The North winde also bringeth in haile so doth Corus The South wind is exceeding hot and troublous withall Vulturnus and Favonius be warme They also be drier than the East and generally all winds from the North and West are drier than from the South and East Of all winds the Northern is most heathfull the Southern wind is noisome and the rather when it is drie haply because that when it is moist it is the colder During the time that it bloweth liuing creatures are thought to be lesse hungry the Etesiae giue ouer ordinarily in the night arise at the third houre of the day In Spaine and Asia they blow from the East but in Pontus from the North in other quarters from the South They blow also after the Mid-winter when they be called Orinthiae but those are more milde continue fewer daies Two there be that change their nature together with their site and place the South winde in Affrick bringeth faire weather and the North wind there is cloudy All winds keep their course in order for the more part or els when one ceaseth the contrary beginneth When some are laid the next to them do arise they go about from the left hand to the right according to the Sun Of their manner and order monthly the prime or fourth day after the change of the Moone doth most commonly determine The same windes wil serue to saile contrariwise by means of setting out the sailes so as many times in the night ships in sailing run one against another The South winde raiseth greater billowes and more surging waues than the North for that the South wind ariseth below from the bottome of the Sea the other blustereth aloft and troubleth the top of the water And therfore after Southern winds earth-quakes are most hurtful The South wind in the night time is more boisterous the Northerne wind in the day The winds blowing from the East hold and continue longer than those from the West The Northern winds giue ouer commonly with an odde number which obseruation serueth to good vse in many other parts of naturall things and therfore the male winds are iudged by the odde number The Sun both raiseth and also laieth the windes At rising and setting hee causeth them to be aloft at noon-tide he represseth and keepeth them vnder in Summer time And therefore at mid-day or mid-night commonly the winds are down and lie still for both cold and heat if they be immoderate do spend and consume them Also rain doth lay the winds and most commonly from thence they are looked for to blow where clouds break and open the skie to be seen And verily Eudoxus is of opinion if wee list to obserue the least reuolutions that after the end of euery fourth yere not only all winds but other tempests and constitutions also of the weather return again to the same course as before And alwaies the Lustrum or computation of the fiue yeres beginneth at the leap yere when the Dog-star doth arise Thus much touching general winds CHAP. XLVIII ¶ Of sudden Blasts NOw wil we speake of sudden blasts which being risen as hath bin said before by exhalations of the earth and cast downe againe in the meane while appeare of many fashions enclosed within athin course of clouds newly ouercast For such as be vnconstant wandering and rushing in manner of land flouds as some men were of opinion as wee haue shewed bring forth thunder and lightening But if they come with a greater force sway and violence and withall burst and cleaue a dry cloud asunder all abroad they breed a storme which of the Greeks is called Ecnephias but if the clift or breach be not great so that the wind be constrained to turne round to roll and whirle in his discent without fire i. lightening it makes a whirle puffe or ghust called Typhon i. the storme Ecnephias aforesaid sent out with a winding violence This takes with it a piece broken out of a congealed cold cloud turning winding and rolling it round and with that weight maketh the owne fall more heauie and changeth from place to place with a vehement and sudden whirling the greatest danger and mischiefe that poore sailers haue at sea breaking not onely their crosse saile yards but also writhing and bursting in pieces the very ships and yet a small matter is the remedy for it namely the casting of vinegre out against it as it commeth which is of nature most cold The same storme beating vpon a thing is it selfe smitten backe againe with a violence and snatcheth vp whatsoeuer it meeteth in the way aloft into the skie carrying it back and swallowing it vp on high But if it breake out from a greater hole of the said cloud by it so borne down and yet not altogether so broad as the abouenamed storm Procella doth nor without a cracke they call this boisterous wind Turbo casting downe and ouerthrowing all that is next it The same if it be more hot and catching a fire as it rageth is named Prester burning and withall laying along whatsoeuer it toucheth and encountereth CHAP. XLIX ¶ Other enormious kindes of Tempests NO Typhon commeth from the North ne yet any Ecnephias with snow or while snow lieth on the ground This tempestuous winde if when it brake the cloud burned light withall hauing fire of the owne before and catched it not afterward it is very lightning and differeth from Prester as the flame from a cole of fire Againe Prester spreadeth broad with a flash and blast the other gathereth round with forcible violence Typhon moreouer or Vortex differeth from Turben in flying backe and as much as a crash from a cracke The storme Procella from them both in breadth and to speake more truly rather scattereth than breaketh the cloud There riseth also vpon the sea a darke mist resembling a monstrous beast and this is euer a terrible cloud to sailers Another likewise called a Columne or Pillar when the humour and water ingendred is so thicke and stiffe congealed that it standeth compact of it selfe Of the same sort also is that cloud which draweth water to it as it were into a long pipe CHAP. L. ¶ In what Lands Lightenings fall not IN Winter and Summer seldome are there any Lightnings and that is long of contrary causes because in Winter the aire is driuen close together and thickened with a deeper course of clouds besides all the exhalations breathing and rising out of the earth being stark congealed and frozen hard do extinguish cleane what firie vapour soeuer otherwise they receiue which is the reason that Scythia and other cold frozen quarters thereabout are free from lightenings And Aegypt likewise vpon the contrarie cause and exempt from Lightnings namely exceeding heate for the hot and dry exhalations of the earth gather into very slender thin and weake clouds But in the Spring and Autumne lightnings are more rife because in both those seasons the causes as well of Summer as
very few who haue a certaine pipe or conduit in stead of a gut the same wrapped and infolded together Which is the cause that if they be cut in two and pulled in pieces yet they haue a speciall property to liue long and each part asunder wil pant stir by it selfe The reason is because the vitall vertue in them whatsoeuer it is is not seated in any one member this or that but spred and defused throughout the whole body and least apparent in the head of all other parts for that alone vnlesse it be plucked away together with the breast moueth not one jot No kind of creatures haue more feet than these and the more they haue the longer liue they when they be diuided asunder as we see by experience in the Scolopendres Eies they haue that is certain besides sight they are not without the sences of feeling tasting some there be that smell a few that haue their hearing also CHAP. V. ¶ Of Bees BVt among them all Bees are principall and by good right deserue especiall admiration as being the only Insects ordained by Nature for mans vse They gather honie a most sweet pleasant fine and wholesome liquor They frame the hony combs and work the wax which serue for a thousand turns in this life They indure pains continually and dispatch their worke and businesse They haue a policie and Commonwealth among themselues They hold their seuerall counsels and there is not a swarme or cast that they haue without a king and captaine of their owne and that which is most admirable of all there be ciuill fashions and customes among them Moreouer being as they are neither tame and gentle nor yet to be counted wilde and sauage yet see the wondrous worke of Nature by the means of so little a creature nay a shadow rather to say a truth of the least creature she hath effected a thing incomparable what strength of sinewes what force and puissance is able to countervaile this so great industry and effectuall power of theirs What wit and policy of man is answerable to their discreet and orderly course Beleeue me they passe them all and in this one point surpasse That all things are common among them and nothing know they priuat and seueral What should we debate and make question any more as touching their breath Why should wee dispute of their bloud which cannot chuse but be very little in such smal bodies Let vs rather consider henceforth their wit and the gifts of their mind CHAP. VI. ¶ The naturall order and regiment that is in Bees BEes all winter time keep close within their hiues and good reason for how possibly should they indure hard frost and chilling snow how should they abide the piercing blasts of the North winds And verily it is the manner of all these Insects so to doe but yet they keepe not in so long For why being nestled warm as they are within our houses they sooner doe recouer their vigor come abroad betimes But as concerning Bees either the times haue changed places altered their course or els the writers beforetime of this argument haue greatly erred They begin to retire themselues and take vp their wintering harbor presently vpon the setting and occultation of the star Vergiliae and come not forth into the field againe vntill after the rising and apparition thereof So that Bees go not abroad at the very beginning of the Spring as Writers haue set downe for who seeth not the contrary throughout all Italie but remaine still close and secret vntill that Beanes begin to bloom before which time they settle not themselues to any worke or labour But from thence forward they lose not a day they slack not their painful trauel neither play they one jot if the weather be faire wil permit the first thing they do is to make their combs wax that is to say their own habitations store-houses When they are prouided of lodging they thinke vpon the multiplying of their owne kind and finally they gather and make both hony and wax the substance whereof they sucke from the floures of trees and hearbes from the gums also of trees which breed such gluie matter and besides out of the iuice gum and rosin of the willow elme and cane With these and such like they plaister all the hiue within throughout as it were with a coat or parget intermingling withall other iuices that are more vnsauorie gathered from the bitterest hearbs they can get to the end that they might keepe out other little vermines that are greedy of their hony as knowing full well that they are about a piece of worke which is worthie to be desired and sought after Of this gummy and glutinous substance they frame also their dores and entries which are wide and large CHAP. VII ¶ The proper termes belonging to their worke THe first foundation of their worke skilfull hony-masters do call Commosis the second Pissoceros the third Propolis which lieth between those former coats and the wax of the hony combe whereof there is so great vse in Physicke Commosis is the first coat or crust of a bitter tast Pissoceros commeth next after it as it were a thinner course of pitch or varnish and a weaker kinde of wax made of the more liquid and mild gum of vines and poplars But Propolis consisteth of a more solid matter as hauing the strength of some floures withall howbeit as yet it is no ful and perfect wax but the foundation and strengthening of the combs and serueth as a good defence against cold and to stop the passage of waspes and such hurtful creatures as would do iniurie to the bees for stil a strong sent it carrieth as which many men do vse in stead of Galbanum After this munition done then followeth the prouision of that which is called Erithace some terme it Sandaracha and others Cerinthus This must serue for the bees meat whereof they are to liue whiles they worke and found it is oftentimes laid apart within the concauities of their combs it being also of a bitter taste Now this Erithace commeth of the Spring-dew and the moisture issuing out of trees in manner of gum in lesse abundance euer when the South-west wind blows but when it is full South more blacke and in the Northerly constitution far better and more red withall Great store hereof Bees meet with vpon Almond trees Menecrates saith That it is a floure foreshewing what haruest shall insue but no man saith so besides him CHAP. VIII ¶ What flowers they be which Bees serue themselues most withall for their worke AS for wax Bees gather and make it of the floures of all trees herbs and plants sauing the docke and Goose-foot which are two kinds of herbs Some except also a kind of Broom called Spart but vntruly for in Spaine where there be many places full of that shrub the honie carrieth the strength thereof in
therefore the others as master Bees ouer them haue them at their commandment if any drudgery or such like businesse is to be don out are they sent first make they but slow hast in that they are set about sure they are to pay for it and to be punished without mercy And not only in their ordinarie worke they serue them in good stead but also they help them to multiply for the hotter that the place is the more hope there is of a greater increase Certes this is found by experience That the better the hiue is peopled with a number of bees the Cast when time comes will bee the greater and the oftner will they swarme But after the hony is growing once to maturitie and perfection then begin they to driue these drones out of dores nay ye shall haue many bees set vpon one poore drone and kill him out-right So that a man shall not lightly see any of that kind but in the Spring time If one pluck off the wings from a drone and put him again within the hiue he will neuer lin vntill he haue done the like by all the rest of the same kind As touching the roiall pallaces for the kings and captaines that shall be built they are all most stately great of receit in shew magnificent seated by themselues apart and like citadels raised vpon some high knap or tuft of a mountaine If one of these castles chance to be pressed or crushed there will no more come of that princely race All the lodgings and roomes where the bees abode is are six cornered according to the number of feet emploied in that worke None of all this is done at any set time or day appointed but they take the opportunity when they can espie faire weather to fit their businesse and so do these things by snatches And surely within a day or two at the most they fill their store-houses with honie CHAP. XII ¶ The Nature of Hony THis pleasant and sweet liquor which we call hony is ingendered naturally in the aire and especially by the influence and rising of some starres but principally during the feruent heat of the canicular daies euen when the Dog-star is in his ful power and force neuer before the appearing of the star Virgiliae but alwaies before day For so about the day breake betimes in the morning the leaues of trees are found bedewed with honey and looke whosoeuer they are that haue occasion to be abroad in the aire about the dawning of the morrow they may euidently perceiue their cloths wet with a clammy humor of hony yea their hairs glewed therewith together if they go bare headed Be it what it will either a certaine sweat of the skie or some vnctuous gelly proceeding from the stars or rather a liquor purged from the aire when it purifieth it selfe would God we had it so pure so cleare and so naturall and in the own kind refined as when it descendeth first whether it be from skie from star or from the aire For euen now such as it is passing as it were through so many hands namely falling from a region so high and remote from vs and in the way as it commeth catching much filth and namely infected with the grosse vapour of the earth which it meeteth in the fall moreouer sucked and drunke as it is by the Bees from the leaues of trees and grasse and so gathered and laid vp in their little bellies or bladders for at their mouth they spew and cast it vp again corrupted also and sophisticated with other humors drawn out of floures finally so long soking within the hiues and suffering so many alterations yet for all the sorrow a great resemblance it carieth still with it of a most pleasant sweet and coelestiall liquor CHAP. XIII ¶ The best kinde of Honie THe best hony is euer there where the best floures are within the receptacles whereof it lieth As we may see in the counrry about Athens which carrieth the name for honey also in Sicilie within those territories about Hymettus and Hybla and lastly in the Isle Calydna Now this hony whereof we treat is at the first cleare and thin as water and for certaine daies in the beginning it workes and boiles like to new wine and so purgeth it selfe By the 20 day it getteth a certaine consistence and thicke substance and soon after gathers a thin cream or skin ouer it which in the very heat of working is raised of a scum and so thickneth The best simply that bees can sucke and least infected with the corruption of 3 branches is that which they get out of the leaues of Oke Tilia i. Linden tree and Canes CHAP. XIIII ¶ The sundry sorts of hony according to diuers regions HOnie as we said before is better or worse according to the region where it is gathered and that in many respects For in some place ye shall haue goodly combs howbeit more commendable for wax than the hony in them as in the Pelignians country and Sicily In others and namely in Candie Cypres and Africk the combs yeeld more hony than wax Some countries there be especially in the North parts where the combs passe for bignesse insomuch as in Germany there hath bin a hony-combe seene eight foot long and blacke all within But in what region soeuer it be that hony is found three kinds there be of it First the Spring hony made of floures only like as the comb also and thereupon the Greeks call it Anthinon which is as much to say as the Floure-hony Some would not haue this to be once touched but to serue for nourishment of the young bees that the swarmes or casts may be more strong and lustie Others againe leaue for the bees of none lesse than of it by reason of the great plenty like to follow at the rising of those notable stars in the Summer ensuing Moreouer the combs are in their principall beauty about the Sun-stead in summer when daies be longest at what time as the Vine and Time do begin to floure Also in taking forth of the hony combs needfull it is to be well aduised in ordering the matter for the prouision of food for bees If they be cut short and destitute of their meat they either despaire and die for want or els depart and flie away Contrariwise if you leaue them too much plenty breeds idlenesse that they will not labour neither deigne they to feed of Erithace their ordinarie food but fall to the good hony They therefore that be well experienced in these matters thinke it good to leaue them the twelfth part of this store and vintage if I may so say which is gathered in the combs And verily it seemeth that Nature hath ordained a certaine set day for to begin this vintage if men would take knowledge thereof and marke it well namely the 30 day after the bees swarmed and went forth and vsually it falleth out that this gathering commeth within the
pray you how artificially she hides the snares in that net of hers made into squares to catch the poore flies A man would not thinke who sees the long yarne in her web wrought serce-wise smoothed and polished so cunningly and the verie manner of the woofe so glewish and clammie as it is of it selfe that all were to any purpose and serued for that which she intends See withall how slacke and hollow the net is made to abide the wind for feare of breaking and thereby so much the better also to fold and enwrap whatsoeuer coms within her reach What a craft is this of hers to leaue the vpper part thereof in the front vndone as if she were wearie for so a man may guesse when he can hardly see the reason and as it is in hunters net and toile that so soone as those nets be stumbled vpon they should cast the flies head long into the lap and concauitie of the net To come now vnto her nest and hole Is there any Architecture comparable to the vault and arched frame And for to keep out the cold how is it wrought with a longer and deeper nap than the rest What subtiltie is this of hers to retire into a corner so far from the mids making semblance as though she meant nothing lesse than that she doth and as if she went about some other businesse Nay how close lies she that it is impossible for one to see whether any bodie be within or no! What should I speak of the strength that this web hath to resist the puffes and blasts of winds of the roughnesse to hold and not breake notwithstanding a deale of dust doth weigh and beare it downe Many a time ye shall see a broad web reaching from one tree to another and this is when she learns to weaue begins to practise and trie her skill Shee stretches a thread and warps in length from the top of the tree downe to the very ground and vp again she whirles most nimbly by the same thread so as at one time she spins and winds vp her yarne Now if it chance that any thing light into her net how watchfull how quick sighted how readie is she to run Be it neuer so little snared euen in the very skirt and vtmost edge therof she alwaies skuds into the mids for so by shaking the whole net she intangles the flie or whatsoeuer it be so much the more Looke what is slit or rent therein she presently doth mend and repaire and that so euen and small that a man cannot see where the hole was derned and drawne vp again These Spiders hunt also after the yong Lizards first they enfold and wrap the head within their web then they catch hold and tweake both their lips together and so bite and pinch them A worthy sight and spectacle to behold fit for a king euen from the stately Amphitheatres when such a combat chances Moreouer there be many presages and prognostications depend vpon these Spiders for against any inundations and ouerflowings of riuers they weaue and make their cobwebs higher than they were wont In faire and cleare weather they neither spin nor weaue vpon thicke and cloudie daies they be hard at worke and therefore many cobwebs be a signe of raine Some thinke it is the female that spins and weaues and the male which hunts and gets in the prouision for the familie thus ordering the matter equally in earning their liuing as man and wife together in one house Spiders engender together with their buttocks little worms they do lay like egs For considering that the generation of all Insects besides in a manner can be declared and shewed no otherwise I must not deferre the relation therof it being so admirable as it is Well then these egs they lay in their webs but scattering here and there because they vse to skip and leap when they thrust them forth The Phalangius only sits vpon the eggs within the very hole and those in great number which begin not so soon to peep but they eat the mother yea and oftentimes the father likewise for he helps her also to cooue And these kind of Spiders bring commonly 300 at a time wheras all the rest haue fewer They sit ordinarily thirtie daies As for yong Spiders they come to their full growth and perfection in foure weekes CHAP. XXV ¶ Of Scorpions SEmblably the land Scorpions do lay certaine little worms or grubs in maner of eggs and when they haue so done perish likewise for their labour as the Spiders Their stings be as venomous and dangerous as those of serpents and albeit there ensue not thereupon so present death yet they put folke to more paine a great deale insomuch as they languish and lie drawing on three daies before they die If a maiden be stung with one of them she is sure to die of it other women also for the most part catch their death thereby and hardly escape Yea and men also find their poison to be mortall deadly if they be stung in a morning by them when they creep newly out of their holes fasting before they haue discharged their poison by pric king one thing or other first Their sting lies in their tails and readie they are with it alwaies to strike There is not a minute of an houre but they practise and trie how they can thrust it forth so malicious they be because they would not lose and misse the first opportunity presented vnto them They strike both sidelong or byas and also crooked and bending vpward with their taile The poison that comes from them is white as Apollodorus saith who also hath set downe 9 sorts of them and distinguished them by their colours which me thinks was but superfluous and more than needed considering that a man cannot know by his discourse which of them he would haue to be least hurtfull and noisome He affirmeth that some haue double stings and that the males are more curst and cruell than the females for he auouches that they do engender together and that the males may be knowne by this That they are long and slender Moreouer that they be al of them venomous about mid-day when they be enchafed and set into an heat by the scalding and scorching sun also when they be drie and thirstie they cannot drinke their full and quench their drought This is well known that those which haue seuen joints in their tailes be more fell than the rest for it is ordinarie in them to haue but six In Affrick this pestilent creature vses to flie also namely when the Southerne winds blow which carrie them aloft in the aire and beare them vp as they stretch forth their armes like oares The same Apollodoruâ—… before-named auouches plainely that some of them haue very wings indeed The people called Psylli who making a gainfull trade and merchandise of it to bring in hither vnto vs the poisons of other countries and by that meanes haue
