bite at it then at Ambrosia the very meat of the Gods Earth-worms do also much good to men serving them to great use in that they do prognosticate and foretell rainy weather by their sodain breaking or issuing forth of the ground and if none appear above ground over-night it is a great signit will be calm and fair weather the next day The ancient people of the world have ever observed this as a general rule that if Worms pierce through the earth violently and in haste by heaps as if they had bored it through with some little Auger or Piercer they took it for an infallible token of Rain shortly after to fall For the Earth being as it were imbrued distained made moist and moved with an imperceptible m 〈…〉 on partly the South winde and partly also a vaporous air it yeeldeth an easie passage for round Worms to winde out of the inward places of the Earth to give unto them moist food and to minister store of fat juyces or fattish jelly wherewith they are altogether delighted Some there be found that will fashion and frame Iron after such a manner as that they will bring it to the hardnesse of any steel after this order following They take of Earth-worms two parts of Raddish roots one part after they are bruised together the water is put into a Limbeck to be distilled or else take of the distilled water of Worms l. iij. of the juyce of Raddish l. i. mix them together for Iron being often quenched in this water will grow exceeding hard Another Take of Earth-worms l. ij distil them in a Limbeck with an easie and gentle fire and temper your Iron in this distilled water Another Take of Goats bloud so much as you please adding to it a little common salt then bury them in the earth in a pot well glased and luted for thirty days together Then distil after this the same bloud in Balneo and to this distilled liquor add so much of the distilled water of Earth-worms Another Take of Earth-worms of the roots of Apple-trees of Rapes of each a like-much distil them apart by by themselves and in equal portions of this water so distilled and afterwards equally mixed quench your Iron in it as is said before Antonynus Gallus It shall not be impertinent to our matter we handle to add a word or two concerning those worms that are found and do breed in the snow which Theophanes in Strabo calleth Oripas but because it may seem very strange and incredible to think that any worms breed and live only in the Snow you shall hear what the Ancients have committed to writing and especially Strabo his opinion concerning this point It is saith he received amongst the greater number of men that in the snow there are certain clots or hard lumps that are very hollow which waxing hard and thick do contain the best water as it were in a certain coat and that in this case or purse there do breed worms Theophan s calleth them Oripas and Apollonides Vermes Aristotle saith that living creatures will breed also even in those things that are not subject to putrefaction as for example in the fire and snow which of all things in the world one would take never to be apt to putrefie and yet in old Snow Worms will be bred Old Snow that hath lyen long will look somewhat dun or of a dullish white colour and therefore the Snow-worms are of the same hiew and likewise rough and hairy But those Snow-worms which are found to breed when the air is somewhat warm are great and white in colour and all these Snow-worms will hardly stir or move from place to place And Pliny is of the same judgement and the Author of that Book which is intituled De Plantis falsely fathered upon Aristotle Yet some there be that denying all these authorities and rejecting whatsoever can be objected for confirmation thereof to the contrary do stoutly maintain by divers reasons that creatures cannot breed in the Snow because that in Snow there is no heat and where no quickning heat is there can be no production of any living thing Again Aristotle writeth that nothing will come of Ice because it is as he saith most cold and hereupon they infer that in all reason nothing likewise can take his beginning from Snow neither is it credible that husbandmen would so often wish for Snow in Winter to destroy and consume Worms and other little Vermine that else would prove so hurtful to their corn and other fruits of the earth And if any Worms be found in the Snow it followeth not straightways that therein they first receive their beginning but rather that they first come out of the earth and are afterwards seen to be wrapped up and lie on heaps in the Snow But by their leaves these reasons are very weak and may readily be answered thus that whereas they maintain that nothing can breed in the Snow because it is void of any heat at all herein they build upon a false ground For if we will adhibit credit to Averrhoes there is nothing compounded and made of the three Elements that is absolutely without heat And Aristotle in his fift Book De Generatione Animalium telleth us precisely that there is no moisture without heat His words are Ouden hugron aneu thermou Now Snow is a compact and fast congealed substance and somewhat moist for although it proceedeth by congelation which is nothing else but a kinde of exsiccation yet notwithstanding the matter whereof it first cometh is a vapour whose nature is moist and with little ado may be turned into water I must needs say that congelation is a kinde of exsiccation but yet not simply for exsiccation is when as humidity goeth away it putteth forth any matter but in Snow there is no humidity that is drawn out but it is rather wrapped in and inclosed more strongly and as it were bounded round Furthermore Aristotle in his first Book of his Meteors saith that Snow is Nubes congelata a clowd congelated or thicked together and that in Snow there is much heat And in his fift Book De Generatione Animalium he further addeth that the whitenesse of the Snow is caused by the air that the air is hot and moist and the Snow is white whereupon we conclude that Snow is not so cold as some would bear us in hand I well hold that nothing will take his Original from Ite in regard of his excessive coldnesse but yet snow is nothing nigh so cold as that So then all the hinderance and let is found to exceed of cold which is nothing so effectual or forcible as in Ite and the cold being proved to be far lesser there can nothing be alleadged to the contrary but that it may putrefie Now in that Snow is such an enemy to Worms and many other small creatures as that for the most part it destroyeth them yet it followeth not that the reason of Aristotle is
THE HISTORY OF Four-footed Beasts SERPENTS AND INSECTS THE HISTORY OF Four-footed Beasts AND SERPENTS Describing at Large Their True and Lively Figure their several Names Conditions Kinds Virtues both Natural and Medicinal Countries of their Breed their Love and Hatred to Mankind and the wonderful work of God in their Creation Preservation and Destruction Interwoven with curious variety of Historical Narrations out of Scriptures Fathers Philosophers Physicians and Poets Illustrated with divers Hieroglyphicks and Emblems c. both pleasant and profitable for Students in all Faculties and Professions Collected out of the Writings of CONRADUS GESNER and other Authors By EDWARD TOPSEL Whereunto is now Added The Theater of Insects or Lesser living Creatures As Bees Flies Caterpillars Spiders Worms c. A most Elaborate Work By T. MUFFET Dr. of Physick The whole Revised Corrected and Inlarged with the Addition of Two useful Physical Tables by J. R. M. D. LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for G. Sawbridge at the Bible on Ludgate-hill T. Williams at the Bible in Little-Britain and T. Johnson at the Key in Pauls Church yard M DC LVIII TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lord Marquesse OF DORCHESTER Earl of KINGSTONE Vicount NEW ARKE c. My very Noble LORD YOur Lordship well knows that Honour attends upon Virtue as the shadow doth upon the substance there is such a magnetick force in Goodness that it draws the hearts of men after it The world observes that Your Honour is a great Lover of the works of Learned Writers which is an infalliable argument of an excellent mind residing in You. Wherefore I here humbly offer unto Your Noble Patronage the most Famous and Incomparable History of CONRADUS GESNER a great Philosopher and Physitian who by his vast expences and indefatigable pains Collected and Digested into two Volums what ever he found scattered here and there in almost infinite Authors concerning Fourfooted-Beasts and Serpents adding also what he could possibly attain to by his own experience and correspondence held with other famous Scholars every where After him Mr. Edward Topsel a Learned Divine Revised and Augmented the same History as it is not altogether so difficult to add something to what is first begun and to build upon such a foundation which was before so artificially laid He hath deserved well of our English Nation in so doing and the more that he doth with so much modesty attribute the praise of the whole work to the Master-workman to whom it was chiefly due The same Gesner after Mr. Edward Wotton had begun undertook to compose the History of Insects which as it is a business of more curiosity and difficulty to write exactly of so all things considered they serve as much to set forth the Wisdom and Power of God as the greatest Creatures he hath made and are as beneficial to Mankind not only for dainty Food but for the many Physical uses that arise from them John Baptist fed upon Locusts and wilde Honey and we read that our Saviour eat a piece of a Honey comb These little Insects are not so contemptible as the World generally thinks they are for they can do as much by their multitudes as the other can by their magnitude when as one Hornet shall be able suddenly to kill a Horse and Gnats Ants and Wasps to bid resistance to Bears Lions and Elephants and to depopulate whole Countries The Frogs Locusts and Lice were none of the least Judgements in the Land of Egypt Mr. Thomas Pennius another Physitian lighting his Candle by the former lights succeeded them in this great undertaking But all these vigilant and painful Men never could bring it to perfection being every one of them prevented by death And indeed things of deep search and high concernment are very seldom begun and ended by the same persons Hippocrates gives the reason for it that Art is long Life short Experience difficult occasion precipitate Judgement uncertain I may say farther which he also comprehends in the close of that Aphorism that all must perform their several offices which is not often done but ingenious men frequently labour under the want of means and find small encouragement to proceed in their great designs especially in this latter age of the World Gesner makes a sad complaint in behalf of himself and Topsel doth the like and so do all the rest who spent their Estates and wasted their Spirits for the common good Which is sufficient proof to convince many rich men of blindness and ingratitude and confirms that truth the Poet speaks Haud facilè emâ—rguunt quorum virtutibus obstat Res angusta domi Good and well meaning men cannot proceed Virtue is crusht by want opprest by need After the death of the forementioned four Worthies of their times Mr. Thomas Muffet a noted English Physitian undertook the same task and compleated it whose Encomium is excellently well penned by the late Honourable Doctor of Physick Sir Theodore Mayerne in his Epistle to Doctor William Paddy of famous memory premised to this Book wherein to his own immortal praise he hath so Anatomically dissected many of the chiefest Insects even to admiration that he hath let the World understand by it that he was a deep Philosopher and a most accurate searcher into the secrets of Nature and worthy of those places of Honour he enjoyed in Great Princes Courts This large History is not nor could possibly be the production of one Age both able Divines and Physitians-contributed what they had and employed their Talents and greatest studies for many years in their severall generations to bring it forth whereby it may appear how necessary this Work is for the souls and bodies of Men to teach them to know the Wisdom and Omnipotence of God in the Creation of these Creatures and Goodness to bestow them upon Man both for profit and delight and though mony of them be Dangerous and Venomous yet they were not so when God first made them For the Wiseman saith That God made not death neither takes he pleasure in the destruction of the living for he created all things that they mighe have their being and the Generations of the World were healthful and there was no poison of destruction in them no Kingdom of death upon the earth but ungodly men by their wicked works and words called it to them This Book will plentifully furnish us with Remedies against most of these inconveniences which is no small occasion to put us in mind how much we stand obliged to the memories of the learned Authours of it who spared no cost nor pains that they might prove beneficial to the then present and to succeeding Ages And the same reason is very strong in behalf of those who now have been at this vast charge to Reprint and to perfect the same that it never should be lost by time or casualties which consume all things and to supply the whole Work with a double Physical Index to ease the Readers labour that he might
