Infants with two pillowes the one before Pet. Martyr Decad. 8. the other behind and bind them hard even untill their Eyes start for a smooth plaine Face pleaseth them Platter-faces being there in great request Lindscot lib. 1. cap. 20. In Java Major they have flat Faces and broad thick Cheekes Scaliger de subtil ad Cardan exerc 167. Leo hist de Africa l. 7. Scaliger saith that in the Island Java they have very broad Faces as likewise the Circassians In the Region of Zanfara they have extreame black broad visages Discovery of Norembega The Inhabitants of Norembega are disfigured in nothing saving that they have somewhat broad Visages and yet not all of them Sir John Mandevils Travels In an Island neare the great Island Dodyn there are men that have flat Faces without Noses and without Eyes but they have two small round holes instead of Eyes and they have flat mouths without Lips And in that Isle are men also that have their Faces all flat without Eyes without Mouth and without Nose but they have their Eyes and their Mouth behind on their shoulders These Faces cannot be commensurate because the Members thereof are forced out of their naturall proportion and so necessarily exclude that naturall beauty which is wont chiefly to be found in the Face For so much as it is from the middle of the brows to the end of the Nose so much it ought to be from the end of the Nose to the Chin and the same space should fall from the middle of the Brows to the exterior angle of the Eye as fals from the aforesaid Angle to the beginning of the Eare. The latitude of the Forehead the length of the Nose and the magnitude of the Mouth should be the same also the semicircle of the Eye and of the Cheekes the same as the altitude of the extremity of the Nose ought to be halfe as much as the Longitude of it which proportion is most notoriously demolished in these Platter-Faces Platter faces condemned Insomuch as considering these strange attempts made upon the naturall endowments of the Face one would thinke that some men felt within themselves an instinct of opposing Nature and that they tooke more delight to overcome than to follow her the delight would be lesse the profit greater if they did it for profit rather than pleasure they cannot but know that their happinesse doth consist in the overcoming of these unreasonable and phantasticall affectations but equivocating therein and either for want of understanding or through a wilfull misunderstanding whereas they should strive against their own inward they oppose their outward Nature Thus man transported with vaine imaginations where he finds Hils he sets himselfe to make Plaines where Plaines he raiseth Hils in pleasant places he seekes horrid ones and brings pleasantnesse into places of horrour and shamefull obscurity he seconds that which he ought to withstand and that which he should follow he opposes and when he thinkes he triumphs over his subdued and depraved body his own corrupt Nature triumphs over him This is a stratagem of the Enemy of our Nature to set us at odds with our naturall endowments and that he may remaine quiet within he causeth us to strive abroad like to a cunning politique Tyrant who having a valiant and fierce Subject within his City by whom he feares to have violence or opposition offered him if he can find no other remedy he sends him into the field to fight with the Enemy to the end that venting his violence and phantasticalnesse abroad he may have plenary power to Tyrannize at home at his pleasure God is angry with us that we should at the same time reforme that which he himselfe had framed A long thin Face where affected and conforme our selves to that which we had deformed The beauty of the Face of man is much advanced and heightned by the Cavities and Eminencies thereof that as the greater world is called Cosmus from the beauty thereof the inequality of the Centre thereof contributing much to the beauty and delightsomenesse of it so in this Map or little world of beauty in the face the inequality affords the prospect and delight These Face-moulders then who affect a platter-Face not only in their endeavour overthrow the lawfull proportion of the Face but demolish the most apparant eminency and extant majesty thereof Purch Pilgr 3. In some of the Provinces of China they have square faces The naturall and comely face of man agreeable to proportion and according to Humane Nature is that the longitude thereof in a youthfull and faire body should be the tenth part of the whole body according to longitude to this longitude there must a convenient latitude answer For so much as is from the middle of the Eye-brow to the end of the exterior Angle where the eye ends so much it is thence to the hole of the Eare wherefore the Latitude of the Face compared with the Longitude which begins from the root of the haire above the Forehead and is produced even unto the end of the Chin should be in a sesquitertia proportion to wit as foure to three But if you only contemplate the Diameters of Longitude and Latitude of a mans Face you shall find a sesquialtera proportion and the longitude to latitude shall be as three to two which thus you shall understand Let there fall a perpendicular line from the first root of the haire above the Forehead Men with Dogs Faces which shall descend to the end of the Chin afterwards draw another line which beginning at the end of both Temples penetrating through the middle of the head shall cut the former line in right angles that line which is drawn from the top to the bottom of the