than to labor a ground exceeding much and to ouer-til it L. Rarius Rufus a man of very base and low parentage descended yet aduanced to the Consular dignity for his prowesse in feats of arms was otherwise very thrifty and sparing after the maner of the old world insomuch as partly by his niggardise and partly through the liberality of Augustus Caesar he had gathered good together amounting to the sum of an hundred millions of Sesterces all which masse of money what with purchasing land to land in the Picene country and what with bestowing such a deale of husbandry vpon it more ywis of a vain glory and ostentation than for any profit that he reaped thereby he laid forth and spent euery whit of that stock insomuch as hardly he could finde any man that would take vpon him to be his executor or to accept simply of the inheritance What shall we say then or what good commeth of such houses or lands so chargeable as that they are like to cost a man his life and that by famine I hold therfore that in all things a mean is best and bringeth greatest profit in the end To till and husband ground well is necessary to ouer-do the same and to exceed turneth more to the damage than the profit of the lord vnlesse it were done by his own children or to maintain the charge of keeping such hinds as otherwise must be found if they sat still and did nothing for setting that cause aside it falleth out oftentimes that the gathering and inning of some haruest if a man count all the pains emploied and the mony of the purse is nothing beneficial to the master In like maner Oliues would not alwaies be tended and looked vnto ouermuch neither do some grounds require much diligence but are the worse for such attendance as may be seen by report in Sicily which is the cause that new commers thither for to be tenants and to occupy those lands are many times deceiued and put besides their reckoning After what manner then shall we proceed in the husbandry of our land to most benefit and behoofe Learn a rule out of the Oracle or sententious riddle which goeth in this forme Malis bonis i. Cheapest Best But herein me thinks good reason it is that our old great grandfathers should be defended and excused for holding these strange and obscure paradoxes they I say who by such rules and precepts tooke great care and paines to instruct vs how to liue Would you know then what they meant by this word Malis surely they vnderstood those that were cheapest and stood them in least The chiefe point of all their prouidence and forecast was to goe the nearest way to worke and to be at the smallest cost and no maruell for who were they that gaue out these thriftie precepts euen those who reproched a victorious General and one who triumphed ouer the enemy for hauing a cupboord of siluer plate weighing but ten pound those I say who if their bayliffes of husbandrie chanced to die whereby their lands in the countrey stood void would make suit to be gone themselues thither and to return to their own fermes leauing behind them the glory of all their victories by them atchieued and to conclude euen those who whiles they were imploied in the conduct of armies had their grounds looked vnto and tilled at the charges of the common-weale and had no other for their bayliffs than the noble Senators of Rome From their mouths came these other oracles and wise sentences following An ill husband is he who is forced to buy that which his ferme might affoord him As bad is that housholder master of a family who doth that in the day which might be don by night vnlesse vnseasonable weather driue him to it worse than either of these is he who doth that vpon work-daies which should haue bin done on play daies or idle holidaies but the worst of all other is he who when the weather is fair wil chuse to work rather within close house than abroad in the open field here I cannot hold and rule my selfe but I must needs alledge one example out of antient histories whereby it may be vnderstood How it was an ordinary matter to commense actions and to maintaine pleas in open court before the body of the people in the case of Husbandry as also in what sort those good Husbandmen of old time were wont to defend their owne cause when they were brought into question And this was the case There was one C. Furius Cresinus late a bond-slaue and newly infranchised who after that hee was set at liberty purchased a very little piece of ground out of which he gathered much more commodity than all his neighbors about him out of their great and large possessions whereupon he grew to be greatly enuied and hated insomuch as they charged him with indirect means as if he had vsed sorcery and by charmes and witch-craft drawne into his owne ground that increase of fruits which should otherwise haue growne in his neighbors fields Thus vpon complaint and information giuen he was presented and indited by Spurius Albinus an Aedile Curule for the time being and a day was set him down peremptorily for his personal appearance to answer the matter He therfore fearing the worst and doubting that he should be cast to pay some grieuous fine at what time as the Tribes were ready to giue their voices either to acquit or condemne him brought into the common place his plough with other instruments and furniture belonging to husbandry he presented likewise in the open face of the court his owne daughter a lusty strong lasse and big of bone yea and as Piso telleth the tale well fed and as well clad he shewed there I say his tooles and plough yrons of the best making and kept in as good order maine and heauy coulters strong and tough spades massie and weighty plough-shares and withall his draught Oxen ful and faire Now when his course came to plead his own cause before the people and to answer for himselfe thus he began and said My masters quoth he you that are citizens of Rome behold these are the sorceries charms and all the inchantments that I vse pointing to his daughter his oxen furniture abouenamed I might besides quoth he alledge mine owne trauell and toile that I take the early rising and late sitting vp so ordinary with me the carefull watching that I vsually abide and the painefull sweats which I daily indure but I am not able to represent these to your view nor to bring them hither with me into this assembly The people no sooner hard this plea of his but with one voice they all acquit him and declared him vnguilty without any contradiction By which example verily a man may soone see that good husbandrie goeth not all by much expence but it is pains taking and careful diligence that doth the deed And hereupon came the old
loueth well to be dropping and to distil gentle shoures of rain howbeit drier it is than the West wind Favonius which bloweth ouer-against him from the Equinoctial Sun-setting full West called in Zephyrus Vpon this Western wind Oliue rowes should stand according to Catoes mind This wind is he that beginneth the Spring this winde openeth the veins and pores of the earth and with his milde coldnesse is healthfull and wholesome for all plants for man also and beast This wind gouerneth this whole season and prescribeth the time for pruning Vines for sarcling and dressing corne for planting trees for graffing fruit for trimming and ordering Oliues and to say all in one word so kind he doth breath that he cherisheth and fostereth the earth and all things thereupon The fourth line in your quadrant or compasse reckoning from the North point which also reacheth next to the South point on the East side noteth the Sun-rising in mid-winter when the day is shortest and withall the Southeast wind called in Latine Vulturnus and in Greeke Eurus which as it is a drier wind than the two last named so is it also warmer In regard whereof it is good to set Bee-hiues and plant vines tending into this course I meane in other parts of Italy remote from the sea and also in Gaule Then shall you haue to blow full opposit vnto it the wind Corus directly from the sun-setting in mid-summer when the day is longest by-west from the North and this North-west wind the Greeks call Argestes one of the coldest he is like as all they be wich blow from any point of the North. No maruell therefore if he be as much dread and feared as the North winde Septentrio for commonly he bringeth with him haile stormes good store As touching the Southeast wind Vulturnus if the coast be cleare where and when he beginneth to rise it will not be long ere he lie and commonly hee is down before night but the East wind indeed continueth most part of the night But be the wind what he wil be if he blow sensibly hot you shall haue him hold many daies together And to conclude would you know when to haue a North-west wind marke when the earth drieth suddenly at one instant it will not be long but he wil be with you contrariwise when you see the ground moist and wet with a kind secret dew vnseen and vnknown reckon vpon it that shortly you shal haue a South wind to blow And thus much for winds CHAP. XXXV ¶ Signes to prognosticate what weather is toward HAuing thus set down sufficiently a discourse of the winds because I would not re-iterate one thing often what remaineth now but in good order to passe proceed to the prognostication and fore-knowledge of the weather and the rather for that I see that Virgil took great pleasure herein and stood much vpon this point for thus he relateth vnto the rude and ignorant men of the countrey That oftentimes in the very mids of haruest hee hath seene whirle-puffs and contrarie winds encounter and charge one another as it were in battell doing much harme to corne Moreouer it is reported that Democritus at what time as his brother Damasus was entred well into haruest worke taking the opportunity as he thought of a most hot season besought him earnestly to let the rest of his corne stand stil a while longer and to make hast to get that into the Barne vnder roufe which was cut and reaped downe and this he did without any reason by him made why and wherefore And what ensued hereupon Surely within few houres after there poured downe a mightie showre of raine and prooued Democritus to be a wise man and a true prophet Moreouer it is a rule commonly giuen and obserued That neither Reeds would be set planted but toward rain nor corn sowed but against a good showre And therfore since this skil is of such importance I am content briefly to touch those signes that foreshew what weather will be and make choise of such which by search and experience are knowne principall and make most for this purpose And first begin I will at the Sun the best prognosticator of all others When he rises cleare and not fiery red it is a signe that the day will be faire but if he shew pale and wan it presages a cold winter-like haile-storme that very day but in case he went downe ouer-night cleare and bright and so rose the next morning so much surer may you be of faire weather If the Sunne in rising seeme hollow he foretelleth rain and when before his rising the clouds be red the winds will be aloft that day but in case there be some blacke clouds intermingled among you shall haue raine withall If the raies and beames of the Sun be red both when he riseth and when hee setteth there wil fall good store of raine Are the clouds red about the Sun as he goes downe you shall haue a fair day the morrow after If when the Sun doth rise you see flying clouds dispersed some into the South and others Northward say all be cleer and faire otherwise about him make reckoning that day of wind and raine both Marke at his rising or going downe if his beames be short and as it were drawne in be sure of a good showre If at the Suns setting it raine or that his raies either looke darke and blew or gather a banke of clouds surely these be great tokens of tempestuous weather storms the morow after when in his rising the beams shine not bright and cleer although they be not ouer-cast with a cloud yet they portend rain If before he rise the clouds gather round together like globes they threaten sharpe cold and winter weather but in case he driue them before him out of the East so as they retire into the West we haue a promise thereby of a faire time If there appeare about the bodie of the Sun a circle of clouds compassing it round the nearer they come about him and the lesse light that they leaue him the more troubled and tempestuous weather wil follow but in case he be enuironed with a double circle so much more outragious and terrible wil the tempest be If peraduenture this happen at his rising so as the said clouds be red againe which compasse the Sun look for a mighty tempest one time or other of that day If haply these clouds enclose him not round but confront and seeme as if they charged vpon him look from whence they come from that quarter they portend great wind and if they encounter him from the South there will be raine good store and wind both If as the Sun riseth he be compassed with a circle marke on what side the same breaketh and openeth first and from thence look for wind without faile but if the said circle passe and vanish away all at once equally as well of one part as another you shal haue faire weather vpon
it If at his rising you see him to cast his beams afar off among the clouds and the mids between be void therof it signifieth raine If he spread his beames before he be vp and appear in our Horizon look for wind and water both If about him toward his going down there be seene a white circle there will be some little tempest and trouble some weather that night ensuing but in stead thereof if he be ouer-cast with a thicke mist the tempest will be the greater and more violent If the Sunne couchant appeare fierie and ardent there is like to be wind Finally if the circle aforesaid be blacke marke on which side the same breaketh from thence shal you haue blustering winds And so an end of the Sunne and his prognostications Now by right the Moone challengeth the next place for her presages of weather to come First and foremost the Aegyptians obserue most her prime or the fourth day after the change for if she appeare then pure faire and shining bright they are verily persuaded that it will bee faire weather if red they make no other reckoning but of winds if dim and blackish they look for no better than a foule and rainie moneth Mark the tips of her hornes when she is fiue daies old if they be blunt they foreshew raine if pricking vpright and sharp pointed withall they alwaies tell of winds toward but vpon the fourth day especially this rule faileth not for that day telleth truest Now if that vpper horne of hers only which bendeth Northward appeare sharpe pointed and stiffe withall it presageth wind from that coast if the nether horne alone seem so the wind will come from the South if both stand streight and pricking at the point the night following will be windie If the fourth day after her change she haue a red circle or Halo about her the same giueth warning of wind and raine As for Varro he treating of the presages gathered from the Moone writeth thus If quoth he the new moon when she is just foure daies old put her horns direct and streight forth she presages therby some great tempest at sea presently to follow vnlesse it be so that she haue a guirland or circle about her and the same cleer and pure for then there is good hope that there wil be no foule nor rough weather before the full If at the full one halfe of her seeme pure and neat a signe it is of a faire season if it be red the wind will be busie if enclined to blacke what else but raine raine Doe you see at any time a darke mist or cloud round about the body of the moone it betokeneth winds from that part where it first breaketh and in case there be two such cloudie and mistie circles enuironing her the tempest will be the greater but how if there be three of them for failing and those either black or interrupted distracted and not vnited surely then there wil be more storms more The new moone whiles she is croissant if she rise with the vpper tip or horne blackish telleth beforehand that there will be store of raine after the full and when she is in the wane but if the nether tip be so affected the rain will fall before she be at the full But what if that blacknesse appeare in the middle of her body betweene then saith Varro it will poure of rain in the very full A full moone hauing about her a round circle sheweth that there will be wind from that part where the said circle is most splendant If her hornes appeare when she riseth more grosse and thicke than ordinarie look soon after for a terrible tempest and and stormie weather If she shew not in our Horizon before the prime or fourth day after the chaunge and the West wind blow withall then that moone throughout threatneth cold and winter weather and if the day after the full she seeme extraordinarily enflamed she menaceth vnto vs sharp showres and bitter tempests Finally in euery moon there be eight points and so many daies according as she lighteth vpon the angles of the Sunne which most men obserue onely and take their presages of future weather by to wit the third seuenth eleuenth fifteenth ninteenth one and twentieth seuen and twentieth and the very day of her conjunction or chaunge In the third hlace a man may know the disposition of the seasons by the fixed starres and therefore it behooueth to obserue and marke them They seeme otherwhiles in the sky to flit and run too and fro and then we shal not be long without great winds rising from that quarter where such appeared and gaue token The starrie skie if it shew cleare and bright al ouer and in euery part alike during that particular season namely between the occultation of the Harp-star and the Aequinoctiall point which I proposed and set downe heretofore it is a fore-token of a faire and drie Autumne but yet cold If the Spring add Summer both passed not cleare without some raine and wet weather it will be an occasion that the Autumne following shall be drie and lesse disposed to wind howbeit thick muddy and enclined to mists A faire and drie Autumne bringeth in alwaies a windie winter When all on a sudden the stars lose their brightnesse and looke dim and that neither vpon a cloud nor a mist in the aire it signifieth either raine or grieuous tempests If the starres make semblance as if they flew vp and down many together and in their flying seem whitish they denounce winds from that coast where they thus do shoot Now if it seeme to the eye as if they ran and kept one certaine place those winds will hold and sit long in one corner but in case they do so in many quarters of the heauen they betoken variable and inconstant winds going and comming and neuer at rest When you see a circle about any of the other fiue planets or wandring stars you shall haue powring showres soone after Within the signe Cancer there be two prettie stars which the Mathematitians call Aselli i. little Asses betweene which there seemeth to be a small cloud taking vp some little roome and this they name in Latine Praesepia i. a Crib Cratch Bowzey or Manger now if it chaunce that this Racke or Crib appeare not and yet the aire bee faire and cleare otherwise a signe it is of cold foule and winter weather Also if one of these two little stars to wit that which standeth Northerly be hidden with a mist then shall you haue the South wind to rage but in case the other which is more Southerly be out of sight then the Northeast wind wil play his part As touching the Rainbow if it appear double as if there were two of them at once it telleth of raine toward A Rainebow presently after raine is a signe of faire weather but this is not so certaine neither will it hold long Also when a man seeth new
circles still about any planets there will be much raine soone after In Summer time if there chaunce to be more thunder than lightning it threatneth winds from that coast where it thundreth contrariwise if it lighten much thunder little looke for rain plentie when you see it lighten and the skie otherwise cleare faire it is a token that rain and thunder will follow thereupon yea and rigorous cold weather besides but the cruellest and most bitter impressiions of the aire ensue vpon such lightnings as come from all the foure quarters of heauen at once if it lighten from the Northwest only it betokens rain the day following if from North it is a signe of wind from thence if from the South Northwest or full West it happen to lighten in the night the same be faire it sheweth wind and rain from out of those coasts morne thunders foreshew winds but if they be heard at noon they presage rain As touching clouds if you see the rack ride apace in the aire the weather being faire drie looke for wind from that quarter whence those clouds doe come and if they seeme to gather thick in that place dispearsed they will be and scattered when the Sun approacheth but more particularly if this happen from the Northeast they portend rain if from the South storm and tempest if at the Sun setting the rack seeme to ride from both sides of him into the open aire they shew of tempests toward if the clouds be very blacke flying out of the East they threaten rain against night but if they come out of the West it will surely raine the morrow after if the clouds be disparkled many together out of the East and flie like fleeces or flocks of wooll they shew rain for 3 daies after when clouds flie low and seeme to settle vpon the tops of the hills looke shortly for cold weather contrariwise if you perceiue those tops of mountaines cleare without moist or cloud the weather will soone take vp and turne to be faire when the clouds seeme to be heauily charged and full and yet looke white withall which constitution of the aire is called commonly the white weather there is an haile-storme at hand moreouer be the skie neuer so cleer the least cloud appearing therein is enough to engender and foreshew wind and storme mists if they come downe and fall from the mountaines or otherwise descend from heauen and settle vpon the vallies promise a faire and drie season Leauing the stars and clouds aboue let vs come to our fires that we make and keepe in our houses here beneath for they are to be raunged in the next place of our prognostication If the fire then burne in the chimney pale and keep there with a huzzing noise we find by experience it foreshewes tempest and stormie weather as also wee may be sure of rain in case we see a fungeous substance or foot gathered about lampes and candle snuffs if you see the flame either of fire or candle mount winding and wauing as it were long you shall not be without wind The like is to be said of fire and candle light if either they seem to go out of themselues or to kindle and take fire with much adoe Also when we discern in the fire a number of sparkles gathered together and hanging one to another or if when the pot is taken off from the fire the coles sticke to the bottome and sides or when the fire being raked in embres keepeth a spitting and sparkling from it also if the ashes lying vpon the hearth grow together and last of all when the liue-cole shineth brighter or scorcheth more than ordinarie all these be signes of rain Goe we a little lower to the water for that element also giues signes of the weather and first of all if you see the sea within the hauen after the floud is gone in a low and ebb water to bee calme and yet heare it keep a rumbling noise within it foreshews wind if it doe thus by times and fits one after another resting stil and quiet between whiles it presages cold weather rain Item if in calme and faire weather the sea strond or water banks resound and make a noise it is a token of a bitter tempest so it fares also with the very sea it selfe for if it be calm yet make 〈◊〉 roaring or if the fome thereof be seen to scatter to fro or the very water to boile buble you may be bold to foretell of tempests the Puffins also of the sea i. fishes named in Latin Pulmones if they appear swimming aboue water foresignifie cold weather for many daies together oftentimes the sea being otherwise calme swells by hoouing higher than ordinarie shewes she had wind good store enclosed within her which soon after will breake out into a tempest Let vs come aland againe and marke the disposition of woods and hills you shall heare the mountains and forrests both keep a sounding and rumbling noise and then they foretell some change of weather nay you shall mark the leaues of trees to moue flicker and play themselues yet no wind at all stirring but be sure then you shall not be long without The like prediction is to be gathered by the light downe of either poplars or thistles flying too and fro in the aire also of plumes and feathers floting vpon the water Goe down lower to the vales plains if a man chance to heare a bustling there he may make account that a tempest will follow As for the rumbling in the aire it is an vndoubted signe and token thereof Moreouer the verie bruit and dumb creatures presage and giue warning what weather there will be To begin with the fishes of the sea the dolphins playing disporting themselues in a calme water doe certainely fore-shew wind comming from that coast whence they fetch these friskes and gambols contrariwise if they fling and dash water this way and that way the sea at that time being rough and troubled it is an infallible signe of a calm and of faire weather toward The Cuttle or little Calamarie Loligo launching it selfe and flying aboue the water the Cockles winkles cleauing and sticking hard to the grauell the Sea-vrchins thrusting themselues into the owse and mud or otherwise balaised couered with sand be all signes of tempests neare The like may be said of Froggs when they crie more than their custome is and of Seamews also when they gaggle in a morning betimes extraordinarily semblably the Cormorants Gulls Mallards and Ducks when they keep a proining of their feathers with their bills foreshew wind and generally when you see other water-foule to gather and assemble together and then combat one with another or Cranes make hast to flie into the midland parts of the maine The Cormorants and Guls flying from the sea and standing lakes and Cranes soaring aloft in the aire still without any noise doe put in comfort