the gall of a black Cow one may read any writing the more plainly there is in the gall of an Ox a certain little stone like a ring which the Philosophers call Alcheron and some Guers and Nassatum which being beaten and held to ones Nose it cleareth the eyes and maketh that no humour do distil to annoy them and if one take thereof the quantity of a Lintel seed with the juice of Beets it is profitable against the Falling evill If one be deaf or thick of hearing take the gall of an Ox and the urine of a Goat or the gall of Goose likewise it easeth the headach in an Ague and applyed to the temples provoketh sleep and if the breasts of a woman be anointed therewith it keeps her milk from curdling The milt of an Ox is eaten in hony for easing the pains of the milt in a man and with the skin that a Calf cast out of his dams belly the ulcers in the face are taken away and if twenty heads of Garlick be beaten in a Oxes bladder with a pinte of Vinegar and laid to the back it will cure the milt It is likewise given against the Spleen and the Colick made like a plaister and layed to the Navel till one sweat The urine of an Ox causeth a cold stomach to recover and I have seen that the urine of a Cow taken in Gargarizing did cure intolerable ulcers in the mouth When the Bee hath tasted of the flower of the Corn-tree she presently dyeth by looseness of the belly except she tast the urine of a Man or an Ox. There are likewise many uses of the dung of Oxen made in Physick whereof Authors are full but especially against the Gowt plaistering the sick member therewith hot and newly made and against the Dropsie making a plaister thereof with Barley meal and a little Brimstone aspersed to cover the belly of a man And thus much for the natural properties of this kind now we will briefly proceed to the moral The moral uses of this beast both in labour and other things do declare the dignity and high account our forefathers made hereof both in Vintage Harvest Plowing Carriage Drawing Sacrificing and making Leagues of truce and peace in so much as that if this failed all tillage and vintage must in many places of the world be utterly put down and in truth neither the fowls of the air nor the Horse for the battle nor the Swine and Dogs could have no sustenance but by the labor of Oxen for although in some places they have Mules or Camels or Elephants which help them in this labor yet can there not be in any Nation a neglect of Oxen and their reverence was so great that in ancient time when an offender was to be fined in his Cattel as all amerciaments were in those daies the Judge might not name an Ox untill he had first named a Sheep and they fined a smal offence at two Sheep and not under and the greatest offence criminal at thirty Oxen and not above which were redeemed by giving for every Ox an hundred Asses and ten for every Sheep It is some question among the ancients who did first joyn Oxen together for plowing some affirming that Aristeus first learned it of the Nymphs in the Island Co and Diodorus affirmeth that Dionysius Son of Jupiter and Ceres or Proserpina did first of all invent the plow Some attribute it to Briges the Athenian other to Triptolemus Osiris Habides a King of Spain and Virgil affirmeth most constantly that it was Ceres as appeareth by this verse Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terram Instituit c. Whereunto agreeth Servius but I rather incline to Josephus Lactantius and Eusebius who affirm that long before Ceres was born or Osiris or Hercules or any of the residue their was a practise of plowing both among the Hebrews and Egyptians and therefore as the God of plowing called by the Romans Jugatinus because of yoaking Oxen was a fond aberration from the truth so are the residue of their inventions about the first man that tilled with Oxen seeing it is said of Cain and Noah that they were husbandmen and tilled the earth The Athenians had three several plow-feasts which they observed yearly one in Scirus the other in Rharia and the third under Pelintus and they call their mariage-feasts plow-seasons because then they endevoured by the seed of man to multiply the world in procreation of children as they did by the plow to encrease food in the earth The Grecians had a kind of writing called Boustraphedon which began turned and ended as the Oxen do in plowing a furrow continuing from the left hand to the right and from the right hand to the left again which no man could read but he that turned the Paper or Table at every lines end It is also certain that in ancient time the leagues of truce and peace were written in an Oxes hide as appeareth by that peace which was made by Tarquinius betwixt the Romans and the Gabli the which was hanged up in the Temple of Jupiter as Dionysius and Pompeius Sextus affirm in the likeness of a buckler or shield and the chief heads of that peace remained legible in that hide unto their time and therefore the ancients called the Oxes hide a shield in regard that by that conclusion of peace they were defended from the wars of the Gabii And there were certain people called Homolotti by Herodotus who were wont to strike up their leagues of peace after war and contention by cutting an Ox into small pieces which were divided among the people that were to be united in token of an inseparable union There be that affirm that a Team or yoak of Oxen taking six or eight to the Team wil plow every year or rather every season a hyde of ground that is as some account 20 Mansa or in English and Germane account 30 Acres which hath gotten the name Jugera from this occasion as Eustathius and Varinus report When Sychaeus the husband of Dido who was daughter of Agenor sister to Pygmalion wandered to and fro in the world with great store of treasure he was slain by Pygmalion secretly in hope to get his wealth After which time it is said that he appeared to his wife Dido bidding her to save her life from her cruell brother who more esteemed money then nature she fled into Lybia taking with her some Tyrians among whom she had dwelled and a competent sum of money who being come thither craved of Iarbas King of Nomades to give her but so much land as she could compass in with an Oxes hide which with much ado she obtained and then did cut an Oxes skin into smal and narrow thongs or lists wherewithall she compassed in so much as builded the large City of Carthage and first of all was called the New City and the Castle thereof Byrsa which signifieth a Hide Eustuthius also
put a Golden collar and so sent him away with liberty Antiochus one of Alexanders successors had two Elephants one of them he likewise called Ajax in imitation of Alexander and the other Patroclus of which two this story is reported by Antipater That when Antiochus came to a certain ford or deep water Ajax which was alway the Captain of the residue having sounded the depth thereof refused to passe over and turned back again then the King spake to the Elephants and pronounced that he which would passe over should have principality over the residue whereupon Patroclus gave the adventure and passed over safely and received from the King the silver trappings and all other prerogatives of principality the other seeing it which had alway been chief till that time preferred death before ignominy and disgrace and so would never after eat meat but famished for sorrow They are bred in the hot Eastern Countries for by reason they can endure no cold they keep only in the East and South Among all the Indian Elephants are greatest strongest and tallest and there are among them of two sorts one greater which are called Prasii the other smaller called Taxilae They be also bred in Africa in Lybia much greater then a Nysaean Horse and yet every way inferiour to the Indian for which cause if an African Elephant do but see an Indian he trembleth and laboureth by all means to get out of his sight as being guilty of their own weakness There are Elephants also in the Isle Taprobane and in Sumatra in Africa They are bred in Lybia in Aethiopia among the Troglodytae and in the Mountain Atlas Syrtes Zames and Sala the seven Mountains of Tingitania and in the Countrey of Basman subject to the great Cham. Some Authors affirm that the African Elephants are much greater then the Indian but with no greater reason then Columella writeth that there be as great beasts found in Italy as Elephants are whereunto no sound Author ever yeelded Of all earthly creatures an Elephant is the greatest for in India they are nine cubits high and five cubits broad in Africa fourteen or fifteen full spans which is about eleven foot high and proportionable in breadth which caused Aelianus to write that one Elephant is as big as three Bugils and among these the Males are ever greater then the Females In the Kingdom of Melinda in Africk there were two young ones not above six monthes old whereof the â—east was as great as the greatest Ox but his flesh was as much as you shall finde in two Oxen the other was much grater Their colour is for the most part mouse-colour or black and there was one all white in Ethiopia The skin looketh pieled and scabby it is most hard on the back but softer underneath the belly having no covering of hair or gristles nor yet help by his tail to drive away the flies for that evill doth this beast feel in his great body but alway hath crevises in his skin which by their savour do invite the little flies to a continual feast but when by stretching forth they have received the swarmes by shrinking together again they inclose the flies and so kill them so that these crevises in his skin are unto him in stead of a main tail and hair yet there are some few hairs which grow scattering upon his hide whereof some have been brought out of America into Germany which were two palms long but not so stiffe as Swines Grandia taurorum portant qui corpora quaeris An Lybicas possint sustinuisse trabes There is a certain Book extant without the name of the Author written of Judea or the Holy land wherein the Author affirmeth that he saw an Elephants tooth sold to a Venetian Merchant for six and thirty Ducats it being fourteen spans long and four spans broad and it weighed so heavy that he could not move it from the ground Vartomanus also saith that he saw in the Isle of Sumatra two Elephants teeth which weighed three hundred six and thirty pounds This is certain that the teeth of those Elephants which live in the Marishes and watry places are so smooth and hard as they seem intractable and in some places they have holes in them and again certain bunches as big as hail-stones which are so hard as no art or instrument can work upon them The Elephants of the Mountains have lesser and whiter teeth fit to be applyed to any work but the best of all are the teeth of the Campestrial and field Elephants which are whitest and softest and may well be handled without all pain The teeth of the female are more pretious then of the male and these they lose every tenth year which falling off they bury and cover in the earth pressing them down by sitting upon them and then heal them over with earth by their feet and so in short time the grasse groweth upon them for as when they are hunted they know it is for no other cause then their teeth so also when they lose their teeth they desire to keep them from men lest the virtues of them being discovered they which bear them should enjoy the lesse peace and security It is admirable what devises the people of India and Africa have invented by natural observation to finde out these buried teeth which unto us living in the remote parts of the world we would judge impossible by any ordinary or lawful course except we should turn up the earth of a whole Countrey or go to work by diabolical conjuration yet have they found out this facile and ready course In the woods or fields where they suspect these teeth to be buried they bring forth pots or bottles of water and disperse them here one there another and so let them stand and tarry to watch them so one sleepeth another singeth or bestoweth his time as he pleaseth after a little time they go and look in their pots and if the teeth lie near their bottles by an unspeakable and secret attractive power in nature they draw all the water out of them that are neer them which the watchman taketh for a sure sign and so diggeth about his bottle till he finde the tooth but if their bottles be not emptied they remove to seek in another place These Ivory teeth have been alway of great estimation among all the Nations that ever knew them the Ethiopians payed for a tribute unto the King of Persia every third year twenty of these teeth hung about with gold and Jet-wood These are sold by weight and there be many which deceive the world with the bones of Fishes in stead hereof but the true Ivory is paler and heavier and falling upon the ground will easily break whereas the bones of Fishes are more tenacious light and strong It is like to the Chernites wherein Darius was entombed and the Marble called Lapis Coraliticus Coral stone like unto this is the Alagi
