and thereof conuicted he dyeth for it yet not with such a death as any one should lay violent hands vpon him but by common consent hee is shut vp in some close place from the sight and company of all men and there famished to death This people bee generally addicted to husbandry and hunting of Tygers and Elephants for other common beasts they little regarde and some delight in fishing for shell fishes the shells weereof bee so bigge as one shell will make a house sufficient to containe a whole family The greater part of this Iland is burned with the heate of the Sunne and is therefore desert vppon the side of the Iland beateth a sea that is very greene They esteeme much of gold whereof and of all sorts of precious stones they garnish and beautifie their pots They haue great store of Marbles and Margarites and very bigge ones And these bee the people countries and nations whose manners customes and institutions are commended vnto vs by Historiographers and which by any meanes I could collect out of them yet I confesse there be many other which I haue eyther wholy omitted or lightly passed ouer because I could not write more of them than I found in other Authors hauing neuer by trauelling into those parts beene eye witnesse of them my selfe nor could otherwise attaine to the perfect knowledge thereof neyther doe I thinke it possible for mee or any man else to know and declare the manners of all nations but God onely to whom nothing is hidden nor nothing vnpossible for hee onely it is that first laide the foundation of the earth it was hee that first founded the depth and bottome of the sea and pointed vnto vs the passages through the deepe hee onely it is that so bountifully hath bestowed vpon vs wealth dignities honor and riches and all other commodities necessary for our beeing and hee it is that hath allotted vnto euery one his profession and course of life wherein to imploy himselfe for some hee hath ordained to bee husbandmen permitting then to growe wealthy by vnripping the bowels of the earth to some others hee hath giuen the sea wishing them to prouide their liuings some by fishing and some by merchandize some others he hath addicted to the study of Sciences and Philosophie that thereby they may attaine to honor and estimation and some others he hath put in places of authority to gouerne and praecede the rest And therefore it is no maruell that all men are not of one condition nor of one nature nor yet indued with like manners seeing wee perceiue such difference and variety in kingdomes and countries as that one country produceth white people an other swaithy an other tawny and some cleane black or like vnto flowers which grow in Assyria and euen so hath God appointed that people should be of variable mindes and dispositions as other things are and that euery one should rest contented with that course of life that God hath appointed for him FINIS The manners of diuerse nations collected out of the workes of NICHOLAS DAMASCEN THE Thyni which bee a people of Thrace receiue such as haue suffered shipwracke or fallen into pouerty by their owne defaults very courteously and friendly and all strangers likewise which come willingly vnto them are highly honored but those which come perforce whether they will or no are as seuerely punished The Aritoni kill no kinde of beast they haue their Oracles written in lots which they keepe in golden couers The Dardani a people of Illyrium bee washed onely three times in all their liues that is to say when they bee borne when they be marryed and when they lye a dying The Galactophagi a people of Scythia liue not in houses as most of the other Scythians doe their sustenance consisteth for the most part of Mares milke which serueth them both for meat and drinke They bee seldome ouer-come in battaile for that their prouision of victuals is in euery place and at all turnes in readinesse This people forced Darius to returne home without conquest they bee maruellous iust one towards an other as hauing both wiues and wealth in common to all they salute old men by calling them their fathers the yong men their children and their equals brethren of this people was Anacharsis one of the seuen wise men who came into Greece to learne the laws ordinances of other nations Homer remembreth this people where he saith the Mysi fight nigh at hand the Agaui milke Mares and the Galactophagi and Abij be most iust men And the reason why he calleth them Abij is either because they would not till the earth or for that they liued without houses or else because they onely vsed bowes in the warres for a bow of the Poets is often called Bios there is not one amongst them all as is reported that is either stirred with enuy swelled with hatred or striken with feare by reason of their exceeding great Iustice and communitie of all things The women there be as warlike as the men and go with them to the warres when need requireth and therefore it may well be true that the Amazons be women of such valerous and generous spirits as that they went forth with an army vnto Athens and Scicily at such time as their abode was about the poole of Maeotis The women of Iberia do once euery yeare being their whole yeares worke into an open and publicke place in presence of all the people where certaine men be elected by voyces as Iudges to censure of their labours and those which by them are adiudged most laborious are most honored and in highest estimation they haue also a girdle of a certaine measure within the compasse wherof if the belly of any will not bee comprehended they be thereby much disgraced The Vmbrici in their battels against their enimies hold it vnfitting for the vanquished to suruiue and that it is necessary eyther to ouer-come the enemy or to bee slaine themselues This people when any controuersie happeneth amongst themselues fight armed as if they made warre against their open enimies and hee which killeth his aduersary in fight is supposed to haue the iustest cause The Celtae a people inhabiting neere the Ocean account it a disgrace for any one to withdraw himselfe or leane his body to a wall or house when any inundation commeth towards them from the sea they arme themselues to meete the floud and make resistance vntill they be drowned neuer retiring back nor shewing the least feare of death any manner of way They weare their swords aswell when they bee occupied in the affaires of their common-wealth as in the warres and a greater punishment is infllicted vpon those which kill strangers then Cittizens for the first is punished with death the other with banishment And those aboue all others bee most honoured which atchiuing any victory haue thereby purchased any ground for their publicke vse the
the world presently all his kinsfolke and friends flocke about him bewayling greatly his natiuity and saying that seeing he is borne he must of necessity suffer and indure all humaine and worldly calamities and againe when one is departed out of this life they commit him to the ground with great ioy and exultation shewing what and how many euills he hath escaped to liue for euer in eternal happinesse But those which dwell beyond the Crestonae haue many wiues a yeere and when a man dieth there is great controuersie amongst his wiues all their friends being accited to giue their iudgements of the matter which of those wiues was best beloued of her husband and she that is adiudged to haue beene deerest vnto him in his life time which shee esteemeth a great honour vnto her is both by the men and women adorned and gallantly decked vp and so brought vnto her husbands tombe and there killed by one of her own deerest friends and interred with her dead husband all the other wiues lamenting and accounting that a great crosse and disgrace vnto them All other Thracians in generall sell their children openly nor be virgins there restrained from accompanying with their neerest kin no not with their owne fathers but may lie with whom they please and yet husbands be very chary of their wiues chastity for they buy them of their parents with great summes of money and the signe them in the forheads with certaine markes which kind of marking is held a very generous and worthy thing but to be without those markes is an argument of ignominy and basenesse where diuers maides are to be married those which be most beautifull be first taxed and prized and beeing once prized their parents will not by any meanes giue them in marriage for lesse money then they were rated at and when all the fairest bee bought then those which be deformed be sold at more easier prices so as in conclusion all goe away In their banquets both men and women sit round about a fire whereinto they cast the seeds of certaine herbes which grow in those parts the very smell and sauour whereof doth so stop and stifle them as their senses be dulled and they as pleasant and iocund as if they were merry drunke To liue idlely and by theft they account an honest course of life but to labour and husband the ground they hold base and ignoble The gods which they chiefly worship and religiously adore be Mars Bacchus Diana and Mercury but they swere onely by Mars accounting him as the author and orignall of their race The people of Thrace exceed all other men in bignesse and stature of body their eyes be gray their lookes grim frowning and menacing their speech terrible and themselues long of life Their buildings be very low and base their diet is nothing dainty they haue no vines but great store of apples the King is elected as well by the voices of the commons as by the nobility and they elect such a one as is of approued good manners singular clemency and by reason of his age of very great grauity and one that hath no children for hee which is a father is not admitted amongst them to bee a gouernor bee his life and conuersation neuer so vprigh◠and lawdable and if at any time in all his raigne he chance to haue a child he is therfore depriued of his gouernment For by no meanes will they admit that their Kingdome should become hereditary and though the King be neuer so iust and rightfull Yet will they not allow him the whole power in his owne hands and to rule as he list himselfe but he must bee assistwith forty Rectors or Iudges to the end he should not be sole Iudge in capital causes and if the King himselfe bee found faulty of any offence he is punished with death yet not with such a death as any one shall lay violent hands vpon him but by the common consent of all he is deposed from his Kingly authority and then famished to death whom when hee is dead the great men bury on this manner First they lay forth his body vpon the ground for the space of three daies and then fall to banquetting and slaying of all sorts of beasts for sacrifices which done they weepe ouer him burne his body and bury his bones in the ground and lastly vpon his monument they proclaime and set out combats of all sorts and especially the Monomachia which is the single combat or fighting of two hand to hand The armour and weapons which as Herodotus writeth they vsed in the warres against Darius were helmets made of foxes skinnes souldiours coates and short cassockes ouer them and vpon their legges they were buskins made of fawnes skinnes their weapons wore dartes targets short poyniardes and bowes wherein they bee so skilfull and expert as they alleadge that they were the first inuentors of that weapon Their language and the Scythians is al one Pliny writeth that all Thrace was once deuided into fifty Stratageas which are counties or captainships that part of Thrace which was once called Getica where Darius the sonne of Hydaspis was wel-nigh ouerthrowne is now called Valachia of the Flacci a family of Rome For the Romaines after they had ouercome and vtterly vanquished the Getes sent thither a Colony vnder the conduct of one Flaccus wherevpon the countrie was first called Flaccia and afterwards by corruption Valachia which opinion carrieth more likely-hood of truth for that the Romaine language is yet spoken in that Countrie but they speake it so corruptly as a Romane can scarce vnderstand it the Romaine letters also bee there vsed sauing that the forme or fashion of the letters is somewhat alterred their rites and ceremonies of Religion doe ioyntly agree cohere and are all one with the Greekes The Daci afterwardes possessed this Countrie of whom for a certaine space it was called Dacia but now it is enioyed by the Almaines the Siculi and the Valachians The Almaines or Teutones were a verie valiant and hardie people sent thether out of Saxonie by Charles the Great who in their owne naturall language and dialect were called Seibemburges of the seuen Cities which they inhabited The Siculi or Sicilians were an ancient people of Hungaria and such as abandoning their owne Countrie first came thither from out of Scythia and seated themselues in that Countrie Of the Valachians were two sortes of people and of two sundrie factions the Dragulae and the Dani otherwise called Davi for there doe some Greeke writers reporte that the Getes and Daui were the names of seruantes which in times past came thither from other places The Dragulae being neither equall nor matchable to the Danes nor able to make their partie good with them not much aboue a hundred yeere since brought the Turkes into that coūtry by whose force armes the Dani were almost vtterly killed and vanquished had not that valiant man Iohn Huniades brought aide
three or foure other Barons which be called Barons of the Exchequer Besides these three Courts of the common law and the court of the Councell for the Marches of Wales whereof I haue spoken before there is a Court for the North part of England which is likewise called the Councell hauing a President Iustices and assistants as in the Councell of Wales and the same forme of proceeding And for the more ease and quiet of the subiect the King by his commission sendeth the Iudges and Barons of the Exchequer twise a yeare into euery seuerall County of the countrie as well to see the lawes executed against malefactors as for the triall and determining of causes depending betwixt partie and party These two Sessions are vsually called the Assises or Goale deliuery and their manner of proceedings is by Iurors who are to giue their verdicts according to euidēce And for because the time of these Iudges commission is ouer short to determine all matters that may arise in halfe a yeare the Iustices of peace in their seuerall Counties haue their Sessions likewise which be kept foure times in the yeare and be therefore called the quarter Sessions in which Sessions are heard and determined all pettie causes for the more ease of the Iudges in their circuits And for the better maintenance of peace in euery part of the Realm there be diuers other petty Courts as county Courts hundred Courts towne Courts Leets Court Barons and such like all which hold plea according to the course of the common law Next vnto these Courts of common law is the Court of Star-chamber which is the court of the kings Councell therin sit as Iudges the L. Chancelor as chiefe the L. Treasurer and the rest of the priuy Councel both spirituall and tēporall to gether with the chiefe Iustices of both benches And in this court be censured all criminall causes as periurie forgerie cousenage ryots maintenance and such like The court of Wards and Liueries is next which is a court of no long continuance being first ordained by Henry the 8. the matters that are determinable in that court are as touching wards and wardships and the Iudges are the Master of the wards and liueries the Atturney of the court of wards and other officers and assistants Then is there the Admirals court which is only for punishment of misdemeanors done at sea the Iudges of which court be the Lord high Admirall of England and a Iudge with other officers The Duchie court which is a court for the determining of matters depending within the Duchy of Lancaster wherein be Iudges the Chancelor of the Duchie and the Atturney And a late erected court called the court of the Queens reuenues for the deciding of controuersies amongst the Queenes tenants Next vnto these are the courts of Equity which are the Chancery and the court of Requests The court of Chancery which is commonly called the court of conscience is chiefly for the mitigation of the rigor of the cōmon lawe wherein the Lord high Chancelor of England is chiefest Iudge and moderator to whom are ioyned as assistants the M. of the Rolles and certaine graue Doctors of the ciuill law which are vsually called Masters of the Chancery The court of Requests is much like to the Chancery and is chiefly for the kings seruants the Iudges wherof are the Masters of Requests which bee alwaies reuerent men and well seen in the ciuill law and one of them is euer attendant on the King to receiue supplications and to answer them according