directly plumbe ouer mens heads and causeth no shadow In like manner the shadowes of them that dwell Northerly vnder the Solstitiall circle in Summer falling all at noone tide Northward but at Sunne-rising Westward doing the same demonstration Which possibly could not be vnlesse the Sunne were far greater than the earth Moreouer in that when he rises he surpasses in breadth the hil Ida compassing the same at large both on the right hand and the left and namely being so farre distant as he is The eclipse of the Moone doth shew also the bignesse of the Sunne by an infallible demonstration like as himfelfe eclipsed declareth the littlenesse of the earth For whereas there be of shadowes three formes and figures and euident it is that if the darke materiall body which casteth a shadow be equall in bignesse to the light then the shadow is fashioned like a colume or piller and hath no point at the end if it be greater it yeeldeth a shadow like a top directly standing vpon the point so as the nether part therof is narrowest and then the shadow likewise is of infinite length but if the said body be lesse than the light then is represented a pyramidall figure like an hey-cocke falling out sharpe pointed in the top which manner of shadow appeareth in the Moones eclipse it is plaine manifest and without all doubt that the Sunne is much bigger than the earth The same verily is seen by the secret and couert proofes of Nature it selfe For why in diuiding the times of the yeere departeth the Sunne from vs in the winter marry euen because by meanes of the nights length and coolenesse he would refresh the earth which otherwise no doubt he should haue burnt vp for it notwithstanding he burneth it in some measure so excessiue is the greatnesse thereof CHAP. XII ¶ The inuentions of man as touching the obseruation of the heauens THe reason verily of both eclipses the first Romane that published abroad and divulged was Sulpitius Gâ—…llus who afterward was Consull together with M. Marcellus but at that time being a Colonell the day before that King Perseus was vanqnished by Paulus he was brought forth by the Generall into open audience before the whole host to fore-tell the eclipse which should happen the next morning whereby he deliuered the armie from all pensiuenesse and feare which might haue troubled them in the time of battell and within a while after he compiled also a booke thereof But among the Greeks Thales Melesius was the first that found it out who in the eight and fortieth Olympias and the fourth yeere thereof did prognosticate and foreshew the Sunnes eclipse that happened in the reigne of Halyattes and in the 170. yeere after the foundation of the citie of Rome After them Hipparchus compiled his Ephemerides containing the coutse and aspects of both these planets for six hundred yeeres ensuing comprehending withall the moneths according to the calculation reckonings of sundry nations the daies the houres the scituation of places the aspects and latitudes of diuers townes and countries as the world will beare him witnesse and that no lesse assuredlv than if â—…e had been priuie to Natures counsels Great persons and excellent these were doubtlesse who aboue the reach of all capacitie of mortall men found out the reason of the course of so mighty starres and diuine powers and whereas the sillie minde of men was before set and to seeke fearing in these eclipses of the starres some great wrong and violence or death of the planets secured them in that behalfe in which dreadful feare stood Stesichorus and Pindarus the Poets notwithstanding their lofty stile and namely at the eclipse of the Sun as may appeare by their poems As for the Moone mortall men imagine that by magicke sorceries and charmes she is inchanted and therefore helpe her in such a case when she is eclipsed by dissonant ringing of basons In this fearefull fit also of an eclipse Nicias the Generall of the Athenians as a man ignorant of the course thereof feared to set saile with his fleet out of the hauen and so greatly endangered and distressed the state of his countrey Faire chieue yee then for your excellent wit O noble Spirits interpretors of the heauens capable of Natures works and the deuisers of that reason whereby ye haue surmounted both God and man For who is he that seeing these things and the painfull ordinarie trauels since that this terme is now taken vp of the stars would not beare with his owne infirmitie and excuse this necessitie of being born to die Now for this present I will bâ—…iefly and summarily touch those principall points which are confessed and agreed vpon as touching the said eclipses hauing lightly rendred a reason thereof in most needfull places for neither such prouing and arguing of these matters belongs properly to our purposed worke neither is it lesse wonder to be able to yeeld the reason and causes of all things than to be resolute and constant in some CHAP. XIII ¶ Of Eclipscs CErtaine it is that all Eclipses in 222 moneths haue their reuolutions and return to their former points as also that the Sun's eclipse neuer happeneth but vpon the change of the Moone namely either in the last of the old or first of the new which they call conjunction and that the Moone is neuer eclipsed but in the full and alwaies somewhat preuents the former Eclipse Moreouer that euery yeare both planets are eclipsed at certaine dayes and houres vnder the earth Neither be these eclipses in all places seene when they are aboue the earth by reason sometimes of cloudy weather but morâ—… often for that the globe of the earth hindereth the sight of the bending conuexitie of the heauen Within these two hundred yeres was it found out by the witty calculation of Hipparchus that the Moone sometimes was eclipsed twice in fiue moneths space and the Sun likewise in seuen also that the Sun and Moone twice in thirty dayes were darkned aboue the earth how beit seene this was not equally in all quarters but of diuers men in diuers places and that which maketh me to maruell most of all in this wonder is this that when agreed it is by all that the Moone light is dimmed by the shadow of the earth one while this eclipse hapneth in the West and another while in the East as also by what reason it hapned that seeing after the Sunne is vp that shadow which dusketh the light of the Moone must needs be vnder the earth it fell out once that the Moone was eclipsed in the West and both planets to be seene aboue the ground in our horison for that in twelue daies both these lights were missing and neither Sun nor Moon were seen it hapned in our time when both the Vespasians Emperors were Consuls the father the third time and the son the second CHAP. XIV ¶ Of the Moones motion CLeare it is that the Moone alwaies in her encreasing hath
were procreated to foretell the accidents that ensued afterward Now for that they fall out so seldome the reason thereof is hidden and secret and so not knowne as the rising of planets aboue said the eclipses and many other things CHAP. XXViij ¶ Of the Heauen flame LIkewise there are seen stars together with the Sun all day long yea and very often about the compasse of the Sun other flames like vnto garlands of corne eares also circles of sundry colours such as those were when Augustus Caesar in the prime of his youth entered the city of Rome after the decease of his father to take vpon him his great name and imperial title CHAP. XXjX ¶ Of Coelestiall Crownes ALso the same garlands appeare about the Moone and other goodly bright stars which are fixed in the firmament Round about the Sun there was seene an arch when Lu. Opimius and Q. Fabius were Consuls as also a round circle when L. Porcius and M. Acilius were Consuls CHAP. XXX ¶ Of sudden Circles THere appeared a circle of red colour when L. Iulius and P. Rutilius were Consuls Moreouer there are strange eclipses of the Sunne continuing longer than ordinarie as namely when Caesar Dictator was murthered Moreouer in the wars of Antony the Sun continued almost a whole yeare of a pale wan colour CHAP. XXXj ¶ Many Suns OVer and besides many Suns are seene at once neither aboue nor beneath the bodie of the true Sunne indeed but crosse-wise and ouerthwart neuer neere nor directly against the earth neither in the night season but when the Sun either riseth or setteth Once they are reported to haue beene seene at noone day in Bosphorus and continued from morne to euen Three Suns together our Ancestors in old time haue often beheld as namely when Sp. Posthumus with Q Mutius Q. Martius with M. Porcius M. Antonius with P. Dolabella and Mar. Lepidus with L. Plancus were Consuls Yea and we in our daies haue seene the like when Cl. Caesar of famous memorie was Consul together with Cornelius Orfitus his Colleague More than three we neuer to this day finde to haue been seene together CHAP. XXXII ¶ Many Moones THree Moones also appeared at once and namely when Cn. Domitius and C. Fannius were Consuls which most men called Night Sunnes CHAP. XXXIII ¶ Day light in the Night OVt of the Firmament by night there was seen a light when C. Coelius and Cn. Papyrius were Consuls yea and oftentimes besides so as the night seemed as light as the day CHAP. XXXIV ¶ Burning Shields or Targuets A Burning shield ran sparkling from the West to the East at the Suns setting when L. Valerius and C. Marius were Consuls CHAP. XXXV ¶ A strange sight in the Sky BY report there was once seene and neuer but once when Cn. Octauius and C. Scribonius were Consuls a sparkle to fall from a star and as it approched the earth it waxed greater and after it came to the bignesse of the Moone it shined out and gaue light as in a cloudy and darke day then being retyred againe into the sky it became to mens thinking a burning Lampe This Licinius Syllanus the Proconfull saw together with his whole traine CHAP. XXXVI ¶ The running of Stars to and fro in the Sky SEene there be also Stars to shoot hither and thither but neuer for nought and to no purpose for from the same quarter where they appeare there rise terrible windes and after them stormes and tempests both by sea and land CHAP. XXXVij ¶ Of the Stars called Castor and Pollux I Haue seene my selfe in the campe from the soldiers sentinels in the night watch the resemblance of lightning to sticke fast vpon the speares and pikes set before the rampier They settle also vpon the crosse Saile yards and other parts of the ship as men do saile in the sea making a kinde of vocall sound leaping to and fro and shifting their places as birds do which fly from bought to bough Dangerous they be and vnlucky when they come one by one without a companion and they drowne those ships on which they light and threaten shipwrack yea and they set them on fire if haply they fall vpon the bottome of the keele But if they appeare two and two together they bring comfort with them and foretell a prosperous course in the voiage as by whose comming they say that dreadfull cursed and threatning meteor called Helena is chased and driuen away And hereupon it is that men assigne this mighty power to Castor and Pollux and inuocate them at sea no lesse than gods Mens heads also in the euen tyde are seene many times to shine round about and to be of a light fire which presageth some great matter Of all these things there is no certain reason to be giuen but secret these be hidden with the maiestie of Nature and reserued within her cabinet CHAP. XXXViij ¶ Of the Aire IT remaineth now thus much and thus far being spoken of the world it selfe to wit the starry heauen and the planets to speake of other memorable things obserued in the Skie For euen that part also hath our forefathers called Coelum i. the Skie which otherwise they name aire euen all that portion of the whole which seeming like a void and empty place yeeldeth this vitall spirit whereby all things do liue This region is seated beneath the Moone and farre vnder that Planet as I obserue it is in a manner by euery man agreed vpon And mingling together an infinite portion of the superiour coelestiall nature or elementarie fire with an huge deale likewise of earthly vapours it doth participate confusedly of both From hence proceed clouds thunders and those terrible lightenings From hence come haile frosts shoures of raine stormes and whirlewindes from hence arise the most calamities of mortall men and the continuall warre that nature maketh with her owne selfe For these grosse exhalations as they mount vpward to the heauen are beaten backe and driuen downeward by the violence of the starres and the same againe when they list draw vp to them those matters which of their owne accord ascend not For thus we see that shoures of raine do fall foggie mists and light clouds arise riuers are dried vp haile stormes come downe amaine the Sunne beames doe scorch and burne the ground yea and driue it euery where to the middle centre but the same againe vnbroken and not losing their force rebound backe and take vp with them whatsoeuer they haue drunke vp and drawne Vapours fall from aloft and the same returne againe on high winds blow forcibly and come emptie but backe they goe with a bootie and carry away euery thing before them So many liuing creatures take their wind and draw breath from aboue but the same laboureth contrariwise and the earth infuseth into the aire a spirit and breath as if it were cleane void and empty Thus whiles the Nature goes too and fro as forced by some engin by the swiftnesse of
of colours by the mixture of clouds aire and firie light together Certes they neuer are knowne but opposite to the Sun nor at any time otherwise than in forme of a Semicircle ne yet in the night season although Aristotle saith there was a Rain-bow seen by night howbeit he confesseth that it could not possibly be but at the full of the Moone Now they happen for the most part in winter namely from the Autumne Equinoctiall as the daies decrease and wax shorter But as daies grow longer againe that is to say after the Spring Equinoctiall they be not seene no more than about the Summer Sunstead when daies are at longest But in Bruma namely when they bee shortest they chance very often The same appeare aloft when the Sun is low and below when he is aloft Also they be of narrower compasse when the Sun either riseth or setteth but their body spreadeth broad and at noone narrower it is and smal yet greater and wider in circumference In Sommer time they be not seene about noon-tide but after the Autumne Equinoctial at all houres and neuer more at once than twaine The rest of the same nature I see few men doe make any doubt of CHAP. LX. ¶ Of Haile Snow Frost Mist and Dew HAile is ingendred of Raine congealed into an Ice and Snow of the same humor growne together but not so hard As for frost it is made of dew frozen In winter Snowes fall and not haile It haileth oftner in the day time than in the night yet haile sooner melteth by farre than snow Mists be not seene neither in Summer nor in the cold weather Dewes shew not either in frost or in hot seasons neither when winds be vp but only after a calm and cleere night Frosts dry vp wet and moisture for when the yce is thawed and melted the like quantitie of water in proportion is not found CHAP. LXI ¶ Of the shapes of Clouds SVndry colours and diuers shapes are seene in clouds according as the fire intermingled therein is either more or lesse CHAP. LXII ¶ Of the properties of weather in diuers places MOreouer many properties there be of the weather peculiar to certain places the nights in Africke bedewie in Winter In Italy about Locri and the lake Velinus there is not a day but a Rainbow is seene At Rhodes and Syracusae the aire is neuer so dimme and cloudy but one houre or other the Sun shineth out But such things as these shall be related more fitly in due place Thus much of the Aire CHAP. LXIII ¶ Of Earth and the nature thereof THe Earth followeth next vnto which alone of all parts of the world for her singular benefits we haue giuen the reuerend and worshipfull name of Mother For like as the Heauen is the mother of God euen so is she of men She it is that taketh vs when wee are comming into the world nourisheth vs when we are new borne and once being come abroad euer sustaineth and beareth vs vp and at the last when wee are reiected and forlorne of all the world besides she embraceth vs then most of all other times like a kinde mother she couereth vs all ouer in her bosom by no merit more sacred than by it wherwith she maketh vs holy and sacred euen bearing our tombes monuments and titles continuing our name and extending our memorie therby to make recompence and weigh against the shortnes of our age whose last power we in our anger wish to be heauy vnto our enemy and yet she is heauy to none as if wee were ignorant that she alone is neuer angry with any man waters ascend vp turn into clouds they congeale and harden into haile swel they do into waues and billows down they hasten headlong into brooks and land-flouds The aire is thickened with clouds rageth with winds and stormes But she is bountifull mild tender ouer vs indulgent ready at all times to attend and wait vpon the good of mortall men See what she breeds being forced nay what she yeeldeth of her owne accord what odoriferous smells and pleasant sauors what wholesome iuices and liquors what soft things to content our feeling what louely colors doth she giue to please our eie how faithfully and iustly doth she repay with vsury that which was lent and credited out vnto her Finally what store of all things doth shee feed and nourish for our sake Alas poor wretch pestiferous and hurtfull creatures when the vitall breath of the aire was too blame to giue them life she could not otherwise chuse but receiue them after they were sown in her and being once ingendred and bred keepe and maintain them But in that they prooued afterwards bad and venomous the fault was to be laid vpon the parents that ingendred them and not to be imputed vnto her For shee entertaineth no more a venomous serpent after it hath stung a man nay more than that she requireth punishment for them that are slow and negligent of themselues to seeke it She it is that bringeth forth medicinable herbes and euermore is in trauell to be deliuered of some thing or other good for man Ouer and besides it may be thought and beleeued that for very pittie of vs she ordained and appointed some poisons that when we were weary of our life cursed famine most aduerse and crosse of all other to the merits of the earth should not consume and waste vs with languishing and pining consumption and so procure our death that high and steepe rockes should not dash and crush our bodies in pieces nor the ouerthwart and preposterous punishment by the halter wreathe our necks and stop that vital breath which we seek to let out and be rid of last of all that we might not worke our owne death in the deep sea and being drowned feed fishes and be buried in their bellies ne yet the edge and point of the sword cut and pierce our bodie and so put vs to dolorous paine So that it is no doubt but in a pittifull regard and compassion of vs shee hath ingendred that poyson by one gentle draught whereof going most easily downe we might forgoe our life and die without any hurt and skin broken of our body yea and diminish no one drop of bloud without grieuous paine I say and like onely to them who be athirst that being in that manner dead nether foule of the aire nor wilde beast prey vpon or touch our bodies but that he should be reserued for the earth who perished by himselfe and for himselfe and to confesse and say the troth the earth hath bred the remedy of all miseries howsoeuer we haue made it a venome and poison to our life For after the like sort we imploy iron and steele which we canot possibly be without And yet we should not do well and iustly to complain in case she had brought it forth for to do hurt and mischiefe Now surely to this only part of Nature and the world
or crier pronounced noon when standing at the hall or chamber of the councell he beheld the Sun in that wise betweene the pulpit called Rostra and the Grecostasis which was a place where forrein embassadours gaue their attendance but when that the same sun inclined downeward from the columne named Moenia to the common gaole or prison then he gaue warning of the last quarter of the day and so pronounced But this obseruation would serue but vpon cleere daies when the sun shined and yet there was no other means to know how the day went vntill the first Punicke war Fabius Vestalis writeth that L. Papyrius Cursor 12 yeres before the war with Pyrrhus was the first that for to do the Romans a pleasure set vp a sun-dyall to know what it was a clocke vpon the temple of Quirinus at the dedication thereof when his father had vowed it before him Howbeit mine aurhor sheweth not either the reason of the making of that diall or the workman ne yet from whence it was brought nor in what writer he found it so written M. Varro reporteth that the first diall was set vp in the common market place vpon a columne neere the foresaid Rostra in the time of the first Punicke war by M. Valerius Messala the Consull presently after the taking of Catana in Sicily from whence it was brought thirty yeares after the report that goeth of the foresaid quadrant and diall of Papyrius namely in the yeare after the foundation of the city 477. And albeit the strokes and lines of this Horologe or diall agreed not fit with the houres yet were the people ruled and went by it for an hundred yeares saue one euen vntill Q. Martius Philippus who together with L. Paulus was Censor set another by it framed made more exquisitly according to Art And this piece of work among other good acts done by the Censor during his office was highly accepted of the people as a singular gift of his Yet for all this if it were a close and cloudy day wherein the Sun shone not out men knew not what it was a clocke certainly and thus it continued fiue yeres more Then at last Scipio Nasica being Censor with Laenas made the deuise first to diuide the houres both of day and night equally by water distilling and dropping out one vessell into another And this manner of Horologe or water-clocke he dedicated in the end within house and that was in the 595 yere from the building of Rome Thus you see how long it was that the people of Rome could not certainly tell how the day passed Thus much concerning the Nature of man let vs returne now to discourse of other liuing creatures and first of land-beasts THE EIGHTH BOOKE OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS CHAP. I. ¶ Of landbeasts The praise of Elephants their wit and vnderstanding PAsse we now to treat of other liuing creatures and first of land-beasts among which the Elephant is the greatest and commeth neerest in wit and capacitie to men for they vnderstand the language of that country wherin they are bred they do whatsoeuer they are commanded they remember what duties they be taught and withall take a pleasure and delight both in loue and also in glory nay more than all this they embrace goodnesse honestie prudence and equitie rare qualities I may tel you to be found in men and withal haue in religious reuerence with a kinde of deuotion not only the stars and planets but the sun and moon they also worship And in very truth writers there be who report thus much of them That when the new moon beginneth to appeare fresh and bright they come downe by whole heards to a certaine riuer named Amelus in the desarts and forests of Mauritania where after that they are washed and solemnly purified by sprinckling and dashing themselues all ouer with the water haue saluted and adored after their manner that planet they returne again into the woods chases carrying before them their yong calues that be wearied and tired Moreouer they are thought to haue a sense and vnderstanding of religion conscience in others for when they are to passe the seas into another country they wil not embarke before they be induced thereto by anoath of their gouernors and rulers That they shall returne again and seene there haue bin diuers of them being enfeebled by sicknesse for as big and huge as they be subject they are to grievous maladies to lie vpon their backs casting and flinging herbes vp toward heauen as if they had procured and set the earth to pray for them Now for their docility and aptnesse to learne any thing the king they adore they kneele before him and offer vnto him garlands and chaplets of floures and green herbes To conclude the lesser sort of them which they call Bastards serue the Indians in good stead to eare and plough their ground CHAP. II. ¶ When Elephants were put to draw first THe first time that euer they were knowne to draw at Rome was in the triumph of Pompey the Great after he had subdued Africke for then were two of them put in geeres to his triumphant chariot But long before that it is said that Father Bacchus hauing conquered India did the like when he triumphed for his conquest Howbeit in that triumph of Pompey Procilius affirmeth That coupled as they were two in one yoke they could not possibly go in at the gates of Rome In the late solemnity of tournois sword-fight at the sharp which Germanicus Caesar exhibited to gratifie the people the elephants were seen to shew pastime with leaping keeping a stir as if they danced after a rude and disorderly manner A common thing it was among them to fling weapons darts in the aire so strongly that the winds had no power against them to flourish also before hand yea and to encounter and meet together in fight like sword-fencers and to make good sport in a kinde of Moriske dance and afterwards to go on ropes and cords to carry foure together one of them laid at ease in a litter resembling the maner of women newly brought a bed last of all some of them were so nimble and well practised that they would enter into an hall or dining place where the tables were set full of guests and passe among them so gently and daintily weighing as it were their feet in their going so as they would not hurt or touch any of the company as they were drinking CHAP. III. ¶ The docilitie of Elephants THis is knowne for certaine that vpon a time there was an Elephant among the rest not so good of capacity to take out his lessons and learn that which was taught him and being beaten and beaten again for that blockish and dull head of his was found studying and conning those feats in the night which he had bin learning in the day time But one of the greatest wonders of them was
time as men sow rapes or nauewes The Patridges in the territory of Attica flie not ouer into the marches of Boeotia And there is not a bird within the compasse of the sea Pontus namely in the Island wherein Achilles was buried that will passe beyond the temple consecrated vnto him In the territory of Fidenae neer to Rome Storkes build no nests neither shall a man find a yong Storke there But into the parts about Volaterrae there is not a yeare but one shall see a world of Stockdoues flying from beyond sea At Rome ye shall not haue a fly or dog that will enter into the chappell of Hercules standing in the beast market In a word I could alledge many such like examples which of purpose I passe ouer because I would not be tedious in my discourses seeing that Theophrastus reports how all the Doues Peacocks and Rauens which are in Asia haue been brought thither from other parts like as all the Frogs in Cyrenaica which do crie whereas their owne be mute all As for singing birds this is another strange and wondrous thing obserued in them For at certain times of the yere they change their colour in feathers and alter their voice in singing and that in such sort as of a suddaine a man would say they were other birds A thing that happeneth not to the great foules aboue-said saue only vnto Cranes for they with age wax black And to begin with the Merle or black-bird which naturally is blacke he turnes to be reddish In Summer he singeth cleare and tunably in winter he stutteth and stammereth but about the sun-stead in December he is mute and dumbe altogether After they be once a yere old I mean the cockes or males onely of that kinde their bils turne to be white like yuorie The Throstles or Mauisses all Summer be painted about the necke with sundry colours but in Winter they be all of a colour The Nightingale for fifteene daies and nights together neuer giueth ouer but chaunteth continually namely at that time as the trees begin to put out their leaues thicke And surely this bird is not to be set in the last place of those that deserue admiration for is it not a wonder that so loud and cleare a voice should come from so little a body Is it not as strange that shee should hold her wind so long and continue with it as she doth Moreouer she alone in her song keepeth time and measure truly she riseth and falleth in her note just with the rules of Musick and perfect harmony for one while in one entire breath she drawes out her tune at length treatable another while she quauereth and goeth away as fast in her running points sometime she maketh stops and short cuts in her notes another time she gathereth in her winde and singeth descant between the plain song she fetcheth her breath againe and then you shall haue her in her catches and diuisions anon all on a sudden before a man would thinke it she drowneth her voice that one can scarce heare her now and then she seemeth to record to her selfe and then she breaketh out to sing voluntarie In sum she varieth and altereth her voice to all keies one while ful of her largs longs briefs semibriefs and minims another while in her crotchets quauers semiquauers and double semiquauers for at one time you shall heare her voice ful of loud another time as low and anon shrill and on high thick and short when she list drawn out at leisure againe when she is disposed and then if she be so pleased shee riseth and mounteth vp aloft as it were with a wind-organ Thus she altereth from one to another sings all parts the Treble the Mean and the Base To conclude there is not a pipe or instrument againe in the world deuised with all the art and cunning of man so exquisitely as possibly might be that can affoord more musick than this pretty bird doth out of that little throat of hers So as no doubt there was fore-signified most excellent and melodious musicke by an excellent presage of a nightingale which setled vpon the mouth of Stesichorus the Poet and there sung full sweetly who afterwards proued to be one of the most rare and admirable musitians that euer was And that no man should make a doubt that there is great Art and cunning herein do but marke how there is not one Nightingale but hath many notes and tunes Againe all of them haue not the same but euery one a speciall kind of Musick by her selfe nay they striue who can do best and one laboreth to excell another in varietie of song and long continuance yea and euident it is that they contend in good earnest with all their will and power for oftentimes shee that hath the worse and is not able to hold out with another dieth for it and sooner giueth she vp her vitall breath than giueth ouer her song Ye shall haue the yong Nightingales studie and meditate how to sing by themselues ye shal haue them listen attentiuely to the old birds when they sing and to take out lessons as it were from them whom they would seeme to imitate staffe by staffe The scholler when she hath giuen good eare vnto her mistresse presently rehearseth what she hath heard and both of them keep silence for a time in their turns A man shall euidently perceiue when the yong bird hath learned well when again it must be taught how to correct and amend wherein it did amisse yea and how the teacher will seeme to reproue and finde a fault no maruell therfore if one of these Nightingales carrie the price in the market of a bondslaue yea and a higher too than a man might in old time haue bought a good page harnesse-bearer I my selfe haue knowne one of them mary it was white which was a rare thing and not commonly seen to haue bin sold for 6000 Sesterces for to be giuen as a Present vnto the Empresse Agrippina wife of Claudius Caesar late Emperor of Rome And now of late we haue known many of them taught to begin to sing only when a man would haue them and keepe their responds in course after others in good consent and harmony As also there haue bin found men who by a deuise of a reed or cane had out of the water put crosse ouerthwart their mouth and by putting their tongue into an hole made of purpose in it and blowing withal could counterfeit the Nightingale so perfectly that one might not discern and distinguish the one from the other Well these little Nightingales so great chanters as they be so cunning and full of their conceits after 15 daies begin to abate and slack their musick yet so as a man cannot say they were either wearie or satisfied with singing for soone after when the weather groweth hotter their voice is clean altered for neither are they musicall and tuneable in their measures with varietie as