Heaven on the North side of the Zodiack above the Waggon and on the left hand holding the Gorgons head The truth is that that there were certain Amazonian women in Africk divers from the Scythians against whom Perseus made war and the Captain of those Women was call Medusa whom Perfeus overthrew and cut off her head and from thence came the Poets fiction describing it with Snakes growing out of it as is aforesaid These Gorgons are bred in that Countrey and have such hair about their heads as not only exceedeth all other Beasts but also poysoneth when she standeth upright Pliny called this Catablepon because it continually looketh downward and saith that all the parts of it are but small excepting the head which is very heavy and exceedeth the proportion of his body which is never lifted up but all living creatures dy that see his eyes By which there ariseth a question whether the poyson which he sendeth forth proceed from his breath or from his eyes Whereupon it is more probable that like the Cockatrice he killeth by seeing then by the breath of his mouth which is not competible to any other Beasts in the world Besides when the Souldiers of Marius followed Jugurtha they saw one of these Gorgons and supposing it was some Sheep bending the head continually to the earth and moving slowly they set upon him with their swords whereat the Beast disdaining suddenly discovered his eyes setting his hair upright at the sight whereof the Souldiers fell down dead Marius hearing thereof sent other Souldiers to kill the Beast but they likewise dyed as the former At last the Inhabitants of the Countrey told the Captain the poyson of this Beasts nature and that if he were not killed upon a sudden with the only sight of his eyes he sent death into his hunters then did the Captain lay an ambush of Soldiers for him who slew him suddenly with their spears and brought him to the Emperour whereupon Marius sent his skin to Rome which was hung up in the Temple of Hercules wherein the people were feasted after the triumphs by which it is apparent that they kill with their eyes and not with their breath So that the fable of Serviut which reporteth that in the furthest place of Atlas these Gorgons are bred and that they have but one eye a piece is not to be believed except he mean as else-where he confesseth that there were certain maids which were sisters call Gorgons and were so beautiful that all young men were amazed to behold them Whereupon it was said that they were turned into stones meaning that their love bereft them of their wit and sense They were called the daughters of Cetus and three of them were made Nymphs which were called Pephredo Enyo and the third Dinon so called as Geraldus saith because they were old women so soon as they were born whereunto was assigned one eye and one tooth But to omit these fables it is certain that sharp poysoned sights are called Gorgon Blepen and therefore we will follow the authority of Pliny and Atheneus It is a Beast all set over with scales like a Dragon having no hair except on his head great teeth like Swine having wings to fly and hands to handle in stature betwixt a Bull and a Calf There be Islands called Gorgonies wherein these Monster Gorgons were bred and unto the days of Pliny the people of that Countrey retained some part of their prodigious nature It is reported by Xenophon that Hanno King of Carthage ranged with his Army in that Region and found there certain women of incredible swiftness and pernicity of foot Whereof he took two only of all that appeared in sight which had such rough and sharp bodies as never before were seen Wherefore when they were dead he hung up their skins in the Temple of Juno for a monument of their strange natures which remained there untill the destruction of Carthage By the consideration of this Beast there appeareth one manifest argument of the Creators divine wisdom and Providence who hath turned the eyes of this Beast downward to the earth as it were thereby burying his poyson from the hurt of man and shadowing them with rough long and strong hair that their poysoned beams should not reflect upwards untill the Beast were provoked by fear or danger the heaviness of his head being like a clog to restrain the liberty of his poysonful nature but what other parts vertues or vices are contained in the compass of this Monster God only knoweth who peradventure hath permitted it to live upon the face of the earth for no other cause but to be a punishment and scourge unto mankinde and an evident example of his own wrathful power to everlasting destruction And thus much may serve for a description of this Beast untill by Gods Providence more can be known thereof Of the HARE A Hare is a four-footed Beast of the earth which the Hebrews call Arnebet in the feminine gender which word gave an occasion to an opinion that all Hares were females or at the least that the males bring forth young as well as females whereof we shall see more in the sequell of this story And the Jews say that it signifieth nothing else in Hebrew but a Hare for which word Deut. 14. the Chaldee translateth Arneba the Arabians Ernab the Persians Kargos Avicenna calleth it Arneberri Silvaticus Arnaberri Arnebus and Arnaben the Saracens Arneph the Graecians Lagoos Lagos Lageoos because of his immoderate lust It is called Ptoox for his fear and in Latine Lepus of Levipes signifying swiftness of feet and that it is not heard when it goeth howsoever some men derive it from Leporis the Greek word others derive Lagos from La betokening elevation and Oos signifying an ear because she pricketh up one of her ears when she runneth The Italians call it Livora the French Lieure and Leurault Leureteau the Spaniards Liebre the Germans Hass or Haas the Ilyrians Zagicz There be four sorts of Hares some live in the Mountains some in the Fields some in the Marishes and some every where without any certain place of abode They of the Mountains are most swift they of the fields less nimble they of the marshes most slow and the wandring Hares are most dangerous to follow for they are so cunning in the ways and muses of the field running up the hils and rocks because by custom they know the nearest way and forbearing down hils sometime making heads upon the plain ground to the confusion of the Dogs and the dismaying of the Hunter Pollux saith that there be certain Hares called Elymaei almost as big as Foxes being blackish of long bodies and large white spots upon the top of their tails these are so called of their countrey like the Elymaan Dogs There be also Hares called Moschiae so called because of their sweet smell or else that they leave in their foot-steps such a strong savour whereunto when
up that milk spilt on the ground and afterwards the King drinketh up the residue and besides him no body that day except it be of the Kings linage or of the Countrey of Horiach for the people of that Countrey have liberty to tast thereof that day because of a battle which once they obtained for the great Cam. The property of this milk is to loosen the belly and because it is thin and hath no fat in it therefore it easily descendeth and doth not curdle in the stomach and it is said that the Scythians can keep it twelve dayes together therewithal satisfying their hunger and quenching their thirst And thus much shall satisfie for the natural discourses of Horses hereafter followeth the moral The moral discourse of Horses concerning Fictions Pictures and other devises ANd first of all for the moral dignity of Horses there is a celestial constellation called Hippos according to these Verses of Aratus thus translated Huic Equus ille jubam quatiens fulgore micanti Summum contingit caput alvo stellaque jungens Vna The Latins call this star Pegasus and they say that he is the Son of Neptune and Medusa who with striking his foot upon a Rock in Helicon a mountain of Boeotia opened a Fountain which after his name was called Hippocrene Others tell the tale in this sort at what time Bellerophon came to Praetus the Son of Abas the King of the Argives Antia the Kings wife fell in love with her guest and making it known unto him promised him half her husbands Kingdom if he would lie with her but he like an honest man abhorring so foul a fact utterly refused to accomplish the desire and dishonesty of the lustful Queen whereupon she being afraid lest he should disclose it unto the King prevented him by her own complaint informing the King that he would have ravished her when the King heard this accusation because he loved Bellerophon well would not give punishment himself but sent him to Schenobeus the Father of Queen Antia that he in defence of his Daughters chastity might take revenge upon him who presently cast him to Chimaera which at that time depopulated all the coast of Lycia but Bellerophon by the help of the Horse Pegasus did both overcome and avoid the monster and being weary of his life perceiving that there was no good nor truth upon the earth determined to forsake the world and flie to heaven who coming neer to heaven casting down his eyes to the earth trembled to see how far he was distant from it and so his heart fainting for fear fell down backward and perished but his Horse kept on his flight to heaven and was there placed among the Stars by Jupiter Euripedes telleth the tale otherwise for he saith that Chiron the Centaure had a Daughter nourished in the mountain Pelius which was called Theas and afterward Hippe because of her exceeding hunting on horse-back she was perswaded by Aeolus the Son of Hellen a Nephew of Jupiters to let him lie with her whereupon she conceived with childe and when the time of her deliverance came she fled from her Father into the woods for fear the loss of her Virginity should be known unto him but he followed her to see what was the cause of his Daughters departure whereupon she desired of the Gods that her father might not see her in travel her prayer was granted and she after her delivery was turned into a Mare and placed among the Stars Others say that she was a Prophetesse and because she revealed the counsels of the Gods was therefore metamorphozed in that shape in the place aforesaid Others say that because she gave over to worship Diana she lost her first presence But to return to the first tale of Bellerophon who after the death of Chimaera growing proud for his valor attempted to flie to heaven but Jupiter troubled his Horse with a Fury and so he shooke off his Rider who perished in the field Alecus apo tese alese because of his errour and Pegasus was placed in heaven But to come nearer to the description of the Poeticall Horse Albertus Magnus and some others say that it is a Beast bred in Ethiopia having the head and feet of a Horse but horned and wings much greater then the wings of an Eagle which he doth not lift up into the air like a bird but only stretcheth them out when he runneth whereby his only presence is terrible to all creatures unto whom he is enemy but especially to Men. But for the truth hereof although Pliny and some others seem to affirm as much yet will I set down nothing for truth and certainty because as the Poets call every swift Horse Volucres and Alipedes so the errour of that figure hath rather given occasion to the framing of this new Monster Pegasus then any other reasonable Allegory Likewise I know no cause why the Poets should fain that Ceres was turned into a Mare and hid her self in the herds of Oncius Neptune falling in love with her followed her to those fields and perceiving that he was deceived turned himself also into a Horse and so had to do with her whereat Ceres was grievously offended and fell into a great fury for which cause she was called Erinnys yet afterwards she washed her self in the River Ladon laying aside all her rage and fury at the fulness of time she brought forth Ation And the Arcodians also had a certain Den wherein they had a great remembrance of this ravishment of Ceres sitting in a Den wherein they say she hid her self from all creatures and whereunto they offer divine worship They picture her in a Colts skin sitting like a woman in all parts with a long garment down to her ancles but the head of a Horse with the pictures of many Dragons and other such wilde beasts holding in one of her hands a Dolphin and in the other a Dove By all which it is not uneasie for every man to know conceive their meaning that plenty of food signified by Ceres doth not only maintain Men Fowls Beasts and Fishes but also the immoderate use thereof draweth men to inordinate lust and concupiscence and that the Gods of the Heathen were more rather to be accounted Beasts then Men. Diana also among the Arcadians was called Eurippa for the finding out of those Mares which Vlysses had lost which Vlysses erected a statue for Neptune the great Rider and they say that Hippolytus being torn in pieces by Horses through the love of Diana and skill of Aesculapius by the vertue of certain herbs he was restored unto life again Whereupon Jupiter being sore vexed and angry with Aesculapius for such an invention deluding as it were the fury of the Gods killed him with lightning and thrust him down into hell because no wretched man would fear death if such devises might take place which fact Virgil describeth in these Verses At Trivia Hippolytum secret is alma recondit Sedibus