Chin shall be in a sesquialtera proportion to that which is carried from the right hand to the left cutting it in right angles so that it is the best and most naturall proportion that the Longitude of the Face should to its Latitude appeare in a sesquialtera proportion Now it is an observation worth the inserting that the Chin is correspondent to the Symetry of the other members of the Body but that which seemes the greater marvell is that the formall appearance of the face is generically reposed in the Chin alone for if that be square long or round so the Face of it selfe answers insomuch as the Chin is that which makes the finall judgement of the Face of man Now if these be Face-Moulders as it is much to be suspected they are it may be they have some artifice to dilate the Chin thereby prophaning the Symetry of Nature and striving by Art to force and pervert the Face from its just proportion bringing the Latitude thereof either to equall or exceed the Longitude while they to the great dishonour of Nature affect a square Geometricall Face Petrus Simon in his expedition which Iohannes Alvarez Maldonatus made from Guzco to discover
Teeth are the women of Sumatra who have Teeth so white that India affords none more beautifull And they of Guinea De Bry Hist Ind. Orient who have Teeth white and shining like precious Ivory which they preserve from all foulenesse by rubbing and cleansing them now and then with certaine woods which they have peculiarly for this very purpose by which friction they retaine a lustre like unto the most beautifull polished Ivory In Curiana likewise the women make their Teeth white with an herbe Lindscot li. 2. that all the day they chew in their mouths which having chewed they spit out againe and wash their mouths Had Nature afforded these Nations any such water as that Martiall speakes of which would make the Teeth of men white in like manner as it whitens Ivory Nations that file their Teeth as sharp as needles they would acknowledge themselves extraordinarily beholding unto her However commendable as serviceable to the ends of Nature are Dentifrices which the Art Cosmetique affords for preserving the Native whitenesse and integrity of the Teeth Idem Pilgr 2. lib. 9. The Macûas also file their Teeth above and below as sharp as Needles Idem eodem The black people of Caffares of the Land of Mosombique and all the Coast of Ethiopia and within the Land to the Cape of Bona Speranza some among them file their Teeth as sharpe as needles Alex. Benedict in proem li. 6. de curand morb Alexander Benedictus refused to buy an Ethiopian slave because as it were with an unhappy Omen he had all his Teeth saw-like as Dogs have The Teeth are in men of three kinds sharpe as the Fore Teeth broad as the Back Teeth which we call the Molar Teeth or Grinders and pointed Teeth or Canine These men contrary to the Law of Nature seeme to affect to have all their Teeth pointed or Canine and the saw-like Teeth of devouring Fishes Serpents and Dogs or would appeare as dangerous with their Teeth as those Creatures who have them framed like saws and closing one betweene another Pretended ends fot filing of Teeth to the no little danger of the Tongue if it should chance to fall betweene them breaking off the continuity of the range of Teeth Vnlesse we can imagine in excuse of this their unnaturall boldnesse that their Language should require such a use off the File for there are those who have caused their Teeth to be filed or shaved after a certaine manner that they might be more apt to the pronunciation of certaine Tongues which Hofman remembers to have been reported of M. John Hammers in times past professor of the Hebrew Tongue in the Academy of Ieina whence it appeares that the hard and strong substance of the Teeth is not such as some have imagined that it is impossible to subdue it by the force of Iron But Cardan acquaints us with another naturall end that they pretend unto in this businesse for Cardan lib. de subtil 12. the equall structure of the Teeth as it is most profitable to speech so it is lesse commodious for cutting for Dogs and Wolves have their Teeth unequall and disposed in manner of a Saw and these adhere and close better with one another and they retaine not so much the reliques of meat Therefore saith he certaine people of India who have not so much regard to the handsome explication of their minds by speech that they may more commodiously make use of their Teeth they file them sharp to make them indented one within another saw-like for they stick faster in the root when they joyne not together at the top Scaliger exercitas Cardan Scaliger in his exercitation upon this part of Cardan saith that in the Island Tendaia the young men cause their teeth to be cut even to the roots for by this meanes they say their Teeth become firmer and thicker Where they pull out Teeth in a bravery the same thing happens also to Plants for trees grow thicker whose tops are cut off These Nations degenerate from the principles of Humanity into ravening Wolves Who would have more dog-teeth than Nature allows endeavouring by this fond Artifice to have Teeth stronger than Nature intended man upon a just account lose more than they can gaine by the Device for having perverted the curious Machin of Speech by altering of the Instruments thereof they must surely speake in the Teeth and have but a lisping or snarling Elocution which is an improvement with a mischiefe Hieron Bez. Hist nov orb In Guanchavalichia a Region of the new World they are wont to pull five