Hypenemia i. wind-egs CHAP. LIX ¶ Of the Peacocke and Geese THe Pea-hen falls to lay and breed after she is 3 yeres old In the first yere she begins with one or two egs the yeare following she riseth to foure or fiue in the rest shee reacheth to twelue and no more When she layeth her manner is to rest two or three dayes betweene euery egge And thrice a yeare she keepeth this order namely if her egges be taken from her and put vnder hens to be fitten vpon for why the Peacocks wil break them if they can meet with them because they canot misse and spare the Peahens company while they are broody and sitting which is the cause they are wont to lay by night or in some secret 〈◊〉 out of the way and that from an high place where they perch and then vnlesse there be good heed taken that the eggs be latched in some soft bed vnderneath they are soone broken One Peacock is sufficient to go with fiue wiues for when there is but twain the villaine is so lecherous with ouermuch treading he hindereth their laying and marreth the knot of eggs ingendred within them The Peahen hatcheth in 28 daies or in thirty at the farthest Ganders and Geese ingender together in the very water Geese lay ordinarily in the spring or if they were troden about mid-winter then ye shall haue them lay after the Winter Sunne-stead some forty daies or very neere They haue vsually two laiters in the yeare namely if hens hatched their former egs The most that they hatch at one sitting is sixteene and the fewest seuen If a man steale their egs from them they lay still and neuer giue ouer till they be readie to burst with laying No birds egs but their own will they hatch The most profitable way is to set them vpon nine or eleuen The females only sit and that for the space of 30 daies vnlesse it be warme weather and then they will haue done by 25. If one of their Goslings be stung neuer so little with a nettle it will die of it Their owne greedy feeding also is their bane for one while they will eat vntill they burst again another whiles kill themselues with straining their own selues for if they chance to catch hold of a root with their bill they will bite and pul so hard for to haue it that many times they breake their owne neckes withall before they leaue their hold Against the stinging of nettles the remedie is that so soone as they be hathed there be some nettie roots laid vnder their nest of straw CHAP. LX. ¶ Of Herons and Bittours and the best way to keepe egâ—… long OF Herons be three sorts Leucon Asterias and Pellon these last ingender with much paine and difficultie as for the males verily they cry againe for anguish and the bloud starts out of their eies in the act of treading And with as much ado and trouble do the females lay after they be knit with eg The Egle and the most part of the greater fouls sit 30 daies whereas the lesse continue but 20 as the Kite and the Hawk The Kite vsually hatcheth but one at a time and neuer aboue three but that kind called Aegolios somtimes foure The Rauen also now and then fiue and those cooue as many daies While the female crow sits the male feeds her The Piot ordinarily brings forth nine Piannets the fig-pecker Melancoryphus aboue 20 but euermore an od one and there is not a bird that goeth therein aboue her Lo how Nature is willing to multiply the race of little birds The yong Swallowes are at the first blind and so are all such as are hatched many in number Wind-egs which we call Hypenemia come either by the mutuall treading of hens one another by an imaginarie conceit of the male or else by dust And such egs not only Doues doe bring but house Hens also Partridges Peahens Geese and Brants or the female Barganders Now these egs are barren as it were and neuer proue birds lesse than others not so pleasant in taste and besides more moist Some are of opinion that the wind will ingender them for which cause also they are called Zephyria i. West-wind egs And verily such egs are seen only in the spring when that wind blows Addle egs which some called Cynosura are they that chill vpon the rest when the hen is gone and giueth ouer sitting Egs steeped in strong vineger will come to be so soft that they will passe and be drawn through the ring of a mans finger The best way to keep egges is in beane meale or floure and during winter in chaffe but for summer time in bran It is thought if they lie in salt their substance will waste and consume to nothing within the shell CHAP. LXI ¶ What Bird alone bringeth forth a liuing creature and feedeth it with milke THe Rere-mouse or Bat alone of all creatures that fly bringeth forth yong aliue and none but she of that kind hath wings made of panniclcs or thin skins She is the only bird that suckleth her little ones with her paps and giues them milk and those she wil carry about her two at once embracing them as she flieth It is said also that she hath no more but one ioynt of the hanch without any in the knee or feet and that they take greatest delight to feed vpon gnats CHAP. LXII ¶ Of Vipers their manner of generation and bringing forth yong and what land beasts do lay egges MOreouer among creatures of the land serpents lay egs whereof as yet we haue not written As they ingender together they clip and embrace and so intangled they be and inwrapped one about the other that a man who saw them would think they were one serpent with two heads In the very act of generation the male Viper thrusteth his head into the mouth of the female which she for the pleasure and delectation that she hath gnaweth and biteth off No land creature els but she hath egs within her belly of one colour and soft like as fishes haue Now after three daies they be quicke and then come forth as they be hatched but no more than one at once euery day and 20 commonly she hath When she is deliuered of the first the rest impatient of so long delay eat through their dams sides and kil her As for other serpents they lay their egs linked and chained together and so sit vpon them on the land but they hatch them not vntill the yeare following Crocodiles sit by turnes the male as well as the female But I thinke it good to treat also of the generation of other land creatures CHAP. LXIII ¶ The generation of liuing creatures vpon the land OF all liuing creatures two footed a woman onely bringeth forth her yong quicke Men and women both and none but they repent at first the losse of their maidenhead A very presage no doubt of a life to ensue full of
the taste I am besides of opinion that they be deceiued who thinke that bees gather not of Oliue trees For we see it ordinary that there be more casts and swarmes of Bees where Oliues grow in greater abundance These pretty creatures hurt no fruit whatsoeuer They will not settle vpon a floure that is faded and much lesse of any dead carkasse They vse not to go from their hiue about their busines aboue 60 paces if it chance that within the precinct of these limits they finde not floures sufficient out goe their spies whom they send forth to discouer forage farther off If in this expedition before they come home againe they be ouertaken by the night they couch vpon their backes for feare lest their wings should be ouercharged with the euening dew and so they watch all night vntill the morning CHAP. IX ¶ Those that haue taken a speciall pleasure in Bees SVch is the industrie of this creature that no man need to wonder at those two persons who delighted so much in them that the one namely Aristomachus of Soli for threescore yeares lacking but twaine did nothing else but keep bees and Philiscus the Thasian emploied the whole time of his life in Forrests and Desarts to follow these little animals whereupon hee was surnamed Agrius And both these vpon their knowledge and experience wrote of Bees CHAP. X. ¶ The order that they keepe in their worke THe manner of their businesse is this All the day time they haue a standing watch ward at their gates much like to the corps de guard in a campe In the night they rest vntill the morning by which time one of them a waketh and raiseth all the rest with two or three big hums or buzzes that it giues to warn them as it were with sound of trumpet At which signall giuen the whole troupe prepares to flie forth if it be a faire and calme day toward for they doe both foresee and also foreshew when it will bee either windie or rainie and then will they keepe within their strength and fort Now when the weather is temperate which they foreknow well enough and that the whole armie is on foot and marched abroad some gather together the vertue of the floures within their feet and legges others fil their gorge with water and charge the downe of their whole body with drops of such liquor The yonger sort of them go forth to worke and carry such stuffe as is beforenamed whiles the elder labor build within the hiue Such as carry the floures abouesaid stuffe the inner parts of their legs behind and those Nature for that purpose hath made rough with the help of their forefeet those again are charged full by the means of their muffle Thus being full laden with their prouision they return home to the hiue drawne euen together round as it were in a heap with their burden by which time there be three or foure ready to receiue them and those ease and discharge them of their lode For this you must thinke that they haue their seuerall offices within Some are busie in building others in plaistering and ouercasting to make all smooth and fine some be at hand to serue the workemen with stuffe that they need others are occupied in getting ready meat and victuals out of that prouision which is brought in for they feed not by themselues but take their repast together because they should both labour and eat alike and at the same houre As touching the maner of their building they begin first aboue to make arch-work embowed in their combs and draw the frame of their work downward where they make two little allies for euery arch or vault the one to enter in by the other to go forth at The combs that are fastened together in the vpper part yea and on the sides are vnited a little and hang all together They touch not the hiue at all nor ioin to it Sometime they are built round otherwhiles winding bias according to the proportion of the hiue A man shll find in one hiue hony combs somtime of two sorts namely when two swarms of bees accord together and yet each one haue their rites and fashions by themselues For feare lest their combs of wax should be ready to fal they vphold them with partition wals arched hollow from the bottom vpward to the end that they might haue passage euery way to repaire them The formost ranks of their combes in the forefront commonly are built void and with nothing in them because they should giue no occasion for a theefe to enter vpon their labours Those in the backe part of the hiue are euer fullest of hony and therefore when men would take out any combes they turne vp the hiues behind Bees that are emploied in carrying of hony chuse alwaies to haue the wind with them if they can If haply there do arise a tempest or a storm whiles they be abroad they catch vp some little stony greet to ballance and poise themselues against the wind Some say that they take it and lay it vpon their shoulders And withall they flie low by the ground vnder the wind when it is against them and keep along the bushes to breake the force thereof A wonder it is to see and obserue the manner of their worke They mark and note the slow-backs they chastise them anon yea and afterwards punish them with death No lesse wonderful also it is to consider how neat and clean they be All filth and trumperie they remoue out of the way no foule thing no ordure lieth in the hiue to hinder their businesse As for the doung and excrements of such as are working within they be laid all on a heap in some by-corner because they should not goe far from their worke and in foule weather when otherwise they haue nought to do they turn it forth Toward euening their noise beginneth to slacke and grow lesse and lesse vntill such time as one of them flieth about with the same loud humming wherewith she waked them in the morning and thereby giueth a signal as it were and commandement for to go to rest much after the order in a camp And then of a sudden they are all husht and silent CHAP. XI ¶ Of the drone Bees THe houses and habitations that Bees build first are for the Commons which being finished they set in hand with a pallace for their king If they foresee that it will be a good season and that they are like to gather store of prouision they make pauilions also for the Drones And albeit they be of themselues bigger than the very bees yet take they vp the least lodgings Now these drones be without any sting at all as one would say vnperfect bees the last fruit of such old ones as are weary and able to do no more good the very later brood increase and to say a truth no better than slaues to the right bees indeed And
moneth of May. A second kind of hony there is which we call Summer hony and is named also Horaeum of that principall season wherin it is made namely in the very midst of dog-daies when the star Sirius is in his full strength and that commonly is 30 daies after the Sun-stead And I assure you Nature hath shewed her admirable and excellent power to men ward in this behalfe in case their fraud and deceit would suffer her works in their entire and proper nature without corruption and sophistication which marreth all and maketh nothing but confusion For vpon the rising and apparition of any star and especially of those that be more excellent than the rest or after that a rainbow is seen aboue the earth and no showers of rain presently follow but a drizling-dew warmed with the raies and beams of the Sun ye shall haue that which falleth not to be bare hony but a very medicinable thing euen a celestiall gift singular good for eies and vlcers yea and comfortable to the principall noble parts within the body And if this happen to be at the rising of the dog-star and it chance withall that vpon the same day as oftentimes it falleth out Venus Iupiter or Mercury bee Orientall then shall yee haue so heauenly a sweet liquor that no one thing in the World may bee comparable to it for the curing of all our maladies and euen to reduce and recouer vs backe from death vnto life like vnto that coelestiall and diuine Nectar which immortalizeth the gods aboue CHAP. XV. ¶ The markes of good hony MOre plenty of hony is gathered in the full of the Moone than at any other time and if therewith the weather be faire the same wil be more vncteous and fattie In all kinds the best hony is that which runneth of it selfe as new Wine and Oile and called it is Acedon as a man would say gotten without care trauell All Summer hony is red as being made in the driest season of the yere The hony which commeth of Time is held to be the best and most profitable in colour like gold in taste right pleasant euident to be knowne by the little leaues therein and the same is likewise fattie That which is made of Rosemary or within the aire and vapour of the sea is thick and such verily as is thus candied and will not run like life-hony is nothing commendable As for Time honey it will not thicken and if a man touch it rope it wil and draw small slimie threds after it which is a principall signe of the weight and heauinesse thereof If hony be short in the handling and soon breake and that the drops part one from the other it is thought to be a token of the worst and coursest of all Another triall there is besides of good hony namely if it be fragrant and odoriferous to smell vnto sweet in taste biting withall or quick at the tongues end glutinous and cleare As touching the driuing of hiues for summer hony Thasius Dionysius is of opinion that the tenth part therof should be left for the bees namely if they were ful if not then according to the proportion but if they were but light and very thin he would not haue them to be touched at all The Athenians goe by this rule and do obserue duly the Caprificial day which is kept wholly vnto Vulcan for then they euer begin to driue their hiues for this kind of honie CHAP. XVI ¶ Of a third kinde of Honie and how a man should know good Bees THere is a third sort of wild hony which the Greeks cal Ericaeum i. Heath or Ling hony and is of least reckoning It is gathered after the first rain in Autumne when the heath and lings only bloom in the woods wherupon it seems as if it were sandy This kind of hony is ingendred for the most part after the rising of Arcturus much about the Ides of September Some there be that continue in gathering Summer hony to the rising of Arcturus betweene which and the Autumne Equinoctial are 14 daies from thence vnto the setting of Virgiliae namely for the space of 48 daies the said heath is most in his blooming time This shrub the Athenians call Tetralix the Euboeans name it Sisara they repute it to be a floure most pleasant to bees haply because at that time there is no plenty of other floures This gathering of hony is about the end of vintage the occultation of the Vergiliae commonly ends by the Ides of Nouember In driuing of the hiues for this hony by good reason two third parts therof would be reserued for the bees especially those corners of the combs which haue in them the prouision called Erithace From the mids of winter to the rising of Arcturus for 60 daies bees are nourished only with sleep without any other food But from that time vnto the spring equinoctial and namely where the weather is more warm they are awake Howbeit they lie stil in their hiue then fal to their victuals which they had laid vp in store against that time but in Italy theâ—… do the like indeed after the rising of the star Virgiliae howbeit till then they do nothing but sleep And there verily men vse when they take the hony forth of the hiues to weigh the combs and so by weight dispense set out how much they will leaue them for their food hauing this opinion that they are bound to deale in justice equity euen with the very bees insomuch as it is commonly said if they be defrauded of their due in this society part-taking and find falshood in fellowship they wil die for griefe so both the old stock will be lost and the hope also of a new increase In the first place therfore this is a rule that such folk only be set about this businesse to driue the hiues who are neat clean A theefe a woman whiles she is in her montâ—…ly sicknes they abhor In the taking out of hony the best means to driue away the bees is to smoke them out of the hiue lest that you anger them or that they deuoure the honie themselues with more greedines Moreouer when they grow to be idle perfuming smoking of them thus now and then maketh them more fresh to go about their worke For when they lie still and doe nothing they make their combes looke dead and blackish Again if they be ouermuch smoked they will be the worse for it and surely the very hony soon catcheth the hurt hereof for so tender and weake will it be that with the least dew that is you shal haue it to turn and wax soure And therefore in all kinds of hony they obserue and keepe that which is called Acapnon i. without smoke The hony gathered of both sorts of Thyme called thereupon Bithymum is not white howbeit very good it is for eies and to clense vlcers Now as
the skin that lieth ouer the place Moreouer among fouls of the aire those of the Herons kind which are called Leuci for that they be white want by report one eie And for certaine in case of Augurie if these birds flie either into the South or North it is holden for an excellent good presage for they assure men that peril is past and promise securitie Nigidius affirmeth That neither Locusts nor yet Grashoppers haue eies As for snailes and such like the two little horns that they put forth serue them in stead of eies as they sound or trie the way before them The earth-mads and all the sort of worms grubs are without eies Men alone of all liuing creatures haue eies of diuers colours some of one and some of another For all other creatures of one and the same kind are eied alike Howbeit some horses there be that extraordinarily haue red eies But in men it is hard to set down the infinit variety and difference in them for some haue great glaâ—…ing eies others againe as little as pinking Others also there be that haue them of a moderate and reasonable bignes Some be goggle eied as if they would start out of their heads and those are supported to be dim-sighted others be hollow eied and they are thought to haue the best and clearest sight like as they who for colour haue goats eien Moreouer ye â—…all haue some men who can discern a far off others againe that see not but neere at hand Many there are whose eiesight dependeth of the Sunnes light for let the day be ouercast and cloudy or the Sun gon downe they see just nothing and others contrariwise there be that all the day time haue but a bad sight yet in the night season they see better than any others As concerning 2 balls or apples in one eie as also who they bee that can bewitch and hurt folk with their very eie sufficient hath bin said already * Gray eies commonly in the dark see more cleare than others It is reported of Tiberius Caesar the Emperor to haue had this property by himself that if he were awakened in the night for a while he could see euery thing as wel as in the cleare day light but soon after by little and little the darknesse would ouercast and shadow all again a gift that no man in the world was euer known to haue but himselfe Augustus Caesar of famous memory had red eies like to some horses and indeed wall-eied he was for the white thereof was much bigger than in other men which also was the cause that if a man looked earnestly vpon him and beheld him wistly and a man could not anger him worse he would be displeased highly offended Claudius Caesar had a fleshy substance about the corners of his eies that tooke vp a good part of the white and many times they were very red and bloud fhotten C. Caligula the Emperor his eies were euer set in his head and stiffe again Nero had a very short sight for vnlesse he winked as it were and looked narrow with his eies he could not well see ought were it neuer so neere Twentie couple of professed masters of fence and sword-plaiers there were in the fence-schooâ—…e that C. Caligula the Emperor maintained among the rest two there were no more whom a man could not make to winke or once to twinckle with their eies present before them what weapon he would or make offer to strike so steady firm were they and therfore they euermore carried the prize were inuincible So hard a matter is it for a man to keep his eies from twiring and many men naturally cannot chuse but be euermore winking and twinckling with their eies but such are holden for fearful and timorous persons None haue their eyes all of one color for the bal or apple in the midst is ordinarily of another color than the white about it Neither in any one part of the body are more signes and tokens to be gathered of the affection and disposition of the heart than in the eie of man especially aboue all other creatures By it we may know whether one be modest staied sober gentle mild pittifull or no. It sheweth malice hatred loue heauinesse sorrow and joy In the cast also of the eie there is as much variety for some haue a furious cruell terrible fierce sterne and fierie looke others shew grauitie and constancie in their eie Some haue an ouerthwart regard with them others looke askew and awry One while a man lookes atoneside and hath a wanton sheeps eie another while he casteth his eie downe and lookes heauily and when he list againe hee can giue one a pleasant and merry looke In briefe the Eies are the very seat and habitation of the minde and affection For one while they be ardent and fierie otherwhiles they be bent and fixed vpon a thing one while they twinckle another time they winke close and say nothing From them proceed the teares of compassion When wee kisse the eie we thinke that we touch the verie heart and soule From hence commeth our weeping from hence gush out those streames of water that drench and run downe the cheeks But what might this water and humour be that in the hearts griefe issueth in such plentie and is so ready to flow Where may it lie at other times when we are in joy in mirth and repose it cannot be denied That with the Soule we imagine with the minde we see and the Eies as vessels instruments receiuing from it that visuall power and faculty send it soon after abroad Hereupon it commeth that a deep and intentiue cogitation blinds a man so that he seeth not namely when the sight is retired far inward Thus it is that in the Epilepsie or Falling-sicknes the eies are open and yet see nothing for why the mind within is darkened Moreouer Hares haue this qualitie to sleep open eied and so do many men besides them and this the Greekes do expresse by the terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nature hath framed and compounded the eie of many thiâ—… membranes or skins As for those tunicles without-forth they are tough and hard like horn to withstand the iniuries of heat and cold and those she hath ordained eftsoones to be clensed and purified with the moisture of teares to the end that they should be slipperie and moueable for to turne quickly and to shift from all that may offend As for the middle part membrane of the eie she hath set in a ball like a window made of transparent horne or rather of a grape the little compasse whereof containeth all the sight of the Eie and suffereth it not to wander and roll here and there but directeth it as it were within a certaine pipe or small conduit by which means also to note by the way the apple being gathered into so narrow a circâ—…e doth easily auoid all inconueniences