at this day call a Mouse The French call it Taulpe the Germa 〈…〉 Mu 〈…〉 f and in Saxon Molwurffe from whence is derived the English Mole and Molewarp The H 〈…〉 tians Schaer and Schaermouse and the Molehil they call Schaerusen of digging The Holland 〈…〉 and the Flemmings call it Mol and Molmuss in imitation of the German word the Illyrians 〈◊〉 And generally the name is taken from digging and turning up the earth with her nose and back accoâ—to the saying of Virgil Aut oculis capâ—â— fodere cubilia Talp 〈…〉 Some are of opinion that it is called Toilpa because it is appointed to an everlasting darkness in the earth of which sort Isidorus writeth thus Talpa dicta est to quod per 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 ris dammata est enim absqu 〈…〉 is It is called also in Greek Indouros and Siphneus of Siphnon the earth because in liveth the earth and turneth it upward to make it hollow for passage The like I might say of his other names Ixliocha and Orthoponticos But this shall suffice for his name In Butotia about the Champaig 〈…〉 called Orchomani 〈…〉 there are the greatest store of Moles in the world for by digging they undermine all the fields and yet in Lâ—â—badia another Countrey of Boeotia there are none at all and if they be brought thither from any other place they will never dig but die Rodolphus Oppianus and Albertus affirm that they are created of themselves of wet earth and rain water for when the earth beginneth to putrifie the Mole beginneth to take life They are all for the most part of a black duskie colour with rough short and smooth soft hair as wooll and those hairs which were whitest when they are yong are most glistering and perfect black when they are old and Gesner affirmeth that he saw in the end of October a Mole taken which was very white mixed with a little red and the red was most of all upon her belly betwixt her forelegs and the neck and that it could not be a young one because it was two palms in length betwixt his head and tail These Beasts are all blinde and want eyes and therefore came the proverb Talpa caecior Tuphloteros aspalacos blinder then a Mole to signifie a man without all judgement wit or foresight for it is most elegantly applyed to the minde Yet if any man look earnestly upon the places where they should grow he shall perceive a little passage by drawing up the membrane or little skin which is black and therefore Aristotle saith of them in this manner probably All kindes of Moles want their sight because they have not their eyes open and naked as other Beasts but if a man pull up the skin of their browes about the place of their eyes which is thick and shadoweth their sight he shall perceive in them inward covered eyes for they have the black circle and the apple which is contained therein and another part of the white circle or skin but not apparently eminent neither indeed can they because nature at the time of generation is hindered for from the brains there belong to the eyes two strong nervie passages which are ended at the upper teeth and therefore their nature being hindered it leaveth an imperfect work of sight behinde her Yet there is in this Beast a plain and bald place of the skin where the eyes should stand having outwardly a little black spot like a Millet or Poppey-seed fastened to a nerve inwardly by pressing it there followeth a black humor or moistness and by dissection of a Mole great with young it is apparent as hath been proved that the young ones before birth have eyes but after birth living continually in the dark earth without light they cease to grow to any perfection for indeed they need them not because being out of the earth they cannot live above an hour or two Esop hath a pretty fable of the Asse Ape and Mole each once complaining of others natural wants the Asse that he had no horns and was therefore unarmed the Ape that he had no tail like other Beasts of his stature and quantity and therefore was unhandsome to both which the Mole maketh answer that they may well be silent for that she wanteth eyes and so insinuateth that they which complain shall finde by consideration and comparison of their own wants to others that they are happy and want nothing that were profitable for them Oppianus saith that there was one Phineus which was first deprived of his eye-sight and afterward turned into a Mole It should seem he was condemned first to loose his eyes and afterward his life These Moles have no ears and yet they hear in the earth more nimbly and perfectly then men can above the same for at every step or small noise and almost breathing they are terrified and run away and therfore Pliny saith that they understand all speeches spoken of themselves and they hear much better under the earth then being above and out of the earth And for this cause they dig about their lodging long passages which bringeth noises and voices to them being spoken never so low and softly like as the voice of a man carryed in a trunk reed or hollow thing Their snout is not like a Weasils as Suidas saith but rather like a Shrew-mouses or if it be lawful to compare small with great like to a Hogs Their teeth are like a Shrews and a Dogs like a Shrews in the neather teeth and furthermost inner teeth which are sharp pointed and low inwardly and like a Dogs because they are longer at the sides although only upon the upper jaw and therefore they are worthily called by the Grecians Marootatous that is dangerous biting teeth for as in Swine the under teeth stand out above the upper and in Elephants and Moles the upper hang over the neather for which cause they are called Hyperphereis The tongue is no greater then the space or hollow in the neather chap and they have in a manner as little voice as sight and yet I marvel how the proverb came of Loquax Talpa a pratling Mole in a popular reproach against wordy and talkative persons which Ammianus saith was first of all applyed to one Julianus Capella after he had so behaved himself that he had lost the good opinion of all men The neck seemeth to be nothing it is so short standing equall with the forelegs The lights are nothing else but distinguished and separated Fibres and hang not together upon any common root or beginning and they are placed or seated with the heart which they enclose much lower toward the belly then in any other Beast Their gall is yellowish their feet like a Bears and short legs wherefore they move and run but slowly their fingers or toes wherewithal they dig the earth are armed with sharp nails and when she feeleth any harm upon her back presently she turneth upward and defendeth her self
the Italians Montone and Ariete the Spaniards Carnero the Helvetians Ramchen the Grecians in ancient time Krios Ariacha Ceraste and now in these days Kriare the Hebrews Ail or Eel the Chaldees plurally Dikerin the Arabians Kabsa and the Persians Nerameisch Now concerning the Greek and Latine names there is some difference among the learned about their notation etymology or derivation for although they all agree that Aries est dux maritus pecorum yet they cannot consent from what root stem or fountain to fetch the same Isidorus bringeth Aries ab aris that is from the Altars because the sacrificing of this beast was among all other Sheep permitted and none but this except the Lambs Others derive it of Aretes which signineth vertue because that the strength and vigor of Sheep lyeth in this above all other for there is in his horns incredible strength in his minde or inwards part incredible courage and magnanimity but the truest derivation is from the Greek word Mratiâ—s Some Latines call him also Nefrens and plurally Nefrendes for distinction from the Weather or gelded Sheep for the stones were also called Nefrendes and Nebrundines and the Epithets of this Beast are horn-bearer insolent violent fighting fearful writhen swift wooll-bearer leaping head-long warriour and in Greek meek gentle and familiar and is not known by the name Ctilos for that it leadeth the whole flock to the pastures and back again to the folds And thus much may suffice for the name and demonstrative appellation of this Beast now we will proceed forward to the other parts of his story not reiterating those things which it hath in common with the Sheep already described but only touching his special and inseparable proper qualities First of all for the election of Rams fit to be the father of the flock and to generate and increase issue and therefore Varro and others call him Admissarius Aries a stallion Ram. They were wont to make choise of such an one from an Ewe that had brought forth twins for that it is conceived he will also multiply twins for first in the choise of a Ram they look unto his breed and stock from whence he is descended and then to his form and outward parts as in Horses Oxen Dogs Lions and almost all creatures there are races and stocks preferred one before another so is it also in Sheep and therefore require that he be Boni seminis pecus a Ram of a good breed and next of the form and outward parts although some never look further then colour but Columella adviseth that his wooll palate of his mouth and tongue be all of one colour for if the mouth and tongue be spotted such also will be the issue and Lambs he begetteth for we have shewed you already that the Lamb for the most part followeth the colour of the Rams mouth such a Ram is thâ—â— described by the Poet. Illum autem quamvis aries sit candidus ipse Nigra subest udo tantum cui lingua palato Rejice ne maculis infuscet vellera pullis Nascentum And therefore for as much as the young ones do commonly resemble the father and bear some notes of his colour let your Ram be all black or all white and in no case party-coloured and for the stature and habit of his body let it be tall and straight a large belly hanging down and well cloathed with wooll a tail very long and rough a broad fore-head large stones crooked winding horns toward his snowt having his ears covered with wooll a large breast broad shoulders and buttocks his fleece pressed close to his body and the wooll not thin nor standing up And for the horns although in all Regions Rams have not horns yet for windy and cold Countries the great horned Beasts are to be preferred for that they are better able through that defence to bear off winde and weather yet if the climate be temperate and warm it is better to have a Ram without horns because the horned Beast being not ignorant what weapons he beareth on his head is apter to fight then the pold Sheep and also more luxurious among the Ewes for he will not endure a rival or companion-husband although his own strength and nature cannot cover them all but the pold Ram on the other side is not ignorant how naked and bare and unarmed is his head and therefore like a true coward sleepeth in a whole skin being nothing so harmful to his corrivals nor to the females but well indureth partnership in the work of generation There is no Beast in the world that somuch participateth with the nature of the Sun as the Ram for from the Autumnal Aequinoctium unto the Vernal as the Sun keepeth the right hand of the Hemisphere so doth the Ram lie upon his right side and in the Summer season as the Sun keepeth the other hand of the Hemisphere so doth the Ram lie upon his other side And for this cause the Lybians which worshipped Ammon that is the Sun did picture him with a great pair of Rams horns Also although in the heavenly or celestial sphere or Zodiack there be nothing first or last yet the Egyptians have placed the Ram in the first place for their Astronomers affirm that they have found out by diligent calculation that the same day which was the beginning of the worlds light on the face of the Earth then was the sign Aries in the midst of Heaven and because the middle of Heaven is as it were the crown or upper-most part of the World therefore the Ram hath the first and uppermost place because it is an Equinoctial sign making the days and nights of epual length for twice in the year doth the Sun pass through that sign the Ram sitting as it were judge and arbiter twice every year betwixt the day and night There be Poetical fictions how the Ram came into the Zodiack for some say that when Bacchus led his Army through the Deserts of Lybia wherein they were all ready to perish for water there appeared to him a goodly Ram who shewed him a most beautiful and plentiful fountain which relieved and preserved them all afterward Bacchus in remembrance of that good turn erected a Temple to Jupiter Ammonius also in that place for so quenching their thirst placed there his Image with Rams horns and translated that Ram into the Zodiack among the Stars that when the Sun should pass through that sign all the creatures of the world should be fresh green and lively for the same cause that he had delivered him and his Hoast from perishing by thirst and made him the Captain of all the residue of the signes for that he was an able and wise Leader of Souldiers Other again tell the tale somewhat different for they say At what time Bacchus ruled Egypt there came to him one A 〈…〉 n a great rich man in Africa giving to Bacchus great store of wealth and cattel to