or sixe Teeth out of their jaw and being asked the reason why they did so they replyed they did it Elegantiae causa for a bravery and most fashionable elegancy Pancerol de novo orb tit 1. The Guancavilcae in Peru are all Edentuli or without Teeth for they have a custome to pull out all their Teeth which they offer to their Idols Teeth intended for an ornament affirming that they ought to offer to them the best things One would thinke these Nations accounted teeth to be no parts of the Body or very impertinent and unnecessary whereas they are justly enrolled among the number of the parts of a Human Body since the definition of parts appertaines to them and likewise their use and office for they belong to the integrity of the Body and they attaine a proper office and use in the same nay the preternaturall absence of the Teeth is accounted among the Diseases of Number their naturall number being thirty at the least twenty eight So that the Teeth were intended by Nature to serve for an ornament and a certaine beauty and furniture unto the Mouth for it would have been a foule deformity in man to have lived without Teeth as they say Phericrates the Poet did Valla de Corp. part who was edentulus and had no Teeth at all For in whom they fall out or are lost by age or some disease it makes the Mouth look like a decayed Harpe that is unstrung more especially the fore-teeth being lost proves a more apparent blemish and dammage because they were set in the first and most conspicuous place since there was more necessity of them for the forming of the voice whence Infants speake not before their mouths are replenished with Teeth But the fore-teeth more especially serve for the forming of certaine Letters whence those who are edentuli cannot pronounce C. U. G. T. R. wherein the enlarged tongue must bear against the fore-teeth the losse of which hinders the explanation of the voice that speech must necessarily thereupon be the slower and lesse plaine and easie neither are there wanting examples among us of those whose speech hath been very much impaired by the amission of their Fore-teeth Hofman thinks Want of Teeth a blemish that therefore the Romans were wont to bind them fast with gold wire And our Master Operatours are somtimes
sinfull nor would have us go about to marre his worke or to do his last work which he hath reserved to himselfe in Heaven here upon earth that is to glorifie our Bodies with such Additions here as though we would need no Glorification there But concerning this kind of transgression against the honesty and truth of Nature or rather the sinfulnesse of it Cajetan is of an opinion that as a woman may conserve her naturall beauty without sin so she may also preserve it by Art by adhibiting the vertues of Fucusses Pigments and other paintings so it do not intend an evill end it is a fiction and vanity somewhat excusable Whereas it is concluded a mortall sin for any to sell such disguising trash to those they know will abuse it for an evill end And in this regard some Divines will not allow so much as palliation of any deformity in the Face which hath proceeded from licentiousnesse and intemperance or that they should be disguised by unnaturall helps to the drawing in of others and the continuation of their former sins The sin it selfe was the Divels act in thee but in the Deformity that follows upon the sin God hath a hand and they that suppresse and smother these by paintings and unnaturall helps to unlawfull ends do not deliver themselves of the plague but they do hide the markes and infect others and wrastle against Gods notifications of their former sins The invention of which Act of Palliation of an ascititious deformity against Gods indigitation of sin is imagined one reason of the invention of black Patches wherein the French shewed their witty pride which could so cunningly turne Botches into Beauty and make uglinesse handsome yet in point of Phantasticalnesse we may excuse that Nation Musitians Face Deformers as having taken up the fashion rather for necessity than novelty in as much as those French Pimples have need of a French Plaister But vocall Musique performed by Instruments which Nature hath invented for delight ought not to be set at naught for the same or peradventure no reason at all as it is by the Stoick morall Philosophers For the Wind-Musique doth not deforme the Visage it reformes yea conformes it and the vocall which is correspondent to the hearing altereth the proportion of the Face to conforme it to the Eye the one requires setlednesse to be well looked upon and the other receives its perfections from motion one unfolds the Beauty of the Visage the other both laies open and accompanies the sweetnesse of the voice where there is a sound Motion hath necessarily proceeded and the motion is with measure if the sound be harmonious Sometimes also it is voluntary accompanied with the Head Eyes and Mouth and with delight though without necessity if it be with proportion That motion which offends produces no harmonious sound or doth not accompany it proportionably SCENE XVI Long-necked Nations Nationall Monstrosities appearing in the Necke PEtrus Damianus Damianus libello de mirac Arch-Bishop of Ravenna and Cardinall relates that Robert King of France married a Kinswoman of his by whom he had a Son with a Gooses neck and head whereupon by a common consent of the French Bishops they were excomunicated the King compelled by these streights takes better Counsell and renouncing his incestuous Bed entred into lawfull marriage with