to the Kings pleasure Hauing thus passed ouer the seueral courts of common law the courts of Equity and those which are of a mixt nature betwixt the common ciuill law I wil only name the spirituall courts the chiefest wherof are these The first and most principal is the conuocation of the Clergy which is a Synod of the chiefest of the Clergie of the whole Realme held only in Parlament time in a place called the Conuocation house where cannons are ordained for church-gouernment And this court may be called a generall Councell next vnto which are the particular Synods of both Prouinces Canterbury and York and are called prouinciall Synods Then is there the Archb. of Cāterburies court called the Arches the court of Audience the Prerogatiue court the court of Faculties the court of Peculiars with many other courts in each seuerall Dioces In all which courts what matters are there handled their Iudges and assistants and all their whole manner of proceedings I leaue to the report of such as are better acquainted in those courts And thus much may suffice for the present estate of our country as it is now in the ninth yeare of the raigne of our dread Soueraign Lord K. Iames the first whome God graunt long to rule and raigne ouer vs. OF IRELAND HIBERNIA an Iland bordering vpon Brittaine on the North and West side and much about halfe as big as Brittaine was so called according to some ab hyberno tempore that is to say of the winter season The ground there is so exceeding rancke and the grasse so pleasant and delicious withall that their beasts in Sommer time will kill themselues with feeding and supersluosly grazing if they be not driuen from pasture some part of the day This Island breedeth neither spider nor toade nor any other venimous or infectious creature nor will any liue that are brought thither out of other Countries but dye instantly as soone as they do but touch this Countries soyle Bees there be none the aire is very temperate and the earth fruitfull and yet be the people exceeding barbarous vnciuill and cruell For those which prooue vanquishers in their battels swill and drinke vp the bloud of their slaine enemies and then defile and gore their owne faces with it And whether they do right or wrong it is all one vnto them When a woman is deliuered of a male child the first meate she giueth him shee putteth into his mouth with her husbands sword point signifying by that manner of feeding and also praying after her countrey fashion that the child may dye no other death but in the field amongst his enemies Their greatest gallants adorne the hilts and pummels of their swords with beasts teeth which bee as white as Iuorie and brought thither out of other countreys And their chiefest delight and greatest glorie is to be souldiers Those which inhabite the hilly and mountainous part of the countrie liue vppon milke and apples and are more giuen to hunting and sporting then to husbandrie The Sea betwixt England and Ireland is very raging vnquiet and troublesome all the yeare long and but in summer hardly nauigable Yet do they sayle ouer it in boates or whirries made of Ozier twigs and couered with Oxe hides or buffe skins they abstaine from meate all the while they are vpon the seas And this sea according to the opinion of the best writers is in breadth one hundred and twenty
and wonderfull as yeelding to the husbandman in some places a hundred fould increase It is strange that is reported of the fruitfulnes of Mauritania in Affricke that there be Vines bigger then two men can fatham and clusters of Grapes of a cubite in compasse that there be stalkes of wilde Parsley wilde Fennell and thistles of twelue cubits in length and of a wonderfull thicknesse much like vnto the Indian Cane the knots or ioynts whereof will fill eight bushels there are also herbes called Sperage of no lesse notable bignesse Their Cipres trees about the hill Atlas be of an exceeding height without knots and with a bright leafe but of all their Cytron tree is the most noble and of the Romaines accounted most daintie Affricke breedeth Elephants and Dragons which lying in waite for other beasts kill all they can catch as Lyons Libards Bufles Goates and Apes whereof there bee great store in many places There bee also beasts like Camels and Panthers and beasts called Rhizes which bee like vnto Bulls And according to the opinion of Herodotus that country breedeth horned Asses besides Dragons Hyaenaes Porcupines wilde Rammes and a kinde of beast begotten betwixt the Hyaena and the Wolfe which is some-what bigger then the ordinary kinde of Wolues Panthers Storckes Egles Estridges and sundry kinds of Serpents but especially the Cerastes which hath a little body and hornes like a Ramme and the Aspe which is little likewise but very venimous against whose mischiefe the Ratte a very little creature is by nature opposed for a remedy Of Aethiopia and the ancient customes of that Country CAP. 4. EThiopia is deuided into two regions whereof one lyeth in Asia the other in Affricke That in Asia is now called India and is washed on the East with the red and Barbarian Sea and lieth Northward next vnto Libia and Aegipt vpon the west it hath the inner Libia and vpon the south it ioyneth to the other Aethiopia which is bigger and more southward This Aethiopia in Affrick is so called of Aethiops the sonne of Vulcan who gouerned there as Plinie is of opinion or else of the Greeke word aitho which signifieth to burne and ops which is the countenance because that country is parched and burned by reason of the neerenesse of the sunne for the heat there is exceeding great and continuall as being directly vnder the Meridian line Towards the west it is mountanous full of sand and grauell in the middle and desert in the east It containeth many sorts of people of diuerse and monstrous countenances and horrible shapes They were thought to bee the first people that liued and that they being in that country naturally bred continued free-men and were neuer subiect to slauery the gods were there first honoured and sacred ceremonies ordained they had a double vse of letters for some letters were called holy and were only known to the Priests the other serued for the common people nor were there formes of letters such as thereof could sillables bee framed but either like some liuing creature or the outward parts of mens bodies or resembling sundry instruments of worke-men and euery figure or forme of letter had his proper signification as by the Hawke was signified swiftnesse mischiefe and craft by the Crocadile watchfulnesse by the eye and so like-wise of other things Who-so-euer of their Priests was most troubled with vaine visions him they accounted the most holiest and creating him for their King adored him as though he were either a God or at the least giuen them by diuine prouidence and yet his supreame authority exempted him not from the obedience of their lawes but that hee was to doe all things according to their ancient customes and not to reward or punish any man himselfe but vpon whome soeuer he intended to take punishment to him hee sent the executioner to present him with the signe of death which was no sooner viewed by him to whome it was sent but forthwith who euer he were hee would goe home to his owne house and there procure his owne death for so great honour and affection did the subiect beare to his soueraigne that if it happened at any time by an accident the King to bee weakned or faint in any one part of his body all his friends and followers would of their owne accord weaken that part in themselues accounting it an odious thing that their King should be lame or blind of one eye and all his friends not to bee in like manner blind and lame also Their custome was also as is reported that their King being dead all his friends would willingly depriue themselues of life accounting that death most glorious and the surest testimony of true frindshippe The people by reason of the neerenesse of the heauens went for the most party naked couering onely their priuities with sheeps tayles and some few clothed them-selues with skinnes some of them also wore breeches made of haire their greatest imployments were about their Cattell their sheepe bee very little and of a hard and rough fleese their Dogges bee little likewise but very sharpe and eager Millet and Barley are their cheefest graines which serueth them both for bread and drinke and they haue no kinde of fruites vnlesse it be Dates and those be very rare also Many of them liued with hearbes and the slender rootes of reedes they eate also flesh milke and cheese The Isle of Meroê was once the head of the kingdome the forme thereof is like vnto a sheeld and it lyeth along by the riuer of Nylus for the space of three thousand stadia The Sheapheards that Inhabited that Ile were great huntsmen and the husbandmen had mines of gold Herodotus saith that those people of Aethiopia which be called Macrobij esteemed more of brasse than of golde for their gold they put to such base and vile vses as the Embassadors of Cambyses King of Persia being sent thether saw diuerse offenders fettered in prison in chaines of gold Some of them sowe their ground with a kinde of pulse and some others plant the Lote tree they haue Hebon wood and Pepper in great aboundance Elephants they hunt and eate they haue also Lyons Rhinocerots which bee enemies to the Elephant Basilisks Libbards and Dragons which winding and intangling themselues about the Elephants destroy them by sucking out their bloud There is found the Iacint stone and the Chrisophrasus which is a greene stone mixt with a golden brightnesse there is Cynamon gathered likewise Their weapons were bowes made of wood that was parched in the fire and foure cubits in length their women were good warriors the most of them hauing their lips thrust through with a ring of brasse Some of the Aethiopians worshipped the Sunne at his rising and inueighed bitterly against him at his going downe many of them cast their dead bodies into riuers some other put them into earthen
ready and willing mindes to vnder-goe all perils and dangers of warfare Their common-wealth also consisteth of three sorts of common people of husbandmen shepheards and craftsmen The husbandmen buy their ground at an easie rate of the Priests of the King or of the Souldiours and apply their husbandry without intermission all their time from their infancie by which meanes they are farre more expert in husbandry then others both for the precepts they receiue from their parents as also by reason of their continuall practise The sheapheards likewise receiuing the charge and skill of keeping cattell from their fathers follow that kinde of exercise for all their life long And arts and sciences amongst the Aegiptians are most exquisite and brought to the highest straine of perfection for the Egiptian tradesmen without intermedling in publicke affaires exercise no other labour but such onely as is eyther permitted by the law or taught by their fathers so as neither the enuy of the teacher nor ciuill hatred nor any other thing whatsoeuer can hinder them from that course of life they haue entred into The Egiptians censured not of things at hap hazard but with reason and discretion for they esteemed things rightly done to be very beneficiall for mans life and that the onely way to auoyde euil was to punish the offenders and to succor the oppressed but that the punishment due for an offence should bee forborne in regarde eyther of meede or money they held to be the vtter confusion of their publicke life and therefore they setled the best and choisest men of the most famous citties as at Heliopolis Memphis Thebes and set them as iudges ouer the rest which sessions of Iudges were thought to be nothing inferior to the Iudges of Areopagus in Athens nor to the Senate or councell of the Lacedemonians established long time after them when these Iudges being thirty in number were assembled together they made election of the worthiest man amongst them to bee their chiefe Iudge or Iustice in whose absence the whole company assembled appointed an other Iudge to be his substitute These Iudges were all maintained at the Kings cost but the cheefe Iudge was farre better allowed then the rest who alwayes had hanging about his neck in a chaine of gold bedeckt with diuers precious stones an Image which they called Truth and when they were set in Iudgment the Image of Truth being laid before them by the chiefe Iudge and all their lawes which were contained in eight volumes placed in the middle of the Iudges their maner was that the accuser should set downe his accusation in writing the maner of the iniury or losse committed and done and how much he esteemed him-selfe damnified then was there a time allotted for the accused to answer his aduersaries accusations by writing and eyther to purge himselfe that he did not the iniury or to auerre that what he did was iustly done or that the wrong or losse hee did was not of such value as was supposed after this the plaintiffe replied and the defendant made answer to his replication So as the pleading of both parties being twise heard after the Iudges had examined and reasoned of the matter in controuersie the chiefe Iudge turning the signe of Truth towards him that had truth of his side pronounced the sentence and this was the maner of their Iudgments And now because occasion is offered to speake of the Institution of their lawes I thinke it not impertinent to our purpose to make mention of the ancient lawes of the Egyptians that thereby we may know how farre they excelled others both in order and vtility And first of all periured persons were punished with death as those which had committed a double offence both in violating their duty towards the gods and in breaking and abolishing faith and truth amongst men which is the chiefest bond of humaine society if a Traueller finde one that is set vpon with theeues and robbed and beaten or suffered any other iniury and doth not set to his helping hand to ayde him if it lye in his power hee shall dye for it but if hee could not assist him then ought hee to make the theeues knowne and to prosecute the iniury with his accusation which if hee doe not he shall be whipped with a certaine number of stripes and bee bard from all sustenance for three whole dayes together hee which accuseth an other falsely and is called in question for it shall vndergoe the punishment prouided for false accusers and all the Aegiptians were at certaine times constrained to giue vp theyr names in writing to the Presidents and Gouernors and what trade of life they exercised in dooing whereof if any say vntruly or liued by vnlawfull gaine hee was punished with death if any one kill eyther free-man or seruant willingly he shall dye for it by the lawes which regarding not the quallity of the estate but the heynousnesse of the deed and the euill mind of the dooer deliuer men from euill so as by reuenging the death of seruants and slaues free-men may liue in more security The paines of death were not afflicted vpon fathers which had slaine their sonnes but they were inioyned to stand for three daies and three nights about the dead corps the publike watch standing by to see it done for they thought it vniust to depriue him of life that was author of his sonnes life but rather that he should be afflicted with continuall griefe and repentance of the fact whereby others might shunne the like offence To Paracides was imposed a most exquisite and extreame punishment for the lawe was that the liuing body and the dead corps should be bound together ioynt by ioynt vpon sharpe Pikes or stakes and burned vpon a heape of thornes adiudging it to be the most heynous offence that could bee amongst men for one to doe him to death violently of whom hee had receiued life If any woman great with child were adiudged to dye her death was deferred till she was deliuered for they thought it meere iniustice that an infant which committed no euill should perish with the guilty or that two should bee punished whereas but one offended Those which in warres did eyther breake theyr array or would not obey their Leaders and Captaines were not punished with death but with the reproch ignominy of all men which disgrace after they had blotted out by their vertue and valiant acts they recouered their former estate and dignities and that law brought it to passe in continuance of time that men accounted that dishonour to bee the greatest euill could hap vnto them and much more greeuous then death Those which reuealed any secrets to their enemies had their toungs cut out and those which clipped money or counterfetted any false coyne or altered it eyther in weight or fashion or stamped it with letters or defaced the letters or forged any false deeds were punished with the