all other the thinnest hauing but one kernel within which they call Gigarton and the same very small and a man shall not find a bunch without one or two passing great grapes aboue the rest there is also a kind of black Aminean grape which some name Syriaca likewise the grape of Spain which of the base and common kinds carries the greatest credit and is most commended As touching both vines and grapes that run and traile vpon frames there be those which are called Escariae good only for to eat and namely those which haue grains or stones like to Ivie berries as well white as black Grapes resembling great dugs named therupon Bumasti both black and white are carried vpon frames in like sort But al this while we haue not spoken of the Aegyptian and Rhodian grapes ne yet of the Ounce-grapes whereof euery one weighes a good ounce and thereupon tooke that name Item the grape Pucina the blackest of all others the Stephanitis also wherein Nature hath seemed to disport her selfe for the leaues run among the grapes in manner of a garland plaited with them Moreouer the market-grapes called Forenses they grow and are ripe with the soonest vendible at the very first sight and sold with the best and most easie to be carried from market to market But contrariwise the ash-coloured grape Cinerea the silk-russet grape Ravuscula the asse-hued grape Asinisca please not the eie but are presently reiected and yet the Fox-tailed grape Alopecis for that it resembles Rainards taile is not so displeasant nor so much discommended as the former About a cape or crest of the hill Ida which they call Phalacra there is a vine named Alexandrina smal of growth and puts forth branches of a cubit in length the grapes be black as big as beans the pepin or kernell within soft tender and exceeding small the bunches are crooked full of grapes passing sweet and finally the leaues little round and not cut or iagged at all Within these seuen yeres last past about Alba Eluia a city in Languedock or the prouince of Narbon there was found a vine which in one day both floured and shed her floures by which meanes most secured it was from all dangers of the weather They call it Narbonica or the vine of Languedock and now it is commonly planted all that prouince ouer and euery man desireth to store his vineyard therewith CHAP. IIII. ¶ Notable considerations about the husbandrie and ordering of Vineyards THat noble and worthy Cato the first of that name renowned among other dignities for his honorable triumph and the incorrupt administration of his Censorship and yet more famous and renowned to posterity for his singular knowledge and learning and namely for the good precepts and ordinances tending to all vertues and commendable parts which he left in memory for the people of Rome principally touching agriculture as he was by the common voice and generall accord of that age wherein he liued reputed for an excellent husbandman and one who in that profession had neither peere nor second that came neere vnto him This Cato I say hath in his workes made mention but of a few kinds of vines and yet some of them already be growne out of knowledge so as their verie names are quite forgotten Yet neuerthelesse his opinion and judgement would be set downe in particular as it may be gathered out of his whole treatise to the end that we might both know in euery kind of vine which were of most account in his daies to wit in the 600 yere after the foundation of Rome about the time that Carthage and Corinth were forced and woon when he departed this life and also learn how much we haue profited and proceeded in good husbandry and agriculture from his death vnto this present day namely for the space of 230 yeares As concerning vines and grapes therefore thus much hath Cato deliuered in writing and in this manner following All places or grounds quoth he exposed to the Sun-shine and which in other regards shall be found good for to plant vineyards in see they bee employed for the lesse Aminean for both the Eugenian Vines and the smaller Heluine Item In euery tract that is more grosse thicke and mistie looke that you set the greater Aminean or the Murgentine the Apician also and the Lucane Vine All other vines and the common mingled sort especially will agree well enough with any ground The right keeping of grapes is in a small thinne wine of the second running The grapes Duracinae and the greater Amineans are good to be hanged or else dried before a blacke-smithes forge and so they may be well preserued and goe for Raisins of the Sun Loe what the precepts of Cato be neither are there any of this argument more antient left vnto vs written in the Latine tongue Whereby we may see that we liue not long after the very first rudiments and beginnings of knowledge in these matters But by the way the Amineans last named Varro calleth Scantians And in very truth few there be euen in this our age who haue left any rules in forme of Art as touching the absolute skill in this behalfe Yet such as they be and how few soeuer we must not leaue them behinde but so much the rather take them with vs to the end it may be knowne what reward profit they met with who trauelled in this point of husbandry reward I say and profit which in euery thing is all in all To begin therefore with Acilius Sihenelus or Stelenus a mean commoner of Rome descended from the race of Libertines or Slaues newly infranchised he attained to the highest glory and greatest name of all others for hauing in the whole world not aboue 60 acres of land lâ—…ing all in vineyards within the territory of Nomentum he plaied the good husband so well therâ—…n that he sold them again at the price of 400000 Sesterces There went a great bruit and fame likewise of one Verulenus Aegialus in his time a man but of base condition by birth and no better than the former namely come of the stocke of freed-men who by his labor husbandry greatly inriched a domain or liuing at Liternum in Campaine and the more renowned he was by occasion of the fauour of so many men affectionate vnto Africanus whose very place of exile he held in his hands and occupied so well for vnto Scipio the aboue said Liternum appertained But the greatest voice and speech of men was of Rhemnius Palaemon who otherwise by profession was a famous and renowned Grammarian for that he by the means and helpe of the foresaid Sthenelus bought a ferme within these twenty yeares for 600000 Sesterces in the same territorie of Nomentum about ten miles distant from Rome lying somewhat out of the high way Now is it well knowne farre and neare of what price and account all such fermes are and how cheape such ware is lying so neere to the
so late of growth were those trees in his time and so slowly came they forward But now adaies they come vp of kernels and stones set in plots of ground for the purpose and being transplanted againe they beare Oliues the second yeare after Fabianus saith That Oliues loue not to grow either in the coldest or the hottest grounds Virgill hath set downe 3 kind of Oliues to wit Orchitae i. the great round Oliues Radij i. the long Oliues and those which are called Pausiae He saith moreouer That the Oliue trees require no tending or dressing at all and need neither the hooke to be pruned nor the rake and harrow to be moulded ne yet the spade to be digged about Doubtlesse the goodnesse of the soile and the temperature of the climat especially are very requisit and much materiall alone without farther helpe howbeit they vse to be cut and pruned yea they loue also to be scraped polished and clensed between where the branches grow ouer-thicke euen as well as vines and at the same season The time of gathering Oliues ensueth presently vpon the vintage of grapes but greater industry and skil is required to the making and tempering of good oile than about new wine for ye shall haue one and the self same kind of oliue to yeeld a different juice and diuers oiles first and formost of the greene oliue and altogether vnripe there is drawne the Oile oliue which hath of all other the best verdure and in tast excelleth the rest and of this oile the first running that commeth from the presse is most commended and so by degrees better or worse as the oile is drawn before or after out of the presse or according to a late inuention by treading them with mens feet in little panniers and vpon hardles made of small and fine oziers This is a rule The riper that the oliue is the fatter will the oile be and more plentifull but nothing so pleasant in tast And therefore the best season to gather Oliues both for goodnesse and abundance of oile is when they begin to shew black And such halfe-ripe Oliues we in Latine call Drupae and the Greekes Drypetae To conclude it skilleth very much whether the berries be ripe vpon the tree or mellow within their presse also whether the tree be watered that is to say the oliues hanging thereupon be drenched and refreshed with sprinkling water or haue no other moisture than their owne and that which they receiue by dews and raine from heauen CHAP. II. ¶ Of Oyle OIle-Oliue commeth to haue a rank and vnpleasant tast if it be old kept and stale contrary to the nature of wine which is the better for age And the longest time that oile will continue good is but one yere Wherein surely if a man would well consider he may obserue the great prouidence of Nature For seeing that wines are made to seruefor intemperance and drunkennesse there is not that necessitie to drinke much thereof and to spend them out of hand and more than so the daintie tast that they haue when they be stale induceth men to lay them vp and keep them long But contrariwise she would not haue vs make such spare of oile and therefore by reason of the generall vse and need thereof she hath made it vulgar and common to all As touching this benefit and gift of Nature bestowed vpon mankind Italy of all other nations in the world carrieth the name for the goodnesse thereof but principally the territory or county of Venafrum and namely that quarter lying toward Licinia which yeelds the oile called Licinianum wherupon there be no oliues comparable to them of Licinia both for to serue the perfumers in regard of the pleasant smel which that oile doth giue so appropriat vnto their ointments as also to furnish the kitchin and the table as they say that be fine-toothed haue a delicate taste which is the cause I say that this oile carrieth the only name And yet these oliues of Licinia haue this priuiledge besides that birds loue not to come neere them Next to these Licinian oliues the question is between them of Istria Baetica whether of them should go away with the price for their goodnesse and hard it is to say which is the better of the two A third degree there is vnder these twoaboue named namely of the Oliues that come from all other prouinces setting aside the fertile soile of that tract in Africke which yeeldeth so great increase of corn For it should seeme that Nature hath set it apart for graine onely seeing it so fruitfull that way and hath not so much enuied it the benefit of wine and oile which she hath denied those parts as thought it sufficient that they might glory and haue the name for their haruests As for other points belonging to oliues men haue erred and bin deceiued very much neither is there in any part concerning our life to be found more confusion than is therein as we will shew and declare hereafter CHAP. III. ¶ The nature of the Oliue berries also of yong Oliue Plants THis fruit called the Oliue consists of a stone or kernell of oile a fleshy substance and the lees or dregs now by these lees called in Latine Amurca I mean the bitter liquor of the grounds that the oile yeelds It comes of abundance of water and therefore as in time of drought there is least thereof so in a rainy and watery constitution you shall haue store and plenty As for the proper juice of the oliue it is their oile and the chiefe is that which comes of those that are vnripe like as we haue shewed before when we treated of Ompharium or the Oliue verjuice This oilie substance doth increase and augment within the Oliue vntill the rising of the star Arcturus to wit 16 daies before the Calends of October after which time their stones and carnous matter about them do rather thriue But marke when there followes a glut of raine and wet weather presently vpon a dry season the oile in them doth corrupt and turn all well neare into the lees aboue said which may easily be perceiued by the colour for it causeth the Oliue berrie to looke blacke And therefore when this blacknesse begins to appeare it is a sign that they haue somwhat although very little of the lees but before that they had non at all And herein men are foulely dceiued taking this marke for the beginning of their ripenesse which blacke hew indeed is a signe of their corruption and betokens that then they are in the way to be stark naught They erre also in this that they suppose an Oliue the more grown it is in carnositie to be the fuller of oile whereas in very truth all the good juice â—…n them is converted then into the grosse and corpulent substance thereof and thereby also the stone and kernell come to be big and massie which is the cause that they had need of watering at that
is not like as wine is neither is there such difference in so many kinds of oliues as there is in wine for surely we cannot at the most obserue aboue three degrees in the goodnesse of oiles namely according to the first second and third running out of the presse Finally the thinner that oile is and the more subtill the finer and daintier is the smell thereof and yet the same same sent in the very best of them all continueth but a small time CHAP. IIII. ¶ The nature of Oile Oliue THe property of oile is to warm the body and to defend it against the iniuries of cold and yet a soueraigne thing it is to coole and mitigate the hot distemperature of the head The Greekes whom wee may count the very fathers and fosters of all vices haue peruerted the true and right vse thereof to serue for all excesse and superfluitie euen as far as to the common annointing of their wrastlers with it in their publick place of exercise Known it is for certain that the gouernors and wardens of those places haue sold the oile that hath beene scraped from the bodies of the said wrastlers for 80 Sesterces at a time But the stately maiesty of Rome contrariwise hath done so great honour to the Oliue tree that euery yere in Iuly when the Ides come they were wont to crowne their men of armes and gentlemen marching by their troups and squadrons in solemne wise with chaplets of oliue yea and the manner was of captains likewise to enter ouant in pety triumphes into Rome adorned with Oliue coronets The Athenians also honoured their conquerors with Oliue garlands But generally the Greekes did set out their victors at the games of Olympia with branches of the wild-oliue CHAP. V. ¶ The manner how to order Oliues NOw will I report the precepts and rules set down by Cato as touching oliues His opinion is that the greater long Oliue Radius of Salentum the big Orchites the Pausia the Sergiana Cominiana and the Albicera should be planted in hot and fat grounds He addes moreouer as hee was a man of singular dexterity and prudent spirit which of them in the neighbour territories and places adioining were taken for the best As for the Licinian Oliues he saith They would be planted in a weely and cold hungry ground for if it be a fat soile and a hot the oile wil be corrupt and naught and the very tree it self wil in short time be killed with ouermuch fertility and bearing too great a burden Moreouer they will put forth a red kind of mosse which eateth and consumeth the tree To conclude his mind is that Oliue hort-yards should be exposed to the sun yet so as they regard the West wind also in any case for otherwise he commendeth them not CHAP. VI. ¶ How to keep Oliues and the way to make oile of them CAto alloweth of no other means to keep and preserue oliues and specially the great ones made like cullions named thereupon Orchita and the Pausiae but either in brine and pickle when they are greene or else among Lentisk branches when they are bruised and broken The best oile is made saith he of the greenest and sourest oliues Moreouer so soon as euer they be faln they must be gathered from off the ground and if they be fouled and beraied with the earth they ought to be washed clean and then laid to dry three daies at the most Now if it fall out to be weather disposed vnto frost they should be pressed at 4 daies end He giueth order also to bestrew and sprinkle them with salt saying moreouer that if they be kept in borded sollors or garners the oile will be both lesse in quantitie worse withal So it wil be also if it be let lie long in the lees or together with the cake and grounds when they be bruised and beaten for this is the very fleshie and grosse substance of the Oliues which cannot chuse but breed filthy dregs And therfore he ordaineth that oftentimes in a day it should be poured out of one vessell into another so by setling clarified from the grounds then to put it vp afterwards into pans and panchions of earth or els into vessels or kimnels of lead for brasse mettall wil mar oile All this should be done within close presses and rooms and those kept shut where no aire or wind may come in that they might be as warm and hot as stouves He forbids also to cut any wood or fuel there to maintain fire for that the fire made of their stones and kernels is most kindly of any other To the end also that the grounds lees should be liquified and turn into oile euen to the very last drop the oile should be let run out of those vessels or kimnels aforesaid into a vat or cistern for which purpose the vessels are often to be clensed the ozier paniers to be scoured with a spunge that the oile might stand most pure clear But afterward came vp the deuise to wash oliues first in hot water then immediatly to put them whole as they are into the presse for by that means they squize forth lees all and then anon to bruise and crush them in a mil so presse them in the end Moreouer it is not thought good to presse the second time aboue 100 Modij which is the full proportion of one pressure it is called Factus That which after the mil comes first is named the floure of the oile or the Mere-gout Lastly to presse 300 Modij is thought to be foure mens work ordinarily in one night and a day CHAP. VII ¶ Of Oile Artificiall IN Cato his time there was no artificiall Oiles I meane no other but that of the Oliue and tâ—…refore I suppose it was that he made no mention thereof but now adaies there be many kinds First will we treat of those that are made of trees and principally before all the rest of the oile of the wild oliue thin it is and much more bitter than that of the other gentle true Oliue but good for medicines onely Very like to it is that which is made of Chamelaea an herb or shrub growing in stony places to the heigth of a span no more with leaues and berries resembling those of the wild oliue The next is that which commeth of Cici or Ricinus i Palma Christi a plant which groweth plentifully in Aegypt which some call Croto others Trixis or wild Sesam but long it hath not been there In Spaine likewise this Ricinus is found of late to rise suddenly to the heigth of an Oliue tree bearing the stalke of Ferula or Fennel-Geant clad with leaues of the vine and replenished with seed resembling the graines or kernels of small and slender grapes and of a pale colour withall we in Latine call it Ricinus of the resemblance that the seed hath to a ticke which is a vermin that annoies sheepe For
which at both ends taking it long-waies groweth hard in manner of a stone how beit that which hath an hard shell without and a soft body within is better than that which is hardened in the carnous substance of the body and lightly neither of both these qualities happeneth to any but the male kind Ouer and besides some you shall find fashioned long like an egge others as round as a ball and a third sort sharp pointed The outward colour also yeeldeth variety for some be blacker than other but the whiter commonly â—…e the better set by Some are bitter toward the ends and sweet in the mids The length also the shortnesse of the stele or taile whereto they hang maketh a difference The very tree it self causeth diuersity of the fruit for that Oke which beareth the biggest mast is named Hemeris A shorter tree this is than the rest with a round head and putting forth many hollow arm pits as it were of boughes and branches The wood or timber of the ordinary and common Oke is tougher and harder than that of others and lesse subiect to putrifaction ful of arms boughes it is as the other but it groweth taller and is thicker in the body The highest of all is the Aegilops which loueth to grow in wild and desart places Next to it for talnesse is the broad leafed Oke but the timber therof is not so good and profitable for building howsoeuer it be imploied for to make charcole yet being once squared to that purpose cleft it is subiect to the worm and will soon rot and for this cause being in quarters they vse not to make cole of it clouen but of the solid and round boughs or branches thereof And yet this kind of charcole serueth only the Bloom-smithies and furnaces the hammer-mills also of brasse and copper-smithes whom it standeth in great good stead and saueth them much fewell for it burneth and consumeth no longer than the bellowes goe let them leaue blowing once presently the cole dieth and so it lasteth long for at euery new blast it is renewed againe and refreshed otherwise it sparkleth very much and yeeldeth many cinders But the charcole made of yong trees is the better Now the maner of making them is this when the wood is cut into many clefts splents fresh and green they are heaped vp on high and hollow in manner of a furnace or chimney and then well luted with clay in the top and all about which done the pile of truncheons aforesaid is set on fire within and as the outward coat or crust of clay beginneth to wax hard the workemen or colliers pierce it with poles and pearches and make diuers holes therein for vent and to let out the smokie vapor that doth sweat and breath from the wood The worst of all other for timber or cole is the oke named Haliphleos a thicke barke it hath and as big a body but for the most part hollow and light like a spunge or mushrom and there is not another besides it of all these kind of trees that rotteth as it stands aliue Besides so vnfortunate it is that the lightning smiteth it as low as it groweth for none of them ariseth to any great height which is the cause that it is not lawfull to vse the wood thereof about the burning of any sacrifice Seldome beareth it any Acorns and those few that it hath be exceeding bitter so as no other beast will touch them but swine again nor they neither but for pure hunger when they can meet with no other food Moreouer in this regard also reiected it is and not emploied in any religious vse for that without blowing at the wood and cole thereof continually it will not burne cleare and consume the sacrifice but goeth out and lieth dead But to returne vnto our mast againe that of the Beech tree feedeth swine quickely maketh their flesh and lard faire and pleasant to the eie tender to be soone sodden or rosted light and easie of digestion and good for the stomacke The mast of the Holme causeth hogs to gather a more fast and compact flesh their bodies to be neat slender lanke and ponderous Acornes doe engender a fleshy substance more square and spreading and the same also most heauy and hardest of digestion and yet they are of all other kinds of mast most sweet and pleasant Next to them in goodnesse by the testimony of Nigidius is that of the tree Cerrus neither is there bred of any other a courser flesh howbeit hard it is fast and tough As for the mast of Ilex hogs are endangered by eating thereof vnlesse it be giuen them warily by little and little Hee sayth moreouer that of all other it falleth last Moreouer the mast of Esculus Robur and the Corke causeth the flesh to be spungeous and hollow To conclude what trees soeuer beare mast carry also certaine nuts called Galls and lightly they are full of mast but each other yeare But the oke Hemeris beareth the best gals and fittest for the curriors to dresse their leather The broad leafed Oke hath a kinde of Galls like vnto it but lighter in substance and not so good by far it carrieth also blacke galls for 2 sorts there be and this is better for the dier to colour wooll CHAP. VII ¶ Of the Gall-nuts and how many other things Mast-trees doe beare besides Mast. THe nuts called Galls doe euer breake out all at once in a night and namely about the beginning of Iune when the Sun is ready to goe out of the signe Gemini The whiter sort thereof commeth to the growth in one day and if in the first spring and breaking foorth thereof it be hot weather it drieth and withereth out of hand and commeth not to the full bignesse and perfection namely to haue a kernell as much as a bean The blacke of this kind continueth longer fresh and green and groweth still to the bignesse otherwhiles of an apple The best galls be those of Comagena the worst is that of the oke called Robur which are knowne by the holes they haue that may be seen through The common oke Quercus ouer and besides the fruit which is the mast beareth many other things for it carieth both sorts of gal the black and the white certaine berries also like Mulberries but that they be dry and hard resembling for the most part a buls head containing within them a fruit much like the kernels of the oliue Moreouer there grow vpon it certain little bals not vnlike to nuts hauing soft flox within good to make candle-wiek or matches for lamps for burn they wil without any oile like as the black Gals It beareth also other little pils or balls good for nothing couered ouer with haire yet in the spring time they yeeld a certain juice or liquor like hony Furthermore there breed in the hollow arm-pits as it were of the boughes other small pills setled or sticking close to the
