodies are covered over with a certain skin like a thin bark and upon Serpents it supplyeth the place that scales and hair do upon Beasts and fishes for indeed it is a pure skin and in most things they are like to Fishes except that they have lights and Fishes have none the reason is they live on the earth and the Fishes in the sea and therefore have fins and gills instead thereof The little Serpents have all their bones like thorns but the greater which stand in need of greater strength have solid bones for their firmitude and better constitution It is questionable whether they have any milt or no and some say they have at the time of their laying of egges and not otherwise Their place of conception or secret is large and standeth far out beginning beneath and so arising up to the back-bone double that is having one skin or enclosure on either side with a double passage wherein the egs are engendered which are not laid one by one but by heaps or clusters together They have no bladder to contain urine like to all other Creatures which have feathers scales or rinde-speckled skins except the Tortoises the reason is because of the exiguity and smallnesse of the assumed humour and also all the humour acquired is consumed into a loose and evaporate flesh And to conclude this Anatomy I will adde a short description which Gregorius Macer a Physitian wrote to Gesner 1558. by 〈…〉 is own dissection as followeth saying As I â—ay at rest in a green field there came unto me a great Serpent hissing and holding up her neck which I suddainly with a piece of wood amazed at a stroak and so slew without peril to my self Afterward sticking her fast to a pale I drew off her skin which was very fast and sharp and I found betwixt the skin and the flesh a certain little thin skin descending all upon the body with the outward skin and this was somewhat fat And when I came unto the place of excrements I found it like a Fishes but there issued forth certain filth farre exceeding in stinking savour the excrements of a man After I had thus pulled off the skin it was easie for me to look into the inward parts which I found to answer the inward Anatomy of fishes and Fowls in some parts and in other things there appeared a proper disposition to the Serpent it self For the Artery Trachea was about three or four fingers long turned about with little round circles and so descended to the lights unto which the heart and the bladder containing the gall did adhere or cleave fast Then the liver was long like the Fish Lucius and so a white caul or fatnesse covered both the liver and stomach which was half a span long The guts began at the chaps and so descended down to the place of excrements as we see they do in Fishes Beneath the liver were the guts upon either side descended a certain nervy or hard vein unto which the egs did cleave which were covered with such little skins as Hens egs are before they be layd but yet they were distinguished in seat or place because of their multitude for upon either side I found two and thirty egs The tongue of the Serpent was cloven and very sharp but there appeared not any poyson therein And so it is evident that in the vein Trachea heart and lights it agreeth with Birds in the liver guts and caul it resembleth a Fish but in the place of the gall and disposition of the egs it differeth from both And thus farre Macer with whose words I will conclude this Chapter of Serpents Anatomy Of the quantity of Serpents and their abode food and other accidents SO great is the quantity of Serpents and their long during age increaseth them to so great a stature that I am almost afraid to relate the same lest some suspicious and envious minded persons should utterly condemn it for fabulous but yet when I consider not only the plentiful testimonies of worthy and undoubted Antiquaries and also the evidence of all ages not excepting this wherein we live wherein are and have been shewed publiquely many Serpents and Serpents skins I receive warrant sufficient to express what they have observed and assured answer for all future Objections of ignorant incredulous and unexperienced Asses Wherefore as the life of Serpents is long so is the time of their growth and as their kindes be many as we shall manifest in the succeeding discourse so in their multitude some grow much greater and bigger then other Gellius writeth that when the Romans were in the Carthaginian war and Attilius Rogulus the Consul had pitched his Tents near unto the River Bragrada there was a Serpent of monstrous quantity which had been lodged within the compass of the Tents and therefore did cause to the whole Army exceeding great calamity untill by casting of stones with slings and many other devises they oppressed and slew that Serpent and afterward fleyed off the skin and sent it to Rome which was in length one hundred and twenty feet And although this seem to a beast of unmatchable stature yet Possidonius a Christian Writer relateth a story of another which was much greater for he writeth that he saw a Serpent dead of the length of an acre of Land and all the residue both of head and body were answerable in proportion for the bulk of his body was so great and lay so high that two Horsemen could not see one the other being at his two sides and the wideness of his mouth was so great that he could receive at one time within the compass thereof a Horse and a man on his back both together The scales of his coat or skin being every one like a large buckler or target So that now there is no such cause to wonder at the Serpent which is said to be killed by S. George which was as is reported so great that eight Oxen were but strength enough to draw him out of the City Silena There is a River called Rhyndacus near the Coasts of Bythinia wherein are Snakes of exceeding monstrous quantity for when through heat they are forced to take the water for their safegard against the Sun and birds come flying over the pool suddenly they raise their heads and upper parts out thereof and swallow them up The Serpents of Megalauna are said by Pausanias to be thirty cubits long and all their other parts answerable But
as well as a Serpents but surely that old Serpent knew very well better then all they which speak the contrary that he could not have so fit a subject in all the World as the shape wit and cunning of a Serpent And that this came not into the Serpent at that time when the Devil framed his tongue to speak may appear by the precept of our Saviour Christ where he saith Be wise as Serpents be innocent as Doves For if there had not been naturally some extraordinary faculty of understanding in this beast as there is of meekness in a Dove his wisdome would never have sent us to a Serpent possest with a Devil but rather to some other ingenious Beast whereof there were great store in the World And therefore I conclude that subtilty and prudence came not to the Serpent as speaking into Balaams Ass but rather by nature or creation And yet concerning this last sentence of our most blessed Saviour I cannot but express the words of Tzetzes who writeth thus upon it Servate capita vestra quemadmodum Serpens qui insidiis petitus vapulansque ad mortem omnimodò caput suum abscondit sicves à â—tyrannis impiis cruciati caput servate mihi fidem vestram ne Deum neget is usque ad ipsam mortem That is it is as much as if our Saviour Christ should say Even as when a Serpent is set upon and stroken by all the means she can she hideth her head and exposeth all her other parts to blows reserving that sound so you when you are persecuted by Tyrants preserve your head that is your faith and deny not your God to death And this thing is affirmed by all Writers both divine and humane which have ever touched this point that above all the parts of the body the Serpent preserveth his For Pliny saith that if his body be cut off but two fingers length from his head he will go away as if he had no harm at all and live longer Paulus Fagius writing upon Genesis saith It is the opinion of some Hebrews that the Serpent at the beginning did go upright and was indued with all the affections of men but this Jewish fable is not worthy to be confuted because humane affection cannot proceed but from a reasonable foul which to ascribe to the Serpent were blasphemous and absurd Besides that then the soul might die and that God had created such a soul otherwise then by breathing into the body the breath of life Serpents have many Epithets given unto them as illiberal perfidious treacherous venomous poysonful stinging implacable surious savage merciless devourer and such like And indeed the holy Writers by a Serpent do understand implacable fury For they are immitissimum animalium genus a most ungentle and barbarous kinde of all creatures as may appear by the rage of a little Snake one of the least of Serpents kinde for when he perceiveth that he is hurt or wounded he never ceaseth casting out his poyson until he have done harm or die for madness Two things I finde to be notable in Serpents the first is proper to their kinde the second is common to them with Swine Rats and Mice First they are above measure kinde not only to their young ones but also to their Egges For Funckius confidently sweareth that at Lostorfium he saw a Serpents Egge taken and cast into a hot furnace and when it began to fry in the same whether by natural instinct or by smell thereof the old Serpent came and would have run into the fire to fetch it out but that he and other strangers hindered her by killing her And so likewise if in a Wood one of them be set on fire all the Serpents that are within the savour thereof or within the hearing of the hissing will instantly gather unto it even as beasts when they hear one another roar And so great is their love one toward another as Pliny and Textor write that it was a vulgar saying Serpentium morsus non petit Serpentes one Serpent will not bite another And Juvenal writeth Sed jam Serpentum major concordia Scilicet quam hominum inter se That is to say Better do Serpents with Serpents accord Then Man with Man who should be their Lord. I cannot conceal a most memorable History as ever was any in the World of a fight betwixt the Serpents of the Land and the Water This History is taken out of a Book of Schiltbergerus a Bavarian who knew the same as he writeth while he was a captive in Turky his words are these Is the Kingdom called Genycke there is a City called Sampson about which while I was prisoner with Baiazeta King of Turkes there pitched or arrived an innumerable company of Land and Water Serpents compassing the said City a mile about The Land-serpents came out of the woods of Trienick which are great and many and the water Serpents came out of the bordering Set. These were nine days together assembling in that place and for fear of them there was not any that durst go out of the City although it was not observed that they hurt any man or living creature thereabouts Wherefore the Prince also commanded that no man should trouble them or do them any harm wisely judging that such an accident came not but by Divine miracle and that also to siguifie some notable event Upon the tenth day these two valiant Troops joyned battel early in the morning before the Sun-rising so continuing in fight until the Sun-set at which time the Prince with some Horse-men went out of the City to see the battel and it appeared to him and his associates that the Water Serpents gave place to the Land Serpents So the Prince and his company returned into the City again and the next day went forth again but found not a Serpent alive for there were slain above eight thousand all which he caused presently to be covered with earth in ditches and afterward declared the whole matter to Baiazeta by Letters after he had gotten that City whereat the great Turk rejoyced for he thereby interpreted happiness to himself But I have been too long in this first and proper affection of Serpents namely their mutual concord and this example of the Land and Water Serpents doth not break the common promised rule because it is to be understood of Serpents that live in the same element The second property is to presage Pestilence rottenness of air famine floods and ruine of those places wherein they are commorant and have their abiding so do they know to chuse a good air and fore-know fertility of fruits earth-quakes and great tempests When Helice was destroyed five days before the Serpents Snakes Rats Mice and Weasels departed all out thereof being wiser then Men that misdeeming no harm although they saw and wondered at these removals yet stood it out to their own utter ruine overthrow and destruction Of the friendship and enmity which Serpents keep with