another Beyond the streights of Magellan Pigafetta reports to have seen men with Necks of a Cubit long the other parts of their body being proportionable thereunto In Eripia as some write or according to Lycosthenes in the extreame part of Siricana or as it pleaseth others in some of the Valleys of Tartaria there harbours a Nation of so long a Neck that it wholly resembles the neck of a Crane afterwards in the top of the Neck there is a ferine Face Long gangrell necks Inconvenient with the Eyes and Nostrils of a man as also with a bill adorned with Gils like a Cock Aldrovandus indeed saies it will more availe one to read than believe this Relation yet he denies not but there are halfe-men with a long Neck and a ferine Face do live in those Regions their women being not so deformed as the men and they are said to be very seldome seen This Nation is carried with great force against their Enemies and chiefly against the Tartars Aldrovandus hath exhibited the Effigies of these Gangrell-Neck'd men to be considered of by his Readers Aldrov monst Hist lib. 1. which puts me in mind of that ridiculous wish of Philoxones that grumbled at Nature for the shortnesse of his Neck who would have had the Neck of a Crane that thereby he might have taken more pleasure in his meat or as some thinke to obtaine advantage in singing or warbling and dividing the notes in Musick which Cavill of Philoxones against Nature for not having respect unto the Taste or singing in the contrivance of his Neck is absurd and in the very foundation of the fancy to be condemned D. Brown Pseudodoxia Epid. lib. 7. cap. 14. as it is ingeniously observed by the late Enquirer into vulgar errours And if he had obtained this foolish request yet the justnesse of Nature could not have suffered him to have been a gainer by the bargaine for a long gangrell neck which would have made the head look as set upon a pole would by such an elongation caused a very inconvenient distance between the braine and the heart but the Epicure surely had a more reaching conceit Nations that have no Neck knowing that they are more greedy of meat and have better stomacks who have a greater space from the mouth to the paunch They that inhabit those Alpes which divide France from Italy their throats are encreased to that bulke and largenesse that both in men and women those gutturall bottles hang down even to their Navels and they can cast them over their shoulders and this is not commonly seen in the Allobroges Carinthians Syrians and Nations living about the Alpes but it is also familiar to some places of Spaine Fabricius ab Aqua pend Fabricius saith that such Tumours are frequent among the Bergomensians where the men and women all for the most part have such great pendent bags in the fore-part of their Throats Joan. Stumpf. lib. Chr. 10. cap. 20. Among the Rucantians a people of Helvetia now called Rhaeti the Inhabitants especially about the Town Ciceres are troubled with the same gutturall deformity M. Pol. lib. 1. cap. 31. Neither doth this happen only in Europe but also in Asia for the men there have such great wallets of flesh after a wonderfull manner hanging at their throats But in Syria the women have their throats so protended that they cast it behind their back as it were a Sack or Wallet Ortel in Illyrico lest it should hinder their Infants when they suck This swelling or Throat-Dropsie The cause of swelling throats is occasioned by the drinking
Voices scandalize their breeches Concerning the reason of this effect of Castration the Conceit of Aristotle is pretty although it agree not with the common opinion who thinks the Heart is stretched by the Testicles and therefore relaxed when they are cut away and so a common principle affected because the strength of the Nerves is relaxed or loosened in their originall or beginning Even as we see it commeth to passe in Instruments which have a more acute or treble sound when the strings are stretched and a lower and more remisse when they are loosened Right so is it in Eunuches the Testicles being taken away and so the heart affected The ends of Castration the Voice and very forme becommeth womanish But according to Anatomicall verity the strength of the heart dependeth not upon the contention or stretching of the Testicles but upon his own proper temper neither if the heart needed any such tenter were the Testicles pins fitting for the same The Parthians used this out of Luxury for the retarding of Age and the prolongation of life it having been observed that castrated Animals in any kind and Spadoes by Art live longer than they that retaine their virilities and by this Artifice they retaine a better habit of Body Oemma Fris Apend ad Apian Cosmograph pars 2. Munst Cosm lib. 5. upon which score those Canibals who live neare the Equator who hunt after men to eate them when they have taken any Males of the neighbouring Nations they many times geld them and so fat them up for slaughter as we do Capons Some have practised this Artifice to introduce a necessary Chastity and purity of body that their waiters might be more cleane as Claudius intimates of the Babilonians practicall intent which the Romans afterwards observed Coghan the Author of the haven of health as appears by Juvenal which is the Physique that Coghan would have prescribed if he had been Physitian to our Ancient Abbats and Monkes who used other lesse effectuall meanes to preserve their Chastity viz. the same remedy that Mr Smith a Canon of Hereford practiced upon himselfe in the beginning of the Reigne