there is not a tree not so much as the very Vine that sheddeth leaues CHAP. XXII ¶ The nature of such leaues as fall from trees and what leaues they be that change colour ALl trees without the range of those before rehearsed for to reckon them vp by name particularly were a long and tedious piece of work do lose their leaues in winter And verily this hath bin found and obserued by experience that no leaues doe fade and wither but such as be thinne broad and soft As for such as fall not from the tree they be commonly thick skinned hard and narrow and therefore it is a false principle and position held by some That no trees shed their leaues which haue in them a fatty sap or oleous humiditie for who could euer perceiue any such thing in the Mast-holme a drier tree there is not and yet it holdeth alwaies green Timaeus the great Astrologer and Mathematician is of opinion that the Sun being in the signe Scorpio he causeth leaues to fall by a certain venomous and poysoned infection of the aire proceeding from the influence of that maligne constellation But if that were true we may wel and iustly maruell why the same cause should not be effectuall likewise in all other trees Moreouer we see that most trees do let fall their leaues in Autumne some are longer ere they shed continuing green vntill winter be come Neither is the timely or slow fall of the leafe long of the early or late budding for wee see some that burgen and shoot out their spring with the first and yet with the last shed their leaues and become naked as namely the Almond trees Ashes and Elders And contrariwise the Mulberry tree putteth forth leaues with the latest and is one of them that soonest sheddeth them again But the cause hereof lies much in the nature of the soile for the trees that grow vpon a leane dry and hungry ground do sooner cast leafe than others also old trees become bare before yonger and many of them also lose their leaues before their fruit be fully ripe for in the Fig tree that commeth and beaâ—…th late in the winter Pyrry and Pomegranate a man shall see in the later end of the yere fruit only and no leaues vpon the tree Now as touching those trees that continue euer greene you must not think that they keep still the same leaues for as new come the old wither fal away which hapneth commonly in mid-Iune about the Summer Sunne-stead For the most part the leaues in euery kind of tree do hold one and the same colour and continue vniform saue those of the Poplar Ivy and Croton which wee said was called also Cici iâ—… est Ricinus or Palma Christi CHAP. XXIII ¶ Three sorts of Poplar and what leaues they be that change their shape and figure OF Poplars there be found three sundry kinds to wit the white the blacke and that which is named Lybica or the Poplar of Guynee this hath least leaues and those of all other blackest but mow commendable they are for the fungous meazles as it were that come forth thereof As for the white Poplar leafe the leaues when they be yong are as round as if they were drawn with a paire of compasses like vnto those of Citron before named but as they grow elder they run out into certain angles or corners Contrariwise the Ivy leaues at the first be cornered and afterwards become round All Poplar leaues are full of downe as for the white Poplar which is fuller of leaues than the rest the said downe flieth away in the aire like to mossie chats or Thistle-downe The leaues of Pomegranats and Almond trees stand much vpon the red colour But very strange it is and wonderfull which hapneth to the Elme Tillet or Linden the Oliue tree Aspe and Sallow or Willow for their leaues after Midsummer turn about vpside downe in such sort as there is not a more certaine argument that the Sun is entred Cancer and returneth from the South point or Summer Tropicke than to see those leaues so turned CHAP. XXIIII ¶ What leaues they be that vse to turne euery yeare Of Palme or Date tree leaues how they are to be ordered and vsed Also certain wonderfull obseruations about leaues THere is a certain general and vniuersal diuersitie difference obserued in the very leaf for commonly the vpper side which is from the ground is of greene grasse colour more smooth also polished The outside or nether part of the leaf hath in it certain strings sinues or veins brawns and ioynts bearing out like as in the back part of a mans hand but the inside cuts or lines in maner of the palme of ones hand The leaues of the oliue are on the vpper part whiter and lesse smooth and likewise of the Ivy. But the leaues of all trees for most part euery day do turn and open to the Sunne as desirous to haue the inner side warmed therewith The outward or nether side toward the ground of all leaues hath a certaine hoary downe more or lesse here in Italy but in other countries so much there is of it that it serueth the turn for wooll and cotton In the East parts of the world they make good cordage and strong ropes of date tree leaues as we haue said before and the same are better serue longer within than without With vs these Date leaues are pulled from the tree in the Spring whiles they are whole and entire for the better be they which are not clouen or diuided Being thus plucked they are laid a drying within house foure daies together After that they be spred abroad and displaied open to the Sun and left without dores to take all weathers both day and night and to be bleached vntil they be dry and white which done they be sliued and slit for cord-work But to come again to other leaues the broadest are vpon the Fig-tree the Vine and the Plane the narrowest vpon the Myrtle Pomegranat and oliue as for those of the Pine and cedar they be hairy the Holly leaues and all the kindes of Holme be set with sharpe prickes As for the Iuniper in stead of leafe it hath a very pointed thorne The Cypresse and Tamariske carrie fleshie leaues those of the Alder be most thick of all other The Reed and the Willow haue long leaues the Date tree hath them double The leaues of the Peare tree are round but those of the Apple tree are pointed of the Ivie cornered of the Plane tree diuided into certaine incisions of the Pitch tree and the Fir cut in after the maner of comb-teeth of the wild hard Oke waued and indented round about the edges of the brier and bramble sharpe like thornes all the skin ouer Of some they be stinging and biting as of Nettles of others ready to pricke like pins or needles as of the Pine the Pitch tree the Larch the Firre the Cedar and all the
Pine-apples or nuts which cleaue and open vpon the tree bee called Zamiae and well may they be so named for vnlesse they be plucked they hurt and corrupt the rest The only trees that bear no fruit at all that is to say not so much as seed are these the Tamariske good for nothing but to make Beesoms of the Poplar Alder Atinian Elme and the Alaternus which hath leaues resembling the Holme and partly the Oliue As for such trees which neither at any tâ—…me are set or planted nor yet beare fruit they bee holden for vnfortunate accursed and condemned in such sort as there is no vse of them in any sacrifice or religious seruice Cremutius writeth That the Almond tree whereon ladie Phyllis hanged her selfe had neuer after greene leaues on it Such trees as yeeld gum after they haue put forth their bud do cleaue and open howbeit the gum that issueth out neuer commeth to any thicknesse vntill the fruit thereof be gathered Yong trees commonly beare not so long as they shoot and grow The Date tree the fig tree the Almond tree the Apple tree and the Pyrrie do soonest of all other let their fruit fall before it be fully ripe Semblably the Pomegranat tree which is so tender besides that with euery thicke and heauie dew white frost and foggie time she wil be bitten shed the blossom which is the cause that folk vse to bend the boughs thereof downeward to the ground that both dew and time may sooner fall off which lights vpon them and otherwise would ouer-load and hurt them The Pyrrie and the Almond tree cannot abide close and cloudie weather especially if the wind be Southerly although no raine do fall for in such daies if they chance to blossom they not only shed their flowre but lose their fruit new knit But the Sallow or Withie tree is of all others most ticklish and soonest forgoes the seed or chats that it beareth before it commeth to any ripenes for which cause called it is of Homer Loose-fruit or Spill-fruit Howbeit the age ensuing naught as it was hath interpreted that Epithet of his in another sense according to the wicked experience they had of it whereby it was found that the seed therof causeth barrainesse in women and hindreth conception But in this regard Nature hath well done also to preuent this mischiefe and inconuenience in that she hath not been very carefull to preserue the seed and yet for the maintenance of the whole kind she hath endued it with this gift To grow very quickly if a man do pricke into the ground but a cutting or twig thereof And yet by report there is one Willow in Candie and namely about the very descent of Iupiters caue which is wont ordinarily to carie the graine or seed thereof vntill it be full ripe and then is it of a rough and writhen shape of a wooden and hard substance and withall of the bignesse of a cich pease Moreouer some trees there be that proue barraine and fruitlesse by the occasion of the imperfection of the soile and territorie where they grow and namely in the Isle Paros there is a whole wood or coppise that vsually is lopt and cut but it neuer beareth any fruit The Peach trees in the Island Rhodos blossome only and otherwise are fruitlesse Ouer and besides this difference of trees that some be fruitfull and others barraine ariseth of the sexe also for commonly the males beare not howsoeuer some affirme cleane contrary and say They are the male only that be fruitfull and the female barren Furthermore it falleth out many times that trees be fruitlesse either because they grow too thick one by another or else are ouercharged and too ranke with boughes and branches but of such as do beare some bring forth their fruit both at the sides and also at the very tips and ends of their branches as the Peare tree Pomegranate tree Figge tree and Myrtle As for others they are of the nature of corne and pulse for the one grows in the eare or spike alone the other by the sides not otherwise The Date tree onely as hath been said before containeth fruit within certain pellicles and the same hangeth down in clusters after the manner of grapes Other trees beare their fruit vnder the leafe for their safeguard and defence except the Fig tree which hath her Figs aboue the leaf because it is so large and ouershadowie Moreouer the leafe of the fig tree commeth forth after the Figge One notable thing is reported of a kind of figge-trees in Cilicia Cyprus and Hellas to wit that they haue this propertie singular by themselues To bring forth their perfect Figs vnder leafe and their greene abortiue Figs that come to no proofe after the leafe The Fig tree beareth moreouer certain hastie Figs which the Athenians call Prodromos i. vant-courriers or forerunners because they be long ripe before others The Laconian Figge trees bring the fairest and greatest Figs. CHAP. XXVII ¶ Of trees that be are twice and thrice in one yeare Also what trees soonest wax old and of their ages IN the same countries aboue-named there be Figge trees also that beare Figges twice in one yeare And in the Island Cea the wild Figge trees beare thrice in the same yeare for the second increase is put forth on the first and the third vpon the second and by this third fruit the Figges of the tame Figge tree receiue their maturitie by way of caprification and those wild greene Figges of theirs come forth aboue the leafe Moreouer there be some Pyrries and Apple trees that bring forth fruit twice a yeare as also there be others of the hastie kind which do beare both Peares and Apples betimes in the yeare There is a kinde of Crab tree â—…lso or Wilding that in like manner beareth twice a yeare and the later fruit is ripe presently after the midst of September especially in places lying well vpon the Sun As touching Vines there be of them also that after a sort beare three times in the yeare which thereupon men call Insanas i. The mad or foolish vines for whiles some of the grapes be ripe others begin to swel and wax big and a third sort againe are but then in the flower M. Varro writeth That in Smyrna by the sea side there was a vine that bare fruit twice a yeare as also an Apple tree in the territorie of Consentia But this is an ordinary thing throughout all the countrey about Tacapa in Africa and neuer is it seen otherwise there so fertile is the soile but thereof will wee write more at large hereafter in another place As for the Cypresse trees they faile not but come with fruit thrice in one yeare and their berries be gathered in Ianuarie May and September and all of a diuers bignesse one from the other Ouer and besides the very trees themselues are not laden with fruit after one and the same manner for the Arbut
foure goodly pillars of Hymettian marble which in the yâ—…re of his Edileship were brought abroad to rich and beautifie the Theatre the Stage and Shew-place of the solemne plaies by him set out for as yet there had not bin in publicke place at Rome any marble pillars seen â—…o how lately is come vp this excessiue expence in rich glorious building so common in these daies See I say how in those times faire trees beautified pallaces more than any thing els insomuch as Domitius for the want of six trees only would not stand to the price that himselfe first made no not to buy his very enemy out of house and home with it but no maruel if trees were accounted of so highly seeing that our ancestors in old time thought not scorn to take otherwhiles their syrnames from them Thus that braue and valiant souldier came to be named Fronditius who maugre the bearâ—… of Anniball swum ouer the riuer Vulturnus with a chaplet of green leaues answerable to his name set vpon his head and performed many feats of arms and worthie exploits against him Thus they of the noble Licinian family had for their addition Stolons i. the vnprofitable water-shoots that put forth from the root or tree it selfe and neuer proue or come to any good And why so For that one of the said house deuised the means to clense trees vines of such superfluous twigs the practise feat of cutting which a way is called Pampinatio and therupon was one Licinius first sirnamed Stolo Moreouer our predecessors in antient time made good statutes and ordinances for the maintenance of trees and expressely prouided it was by the laws of the 12 Tables at Rome in these words That whosoeuer made wilfull waste and cut downe any trees growing in another mans ground should be peined in the court for a trespasse don forfeit for euery such tree 25 pound of brasse money But what should we thinke of this Did these law-makers trow ye suppose or imagine that other wilde trees would euer haue growne to that high reckoning aboue named and which now they are come vnto who valued fruitfull trees at no greater price and set the penalty for the trespasse so low But neuer maruell we any more hereat considering to what a proportion Apple-trees and such like are risen vnto For there be many of them here about the city of Rome in the villages neere adioining which are set for a yearely rent of 2000 Sesterces and one of them yeeldeth more profit and reuenue by the yere to the owner than a pretty ferm in times past of good domaine to the land-lord Hereupon came the inuention of graffing trees for this purpose haue we such bastard fruits intermingled one with another of sundry kindes as if Apples and other fruits were not for poore men to eat but grew only for the rich Hence forward now therefore will we shew the right perfect and absolute manner how to order and cherish them that it may appeare by what means especially such annuall commodity can be made of them as is beforesaid For the better performance of which discourse I meane to leaue the common and ordinary way neither will I handle the vsuall and vulgar manner of that point in husbandry wherein euery man is perfect and whereof no man maketh question but deliuer such matters onely as be vncertaine and doubtfull whereby oftentimes folke are deceiued and beguiled For to break my head or busie my brains in needlesse trifles and therein to affect a kinde of curiositie was neuer my manner yet nor is it any part of my meaning and intention now But before I doe enter into particulars mâ—… purpose is to treat in generalitie of this matter and touch briefely the consideration of heauen and earth both so farre forth as may concerne in common all kindes of trees whatsoeuer CHAP. II. ¶ Of the nature of the Skie respectiue vnto trees and what quarter thereof they should regard TRees generally do like best that stand to the Northeast wind for it nourisheth them well causeth them to spread thick and grow euery way in length and breadth and withall maketh the timber more fast and strong But in this rule most men do eâ—…e and be much deceiued for in vnderpropping vines the forkes would not be set opposite against that wind to hinder the blast thereof a point that is to be obserued in regard of the North wind only Moreouer we find by experience that if trees haue a kindly winter and cold season in their due time their wood will be more firme and so likewise will they bud and shoot out best otherwise if the warm Southerne winds blow vpon them much ye shall haue the trees proue soft and feeble and their blossoms come to nothing blooming as they do before time for if it chance that presently after their floures be fully out and ready to shed there fall any store of raine the fruit is quite gone for that yeare And as for Almond trees and Peare-trees if it be but close and cloudy weather only without any raine or the wind stand South when they floure sure they be to lose their fruit Certes a glut of rain in May at what time as the Brood-hen star called Virgiliae doth arise is exceeding hurtfull to Vines and Oliue-trees for then is the very season of their knitting or conception Then be the foure decretorie or criticall daies that giue the doome of Oliue trees either to good or bad this is the Southerly point of filthy foule and glowmie weather wereof wee haue spoken before Moreouer all manner of graine feeleth the inconuenience of Southern wind at the time of their ripening Well may corne make hast and ripen sooner but it shal neuer haue the kind maturity and perfection as it ought As for the cold pinching black frosts and Northern winds which blow out of season come thâ—…â—…rly or come they late they be hurtfull all But if the wind stand Northeast in winter there is nothing so good generally for all fruits of the earth And verily a good shower now then during that time wil do no harm and that men wish for rain then the reason is euident for why trees with bearing of fruit are drawne dry and haue lost their naturall moisture with shedding their leaues they be poore and feeble so that it is kind for them to be hungry then and to haue a greedy appetite to new food which is raine Now if the winter be open and warm withal that so soone as the trees haue don bearing they rest not between but conceiue again presently vpon it that is to say bud spurt anew vea and fall afresh to blossome whereby they haue another euacuation that way also to spend their sap and radicall moisture we find by experience that there is nothing in the world so bad for them Nay if many such yeres come together immediatly one after another the very trees themselues will die
Husbandmen of the countrey go by no other clocke to know how the day passeth in close and cloudie weather than this obseruation Moreouer it hath three seasons of blowming it loueth the earth well but yet willingly it would not be couered ouer with mould for this is the onely seed that is sowne vpon ground without any ploughing or digging it would grow to chuse in a most grauelly drie and sandy soile and in no case can it abide any tending or husbandry about it so affected is it to the earth that cast it vpon any rough ground among bushes leaues briers and brambles it will chit and spurt neuerthelesse neuer lin til it take root within the earth If Lupines be sowed either in vineyards or vpon corne lands they inrich the same and make the ground better as we haue before written and so little need haue they of dung that they stand in stead of the very best To say a truth there is no graine lesse chargeable to be sowne than it nay there is none costeth nought at all but it for it needeth not so much as to be brought into the field and why it soweth it selfe presently in the same field where it grew and sâ—…edding as it doth of the own accord a man neuer needs to cast and throw it vpon the land as other corne It is first sowne and last gathered and lightly both these seasons fall out in the moneth of September for if the Seed-nes preuent not the winter so as it may haue good root before it commeth it will be in danger of the cold Ouer and besides if it chance to lie bare and vncouered aboue-ground left carelessely without any keeping and that no raine come vpon it presently for to driue it into the ground it is safe enough and catcheth no harme for so bitter it is that no liuing creature will touch it and yet for the most part the husbandmen bestow a light furrow vpon it and so couer it verie shallow If the ground be fast and heauie it loueth that â—…est which standeth vpon a red clay And for the maintaining and inriching of this kind of soile it must be turned vp or eared after the third flouring but in case it be grauelly or sandy it wil serue to do it after the second Chalkie grounds onely and myrie it hateth and therein it wil not grow As bitter as otherwise it is yet if it be steeped and soked in hot water it is mans meat also Moreouer one Modius or pecke of Lupines is sufficient for to satisfie and feed an Oxe or a cow at a time and this kind of prouender will make beasts strong and healthfull Moreouer the meale of Lupines applied to the bellies of yong children that haue the wormes is a singular remedy For the good keeping of Lupines all men agree that they should be laid vp in some chimney or smokie place especially for if they lie in a moist roome there be certain little worms that wil nibble off and eat the tip or nauill that it hath and by that meanes marre it for euer sprouting againe Finally if Lupines be eaten downe by beasts while they be greene in the leafe the ground where they grew must presently be ploughed vp CHAP. XV. ¶ Of Vetches and Eruile VEtches also do manure and fat the ground where they be sowed neither be they chargeable or stand the husbandman in much they be sown with one tilth otherwise there needs no harrowing nor weeding there is required no mucking onely they would be couered with mould and the clods broken for sowing of vetches there be three sundry times first about the setting of the star Arcturus that by the moneth of December it may get a good head for to be eaten with beasts and it is generally holden that being sowne in this season it will bring the best seed for say it be eaten downe then it will carry the burden neuerthelesse the second Seednesse is in Ianuarie the last in March and being then put into the ground it will run vp most to blade and yeeld the best forrage for cattell Of all seeds that are cast into the earth it loueth drought most it can brooke also shadie places well enough The chaffe that commeth of the seed thereof is excellent good and better than any other in case it were ripe when it was gathered It robbeth vines of their nourishment if it be sowed neere those trees wherto vines are wedded in somuch as a man may see euidently how they languish As touching Eruile it asketh no great hand or trauell about it yet thus much more attendance it requireth than Vetches for that it must be weeded and grubbed about the roots Besides this kind of Pulse is of great vse in Physick for Augustus Caesar was cured of a disease that he had and recouered his health by the means of Eruile as himselfe reporteth in some of his letters now extant Moreouer fiue Modij or pecks of Eruile sown is sufficient to maintain and find a yoke of oxen As for that which is sowne in March it is hurtfull forage men say for kine and oxen as also that which is sowne in Autumne maketh beasts heauie and stuffed in the head but that which is put into the ground in the beginning of the Spring is harmlesse CHAP. XVI ¶ Of Foenigreeke of Rie of Dredge of the prouender corne or Bolimong Ocymum of Spanish Trefoile or horned Clauer-grasse called in Latine Medica of the shrub Trifoile named Cytisus FOr the sowing of Silicia or Siliqua otherwise called Foenigreeke there needs no more but to scarrifie or scrape it lightly vp with a furrow not aboue foure fingers breadth deepe for the lesse cost and husbandry that is bestowed about it and the worse that it is vsed the better it prospereth and yeeldeth greater increase a strange thing to be spoken and seldom verified That Negligence should be any waies profitable and yet herein it prooueth true That which is called Secale and Farrago in Latine i. Rie needeth no more adoe but to be harrowed the clods well broken There is a kinde of Secale or Rie which the people called Taurines dwelling vnder the Alpes doe call Asia it is simply worst of all other and good for nothing but onely to driue away hunger plentifull enough this corne is and yeeldeth good increase but the straw is slender blacke it is and of an vnpleasant colour howbeit exceeding weightie and ponderous they vse to mingle the red wheat Far therewith and make thereof a Mascelline to allay the bitternesse thereof and yet for all that the bread which it maketh is most vnsauorie to the mouth and ill for the stomack It wil come vp in any ground whatsoeuer and bring forth a hundred fold ordinarily neither doth it eat the ground out of heart but rather maketh it more battle and serueth in stead of compost or mucke As for that kind of dredge of farrage which commeth of the refuse and light corne purged
vnskilfull in this part of Philosophie as touching the course and order of the Starres which beeing not onely discouered but also assoiled and cleared their minds with better contentment may goe from the contemplation of heauen to the rest of Natures workes and see those things by the effects which they could not possibly foresee by their causes CHAP. XXV ¶ The times and seasons of the rising and setting of Starres digested into order as well by day as night IN the first place there offereth it selfe vnto vs one difficultie aboue the rest so intricate as hardly is it possible to resolue vpon it namely as touching the very daies of the yere how many they be in number and the reuolution of the Sunne how and when he returneth againe to to the same point For wheras some do account the solare yere to be 365 daies just others adde thereunto certaine quadrants or foure parts of day and night together to wit six houres euery yeare which beeing put together make the fourth yeare Bissextile or Leape yeare so as it is in manner impossible to assigne the certaine daies and houres of the Starres apparition or occultation Ouer and besides how obscure how darke and confused all this matter is appeareth manifestly herin That the times and seasons of the yere prefixed by ancient writers fal not out accordingly and namely in the obseruation of the winter seasons tempests by them set down for one while you shall haue them to preuent and come sooner by many daies than ordinarie which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another while to draw back and come later which they terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea and for the most part this happeneth by reason that the influence of the coelestiall starres reacheth sooner or later to the earth and therafter sheweth the effects so as the common people when they see the said foule weather past and all cleare and faire againe say then and not before That such a planet or Starre hath performed his course and is vpon the point of his Tropicke or return againe Moreouer considering that al these occurrents depend much vpon those stars which be set fixed in the firmament yet shall ye haue the Planets play their parts besides which by their motions and operations worke no small effects vpon the earth as we haue shewed before and namely causing betweene-whiles stormes of raine and haile out of course no maruell then If they trouble our heads and put vs out of our account interrupting that order of the fixed Stars vpon which we conceiued and built our hope of the faire season and our new spring And herin not we only that be men faile of our reckoning but other liuing creatures also be deceiued which naturally haue much more sense and vnderstanding of these workes of Nature than we in as much as their whole life standeth thereupon for the Summer-birds as great fore-sight as they haue of such seasons and tempests are ouer-taken and killed by Winter frosts and cold comming sooner than they looked for and before they be gone out of the countrey as also winter foules miscarrie by the hot weather of summer continuing longer than it was woont and holding on still after they be come Hereupon it is that Virgil expressely willeth vs to learne throughly the skill of the wandring Starres or Planets also and principally giueth vs warning to marke the course of that cold Planet Saturne But now to come more particularly to the signs which fore-token the Spring some there be that goe by the Butterflie and hold that their brood comming abroad is an assured token that the Spring is come for that these creatures so feeble are not able to abide any cold howbeit this was checked that very yere wherin I wrote this Book or History of Natures work for seen it was and marked very well that 3 flights of them one after another were killed with the cold weather that surprised them thrice for that they were stirring too early and came abroad ouersoon Yea and the very birds who are our guests in warm weather visited vs fiue or sixe daies before Februarie made a goodly shew of a timely Spring putting vs in good hope that al cold weather was gone howbeit there ensued a most bitter after winter streight vpon it that nipped and killed them in manner euerie one Hard and doubtfull therefore is the case that whereas first and principally we were to fetch our rule from the heauens to guide and direct vs then afterwards we should be driuen to goe by other signes and arguments meere conjecturall But aboue all the cause of this incertitude and difficultie is partly the conuexity of the cope of heauen and partly the diuerse climats obserued in the globe of the earth by meanes whereof one and the same star seemeth to rise at sundrie times in diuerse countres and appears sooner or later to some than to others and therefore the cause depending thereupon is not in all places of like validity nor sheweth the same effects alwaies at the same times And yet there is one difficultie more arising from those Authors who writing of one and the same thing haue deliuered diuers opinions according to the sundry climates wherein they were at what time as they obserued the figure and constitution of the heauens Now were there of these Astronomers three Sects to wit the Chaldaeans the Aegyptians and the Greekes To which there may be added a fourth which among vs Caesar the Dictatour first erected who obseruing the course of the Sun and taking with him also the aduise of Sosigenes a learned Mathematitian and skilfull Astronomer in his time reduced the yeare vnto the said reuolution Howbeit in this calculation of his there was found an error and short he came of the marke which he aimed at by reason that there was no Bissextile or leap yere by him inserted but after 12 yeres Now when it was obserued by this reckoning that the sun had performed his reuolution sooner than the yere turned about which before was wont to preuent the course of the Sun this error was reformed and after euery fourth yeare expired came about the Bissextile aforesaid and made al streight Sosigenes also himselfe albeit he was reputed a more curious and exquisite Mathematician than the rest yet in three seuerall treatises that he made retracting or correcting that in one booke that he had set down in another seemed euermore to write doubtfully and left the thing in as great ambiguitie vndertermined as he found it As for these writers whose names I haue alleadged prefixed in the front of this present volume now in hand they haue likewise deliuered their opinions as touching this point but hardly shal you find two of them in one the same mind Lesse maruell then if the rest haue varied one from another who may pretend for their excuse the diuers tracts and climates wherein they wrote As for those who liued