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
coals and they make great plenty specially near to the River Vasses and of Plate The Bees called Chalcoides which are of the colour of brass and somewhat long which are said to live in the Island of Creta are implacable great fighters and quarrellers excelling all others in their stings and more cruel then any others so that with their stings they have chased the Inhabitants out of their Cities the remainder of which Bees do remain and make their Honey-combes as Aelianus saith in the Mountain Ida. Thus much of the differences of Bees now it remaineth to discourse of the Politick Ethical and Oeconomick vertues and properties of them Bees are governed and do live under a Monarchy and not under a tyrannical State admitting and receiving their King not by succession or casting of lots but by respective advice considerate judgement and prudent election and although they willingly submit their necks under a Kingly government yet notwithstanding they still keep their ancient liberties and priviledges because of a certain Prerogative they maintain in giving their voices and opinions and their King being deeply bound to them by an oath they exceedingly honour and love The King as he is of a more eminent stature and goodly corporature as before we have touched then the rest so likewise which is singular in a King he excelleth in mildness and temperateness of behaviour For he hath a sting but maketh it not an instrument of revenge which is the cause that many have thought their King never to have had any For these are the laws of nature not written with Letters but even imprinted and engraven in their conditions and manners and they are very slow to punish offenders because they have the greatest and Soveraign power in their hands And although they seem to be slack in revenging and punishing private injuries yet for all that they never suffer rebellious persons refractorious obstinate and such as will not be ruled to escape without punishment but with their pricking stings they grievously wound and torment so dispatching them quickly They are so studious of peace that neither willingly nor unwillingly they will give any cause of offence or displeasure Who therefore would not greatly be displeased with and hate extreamly those Dionysian Tyrants in Sicilia Clearchus in Heraclea and Apollodorus the Theef Pieler and spoiler of the Cassandrines And who would not detest the ungratiousness of those lewd claw-backs and Trencher-parasites and flatterers of Kings which dare impudently maintain that a Monarchy is nothing else but a certain way and rule for the accomplishing of the will in using their authority as they list and a science or skilful trade to have wherewith to live pleasantly in all sensual and worldly pleasure which ought to be far from a good Prince who whilest be would seem to be a Man he shew himself to be far worser then these little poor winged creatures And as their order and course of life is far different from the vulgar sort so also is their birth for they of the Kingly race are not born after the manner of a little Worm as all the Comminalty are but is forthwith winged and amongst all his younglings if he finde any of his sons to be either a fool unhandsome that none can take pleasure in rugged rough soon angry furnish or too teasty ill shaped not beautiful or Gentleman-like him by a common consent and by a Parliamentary authority they destroy for fear lest the whole Swarm should be divided and distracted into many mindes and so at length the Subjects undone by factions and banding into parts The King prescribeth laws and orders to all the rest and appointeth them their rules and measrues for some he straightly chargeth and commandeth as they tender his favour and will avoid his displeasure to fetch and provide water for the whole Camp He enjoyneth others to make the Honey-combes to build to garnish and trim up the house well and cleanly to finish perfectly the work to finde and allow to promote and shew others what to do Some he sendeth forth to seek their living but being worn with years they are maintained at the common stock at home The younger and stronger being appointed to labour and take their turns as they fall And although being a King he be discharged and exempt from any mechanical business yet for all tliat in case of necessity he will buckle himself to his task never at any time taking the field or air abroad but either for his healths sake or when he cannot otherwise chuse by means of some urgent business If in respect of his years he be lusty and strong then like a Noble Captain he marcheth before his whole winged-army exposing himself first to all perils neither with his good will will he be carryed of his Souldiers unless he be wearied and weakened by means of crooked age or mastered and clean put out of heart by any violent sickness so that he can neither stand on his legs nor flie When night approacheth the sign and token being given by his Honey-pipe or Cornet if you will so call it a general Proclamation is made through the whole Hive that every one shall betake himself to rest so the watch being appointed and all things set in order they all make themselves ready and go to bed So long as the King liveth so long the whole swarm enjoy the benefit of peace leading their lives without any disquieting disturbance vexation or fear of future wars For the Drones do willingly contain themselves in their own cells the elder living contented with their own homes and the younger not daring for their ears to break into their fathers Lands or to make any inrodes or invasion into the houses of their predecessors The King keepeth his Court by himself in the highest and largest part of the whole Palace his lodging being workmanlike and very cunningly made of a fine round or enclosure of Wax being thus as it were fenced and paled about as with a defensible wall A little from him dwell all the Kings children being very obedient to their parents beck Their King being dead all his subjects in an uprore Drones bring forth their young in the cells of the true Bees all are in a hurly burly all being out of season and order Aristotle saith that Bees have many Kings which I would rather tearm Viceroys or Deputies sithence it is certain as Antigonus affirmeth that as well the swarms do die and come to nought by having of many Kings as none at all And thus to have spoken of good Kings let this suffice Evill Kings are more rough rugged browner blacker and of more sundry colours whose natures and dispositions you will condemn in respect of their habit and manner of body and minde the one and other are thus Physiognomically described by the Poet Namque duae regum facies duo corpora gentis Alter erit maculis auro squallentibus ardens Et rutilis clarus squamis
and freely their diet and maintenance which costeth them nothing The Lockers or holes of the up-grown Bees are somewhat too large if you respect the quantity of their bodies but their combes lesser for those they build themselves and these other are made by the Bees because it was not thought convenient and indifferent so great a portion of meat to be given to such vile labourers and hirelings as was due to their own sons and daughters and those that are naturally subjects Tzetzes and some other Greeks do besides affirm that the Drones are the Bees Butlers or Porters to carry them water ascribing moreover to them a gentle and kindely heat with which they are said to keep warm cherish and nourish the young breed of the Bees by this means as it were quick 〈…〉 g them and adding to them both life and strength The same affirmeth Columella in these words The Drones further much the Bees for the procreation of their issue for they sitting upon their kinde or generation the Bees are shaped and attain to their figure and therefore for the maintenance education and defence of a new issue they receive the more friendly entertainment And Pliny lib. 11 c 11. differeth not from him For not only they are great helpers to the Bees in any architectonical or cunning devised frame as he saith but also they do good in helping and succouring their young by giving them much warmth and kindely heat which the greater it is unlesse there be some lack of Honey in the mean space the greater will the swarm be In sum except they should stand the Bees in some good stead the Almighty would never have enclosed them both in one house and as it were made them freemen of the same City Neither doubtlesse would the Bees by main force violently break in upon them as being the sworn and professed enemies of their Common-wealth except when their slavish multitude being too much increased they might fear some violence or rebellion or for lack of provision at which time who seeth not that it were far better the Master work-men free Masons and Carpenters might be spared then the true labouring Husbandman and tiller of the earth Especially since that missing these our life is endangered for lack of meat and other necessaries and those other for a time we may very well spare without our undoing and for a need every one may build his own lodging But as they be profitable members not exceeding a stinted and certain number so if they be too many they bring a sicknesse called the Hive-evill as well because they consume the food of the Honey-making Bees as for that in regard of their extream heat they choke and suffecate them This disease is by the Author of Geoponicon thus remedied Moisten with water inwardly the lid or covering of their Hive and early in the morning opening it you shall finde Drones sitting on the drops that are on the covers for being glutted with Honey they are exceeding thirsty and by that means they will stick fast to the moist and dewie places of the cover So that with small ado you may either destroy them quite or else if you please take away what number you list your self And if you will take away withall their young who are not yet winged and first pulling off their heads throw them among the other Bees you shall bestow on them a very welcome dinner But what the dreaning of Drones portended and what matter they minister in the Hieroglyphical Art let Apomasueris reveal and disclose out of the Schools of the Egyptians and Persians I think