of Queene Elizabeth Abscissionem Testiculorum for this is the surest remedy saith he that can be devised for Cupids Colts Benivenius de Aâ—aâ—tis Benivenius speakes of a Monke who through an indiscreet zeale to Chastity being no way agreeable to that Rationabile obsequium that God requires Selfe-Castration plaid the same holy pranks with himselfe And this course is so effectuall to prevent any just suspition of incontinency that some have practised it upon themselves thereby to introduce a voluntary impotency as Combalus did who perceiving himselfe to be affected by Stratonice the Wife of the King of Assyria and being to attend upon her in some Progresse she made secretly castrated himselfe and sealing up his virilities in a Box delivered it unto the King to be kept as some Jewels of worth Suspition afterwards growing of his incontinency with the Queene he was quitted of the accusation by that pledge of his fidelity he had left in the Custody of the King And this was the first rise of the reputation of these Semi-virs or halfe-men You may read in Schenchius Schench obser lib. 4. Treasury of Time vol. 1. lib. 2. cap. 7. and the Treasure of Times of other persons who on their own private motion and for some such ends have committed the same cruell Trespasse against Nature But the maine designe in this businesse originally was to make them more fit to keep their women the name Eunuch imposed upon them being as it were a cloake wherewith they covered the injury done to Nature it signifies as it were Chamberlaine and keeper of their Bed entertained and appointed for the preserving their women Montaig lib. 1. Essay 22. yet in some Countries where Eunuches have religious women in keeping because they shall not be loved they have also their Noses and Lips cut off And as the Genitall parts put a difference between Nation and Nation so between one Religion and another Religious Eunuchs For the Priests of Cybele the great mother of the Gods used to cut off their own members and so geld themselves without danger of death which they do with a sheard of Samian earth Voscius de orig progr Idolat lib. 2. I find in Voscius the reason why those Priests of the Goddesse gelded themselves it was but in respect of the Corne that was reaped but the feminall force is in the harvest for as the prolifique vertue is from the virile parts so seed from the Corne And by their Example a man of a simple wit to be revenged of his wife plaid such a pranke with himselfe of which Lucilius Lucil. Satyr 7. Hanc ubi vult male habere ulcisci pro scelere ejus Testamsumit homo Samiam sibique illico telo Praecidit caulem testesque una amputabat ambo Plin. nat Hist lib. 11. Thus Religion also hath made Eunuches as the Priests of the Gaules who castrated themselves Mat. cap. 19. and of Stone-Priests became Galli Castrati French Capons And herein appeared most manifestly the Lapse of Origens judgement who having wrested and taken all other places of Scripture in an allegoricall sense took this Some have made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdome of God in a litterall sense and to that end castrated himselfe And there were many in his time and since were hardly conceited of him that justly that he in the flower of his Age being then about twenty five yeares old should deprive himselfe of Virga virilis not having in those parts any disease that might require any such extirpation Divers waies of Castration for to deprive himselfe however sanctimonious his intentions were of those parts contrary to the order of Nature was an unlawfull mutilation and meere treason committed against her Two waies there are of this unnaturall dilapidation of the body one is performed by contusion the other by excision the last being more approved of for they who have suffered the contusion of their Testicles may now and then affect to play the man some part as it is likely of the Testicles lying hid within those that had passed this kind of Eunuchisme by contusion were called Thlibiae and Thladiae And because Physitians are now and then by Great ones against their wills compelled to castrate also Paul Aeginet lib. 6. cap. 68. Paulus Aegineta delivers the manner of operation A thing very improper to our Art which is the chiefest servant of Nature for whereas the Physitians Art doth reduce bodies from the state which is against Nature into the naturall the manner of making Eunuches which the Greekes call Eunuchismum promiseth the contrary But the keene jealousie of latter times hath gone a little nearer with Eunuches Rousset de partu Caesar sect 6. cap. 6. Hist 2. Cardan Comment in Hippo. l. de Aere Aquis locis
But Circumcision hath been most remarkable in the Hebrews Gen. 16. not that they tooke this fashion from the Egyptians but from the Covenant God made with Abraham Reasons of Circumcision But the Circumcision of Abraham was no new contrivance but at length approved of and sanctified by God Vallesius in sacra Philos cap. 18. as Vallesius well collects Strabo who hath a strange History of Moses contrary to the received truth saies he commanded not Circumcision but that Circumcision excision and if there were any such like thing were introduced by his superstitious and tyrannicall successours but there was a plaine command for this Act on the eighth day according to Moses Law Philo alleadgeth foure Reasons why the Foreskin was commanded to be cut off For the better prevention of the disease called the Carbuncle that the whole body might be kept more pure and cleane and that no soile or filth should be hid in the Fore-skin that they might be more apt to Generation and the part circumcised should better expresse the similitude of the Heart Moses Egyptius Moses Egyptius saith that Circumcision helpeth to bridle and restraine inordinate lust and concupiscence of the flesh but the contrary doth appeare for no Nation is more given to carnall lust than the Egyptians Saracens and Turkes that are Circumcised Some thinke in greater detestation of the superstition of the Egyptians and other Nations that did adore that part and make an Idoll of it under the name of Priapus and did carry it about in open shew in their wicked idolatrous Solemnities When the Fore-skin was circumcised it might by Art be drawn over againe as Epiphanius collecteth out of Paul 1 Cor. 7.18 1 Machab. 