Egypt there was a Lamb that spake with a mans voice upon the Crown of his head was a regal Serpent having Wings which was four cubits long and this Lamb spake of divers future events The like is said of another Lamb that spake with a mans voice at what time Romulus and R 〈…〉 were born and from these miraculous events came that common proverb and so for this story I will conclude with the verse of Valerius Aspera nunc pavidos contra ruit agna leones There is in M 〈…〉 neer Volga a certain Beast of the quantity and form of a little Lamb the people call it Bâ—ranz and it is reported by Sigismumdus in his description of Moscovia that it is generated out of the earth like a reptile creature without seed with dam without copulation thus liveth a little while and never stirreth far from the place it is bred in I mean it is not able to move it self but eateth up all the grasse and green things that it can reach and when it can finde no more then it dyeth Of the MUSMON I Have thought good to reserve this Beast to this place for that it is a kinde of Sheep and therefore of natural right and linage to this story for it is not unlike a Sheep except in the wool which may rather seem to be the hair of a Goat and this is the same which the antients did call Vmbricae oves Vmbrian Sheep for that howsoever it differeth from Sheep yet in simplicity and other inward gifts it cometh nearer to the Sheep Strabo calleth it Musmo yet the Latins call it Mussimon This beast by Cato is called an Asse and sometimes a Ram and sometimes a Musmon The picture which here we have expressed is taken from the sight of the Beast at Caen in Normandy and was afterwards figured by Theodorus Beza Munster in his description of Sardinia remembreth this beast but he saith that it is speckled whereat I do not much wonder seeing that he confesseth that he hath all that he wrote thereof by the Narration of others Some say it is a Horse or a Mule of which race there are two kinds in Spain called by the Latins Asturcones for they are very small but I do not wonder thereat seeing that those little Horses or Mules are called Musimones because they are brought out of those Countries where the true Musmones which we may interpret wilde Sheep or wilde Goats are bred and nourished There are of these Musmons in Sardinia Spain and Corsica and they are said to be gotten betwixt a Ram and a Goat as the Cinirus betwixt a Buck-goat and an Ewe The form of this Beast is much like a Ram saving that his brest is more rough and hairy his horns do grow from his head like vulgar Rams but bend backward only to his ears they are exceeding swift of foot so as in their celerity they are comparable to the swiftest Beast The people of those Countries wherein they are bred do use their skins for breastplates Pliny maketh mention of a Beast which he called Ophion and he saith he found the remembrance of it in the Grecian books but he thinketh that in his time there was none of them to be found in the world herein he speaketh like a man that did not know GOD for it is not to be thought that he which created so many kinds of beasts at the beginning and conserved of every kinde two male and female at the generall deluge would not afterward permit them to be destroyed till the worlds end nor then neither for seeing it is apparent by holy Scriptures that after the world ended all creatures and beasts shall remain upon the earth as the monuments of the first six days works of Almighty God for the farther manifestation of his glory wisdom and goodness it is an unreasonable thing to imagine that any of them shall perish in general in this world The Taâ—dinians call these beasts Muffla and Erim Mufflo which may easily be derived from Ophion therefore I cannot but consent unto them that the antient Ophion is the Musmon being in quantity betwixt a Hart and a Sheep or Goat in hair resembling a Hart and this Beast at this day is not found but in Sardinia It frequenteth the steepest mountains and therefore liveth on green grasse and such other hearbs The flesh thereof is very good for meat and for that cause the inhabitants seek after it to take it Hector Boethius in his description of the Hebridian Islands saith that there is a Beast not much unlike to Sheep but his hair betwixt a Goats and a Sheeps being very wilde and never found or taken but by hunting and diligent inquisition The name of the Islands is Hiethae and the reason of that name is from his breed of Sheep called Hierth in the Vulgar tongue yet those Sheep agree with the Musmon in all things but their tails for he saith that they have long tails reaching down to the ground and this name cometh from the German word Herd a flock and thereof â—irt cometh for all Sheep in general Now followeth the conclusion of their story with their medicinal virtues The medicines of the Sheep in general The bodies of such as are beaten and have upon them the appearance of the stripes being put into the warm skins of Sheep when they are newly puld off from their backs eateth away the outward pain and appearance if it continue on a day and a night If you seethe together a good season the skin of the feet and of the snowt of an Ox or a Sheep till they be made like glew and then taken forth of the pot and dryed in the windy air is by Silvius commended against the burstness of the belly The bloud of Sheep drunk is profitable against the falling sickness Also Hippocrates prescribeth this medicine following for a remedy or purgation to the belly first make a perfume of Barly steeped in oyl upon some coles and then seethe some Mutton or Sheeps flesh very much and with decoction of Barley set it abroad all day and night and afterward seethe it again and eat or sup it up warm and then the next day with Hony Frankincense and Parsely all beaten and mingled together make a Suppository and with wool put it up under the party and it shall ease the distress The same flesh burned and mixed in water by washing cureth all the maladies or diseases arising in the secrets and the broth of Mutton Goose or Veal will help against the poison by biting if it be not drawn out by cupping glasse nor by horse-leach The sewet of a Sheep melted at the fire and with a linnen cloth anointed upon a burned place doth greatly ease the pain thereof The Liver with the sewet and Nitro causeth the scars of the flesh to become of the same colour that it was before the wound it being mixed with toasted Salt scattereth the bunches in the flesh and with
The tail exceeding long far exceeding the quantity and proportion of his body being marked all over with certain white and yellowish spots The skin all covered with an equal smooth and fine coloured scale which in the midst of the belly are white and greater then in other parts It can abide no water for a little poured into the mouth killed it and after it had been two or three days dead being brought to the fire it moved and stirred again faintly even as things do that lye a dying It is not venomous nor hurtful to eat and therefore is digged out of his cave by any body safely without danger Of the CROCODILE of the Earth called Scincus a Scink THere have been some that have reckoned Scinks and Lizards among Worms but as the Greek words Expeix and Scolex differ in most apparent dialect and signification and therefore it is an opinion not worth the confuting for there are no Worms of this quantity But for the better explication of the nature of this Beast because some have taken it for one kinde and some for another some for a Crocodile and others for a Beast like a Crocodile we are to know that there are three kindes of Crocodiles the first is a water Beast or Serpent and vulgarly termed a Crocodile the second is a Scink or a Crocodile of the earth which is in all parts like that of the water except in his colour and thicknesse of his skin the third kinde of Crocodile is unknown to us at this day yet Pliny and others make mention of it and describe it to be a beast having his scales like a Gorgon growing or turning to his head from the tail and not as others do from the head to the tail The Grecians call this Beast Skigkot and some unlearned Apothecaries Stincus and Myrepsus Sigk. It is also called Kikaeros and the Hebrew Koach doth more properly signifie this Beast then any other Crocodile or Chamaeleon or Lizard Some of the Hebriws do expound Zab for a Scink and from thence the Chaldees and the Arabians have their Deo and Aldab turning Z into D So we read Guaril and Adhaya for a Scink or Crocodile of the earth Alarbian is also for the same Serpent among the Arabians Balecola and Ballâ—â—arâ— Sehanchur and Asehanchur and Askincor and Scerantum and Nudalep and Nudalepi are all of them Synonymaes or rather corrupted words for this Crocodile of the earth But there are at this day certain Ps 〈…〉 scink set out to be seen and sold by Apothecaries that are nothing else but a kinde of water Lizard but the true difference is betwixt them that these water Lizards are venomous but this is not and neither living in the Northern parts of the world nor yet in the water and so much shall suffice for the name and first entrance into this Serpents History They are brought out of the Eastern Countries or out of Egypt yet the Monks of Mesuen affirm that they had seen Scinks or Crocodiles of the earth about Rome Sylvaticus and Platearius in Apulia But howsoever their affections may lead them to conjecture of this Serpent I rather believe that it is an African beast and seldom found in Asia or Europe They love the banks of Nilus although they dare not enter the water and for this cause some have thought but untruly that when the Crocodile layeth her egges in the water the young is there also engendered and hatched and is a Crocodile of the water but if they lay their egges on the dry land from thence cometh the Scink or Crocodile of the earth This folly is evidently refuted because that they never say egs in the but all upon the dry land They are found as I have said before in Egypt and also in Africk and among the Lydians of Mauritania otherwise called Lodya or rather Lybia among the Pastoral or Plow-men Africans among the Arabians and neer the Red-sea for all those at this day sold at Venice are brought from those parts The greatest in the world are in India as Cardan teacheth who are in all things like Lizards saving in their excrements which smell or savour more strongly and generally the difference of their quantity ariseth from the countrey which they inhabit for in the hotter and moister countrey they are greater in the hotter dryer Region they are smaller and generally they exceed not two or three cubits in length with an answerable proportionable body which is thus described There be certain crosse lines which come along the back one by one somewhat white and of a dusky colour and those that be dusky have also in them some white spots The upper part of the neck is very dusky the head and the tail are more white the feet and all the neather part of the breast and belly are white with appearance upon them of some scales or rather the skin figured in the proportion of scales upon either feet they have five distinct fingers or claws the length of their legs is a thumb and a half that is three inches the tail two fingers long the body six so that the whole length from the head to the tip of the tail which is first thick and then very small at the end is about eight fingers When they have taken them they bowel them and fill their bodies with Sugar and Silk of Wooll and so they sell them for a reasonable price That which I have written of their length of eight fingers is not so to be understood as though they never exceeded or came short of that proportion for sometimes they are brought into these parts of the World twenty or four and twenty fingers long sometimes again not above five or six fingers long When they lay their Egges they commit them to the earth even as the Crocodiles of the water do They live upon the most odoriferous flowers and therefore is his flesh so sweet and his dung or excrements odoriferous They are enemies to Bees and live much about Hives insomuch as some have thought they did lay their Egges in Hives and there hatch their young ones But the occasion of this error was that they saw young ones brought by their parents into some Hive to feed upon the labouring Bee For the compassing of their desire they make meal of any tree which they have ground in the Mill of their own mouths and that they mix with black Hellebore juyce or with the liquor of Mallows this meal so tempered they lay before the Hives whereof assoon as the Bees tast they die and then cometh the Crocodile with her young ones and lick them up and beside Bees I do not read they are hurtful to any The Indians have a little Beast about the quantity of a little Dog which they call Phattage very like to a Scink or Crocodile of the earth having sharp scales as cutting as a saw There is some hurt by this beast unto men for which cause I may justly reckon