I have discharged my duty if I have set down their true uses true nature generation degeneration description and names Fur in Latine or Theef in English is by Aristotle called Phoor of Hesychius Phoorios from whence I take the Latine word Fur to be derived Some have thought that Theeves are one proper sort of Bees although they be very great and black having a larger belly or bulk then the true Bee and yet lesser then the drones they have purchased this theevish name because they do by theft and robbery devour Honey belonging to others and not to them The Bees do easily endure and can well away with the presence of the Drones and do as it were greet and bid one another welcome but the Theeves they cannot endure in regard that the Bees do naturally hate them for in their absence the Theeves privily and by stealth creep in there robbing and consuming their treasure of Honey so greedily and hastily without chewing swallowing it down that being met withall by the true Bees in their return homewards and found so unweildy by means of their fulness that they cannot get away nor be able to resist but are ready to burst again they are severely punished and for their demerits by true Justice put to death Neither thus only do they prodigally consume and spend the Bees meat but also privily breed in their cells whereby it often cometh to passe that there are as many Drones and Theeves as true and lawful Bees These neither gather Honey nor build houses nor help to bear out any mutual labour with Bees for which cause they have Watch-men or Warders appointed to observe and oversee by night such as are over-wearied by taking great and undefatigable pains in the day time to secure them from the Theeves and Robbers who if they perceive any Theef to be stoln in a doors they presently set upon him beat and either kill him outright or leaving him for half dead they throw him out Oftentimes also it happeneth that the Theef being glutted and over-cloyed with Honey cannot flie away or get himself gone in time but lyeth wallowing before the Hives entrance until his enemies either in coming forth or returning home do so finde him and so with shame discredit and scoffingscorn slay him Aristotle appointeth no office charge or businesse to the Theef but I think that he is ordained for this end that he might be as it were a spur to prick forwards and to whet and quicken the courage of the true Bees when the other offer them any injury and to stir and to encourage them to a greater vigilancy diligence and doing of right and justice to every one particularly For I cannot see to what other purpose Theeves should serve in a Christian Common-wealth or what use might be made of such as lie in wait to displeasure and practice by crafty fetches ambushes and deceitful treacheries to wound their Neighbours either in their estimation credit or goods Thus having at large discoursed of the lesse hurtful and stinging sort of Bees I will now apply my self to a more fumish testy angry Waspish and implacable generation more venomous then the former I mean Wasps and Hornets Of WASPS A Wasp of the Chaldeans is tearmed Deibrane Of the Arabians Zambor Of the Englishmen a Wasp Of the Germans Ein Wespe Of the Belgics
draweth out the poyson of Wasps The leaves of Marsh-mallows as Aetius saith being bruised and applyed do perform the same The juyce of Rue or Balm about the quantity of two or three ounces drunk with Wine and the leaves being chewed and laid on with Honey and Salt or with Vinegar and Pitch do help much Water-cresses Rosemary with Barley meal and water with Vinegar sod together the juyce of by leaves Marigolds the bloud of an Owl all these are very effectual against the stingings of Wasps as Pliny lib. 31. cap. 9. telleth us the buds of the wilde Palm-tree Endive with the root and wilde Thyme being applyed plaister-wise do help the stinging of Wasps After the venom is drawn out by sucking the place affected must be put into hot water the space of an hour and then suddenly they must be thrust into Vinegar and Brine and forthwith the pain will be asswaged the tumor cease and the malice of the venomous humor clean extinguished Rhazes saith that the leaves of Night-shade or of Sengreen do very much good in this case And in like sort Bole Armony with Vinegar and Camphire and Nuts beaten with a little Vinegar and Castoreum Also take the Combe with Honey applying to the place and hold the grieved place neer the fire immediately and laying under them a few ashes binde them hard and forthwith the pain will be swaged Serapio saith that Savory or Cresses applyed and the seed thereof taken in drink and the juyce of the lesser Centory mixt with Wine are very meet to be used in these griefs he also commendeth for the same purpose the leaves of Basil the herb called Mercury and Mandrakes with Vinegar Ardoynus is of opinion that if you take a little round ball of Snow and put it into the fundament the pain will cease especially that which proceedeth by Wasps Let the place be anointed with Vinegar and Camphire or often fomented and bathed with Snow-water Take of Opium of the seed of Henbane and Camphire of each alike much and incorporate them with Rose-water or the juyce of Willows and lay it upon the wounded place applying on the top a linnen cloth first throughly wetted in wine Johannes Mesue who of some is called Evangelista medicorum prescribed this receipt of the juyce of Sisimbrium two drams and a half and with the juyce of Tartcitrons make a potion The juyce also of Spina Arabica and of Marjoram are nothing inferiour to these forementioned Aaron would in this grief have water Lintels called by some Ducks meat to be stamped with Vinegar and after to be applyed Constantine assureth us that Alcama tempered with Barley meal and Vinegar and so bound to the place as also Nuts leaves of Wall-nuts and Bleets are very profitable in this passion Item apply very warm to the wound a Spiders web bruised with a white Onion and sufficient Salt and Vinegar will perfectly cure it Guil. Placentinus will warrant that a plate of cold Iron laid upon the wound or Lead steeped in Vinegar will do the deed Gordonius counsel is to rub the place with Sage and Vinegar and afterwards to foment it with water and Vinegar sod together Varignana would have us to apply Chalk in powder and inwardly to take the seeds of Mallows boiled in Wine Water and a little Vinegar Matthiolus much commendeth Sperage being beaten and wrought up with Honey to anoint the place Likewise flies beaten and anointed on the place winter Savory Water-cresses with Oyl of Momerdica give most speedy help Arnoldus Villanovanus assureth us that any fresh earth especially Fullers earth is very available and the herb called Poley used as an Unguent or else Goats milk And Marcellus Empirious is not behinde his commendations for the use of Bullocks dung to be applyed as a poultesse to the stinged part These and many others may any Man ascribe that hath had but an easie tast of the infinity of Physicks speculation for the store-house of Nature and truly learned Physitians which way soever you turn you will minister and give sufficient store of alexiterial medicines for the expulsing of this grief In conclusion one and the self same medicament will serve indifferently for the curation of Wasps and Bees saving that when we are stung with Wasps more forcible remedies are required and for the hurts that Bees do us then weaker and gentler are sufficient In the hundreth and nintieth year before the birth of our blessed Saviour an infinite multitude of Waspes came flying into the Market place at Capua as Julius witnesseth and lighted on the Temple of Mars all which when with great regard and diligence they were gathered together and solemnly burnt yet for all that they presignified the coming of an enemy and did as it were fore-tell the burning of the City which shortly after came to passe And thus much for the History of the Wasp of HORNETS A Hornet is called of the Hebrews Tsirbah Of the Arabians Zabar and Zambor Of the Germans Ein hornauss Horlitz Froisin Ofertzwuble Of the Flemings Horsele Of the Frenchmen Trellons Fonlons Of the Italians Calauron Crabrone Scaraffon and Galanron Of the Spaniards Tabarros ò Moscardos Of the Illyrians Irssen Of the Sclavonians Sierszen Of us Englishmen Hornets and great Wasps The Grecians call them Anthrénas and Anthrenoùs because with their sting they raise an Anthrar or Carbuncle with a vehement inflamation of the whole part about it The Latines call them Crabrones peradventure of Crabra a Town so named in the Territory of Tusculanum where there is great plenty of them or it may be they are tearmed Crambrones of Caballus a Horse of whom they are first engendered according to that of Ovid 15. Metamorphos Pressus humo bellator equus Crabronis origo est That is to say When War-horse dead upon the Earth lies Then doth his flesh breed Hornet flies Albertus tearmeth a Hornet Apis citrina that is a yellow or Orange coloured Bee Cardan laboureth much to prove that dead Mules are their first beginners Plutarch is of opinion that they first proceed from the flesh of dead Horses as Bees do out of a Bulls belly and I think that they have their breeding from the harder more firm and solid parts of the flesh of Horses as Wasps do from the more tender or soft Hornets are twice so great as the common Wasps in shape and proportion of body much resembling one another They have four wings the inward not being half so large as the outward being all joyned to their shoulders which are of a dark brownish and of a Chestnut-like colour these wings are the cause of their swift flight they have also six feet of the same colour and hew that their breast and shoulders are of There is somewhat long of the colour of Saffron their eyes and looks are hanging or bending downwards crooked and made like a half Moon from which grow forth two peaks like