was kild without any fault of his owne These beasts be kept with great cost and charge within the circuit of their Temples by men of no small account eating fine flower and porredge made of Oate-meale which in their banquets are mingled with milke They giue them Geese also dayly both sodde and broylde and catch birds for those which eate raw flesh To conclude they bee all nourished with maruelous great charge and diligence and their deaths as much bewayled of the people as the deaths of their owne Sonnes yea and their funeralls are farre more sumptuous than their ability can afford in so much as when Ptolomaeus Lagus was gouernour of Aegypt an oxe dying for age in the City of Memphis hee which had the charge of keeping him bestowed a great summe of mony vpon his buriall which was giuen to him to defray that charge besides fifty talents of siluer which he borowed of Ptolomy These things which we haue spoken of perhaps will seeme strange to some but no lesse strange will it seeme to any that shall consider the ceremonies of the Aegiptians in the buriall of thé dead for when one dyeth there all his neere friends and kinsfolkes defile and spoyle their heads with earth and goe round about the Citty wayling vntill the dead body be buryed in which Interim they nether wash themselues nor drinke wine nor eate any meate but that which is very vile and grosse nor yet weare any good apparrell They haue three formes or kinds of buriall for some be buried sumptuously some indifferently and some basely In the first manner of buryall is spent and layd out one talent of siluer in the second twentie minae and some small cost is bestowed in the last Those which haue charge of the funeralls which course of life decendeth from their auncestors as by Inheritance bring the funerall expences in writing to the houshoulders demanding at what rate they will haue the funeralls performed and the bargaine being made and concluded betwixt them the body is deliuered vnto them to be buried at the charge agreed vpon And then the Gramarian for so he is called the body being laid in the ground marketh and assigneth out a place about the flanck how farre from the left part the incisition must bee made after that hee which is called the breaker vp or vnboweler openeth his side with a sharp Aethiopian stone so wide as by the law is permitted which done he instantly runneth away as fast as he can all the standers by following after cursing him and throwing stones at him for they esteemed those men worthy of hate which had mangled or misused the body of their friend but those which haue charge and ouersight of the body which they cal Salitores they account worthy of honour and estimation this done they carry the dead corpes into the Temple before the Priests who standing by the dead body on of them plucketh out of the hole or wound in his side all the entralls except the kidneyes and heart al which an other washeth away with red wine compounded with odoriferous spices and perfumes after that they annoynt the whole body first with iuyce of Cedar tree and other pretious oyntments for thirty daies space and more and then they rub it ouer with mirhe and cinamon and other like stuffe wherby it is not only preserued the longer but yeeldeth a sweet sauour also the body being thus dressed they deliuer it to the dead mans kinsfolke euery part of him yea the heaires of his browes and eie lidds being so preserued as the forme of his body remaineth whole as though he were not dead but a sleepe before the body be interred the funerall day is declared to the Iudges and the dead mans friends saying that vpon that day the dead body is to passe ouer the fens the Iudges being aboue forty in number assemble them selues together and sit vpon a round scaffold beyond the poole then is there a shippe prouided for that purpose and brought thither by those to whome the charge is committed and before the body bee laid in the coffin euery one hath liberty that will to accuse the party deceased and if hee bee proued to bee an euillliuer the iudges proceed to sentence wherby they adiudge that his body shall bee depriued of Sepulture and if any one accuse him vniustly hee shall bee seuerely punished but if no one accuse him or that it is euident that hee was accused falsely and of malice his kindred leauing off their mourning fall to praysing him yet speaking nothing of his stock and parentage as the Greekes are accustomed to doe for the Aegiptians account them-selues all noble alike but beginning at his child-hood they recite his bringing vp and education the beginning of his life and learning and from that ascending to his mans estate they remember his religion and deuotion towards the gods his Iustice his Continency and all his other vertues and then inuocating the infernall gods they beseech them to place him amongst the Saints to which request all the multitude make answer extolling the dead-mans worth and renowne as if he should liue for euer below amongst the blessed which done each one buryeth his friends in his owne proper sepulcher and those which want sepulchers bury them in the strongest walls of their house setting the chest wherein the body lyeth on the one end But those which are forbidden buryall eyther for vsury or some other offence are buryed at home without a coffin whom his posterity growing of better ability and satisfying for his misdeeds doe afterwards bury very solemnly The Aegyptians custome is to giue the bodyes of their dead parents as pawnes to theyr creditors and those children that redeeme them not shall bee disgraced and want sepulture them-selues one may iustly maruell to see how the authors of all these ordinances did not onely prouide for things profitable for mans life but also regarded those things which appertained to the honour and buryall of dead bodies in so much that by this meanes mens liues were disposed as much as might be to good manners The Greekes which by their fained fables and Poeticall fictions farre exceeding truth deliuered many things of the rewards of the godly and punishment of the wicked could not with all their writings draw men to vertue but were rather derided and contemned themselues But with the Aegiptians due punishment being rendred to the wicked and commendation to the iust not in shew but in substance they did euery day admonish both the good and the bad what things were profitable for them for they saw before their eyes that to euery one according to his deeds was giuen a remembrance of his merits or demerits which was a cause that all men immitated the best course of life and stroue to doe well for those are not to bee esteemed the best lawes whereby men become rich but whereby they prooue honest and wise And thus much of the Aegiptians and
home and hauing no other garments to couer their bodies but goats skins Their greatest Potentates haue no citties but turrets standing neere vnto waters wherein they lay vp such things as they leaue for their prouision They sweare their subiects once euery yeare to their allegiance and obedience to their Prince and that they shall be louing to their equalls and persecute al such as refuse to be vnder their gouernment as theeues There weapons are answerable to their country and their customes for they themselues beeing light and nimble of body and the country for the most part plaine and euen do neither vse swords nor knyues nor any other weapons in their warres sauing onely euery one three darts and a few stones in a letherne budget and with those they will fight and conflict both when they incounter and in the retraite being by practise made perfect to throw therein stones and darts right at a marke They obserue neither law nor equitie towards strangers The Trogloditae which the Greekes call shepheards because they liue by cattell elect their King from out the people of Aethiopia wiues and children they haue in common the King onely excepted who hath but one wife and euery one that commeth to him presenteth him with a certaine number of cattell At such time as the wind standeth in the East about the canicular or dog dayes which season is most subiect to showers they eate bloud and milke mixt together and boyled and when their pastures be parched and burned away with the heate of the Sunne they go downe into the moorish grounds for which there is great contention amongst them When their cattle be either old or diseased they kill them and eate them for of such consisteth their chiefest sustenance Their children be not called after the names of their parents but aftet the names of Buls Rammes or Sheepe and those they call fathers and mothers because their daily nourishment is yeelded by them and not by their naturall parents The meaner sort of people drinke the iuice of Holly-tree or sea-rush and those of the better sort the iuyce that is strayned out of a certaine flower which groweth in that countrey the liquor whereof is like vnto the worst of our Must They neuer continue long in one place but remooue and flitte often into diuers Regions taking with them whither soeuer they go their flockes and heards of cattell they be naked on all parts of their bodies but their priuities which be couered with skinnes All the Trogloditae circumcise their priuie parts like the Aegyptians excepting those which are lame they remoue often into strange Countreys and are neuer cutte or shauen with razour from their infancie Those Trogloditae which are called Megauares vse for their armour round shields made of raw oxe hides and clubbes studded with yron and some vse bowes and lances They haue little regard how they burie the dead for they vse no other ceremonies in their funerals but wrappe the dead corps in Holly twigges and then binding the necke and legges together put the carcase into a hole and couer it ouer with stones setting vpon the heape of stones a Goates horne in derision and so depart from it beeing neuer touched with any griefe though hee were neuer so neere a friend They contend and fight amongst themselues not as the Greekes do for anger or ambition but onely for their victualls and in their conflicts they first throw stones till some of them be wounded and then taking their bowes in hand wherein they be very expert they fight it out till some of them be slaine And the auncient and grauest women giue end vnto those controversies who pressing boldly into the middle of the multitude without any danger for it is not lawfull to hurt them by any meanes the men foorthwith cease off their strife Those which for age bee vnable to follow their flockes tye their owne neckes to an oxe tayle and so strangle themselues to death And if any be vnwilling to dye he is forced to it by his fellowes but first he shall haue warning thereof and this kind of death they account a great benefit vnto them those also which be sick of feuers or of any vncurable disease are serued in like sort for they account it the greatest misery that may be for any one to inioy his life that can doe nothing worthy of life Herodotus writeth that the Trogloditae make them hollow Caues in the ground to dwell in and that they haue no desire to possesse riches but rather addict themselues to wilfull and voluntary pouerty that they onely are delighted and glory in one kinde of stone which we call Hexacontalithus which is a little precious stone with diuerse corners that they eate the flesh of Serpents and that they speake not any intelligible language but in steed of speach make a kinde of noyse or howling rather then speach In that Aethiopia which lyeth aboue Aegipt dwell another kinde of people which be called Rhisophagi these barbarous people liue onely vpon the rootes of weedes which when they haue cleane washed they bruse teare a peeces with stones till they waxe soft and clammy and then make it into cakes like vnto tiles and bake them against the sunne and so eate them and this kinde of meat is theyr onely food all their life time for they haue great aboundance thereof and it is very pleasant and delectable in taste so as peace is there perpetually maintained and yet they fight notwithstanding but it is onely with Lyons which ranging out of the deserts to shunne the shade and to prey vpon other lesser wild beasts destroy many Aethiopians comming forth of the fens and surely that nation had beene vtterly destroyed by Lyons had not nature afforded a defence against them for at such time as the Dogge-starre ariseth and appeareth in their Horizon the winde being calme there flyeth into those parts an innumerable multitude of Gnatts which offend not the people because they flye from them into the Fennes and moorish grounds but doe so annoy the Lyons with their stings and terrifying them with their humming and bussing as they compell them all to depart out of those Regions Next vnto these are the Ilophagi and the Spermatophagi the Spermatophagi liue without labour by gathering the fruites which fall from trees in Summer time and when fruites are gone they eate a certaine herbe which they finde growing in shadie places where-with they be succourd in theyr need But the Ilophagi their wiues and children feede them-selues by clyming into Tree toppes and plucking off the tender buddes from twigges and branches which is their onely sustenance by continuall vse and practise whereof they grow so expert in clyming that a thing strange to bee reported they will skippe and hoppe from tree to tree like birds or squirrells without danger and trusting to their lightnesse and nimblenesse of their bodyes ascend to the very top of slender branches and if
at any time their footing fayle them yet will they claspe theyr hands about the twiggs and so saue and defend them-selues from falling and though by some mischance they should fall yet receiue they no hurt by reason of the lightnesse of theyr bodyes These people goe alwayes naked and haue theyr wiues and children in common They fight one against another onely for places to liue in being weaponed with staues and domineere and exult greatly ouer those they vanquish They die for the most part by famine whem their sight faileth they are depriued of that sence wherewith they sought their food In an other part of the region dwell those Aethiopians which bee called Cyneci they bee few in number but of a different life from all the rest for they inhabit the wood-land and desolate countrie wherein be but few fountaines of water and they sleepe vpon the tops of trees for feare of wilde beasts Euery morning they goe downe armed to the riuer sides and their hide themselues in trees amongst the leaues and in the heate of the day when the Beefes and Libbards and diuers other kindes of wilde beasts goe downe to the riuers to drinke and that they bee full and heauie with water these Aethiopians descen'd from the trees and fall vppon them and kill them with staues baked at the fire and with stones and dartes and then deuide them amongst their companies and eate them By which cunning deuise they deuoure many of those beasts and sometimes though but seldome they are foyled and slaine themselues And if at any time their cunning faile them and that they want beasts to eate they take the hides of such beasts as they haue eaten before and plucking of the haires laie the hides in steepe and then drie them before a soft fire and so deuiding to euery one a share satisfie themselues with that Their young boyes vnder the age of foureteene yeeres practise throwings at markes and they giue meate to those onely which touch the marke and therefore beeing forced thereto by famine they become most excellent and fine darters The people called Acridophagi border vpon the desert the men bee something shorter or lower of stature then other Aethiopians beeing leane and marueilous blacke In the spring time the West and South-west windes blow an infinite number of slies called Locustes out of the deserts into their Country which bee exceeding great but the collour of their wings is foule and lothsome These Aethiopians as their custome is gather out of places there-abouts great store of wood and other sorts of fuell and laie it in a great large valley and when at their wonted time as it were a whole cloude of Locusts bee carried by the windes ouer the valley they set fire on the fuell and with smoke stiphle and smother to death the Locusts which flie ouer it so as they fal downe vnto the earth in such aboundance as are sufficient to serue the whole countrie for victualls and these beeing sprinckled with salt which that country plentifully yeeldeth they preserue for a long space beeing a meate very pleasant vnto they taste And so these Locusts bee their continuall sustenance at all seasons for they neither keepe cattell nor eate fish beeing farre remote from the sea nor haue any other maintenance whereof to liue They bee nimble of body swift of foote and shorte of life so as they which liue the longest exceede not aboue fortie yeeres their end is not onely miserable but