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A13830 The Spanish Mandeuile of miracles. Or The garden of curious flowers VVherin are handled sundry points of humanity, philosophy, diuinitie, and geography, beautified with many strange and pleasant histories. First written in Spanish, by Anthonio De Torquemeda, and out of that tongue translated into English. It was dedicated by the author, to the right honourable and reuerent prelate, Don Diego Sarmento de soto Maior, Bishop of Astorga. &c. It is deuided into sixe treatises, composed in manner of a dialogue, as in the next page shall appeare.; Jardin de flores curiosas. English Torquemada, Antonio de, fl. 1553-1570.; Lewkenor, Lewis, Sir, d. 1626.; Walker, Ferdinand. 1600 (1600) STC 24135; ESTC S118471 275,568 332

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and that he name giuen vnto him of Aethiopia was but through error because the people would haue it to be so Iohannes Teuronicus in his book of the rites customes of Nations is as well deceaued also in this matter as the rest following the cōmon opinion that he of Aethiopia in Afrique should be Prester Iohn the other hauing raigned beene subdued in the end of Asia where as I said the great Cham or Tartare holdeth his Empire signeury who as it is thought is one of the puissantest mightiest monarches of the world so he entituleth himselfe King of Kings Lord of Lords This matter though otherwise well knowne and verified is also confirmed by Marcus Paulus Venetus who was along time resident in Townes Citties of his Empire and by an English Knight likewise called Iohn Mandeuile who seruing him in his warrs receaued his wages pention BER You haue great reason in all this which you haue said and now I call to memory that the Aethiopians beganne to receaue the faith of S. Phillip the Deacon and afterwards by the preaching of S. Mathew the Apostle and therefore they vaunt them selues to be the first Christians that were in the world in community But leauing these there is a prouince of Christians in Asia called Georgia the which say they were so called because they were conuerted by S. George but I rather take it to be the ancient proper name of the Prouince These Georgists are also called Yuori they haue their Embassadours alwaies in the Court of the Sophie I knowe not whether they pay him tribute or no their Country is very colde and full of Mountaines Those also of Colchos are christians now called by an other name Mengrels There is another kind of people called Albanes who maintaine the Christian religion There is another country of Christians who are called Iacobits on the Mountaine Sinay there are other christians named Maromites And all the coast of India is inhabited of christians from the entry of the Red-Sea where the citty of Aden standeth to the citties of Ormur Dia Malaca and frō thence forward to the kingdoms of Iapon China which are verie great mighty and hereabouts border many other Kingdoms citties Ilands as Zamora Taprobana Zeilan Borney and the Iles of Molucco whence the spice cōmeth with many other Regions great little where dwell infinit numbers of Christians as well Portugals as other which through their good example haue conuerted themselues to the Christian faith the like is hoped that those wil doe which liue vnder the subiection of the great Cham seeing they drawe so neere vnto it which should be a great augmentation of christianitie so that by this meanes Christianitie goeth as it were compassing round about the whole world The christianitie of the Armenians is notorious to all men in the greater of which they are in a manner all christians and in the lesser the greatest part There are likewise christians in Sury in Egypt where as yet remaine sundry signes of ancient christianity in many other parts though in respect of their farre distance from hence we haue no plaine and perticuler knowledge of them I haue read in the chronicles of Portugall that vvhen the Ilands of Catatora were founde out the enhabitants were all christians in their beliefe though God wot passing ignorant in the misteries of the same for they onely worshipped the Crosse because they said that God the redeemer of mankind died vpon the same as for the rest they held a few precepts the chiefest of which was to obserue the law of Nature They called themselues by the names of the Apostles and other Saints whereby it may be thought that some good christian man had arriued in that Iland and conuerted thē to the faith through whose death or departure from thence they remained so smally endoctrined in that Beliefe through the which they should worke their saluation As for the christianity of the West Indies new discouered world we al know it hold it for a thing most assured that asmuch as is shall be discouered will embrace the Catholick faith because that people easily discouereth