is 't not good but of his kinde the worst We do read that in Rome in the days of Pope Leo the fourth there was a Cockatrice found in a Vault of a Church or Chappel dedicated to Saint Lucea whose pestiferous breath had infected the air round about whereby great mortality followed in Rome but how the said Cockatrice came thither it was never known It is most probable that it was created and sent of GOD for the punishment of the City which I do the more easily believe because Sigonius and Julius Scaliger do affirm that the said pestiferous beast was killed by the prayers of the said Leo the fourth I think they mean that by the authority of the said Bishop all the people were moved to general fasting and prayer and so Almighty GOD who was moved for their sins to send such a plague amongst them was likewise intreated by their prayers and suits not only to reverse the plague but with the same hand to kill the beast wherewithal it was created even as once in Aegypt by the hand of Moses he brought Grasse-hoppers and Lice so by the same hand he drove them away again There is some small difference amongst the Writers about the quantity and parts of this Serpent which I will briefly reconcile First Aelianus saith that a Cockatrice is not past a span in compasse that is as much as a man can gripe in his hand Pliny saith that it is as big as twelve fingers Solinus and Isidorus affirm that it is but half a foot long Avicen saith that the Arabian Harmena that is the Cockatrice is two cubits and a half long Nicander saith Et tribus extenso porrectus corpore palmis that is it is in length but three palms Actius saith that it is as big as three handfuls Now for the reconciliation of all these It is to be understood that Pliny and Aelianus speaketh of the Worm that cometh out of the Cocks Egge in regard of the length but not of the quantity and so confound together that Worm and the Cockatrice For it is very reasonable that seeing the magnitude and greatnesse of the Serpent is concluded to be at the least a span in compasse that therefore the length of it must needs be three or four foot at the shortest else how could it be such a terror to other Serpents or how could the fore-part of it arise so eminently above the earth if the head were not lifted at the least a foot from the ground So then we will take it for granted that this Serpent is as big as a mans wrist and the length of it answerable to that proportion It is likewise questionable whether the Cockatrice have wings or no for by reason of his conceived generation from a Cock many have described him in the fore-part to have wings and in the hinder part to have a tail like a Serpent And the conceit of wings seemeth to be derived from holy Scripture because it is written Esay 14. vers 29. De radice colubri egredietur regulus 〈◊〉 ejus absorbens volucrem That is to say Out of the Serpents roots shall come a Cockatrice and the fruit thereof shall be a fiery flying Serpent as we translate it in English but Tremellius the best Interpreter doth render the Hebrew in this manner De radice Serpentis prodit haemorrhus fructus â—â—lius prester volans That is to say word for word Out of the root of the Serpent shall come the Hemorrhe and the fruit thereof a flying Prester Now we know that the Haemorrhe and the Prester are two other different kindes of Serpents from the Cockatrice and therefore these Interpreters being the more faithful and learned we will rather follow the holy Scripture in their translation then the vulgar Latine which is corrupted in very many places as it is also Esay the 30. vers 6. For Prester there is again in the vulgar translation the Cockatrice and for this cause we have not described the Cockatrice with wings as not finding sufficient authority to warrant the same The eyes of the Cockatrice are red or somewhat inclining to blacknesse the skin and carkase of this beast have been accounted precious for we do read that the Pergament did buy but certain pieces of a Cockatrice and gave for it two pound and a half of silver and because there is an opinion that no Bird Spider or venomous beast will indure the sight of this Serpent they did hang up the skin thereof stuffed in the Temples of Apollo and Diana in a certain thin net made of gold and therefore it is said that never any Swallow Spider or other Serpent durst come within those Temples And not only the skin or the sight of the Cockatrice worketh this effect but also the flesh thereof being rubbed upon the pavement posts or walls of any House And moreover if Silver be rubbed over with the powder of the Cockatrices flesh it is likewise said that it giveth it a tincture like unto gold and besides these qualities I remember not any other in the flesh or skin of this Serpent The hissing of the Cockatrice which is his natural voyce is terrible to other Serpents and therefore as soon as they hear the same they prepare themselves to fly away according to these verses of Nicander Illius auditos expectant nulla susurros Quantumvis magnas sinuent animalia spiras Quandovel in pastum vel opacae devia silvae Irriguósve locos mediae sub luce diei Excandescenti succensa furore feruntur Sed turpi conversa fugae dant terga retror sum Which may be Englished thus When as the greatest winding Serpents hear Feeding in Woods or pasture all abroad Although inclos'd in many spiret yet fear Or in mid-day the shadows near Brooks road The fearful hissing of this angry beast They run away as fast as feet can lead them Flying his rage unto some other rest Turning their backs whereby they do escape him We read also that many times in Africa the Mules fall down dead for thirst or else lye dead on the ground for some other causes unto whose Carkase innumerable troops of Serpents gather themselves to feed thereupon but when the Basilisk windeth the said dead body he giveth forth his voyce at the first hearing whereof all the Serpents hide themselves in the near adjoyning sands or else run into their holes not daring to come forth again until the Coackatrice have well dined and satisfied himself At which time he giveth another signal by his voyce of his departure then come they forth but never dare meddle with the remnants of the dead beast but go away to seek some other prey And if it happen that any other pestiferous beast come unto the waters to drink near the place wherein the Cockatrice is lodged so soon as it perceiveth the presence thereof although it be not heard nor seen yet it departeth back again without drinking neglecting his own nutriment to
of them then he is to adventure upon a man in compleat Armour and therefore all the people plant great store of these and also bear them in their hands when they travail There be many who in the hunting and prosecuting of these Crocodiles do neither give themselves to run away from them nor once to turn aside out of their common path or road but in a foolish hardinesse give themselves to combat with the Beast when they might very well avoid the danger but many times it hapneth that they pay dearly for their rashnesse and repent too late the too much reputation of their own manhood for whiles with their spears and sharp weapons they think to pierce his sides they are deceived for there is no part of him penetrable except his belly and that he keepeth safe enough from his enemies blunting upon his scales no lesse hard then plates of Iron all the violence of their blows and sharpnesse of weapons but clubs beetles and such like weapons are more irksome to him when they be set on with strength battering the scales to his body and giving him such knocks as doth dismay and astonish him Indeed there is no great use of the taking of this Serpent nor profit of merchandize cometh thereby his skin and flesh yeelding no great respect in the world In ancient time they took them with hooks baited with flesh or else inclosed them with nets as they do fishes and now and then with a strong Iron instrument cast out a boat down in the water upon the head of the Crocodile And among all other there is this one worthy to be related The Hunter would take off the skin from a Swines back and therewithal cover his hook whereby he allured and inticed the Serpent into the midst of the River and there making it fast he went afterward to the next watering place and there holding another Hog did beat and smite him till he cryed ardently with which voyce or cry the Crocodile being moved goeth presently to the bait and swalloweth it up and maketh after the noise at last coming to the land the Hunter with valiant courage and diligence casteth mud and dirt into his eyes and so blindeth him that he may oppresse and kill him with ease Leo Afric relateth also this means or way to take Crocodiles There be many Trees planted upon the banks of Nilus unto one of these there is a long and strong rope tyed and at the end of the same there is fastened a hook of a cubit long and a finger in quantity unto this hook for a bait is tyed a Ram or a Goat which being set close to the River and tormented with the hook upon which it is fastened cryeth out amain by hearing of whose voyce the hunger-greedy Crocodile is raised out of his den and invited as he thinketh to a rich prey so he cometh although it self of a trecherous nature yet suspecteth not any other and swalloweth the bait in which he findeth a hook not to be digested Then away he striveth to go but the strength of the rope stayeth his journey for as fast as the bait was to the rope and hook so fast is he also ensnared and tyed unto it which while he waveth and straineth to unloose and break he wearyeth himself in vain And to the intent that all his strength may be spent against the tree and the rope the Hunters are at one end thereof and cause it to be cast to and fro pulling it in and now letting it go again now terrifying the Beast with one noise and fear and anon with another so long as they perceive in him any spirit of moving or resistance so being quieted to him they come and with clubs spears beetles staves and such manner of instruments pierce through the most tenderest parts of his body and so destroy him Peter Martyr hath also other means of taking Crocodiles Their nature is that when they goe to the land to forrage and seek after a prey they cannot return back again but by the same footsteps of their own which they left imprinted in the sand whereupon when the Countrey people perceive these footsteps instantly with all the hast they can make they come with spades and mattocks and make a great ditch and with boughs cover the same so as the Serpent may not espy it and upon the boughs they also again lay sand to avoid all occasion of deceit or suspicion of fraud at his return then when all things are thus prepared they hunt the Crocodile by the foot untill they finde him then with noises of bells pans kettels and such like things they terrifie and make him return as fast as fear can make him run towards the waters again and they follow him as neer as they can until he falleth into the ditch where they come all about him and kill him with such instruments or weapons as they have prepared for him and so being slain they carry him to the great City Cair where for their reward they receive ten pieces of gold which amounteth to the value of ten nobles of our English coin There have been some brought into that City alive as P. Martyr affirmeth whereof one was as much as two Oxen and two Camels could bear and draw and at the same time there was one taken by this devise before expressed which had entered into a Village in Saetum neer Nilus and swallowed up alive three young Infants sleeping in one Cradle the said Infants scarcely dead were taken again out of his belly and soon after when no more tokens of life appeared they were all three buryed in a better and more proper grave of the earth Then also there was another slain and out of his belly was taken a whole Ram not digested nor any part of him consumed and the hand of a woman which was bitten or torn off from her body above the wrist for there was upon the same a Bracelet of Brasse We do read that Crocodiles have been taken and brought alive to Rome The first that ever brought them thither was Marcus Scaurus who in the games of his aedility brought five forth and shewed them to the people in a great pond of water which he had provided only for that time and afterward Heliogabalus and Antoninus Pius The Indians have a kinde of Crocodile in Ganges which hath a horn growing out of his nose like a Rhinocerot unto this Beast they cast condemned men to be devoured for in all their executions they want not the help of men seeing they are provided of Beasts to do the office of Hang-men Aurelius Festivus writeth that Firmus a Tyrant of Egypt being condemned to Nilus to be devoured by Crocodiles beforehand bought a great quantity of the fat of Crocodiles and so stripping himself stark naked laid the same over his body so he went among the Crocodiles and escaped death for this savage Beast being deceived with the savour of its own