also incredible for when old age creepeth and commeth vppon them there doth certaine lice with winges of a horrible and vglie shape ingendring in their bodies knaw out and deuour their bellies guts and intralls and in a small time their whole bodies and he which hath the disease doth so itch is so allured to scrach as he receiueth thereby at one and the same time both pleasure and paine and when the corruption cometh forth and the lyce appeare he is so stirred with the bitternesse and anguish of the disease as hee teareth his owne flesh in peeces with his nayles with great wayling and lamentation for so great is the number of those vermine issuing out of the wounds heape vppon heape running as it were out of a vessell full of holes as they cannot be ouercome and by this meanes they die a very miserable death the cause whereof is ether the meate they liue vpon or the vnholesomenesse of the aire Vpon the vtmost parts of Affricke towards the South dwell a people which the Greekes cal Cinnamimi but of their neighbouring Barbarians they bee called wild or vplandish people These haue very great beards and for the defence of their liues breed vp great number of Mastiues and wild dogs for from the Summer troppicke to the middle of winter an infinite number of Indian Beefes come into their country the cause of their comming is vncertaine whether it bee that they fly from other wild beasts which pursue them or for the want of feeding or that they doe it by instinct of nature all which are wonderfull but the true cause is vnknowne from these the people defend them-selues with their dogges their owne forces being insufficient to withstand them and kill many of them some whereof they eate fresh and some others they powder vp for their prouision afterwards and with these dogges they take many other beasts in like sort The last people and the vtmost towards the South bee the Ichthiophagi which inhabite in the gulph of Arabia vpon the frontiers of the Trogloditae these carry the shape of men but liue like beasts they be very barbarous and go naked all their liues long vsing both wiues and daughters common like beasts they be neither touched with any feeling of pleasure or griefe other then what is naturall Neido the discerne any difference betwixt good and bad honesty and dishonesty Their habitations are in rockes and hills not farre from the sea wherein they haue deepe dennes and holes the passages in and out being naturally very hard and crooked The entrances into these holes as if nature had framed them for their vse the Inhabitants damme vp with a heape of great stones wherewith they take fishes as it were with nets for the flowing of the sea which hapneth euery day twise about three of the cloke and nine of the Cloke surrownding the borders neere vnto the shore the water increasing very high and couering all places carrieth into the continent an innumerable company of diuers sorts of fishes which seeking abroad for sustenance at the ebbing of the sea are by those stones stayd vpon dry land those doe the inhabitants make hast to gather vp and taking them lay them vpon the rockes against the noone Sunne till they be scorched with the heate thereof and when one side is scorched inough they turne the other when they bee thus broyled against the Sunne they take all the meate from the bones and put it into a
together like beasts skinnes and thereof make them short garments or cloakes and weare them Some others flea the right hands of their slaine enemies and with the same make couerings for their quiuers and many flea the whole bodies and stretching out the skinnes vppon blockes of wood carrie them about vpon their horses the heads being cut off in this manner as I haue sayd they couer the vtmost side of them with Oxe leather and those which be rich guild them within with gold and so vse them for pots to drinke in And such men of estimation as giue intertainement to strangers will shew vnto them that those were the heades of such men as they had vanquished in the wars bragging thereof as a point of great man-hood Once euery yeare all the Princes and gouernors of the region fill a pot full of wine of which all the Scythians which haue slaughtered any of their enemies do drinke but they which haue done no notable exploit tast not thereof but sit by without honor or regard which among them is the greatest ignominie that may be And those which haue committed the most slaughters shall drinke of two pots which they haue there readie prouided for the purpose Their gods which they worship and adore are the virgin Vesta as principall next vnto her Iupiter and Tellus for Tellus they suppose to be the wife of Iupiter after these they honor Apollo Venus Mars and Hercules but they thinke it not fit to make Idols Altars or Temples to any of these gods or goddesses but onely to Mars to whom they sacrifice euery hundreth captiue to the rest of their gods they sacrifice beasts and especially horses Hogges are in no account amongst them neither breed they any throughout the whole region When the King punisheth any man by death hee spareth none of his male-children but slayeth them all but he hurteth no woman-kind When the Scythians confirme friendship or make a league or peace one with another they put wine into a great earthen pot and then cutting some part of their bodies which make the peace with a knife or with a sword they mingle their bloud with the wine after that they dip their swords arrowes axes and iauelins into the cuppe which when they haue done they vow friendship one to another with many protestations And then is the wine drunke vp not onely by those which make the league but all their followers and partakers which bee of most dignitie and estimation drinke of it also The maner of buriall of Kings which is vsed of the people that inhabite about the riuer of Gerrus where Borysthenes is now nauigable is in this maner when their King is deceased they digge a great foure-square hole in the earth and there lay him for a space after that they take the dead bodie and bowell it and ceare it with waxe and fill it full of ozier branches brused a sweet perfume called red Stirax the seed of percely smallage and annis-seeds and so sow it vp againe and then putting the carcase into a cart they conuey it into another country where it is vsed as before and so interred But the Scythians cut off their dead kings eares clip his haire round cut his armes about wound him in the forehead and nose strike his left hand through with a dart and then carry the carcase into another nation which is vnder their gouernment the people whereof attend vpon them vnto another country And when they haue beheld all nations and the kings corps with them they leaue it to bee buried of those people that inhabite the vttermost parts of their kingdome who when they haue put it into a coffin and laid it vpon a bed they sticke downe certaine speares and laying him vpon the speares couer him with a coat then do they strangle one of his strumpets which he loued most dearely in his life time one groome one cooke one horse-keeper or muletor one sergeant one butler or cup-bearer and one horse and bury them altogether with golden cups and the first fruites of all their increase in the spatiousnesse of the Tombe or Sepulchre And when hee hath lyen there a yeare they take the most neere of the kings houshold seruants and all the Scythian seruants attending on the king he free borne and by him commanded to serue and no seruant bought with money doth minister to the king And after they haue strangled fiftie of these men-servants and as many of the best horses the mens bowels beeing first taken out and their garments stretched abroade and sowed together they set vp round about the circuit of the Kings tombe vppon arched worke those fiftie horses and the seruants sitting vppon their backes so as they may seeme afarre off to the beholders like a troupe of horsemen keeping their dead King And this is the maner and custome of interring and sepulture of their Kings in Scythia Priuate men also obserue a certaine custome in their burials for when one dyeth all his neighbours laying him in a cart carrie him about to his friends and each one of his friends receiuing him maketh a banket as well to his neighbours and kinsfolke as to the rest which accompany the coarse His bodie beeing thus carried from place to place for the space of fortie dayes is then interred his head beeing first emptied and cleane washed aboue the bodie they set three stickes bending one towards another vppon which they set wollen cappes as many as they can and then they put the carcase into a chest or coffin made of one tree like a trough and set it vnder the cappes and so fill vp the coffin with bright stones The men of Scythia do neuer wash themselues but their wiues infusing water vppon their bodies rubbe them against a rough stone with Cypresse Cedar or the wood of Frankinsence and after their bodies are rubbed and beginne to smell they besmeare their faces ouer with medicines or oyntments these oyntments make them to haue an odoriferous smeâ—â— And the next day after they remooue those medicines and make their faces cleane and bright againe Their manner of swearing and ministring an oath to others is by the Kings throne whereby if any one be conuinced of periurie by the Deuinors which make triall thereof with willow rods or wands hee is put to death without delay and forfeiteth all his goods to those which prooued him periured The Massagetae a people of Scythia in Asia beyond the Caspian sea in apparell and liuing be very like vnto these Scythians and therefore supposed of many to be Scythians indeed They fight both on foote and horse-backe and in both sorts of fight be almost invincible Their weapons be darts and speares and a certaine sword or weapon which they vsually weare about them called a sangar they vse gold in their belts sword-hangars and head attires and in guilding their pottes they put vppon their horses breasts brest-plates of gold their bridles and trappings be
receiued his griefe must be so hearty effectual as he must thereby assuredly hope to bee reconciled againe vnto God then must he humbly acknowledge and make verball recitall vnto some reuerent priest his confessor as vnto the vicar and minister of God of al thse sins offences as were causers of the losse of that innocency stirred vp the wrath of God against him then let him firmly beleeue that such power and authority is giuen by Christ vnto his priests ministers on earth that they can cleerely absolue him from al such sins as he confesseth is heartily sory for Lastly for a satisfaction amends for al his sins let him with alacrity cheerefulnes vndergo do whatsoeuer his confessor shall enioyne him beleeuing most stedfastly that he is absolued from al his sins as soone as the priest hath pronounced the words of absolution 7 The seuenth and last Sacrament is the Sacrament of extreame vnction which is ministred with oyle which for that purpose is yeerely consecrated and hallowed in euery Diocesse by the bishop himselfe vpon the thursday before Easterday as the holy Chrisine is cōsecrated by the priest This Sacrament according to the councel of the holy Apostle Saint Iames the institutiō of Pope Felix the 4. is ministred only to such as are at the point of death of ful age and not then neither vnlesse they desire it and by the prescript form repeating of the words of the Sacramēt often inuocation of the Saints those parts of the body being annointed which are the seats of the fiue sences seeing hearing tasting smelling and touching and are the chiefest instrumēts in offending as the mouth eyes eares nose hands and feet the holy fathers haue bin euer of this opinion and firme beleefe that he which is so anointed receiueth it worthily is not only thereby remitted purged frō al his light and venial sins but is either sodenly restored to his former health or else yeeldeth vp his spirit in more tranquility and peace of conscience The festiual daies which were cōmanded to be obserued in The festiuall dayes which were commanded to be obserued in the Church throughout the yeare begin with the Aduent of our Lord Iesus Christ In which by the institution of Saint Peter in the month of December the continuall exercise of fasting and prayer was commanded for full three weekes and a halfe together before the feast of the Natiuity of our Lord with vs called Christmas which with all ioy and solemnity is celebrated all the last eight dayes of December The yeare is deuided into 52. weekes the weekes into twelue months and euery month for the most part into thirty dayes vpon the first day of Ianuary the Church celebrateth the circumcision of our Lord according to the law of Moses Vpon the third day after is represented vnto vs how our Sauiour Christ by the adoration of the three Kings and his beeing Baptised of Iohn in the riuer Iordane laid the foundation of the new law vpon the second of February is shewed how his imaculate mother shewing her selfe obedient to the ceremonies of the Iewes presented her sonne Iesus in the Temple and was purified in memory whereof there is on that day a solemne procession vsed by the Church and all the tapers and wax lights bee then hallowed Vpon the 25. day of March is represented vnto vs the Annuntiation of the birth of Christ to the Virgin Mary by the Angel and how he was conceiued in her wombe by the inspiration of the holy ghost at which time is commended vnto vs also the remembrance of the forty daies which our Sauiour when he liued here on earth amongst vs vouchsafed to fast willing vs likewise to fast that time after his example then to celebrate his passion and death which willingly he offered himselfe to suffer to enfranchise and redeeme vs from the thraldome and slauery of the diuell Vpon the last day of which feast which often falleth out in Aprill is solemnised the greatest of all feasts how Christ hauing conquered death descended into hell where after hee had ouercome the Diuell he returned aliue againe to his Disciples and in a glorified body appeared vnto them In May is solemnized his Ascension into Heauen by his owne vertue in the sight of al his Disciples at which time by the ordinance of Saint Mamertine Bishoppe of Vienna it was instituted that throughout the whole Christian world Pilgrimages and processions should bee vsed vpon that day from one Church to an other In Iune and sometimes in May is the feast of the comming of the Holy Ghost who being before promised was on that day infused vpon all the Disciples of our Sauiour Christ appearing vnto them in the forme of fiery tongs by vertue whereof they spake and vnderstood the languages of all nations The eight day after is the feast of the blessed Trinity and then out of the first decretal of Pope Vrban the sixt the feast of Corpus Christi was instituted and with great solemnity generally celebrated the fifth day after Trinity Sunday as a perpetual memoriall of the most wholesome Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ by him bequeathed vnto vs in his last supper vnder the formes of bread and wine and continually of vs to be seene and eaten after his departure vpon the fifteenth day of Iuly wee are put in minde by a new festiuity of the departure of the blessed Apostles according to their seueral alotment the twelfth yeare after the assention of our Lord into heauen to preach the Gospell vnto all nations of the world The death of the Mother of Christ is celebrated the fifteenth day of August and her natiuity the eight of September How being presented in the Temple she continued in the dayly seruice of God from three yeares of age till shee was maryageable is shewed the one and twentih day of nouember vpon the eight day of December the Church reuerenceth her immaculate conception of her long barren parents And the second of Iuly how passing ouer the Mountaines shee visited her Cosin Elizabeth There are likewise holy-daies dedicated to the memory of the twelue Apostles of whom some were martirs some confessors and some Virgins as namely the twenty foure of February to Saint Mathias the twenty fiue of Aprill to Saint Marke the Euangelist on which day Saint Gregory ordained the litanies called the greater litanies to be said To Saint Philip and Iacob the elder the first of May to Saint Peter and Paul the twenty nine of Iune the twenty foure day of which moneth is dedicated to the natiuity of Saint Iohn Baptist the twenty fiue of Iuly to Saint Iames the younger to Saint Bartholemew the twenty foure of August to S. Mathew the twenty one of September the twenty eight of October to S. Simon and Iude the last of Nouember to Saint Andrew the twenty one of December to Saint Thomas and the twenty seauen