the error of their Idols and false gods knowing him whom they serued to be the verie deuill himselfe for some of them were of the same beliefe as those of India Maior of whom I spake before who held him in solemne reuerence with sacrifice temples But since the christians arriuall in those parts now they see the dreadful state of damnation wherin they stood withall the deuils authority daily decaying for he speaketh nor appeareth now no more vnto thē as he was wont to doe there come daily such mighty numbers of them with such sorrowfull contrition repentance to receiue the Christian faith that it is wonderfull in which after they are once throughly instructed they perseuer with such ardent charity zeale and perfection that trulie I am ashamed to say how far they doe excell vs of vvhom they receaued it LVD At one thing I do much vvonder and that is how the christianity of these Indies remaineth so cleere without Heresies considering the foule contagious infection that is here amongst vs no doubt but diuers haue gone out of these parts thither that haue not beene of the soundest in Religion but it seemeth that God hath layde his hand vpon that Country for the preseruation of the same to the end he may be there honored serued BE. Wee haue vnderstood that Christendom is far greater then we thought it had been if we all could agree in one vnitie of acknowledging obeying the Catholique Church and couer our selfe vnder the blessed protection thereof not as many doe who beare only the name of Christians but are indeed children of damnation following other fantasticall Churches professing new haereticall doctrines I pray God that wee may liue to be all liuely members of one true and Catholique Church the Spouse of Christ that we may one day see the prophecie fulfilled Et erit vnum Ouile vnus Pastor and there shal be one flold one Sheepheard LV. That wee may see say you this were to promise your selfe a longer life then those of whō we yesterday made mention considering the diuersitie of supersticions factious Sectes wherewith the world is infected AN. Say not so for whē soeuer it shall please God to touch the harts of all those in the world with his mercifull hands he can in one yeere yea in one month day houre or moment so illuminate lighten not only all haereticall Christians but also Turkes Moores Pagans and Iewes and all erronious Sectes ouer the whole world that they may see and repent their owne error reconcile themselues into the bosome of our holy Mother the Catholique Church to th' end the prophecies you haue said may take effect but let vs not looke
thy walls and in this manner encreased thy goodlines and beauty BER Perchaunce those Pigmees of which Ezechiell maketh mention was some Nation of little men but not so little as those which wee speake of for Pigmee in Hebrew is as much to say as a man of little stature for if these Pigmees were such as those Authors write they must needes enioy long life seeing they voyaged so farre vsing traffique by Sea bringing vnto vs such commodities as theyr Country yeeldeth and carrying backe such of ours as are necessarie for them so that I account it a matter vnpossible that men whose space of lyues is so short should traffique with such carefull industrie in the farre Countries of Siry and Iury. LU. Your opinion is not without reason but in the ende heerein we cannot stedfastly affirme any thing for trueth so that it is best that wee leaue it euen so contenting our selues with that which hath beene vpon this matter alleadged seeing we haue not as yet ended our discourse of monsters I say therefore that Ctesias affirmeth that beeing with Alexander in India hee sawe aboue 130000. men together hauing all heads like dogges and vsing no other speech but barking BER I would rather call these dogges with two feete or else some other two footed beasts such as there is a kinde of great Apes of the which I haue seene one with a doggs face but standing vpright on his feete each part of him had the shape of a man or so little difference that at the first any man might be deceaued and so perchaunce might Ctesias and the rest of those which saw them seeing they could not affirme vvhether they had the vse of reason vvhereby they might be held for men and not brute beasts AN. Both the one and the other may be but leauing this they write that there are certaine men dwelling on the hill Milo hauing on each foote eight toes which turne all backward and that they are of incredible swiftnes Others that are borne vvith theyr haire hoary gray vvhich as they waxe olde becommeth blacke To be short if I should rehearse the infinite number of such like as are reported I should neuer make an ende for you canne scarcely come to any manne vvhich will not tell you one vvoonder or other vvhich hee hath seene One vvill tell you of an Evve that brought foorth a Lyon vvhich