of the earth for their bodies being exceeding hot they very seldom come out of the cold earth except to seek meat and nourishment And because they live only in the hottest Countries therefore they commonly make their lodgings neer unto the waters or else in the coldest places among the rocks and stones They greatly preserve their health as Aristotle affirmeth by eating of wilde Lettice for that they make them to vomit and cast forth of their stomach whatsoever meat offendeth them and they are most specially offended by eating of Apples for their bodies are much subject to be filled with winde and therefore they never eat Apples but first they eat wilde Lettice Their sight also as Plutarch saith doth many times grow weak and feeble and therefore they renew and recover the same again by rubbing their eyes against Fennel or else by eating of it Their age could never yet be certainly known but it is conjectured that they live lonâ— and in great health like to all other Serpents and therefore they grow so great They do not only live on the land as we have said already but also swim in the water for many times they take the Sea in Aethiopia four or five of them together folding their tails like hurdles and holding up their heads so swim they over to seek better food in Arabia We have said already that when they set upon Elephants they are taken and killed of men now the manner how the Indians kill the Mountain Dragons is thus they take a garment of Scarlet and picture upon it a charm in golden letters this they lay upon the mouth of the Dragons den for with the red colour and the gold the eyes of the Dragon are overcome and he falleth asleep the Indians in the mean season watching and muttering secretly words of Incantation when they perceive he is fast asleep suddenly they strike off his neck with an Ax and so take out the balls of his eyes wherein are lodged those rare and precious stones which contain in them vertues unutterable as hath been evidently proved by one of them that was included in the Ring of Gyges Many times it falleth out that the Dragon draweth in the Indian both with his Ax and Instruments into his den and there devoureth him in the rage whereof he so beateth the Mountain that it shaketh When the Dragon is killed they make use of the skin eyes teeth and flesh as for the flesh it is of a vitrial or glassie colour and the Aethiopians do eat it very greedily for they say it hath in it a refrigerative power And there be some which by certain inchanting verses do tame Dragons and rideth upon their necks as a man would ride upon a Horse guiding and governing them with a bridle Now because we have already shewed that some Dragons have wings lest it should seem uncredible as the foolish world is apt to believe no more then they see I have therefore thought good to add in this place a particular relation of the testimonies of sundry learned men concerning these winged Serpents or Dragons First of all Megasthenes writeth that in India there be certain flying Serpents which hurt not in the day but in the night time and these do render or make a kinde of urine by the touching whereof all the parts of mortal creatures do rot away And there is a Mountain which divideth a sunder the Kingdom of Narsinga from Alabaris wherein be many winged Serpents sitting upon trees which they say poyson men with their breath There be many pestilent winged Serpents which come out of Arabia every year by troups into Egypt these are destroyed by a certain black Bird called Ibis who fighteth with them in the defence of that Countrey where she liveth so that there lie great heaps of them many times destroyed upon the earth by these Birds whose bodies may be there visibly seen to have both wings and legs and their bones being of great quantity and stature remain unconsumed for many years after These kinde of Serpents or Dragons covet to keep about Trees of Frankincense which grow in Arabia and when they are driven away from thence with the fume or smoak of Stirax then they flie as is aforesaid into Egypt and this is to be considered that if it were not for this Stirax all that Countrey would be consumed with Dragons Neither have we in Europe only heard of Dragons and never seen them but also even in our own Country there have by the testimony of sundry Writers divers been discovered and killed And first of all there was a Dragon or winged Serpent brought unto Francis the French King when he lay at Sancton by a certain Countreyman who had slain the same Serpent himself with a Spade when it set upon him in the fields to kill him And this thing was witnessed by many learned and credible men which saw the same and they thought it was not bred in that Countrey but rather driven by the winde thither from some forain Nation For France was never known to breed any such Monsters Among the Pyrenes also there is a cruel kinde of Serpent not past four foot long and as thick as a mans arm out of whose sides grow wings much like unto gristles Gesner also saith that in the year of our Lord 1543. there came many Serpents both with wings and legs into the parts of Germany neer Stiria who did bite and wound many men incurably Cardan also describeth certain Serpents with wings which he saw at Paris whose dead bodies were in the hands of Gulielmus Musicus he saith that they had two legs and small wings so that they could scarce flie the head was little and like to the head of a Serpent their colour bright and without hair or feathers the quantity of that which was greatest did not exceed the bignesse of a Cony and it is said they were brought out of India Besides a further confirmation of these Beasts there have been noted in all ages for it is written in the Roman Chronicles the times of their apparition and manifestation When the River of Tiber over-flowed above the banks then were many Serpents discovered and many Dragons as in the time of Mauritius the Emperor at what time a Dragon came along by the City of Rome upon the waters in the sight of all men and so passed to the Sea after which prodigy there followed a great mortal pestilence In the year 1499. the 26. day of May there came a Dragon to the City of Lucerne which came out of the Lake through Rusa down along the River many people of all sorts beholding the same There have been also Dragons many times seen in Germany flying in the air at mid-day and signifying great and fearful fires to follow as it happened neer to the City called Niderburge neer to the shore of the Rhene in a marvellous clear Sun-shine day there came a Dragon three times
body The tongue is cloven and the top thereof very black They are in length about a span and as thick as a mans finger except toward the tail which is more slender and the female is more black then the male The passage or place of excrements or conception is transverse If they be killed with the young in their belly the little ones will instantly creep out at their dams mouth and sometimes as witnesseth Bellonius in this little Serpent are found forty little young ones They are in Greece and England and come not abroad till July and they go into the earth in August and so abide abroad all harvest and they love to hide themselves in Corn-fields under the ripe corn when it is cut down It is harmlesse except being provoked yet many times when an Ox or a Cow lyeth down in the pasture if it chance to lie upon one of these Slow-worms it biteth the Beast and if remedy be not had there followeth mortality or death for the poyson thereof is very strong If it swell it is good to prick the place with a brazen bodkin and then apply unto it Fullers-earth and Vinegar There is a Triacle made of the Slow-worm which smelleth like Aqua-vitae with this some men are cured of the Plague And thus much of this little Serpent Of the SNAKE THere is no reasonable learned man that maketh question that Anguis in Latine is a general word for all kinde of Snakes and Serpents and therefore when Virgil writeth of the fury Alecto how she cast a Snake into the bosome of Amata he first of all calleth it Anguis a Snake and presently after Coluber Vipera a Serpent as appeareth by these verses following Aeneid 7. Huic dea coeruleis unum de crinibus anguem Conjicit inque sinum praecordia adintima subdit Vipeream inspirans animam fit tortile collo Aurum ingens Coluber Which may be Englished thus To her the Goddesse a Snake made of the Gorgons hair Which to the bottom of her breast and entrails made to slide Inspiring to her a Vipers soul though she were fair For chain of gold an Adder bout her neck did glide And this is the lesse to be admired or doubted â—eeing the very word Anguis seemeth to be derived of Angulosus winding or turning for every kinde of Serpent may be folded or winded up together almost in every fashion Yet sometimes as the Graecians use Ophis for one kinde as Haemorrbe or Hor for Asp so also is the word Anguis used for one kinde which we call a Snake that is a little Serpent living both in the water and on the earth Howbeit as we shall shew afterward when it is in the water it is cailed Hydrus and Na rix and when it is on the land it is called Chersydrus Among the ancient Pagans Snakes were accounted the gods of the Woods and this caused Persius to write this verse following Pingite duos angues pueri sacer est locus That is Oye children draw the figure of two Snakes for this place meaning the grove of Wood is a holy place and sacred to the Gods And in like sort the Snake in ancient time was sacred to Aesculapius because it was thought to be without venom and to contain in it many excellent medicines or remedies against other evills and also a kinde of divine power or help to drive away calamities whereof I remember that I have read this story in Valerius Maximus Rome saith he our City was for three years together continually vexed with Pestilence so as neither the mercy of God could be obtained for the release of this evil nor all wit power or industry of man put an end unto it At last by the care and travail of the Priests it was found in the writing and Books of Sibyll that unlesse they could obtain of the Epidaurians the holy Snake of Aesculapius there should be no end of that pestilence For which cause there were Ambassadours sent to the City of Epidaurus to entreat at the hands of the Citizens and Priests that holy Beast or Snake as was prophanely supposed and they attained the end of their journey for the Epidaurians did kindely entreat them and sent the Snake of Aesculapius and then saith he Tam promptam Epidauriorum indulgentiam numen ipsius Dei subsecutum verba mortalium coelesti absequiâ— comprobavit That is The very grace and power of God seconded that favourable indulgence of the Epidaurians and with an heavenly obsequiousnesse allowed and performed the words and writings of mortal creatures meaning the Sibyls writings aforesaid For that Snake which the Epidaurians never see but they worship with as great reverence as they would Aesculapius himself for it never appeareth but for their exceeding great good and commodity began to slide about the broadest streets and noblest part of the City gently looking upon every body and licking the earth and so continued three days to the religious admiration of all the beholders bearing an undoubted aspect and alacrity for the obtaining and aspiring a more beautiful habitation so at last it came to the Isle neer Rome called Triremis whereinto in the sight of all the Mariners it did ascend and enter and lodged it self round in that place where standeth the house of Quintus Ogulimus which story is thus most excellently followed by Ovid in his Metamorphos The folk of Rome came hither all by heaps both men and wives And eke the Nuns that keep the fire of V esta as their lives To meet the God and welcome him with joyful noise and as The galley rowed up the stream great store of incense was On altars burnt on both the banks so that on either side The fuming of the Frankincense the very air did hide And also slain in Sacrifice full many catteldyed Anon â—e came to Roâ—ie the head of all the world and there The Serpent lifting up himself began his head to bear Right up along the mast upon the top whereof on hie He looked round aâ—out a meet abiding place to spie The Tyber doth divide it self in twain and doth embrace A little Isle Triremis for so the people tearm the place From either side whereof the banks are distant equal space Apollo's Snake descending from the mast conveyed him thither And taking off his heavenly shape as one repairing hither To bring our City healthfulnesse did end our sorrows quite Thus saith Ovid But the truth is that the Poet did but faign this thing for the excitation and stirring up of the mindes of men to Religion and religious worship of the Heathen Gods and therefore this Snake of Epidaurus was but a fiction and therefore in the beginning of the History he maketh it to be Aesculapius in the likenesse of a Snake for in a vision he sheweth how that Aesculapius appeared to the Roman Ambassador and told him that he would appear in that form saying Pone metus veniam simulachraque nostra relinquam Hunc modo