much more beautifull and comely when their heades bee thicke growne with haires and smoothly combed then otherwise they would bee if their haire were shaggie rugged vncombed and neglected The King when he beginneth battaile sacrifiseth a shee-goate to the Muses They vse one certaine and strict kind of liuing both at home and in the warres For they held that they were not borne onely to themselues but for the good of their Countrie They practised no gainefull and commodious arts but were wholly employed in the studie of matters belonging to martiall discipline spending their spare time in sollemne banquettings by which meanes it came to passe that as Plutarch hath very well noted the Spartans neuer would or if they would yet they knew not how to liue priuately with a selfe-regard but were wholly deuoted to the common good of their countrie The Spartanes as they differed from all other nations in many other things so did they in giuing their voyces for electing of Officers For there were a few picked out from the rest to vndergo this businesse who were inclosed in a Chamber next adioyning to the Councel-house where they should neither see nor bee seene of any and then as the names of the Competitors were particularly drawne out one after another and at happe-hazard they did diligently marke and obserue the applause and assent of the people vnto euery name aduisedly noting and setting downe in a table who had the greatest applause and who the least which beeing afterwards openly reade it was thereby knowne which of the competitors had the most voyces Furthermore Lycurgus was the first that remoouing all superstition permitted the Cittizens to bury the dead bodies in the cittie allowing thē plots of ground about the Temples wherein to erect their monuments but it was not lawfull for any one to engraue or imprint the name of either man or woman vpon their sepulcher but the names of those onely which were manfully slaine in the wars nor to lament for those which were dead aboue the space of eleuen dayes The citizens moreouer were restrained from trauelling into other countries lest they should bring into their cittie strange customes and manners and all strangers and trauellers which arriued there were bar'd and excluded from out their citty vnlesse their presence were profitable to the common-wealth lest as Thucydides saith forraine nations should learne and be partakers of the Laconian discipline which may iustly be tearmed a very inhumane part or else as Plutarch writeth lest by the mutuall concourse and passage too and fro of strangers new speeches and languages might creepe into the cittie from whence might proceed new iudgements and dissonant desires which to the common-wealth would bee matters most pernitious and dangerous Young men hee allowed to weare but one coate throughout the whole yeare nor might any one go finer or fare more daintily then others did He commanded that nothing should be bought with readie money but by exchange of wares and commodities that children when they were of the age of twelue or fourteene yeares should not be suffered to come into the market-place or chiefe part of the cittie but were brought into the fields to the end they should not spend the prime of their youth in luxurie and wantonnesse but in labour and painfulnesse ordaining that they shold haue nothing layd vnder them to sleepe vpon and that they should eate no pottage nor gruell nor once returne into the cittie before they were men He ordained also that maydes should be married without portions to the end that none should couet wiues for their wealth and that husbands might carrie the more seueritie ouer their wiues when they could not vpbraide them with the greatnesse of their portions and how much they were aduanced by them that men shold be esteemed honourable not for their riches and greatnes but for their age and grauitie for old age was held in more reuerence and reputation amongst the Spartans then in any other countrie besides To the Kings he granted power ouer the wars to the Magistrates iudgements and yearely successions the keeping and custodie of the lawes to the Senate and to the people power and authoritie both to elect the Senat and to create Magistrates whom they pleased Now for because these new lawes and institutions all former customes beeing dissolued and abrogated seemed very harsh and difficult he fained that Apollo of Delphos was the author and inuentor of them and that frō thence at the commandement of that god hee brought them to Sparta thinking thereby that the feare and reuerence of religion would vanquish all rediousnesse and irkesomnesse of vsing them And finally to the end his lawes might remaine and continue to all eternitie he bound and obliged the cittizens by an oath that they should alter none of those lawes which he had made and established for them vntill he himselfe returned back vnto them alledging that he intended to go to Delphos to aske counsell of the Oracle there what he shold alter or adde to his lawes which done he tooke his iourney to Creete and there liued in perpetuall exile commanding when he lay vppon his death-bed that as soone as he was dead his bones should be cast into the sea lest by any chance they might be conueyed to Lacedemon whereby the Spartans might suppose themselues absolued and released from that oath which they had taken not to alter those lawes before his returne vnto them It is not amisse in this place to describe and set foorth what honors and dignities the Spartans were wont to giue to their Kings And first they had two Orders or Estates of Priests attending vppon them to do sacrifices one of the Lacedemonian Iupiter and the other of the celestiall Iupiter and their law of armes was that vpon what people or country the Kings intended to make warres it rested not in the power of any of the Spartans to prohibite or gaine-say it for if they did they offended so haynously as they would hardly purge themselues that in their marching and setting forward to the warres the kings should go foremost and be last in the retraite And that they should haue an hundred choice and select men to be their guard that in their expeditions and setting forward on their voyages they might haue what beast they would for sacrifice and that they might take to themselues the hides and skins of the beasts that were offered And these were their priuiledges in the warres And the honors and dignities attributed vnto them in time of peace were these when in their Common-wealth any banquets were made for the death of any great man the Kings should sit downe first and be first serued and that they two alone should haue betwixt them twice as much meate as all those that sate with them besides the skinnes of all beasts sacrificed Moreouer in the Kalends of euery moneth they had each of them a beast giuen them from out the reuenues of the
come into the Senate or Councell house and many were so deeply touched with that indignitie as they would violently procure their owne deaths rather then indure such disgrace Their Kings were elected for their worth and Nobility and their power and authority was not altogether free but limitted and restrained the worthiest souldiers and men of greatest valour and such as could effect more by their good examples then by all their force and authority were ordained leaders and conductors of their armies There was none had power to chastice beat or punish an other but the Priests only for they held that reuengment belonged only vnto the gods whose ministers the Priests were They would pourtray the Images of their gods and carry them with them into the warres as a speciall incouragement to fight And their friends and kinsfolke likewise were placed neere vnto the battell that in their presence they might either atchieue a glorious victory or end their dayes with honor and their parents wiues and children were eye-witnesses of their valor and prowesse and euer as any of them that fought were wounded they were brought vnto their mothers and wiues and other friends that were lookers on who were euer readie and willing to heale and cure them and to supply the soldiers with victualles exciting and encouraging them to fight manfully through which exhortations as some haue written the battell hath renewed and begunne a fresh when the souldiers were almost spent and wearied out for they esteemed their women to be of great sanctitie and prouidence and therefore their Councels were not to be contemned nor their aduises despised Vppon certaine dayes they vsed to sacrifice men vnto Mercurie and beasts to Mars and Hercules and they were generally giuen to sorcerie and witch-craft Trifling and pettie causes were managed and decided by the Rulers and Magistrates of the citties but all great businesses and difficult affaires were handled by the whole body of the city in generall They would neuer begin any busines but when the Moone was either in the change or in the full and they reckened their computation not by the dayes but by the nights They came armed into the Councell-house to decide controuersies and to maintaine the right of causes and hee vppon whose side the sentence passed and was conmended had a Iaueling shaken and brandished against him which manner of sentence giuing they accounted to be most honorable and againe those whose causes were nought were condemned by the Iudges frownes and sterne lookes All traytors anâ— turne-coates and such as fled to the enemie were hanged Sluggards dastards and such infamous persons and those that had any noysome disease were laid vpon a hurdle and dragged till they were dead No Magistrate would execute any publike or priuate businesse but when he was armed there was great emulation amongst them about their diet and they were incredibly giuen to affectation for he carried the greatest credit and estimation amongst his friends and neighbours that was best attended and accompanied with young gallants when hee went abroad about any businesse If the Prince that was Generall or Leader of the armie departed out of the field without victorie he liued in discredite and infamie all his life time after for the Prince fighteth only for victorie and the other Noblemen for the safetie of the Prince They would oftentimes take occasion to make warres without cause giuen onely because they could not indure to liue quietly and peaceably For they held it a point of sloth and sluggishnesse to get their liuing by their labors if they might get it by warres though it cost them their liues if they had no warres the valiantest men of them all spent their times wholy in eating drinking and sleeping committing both houses and husbandrie to the care and guidance of old men and women So as it seemeth strange to see two such contrarie dispositions in one people to be both louers of idlenesse and yet enemies to peace and quietnesse Their dwellings were in villages and euery one in seuerall houses their apparell short cassockes or souldiers coates buttoned together with claspes or pinned with thornes and the richer sort were knowne and distinguished from others by their clothes for they wore their coates so close to their skins as you might plainely perceiue the perfect proportion of each lim and member and the selfe same fashion of apparell which serued men was worne by women likewise Most part of the Germaines which dwelt towards the East and North side of the countrie contented themselues with one wife a peece some few excepted which had many and the wife was not indowed by the husband but the husband by the wife nor was their dowers of such dainties as were onely fit to make them fine and gay but of such things as they had most vse of as yokes of oxen horses with their furniture shields swords Iauelings and such like The women were wonderful chast and modest and their lookes nothing want on to procure allurements they frequented no banquets nor common feasts so as though the nation were very populous there was few women found offending in adulterie but if any were thereof conuicted her owne husband would pull her headlong out of his house starke naked before her neighbours and friends and whip her round about the towne nor was there any place for pardon for such lasciuious strumpets no not their youth beautie nor riches could any whit priuiledge them or reconcile them to their husbands It was not tolerable for any one to scoffe at vice for thereby they thought they both corrupted others and were corrupted themselues And as euery woman had but one bodie and one life so should she haue but one husband nor ought she to haue any idle cogitation or wanton desire as if shee more regarded the act of matrimonie then her husbands loue so as more good was done by their manners and examples then in other places by wholesome strict lawes Yong men were not very prone to lust especially when their youthfull dayes drew to an end and maides were not married til they were of good yeares that they might bee more strong and able to beare children Murder was punished with a certaine number of cattell which the murtherer must giue to al the dead mans friends as a satisfaction for his death They were very desirous to diet together and to keepe good hospitalitie accounting it an vnhonest and vndecent part to forbid any one their houses or tables Rewards were willingly taken and giuen nor would they vpbraide any one with that they had giuen nor thinke themselues in any matter beholding for what they receiued They would spend whole nights and dayes in drinking and carowsing esteeming and accounting it a credit to be drunken and oftentimes after their gluttonie and gormandize they would brall and fall out one with another exchanging ill words and sometimes blowes whereof oftentimes insued mayming and murder They consulted of all serious
surely Germany were an hundred times more happie if those Centaures worse then Dionysius and Phalaris were either vtterly expelled the land or at the least their tyranny and power so restrained abridged as they might be inforced to liue priuate like vnto the Nobility in Heluetia The 3. estate or order of the Germaines is of citizens and towns-men and of these some be onely subiect to Caesar and some to other Princes and Prelates of the church Those which yeld obedience to the Emperor haue many priuiledges lawes and customes common to themselues and euery yeare by the voyces of the cittizens is one chiefe magistrate elected who for his yeare hath a soueraign authority ouer them all and hee of himselfe hath power to punish any one of the same order with death When an offence is cōmitted the offendor is brought before the magistrates elected where beeing sette in councel the accuser is called for who hauing set downe his accusation the defendant hath free liberty to plead for himselfe and when both parties be heard at large the Iudges proceed to sentence which is not by any course of law for that these manner of magistrates be ignorant of the lawes but as they be induced by reason and as the custome hath beene afore-time in like cases the like forme of Iudgement is vsed in ciuill causes likewise sauing that in ciuill and criminall causes the party accused may appeale vnto Caesar which offenders in other causes may not doe In euery Imperiall Citty bee two sorts of Citizens the one of Gentlemen the other of Plebeians the Plebeians or comminalty of the city be occupied in trading and keeping shops but the Gentlemen which bee also called Patritians liue only vpon their patrimony reuenewes in as good fashion as the Nobility or Knights of the country do if any of the comminalty wax so rich that he either by custome or commerce will intrude himselfe into the society of Gentlemen he is notwithstanding his wealth discarded their companies whereof it proceedeth that each of these orders of Citizens haue for many yeeres continued in there owne estate without alteration And yet for all this the administration and gouernment of their commonwealth is commune and permitted as well vnto the Plebeians as Patritians so as the communalty is no way in subiection to the gentility but euery one hath his owne substance in safety with free liberty not transgressing their lawes to liue as they list and Iustice is ministred for the most part throughout al the whole country by men which haue little learning or none at al for in euery City and in many townes likewise bee elected 12. Iudges which be such as be most notorious for vprightnesse and integrity of life not respecting whether they be learned or no which twelue must of necessity take vpon them the office of Iustice and Iudgement for which they expect no other wages nor reward but onely honour and they be so diligent in performing their duties therein that for the common good they will not sticke to neglect al priuate affaires and businesse whatsoeuer be they neuer so vrgent to obserue the times appointed for Iudgment and hearing of causes And they bee all of them sworne to minister Iustice vnto euery one according to right and equity from whose