as Elian sayeth happened in the Countrey of the Coosians in the time of the tiranny of Nicippus Another vvill tell you of a Sovve that farowed a Pygge resembling an Elephant vvhich happened not long since in this Tovvne vvherein vvee dwell so that euery one will tell you a new thing and for my part I will not beleeue but that they are true because we see euery day new secrets of nature discouered the world is so great that we cannot knowe in the one part what is done in the other If it were not for this it were vnpossible to write the number of them neither were any booke how great so euer able to containe them But for the proofe of the rest I will tell you of one strange people found out in the world Mine author is Iohanes Bohemus a Dutch man in his booke entituled the manners and customes of all Nations who though he declareth not the time wherein it happened nor what the person was that found them out yet he writeth it so familierly that it seemeth he was some man meruailous well knowne in his Country but because you shall not thinke that I enhaunce the matter with wordes of mine owne I will repeate those selfe same which he vsed in the which haue patience if I be somwhat long Iambolo sayth he a man from his childhood wel brought vp after that his Father died vsed the trade of Merchandize who voyaging towards Arabia to buy spices and costly perfumes the ship wherein he went was taken by certaine Rouers which made him with another of the prisoners Cow-heard and keeper of their cattell with which as he went one morning to the pasture hee and his companion were taken by certaine Aethiopians and caried into Aethiopia to a Citty situate on the Sea whose custome was from long and auncient time to cleanse that place and others of the Country there abouts according to the aunswere of an Oracle of theirs in sending at certaine seasons two men beeing strangers to the Iland which they call Fortunat whose enhabitants liue in great and blessed happines If these two went thither and returned againe it prognosticated to that Country great felicity but if they returned through feare of the long way or tempest of the Sea many troubles should happen to that Country and those which so returned were slaine and torne in peeces The Aethiopians had a little boate fit for two men to rule into the which they put victuals enough for sixe moneths beseeching them with all instance to direct the Provv of their boate according to the commaundement of the Oracle towards the South to the end they might arriue in that Iland where those fortunate men liued promising them great rewardes if after theyr arriuall they returned backe threatning to pull them in peeces if they should before through feare returne to any coast of that Country because theyr feare should be the occasion of many miseries to that Land and as in so returning they should shewe themselues most wicked and cruell so should they at theyr hands expect all crueltie possible to bee imagined Iambolo and his companion beeing put into the boate with these conditions the Ethiopians remained on the shore celebrating theyr holie ceremonies and inuoking theyr Gods to guide prosperously thys little ship and to graunt it after the voyage finished safe returne Who sayling continuallie 4. months passing many dangerous tempests at last wearied with so discomfortable a voyage arriued at the Iland wherto they were directed which was round and in compasse about 5000. stadyes approching to the shore some of the inhabitants came to receiue them in a little Skiffe others stoode on the shoare wondering at the strangenes of theyr habite and attyre but in fine all receiued them most curteously communicating with thē such thinges as they had The men of this Iland are not in body and manners like vnto ours though in forme and figure they resemble vs for they are foure cubites higher and theyr boanes are like sinewes which they double writhe each way they are passing nimble and withall so strong that whatsoeuer they take in theyr handes there is no possible force able to take it from them They are hairie but the same is so polished and delicate that not so much as any one haire standeth out of order Theyr faces most beautifull theyr bodies well featured the entry of theyr eares far larger then ours The chiefest thing wherein they differ from vs is theyr tongues which haue a singuler particularitie giuen thē