1.16 And such mention is made of some in Maccabes that renounce their Circumcision and made themselves uncircumcised The manner of Circumcision with the modern Jews This practice of drawing againe the Foreskin that was circumcised is thought by Epiphanius to have been invented by Esau to deny his profession and to raze out his Circumcision You shall find in Paraeus among his cures of praeternaturall defects the cure of a prepuce made short by Circumcision which is used to the Jews when they having abjured their Religion full of Superstitions for handsomnesse sake they would cover the Nut of their Yard with a Prepuce and recover their cut-off skin The present Jews Circumcise upon the eighth day and it may not be done before and in case the Child should be sick or very weake it may be deferred longer till such time as he shall be in health and able to endure it then they use to make choice of a Circumciser which they call Mohel which may be whomsoever they please so he be but an expert and skilfull man at the businesse and they account it to be the most meritorious thing that can be to be a Circumciser And if by chance the Father of the Infant be one of these he then circumciseth his own Child himselfe The God-father sitteth upon the seat provided for him and so taking the Child in his armes fitly placeth him upon his knees then comes the Circumciser with a Charger in his hand wherein are the Instruments and other necessaries for the present businesse as namely a Razor restringent powders with little clouts dipt in oyle of Roses and some also use to provide a dish-full of Sand to put the Foreskin into when it is cut off then the Circumciser unswathes the Child Mahometan Circumcision and some use to have silver pinsers with which they take up as much as they meane to cut off of the Foreskin then doth he take his Razor and cut off that thicker skin of the Prepuce and afterwards with his thumbe naile he rends in pieces that other thinner skin that remains The people that are present forthwith presage unto him that it will be much advantagious to his marriage in the meane time the Circumciser going on in his businesse with his mouth sucketh the bloud which abundantly floweth from the wound doing this two or three times and so spitting it forth into a bowle of Wine with which he afterwards in naming the Child besprinkleth his Face Then doth he clap upon the wound some Sanguis Draconis powder of Corall and other restringent things wrapping it about with plaisters of oyle of Roses and so binding it up close the Child is swathed againe the Child useth to have his wound healed in a short space and it is never above twenty foure houres in healing Solin Com. Draudius The People of Loango in the Province of Congo are Circumcised after the manner of the Hebrews Munst Cosmog lib. 5. cap. 76. The Mahometans also are circumcised but it is thought that Mahomet in the Alcoran commanded Circumcision not as any point of Religion but for meere superstition or as some say lest there should remaine some filth under the Prepuce after his Followers had washed themselves Munster describes the Turkish Circumcision after this manner Munst Cosmog lib. 4. cap. 78. a precious Banquet being prepared and their Friends thereunto invited to the Parents house The difference of the Mahometans and Jews Circumcision afterwards while they are at Banquet and during the Feast the Boy to be Circumcised is brought in whose Nut the Physitian doth uncover laying hold of the replicated skin with a paire of Pincers then to take away all feare from the Child he saies he will performe the Circumcision the next day but in the interim on a sudden he cuts off the Prepuce applying a little salt to the wound afterward he is led into the Bath with great Pompe This is celebrated at the seventh or eighth yeare of the childs Age who had before received his name at his Birth This Circumcision of Turkes is somewhat more favourable and not so deeply performed as the Judaicall A reverend ingenious Friend of mine who had been present and seen the manner of their Circumcision informes me that the Circumciser drawes the Prepuce a little over the end of the Nut and then laying hold of that part which is brought quite over with a paire of Pincers he cutteth it off with a knife and throws it into a Chafendish of Coales which stands by him afterwards with a certaine powder he cures the wound The Jews that dwell in Turky are for a note of distinction not only somewhat more largely circumcised but at their Circumcision the Prepuce in Dorso penis is a little slit up with the Priests naile and by this marke they use to distinguish a dead Jew from a Mahometan and to afford them differing Burials The Mahometans of Africa do excise themselves because a Prophet named Homer commanded them The manner of Circumcision at Ginney and Binney And there are women that have this office of cutting them but practice it not in the presence of men which Act is thought well of in the women and they go crying