sentences in times past they would neuer appeale esteming it a great indignity vnto them to contradict the decrees of such men as executed their offices gratis but now adaies appeales be vsuall which were the more tollerable a great deale if the Iudges to whom the appeales be made would in their Iudgements obserue the customes of the former Iudges but their doinges are so little regarded that their sentences though neuer so iust and vpright be retracted and wholy altered onely because they seeme to repugne their written lawes whereby the Iudges of the former rancke are vndeseruedly taxed of ignorance their good indeuours reprooued and blemished and the parties to bee releeued oftentimes oppressed which kinde of Iudgement how corrupt it is themselues may easily perceiue Furthermore the Citizens liue and accord together very familiarly and friendly meeting and assembling themselues sometimes in publicke places sometimes in priuate houses where they spend their time some in buying and selling some in conferrence one with an other some in feasting and banquetting and some in gaming and disporting in all which sundry actions can hardly be discouered any deceite or contention They be very curteous and affable for at all times and in all places bee they men or women so often as they meete together so often doe they salute one an other Vpon working daies they be very frugall and sparing both in their diet and apparell but vpon festiuall daies they will goe more gallantly and far more daintily Those which labour eate foure times a day and playmen but twise the mens apparell for the most part is wollen and the womens linnen and each of them so much differrent one from an other both in collour and fashion as you shall hardly finde one man or one woman apparelled like an other for they be so new fangled as they will fall into euery new fashion imitating the Italians but more vsually the French men from whom now of late yeeres the men haue gotten their broad nosed shooes their coates with wide hanging sleeues cut and wouen cappes which they call Pyrethia And not long since they wore shooes with sharpe snoutes short coates cloose to their bodies and hoods with tayles or flappes behinde This sparingnesse in apparel heretofore vsed by men is now descended vnto women and by them practised for whereas they were wonte to weare many kerchers vpon their heads which made their heads seeme great by reason of their many folds of linnen they now weare but one onely They bee also more modest in all their other clothes then heretofore they haue beene in a manner vtterly reiecting gold siluer and pearles and all sumptuous garding of their garments with rich furres and silkes I need not speake of their long traines carried vp behind them which though they were common bee now onely worne of the Nobility and the women be now so decent and comely cloathed as they cannot iustly bee reprehended for any thing they weare sauing that some womens gownes bee ouer wide and to much hollowed about the necke In their funerals and celebration of their friends obites they be attired in blacke and their time of lamentation is thirty daies within which space they doe sacrifice for them three times the first day the seuenth day and the thirtith day They be so deuout and religious a people that euery artificer before he begin his worke wil goe to the Church and heare masse yea both men and maide seruants be by their masters compelled therunto for they hold it a beastly and hatefull thing for any one to neglect his seruice to God either for idlenesse or for any businesse whatsoeuer In giuing almes they be
called Saturnalitia and by the Greekes they be called Apophoreta that is to say presents or things giuen to guests to bee carried away with them This custome and ceremonie of theirs was described by the Author of this booke in these verses following O Christ the Word of Father deare c. In honor of thy blessed birth we celebrate eight dayes All which we spend in holy hymnes and chanting forth thy prayse And following thy examples true we gifts do often send Fat Capons Hares or some such thing vnto each louing friend Fine wafers stampt with Images and Pictures rarely signd Or basket full of Oranges doth argue friendly mind Ten Oranges that plumde and topt be with greene boxen crest And spices rare of sundry sorts in honor of this Feast Vpon the Feast day of the Epiphany of our Lord commonly called Twelfte-day euery family maketh a cake of flower hony ginger and pepper and therewith they elect and choose them a King in this maner following the good-wife of the house kneadeth and maketh the cake and in the moulding shee putteth a penny into it without consideration into what place of the cake she putteth it but euen at aduentures then doth she rake away the fire and bake it vppon the harth and when it is baked shee breaketh it into as many peeces as there be men in the whole houshold and so distributeth vnto euery one apart assigning one part thereof vnto Christ another to our blessed Ladie and three portions more to the three Wisemen for and in the name of an almes And in whose part soeuer the penny is found him doe the rest set in a chaire and lifting him vp on high three times with great iollity and mirth they salute him as their king and all the while hee is lifted vppe hee hath in his right hand a peece of chalke with which he maketh a great many crosses vppon the roofes of their chambers and parlours and these crosses they haue in great estimation thinking that by them they escape many dangers And there is no house throughout the whole countrey of Franconia especially if it be a dwelling house but in some one of these twelue nights which bee betwixt the Natiuitie of our Lord and the Epiphany it is perfumed either with Frankinsence or some other sweet smelling perfume against the deceits and illusions of Diuels and Sorcerers It were in vaine to mention in particular in what manner of Epicurisme the Franconians spend the three daies next before Lent if you knew what generall and wilfull madnesse possessed all the rest of Germanie at that time wherein the Franconians do equall them and in what licentious manner all of them then liue for all those three dayes the Germaines practise nothing else but eating drinking and playing plying it so lustily as though they should neuer eate or drinke more or as if with the Epicure they should say I will take my pleasure I will eat and drinke my belly full to day for to morow I shall die Euery one will inuent some new deuice or other to delight their minds and senses withall and to hold them in admiration and to the end they should not blush nor be dashed out of countenance in acting their apish toyes and interludes they maske their faces and change their habites the men wearing womens apparell and the women mens some represent Satyres and some play the diuels part beeing made blacke with woade or inke and cloathed in loathsome apparell like Diuels indeed Some others go starke naked imitating the Priests of Pan of whome I thinke the Germanes haue learned that yearely custome of doting and vnnaturall madnesse This their manner of reuelling differeth not much from the Feastes called Lupercalia which the noble young Romane gallants were wont to celebrate in the moneth of Februarie in honor of the Licaean Pan. For as those Romane youths went round about the Cittie naked and their faces besmered with bloud lashing all they met with cords and whips in rude and barbarous manner most loathsom to behold euen so the Germaines strike those they meete with bags stuft full of sand or ashes There is a strange custome vsed in many places of Germany vppon Ash-wednesday for then the young youth get all the maides together which haue practised dauncing all the yeare before and carrying them in a cart or tumbrell which they draw themselues in stead of horses and a minstrell standing a top of it playing all the way they draw them into some lake or riuer and there wash them well fauouredly What the reason of this ceremonie is I cannot perceiue but as I coniecture they imagine the doing of this to be a purgation and satisfaction to God for practising such light and wanton behauiour vppon Sundayes and Holy-dayes directly against the Canons and precepts of the Church In the middle of Lent at which time they be commanded by the Church to reioyce the youth of Germany where the Authour of this present Worke was borne make an Image of straw resembling the picture of Death and hanging it vppon aspeare carry it vp and downe the streetes with great showting and exclamations and many giue them good intertainment offering them such things as they vsually eate as peason milke and mellow peares and when they be wel refreshed they returne home again but some others on the contrarie part giue them Iohn Drums intertainment reuiling and beating them away frō their houses deeming the picture of death to bee ominous and a foretelling of their deaths indeed The like custome to this is vsed by the Franconians and at the same time for there the young men take an old cart wheele and couer it all ouer with straw and then being a great troupe of them together they cary it to the top of a high hil where after they haue sported themselues most part of the day vnlesse the cold driue them soone home in the euening they set it on fire and set it going downe the hil burning beeing a sight able to astonish the beholders that know not what it meanes for it tumbleth into the valley all of a flaming fire with such a pudder as if the Sunne or Moon should tumble downe from heauen Vppon Easter day some one of the wealthiest amongst them causeth certaine cakes to be made and giueth one or two of them to the young men and as many to the maydes and when they be all mette together a little before night in a plaine medow in the presence of an infinit number of spectators those which bee most nimble of footmanship runne for those cakes the yong men against yong men and the maides against maides Then haue they their solemne ceremonies at the dedication of their parish Churches which by the Institutions of the Church ought to be solemnized by all the parishioners once euery yeare with great ioy and banqueting to which solemnization come many yong men out of other parishes not for any deuotion they beare vnto the Churches
the Prouince of Celtica which is all that which is now the countrie of Lyons and from that againe vnto the Pyrenaean hils is the country of Aquitanica once called Armorica Augustus deuideth France into foure parts by adding to those three the Prouince of Lyons And Ammianus maketh many subdiuisions by distributing the country of Lions into two parts and Aquitanica into two parts Braccata Gallia which is also called Narbon was so called of a certaine fashion of mantles or breeches called Braccae which by them were much worne Gallia Belgica which adioyneth vnto Rhene speaketh for the most part the Almaine tongue and comprehendeth many prouinces as Heluetia Alsatia Lotharingia Luxenburg Burgundy Brabant Gelderland Holland Zeland all which may bee more rightly accounted part of Germany then of France but that the riuer of Rhene hath deuided it from Germany And surely I see no reason why hils riuers should limit bound Kingdoms but rather the language and gouernment and that each Country should extend as farre as his owne proper language is spoken The Romanes called the people of Gallia by one generall name Celtae after the name of their King and Gallatae of Galata his mothers name but they bee now called Franci and Gallia France of those people of Germanie so called by whom it was al subdued as Baptista Mantuanus writeth in his booke intituled Dionysius and Anthonius Sabellicus in his third booke of the tenth Aeneade The Dictator Caesar saith that the French men doe differ much amongst themselues both in language lawes and institutions and that many things be common to most of them as to bee factious which is a general aspertion not only vnto Citizens and Burgesses but in priuate families also for euery one as he excelleth others in wealth or wisdome contendeth to haue the souerainty and to aduance his owne faction coueting to haue all things done by his owne direction rather then by others though as wise wealthy as himself an other institution they haue very ancient and grounded vpon good reason that is that the common people should liue in security and not bee iniured by the nobility for but for that there is no country in the world wherein the clownes liue in greater contempt and slauery then in France for there was held little difference betwixt them and slaues being neuer called to any publike councel but oppressed with tributes or constrained to lend their money without security in so much as they were content to retaine to noble men and gentlemen yeelding themselues as slaues and bondmen vnto them only to bee freed from other mens extortions and wrongs There were two sorts of men that caried most estimation amongst them which were the Equites and the Druides some likewise did attribute as much honour to Poets and Prophets as vnto the Druides for that the Prophets bended their whole courses to finde out the causes of natural things the Poets wholy imployed themselues in praises and poems and all these were by Caesar called by the name of Druidae These Druidae had the charge and ouersight of al sacrifices both publike and priuate their function was also to expound and interpret their religion and to instruct and bring vp children and young men in learning and decipline for the assemblies and troupes of such youth were much accounted of to them was committed likewise the disciding of controuersies the bounding limitting of mens grounds power to punish offendors by death torments or otherwise and if either priuate person or Magistrate offred to withstand or gainsay any of their decrees or refused to stand to their awarde they would interdict and forbid him to come to their sacrifices which amongst that people was the greatest punishment that could bee inflicted The Druides shunned the communication and company of all men least they should bee polluted and no one could haue iustice or bee honoured and reuerenced according to his place dignity and deserts if any of these Druides were against it They had one that was the gouernor and Arch-priest ouer them who bore the chiefest sway as head of the whole order and euer as one of those prouosts or gouernors died an other was elected in his roome out of those Druides either by worthinesse of person or plurality of voices This councel or Senate of Druides assembled at one time of the yeere at Lyons which is about the middle of France and there they kept their Sessions for the hearing and determining of all controuersies that were brought before them from al parts of the Country which kinde of Iudgement and establishing of lawes and statutes was afterwards receiued amongst al the nobles commons of France the superstition beeing first brought out of Britany and by them called the Parliament of which I will speake more hereafter The Druides were exempted from the warres and had immunity from tribute and whosoeuer addicted himselfe to that kinde of profession must learne by heart thousands of verses yea so many as some of them spent twenty yeeres in conning verses without booke nor was it lawfull for them to commit any thing to writing that belonged to the knowledge of that science for that they auoided all meanes that might either bee a helpe vnto their memories or anywise concerne the authority of that discipline and also that their idle superstitious rites might not bee laide open to the common people and yet all other sorts of Gaules and themselues in all other matters both publike priuate vsed at that time the Greeke character The Druides beleeued and preached the immortality of the soule that after her departure out of one body shee remooued into an other by which means al feare of death being taken away they were more hardy and venturous to vndergo al dangers They would reason and dispute much of the stars and of their motion of the magnitude the worlde and sytuation of the earth and of the naturall causes of things and power of their prophane gods they held a position likewise that the world was eternall and that the elements of fire and water preuailed one against an other by turnes An other sort of religious persons and which were most deuoute of all others were those they called Equites and they when they fell into any dangerous disease or any other perill of their liues would offer for the recouery of their health or auoiding of imminent danger a humaine sacrifice which sacrifice must euer bee solemnized by the assistance of some one of the Druides Some others of that sect had great huge Images made hallow and couered with twigges into the concauity whereof they would put men aliue and then set fire about the Image vntill all were consumed away The punishment inflicted vpon theeues and offenders they esteemed most gratefull and acceptable to their gods and all those ancient Gaules held the god Mercury in great veneration as first founder and inuentor of all arts and misteries the