reason therfore but they neuer talke of that Land which runneth on in length by the sea coast on the left hand towards the West passing by the kingdome of Norway and many other Prouinces and Countries for they know not what Land it is neither whether it goeth nor where it endeth nor where it turneth to ioyne with those parts of which they haue notice LV. By this meanes then it may be that they are deceaued which say that Europe is the least part of the three olde diuided parts of the world yet some say that on the other side of the bounds of Asia also there is much vnknowne Lande AN. You haue reason for this Land of which I speak stretching out along the Occident commeth turning to the Septentrion euen till vnder the Northern Pole which is the same that we here see from which forward on the other side what Lande there is or howe it extendeth it selfe wee knowe not though perchaunce the same be very great and spacious But let vs leaue this matter till hereafter where I will declare it more particulerly let vs return to entreate of som grounds and principles which are necessary for the facility of vnderstanding that which wee will speake of for otherwise in alleaging euery particuler wee should bring in all the Astrologie and cosmography of the world and therfore ommitting to declare what thing the Sphaere is and in what sort it is vnderstood that the earth is the Center of the worlde and then how the Center of the Earth is to be vnderstood with infinit other the like I will onelie alleadge that which is necessarie for our discourse First therefore all Astronomers and Cosmographers deuide the heauen into fiue Zones which are fiue parts or fiue gyrdings about according to which also the Earth is deuided into other fiue parts The one hath in the midst thereof the Pole Artick or North-pole which is the same that wee see the other hath the South or Pole Antartick directly contrary on the other side of the Heauen These 2. Poles are as two Axeltrees vpon which the whole Heauen turneth about they still standing firme in one selfe place in the midst betweene them both is the same which we call Torrida Zona and of the other two Colaterall Zones the one is between Torrida Zona the North-pole beeing the same in which we inhabite cōtaining Asia Affrick Europe it hath not bin known or vnderstood til these our times that any other of the Zones or parts of the earth hath been enhabited and so saith Ouid in his Metamorphosis that as the heauen is deuided into fiue Zones two one the right hand and two on the left and that in the midst more fierie then any of the rest so hath the diuine Prouidence deuided the Earth into other fiue parts of which that in the midst is through the great heate vninhabitable and the two vtmost in respect of their exceeding cold The selfe same opinion holdeth Macrobius in his seconde booke of the Dreame of Scipio Virgill in his Georgiques and the most part of all the auncient Authors whose authorities it serueth to no purpose to rehearse because in these our tymes we haue seene and vnderstood by experience the contrary as touching Torrida Zona seeing it is as well to be enhabited as any of the others and euery day it is past vnder frō one part to another as wee the other day discoursed And trulie the ignoraunce of the Auncients must bee verie great seeing they know not that Arabia faelix Aethiopia the coast of Guyne Calecut Malaca Taprobana Elgatigara many other Countries then in notice were vnder Torrida zona beeing a thing so notorious manifest that I maruaile how they coulde so deceaue themselues and not onely they but diuers moderne Writers also which though one way they confesse it yet another way they seeme to stande in doubt as may be seene by the Cosmography of Petrus Appianus augmented by Gemmafrigius a man in that Science very famous whose wordes are these The fiue zones of the Heauen constitute so many parts in the Earth of which the two vtmost in respect of theyr extreame cold are vnenhabitable the middlemost through the continuall course of the Sunne and perpendiculer beames thereof is so singed that by reason it seemeth not at all or very hardly to be habitable The Greeke Commendador likewise a man of great fame estimation in Spayne deceaued himselfe in his glosse vvhich hee vvrote vpon Iohn De Meno wherein hee maintayneth thys auncient opinion by these vvordes The Mathematitians sayth hee deuide the Earth into fiue Zones of which the two vtmost next the Poles through theyr great extreamitie of colde are not enhabitable neyther that in the midst through extreame heate the other two of each side participating of the heate of the middle and the colde of the vtter Zones are temperate and inhabitable Of these two the one is enhabited by those Nations of which we haue notice and is deuided into three parts Affrica Asia and Europa the other is enhabited by those whom we call Antypodes of whom we neuer had nor neuer shall haue any knowledge at all by reason of the Torrida or burned Zone which is vninhabitable the fierie heate of which stoppeth the passage betweene them and vs so that neyther they can come at vs nor we at them c. Though heere the Comendador confesse that there are Antypodes with whom wee cannot conuerse nor traffique yet the Auncients accounting the Torrida Zona as vninhabitable doubted whether there could be of the