kill them such violence which if used to their mothers would much blemish the virtues of the Bees I scarse think they are females Of what use then are they of in the Hives is the Drone altogether unprofitable good for nothing idle without sting fit for no service no way helpful to the publick More than that Virgil himself chants it to that effect Immunisque sedens aliena ad pabula fucus The Drone sits free feeding on others food Where Festus takes the word in that sense for a slothful idle unprofitable creature void of all imployment unlesse it be that of theeves and robbers who take such a course that either they will live by the sweat of other mens browes or else they will disturb the whole Kingdom Such like Hesiod makes women to be when he compares them to Drones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is I interpret it in Latine thus Qui segnes resident contectis aedibus atque Sudorem alterius proprium furantur in alvum Or in English thus Who sit at home and to work have no will With others sweat they do their bellies fill But more creditable Authors propound divers uses of Drones for if there be but a few of them amongst the Bees they make them more diligent and careful in their businesse not by their example for they live perpetually idle but because they take the more pains in making honey that they may be able to continue their liberality to strangers They discover also signs whereby to know when the honey is come to maturity for when they have perfected their honey then they kill them in abundance lest they should as their custome is rob them of it in the night for as Aelian saith the Drone all the day lies quietly in the honey cells but in the night when he perceives that the Bees are in their dead sleep he sets upon their works and destroies their combs But yet if Barthâ—lomaeus deceive us not they are not unbusied neither but they build houses for the Kings large and magnificent in the top and middle part of the Hive very finely covered over They are therefore idle to say say with Aristotle in regard of making honey or gathering dew but in regard of their Architecture so they are workmen For as the Bees make the combs of the Drones hard by the Kings Court so under the same consideration the Drones build the Kings houses which is the reason why they and their young ones if they have any are sustained by the Bees The cells of the Drones now grown up according to the bulk of their bodies are larger but their combs lesse for the Bees built these but those the made themselves because it is not fitting that the same proportion of food should be allowed to hindes and hired servants as to the childâ—en or masters of the family Tzetzes in his elegant Poem and other of the Greek Poets make them to be the Bees cellarmen or water-bearers and do assign unto them a most kindly heat whereby they are said to hatch the young Bees and make them thrive In like manner Columella the Drones do very much help to breed the young Bees by sitting upon those seeds out of which they are made And theâ—efore they are more familiarly admitted to the nursery to bring up and cherish the young bâ—ood which when they have done afterwards they are thrust out of doors And Pliny also in his 11. Book They do not assist the Bees in their Architecture only but also in cherishing their young the multitude of them causing heat and warmth the which the greater it is unlesse the honey chance to fail in the mean time the more the swarmes of Bees are increased To conclude unlesse they had been for some great use for the Bees Almighty God had never housed them under one roof nor made them as it were free Denisons of the same City Neither would the Bees lay hands on them at all as enemies of the State but when their servile multitude doth increase and they take up offensive arms or scarcity of provision were to be suddenly expected in which tempest of affairs who would not rather judge that the Carpenter should be dismissed than the Ploughman especially when without him by reason of want of victuals we may hazard our lives but the other we may be without for a time without prejudice to our lives and our selves if need requires are able to build habitations every one for himself Now as these being but a competent number of them are very profitable to the Bees so if they be over many Plato not without cause terms them morbum alvearium the Pest or Plague of the Hive in the 8. book of the Common-wealth where you may see a most elegant comparison between Acolastus and the Drone both because they waste the provision of the labouring Bees as also with their too much heat stifle them This inconvenience the Author of the Geoponicks doth thus remedy take the covers of the Hives and sprinkle them on the inside over night with water and you shall finde them betimes in the morning when you take off the cover of the Hives again all over covered with the Drones for when their bellies are full of honey they are very thirsty and are mightily perplext with an intolerable desire of water so that they cling fast to the lid of the Hive and it is an easie matter to put them all to death or if you will rather to take away the greatest part of them But if you take away the young ones and all that are not yet come to have wings and pluck off their heads casting the bodies in again to the other Bees you shall offer to them a very dainty dish Moreover also if you shall take the Drone and crop off his wings and cast it back into the Hive he will if we may credit Pliny pull ofâ— all the wings of the rest lib. 21. c. 11. or rather the Bees themselves will devour the wings of the rest of the Drones that are left For so saith Aristot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it is not probable that either the Bees should crop one the others wings or that the Drones should so far adventure or be able to offer such violence to the Bees so that as Pliny was mistaken in reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so also they do not a little speak by guesse who refer the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rest to the Bees and not to the Drones But what the dreaming of Drones doth portend what use they may be of in the way of Hieroglyphicks let Apomasaris out of the Schools of the Persians and Aegyptians declare It shall abundantly satisfie for what we intended to speak of them to shew their true use true nature generation degeneration description and name But as for what belongs to Emblemes and Hieroglyphicks and precepts for Manners
Placentinus Lay iron on the part or Lead steeped in Vinegar Gordonius Apply Chalk in powder and drink Mallowes seed in Wine and a little Vinegar boyled together Varignana His Bezoar is Coriander taken with Sugar Christophorus Probus commonly called Honeste Nonius commends Balm leaves bruised with Posca or with Oyl and applied Nouius Sparagus bruised with Honey and smeered on Flyes beaten and laid on Savory wilde Mints oyl of Momordica anointed cure Matthiolus commends Oxe dung laid on Marcellus Any man may finde these and a great many such like receipts the storehouse of Nature and of Physicians affords infinite remedies and antidotes innumerable to your hand every where The Remedies for Bees and Wasps stings are the same only that one requires them somewhat stronger than the other In the year 190. before the Birth of Christ as Julius witnesseth an infinite multitude of Wasps flew into the Market at Capua and sate in the Temple of Mars they were with great diligence taken and burnt solemnly yet they did foreshew the comming of the enemy and the burning of the City CHAP. IX Of Hornets and the Tenthredo THey are called in the Hebrew Tsirdah in Arabick Zabor Zambor in the German tongue ein Hornauss horlits froisen pferzwuble in Brabant Horsele in French Freslons froisons fâ—ulons in Italian Colauroni Crabrone Scaraffon Galanron in Spanish Tabarros o moscordos in the Slavonian tongue Sierlern in Illyrian Irssen in English Hornets Great Wasps Hungarian Lo Daras The Greeks call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because with their sting they raise a Carbuncle They are called in Latine Crabrones perchance from the Village Crabra in the Countrey of Tusculum where there are great store of them or from the word Caballus i. e. a Horse who is said to be their father According to that of Ovid. Met. 15. The warlike Horse if buried under ground Shortly a brood of Hornets will be found Albertus calls it a yellow Bee Cardanus will needs have them to arise from the dead Mule Plutarch in the life of Cleomedes saith they come out of Horse flesh as the Bees do out of the Oxe his paunch Now whereas they are more melancholy and sullen then the Wasp why should I not with Virgil say that they are produced of the Asse whom we have seen not only to fight with the Horse when as the female or she Asse would be backt but also to chase and overcome him often times I conceive that those are produced of the harder flesh of the Horse and the Wasps of the more tender flesh Neither do they every year send out and expose to the wide world their young ones as the Bees do and for which they are censured as in that respect unnatural to finde out an harbour where they can for themselves to dwell in but all their new brood they nourish and bring up in their own bosome and as need shall require build more and bigger nests to keep them in As for their King or Master Hornet whom also they dearly love and respect such a one they have that doth appear not to want power to command but occasion to exercise it Only he excels the rest in courage of minde and bignesse of body as it is usual for Princes to do for he is more fierce than any of the rest when he is to encounter with forein enemies as he is on the other hand most milde and gentle to his subjects at home The Hornets make their nests under ground casting up the mould as the Pismires do For neither they nor the Wasps send out young swarms as the Bees do as