chiefe guide and conductor in all their trauels and very propitions vnto them in trafficke and trading All the spoiles they tooke in the warres they vowed and consecrated vnto Mars for their victory obtained so as in many Cities you might see great heapes of warlike spoiles laide together and if any one stole any part of the prey to his owne purse hee was seuerely punished The Gaules perswaded themselues that they were the of spring of Pluto the god of riches and therefore they celebrated the beginning of their feasts the night before the feast day supposing that night to bee consecrated vnto Dis The men suffered not their children once to come into their sights before they were growne to mans estate that they were able to manage armes holding it vnfitting and absurde that the sonne while hee is a childe should approach neere the presence of his father The husbands looke how much money they receiued with their wiues in portion so much did they adde vnto it out of their owne stocke and all the increase that came of that coyne was reserued and kept for him or her that was suruiuer The husbands had power and authority of life and death as well ouer their wiues as ouer their children and if any mans wife were conuicted of witch-craft or sorcery she was put to death by her husbands neighbours and friends either by fire or by some other greeuous torments In their funerals all those things which the deceased person held deere vnto him in his life time yea the beasts he loued best were burned with him and not much before the Country was conquered by Iulius Caesar their seruants and retainers were burned with their Maisters dead bodies In their Cities which were maruellous wel gouerned a few of the most worthy and substantialest men amongst them ruled the rest hauing at the first one chiefe ruler ouer them who continued his office for a yeere and in warres they vsed likewise to appoint one to take the charge and command vpon him of al matters belonging to the warres If any priuate person heard any thing spoken by strangers touching the common-wealth they were to make report thereof to the Magistrates though some things they might conceale without danger It was not lawfull for any one to mutter any thing in secret of the common-wealth but in publike places and hee that came last into the councel-house was put to death If any factious fellow raised any tumult or mutiny there was sent vnto him an officer with a sword in his hand ready drawne to proclaime silence and if hee desisted not at the second or third proclamation the officer would curtaile so much of his cloake or cassocke thereby to put him to disgrace as the remnant that was left would serue him to no purpose The chiefe Magistrates had golden maces carried before them they wore chaines about their neckes and bracelets on their armes The common people wore short cloakes and in steed of coates a loose garment slit on the one side that would scarce couer halfe their buttocks their wool is very rough long and shaggy so as their cassockes they called Lenae were maruellous rugged and hairy They tooke great delight in trimming dressing their haire They be tal of stature and for the most part pale of complexion and their armor and weapons are answearable to the proportion of their bodies for they wore long swords hanging at their right sides and long shields proportionable to their speares wherewith they might couer their thighes some of them also had bowes and were very good archers but yet they vsed shooting more in fowling and birding then in the warres and few of them would goe into the field either with slings or clubs They lay vpon the ground and eate their meate sitting vpon straw the substance of their meate was either milke or flesh and especially hogs-flesh for they haue such store of swine feeding in their fields and so large so strong and so swift that strangers that know not their nature are as fearefull of them and in as much daunger as if they were wolues They haue sheepe in as great aboundance as swine whereof when they bee fed and powdred they send many to Rome and diuers other parts of Italy and there sell them Their buildings dwelling houses were made of wood in proportion of shels beeing very large with many spars or rafters They bee naturally cruell and simple withall and in the warres more valiant then politike and much more addicted to follow the warres then husbandry The French women be exceeding fruitful in so much as Gallia Belgica alone sent vnto the warres at one voyage aboue three hundred thousand fighting men when they haue had any victory they bee wonderfull ioyfull and as much amazed after an ouerthrow Their custome was when the battaile was ended and the souldiors departed the field to cut off the heads of their vanquished foes and to hange them at there horse neckes and so to carry them home and there to sticke them vpon poles for a spectacle vnto others But the heads of worthy and renowned souldiors if any such were slaine they would season with odors of Cedar-tree and keepe them for strangers to looke vpon not suffering them to bee ransommed for their weight in gold The ancient Country guise was to weare chaines of gold bracelets and garments spangled with gold In their Diuinations their manner was to strike a man ordained for that purpose vpon the backe and then by his impatience and manner of affliction in his death to Iudge of future euents They had other sorts of humaine sacrifices also for some they would shoot to death and then hang them vpon gibbets within their Temples and some of them would make a great huge Image and put therein men wood sheepe and diuers other sorts of cattaile and so sacrifice them altogether The Frenchmen by reason of their continuall labour and exercise were wont to bee very macilent leane and lanck bellyed for they were so carefull to auoyde all pampering and excesse that if any young mans belly did out-grow his girdle he was openly punished But at this day the French-men by reason of their commerce conuersation and continuall acquaintance with the Romaines are greatly altered from what they were and their manners much bettered for they bee now most ardent professors of the true Religion and all vnder the gouernement of one King Their marriages be solemnized after the Italian rites they be very studious in all the liberall arts and in diuinity especially which is well demonstrated by the great multitude of Students in the citty of Paris which is now the most famous and renownedst Vniuersitie in all Christendome The lawes in France be executed by Magistrates but instituted by the kings their horsmen in time of warres go al in compleat armor and their footmen in light harnesse they haue many good archers that shoote well in long bowes and their bowes be not
gates of their houses be neuer shut but stand alwayes open Amongst the Pedalians a people of India not hee which is cheefe in the sacrifice but hee that is most prudent of all those which be present deuineth and they desire nothing of the gods in their prayers but Iustice onely the Praysij or Phrasij succour with sustenance their neighbours afflicted by famine The people called Telchines dwelled first in the I le of Creete and afterwards inhabited the I le of Cyprus also from whence they remooued into Rhodes and inioyde that Iland where they began to bee very malicious and enuious and exercising themselues in Mechanicall Artes and imitating the workes of their elders they were the first that erected the Idoll of Telchinian Minerua which is as much to say as enuious Minerua It is not lawfull amongst the Tartessians for the younger to giue testimony against the elder The people of Lucania excercise iudgement and inflict punishment as well for luxury and sloth as for any other offence what-so-euer and hee which is proved to lend any thing to a luxurious person is fined at the value of the thing lent Amongst the Saunites or Samnites is once euery yeare a publike Iudgement pronounced both of young men and maides and which of the youngmen is adiudged best by the censure of the Iudges shall first make his choyse which of the Virgins hee will haue to his wife and the second to him chooseth next and so of all the rest in order The Limyrnij haue their wiues in common their children be likewise brought vp at their common charge vntill they accomplish the age of fiue yeares and in the sixt yeare they be brought together into one place where all the fathers be assembled to make coniecture whom euery childe doth most resemble which done they assigne vnto euery father the child that is likest vnto him and by that meanes euery one acknowledgeth his owne child as neere as he can and bringeth him vp as his owne whether he be so or noe The Sauromatae or Sarmatae pamper and gorge themselues with meate for the space of three daies together that they may be throughly filled they obey their wiues in all things as their Ladies and Mistresses and noe maide there is admitted to marry before she hath beene the death of som enimy The Cercetae punish all offenders so seuerely as they prohibite them to sacrifice And if any marryner or gouernor of a boate split or runne his shippe or boate vpon a rocke all men that passe by him spit at him in contempt The Mosyni keepe their Kings in strong castles and if any of them be adiudged carelesse of the common-wealth hee is there famished to death The graine which the earth yeeldeth there is equally distributed amongst the people sauing some small part thereof which is reserued in common to releeue strangers The Phryges or Pryges abstaine from al swearing so as they will neither sweare themselues nor constraine others to sweare And if any man amongst them kill a labouring or draught oxe or priuily taketh or stealeth any instrumēt of husbandry he is punished with death They bury not their Priests when they bee dead in the ground but place or set them vpright vpon pillers of stone of tenne cubits high The Lycij attribute more honor to their women then to men and all of them take their names after their mothers In like manner they make their daughters their heires and not their sonnes And if any freeman be conuicted of theft hee is punished with perpetuall seruitude They giue not their testimony in deciding controuersies at an instant but alwaies at the Months end that they may haue time inough to delibrate what testimony to giue The Pisidae at their bankets sacrifice the first of their feasts to their parents as vnto the Gods the protectors of alliance and friendshippe Their sentence for the misusing of things laid to gage is most seuere for hee which is there conuicted deceytfully to put them to other vse then taken in adultery he together with the addulteresse woman are for a punishment led through the citty sitting vpon an asse and that for the space of certaine dayes appoynted The Aethiopians attribute the chiefest honour vnto their sisters and the Kings leaue their sisters children to succeed them in their Kingdomes and not their owne but if there bee no such children to whome the right of succession belongeth then they choose for their King hee that is most indued with valour and comlinesse of personage piety and iustice are much practised amongst them dwelling houses they haue none but liue altogether without doors and when as many times it happeneth much of their goods lieth abroad in the common waies yet they be so true as no one stealeth any thing from them Amongst the Buaei a people of Libia or affricke a man hath dominion ouer the men and a woman ouer the women The Basuliei a people of Lybia when they make wars ioyne their battells in the night and keepe peace all the day The Dapsolybies assemble them-selues together into one place and marry at the same time they be so assembled after the setting of the seauen starres their manner of marrying is thus after they haue banqueted a while their lights or torches for their meetings for this purpose are in the night are put forth and extinguished and then they go vnto the women sitting by themselues in the darke and which of the women any man shal take at aduentures her hee hath to his wife Amongst the Ialchleueians a people of Libya when many corriuals goe about to obtaine the loue of one woman they suppe all together with the father of the woman they desire in mariage where they spend the supper time in taunting and scoffing one another with pleasant quippes and Iests and hee whome the woman doth most arride and best conceiue of hath her to his wife The Sardolybies make no prouision of houshold stuffe but onely of a cuppe and a sword The Alytemij a people of Libia choose the most pernicious Kings they can get but for the rest of the people hee which is most iust is of greatest dignity The Nomades a people of Libia also in their computation of times account by the nights and not by the dayes The Apharantes a people of Libia are not distinguished and knowne by proper names as other people bee they reuyle the Sunne at his rysing because hee produceth and bringeth all euills to light and they account those daughters the best which keepe their virginity longest When any of the Baeotians are become banckrupts and not able to pay their debts they are brought into the common market place and there constrayned to sit together and be couered all ouer with a basket and those which haue this punishment inflicted vpon them are accounted for euer
after for infamous persons which punishment as some thinke was imposed vpon the father of Euripydes who had his beginning from the people of Baeotia The Assiryans sell their virgins in the open market to any that desire to marry them and those which be most beautyfull bee first sould and then the rest but when they come to the most deformed they make proclamation by a common cryer how much mony any one will take to marry them and so by this meanes that which is gotten for the saile of the faire virgins is bestowed in placing the foule in like-manner they ioyne together those that in their manners bee most like for grauity and humanity With the Persians that which is esteemed dishonest to bee done is held vnfitting to bee spoken if any one kill his father they esteeme him a changeling and not a naturall childe if the King command any one to bee beaten or whipped hee is as thankefull as if he had receued a great benefit because the King remembred him they which haue many children are for that cause regarded of the King and they teach their children as well to speake the truth as to learne any art whatsoeue◠Amongst the Indians when any one is deceiued or cozoned of that which hee lent or left in trust with an other he bringeth not his action against him that deceiued him but imputeth the fault to him selfe because he trusted him if any one cut of the hand or pull out the eye of an artificer hee is punished with death for it hee which is guilty of any haynous offence is by the Kings command shauen which is the greatest ignominy amongst them that may bee when an Indian man dyeth one of his wiues which hee most loued in his life time is layde on the pyle and burned with him And there is great controuersie and stryfe amongst them euery one hauing their friends to speake and plead for them who shall bee shee that shall bee burned with her deceased husband for each one desireth it The Lacedemonians thinke it not fitting nor honest to bestow themselues in learning any other arts then such as belong to the warres the men dyet all together in one place they reuerence all old men as their parents and as the men haue exercises proper to them-selues so haue the maides likewise to themselues It is not lawfull for strangers to dwell at Spatta nor for a Spartane to trauell into other countries they giue power and licence to their wiues to take the fairest men they can finde to beget children of them whether they be Cittizens or strangers It is vnseemly for a Spartane to make any gaine of any thing their money is made of Lether and if any man haue either gold or siluer found in his house hee dyeth for it They account it the greatest glory that may bee to shew themselues humble and obedient vnto Magistrates and farre more happy are they accounted amongst them that dye an honourable death then those which liue in great prosperity Their children by a certaine custome they vse are whipped round about a pillar till most of them bee runne away and those which tarry still vnder the whipps haue Garlands giuen them for a reward for they hold it vnhonest to take any dastard for their companions schoole-fellowes or friends Old men when they draw neere their deaths bee censured who of them haue liued