other side therof any people seeming vnto them vnpossible for any man since the creation of Adam which was created in this second Zone of the Pole Articke to passe ouer the burning Zone and there to generate and spred mankind Of this opinion seemeth to be S. Austine when he saith Those which fabulously affirme that there are Antypodes which is to say men of the contrary part where the Sunne riseth when it setteth with vs and which goe on the ground with theyr feete right against ours are by no meanes to be beleeued and Lactantius Firmianus in his third booke of Diuine Institutions laugheth and iesteth at those which make the earth and the water to be a body sphaericall and round at which error of his being a man so wise and prudent I cannot choose but much meruaile in denying a principle so notoriously known as though the world being round those people which are opposite to vs vnderneath should fall downe backwards The grosnes of which ignorance being nowe so manifestly discouered I will spend no more time in rehearsing his wordes so that they deny that there are Antypodes and that the world is enhabitable at all the Zones the contrary whereof is manifest Pliny handleth this matter in the sixty fiue Chapter of his second booke but in the end he resolueth not whether
Sea of the North though being frozen the greatest part of the yeare yet that the same at such time as the Sunne mounteth high and their day of such length should through the heate of the Sunne thaw and become nauigable and so in that season the Indians might be driuen through the same with a tempest all which though it be so yet the people assuredly knowing that the same Sea freezeth in such sort euery yeere will not dare or aduenture to saile therein or to make any voyage on that side so that we come not to the knowledge of such thinges as are in that Sea and Land vnlesse wee will beleeue the fictions that Sylenus told to King Mydas LV. Of all friendship tell vs them I pray you for in so diffuse a matter any man may lye by authority without controlement BER That which I will tell you is out of Theopompus alleaged by Aelianus in his book De varia Historia This Sylenus saith he was the Sonne of a Nimph and accounted as inferiour to the Gods but as superiour vnto men who in one communication among many others that hee had with King Mydas discoursed vnto him that out of this Land or world in which wee liue called commonly Asia Affrique and Europe whom he termeth Ilands enuironed rounde about with the Ocean there is another Land so great that it is infinite and without measure in the same are bred Beastes and Fowles of admirable hugenes and the men which dwell therein are twise so great as we are and their life twice as long They haue many and goodly Citties in which they liue by reason hauing lawes quite contrary vnto ours among their Citties there are two that exceede the rest in greatnes in customes no whit at all resembling for the one is called Machino which signifieth warlike and the other Euaesus which signifieth pittifull the enhabitants of which are alwayes in continuall peace and plentifully abounding in great quantity of riches in whose Prouince the fruites of the earth are gathered without being sowed or planted They are alwayes free from infirmities spending their whole time in mirth pleasure and solace they maintaine iustice so inuiolably that many times the immortall Gods disdaine not to vse their friendship and company but on the contrary the enhabitants of Machino are altogether warlike continually in Armes and Warre seeking to subdue the bordering Nations This people doth dominate and commaund ouer many other proud Citties and mighty Prouinces The Cittizens of this Towne are at least 200000. in number they sildome die of infirmity but in the Warres wounded with stones and great staues Iron nor steele hurtes them not for they haue none Siluer gold they possesse in such quantity that they esteeme lesse therof then we doe of Copper Once as he said they determined to come conquer these Ilands of ours and hauing past the Ocean with many thousandes of men and comming to the Hiperborean mountaines hearing there vnderstanding that our people were so ill obseruers of Religion and of so wicked manners they disdained to passe any farther accounting it an vnwoorthy thing to meddle with so corrupt a people and so they returned backe againe He added heere-vnto many other meruailous things as that there were in other Prouinces thereof certaine people called Meropes who enhabited many and great Citties within the bounds of whose Country there was a place called Anostum which worde signifieth a place whence there is no returne this Country saith he is not cleare and light neither yet altogether darke but betweene both through the same runne two Riuers the one of delight the other of greefe vppon the shore both of the