called Draco but I rather agree with Solinus who giveth a more true reason of this fable Ne famâ— licentis vulneretur fides lest as he saith faith and truth should receive a disgrace or wound by the lavish report of fame There was among the Hesperides a certain winding River coming from the Sea and including within it the compasse of that land which is called the Gardens of Hesperides at one place whereof the falling of the water broken by a Rock seemeth to be like the falling down of Snakes to them that stand a far off and from hence ariseth all the occasion of the fable aforesaid Indeed there was a statue of Hercules in the left hand whereof were three Apples which he was said to have obtained by the conquest of a Dragon but that conquest of the Dragon did morally signifie his own concupiscence whereby he raigned over three passions that is to say over his wrath by patience over his cupidity by temperance and over his pleasures by labour and travail which were three vertues far more pretious then three golden Apples But I will stay my course from prosecuting these moral discourses of the Dragon and return again to his natural History from which I have somewhat too long digressed There are divers sorts of Dragons distinguished partly by their Countries partly by their quantity and magnitude and partly by the different form of their external parts There be Serpents in Arabia called Sirenae which have wings being as swift as Horses running or flying at their own pleasure and when they wound a man he dyeth before he feeleth pain Of these it is thought the Prophet Esay speaketh chap. 13. vers 22. Serpens clamabit in Templis voluptariis and for Serpents the old Translators read Syrenae and so the English should be the Syrene Dragons should cry in their Temples of pleasure and the ancient distinction was Angues aquarum Serpentes terrarum Dracones Templorum that is to say Snakes are of the water Serpents of the earth and Dragons of the Temples And I think it was a just judgement of God that the ancient Temples of the Heathen Idolaters were annoyed with Dragons that as the Devil was there worshipped so there might be appearance of his person in the ugly form and nature of a Dragon For God himself in holy Scripture doth compare the Devil unto a Dragon as Rev. 12. vers 3. And there appeared another wonder in Heaven for behold a great red Dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his head Vers 4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth and the Dragon stood before the Woman which was ready to be delivered to devour her childe when she had brought it forth Vers 5. So she brought forth a man childe which should rule all Nations with a rod of Iron And her Son was taken up unto God and to his throne Vers 6. And the Woman fled into the Wildernesse where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there 1260 days Vers 7. And there was a battail in heaven Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon and the Dragon fought and his Angels Vers 8. But they prevailed not neither was their place found any more in heaven Vers 9. And the great Dragon that old Serpent called the Devill and Satan was cast out which deceiveth all the world he was even cast unto the earth and his Angels were cast out with him Vers 13. And when the Dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth he persecuted the Woman which had brought forth a man childe and so forth as it followeth in the Text. Whereupon Saint Augustine writeth Diabolus Draco dicitur propter insidias quia occulte insidiatur that is the Devill is called a Dragon because of his treachery for he doth treacherously set upon men to destroy them It was wont to be said because Dragons are the greatest Serpents that except a Serpent eat a Serpent he shall never be a Dragon for their opinion was that they grew so great by devouring others of their kinde and indeed in Aethiopia they grow to be thirty yards long neither have they any other name for those Dragons but Elephant-killers and they live very long Onesicritus writeth that one Aposisares an Indian did nourish two Serpents Dragons whereof one was six and forty cubits long and the other fourscore and for the more famous verification of the fact he was a very earnest suter to Alexander the Great when he was in India to come and see them but the King being afraid refused The Chroniclers of the affairs of Chius do write that in a certain Valley neer to the foot of the Mountain Pellenaeus was a Valley full of straight tall trees wherein was bred a Dragon of wonderful magnitude or greatnesse whose only voyce or hissing did terrifie all the Inhabitants of Chius and therefore there was no man that durst come nigh unto him to consider or to take a perfect view of his quantity suspecting only his greatnesse by the loudnesse of his voyce until at length they knew him better by a singular accident worthy of eternal memory For it hapned on a time that such a violent winde did arise as did beat together all the Trees in the Wood by which violent collision the branches fell to be on fire and so all the Wood was burned suddenly compassing in the Dragon whereby he had no means to escape alive so the trees fel down upon him and burned him Afterward when the fire had made the place bare of wood the Inhabitants might see the quantity of the Dragon for they found divers of his bones and his head which were of such unusual greatnesse as did sufficiently confirm them in their former opninion and thus by divine miracle was this monster consumed whom never any man durst behold being alive the Inhabitants of the Countrey safely delivered from their just conceived fear It is also reported that Alexander among many other Beasts which he saw in India did there finde in a certain den a Dragon of seaventy cubits long which the Indians accounted a sacred Beast and therefore intreated Alexander to do it no harm When it uttered the voyce with full breath it terrified his whole Army they could never see the proportion of his body but only the head and by that they guessed the quantity of the whole body for one of his eyes in their appearance seemed as great as a Macedonian buckler Maximus Tyrius writeth that in the days of Alexander there was likewise seen a Dragon in India as long as five roods of lands are broad which is incredible For he likewise saith that the Indians did feed him every day with many several Oxen and Sheep It may be that it was the same spoken of before which some ignorant men and such as were given to set forth fables amplyfied beyond measure and
do no good but being done acriter â—xplicate earnestly and throughly bring much content and happinesse But I marvail why they are used in this age or desired by Meat-mongers seeing Apicius in all his Book of Variety of Meats doth not mention them and I therefore will conclude the eating of Tortoises to be dangerous and hateful to Nature it self for unlesse it be taken like a Medicine it doth little good and then also the Sawces and decoctions or compositions that are confected with it are such as do not only qualifie but utterly alter all the nature of them as Stephanus Aquaeus hath well declared in his French discourse of Frogs and Tortoises And therefore to conclude this History of the Tortoise I will but recite one riddle of the strangenesse of this Beast which Tertullian out of Pacuvius maketh mention of and also in Greek by Mascopulus which is thus translated Animal peregrinae naturae sine spiritu spiro geminis oculis retro juxta cerebrum quibus ducibus antrorsum progredior Super ventre coeruleo pergo sub quo venter latet albus apertus clausus Oculi non aperiuntur neque progredior donec venter intus albus vacuus est Hoc sâ—turato oculi apparent insignes pergoaditer Et quanquam mutum varias edo voces That is to say I am a living creature of a strange nature I breath without breath with two eye behinde neer my brains do I go forward I go upon a blew belly under which is also another white open and shut my eyes never open I go forward until my belly be empty when it is full then they appear plain and I go on my journey and although I am mute or dumb yet do I make many voyces The explication of this riddle will shew the whole nature of the Beast and of the Harp called Chelys For some things are related herein of the living creature and some things again of an Instrument of Musick made upon his shell and cover And thus much for the Tortoise in general the Medicines I will reserve unto the end of this History Of the TORTOISE of the Earth whose shell is only figured These are found in the Desarts of Africa as in Lybia and Mauritania in the open fields and likewise in Lydia in the Corn-fields for when the Plough-men come to plough their land their shares turn them out of the earth upon the furrows as big as great Glebes of land And the shels of these the Husbandmen burn on the land and dig them out with Spades and Mattocks even as they do Worms among places full of such vermine The Hill Parthenius and Soron in Arcadia do yeeld many of these land Tortoises The shell of this living Creature is very pleasantly distinguished with divers colours as earthy black blewish and almost like a Salamanders The liver of it is small yet apt to be blown or swell with with winde and in all other parts they differ not from the common and vulgar general prefixed description These live in Corn-fields upon such fruits as they can finde and therefore also they may be kept in Chests or Gardens and fed with Apples Meal or Bread without Leaven They eat also Cockles and Worms of the earth and Three-leaved-grasse They will also eat Vipers but presently after they eat Origan for that herb is an antidote against Viperine poyson for them and unlesse they can instantly finde it they die of the poyson The like use it is said to have of Rue but the Tortoises of the sandy Sea in Africk live upon the fat dew and moistnesse of those Sands They are ingendered like other of their kinde and the males are more venereous then the females because the female must needs be turned upon her back and she cannot rise again without help wherefore many times the male after his lust is satisfied goeth away and leaveth the poor female to be destroyed of Kites or other adversaries their natural wisdom therefore hath taught them to prefer life and safety before lust and pleasure Yet Theocritus writeth of a certain herb that the male Tortoise getteth into his mouth and at the time of lust turneth the same to his female who presently upon the smell thereof is more enraged for copulation then is the male and so giveth up her self to his pleasure without all fear of evil or providence against future danger but this herb neither he nor any other can name They lay Egges in the earth and do not hatch them except they breath on them with their mouth out of which at due time come their young ones All the Winter time they dig themselves into the earth and there live without eating any thing insomuch as a man would think they could never live again but in the Summer and warm weather they dig themselves out again without danger The Tortoises of India in their old and full age change their shells and covers but all other in the World never change or cast them This Tortoise of the earth is an enemy to Vipers and other Serpents and the Eagles again are enemies to this not so much for hatred as desirous thereof for Physick against their sicknesses and diseases of nature and therefore they are called in Greek Chelonophagoi aeloi Tortoise-eating Eagles for although they cannot come by them out of their deep and hard shells yet they take them up into the air and so â—et them fall down upon some hard stone or Rock and thereupon it is broken all to peeces and by this means dyed the famous Poet Aeschylus which kinde of fate was foretold him that such a day he should die wherefore to avoid his end in a fair Sun-shine clear day he sate in the fields and suddenly an Eagle let a Tortoise fall down upon his head which brake his skull and crushed out his brains whereupon the Grecians wrote Aeschulo graphonti epipeptoke Chelone Which may be Englished thus Eschylus writing upon a rock A Tortoise falling his brains out knock The use of this land Tortoise are first for Gardens because they clear the Gardens from Snails and Worms out of the Arcadian Tortoises they make Harps for their shells are very great and this kinde of Harp is called in Latine Testudo the inventer whereof is said to be Mercury for finding a Tortoise after the falling in of the River Nilus whose flesh was dryed up because it was left upon the Rocks he struck the sinews thereof which by the force of his hand made a musical sound and thereupon he framed it into a Harp which caused other to imitate his action and continue that unto this day These Tortoises are better meat then the Sea or Water Tortoises and therefore they are preferred for the belly especially they are given to Horses for by them they are raised in flesh and made much fatter And thus much shall suffice for the Tortoise of the earth Of the TORTOISE of the Sweet-water PLiny maketh four kindes of