well and who otherwise when an armie is conducted without the limitts of their country a certaine Priest which they call Pirphorus that is to say a fire-bearer maketh and kindleth a fire at the Altar of Iupiter their guide which fire he carieth before the King keeping it euer from going out The King when he goeth to the warres is attended with Prophets and Soothsayers Phisitions and Minstrils and they vse Pipes or Flutes in the warres in steed of trumpets and those which fight be adorned with garlands All men arise to the King to doe him reuerence but the officers called Ephori and the King is sworn before he enter into his Kingdome to gouerne according to the lawes of the common-wealth The Cretenses were the first of all the Grecians that obeyed the lawes ordained by King Minos who was first that obtained dominion of the sea This Minos when hee inuented and framed those lawes fained that hee learned them of Iupiter and therefore for the space of nine yeeres together he would vsually goe vnto a certaine hil wherein was a denne consecrated to Iupiter and euer when hee returned backe hee brought some new lawes to the Cretenses as though hee had beene their instructed by Iupiter Of this Minos and his fained conference with Iupiter Homer speaketh thus Amongst them saith hee is the City called Gnossus where Minos who had often conference with the great god Iupiter raigned nine yeeres The Cretensian children be broght vp altogether in one publike place and that very hardly and painefully for they be much accustomed to hunting when they bee yong and to run barefooted as also to goe armed to the Pirrichan vawting or leaping whereof Pyrrichicus Cydoniates a Cretensian born is said to be the inuentor which is a very laborious difficult exercise for youth The men in like maner eate together in one publike place by reason of their sustenance and prouision all things be indifferently ministred vnto them the gifts or presents which amongst them be in most request be weapons The Autariatae if any of there souldiors faint or sick by the way wil rather kil them then leaue them liuing in a strang place The Triballi set their army in foure squadrons or orders the first ranke consisteth of those which bee feeble and weake the next vnto it of such as bee stronge and lustie the third of horse-men and the last of women which when all the rest be put to flight sticke to their enemies still pestring and afflicting them with their reuilings and skoldings The Cusiani bewaile those which bee borne into the world and account them happy and blessed that depart out of this life The Cij whē they haue burned their dead bodies gather vp all their bones and beate them to poulder in a morter and then taking ship they lanch into the deepe where putting the poulder into a siue they scatter and disperce it in the winde till all be blowne away and consumed The Tauri a people of Scythia when their King is dead bury with his body such of his friends as hee loued best in his life time and on the other side the King when any of his friends die cutteth off part of the lap of his eare either more or lesse as his deceased friend was of deserts The Sindi when they bury any one looke how many enemies hee slew in his life time iust so many fishes doe they cast into his sepulcher with him The Colchi bury not their dead bodies in the ground but hang them
the sytuation of our countries should bee publikely knowen which matters I neuer writ vnto any one till this time nor yet declared in words not that I was sparing of my labour but because no Christian after my comming into portugall desired to know such things of me whereof I could not nor cannot but greatly maruell And seeing by many arguments I perceiue that you much desire the knowledge of our affaires I beeseech you by the wounds of our Sauiour Christ and by his crosse to put this my confession of our faith and religion into the latine tongue that by your meanes all the Godly Christians of Europe may vnderstand our customes the integrity of our maners Moreouer if in your trauells you hap to goe to Rome then let mee intreat you to salute in my name the Pope the most reuerent Cardinalls Patriarches Archbishops and Bishops and all other the true worshippers of Christ by Christ Iesus in a kisse of peace and that you will desire of the Pope that hee will send vnto me Francis Aluarez furnished such letters whereby he may answere my Lord the Emperor of Aethiopia that after my long stay I may returne into mine owne country and visit my owne mansion house for I haue bin long here detained that before my death which by reason of my great age is at the dore I may effect that which I am commāded And that hauing furnished this Embassage I might dedicat the residue of my life vnto God only spēd my time in deuotion moreouer I intreate you if you finde any thing in my writings not well penned that you will frame it to the latine phrase but in such manner as in no point you alter the sēce lastly I desire you that in your translatiō you wil search the old new testament that you may know from what place I haue alleaged my authorities that you may be more certain in your translation but if I haue not handled euery thing so happily as may satisfie those which bee curious I am to be pardoned by reasō of my want of Chaldean bookes whereof I haue none for those I had I lost by misfortune in my iourny wherefore being destitute of the vse of all bookes I could speake of nothing but what was fresh in my memory yet haue I deliuered all things most faithfuly Farwel my deare beloued sonne in Christ Vlispone the twenty foure day of Aprill in the yeare of our Lord God 1534. When I had finished this busines I remembred my selfe of that place whereas I say that Christ descended into hel for the soule of Adam and for the soule of Christ which the same Christ receiued of his mother S. Mary the virgin Of which thing wee haue an assured testimony in those bookes which wee call the bookes of gouernance which Christ Iesus deliuered vnto his Apostles in which bookes be expressed these words which be called the misteries of doctrines by whose authority and testimony we all of vs continue in this opinion without doubting but after I came into Portugall I found diuines teaching a contrary doctrine against all our opinions which is so certaine as wee doe not onely beleeue this but also affirme that the soules of all men had their beginning from Adam and that as our flesh is of the seed of Adames flesh so like-wise our soule being as a candle kindled by the soule of Adam had her originall and nature from Adam whereby it appeareth that we bee all the seede of Adam both of the flesh and of the soule All the relation aboue sayd was written and subscribed with the Embassadors owne proper hand with the Chaldean caracters The deploration of the people of Lappia by the same Damianus a Goes I Thinke it not vnfitting most worthy Bishop to make some mention in the end of this treatise because this also appertaineth to faith and to the vnion of the Church of Iohn Magnus Gothus Archbishoppe of Vpsalia in the Kingdome of Suetia that by him we may be moued to take compassion of the people of Lappia for this Iohn Magnus Gothus was borne of very good parents and rich maruelous well seene in the Scriptures and of an honest conuersation and so addicted to the Roman Church that for the zeale therevnto he lost the great Archbishoppricke of Vpsalia with all the reuenewes thereunto belonging amounting to forty thousand crownes a yeare and al his patrimony besides and hauing lost both dignity and goods and tossed in the variable streames of fortune he lay close in Prussia liuing poorely a long time at the Citty Daniz in Germany where while I was dispatching my Kings affaires in those parts of Germany I grew into great familiarity and indissoluble friendship with him and with Olaus Magnus Gothus his brother which two I afterwards found vnlooked for at Vecenza in poorer estate then befor they wer vnto which place they went purposly by reason of a councel divulged wherby they conceiued much hope for themselues and redresse of their calamities And when the councell was discontinued adorned those good mē being vtterly depriued of al their goods wherwith while they inioyed them they often in those Northerne parts contended much in defence of the Roman Church and yet would haue contended if matters had prospered remoued to Venice there to get their liuing either vpon others liberality or by their owne industry and labour which was cheefly in teaching and instructing others for other succor could they get none but that they reposed their whole cōfidence in Gods assistance whither when they were come they were very curteously intertained only of Hieronymus Quirinus the Patriarke of Venice in his Patriarchship and ther they remaine to this day expecting the divulging of that councel vnder the Archbishoppricke of Vpsalia is contained a great part of that large and vast prouince of Lappia the people wherof be ignorant of the laws of our Sauiour Christ which as I vnderstand by many good and credible men proceeded from the abhominable extortion and couetuousnesse of the prelates and nobles for if they were Christians they should bee free from those taxations and tributes wherwith they as Ethnickes be punished on the other side the nobility and Bishops wax rich and welthy and therefore they forbid them to be Christians least bearing the sweet and delectable yoke of Christ they might withdraw from there tirany and extortion some part of their gaines and diminish some parte of their taxations wherby that miserable nation is most beastly and insatiably vexed and oppressed by those Monarches bearing the burthen most impatiently for if they were Christians they should pay no more tribute vnto them than other Christians pay vnto their princes And therefore nothing regarding the saluation of so many soules they preferre their horrible sacrilegious gaine before the true Faith and Christian religion so as they may rightly bee said to carry the keies and neither enter them-selues nor suffer others to enter Q insatiable
losse of both their hands for they thought it fit that that part of the body should suffer punishment during life that was cheefe instrument in the offence and that others also being warned by their miseries and calamities might abstaine from the like lewdnesse There were very sharpe punishments inflicted vpon those that had abused any woman for he which defloured a free woman had his members cut off for that vnder one fault hee had comitted three hanous offences which were iniury corruption of bloud and confusion of children he that was taken in wilfull adultery had a thousand stripes with rods and the adulterous woman had her nose cut off by which disgrace her beauty was blemished and shee punished in that part of her face which did most addorne it It is reported that Bocchoris was the maker of those lawes which partaind to ciuill conuersation amongst men which lawes allow that if one lend mony without specialty and the debitor deny that hee borrowed any the creditor must stand to the debiters oath for an oath is held of great moment as being a religious act and certaine it is that those which often sweare doe abrogate their faith and credits and therfore they will sweare but seldome least they loose their reputations and names of honest men moreouer the same lawe-maker concluding all faithfulnesse in vertue iudged that men ought by good meanes to accustome themselues to honesty that they may not bee thought vnworthy of trust for hee thought it wrong to those to whome mony was lent with-out oath not to performe their faith by swearing whether the goods be their owne or noe The vsury which was agreed vpon by writing forbad that the double forfeture of the thing lent should be exacted and all payments were satisfied by the debitors goods but his body might not be deliuered to the creditor for they thought fit that onely their goods should be subiect and lyable to their debts and their bodies addicted to the Citties whose ayde and assistance they had neede of both in warres and peace neither was it thought fit that the souldiors which ventured their liues for their countries safty should bee thrust in prison for interest which law is supposed to bee translated by Solon to the Athenians and by him called Sisachthia prouiding that men should not loose their liues for the Cittizens vsury more-ouer the particular law and toleration for theeues amongst the Aegiptians was that those that did steale should bring their names in writing to the cheefe Preest and instantly disclose the theft or robbery vnto him In like sort they which had their goods taken from them must write vnto the cheefe Priest the time day and houre that hee was robbed by which meanes the theft being easily found out and discouered he which was robbed should loose the fourth part of that which was stolne which fourth part shall bee giuen to the theefe and the rest restored to the owner For the lawgiuers opinion was that seeing it was vnpossible that theft should altogether bee prohibited men should loose rather some portion of their substance then all that was taken from them The manner of their marriages is not all alike with the Aegiptians for it is lawfull for the Preests to marry but once but the rest may marry as oft as they will according to their desire and ability and there are no children accounted bastards noe though they be begotten of such bond-seruants as be bought with mony for they hold that the father is the onely author of their childrens birth and the mother to be but the receptacle and to yeeld norrishment to the infant It is most incredible to see with what small and easie cost the Aegiptians bring vp their children for the norish them with the roots of bulrushes other like roots raked and roasted in hotte embers and with hearbes growing in fennes and moorish grounds some-times boyld sometimes broyld on the coales and some-times rawe They neuer wore shooes but goe for the most part naked by reason of the temperature of the country so as all the cost that a father bestoweth vpon his childe till hee bee of full age exceedeth not twenty Drachmas The Priests instruct children both in that learning which they call holy and in the other which appertained to knowledge and common instruction and they bee very intentiue and exceedingly bent to the study of Geometry and Arithmatick They suffer them not to vse eyther wrestling or musick supposing the dayly vse of wrestling to be vnsure and dangerous and that thereby their bodyes are made more feeble and weake and musicke they condemned as vtterly vnprofitable and hurtfull in making their mindes effeminate They cure their diseases eyther by fasting or vomitting which they vse eyther dayly or euery third day or fourth day for they are of opinion that all diseases had theyr beginning from surfetting and that therefore that is the best physicke to recouer health which taketh away the cause of the disease Souldiers and trauellers are cured for nothing for the Phisitians liue of the reuenews of the common-wealth and therefore are forced by the law to cure the diseased after the strict forme set downe by the best Phisitians and most approoued writers And the Physition that followeth the rule of that sacred booke though hee cannot cure his patient yet is hee blamelesse but if he cure him by any other meanes then is set downe in that booke hee shall dye for it for the maker of that law was of opinion that there could not a better course of curing bee found out then that which was inuented and obserued for long time by ancient Physitions The Aegiptians worship diuerse creatures beyond all measure not onely while they be liuing but when they be dead also as Cattes Rattes Dogges Hawkes the birds called Ibis Wolues and Crocadiles and many more of like kinde neither be they ashamed to professe open honour vnto them but account it as commendable and lawdable for them to doe it as to doe their seruice to the gods in so much as they will goe about into citties and other places carrying with them Images of those beasts vaunting and glorying what creatures they haue adored at the sight whereof all men in manner of supplyants doe reuerence vnto the Images When any of these beasts die they wrappe the carcase in linnen cloth and annoynt it with Salt beating their brests with bitter exclamations and annoynting it againe with the Iuise of Cedar tree and other odoriferus oyntments that it may keepe the longer they bury it in their hallowed places Hee that willingly killeth any of those creatures shall haue iudgment of death for it but if a man kill the Ibis or the Cat either willingly or at vnawares the whole multitude fall vpon him tormenting and killing him without mercy or iudgment The terror whereof inforceth the beholders to lament his death and to auerre that the beast