18 day before the Calends of Ianuary The Spring Aequinox when nights and daies be of a length in the eight degree of Aries Semblably the summer Sunstead or longest day of the yeare is alwaies when the Sun is entred eight degrees into Cancer Last of all the other Aequinox in Autumne when day and night is equall lighteth vpon the eight degree of Libra And certes seldom or neuer shall you see any of these foure daies without euident shew of some notable change in the weather Again these cardinall seasons or quarters of the yeare admit also their sub-diuisions still into some notable and special times obserued in the very middle space from the one and the other For betweene the summer Sunstead and the Aequinox in Autumne iust vpon the fiue and forty day after the same Sunstead the retrait or setting of the star called in Latine Fidicula i. the Harp beginneth the Autumne Likewise betweene that Aequinox and the winter Sunstead or shortest day of the yeare the Matutine or morning fall of the star Virgiliae vpon the three and fortieth day after the said Aequinox setteth the beginning of the winter So likewise vpon the fiue and fortieth day between mid-winter or the shortest day of the yeare and the spring Aequinox the blowing of the Western wind Favonius beginneth the Spring And last of all vpon the three and fortieth day from the sayd Aequinox toward the Summer Sunstead at what time as the star Virgiliae doth rise Matutine begins the Summer But to returne again to our Agriculture begin I will at the Seednes of Frument corne that is to say at the rising or apparition of the starre Vergiliae in the morning without making any mention at all of other pety stars for to interrupt the train and course of our treatise to heap difficulties one vpon another considering that the fierce and vehement star Orion is departed a great way off from vs by that time I am not ignorant that many fall to sowing corne long before and preuent this time beginning their Seednes within 11 daies after the Aequinox in Autumne namely at the approch and rising of the star Corona i. the Crowne promising themselues assuredly to haue rain vpon it for certain daies together Xenophon would not haue vs begin to sow before that God giue vs some good signe and token so to do And Cicero our countryman expounding this saying of Xenophon taketh the raines in Nouember to be that signe which God giueth whereas in very deed the true and vndoubted rule to goe by is to make no great hast into the field for to sow before the leaues begin to fall and this euery man holdeth to be at the very occultation or retrait of the star Vergiliae Some as we haue before said haue obserued it about 3 daies before the Ides of Nouember And for that the said star is so euident in the heauen and easiest to be known of all others called it is by the name of a garment hanging out at a Brokers shop And therefore by the fall or retrait thereof as many men as haue a care and forecast to preuent the couetous dealing of the merchant-Tailor as commonly such occupiers lie in the wind for gain guesse aforehand what winter will follow for if it be a cloudie season when the star retireth it threatens a rainy winter and then these merchants presently raise the price of the clokes which they sel but if the weather be faire and cleare at the setting or occultation thereof it sheweth a pinching and hard winter toward and then they hold other garments also very deare But this Husbandman of ours who cannot skill at all to looke vp and to learn the order and position of the heauens must spy this signe of winter amongst his briers and brambles he must find I say the time of Seednes as he looketh downe vpon the ground namely when he sees the leaues fallen and lying vnder his feet Thus may a man know the temperature of the climat and the yeare according as he perceiues the leaues be fallen more at one time than another sooner also in some places and later elsewhere For as the season is forward or late as the climate also is affected so are the trees knowne to shed their leaues accordingly And in very truth this is the truest signe of all others And the best thing therein is this that being generall throughout the whole world and yet peculiar to each place it neuer faileth A man might make a wonder hereat if he did not see and remember that vpon the very shortest day in the yere euen in midwinter when the Sun is entred Capricorn the herb Penyroyal vseth of it selfe to floure either set in chaplets or otherwise hanging and sticking in the shambles so willing is Nature to shew vs all her secrets and to keepe nothing hidden from vs. For loe what signes and marks she hath giuen vs wherby we might know the time of sowing corn and verily this is the only true and infallible direction grounded vpon approoued experience and the same shewed first by dame Nature for by this dropping fall of leaues what doth she els teach and counsell vs but to haue our eye vpon the ground and to cast seed into it assuring vs of a certain supply of dung and compost by ouerspreading the ground and cast seed into it that soon will turne into muck what doth she else I say but by couering the earth in this manner with leaues shew how carefull she is to defend it against hard frosts and pinching winds and in one word thereby putteth vs in mind to make the more hast and get our seed vnder mould As for Varro he is of the same opinion for beans also and willeth vs to obserue the said rule in sowing them at the fall of the leafe Others are of this mind that the best sowing thereof is in the full Moone But for Lentils we should attend the last quarter toward the change to wit from the 25 day to the thirtieth Also that Vetches must be sowed at the said age of the Moon for in so doing we shall preserue such pulse from the naked snaile Howbeit some others there be that indeed would haue these kindes of Pulse to be sowed at this time of the yeare and age of the Moon for prouender and forrage to be spent out of hand mary if we would keepe the same for seed then we should take the season of the Spring Besides those rules and tokens aboue specified there is one more which Nature vpon an extraordinarie prouidence ouer vs hath presented vnto our eies after a wonderfull manner which Cicero expresseth in these termes Iam vero semper viridis semperque gravata Lentiscus triplici solit a est grandescere foetu Ter fruges fundens tria tempora monstrat arandi The Mastick tree All times you see Is clad and richly dight With green in cold With fruit three-fold A faire and goodly
sight As she therefore By Natures lore Doth fruit thrice yearely beare So thereby we Know seasons three Our land to duly eare Of which three seasons one is appropriate for the sowing both of Poppy and also of Lineseed But since I haue named Poppy I will tell you what Cato saith as touching the sowing thereof vpon that land quoth he where you mean to sow Poppy burn your winding rods the cuttings also and twigs of vines which remained and were left at the pruning time when you haue burned them sow wild Poppy seed in the place for it is a singular medicine being boiled vp to a syrrup in honey for to cure the maladies incident to the chawes and throat As for the garden Poppy it hath an excellent and effectuall vertue to procure sleep And thus much concerning Winter corne and the Seednes thereof CHAP. XXVI ¶ A summarie or recapitulation of all points of Husbandry and to what out-works in the field a husbandman should be imployed respectiuely to euerie moneth of the yeare BVt now to compasse vnder a certain briefe Abridgement or Breviarie all points of husbandrie together At the same time before named to wit at the falling of the leafe it is good also to lay dung vnto the roots of trees likewise to mold and bank vines and one workeman is sufficient for one acre Also where the nature of the ground will beare it the husbandman shall not do amisse to disbranch and lop his tree-groues to prune his vineyards to hollow the ground of his seminaries and nourse-plots with mattocke and spade and dresse the mould light to open his sluces and trenches for water-course to driue and drain it out of the fields and finally to wash his Wine-presses first and then to shut and lay them vp dry and safe Item after the Calends or first day of Nouember let him set no hens vpon egs vntill the winter Sunstead be past when that time is come and gon set Hens hardly and let them couve 13 egs marie better it were all Summer long to put so many vnder them for in winter fewer will serue howbeit neuer vnder nine Democritus giueth a guesse what Winter we shall haue by the very day of the Winter Sunstead for look what weather is then and for threedaies about it the like winter he supposeth will ensue Semblably for the Summer he goeth by the other Sunstead or longest day of the yeare and yet commonly for a fortnight about the shortest day in the yeare to wit during the time that the fowles Halcyones do lay couve and hatch their egs in the sea the windes lie and the weather is more mild and temperat But as well by these signes as all other whatsoeuer we must guesse the influences and effects of the stars according to the euent within some latitude of time and not so precisely to limit and tie them alwaies to certain daies prefixed as if they were bound to make their appearance peremptorily in court iust then and faile not Moreouer in mid-winter meddle not at all with vines touch them not in any hand but let them alone What then is the husbandman to do Mary then quoth Hyginus after seuen daies be once past from the Sunnestead he is to refine his wines from the lees and let them settle yea and to poure them out of one vessel into another prouided withall that the Moon be a quarter old Also about that season to wit when the Sun is in Capricorn it is not amisse to plant cherrie trees and set their stones then is it good also to giue oxen Mast to feed them and one Modius or pâ—…cke is sufficient to serue a yoke at one refection allow them more at once you glut them and fill them full of diseases but at what time soeuer you make them this allowance vnlesse you hold on thirty daies together folke say they will be scabbed and mangie when the Spring commeth that you will repent for cutting them so short As for felling timber trees this was the proper season which we appointed heretofore All other winter works for an husbandman to be busied in would be done in the night for the most part sit vp he must late and rise betimes by candle light and watch hardly about them for that the nights be so much longer than the daies let him a Gods name find himselfe occupied with making Wicker baskets and hampers winding of hurdles twisting of frailes and paniers let him thwite torch wood taperwise with links and lights and when he hath by day light made ready and prepared thirtie poles or railes for vines to run on and sixty stakes or props to support them hee may in the euening make fiue poles or perches and ten forks or supporters and likewise as many early in the morning before day light But now to come to Caesars reckoning of the times digestion of the coelestial signes these be the notable stars which are significant and do rule that quarter which is between the winter Sunstead and the rising of the Western wind Favonius Vpon the third day saith he before the Calends of Ianuarie which is the 30 day of December the Dog-starre goeth downe in the morning vpon which day in Attica and the whole tract thereto adioyning the star Aquila i. the Aegle setteth by report in the euening and loseth her light The euen before the Nones of Ianuarie i. the fourth day thereof by Caesars account I mean for the meridian of Italy the Dolphin star riseth in the morning and the morrow after the Harp-star Fidicula vpon which day in Aegypt the star Sagitta i. the Arrow setteth in the euening Item from that time to the sixt day before the Ides of Ianuarie i. the eighth day of that moneth when as the same Dolphin goeth down or retireth out of sight in the euening vsually we haue in Italy continual frost and winter weather as also when the Sun is perceiued to enter into Aquarius which ordinarily falleth out sixteen daies before the Calends of Februarie i. the seuenteenth of Ianuary As for the cleare and bright star called the star Royal appearing in the breast of the signe Leo Tubero mine Author saith that eight daies before the Calends of Februarie to wit the 25 day of Ianuarie it goeth out of our sight in the morning also ouer-night before the Nones of Februarie i. the fourth day of the same moneth the Harp-star Fidicula goeth down and is no more seene Toward the later end of this quarter it is good and necessarie to dig and turne vp fresh mould with mattock and spade against the time that roses or vines shal be set wheresoeuer the temperature of the climat will beare it and for an acre of such worke sixty labourers in a day are sufficient to doe it well At which time also old trenches and ditches would be scoured or new made For morning worke before day the Husbandman must look to his iron tooles that they be ground whetred
and sharpned that their steles helues or handles be fitted and set to their heads that shaken tubs barrels and such like vessels be new cowped bound with hoops and calfretted that their staues â—…e well scraped and cleansed or else new set into them And thus much of this Winter Quarter as farre as to the comming of the Westerne winde Favonius Now as touching the entrance of the new Spring which is from the rising of the said winde to the Equinox in March Caesar sets downe for it the time which for three daies together is variable and inconstant weather to wit seuenteen daies before the calends of March which is the thirteenth of Februarie Also 8 daies before the said Calends which is the 22 of Februarie vpon the sight of the first Swallow and the morrow after vpon which day the star Arcturus riseth Vespertine i. appeareth in the â—…ning In like manner Caesar hath obserued that the said wind hath begun to blow three daies before the Nones of March to wit the fift of March just with the rising or apparition of the Crab-star Cancer Howbeit most writers of Astrologie do assigne the first entry of the Spring and the comming of this wind to the 8 day before the Ides of March which is the eight of that moneth when as the star Vinâ—…emiator id est the Grape-gatherer beginneth to appeare at what time also the Northerly starre called the Fish ariseth vpon the morrow whereof to wit the ninth day the great starre Orion sheweth himselfe in his likenesse In the region Atâ—…ica where Athens standeth it is obserued that the star Milvus i the Kite or Glede appeareth then in that climat Caesar moreouer noted that the star Scorpio rises vpon the Ides of March those fatall Ides I say that were so vnfortunate vnto himselfe also that vpon the 15 Calends of Aprill which is the 18 of March the foresaid Milvus i the Kitestar appeareth to them in Italie and three daies after the Horse-star is hidden toward the morning This is the freshest the most busie or stirring interual or time between that husbandmen haue and yet therin they be oftenest deceiued for commonly called they are not to their work the very same day that the wind Fauonius should by course blow but when it begins to be aloft which is a point to be considered and obserued with right great regard for if a man would take heede and marke well this is that moneth wherein God giueth vs that sure and infallible sign which neuer faileth Now from what quarter or coast this wind doth blow and which way it commeth albeit I haue shewed alreadie in the second booke of this storie yet will I speake thereof more distinctly and exactly anon mean while from that day whensoeuer it hapneth on which that wind beginneth to blow come it sooner as namely when it is a timely and forward spring or come it later if it be a long winter for it is not alwaies the sixth day just before the Ides of February from that time I say must the rustical paisants settle to their work then are they to goe about a world of toilesome labour then must they plie their businesse and make speed to dispatch those things first that may not be defer'd put off then or neuer would their summer three month corne be sowne their vines be pruned in manner abouesaid their Oliue trees dressed and trimmed accordinglâ—… Apple-tree stocks and such like fruits are then to to be set and graffed then is the time to be digging and deluing in vineyards to remoue some yong plants out of their seminaries and digest them in order as they must grow and to supply their plots with new seed and impes Canes and Reeds Willows and Osiers Broom also would then some be set and others cut downe Elmes Poplars and Plane trees ought then to be planted as hath been said before then is the meetest season to cleanse the corne fields to sarcle and rid the winter corn from weeds and especially the bearded red wheat Far in doing wherof this must be the certain rule to direct the husbandmen namely when the root of the said Far begins to haue foure strings or threads to it As for Beans they must not be medled withall in that order before they haue put out three leaues and then verily they must be lightly gone ouer and cleansed rather with a light hooke than otherwise When Beanes be bloumed for 15 daies together they ought not to be touched As touching Barley it would not be sarcled or raked but in a drie ground and when the weather holds vp Order the matter so that by the Aequinox in March all your pruning and binding of Vines be done and finished If it be a vineyard foure men are enough to cut and tie an acre of vines and if they grow to trees one good workeman will be able to ouercome fifteen trees in one day This is the very time moreouer of gardening and dressing rose-plots or rosiers whereof I mean to treat apart and seuerally in the booke next following of drawing vinets also knots and fine storie works in gardens this is the only season to make trenches and ditches the ground also would now be broken vp for a fallow against the next yeare according to the mind and counsell of Virgil especially to the end that the Sunne might throughly parch and concoct the clots and thereby make it more mellow for the Seednes Howbeit I doe like better of their opinion as the more thristie and profitable of the two who aduise to plough no ground in the mids of the Spring but that which is of a mean temperature for if it be rich and fat presently the weeds will ouergrow and take vp the seams and furrowes againe say it be poore and leane the hot weather comming so soon vpon the fallow will dry it too fast spend all the moisture and kill the heart therof which should maintain the seed When thou hast found out in this maner the North-east wind Aquilo be sure that the wind which bloweth ful against it from the point where the Sun setteth in midwinter when daies be shortest is the Southwest called in Latin Africus and in Greek Lybs Obserue this wind wel for if a beast after she be couered turn about directly into this wind she will for certaine conceiue a female And thus much of the Line in the Quadrant next to the North point on the East side The third line from the North point which we drew first through the latitude of the shadow before said and which we called Decumana pointeth out the Equinoctial Sun-rising in March and September directeth thee also to the East wind vnder it called in Latine Subsolanus and in Greek Apeliotes Where the climat is healthful and temperat let vineyards be planted and arranged into this wind let ferm-houses also in the country be so built as the dores and windowes open into it This wind
Skarlet graine of the oke Ilex 461. a Skie strange sights seen therein in time of Octanius Consull 18. i Skill in planting directed by the nature of the soile 501. e of the skin a discourse 346. k Skin subtile and thin causeth finenesse of spirit 346. k it hath no fellowship with vnderstanding ibid. l Skin of Crocodiles hard 346. k Skin of Riuer-horse turneth iauelines and speares 346. l Skin of Elephants not to be pierced ibid. Skins of Gorgon women hung vp in Iunoes temple in Carthage 148. l Skritchowle flieth not directly 277. a. one of them entred the sanctuarie of the Capitoll of Rome ibid. S L Slauerie who brought in first 289. a Slaues deuoured of Lampreys 348. i S M Smell most pleasant that commeth from the earth 505. a Smell of a snuffe of a candle causeth vntimely birth 159. c Smilaces 558. l Smilax one of the names of Yeugh 463. f Smilax how it is described 481. d. supposed to be vnluckie and why ibid. the name of a young damsell turned into the plant Smilax 481. d. the vse that the wood is employed vnto ibid. c in Smyrna a boy changed into a girle 158. h Shouelars what manner of birds 292. l Snailes 218. i Snake casteth her slough and by what meanes 211. a. in Syria they hurt no Syrians but deadly to strangers 234 i Snow falleth not where sea is deepe 46. k. how it is engendered 29. b. how it is good for trees 500. i S O Socrates kept one countenance alwaies 166. h Socrates iudged the wisest man 173. c Socrates neuer knowne to change countenance 166. g Soles fishes 244. h Soruises trees how they be kept long 440. l. of foure kindes 445. c. round as apples pointed as peares long as egs ib. Soruise Torminale why so called ib. d. preserued in cuit ib. e Sosigenes 6. k South wind when it bloweth causeth creatures to be lesse hungrie 24. g. it raiseth more surging waues than the North-wind and why ibid. h Soules of men parcello heauen 16. m Soules whether immortall 187. a. b Southerne winds make trees feeble 600. h. a rocke consecrated vnto it 21. e. riseth from mid-day 12. l Sowes eat their owne Pigs 230. g. how they be splaied ib. k their liuer made into a daintie dish ibid. they vse not their teeth to strike as Bores 337. b. enraged when they goe a brimming and how remedied 304. g. h. that bee wild breed but once a yeare 231. a. raging in their farrowing ibid. Sophocles enterred by warning from Bacchus 171. d Sowing of corne 579. e. in the right season 583. b art in Sowing ibid. late Sowing more dangerous than earely 584. k in Sowing the Moone and signes to be obserued ibid. S P Spadonei Dates 449. c Spagos 424. g Spaine the description thereof 87. f Spathe what it is 379. e Sparrowes short liued and let cherous 290. m Sphagnos sweet mosse 375. d Sphinges a kinde of Monkey or Marmosets 232. i Spikenard See Nard Spinturnix what bird 277. b Spiders greatest enemies to Bees 321. c. where she beginneth her web ibid. e. hunt after Lizards 324. i. lay egs ibid. k being young eat their mothers ibid. the vse of their web 323. b. drinketh vp the moisture of cloth 330. h Springs colder in Summer than in Winter 46. k. leape vpward ibid. l Spittle noisome to serpents 154. l Springs entrance when it beginneth 590. 〈◊〉 591. a Spring corne 557. d â—…piders how they engender 324. i. why they scatter their â—…gges ibid. i 〈◊〉 of sundry sorts 262. l Spâ—…ghts birds called Pici Martij 278. g. why h. effectuall â—…presages ibid. i. their admirable nature ibid. k. no Speights at Tarentum 285. c Spâ—… Tarpeius serued in 120 foughten fields 170. h Spindle tree 399. b. the properties thereof ibid. Sâ—…ado es certaine reeds 484. g Spâ—…lt 363. a Spiders foreshew the fall of an house 211. c Spleene fastened in the left side of the bellie 343. c. thought to be in serpents ibid. it hindereth the running ibid. professed runners wast it in a hot yron ibid. may be taken out of the bodie without harme ibid. being taken away the laughter is gone ibid. Spikenard will not thriue in Arabia 478. l Spindle and spinning whose inuention 188. i Spira fault in wood 489. a Spirit See Aire Spondilium an hearbe and fruit 378. l Spinter and Pamphylus two players how they resembled Lentulus and Metellus Consuls 161. f Spring when it beginneth 23. c fasting Spittle killeth serpents 154. l of the Spleene 343. c S Q Squali fishes 248. l Squilla floureth thrice and sheweth three times of ploughing 592. h Squinanth where it groweth 375. a. the best and price of it ibid. b Squirrils their properties 218. g S T Stacte the best Murrhe 368. m Stadises a towne in Aegypt where the fall of Nilus maketh men deafe 145. e Stagonius 367. e Stagonitis 378. i Stag enuious to man 213. c in danger seeketh to man ibid. white Stags of Q. Sertorius 214. k. enemies to serpents ib. long liuers ibid. l. their flesh good for the liuer ibid. l. aue vnder their tongue twentie little wormes 333. b Stags and Hinds 213. c. they teach their young to run ibid. how they behaue themselues when they be hunted ibid. e their sundrie qualities ibid. e. f. how they swim ouer sea 214. g. they cast their hornes yearely ibid. how their age is knowne ibid. h Staphylodendrum what it is 467. c Stature of man decreaseth 165. a fixed Starres and starrie skie presage future weather how and after what sort 612. i. k Stars predominate after the Spring of Equinox 592. k Stars fixed their rising and setting to be taken two waies 587. c. d. Stars none lesse than the Moone 19. d Stars seene with the Sunne all day long 17. d Stars fixed which haue influence till the comming of Favonius 590. i Stars signs whether to be regarded for Seednes 584. l. 〈◊〉 Star fish 269. e Star-lizards stellons cast their skins 213. b. their venomab Stars wandring See Planets to them attributed the euent of things when they begin to gouerne the seas 597. 〈◊〉 Stars or Planets not appointed for euery man according to his state or condition as some vainly haue imagined 5. c Stars obiected in nanigation first by whom c. 190. i. their shooting and falling what it is 5. d. their power and operation ib. that be fixed shine as well by day as night 9. f their vnequall rising 34. i. whether to bee regarded for seednes 584. l. m. rising and setting of which be diuersly taken 587. c. d. predominant after the Spring Aequinox 592. k. how they presage future weather 612. i Stelus what it is 496. k Stellions liue onely by deaw and spiders 325. d Stares could parle Greeke and Latine 293. e Sterlings depart for a season 284. g. their manuer of flight ibid. h Stephanos Alexandri 453. a Stesichorus feared the eclipse of the Sunne 9. a Starch See Amylum Starres running