quite overthrown 〈…〉 because as we daily see that those creatures which live in the air will for the most part be suffocare and die in the water and contrariwise those that live in the water cannot endure the a 〈…〉 Yet hereupon it followeth not that if they be choked in the water that none at all will live in the water and the same reason is to be alleadged concerning the air Therefore it is no marvail if those Worms that first breed in the earth and live in the earth be killed by the Snow yet it necessarily followeth not that no living creature can take his first being either from or in the snow But if it can as Aristotle witnesseth it is so far unlikely that the same Snow should be the destroyer of that it first was bred of as I think rather it cannot live separately but of necessity in the same Snow no otherwise then fishes can live without water from which they first sprung and had their beginning And to this opinion leaneth Theophrasius in his first Book De Causis Plantarum whose words be these Apanta gar phaâ—n tai ta zoa kai ta phuta kai diamenònta kai genomena en tois orkuiois topois For all creatures saith he whatsoever seem both plants to remain and to be generated and bred in their own due and proper places And after this he addeth and urgeth a little further Aparthe men hupo touton from his own home and special particular place of abode nothing can suffer sustain harm or be corrupted And in his fift Book De caus Plan. he setteth it down more perspicuously how that Worms which are bred in some special trees being afterward translated and changed to other trees where they never came before cannot possibly live Wherefore it is more consonant to reason and more agreeable to common sense to affirm that those Worms which are found folded and rolled up in the Snow to have been first bred in the same Snow rather then to have issued out of the earth Neither are we to make any question or scruple concerning their food for there is no doubt but the mother from whence they proceeded will provide sufficient nourishment for her own children For as we said a little before the Snow is no simple thing but compacted and concrete together of many and of this nature ought every aliment to be Julius Caesar Scaliger is of this minde that Worms are ingendered and brought forth in the very Snow because there is in it much air and spirit which afterwards being heated and brought to some warmth together may cause them to generate for it is the nature and quality of Snow to make fat the earth of which fattish moisture or Jelly there may heat being joyned be produced a living creature There be some that do constantly hold that in the midst of certain stones of which they use to make Lime there do breed divers creatures of very different kindes and sundry proportions and shapes and likewise Worms with hairy backs and many feet which are wont to do much hurt to Furnaces and Limbeckils where they make Lyme Yet Caesalpinus in his first Book De Metal chap. 2. thinketh the contrary assuring us that in Metal-mines Quarries of Marble and other stones there can never any living body be found And yet in Rocks of the Sea within the hollow places and rifts of the stones they do commonly finde certain small living things called Dactili I do not doubt whatsoever he saith to the contrary but that many creeping and other living creatures may be found both in the secret Mines of stone and sometimes also amongst Metals although it be seldom seen And for confirmation hereof I will alleadge one example happening not many years since in our own Countrey At Harlestone a mile from Holdenby in Northamptonshire there was a Quarry of free stone found out of which they digged for the building of Sir Christopher Hattons house where there was taken up one being a yard and a half square every way at the least and being cloven asunder there was found in the very midst of it a great Toad alive but within a very short space after comming to the open air it dyed This stone amongst others was taken very deep out of the earth it was split and cut asunder by one whose name is Lole an old man yet living at this day it was seen of five hundred persons Gentlemen and others of worthy repute and esteem the most part of them living at this hour whose attestation may defend me in this report and surely if Toads may live in the midst of stones I can see no reason but that Worms may there be found but as yet I could never see it In the year of Grace 970. at what time Romualdus the son of Sergius a young Monk was advanced by the Nobility of Ravenna to be their Archbishop there followed a great death and murrein among Earth-worms after that again ensued scarsity and death of all fruits of the earth as Carolus Sigonius in his Chronicle of the Kingdom of Italy declareth Henry Emperor of Rome the son of the Emperour Henry the third as Crantzius hath written when he took his voyage into Italy being suddenly stayed of his intended course with an Army sent against him by Matild that he should passe no further then Lombardy yet having taken Mutina there appeared a strange and uncouth sign in the air for an innumerable company of Worms smaller and thinner then any Flies did flie about in the air being so thick that they might be touched with any small stick or wand and sometimes with the hand so that they covered the face of the earth one mile in breadth and darkned likewise the air two or three miles in length Some did interpret it as a sign or fore-telling that some Christian Prince should go into the Holy-land In the year of our Lord God one thousand one hundred and four there were seen divers fiery and flying Worms in the air in such an infinite multitude that they darkened the light of the Sun seeming to deprive mens eye-sight thereof and shortly after this monstrous and unnatural wonder there followed other strange and seldom-seen prodigious sights on the earth and what a boisterous storm of troubles and raging whirl-winde of War and bloud-shed shortly after ensued the event thereof did plainly manifest FINIS A Physical Index containing plentiful Remedies for all Diseases incident to the Body of Man drawn from the several Creatures contained in this First Volum A. ABortion 92. 104. 165 498. 504. 534. Acâ—es 27. 148. 178. 346. 347 378. 499. 504. Acorus good against poison 718. Agues 21 34 75 84. 93. 198. 201. 202. 215. 216. 338. 346. 378. 379. 385. 402. 500. 504 505. 506. 5032. 536. 546. 566. 582. 655. 676. 695 750. 788. ibid. ibid 789. 810. 814. Alopecia 178 ibid. 196. 200. 204. 401. 455. 500. 568. 219. 645. Almonds swoln 500. Amiantes what it is 749.
easily understand the sense of Ausonius his Epigram upon Marcus that was gelded Rhodiginus l. 8. c. 5. Antiq. lect renders it to us Also the Aegyptians caused a picture of this creature to be made on the statnes of their Heroes intimating thereby their manhood that had no mixture of feminine weakness for men must be valiant and manly 〈◊〉 pufillanimity is a great disgrace to them All Beetles cast their skins and they have no sting when you touch them they are afraid and they leave off to move and they g 〈…〉 〈◊〉 tus did vainly ascribe to them four wings hid under a crusty cover for experience she 〈…〉 t two very tender and frail wherefore they have them shut up in a hard cover over 〈…〉 them that they may take no hurt by hard bodies For the greatest part of them either 〈◊〉 under ground or bites rotten wood with their teeth and makes houses and nests there so that if they were not excellent well guarded they could never keep themselves safe from external injuries When they fly they make such a humming or noise in the air that Laertius writ that the gods talk with men by these creatures Of all plants they cannot away with Rose trees and they hate them as the destruction of their kinde for they dye by the smell of them as we read in Geopas but on the contrary they take great pleasure in stinking and beastly places I have learned no other use of them in Physick than that taken in the left hand they drive away quartain Agues Plin. l. 30. cap. 11. It may be posterity by better experience will discover more of their vertues and will not suffer themselves to be perswaded that a creature God hath made so curiously can want rare vertues in Medicaments which he hath bestowed on far baser things according to his goodness unto mankinde Flitter-mice take this for their chief dainties and prefer it before Gnats especially if they can catch them and squeeze them alive A Hee begat me not nor yet did I proceed From any Female but my self I breed For it dies once in a year and from its own corruption like a Phoenix it lives again as Moninus witnesseth by heat of the Su 〈…〉 A thousand summers heat and winters cold When she hath felt and that she doth grow old Her life that seems a burden in a tomb Of spices laid comes younger in her room The second kinde of Nose-horn very rare and worthy to be seen sacred to Mercury Carolus Clusius sent painted from Vienna where it is very frequent the form is as you see it it would seem all pitch colour but that the belly is a full red that crooked horn in the nose is so sharp that what is said of an Elephant going to battle you would think it had got an edge by rubbing it against a rock The third Nose-horn and fourth seem to be alike but that the former hath wings growing out longer than the sheath covers but the others are shorter You would say they were rub'd with shining ink they are so perfectly all over black The Ram or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath knotty horns violet colour a head greenish from gold colour the shoulders like vermilion a purple coloured belly sheath wings of the colour of the head it goes forward with legs and feet of a light red but the wings shut up in the sheath do fitly express the small whitish membrane of a Cane The greater Beetles without horns are many namely that is called Pilularius and another that is called Melolanthes another purple one again that is dark coloured one called Arboreus and another Fullo Some call the Pilularius the dunghill Beetle because it breeds from dung and filth and also willingly dwels there The Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from its form like a cat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Germans Rosskafer Kaat or Mistkafer in English Dung-beetle Sharnbugg in French Fouille merde as you would say Dung-digger the Latines call it Pilularius because it turns up round pills from the dung which it fashions by turning it backwards with its hinder feet Porphyrie doth thus describe the nature of it All your Pilularii have no females but have their generation from the Sun they make great balls with their hinder feet and drive them the contrary way like the Sun it observes a circuit of 28. daies Aelian saith almost the same There is no female Beetle it puts the seed into a round ball of dung which it rowâ—s and heats in 28. daies and so produceth its young They would say thus much that the Beetle called Pilulariâ—â— makes a round ball of the roundness of the Heavens which it turns from East to West so 〈…〉 brought it to the figure of the World afterwards 〈…〉 es it up 〈◊〉 the earth whe 〈…〉 up it lets it remain there fo 〈…〉 when that 〈…〉 by it self which being â—issolved in water 〈…〉 ies it growes up to be a flying 〈…〉 For this 〈…〉 to Apollo and adored it for 〈…〉 mall god by 〈…〉 lected that the likeness of the Sun was given to th 〈…〉 and so he excused the 〈…〉 ustomes of his Countrey Pliny and Plutarch Symp 〈…〉 gue of their family but dung especially of Cow 〈…〉 the smell of them a very great way off they w 〈…〉 â—uddenly to it 〈…〉 of Smel But they 〈…〉 slowly yet they labour continually and exceedingly and delight most of all to produce the 〈…〉 â—oung ones for oft times the little 〈◊〉 bals that they make by the injury of the winds or of the place fall awâ—y and fâ—ll from a high place to the bottome but this Beeâ—â—e de 〈…〉 ing a propagation watcheth with perpe 〈…〉 care and raising this Sisyphian ball to its hold with continual striving and that tumbling back again at length she reduceth it And truly unless it were endued with a kinde of divine soul as all things are full of Gods wonderfulness it would â—aint and be spent in this great contest and would never take this pains any more Some say they die being blinded by the Sun but the most think they are choked by lice that creep all about them they hardly hold out one winter They chiefly delight in the shade of the Ivy-tree as most healthful for them Praxanus in Geopon I have â—et down the form of it so exactly and in its colours for it is all black that I need say no more Beetles first breed from dung saith Johan Langius as the Worms bâ—eed out of rotten wood then their seed being shed into a round ball and the same being enlivened breeds their young ones every one knoweâ— this sufficiently unlesse they live where no dung is for in dunghils they are obvious to every Man Beetles serve for divers uses for they both profit our mindes and they cure some infirmities of our bodies For when this living creature and scarce a living creature for it wants some senses