one and the other are planted trees about the bignes of Poplar-trees those that are on the banks of the Riuer of griefe bring forth a fruite of the same nature quality causing him that eateth thereof to spend the whole time of his life in sad and melancholly dumps bitter teares perpetuall weeping The fruite of those that grow on the banks of the other Riuer haue a contrary effect and vertue yeelding to the eater thereof a blessed course of life abounding in all ioy recreation and pleasure without any one moment of sadnes When they are in yeeres by little and little they waxe young againe recouering their former vigour and force and thence they turne still backward euen to their first infancie becomming little babes againe then they die LV. These things were very strange if they were true but be howe they will they carry some smell of that of which we entreated concerning the Land which is on the other side of the Riphaean and Hiperborean mountaines seeing he saith that determining to conquer this our world which he calleth Ilands they returned backe after they came to those mountaines and so it is to be vnderstoode that they came from the other part of the North-pole as for that Land which he saith to be so tenebrous obscure it may be the same which as we sayd hath continuall obscurity and is a condemned part of the world I doe not wonder at all if amongst the other works of Nature she made this part of the earth with so strange properties I meane not that which Silenus spake but the other by vs entreated of before the ayre of which by reason of som constellation or other thing we comprehend not is so troubled that it is not onely vninhabitable but also not to be passed through wherby the secreets therein contained remaine concealed though perchance on the other side therof the time temperature may be such and so contrary that it may excell these very Countries wherein we now liue AN. You haue reason for without doubt the Land which is in those parts vndiscouered must be very great and containe in it many things of admiration vtterly vnknowne to vs But comming now to particularize somewhat more of that which is now in these our times known discouered I wil tell you what some very new moderne Authors doe say thereof and principallie Iohn Zygler whom I alleadged before who in person visited viewed some part of these Septentrionall Countries though hee passed neither the Hiperborean neyther the Riphaean mountains who meruaileth greatly at that which sundry Authors haue left written of these parts for he found many things so different and contrary that theirs conformed in no one poynt with the truth as well touching the situation of mountaynes and heads of Riuers as the sundry properties and qualities of the Regions and Prouinces for hee sayeth that he was in that part where they all affirme the mountaines Ryphaeus to be and hee found there no mountaynes at all neyther in a great space of Lande round about it but all a plaine and leuell Country the selfe same is affirmed by Sigismund Herberstain in his voyage so that if they erre in the seate of a thing so common and
otherwise we should attribute vnto them some vse of reason which can be neither in them nor in Beasts what shewe so euer they make thereof BER Let vs leaue this least otherwise wee interrupt Signior Anthonio in the prosecution of his promised discourse touching the Septentrionall Countries which is a matter not to be let slip AN. I would that I were therein so instructed that I could entreate so particulerly and plainly thereof as it were requisite I should but though the fault be mine in that I vnderstande little yet I want not an excuse where-with to wipe away some part of the blame For the great confusion of the Authors both Auncient Moderne that write thereof as yesterday you vnderstoode is such that it maketh me also confuse and wauering in whether of theyr opinions I should follow Trust me it is a world to see theyr disagreements and he had neede of a very Diuine iudgment that should conforme himselfe to the vnderstanding of Ptolomaeus Solinus Stephanus Dyonisius Rufus Festus Auienius Herodotus Plinius Anselmus Strabo Mela and diuers other of the Auncients some of the which in reckoning vp of Nations and Prouinces name onely one saying forth others aboue this and others aboue that beyond of the one side and of the other some declare the names particulerly of each one but in such sort that comparing them with these by which we now know thē they are not to be discerned which are which for with great difficulty can we know who are the right Getes Massagetes Numades Scythians and Sarmates but onely that we goe gessing according to the names which they now haue for there are Authors that giue to the Land of the Scithians onely 75. leagues of widenes and others will needs haue the most part of all those great Countries