it carrieth a purple floure leaues and branches rough a root in haruest time as red as bloud otherwise black and groweth in sandy grounds effectuall it is against serpents and Vipers most of all others both in the root and leafe as well eaten with meat as taken in drinke In the full strength it is in haruest The leaues if it be bruised or stamped do yeeld the sauor and smel of a Cucumber If the matrice of a woman be slipt downe a draught of three cyaths thereof doth reduce it vp into the place and together with hyssope it driueth out the broad wormes in the belly For the pain of the kidnies or the liuer it ought to be taken in mead or honied water if the Patient haue an ague withall otherwise in wine The root brought into a liniment cureth the Lentils or red spots yea and the infection of the leprosie And it is said That as many as haue it about them cannot be stung by serpents There is yet another Orchanet or Anchusa like vnto this in regard of the red floure which it beareth howbeit a lesse herb than the other hauing the like operation and imploied in the same vses It is reported That if one chew it in his mouth spit it forth vpon a serpent the same will surely die thereupon As touching Anthemis i. Camomile Asclepiades the Physitian doth highly praise and commend it Some name it Leucanthemis others Leucanthemus there be who giue it the name Eranthemon because it flourisheth in the Spring others againe name it Chamaemelon for the sent or sauour that it hath of an Apple many call it Melanthemon Three kinds there be of it differing onely in the floures for none of them exceed an hand-breadth in heighth which bee small and in forme resemble those of Rue howbeit these floures be either white yellow or red In a lean ground and neer to beaten paths this herb loueth to grow gathered it is in the spring and layed vp for to serue in garlands at which time the Physitians also stampe the leaues and make them vp into Trosches so do they also by the floure and the root This vertue they haue That if they be all mingled together to the weight of one dram they are thought to be a soueraigne remedie against the sting of all serpents This herbe expelleth dead infants within the mothers wombe if it be taken in drinke It bringeth downe also the monthly fleurs of women prouoketh vrine and sendeth forth the stone and grauell Being chewed it dissolueth ventosities it cureth the obstructions and defects of the liuer it helpeth the jaundise healeth the fistuloes between the angle of the eye and the nose and generally all running sores and mattering vlcers But of all these kinds that which beareth the red purple floure hath most effectuall operation for the stone and indeed both the leaues and also the branches of this Camomile are somewhat larger than of the rest and some there be who giue this a name it selfe and call it Eranthemon As for those who take lotos to be a tree only may be conuinced euen by the authority and restimony of Homer who among other herbes growing for the delight and pleasure of the gods hath named Lotos as principall The leaues of this herbe incorporat with honey and so applied cureth the cicatrices or scars in the eie the spots also appearing therein and disolueth the cloudy skins which ouercast the sight there is a kind of lotos named Lotometra comming of the garden Lotos it carrieth a seed like to Millet whereof in Aegypt the Bakers make bread but they work knead the floure of this seed with water or milk There is not any bread in the world by report more wholsom and lighter than this so long as it is hot but being once cold it is harder of digestion becommeth weighty ponderous This is known for certain that as many as liue thereof are infested troubled neither with the dysenterie or bloudy flix ne yet with the trouble some offers and strains to the siege without doing any thing nor any other diseases of the belly and therefore it is counted a principal remedie for those maladies Concerning Turnsol I haue oftentimes related the wonderfull nature thereof namely how it turneth about with the sun although it be a close and cloudy day so great is the loue of this herb to that planet and in the night season for want of the Suns presence as if it had a great misse thereof it draweth in and shutteth the blew floure which it beareth Two kinds there be of this Heliotropium or Turnesol of which the lesse is called Tricoccum the other Helioscopium of the twain this later is the taller and yet neither of them both exceedeth halfe a a foot in height and putteth forth branches from the very root The seed of this greater sort lieth within a little cod and is gathered in haruest time it groweth not but in a fat soil wel manured whereas Tricoccum comes vp euery where I find that if it be boiled it is a pleasant and delectable meat but sodden in milk it loosneth the belly gently and with ease for otherwise the bare colature of the decoction in water if it be taken purgeth most extremely The juice of the greater kinde ought to be drawn or gathered in summer at noontide which if it be tempered with wine becommeth more strong and effectual A property it hath being mingled with oile of roses to mitigat the head-ach The juice drawn out of the leafe medled with salt takes away werts whereupon our herbarists haue called the herb in Latine Verrucaria 〈◊〉 Wertwort whereas indeed for other better effects and operations that it hath it deserueth to haue some denominations correspondent thereunto for a countre-poison it is against serpents and scorpions if it be drunk with wine or honied water as Apollophanes and Apollodorus do report in their writings A liniment made of the leaues cureth the rheumes and distillations of the braine in children which disease they call Siriasis Likewise it helpeth contractions of sinues and the drawing in of joints although the patient be taken after the maner of the falling sicknesse and for such as be thus afflicted a somentation made of the decoction of this herb is very wholesom and comfortable but if one drink the colature thereof it thrusteth forth the wormes in the belly and scoureth out the grauell in the kidnies If Cumin be put thereto it breaks the stones ingendred and confirmed there already Boiled it ought to be root and all the which with the leaues and goats tallow being reduced into a liniment is singular good for all kinds of gout The other kind which we call Tricoccon and is otherwise named Scorpiurion hath not only smaller leaues but also they incline and bend downward to the ground A seed it beareth resembling the figure of a scorpions taile whereupon it took that name A liniment made
to fetch away the very Ellebore again if it lay ouer-long in the body either by other purgatiue medicines or by clysters oftentimes also by opening a veine or bloud-letting And say that Ellebore taken in manner aforesaid wrought very well yet they vsed to obserue euery vomit the diuers colors of humors that came away which many times were fearfull to behold yea and when the Patient had done casting they considered also the ordure and excrements that passed away by the belly they gaue order besides for bathing either before or after the taking of Ellebore as occasion best required yea and they took great heed and regard of the whole body besides and yet did what they could the terrible name and report that went of this medicine passed all their care and circumspection whatsoeuer for it was an opinion generally held and receiued That Ellebore doth eat away and consume the flesh seething in the pot if it be boiled therewith But herein were the antient Physitians much too blame and greatly in fault in that they were ouer timorous and for feare of such accidents insuing vpon this medicine gaue it in too small a dose wheras indeed the greater quantity that one taketh of it the more speedily it worketh and the sooner passeth out of the body when it hath once done the errand Themison vsed to prescribe two drams and not aboue The Physitians who followed after allowed the dose of foure drammes grounding vpon a notable and famous apothegme or speech of Herophylus who was wont to say that Ellebore was like vnto a valiant and hardy captaine for when quoth he it hath stirred all the humors within the body it self issueth forth first and maketh way before them Moreouer there is a strange and singular deuise To clip the root of Ellebore with small sizzers or sheares into little pieces then to sift them through a sercer that the bark or rind may remain still and when it is clensed and purged from the pith or marrow within the same may fall thorow and passe away which is passing good to stay vomits in case the Ellebore doe worke too extreamely furthermore if we looke for good successe in our cure by ministring of Ellebore in any wise wee must take heed and be carefull how we giue it in close weather and vpon a darke and cloudie day for certainly it putteth the Patient to a jumpe or great haâ—…ard and causeth most grieuous and intollerable pains and torments For that it should be taken in summer rather than in winter no man doubteth thereof Ouer and besides the bodie ought to be prepared a seuen-night before during which time the Patient is to eat tart and sharp meats and poignant sauces to abstaine from wine altogether and the fourth and third day before to assay by little and little to vomit gently last of all to forbeare supper ouer-night when hee is to take his Ellebore the morrow As touching the manner of giuing Ellebore the white may be drunke in some sweet wine but the best and chiefest way of taking it is in milke grewell or pottage Of late dayes there is come vp a pretty inuention To slit or cut Radish roots and within those gashes to stick or enterlace pieces of white Ellebore which don to bind them close vp again that the strength and vertue thereof may be incorporat in the foresaid roots and thus by the means of this kind temperature with the Radish to giue it vnto the Patient Ordinarily this medicine of Ellebore continueth not aboue foure houres within the body but it commeth vp againe and within seuen it hath done working And thus being vsed as is before said it is a most soueraigne remedie for the falling sicknesse the swimming or dizzinesse of the head it cureth melancholicke persons troubled in mind such as be brain-sick mad lunaticke phrantick and furious it is singular good for the Elephantie the foule and dangerous morphew called Leuce the filthie leprosie and the generall convulsion whereby the body continueth stiffe and starke as it were all one peece without any joynt It helpeth those that be troubled with trembling shiuering and shaking of their lims with the gout and the dropsie and namely such as bee entering into a tympanie singular it is for those that haue weake and feeble stomackes and can keepe nothing that they take for such as are giuen to spasmes or crampes lie bed-rid of the dead palsie or such chronicke diseases encumbered with the Sciatica haunted with the quartaine Ague which will not be ridde away by any other meanes troubled with an old cough vexed with ventosities and griping wrings and torments which be periodicall and vse to come and goe at certaine set times howbeit Physitians forbid the giuing of Ellebore vnto old folk and yong children Item to such as be of a foeminine and delicate bodie as also to those that be in minde effoeminate likewise to those who are thinne and slender soft and tender in which regards wee may not be altogether so bold to giue it vnto women as vnto men In like manner this is a medicine that would not bee ministred inwardly to fearefull timorous and faint-hearted persons neither to those who haue any vlcer in the precordiall region about the midriffe ne yet vnto such as vsually bee giuen to swell in those parts and least of all vnto those that spit or reach vp bloud no more than to sickely and crasie persons who haue some tedious and lingring maladie as phthysicke c. hanging vpon them and namely if they be grieued and diseased in their sides or throat Neuerthelesse applied without the bodie in manner of a liniment with salted hogs grease it cureth the breaking forth of flegmaticke wheals and pimples as also healeth old sores remaining after imposthumes suppurate and broken mixed with parched or fried braleygroats it is a very rats-bane killeth both them mice The Gauls or Frenchmen when they ride a hunting into the chase vse to dip their arrow heads in the juice of Ellebore they haue this opinion that the venison which they take will eat the tenderer but then they cut away the flesh round about the wound made by the foresaid arrows Furthermore it is said That if white Ellebore be beaten to pouder and strewed vpon milk all the flies that tast thereof will die To conclude the said milke is good to rid away lice nits and such like vermin out of the head and other parts of the body CHAP. VI. ¶ Of the herbe Mithridation Of Scordotis or Scordium Of Polemonia and Philetaeria otherwise called Chiliodynama Of Eupatorie or Agrimonie Of great Centaurie otherwise named Chironea Of the little Centaurie named also Libadion and Felterrae Of Triorches and the medicinable vertues vpon these Simples depending CRatevas hath ascribed the inuention of one herb to K. Mithridates himselfe called after his name Mithridation this plant putteth forth no more than two leaues and those directly and immediatly from
else but a plaine and true narration according to my first desseine and intention For well I wot that I might haue inserted here and there the rare receits which are reported to be of the ashes of the bird Phoenix and her nest but that I know all to be meere fabulous howsoeuer they â—…ie a pretence of truth Besides I count it a very mockerie and no better to deliuer vnto the world those medicins which are not to be but once in the reuolution of a thousand yeres CHAP. II. ¶ The vertues and properties of Wooll THe ancient Romans attributed vnto Wool great authoritie had therein a certain religious and reuerent opinion of holines in so much as new wedded wiues by an old custom and ordinance at Rome were wont with great ceremonie to adorn and bedeck with wooll the side-posts of the dore or entrie into their husbands house on the mariage day Now besides the vse of wool for decent apparrel defence against cold weather that which is vnwashed and full of the sheeps swet serueth in Physick and is a soueraign remedy for sundry accidents being applied with oile wine or vinegre according as need requireth either in mitigation of pain or mordicasion and coriosion and according as our purpose is to bind or to enlarge and open any part and namely it is imploied in dislocations of members and griefe of sinues if it be laid to the affected place well sprinkled wet eftsoons with the said liquors that it might be alwaies moist But more particularly for disjointed members some put thereto a little salt others take rue when they haue stamped it incorporat the same with some conuenient grease so apply it in maner of a cataplasme vpon sweatie wooll after which maner it is good for contusions or bruses swellings Also it is said that if the teeth gumbs be well rubbed with such wool and hony mingled together it will cause the breath to be the sweeter a suffumigation or perfume therof is singular for the frensie applied with the oile of roses it stanches bleeding at the nose or otherwise if the ears be well stopped therwith and a little garlick conueied withal therinto Moreouer it is laid to inueterat sores with good successe so that hony be put thereto Soake wooll in wine vinegre or cold water and oile and then wring and presse the same forth it heales any wound The wool of a ram well washed in cold water afterwards steeped in oile is singular for womens infirmities and particularly allaies the inflammation of the matrice but in case it be faln downward and readie to slip out of the bodie a perfume therof receiued beneath staieth the same and keepes it vp The fattie wooll of a sheep being either applied or put vp in maner of a pessarie drawes down the dead infantâ—… out of the mothers belly and yet the same otherwise represseth the immoderat flux of womens fleurs If it be couched hard close within the wound occasioned by the biting of a mad dog it serueth to great purpose but with this charge That it be kept bound therto not remoued vntill the seuenth day be past applied vnto whitflaws and impostimations about the naile-roots with cold water it cureth them the same if it be dipped soked in a medly made of salnitre brimstone oile vinegre and tar all dissolued together and ready to boile and so laid as a cataplasm to the loins as hot as the patient can abide it changing it twice a day appeaseth the paine of those parts Take the greasie wooll of a ram bind therwith very hard the joints of the extream parts as namely the fingers and toes you shal see how it will stanch bleeding Howbeit note this that the wooll growing vpon the sheeps neck is euer best and most medicinable and if we regard the country from whence it coms that of Galatia Tarentum Attica and Miletum is alwaies reputed better than any other Furthermore the greasie or sweatie wooll of a sheepe is proper to be applied to any raw places where the skin is fretted off to contusions bruses looking black and blew strokes crushes rushes rubs and gals as also from them who are tumbled down from some high place for the head-ach and other pains and lastly for the inflammation or heat of the stomack being decently applied with vinegre and oile rosat Reduced into ashes and vsed as a liniment it is singular for them that be crushes or squeesed wounded burnt and scalded This ashes entreth also into colyries and eie-salues it serueth for hollow vlcers fistuloes like as for the ears when they run filthie matter For these purposes aboue specified some sheare it from the sheeps back others chuse rather to plucke it and when they haue clipped off the vpmost parts or forced it lay the same forth to dry they toze card it also and then bestow it in an earthen pot not fully baked which they besmeer all ouer with hony and so burn calcine it to ashes others put vnder smal chips or slices of torchwood and lay certain beds or courses thereof between the locks of wooll and after they haue besprinkled the same with oile set all one fire which done the ashes that come therof they put into little pans or vessels poure water theron and after they haue well stirred the said ashes with their hands they suffer it to settle downe to the bottom which they do oftentimes alwaies changing the water till such time as a man may perceiue the ashes at the tongues end to be somwhat astringent but not biting and they lay vp their ashes for their vse A great scourer and cleanser this is and therefore most effectuall to mundifie the eye-lids Moreouer the very filthy excrements of sheep the sweat sticking to the wool of their flanks between their legs the concauities thereabout which they cal Oesypum is thought to haue infinit number of medicinable ptoperties but the best Oesypum simply is that which coms from the sheep bred about Athens This swet or filthy excrement cal it what you wil is prepared and ordered many waies but the principall is that which is gathered from the wooll newly taken from between the legs shoulders of the sheep and presently tozed ready for to be carded others are content to teke the sweatie filth of any wooll so it be fresh plucked or clipped from the sheep and whether it be the one sort or the other they let it dissolue ouer a soft fire in a pan of brasse which done they set it a cooling and take off the fat that swims aloft gather it into an earthen vessell As for the rest which remained behind of the first stuffe they set iton the fire again that the fatnes may boile forth of it after this the fat that floted aboue as wel the former as the later they wash in cold water let it drie in a linnen cloth expose it
that sort it taketh downe all tumors or swelling bunches A collution or fomentation therewith allayeth the tooth-ache and a liniment also made with it and Rosin worketh the same effect For all these accidents beforenamed the some of salt found sticking to rockes or floting vpon the sea water is thought to be more conuenient than any other salt But to conclude any salt whatsoeuer it is serueth well for those medicines that be ordained either to take away lassitudes or to enter into those sope balls that are to polish the skin and to rid it from wrinkles If either a boeufe or mutton be rubbed with salt it will kill the skab or mange in them for which purpose also they giue it vnto the sayd beasts for to lick and more particularly it is spurted out of ones mouth into horses eies Thus you see what may be said as touching salt CHAP. X. ¶ Of Nitre and the sundry kindes thereof The manner of making Nitre The medicines and obseruations to it belonging I May not put off the treatise concerning the nature of Salnitre approching so neer as it doth to the nature of salt and the rather am I to discourse of it more exactly because it appeares euidently that the physitians who haue written thereof were altogether ignorant of the nature and vertues of it neither is there any one of them who in that point wrote more aduisedly than Theophrastus In the first place this is to be noted That among the Medians there is a little Nitre ingendred in certain vallies which in time of drought became all hoary grey therwith and this they call Halmirrhaga There is found also some of it in Thracia neere vnto the Citie Philippi but in lesse quantitie and the same all fouled and bewraied with the earth this they name Agrion In times past men haue practised to make Nitre of oke wood burnt but neuer was there any great store of it made by that deuise and long it is since that feat was altogether giuen ouer As for waters fountains of nitre there be enow of them in many places howbeit the same haue no astringent vertue at all But the best Nitre is found about Clytae in the marches of Macedonie where there is most plenty thereof and they call it Chalastricum White and pure it is and commeth neerest to the nature of salt And verily a lake or meer there is standing altogether vpon nitre and yet out of the midst thereof there springeth vp a little fountain of fresh water In this lake there is ingendred Nitre about the rising of the Dog-star for 9 dayes together then it stayeth as long and beginneth fresh againe to flote aloft and afterward giues ouer Whereby it appeareth that it is the very nature of the soile that breedeth it for knowne it is by experience That if it cease once neither heat of Sun nor shoures of rain wil serue or do any good Besides there is another wonderful propertie obserued in this lake that notwithstanding the foresaid spring or source do seeth and boile vp continually yet the lake neither riseth nor ouerfloweth But during those nine daies wherein it is giuen to yeeld Nitre if there chance to fall any shoures they make the nitre to taste the more of salt And say that the North-East winds do blow the while the Nitre is nothing so good and cleere by reason of the mud mingled withall which those winds do raise Thus much of Nitre naturall As for artificiall Nitre great aboundance there is made of it in Egypt but far inferiour in goodnesse to the other for brown and duskish it is and besides full of grit and stones The order of making it is all one in manner with that of salt sauing onely that in the salt houses they let in sea water wheras into the boiling houses of Nitre they conuey the water of the riuer Nilus Whiles Nilus doth rise and flow you shal haue the said nitre-pits or workhouses dry but as it falleth and returneth again toward the channel they are seen to yeeld a certaine moisture which is the humor of nitre and that for the space of forty daies together with no rest or intermission between as there is about Clytae in Macedonie abouesaid Moreouer if the weather be disposed to rain during that time they imploy not so much of Nilus water to the making of Nitre Now so soon as the said humor beginneth to thicken presently they gather it in all hast for feare it should resolue again and melt in the nitre pits In this nitre as well as in salt there is to be found between whiles a certaine oleous substance which is held to be singular good for the farcin and scab of beasts The nitre it selfe is laid vp and piled in heaps where it hardeneth and continueth a long time But admirable is the nature of the lake Ascanius and of certaine fountaines about Chalcis where the water aboue and which floteth vppermost is fresh and potable but all beneath and vnder it toward the bottome is nitrous The lightest of the Nitre and the finest is reputed alwaies the best and therefore the some and froth therof is better than any other part And yet for some vses the grosse and foule substance is very good and namely for the setting of any colour vpon cloth and especially the purple die As touching the vertues of nitre it selfe how it is imploied many wayes I wil write in place conuenient But to return againe to our nitre pits and their boiling houses there be of them very faire and goodly in Aegypt In old time they were wont to be about Naucratis and Memphis only but those at Memphis were nothing so good as the other for there the nitre lying vpon heapes groweth to the hardnes of a stone insomuch as by this means you shall see mountaines thereof like rockes Of this nitre they vse to make certain vessels to vse in the house and many times they melt it with sulphur boyle it ouer the coles for to giue a tincture vnto the said vessels look also when they would keep any thing long they vse this stone-nitre Moreouer there be in Aegypt other nitre pits also out of which there issueth a reddish kind of nitre resembling the color of the earth from which it sweateth and ooseth out As for the fome of nitre which is commended for the best of all the antient writers were of opinion that it could not be made but when the dew fell at what time as the nitre pits were if I may so say great bellied and ful of nitre within but not ready to be deliuered thereof and therefore if they be neare as it were to their time there can no such froth be gathered notwithstanding the dew do fall Others there be of this minde that the said vppermost coat or crust aloft is ingendred by reason of the fermentation of the sayd nitre but the modern Physitians of late daies haue thought and