knowing as also it seemed most admirable to our most learned Turnerus and Bruerus namely that those Spiders when they are purposed to fasten a thred from a high beam in a right line to the earth they hold a little stone with their feet and then by degrees they let themselves down by a three doubled thred that the angle at the earth may answer the angle above by the beam exactly But that above all the rest is worthy of admiration how they fasten the first thred on the hither side of the River and the second on the farther side whereas Nature hath not taught them to â—ly or to swim I much doubt whether they leap over or not The second praises in weaving they deserve that build on the rafts of houses and other Field-spiders who upon the grasse weave a Net that is broad thick and plain and it is a Net indeed spread forth like a sayl or sheet In the work of these Spiders if you consider the wouf the skaâ—ns of yarn the trendle the shittle the comb the woof the distaffe the web either you will see nothing or you must see God insensible yet really performing all these things and truly in spinning they go far before the Egyptians Lydians Penelope Tanaquil Amestris Romes Claudiana Sabina Julia and the Queens of Macedonia that were wonderfully skilled in spinning because beyond all ordrdinary reason and art no threds being drawn overthwart they make a solid and tenacious Web of a straight continued long thred Their work being ended they smeer it over with a birdlimy glutinous spittle by the touch of which alone the prey is entangled and payes for its blindenesse and want of foresight The colour of her Web is aereall and transparent or rather no colour which is the thing deceives the Flies that are not aware of it and they that see best hardly escape it For had it but any perfect colour they would think what need they had to avoid it and fly farther from it The most ignoble Spiders namely those that are sluggish fat and that ly in holes make but a very course Web and grosser thred by farre which they hang only to holes in Walls These have a more heavy body shorter feet and are more unfit to spin or card they light upon their prey rather by chance than seek for it because the hole is great without and seems a fit place for Flies to hide themselves in but at the very entrance they are ensnared by the Spider and catcht and are carryed into the Shambles for Flies to be slain For they ly deep in Walls that they may escape the Birds that ly in wait for them as Sparrows Red-breasts Nightingales Hedge-sparrows and that they may the sooner ensnare the Flies that suspect no harm And for Spiders that are harmlesse and for their Webs let this suffice Now we shall adde something concerning those kindes I have observed CHAP. XIV Of certain kindes of Spiders observed by Authors YOu may remember that I so divided Spiders that some were venemous and called Phalangia and others were harmlesse Few of the Phalangia and perhaps none use to spin but all the rest spend their time in making threds or Nets Some of these Net-workworkers are House Spiders others are field Spiders so also are those that make threds distinguished Amongst the Net-workers I saw one the greatest of all I have set down the picture of it here In Autumn amongst small Rose-boughs it extendeth an artificiall Net and it catcheth either another Spider running over it or Gnats or Flies that come to it when she pulls her cord with wonderfull dexterity and when she hath hanged them thus up she leaves them till she growes hungry again She hath a frothy body Ovall figured almost iâ— hath a little head with pinsers under the belly and the back is adorned with white spots This is one of the Autumnal Holci and in a very short time it will grow from the bignesse of a Pease to be as big as you see her here described Amongst the Web-makers we have seen some spin a very fine Web others spin one that was but moderately fine some spin base stuffe grosse rude and ill favoured The most subtile work-masters are the House-bred-Spiders whereof we have here set down one of a brown colour of the bignesse of the figure and being placed between you and the Sun it is of some transparency This is it whose commendation was written by Coelius Secundus Curio and the nature of it by Pliny which taught Heba Penelope the Egyptians Lydians Macedonians and others that were given to spinning This field Spider weaves a moderate and strong Web in hedges stretching forth his sheet with a Coverlaid and where he dwells he waits for his prey His Web is thicker that it may not rain through and better to endure the force of windes she hath a brown body but feet that are changeable colours varyed with black and white spots in order she hath a forked mouth fenced with clawes the two white spots that are seen above in the head I know not whether they serve for eyes the whole body is gently hairy she doth stretch out her Web wide and long that she may catch much prey to which she is very much addicted This field Spider spins a base and unpolished thred and gathers it as it were into a bundle Pennius first observed this kinde in Colchester fields between wilde Origanum watching for Flies and he never saw it otherwise It hath feet like to those described just before a round body like a Globe the back is marked with white spots also it hath a fundament four â—quare and black Hitherto also we referre three kindes of the Spiders called Lupi who live in chinks of Walls heaps of stones and old rubbish they weave a base and small Web in their holes and in the day time they wander farther abroad in hopes of prey which they set upon with great force and draw into their dens The greatest of them is of a brown colour it hath a head almost of Ovall figure the body as a Globe both sides are adorned with two small and short white lines about the middle of the back it is of a more whitish colour it hath feet comely with divers black and brown spots The middlemost is the least and grey-coloured the ridge of the back is set forth by three Pearles as it were whereof that which is next to the neck is greater and longer The third seems to be blacker wearing a Crosse overthwart the back very white and with â—ight angles and therefore some call it the holy Spider I conjecture that these are of the Wolf kinde because they run with a kinde of leaping and discover a great ravening appetite for they lay up nought for the morrow but consume all their provision in one day Gesner saw one of this kinde that was Ash-coloured There are also Spiders with long shanks that make disorderly and most rude
of bitter choler innumerable worms are oft-times found And I see no reason why Worms may not breed from yellow choler as well as in Wormwood from melancholy as well as in stones from bloud as well as in sugar But if they be not bred from them whence have they matter that they breed of The Physician of Padua will answer It remains therefore that they can breed only of raw flegm which either ariseth from too great quantity of the best meats for want of heat or quantity of bad meats corrupt by depravation which opinion though it well agree with Galen Aegineta Aetius Avenzoar Avicenna Coluâ—nella Celsus Alexander and chiefly with our Mercurialis yet in my judgement Hippocrates is in the right who thought that living creatures are bred in the little world as well as they are in the great Therefore as in the earth there are all kinde of humours heat and spirit that it may nourish living creatures that breed so hath man all kinde of moisture that mourisheth things that breed Moreover when as these living creatures do represent perfectly Earth-worms no man in his wits will deny but that they have both the same original What flegm is there in the earth yet it breeds round Worms and Gourd-fushioned and Ascarides and all sorts of Worms and the best and warmest earth abounds with them so far is it that they should breed only of raw and corrupt humours Do we not also daily see that Worms are voided by men that are in health For I knew a woman of Flanders that at Francfort on the Main which from her youth till she was forty years old did daily void some round Worms without any impairing of her health and she was never sick of them I conclude therefore that from every raw humour of the body Worms may breed and not only from crude or corrupted flegm The formal cause depends from internal heat which is weak gentle pleasing and fit to breed living creatures wherein that plastick force of Caleodick Nature to use the word of Avicennas doth make the colours by the degrees of secret heat and sporting her self doth make that broad form of Gourd-worms and some-times of Lizards Toads Grass-worms Catterpillers Snakes Eels as we read in Histories This doth give them taste feeling and motion this gives them that force of attracting whereby they forcibly draw forth with greediness the juices that slip into the guts If it were not so that heat that consumes all things might perhaps dispose the matter that is changed by putrefaction but it would never give the form and figure of a living creature For it is not because the guts are round that round Worms are bred in them as some men dream but the external form depends from the internal and the spirit drawn forth of the bosome of the soul it self doth frame the shapes without a Carver or Smith This spirit is the mediate efficient cause but God himself is the principal cause in this and other things in whom as well as we the Worms are move and have their being The final cause shewes their use which declares Gods omnipotency Natures majesty and the singular providence of both for mans good For there are collected in us some putrefied excremental superfluous parts which the more bountiful hand of Nature changeth into Worms and so cleanseth our bodies as we account it a good sign of health to be full of lice after a long disease also they consume much superfluous moisture in mans body and unless they grow too many for then they feed on our nutrimental juice they are a great help to the guts so far is it that they should be accounted by physitians amongst diseases or the beginnings of diseases Amongst the concomitant causes I reckon the place and the countrey For though they are more common to children than to those that are of years to women than men in a pestilential than a healthful time in Autumn than in the Spring to such as use an ill diet rather than to those that keep an exact diet yet they accompany all ages sexes conditions seasons diets for no man is priviledged from them yet some places or climates are free for according to the nature of them in some many in others no Worms will breed for all kinde of Worms will not breed in each part of the guts but round Worms only in â—he small guts Ascarides in the Longanum the Gourd-worms only are bred in all Also as Theophrastus and Pliny testifie there are no small differences amongst Nations and Countreys lib. hist pl. 9. c. 2. Lib. Nat. hist 27. cap. 13. For broad or Gourd-worms are common amongst the Egyptians Arabians Syrians and Cilicians again they of Thracia and Phrygia know them not And though the Boeotians and Athenians are under the same Confines they are frequently full of Worms and these are by a priviledge as it were freed from them He only will admire at this or think it a Fable who knowes not that the nature of Countreys vary according to the position of the stars the nature of the winds and the condition of the earth There is a River saith Aristotle lib. de nat anim c. 28. in Cephalenia that parts an Island and on one side of it there is great abundance of Grashoppers but none on the other In Prodoselena there is a way goeth between and on one side of it a Cat will breed but not on the other side In the Lake Orchomenius of Boeotia there are abundance of Moles but in Lebadius that is hard by there are none and brought from other parts they will not dig the earth In the Island Ithaca Hares cannot live nor in Sicily flying Ants nor in the Countrey of Cyrene vocal Frogs nor in Ireland as we know any kinde of venomous creature The reason of all this he can only tell who hath hanged the earth in the air without a foundation for it is not my eye that can see so far nor have I any minde to affect to know things above my understanding I leave that work to those that dare aspire To know Gods secrets let me them admire CHAP. XXXIII Of the signs and cure of Worms out of Gabucinus LEt us therefore shew the signs of Worms beginning from those that are called round Worms both because these do more frequently vex children and because they produce more cruel symptomes of which Paulus writes thus they that are troubled with round Worms are cruelly torn in their bellies and guts and they have a tickling cough that is troublesome and somewhat tedious some have a hickop others when they sleep leap up and rise without cause sometimes they cry out when they rise and then they fall asleep again their Arteries beat unequally and they are sick of disorderly Feavers which with coldness of the outward parts come thrice or four times in a day or a night without any reason for them Children will eat in their sleep and put forth their tongues