are not very well agreed about the Naturall use thereof Vnlesse I be deceived saith Galen the Prepuce was only for beauty yet in another place he adds for an operiment because there is no great necessity of it which appeares out of experience for your Jews were as the Mahohometans are fruitfull although they be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Apella Ulmus thinks the skin of the Prepuce a great beauty as may be seene by the deformity of the Ape and they who say it was ordained for ornament do it not without good reason because upon the more dishonest part God and Nature or rather the God of Nature hath put the more honour that is the more covering Saint Ambrose therefore cannot be understood in a litterall sense where he saith that the Fore-skin was cut off that those which were the more ignoble members should put on and be surrounded with more comlinesse and honesty 'T is true one may be borne Circumcised by Nature and they write that Sem was so borne of which assertion there is no ground this naturall Circumcision is very rare but when the Prepuce is drawn back by Nature that it cannot cover the Glans or Nut The inconveniences of Circumcision this affection is called Capistratio This Fore-skin in the end of it sometimes is so contracted and drawn together that it cannot be drawn back or the Nut discovered without the help of a Chyrurgion Yet neither of these misprisions of Nature in this Organicall part are to be endeavoured by Art in a foolish imitation since Art was rather intended for the reformation of such unnaturall accidents Againe this Cutis Epiphisis as Galen cals it in Latine preputium or the Fore-skin à putando was devised that the Glans or Nut of the Yard or virile member might be kept smooth soft and glib it being a covering which ariseth from the skin of the Yard is brought forward and againe reflected and returned But when the Nut is uncovered that it might recover its cover againe this Prepuce is tyed in the lower part with a membranous band or tye which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vinculum caninum the Latines frenum in English the Bridle Archangelus cals it a Ligament This is that which bridleth or reineth up the Fore-skin on the lower side to the top of the Nut by that naturall signature exhibiting a cautionary prevention and the dislike of Nature of any of this kind of uncomely baldnesse So that these recited conveniences of Nature and others also are meerely lost by this Artifice and that cleannesse of any which they acquire by Circumcision is but a supposed benefit not worth so shamefull and odious an endeavour Pars insuper praeputii prominentior propendens in coitu nunc sursum nunc deorsum fertur ut hoc attritu magis incalescat cum mulierum voluptate tentigine cujus contentationis fruitione per hanc injuriosam inventionem defraudantur The injury of Circumcision For the shortnesse of the Prepuce is reckoned among the organicall diseases of the Yard whether it be originall or assititious by an Artificiall procision of it And although neither of these kinds of brevity doth incommodate the action of the Yard which is extention and eâ—aculation of the seed or prejudice fruitfulnesse Tamen Circumcisio aliquid à voluptate sexus alterius detrahit titilationem diminiendo hinc Illa in Epigrammate invisa fuit haec inventio magis rationabile putans addidisse huic organo quam substraxisse Hence also it is thought there commonly passeth opinions of invitement that the Jewish women desire copulation with the Christians rather than their own Nation and affect Christian Carnality before Circumcised Venery D. Brown Pseudoxia Epidem as the ingenious Examiner of Popular errours well notes And yet it is noted that the Turkes Persians and most Orientall Nations use Opium to extimulate them to Venery and they are thought to speake probably who affirme their intent and effect of eating Opium is not so much to invigorate themselves in Coition as to prolong the act and spin out the motions of Carnality which Venerian Prolongers were intended to lengthen the titillations of Lust luxurious Leachers thinking Nature too sudden in her motions And therefore Mahomet well knowing this their beastly and inordinate affection promiseth them that the felicity of their Paradise should consist in a Jubile of Conjunction that is a coition of one Act prolonged unto fifty yeares For any Naturall end therefore except in case of an Epidemicall disease or Gangrene to Circumcise The end of Judaicall Circumcision that is to cut off the top of the uppermost skin of the secret parts is directly against the honesty of Nature and an injurious unsufferable trick put upon her As for Circumcision commanded by God it was for a morall reason and had an expresse command otherwise Dr Whateley as a Grave Divine expresseth it in the case of Abraham as a naturall man it would have seemed the most foolish thing in the world a matter of great reproach which would make him as it made his Posterity after him to seeme ridiculous to all the world it carried an apparence of much indecency and shamefulnesse to cause all his servants to discover themselves unto him Much more might have been alleadged against this Ordinance What good could it do What was any man the better because he had wounded himselfe and put