is before said but as the young are bred there they remain and so they dig their nests bigger and bigger as the family growes greater and greater They make their nests exceeding large we took 3 or 4 baskets full of combs of the lustier brood they have very little or no honey in their cells a drop or so where their young are If any of them chance to wander from their nest they gather themselves together into some tree and there make their combs in the top which oftentimes are easie to be seen in which they procreate one King or Master Hornet who when he is grown up leads away the whole troop and provides them a nest with himself The wood or wilde Hornet saith Pliny live in hollow trees all the winter like other Insects they lie hid they live not above two years Their sting is seldome without a feaver causeth a carbuncle tumor and exceeding great pain They build their Nests far more artificially than either the Bee or Wasp sometimes in the hollow trunks of trees or else under their roots in the ground which they make bigger and bigger according as their family increaseth and curiously plaister over with a kinde of slimy spittle gathered from gummy leaves The mouthes or passages of their cells are never upward but altogether downward and they very providently place the bottom of their cels upwards that the rain may not pierce through them or lest otherwise they should be exposed to the extremity of wind and weather were the head above All their nests in a manner are exactly 6 square the front or outside whereof is beset with white and rusty iron coloured segments the matter of them is membranous much like pieces of Beech-bark when it is roll'd together and shrievel'd up with heat Whilest Pennius was at Peterborough in England he saw in the wide and open street a Hornet pursuing a Sparrow whom when he wounded with his sting he fell down dead to the ground and with the admiration of all that beheld them he suck't out and fill'd himself with the bloud of the slain prey Concerning the Copulation of Hornets Arist knew nothing of certainty as neither from whence nor how they are bred But for as much as they do for certain lay their young at the very sides of their cells as Bees and Wasps do it should seem after the same manner they bring them forth But if they do couple they do it in the night as Cats do or in some secret places out of all possibility of being seen where Argus himself should not espie them The Hornet doth not feed on flowers but lives for the most part on flesh and rather then fail oftentimes they will stoop to dung and excrements They hunt after great flies also and the smaller birds which when they take they first wound the head as the Hawk doth and then pluck it off and fly away with the rest of the body In the winter they die many of them because they do not as the Bee lay up provision beforehand but only live from hand to mouth regarding nothing but their present necessity Arist l. 5. Hist Moreover as Landius observes they watch about the Bee Hives and getting on their backs use them in stead of a Coach or Chariot to carry them for when the poor wretches strive to fly away they carry a most cruel
joyning all their forces and coming together in troops and swarms had agreed as being sent by God to break the pride of the Aegyptians They fly in the air aloft in manner of an Obelisk or Pyramide especially in the evening they play up and down by hedge sides when it is hot and fair weather they fly in the sun-shine against rain in the shade It may be they are the same with those we call Midges and doth not much differ from that which Albertus cals Schaggen the Italians Zenzalis the Heathen Cinifes There is a kinde of Gnat which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Herculei in sloth and malice like to Drones and never wound or hurt any but those of their own name and alliance for as soon as they perceive other Gnats full of bloud and moisture after they have fought with them they take them for their prey and eat them whereas they live idly and do nothing else but seek for their food gotten by the labours of others Our Ancestors have observed a kinde of Gnat to be bred in the sowre Lees of Wine Which because they are not heard to sing or make any noise I had rather think them to be those which Scaliger cals Vinulae Musciliones Wine-flies Nor do I passe for the opinion of Niphus in regard they desire sowre things and refuse sweet when as he himself saith elsewhere that they are fed chiefly with the juice of Oxe dung than which nothing can be moâ—e sweet The English Gnats are not so stinging as others nor do they raise so great pimples but the lesser sort of them is the more cruel and yet they leave nothing behinde them but a little itching spot like a flea-biting The Gnats in America especially those they call Yetin do so slash and cut that they will pierce through very thick cloathing So that it is excellent sport to behold how ridiculously the barbarous people when they are bitten will frig and frisk and slap with their hands their thighs buttocks shoulders arms sides even as a carter doth his horses The Gnats about Terra incognita or New-found-Land and Port Nicholas as also in divers other Northern parts are to be seen in great numbers and of an extraordinary bignesse as the Sea-men and Olaus magnus affirm The cause of their multitude Cardanus attributes to the unintermitted heat and the length of the day The cause of their bignesse to that watery and and unctuous moisture which was gotten together by reason of the long cold But forasmuch as in the hotter parts of the Indies as Oviedus and experience tellifieth there are altogether as great and many more sorts greater and store Cardanus may well satisfie himself though he cannot do me Of the Generation of Gnats Natures secretaries do diversly dispute Albertus saith their material is watery vapours Aristotle denies that Gnats should be generated of Gnats unless by means of a little worm as Flies are But since that they do not use copulation I do not perceive how that can be Pierius was the first that taught how that Gnats do come of certain worms breeding in wood when as yet every man knowes that Gnats are produced of worms in the Navew Privet Mastick Turpentine wilde Fig-tree and other like Trees as if seed were sown and that not by way of putrefaction but animation 〈◊〉 did chance to finde saith Bruerus in a dirty filthy ditch an Insect with very long feet which for the likenesse of the form you would say was one of the larger sort of Gnats coming forth of a soft leathern purse I did imagine that it might be bred of some worm like unto the canker shut up therein for the shell within was such as those the cankers transform themselves into Whether it should be called Culex a greater Gnat or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is doubted by the Author To these as to all other the like hurtfull Insects the merciful Creator hath granted but a very short life insomuch that they which are bred in Summer never live till Winter and they that are bred in Winter never see a Summer Yet notwithstanding God hath created them for divers uses whether we respect God himself or other creatures or our selves For not only Mynutii Mynsii Astabarani Arrhotenses Guavicani were by the just judgement of God driven our of their cities into deserts and solitudes as Pausanias Leo Afer Aelian and the Indian Histories relate but even the Aegyptian Tyrant of all that ever the earth bred the most cruel as the sacred Scriptures that are more ancient then all the Heathenish Jupiters or other gods do testifie was vanquished with an Army of these The least of those the Pope could not rid out of his throat but was with one of them miserably choaked With what a fiercenesse did they charge the Army of Julian the Apostate how did they make him turn his back and fall down dead Let Apostates from the faith consider and weigh the matter well let them think more seriously of the strength power and majesty of the Creator when as they see such cruel stings and more sharp than any poynard whatsoever to be in such an abâ—ect contemptible creature as this is Neither doth God make use of them to punish wicked and ungodly men but also for the preservation and safety of mankinde For about Meroe and Astaboras as Strabo reports so great is the plenty and fierceness of the Lions that unless they were chased away by a great kinde of Gnat that troops up and down all that Region they were not able to live in safety not in the most fenced Cities from their invasion The same is wont to happen in some parts of Mesopotamia as Ammianus Marcellinus writeth where the Lions being stung with the Gnats and defrauded of any remedy against them throw themselves headlong into rivers and are drowned in the deep To the Aegyptians also although sometime they were deadly enemies yet are they now auxiliary to them as Herodotus writeth in that they wound and sting to death the young Axillae before they get feathers being noxious to them Moreover were it not for them the whole species of Bats water Frogs and bank Swallowes which prey upon the Gnats and feed only upon them would perish But whereas Gaza saith that the Bird called Cnipologus a kinde of Wood-picker with an ash-coloured back doth eat Gnats doth not agree with their nature For that kinde of Bird feeds on a little worm that breedeth in the rotten wood called Cossus the which he picketh out with his bill He was deceived it seemeth by the Amphibology of the word which signifieth both those worms and Gnats also for so are they called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if there were such a Bird I should affirm without all doubt that it is the Nycter which by Hesychius and Varinus is called Konopothera The Gnats called Psenes do cause Figs to ripen by taking away their milky