Northward to be contained vnder them so that Pliny not without cause speaking of these Septentrionall parts termeth them to be so vast and of so farre a reach that they may be accounted an other new part of the world yet he then knew nothing of the interiour part thereof towards the Pole which is now discouered But leauing this there is no lesse difficulty and difference in the description of those parts which we now know and vnderstand yea euen those which are neere vs and with whom we haue traffique as Norway Denmarke Gothland Sweueland and the Prouinces which we call Russia Prussia of which they write so intricatly especially in some points that they hardly giue resolution to those that reade them notwithstanding which difficulties seeing there is no part of the world in which there are not some thinges though to them common yet rare and strange to those that haue not seene them but newly heare them spoken of I will tell you some particularities recorded by the Authors that make mention of these Regions with which we may passe in good conuersation this euening as we haue done the rest And first to begin with their men they say that they are of great stature their lims members wel proportioned and their faces beautiful Amongst which there are many Gyants of incredible greatnes which as you enter farther into the Lande so shall you finde them greater Of these make mention Saxo Grammaticus and Olaus Magnus chiefely of one called Hartenus another Starchater and two others Angrame and Aruedor who were endued with so extraordinary a force puissance that to carry an Oxe or a Horse vpon their shoulders though the way were very long they accounted nothing There are also women nothing inferiour to them in strength some of which haue beene seene with one hand take a Horse with a man Armed vpon his back and to lift him vp and throw him downe to the ground and of these and others sundry Authors write many notable thinges worthy of memory which seruing nothing to our purpose it were in vaine heere to rehearse Leauing them therefore I say that the continuance of the Snow in all these Septentrionall Lands is such that the high eminent places and toppes of mountaines are couered there-with all the yeere long and many times the valleyes and low places also notwithstanding all which extreamity of cold they haue very good pastures both for Beasts wild and tame for theyr fodder and grasse is of such quality that the very cold nourisheth and augmenteth the force verdure therof The greatest discōmodity they haue is through the wind Circius which the greater part of the yere blustreth in those Prouinces and that with such raging fury violence that it renteth vp the trees by the rootes and whirleth whole heapes of stones from vp the earth into the ayre wherby those that trauaile are often in great danger of their liues the remedy they haue is to hide shroud themselues in caues hollow vauts vnder the mountains for somtimes the tempests are so incredibly raging terrible that there haue ben ships in the Bothnyk Sea which though it be neere the frozen Sea yet notwithstanding is nauigable hoised vp into the ayre thrown down violently against the maine Land a matter scarsly credible but that it is verified by so many so graue Authors at other times you shall see waues of the Sea resembling mighty mountains raised in height then with their fal drowne and ouerwhelme such ships as are neere somtimes the tiles yea the whole roofs of the house taken away blown far off which is more the roofs of their churches couered with Lead other mettals haue ben torn vp caried away as smoothly as though they had been but feathers neither haue men Armed and a Horseback more force to resist the violence of this wind then hath a light reed for either it ouerthroweth them or else perforce driueth thē against some hillock or Rock so that in diuers places of Norway which lie subiest to this wind there grow encrease no trees at all for they are straight turned vp by the roots For want of wood they make fire of the bones of certaine fishes which they take in great quantity the bleetenes of this wind for sildome in those parts bloweth any other is cause that the most part of the yere the Riuers ponds Lakes are all frozen yea the very waters of the Springs doe no sooner com out of them but they are presently congeled into Ice when the heat of the Sun thaweth or melteth any Snow the same presently turneth into so hard an Ice ouer that which is vnderneath that they can scarcely pearce it with Pickaxes so that euery yeere their yong men in plaine fields make thick wals of snow like vnto those of a Fortresse in som such place that they may receaue the heat of the Sun melting through which they conuert into a hard Christaline Rock of Ice and sometimes of purpose after they haue framed this edifice of snow they cast water vppon the same to make