fasting or newly wounded Manardus But the Scorpions in the Island Ferrata which is one of the fortunate Islands and Coptum in Aegypt cause great pain and their Venome is mortal In Castile a Countrey of Spain the countrey folk oft-times whilest they plough up the ground do finde innumerable Scorpions clustered together like Pismires where they lye hid all the winter Matthiolus The colder Countreys have no Scorpions as Gascony England Ireland Scotland Denmark and great part of Germany or if there be any there they are not venomous Aelian reports a wonderful thing concerning the Priests of Isis which in Copto a City of Egypt where there are abundance of deadly Scorpions they can tread upon them and cast them on the ground and yet receive no harm by them Also Psylli a people of Africa cannot be hurt not stung by Scorpions For when they come to any venomous creature it presently becomes stupid as if it were charmed or struck dead that it cannot move Also all their Hogs but not the black ones for if they be stung they die presently are free from their stings Lastly a Scorpion nor any other venomous beast doth not hurt a Stellio an Ascalabotes a Crab a Hawk as Galen ad Pisonem and our friend Gesner have observed They live by eating the ground and in some places they feed on Herbs Lizards Blinde-worms Whurls Beetles and all poysonous beasts Aelian But he that shall tread on the excrements will have his feet blistered The Hens Ibis Vipers eat abundantly of them whence Aristotle cals the Viper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they are not more fit for their food than they are a remedy for us For being laid to their own wounds they made they cure them as is generally known Also a Scorpion bruised resists the poyson of a Stellio Pliny Some bruise them and drink them in Wine casting away their tails Others lay them on burning coles and perfume the wound and then strew the Scorpions ashes upon it Some binde them to the wound being bruised with salt Linseed and Marsh-mallowes Against the Stone Lanfrancus his powder Take 20. live Scorpions close them in a pot with a narrow mouth and with a soft fire burn them to ashes which is a wonderful remedy against the Stone A Scorpion torrified and burnt to ashes and taken with bread breaks the Stone of the bladder Author ad Pisonem Three Scorpions closed in a new earthen pot and covering it with a cover well luted with a fire made of Vine branches bring them to ashes in an oven the Dose is 6 grains with syrup de quinque radicibus it wonderfully drives forth stones of the kidneys New Authors exceedingly commend the ashes of Scorpions amongst the remedies against the Stone and the oyl of them injected into the bladder and anointed outwardly Alexand. Benedictus Aggregator and Leonellus Faventinus out of Galen Eupor 3 teach us to burn three small Scorpions and to give their ashes in syrup or a decoction or some confection proper for it to break the Stone And lib. 2. he bids us to mingle them with fat being calcined and so to exhibit them because otherwise the Patients would abhor the eating of them wherefore they may be given without suspicion That Medicament of Abolaus that Arnoldus praiseth so much is made of the ashes of Scorpions as you may see in 2. Breviarii cap. 18. as also the admirable syrup of the King of France against the stone which is described in the same Book and Chapter Rondeletius capite de calculo in his practise maintains that a Scorpion is cold and therefore to drive out the Stone we must use the compound and not the simple oyl of Scorpions Matthiolus teacheth to make that compound oyl Commentar pag. 1407. 20. But before him Luminare Maius made that after this manner Take round Birthwort roots of Gentian Ciperus Barks of Capers of each j. ounce oyl of bitter Almonds j. Kist let them stand in the sun 30 daies then add to it 15 Scorpions and shutting the vessel again very close set them in the sun so many daies as before Then strain the oyl and keep it for your use Others prepare it thus Take old Oyl as much as you please put as many Scorpions into it as you can take in July for then are they most venomous and fittest for this remedy add to them white Dittany leaves of Wormwood Betony Vervain Rosemary of each j. handful set them a sunning for a long time then distil them in balneo in a Limbeck It is called St. Bernards Oyl It powerfully provokes urine Anointed on the groin it is prevalent against the bitings of Scorpions how venomous soever It drives out worms miraculously Brassavolus Of Oyl of Scorpions and Vipers tongues is made a most excellent remedy against the plague as Crinitus testifies 1. 7. Manardus saith that Oyl of Scorpions is now made with old Oyl adding many medicaments thereto commended against poysons and it is admirable in the plague and against all venome I know a man that having only this remedy made no reckoning of the greatest plague and had not only preserved himself but his servants also whom he sent to visit people that were sick of the plague and I know very many that escaped only by anointing themselves having drank the most deadly poysons So sayes Manardus A liniment of Scorpions against the plague and all poysons is described by Fumanellus lib. de cur pest cap. 12. A Scorpion is good also against a wound given by a Viper saith Galen l. de simpl Samonicus commends them highly against pains in the eyes in these verses If that some grievous pain perplex thy sight Wool wet in oyl is good bound on all night Carry about thee a live Scorpions eye Ashes of Coleworts if thou do apply With bruised Frankincense Goats milk and Wine One night will prove this remedy divine If any one troubled with the Jaundies take Scorpions bruised in Wine and Honey Galen saith he shall quickly finde help Kiranides against a Quartain ague Quotidian or Tertian prescribes a Scorpion put into a glass of Oyl about the wane of the Moon and kept there and with this Oyl anoint the whole body on the joynts and the soles of the feet and the palms of the hands very well before the coming of the Ague Plinius secundus saith that a Quartan Ague as the Magicians report will be cured in three daies by a Scorpions four last joynts of his tail together with the gristle of his eâ—â— so wrapt up in a black cloth that the sick parent may neither perceive the Scorpion that is applied nor him that bound it on But let these superstitions pass and we shall speak something of Antidotes against Scorpions First therefore of Prophylacticks Magicians deny that a Scorpion can pass over if he be compassed in with a branch of Turnsole and the herb laid upon him kils him Pliny A smoke made with Brimstone Galbanum
health But because it seems so horrid a Creature to some people that the very sight of it makes them fly from it I rather attribute that to their melancholy apprehension tendernesse and distemper than to the ill form of the Spider Nature hath used no lesse elegancy and bounty in the Spider then she hath done in the Butter-fly and Flie and it is no light disease of the minde to disdain so beautifull a work and to be afraid of a Creature that weaves so curiously Lastly God hath given a wonderfull disposition and nature of the skin to so wonderfull a body for it doth not only once a year as Vipers do but every Moneth if she be well fed she changeth her skin and recovers a new one that is more curious Also it is of so excellent a temper and so frugall in its diet that in a wholesome place where she can get any provision she will live alwayes I think that to be the chiefest good amongst the goods of Fortune or rather Fate that they carry the matter of their Webs in their belly and they are so well stored with it that a Spider can draw forth innumerable threds and weave them and catch if need be a hundred Flies and have Nets enow to wrap them in And though they have not meat in a Granary as Pismires have nor ready and growing up as Bees have but they live only upon food they light upon by chance yet by Gods providence the prey comes flying by that sustains them and oft times they grow fat with plentifull dishes that they take by hostility Further I should think it no small part of good Fortune given to the Spider that when she is satisfied with the troublesome fare of the Court yet she never hath the Gout You have heard that Solomon of old assigned her a place in Kings Palaces that she might be a pattern to his Courtiers to labour to be ingenuous wise frugall and vertuous There beginning her Webs she workt with hands and feet and never need to goe a hawking for Flies she feared no assaults no treachery and briefly this most wise creature did bear rule in the great Palace of that great King After him arose bad Princes that were idle followed ill counsell that came to ruine it is hard to say how hardly they used the poor Spider and commanded forthwith to sweep her down with beesoms and poles as if she had been a night-robber and to tread her under foot and to kill her Presently Furies ran and swept down and spoyled all those learned works that had been wrought so that she could hardly escape the quick-sighted beesomes of those lazy devils She was most miserable now left all alone in so great abundance and in so large houses she could not finde one corner to be in And by the Kings example the Nobles and rich men drove out this Mistresse of labour and vertue and they would not suffer one thred to remain that was a Token and Ensign of her great wisdome She when once she went abroad to travell as the Fabulist wittily saith the Gowt by chance came to keep her company though she could hardly hold pace with her but with great toil When as now they had travelled one dayes journey at night they took counsell to try their Host but they were of different opinions The Spider going into the City got into the house of a rich Gitizen and so soon as she began to work and to spread her Tapestry and hangings by the example of the bad Kings he forthwith hates her and drives her out and the same night he expos'd her to the rain and open air But the Gowt being lame when he could go no further got into the first house of the Town and could scarce intreat to be harboured in the poorest Cottage there and when she lay down she found misery enough she had for supper brown bread that her stomach rose against and a little herbs scarce any salt upon them and water was fetcht from the next pond in an earthen Pitcher to quench her thirst being thus entertained she required a bed to ly on she could get none but straw or the planks to ly upon and so she lay down in pitifull misery lamenting and sighing But alas how wretched a thing it is for tender limbs and that cannot endure to be touched as saith Hippocrates to ly upon such a hard bed and pillowes The next morning the Spider and the Gowt met again the Spider complained terribly of the incivility and rudenesse of the rich Citizen and the Gowt on the other side complained of her Hosts poverty and poor fare shewing the black and blew marks the hard lodging had made in her skin and when they had a while taken deliberation about it they both agreed upon this that the next night they would change their host that the Spider should go to the poor cottages and the Gowt to the Kings palaces and rich mens houses the Gowt not unmindful of this agreement went to a very rich mans house and lay down at the feet of a very well fed Master that was very rich and so soon as this kinde host perceived her with what humanity embracings and cheerfulness did he entertain her down pillowes were laid under her all the stools and chairs in the chambers are filled with the best feathers and cushions laid upon them the Kitchen was very hot and all officers at work for provision the table is spread with all dainties and the cups fill'd with Wine fat and cramb'd Capons Pheasants Partridge Peacocks Quails Turtles that feed on figs and grapes and those birds that have two hearts to set them forth come flying to the table Turbots Gilt-heads Sturgeons are not worth speaking of The shell-fish of Campania with purple juice and Oysters from Abydus and whatsoever the whole ocean can afford are ready The Wines are white black red purple sweet delicate sharp Cecubum Falernum Chium powred forth in full bouls To say nothing of the second table brought from Tarentum and the dainty cates with Rose Violet and Iacinth coloured Lastly no delights dainties pleasures or joyes are wanting that the rich Gowt for she is daughter to Bacchus and Venus with her sisters the hand and knee-gowts may be entertained delicately The Spider also as good hap was light upon a poor Cottage instead of a rich palace and there she teacheth man and wife what duties are useful for both and fats her self with care But perhaps some man wil object that they can finde no good fortune in this but only the Spider may be commended for changing her habitation and her host but it is very fortunate for her for she lives not only safer and more at rest but she doth not from the roof as from a watch-tower behold any more adulteries gluttony riot prodigality lasciviousness plays dancings wantonness dicings cardings and lastly those vanities and beastliness that never enter into poor mens cottages