his body to torture And indeed as Lactantius Eucherius Irenaeus and all the Greeke and Latin Fathers say unlesse this mutilation of the flesh in the Iews did signifie the Circum-of the heart or had some figurative meaning in it as the taking away of Originall sin it would have been a most unreasonable thing For if God would have had only the Fore-skin cut off he had from the beginning made man without a Prepuce No little danger of life also they incurred in this case for the Iudaicall Circumcision was performed with a sharpe cutting stone and not with any knife of iron steeled a thing which was most dolorous and whereby the young tender Infants sometimes got a Feaver whereof they after dyed Howbeit they had enough to do with other occasions as the cutting and fall of the Navel whereby Hyppocrates giveth assurance that Children do incur divers dangers Thevet and many others who have voyaged into the Countries where this Circumcision is used Circumcision of women do say that they have seen store of young people dye grown to indifferent stature and young Children of eight daies old only by being Circumcised which may manifestly be proved by Sacred Histories The Sons of Jacob after they had fraudulently Circumcised all the Males of the City of Sichem scituate in the Land of Canaan they tooke them the third day after their Circumcision and made them passe the Edge of the Sword for they well knew that they were so sore and tormented with paine as they could not
Nailes 192 193 Long unpared nailes condemned as against the intention of Nature 296 The end of the growth of the nailes not to repaire their decay by wearing 298 Nailes never intended as weapons of offensive scratching in man or woman 298 299 That the care of conforming extravagant Nailes to the Law of Nature appertaines to reason and the practique intellect 264 295 296 297 Long Nailes thought by some to be a sin 297 The use of the Nailes 298 Where the women cut their nailes and jag them round 289 The dignity and majesty of Nature in the encrease of nailes defended 294 Where it is the fashion and beauty of the Country to make the nailes of their hands red yellow and party coloured and where they gild them 288 289 How they do it ibid. Their offence against Nature noted and the naturall beauty of the Naile vindicated 290 Necks MEn with Necks of a Cubit long 275 Nations with their Necks so long that they resemble the neck of a Crane ibid. 276 Long gangâ—ell Necks inconvenient ibid. Philoxenes his wish for a long Neck exploded ibid. Nations that have no Neck 277 That it is not impossible for a man to live without a Neck 278 An Infant borne without a neck 277 Where men and women have gutturall bottles hanging down at their throat even to their navels 278 The cause of that swelling in their throats 279 Nose VVHere the women cut and pare their Noses between their Eyes that they may seeme more flat and saddle Nosed 112 This trespasse against beauty and the majesty of Nature exploded 113 What benefits and reall beauties those people deprive themselves of by this affected deformity 114 Where they use to cut off their Nostrils from their Noses 115 Nations that have no Nose nor nostrils 116 The ornament and naturall beauty of the Nose maintained 116 117 The utility of the Nose and the beauty of office or officiall elegancy thereof declared 118 The reasons why the Nose was placed in the middle of the Face between the Eyes 114 Men whose Noses are slit like broken winded Horses 119 An Infant born with such Nostrils ibid. Where they are held for the finest women who have little Noses 120 What art they use to prohibit the increase of the Noses of their female children ibid. Where when they would make the portaicture of a deformed man they paint him with a long Nose ibid. That this fashion abates somewhat of their sagacity 120 Long Noses where affected 120 121 What art the Midwives there use to make the Nose more faire and longer ibid. The naturall proportion and symetry of the Nose 121 Their trespasse against Nature noted who upon pretence of beauty enlarge or prohibite the naturall extendure of the Nose ibid. Thick and great Noses where in request 121 122 Caused by an affectation of art ibid. The inconveniences and prejudice to Nature that may follow hereupon 122 123 Where the Inhabitants have all Camoyse or saddle Noses 123 124 125 That all Children are a little Camoise Nosed and why 133 That nature not alwaies needs the officious hands of Midwives in this case as if shee were not able to perfect her own work 134 Where the Midwives are too forward to help Nature in this case 133 Their pragmaticall artifice herein taxed ibid. The inconveniences of saddle Noses 127 An Ape-like Nose condemned 182 Flat plaine and broad Noses where esteemed a great Ornament and the principall part of beauty to consist therein 123 By what artifice their Childrens Noses are brought to this forme ibid. Whether a flat Nose can conferre any beauty to the face 129 A shooing horne-like-Nose where not affected 133 The reasons of the prominency of the Nose asserted 126 What inconveniences would have ensued upon a Nose bread in the spine or back 126 That these Nose Levellers may incurre some inconveniences and prejudice Nature not onely in those actions wherein it is profitable for the bettering of life but in those wherein it is necessary to life it selfe ibid. Whether these Nose-Levellers obtaine their end of advancing the beauty of their Faces 129 130 That a flat Ape-like Nose can never become a mans face 128 Wherein the beauty of the Nose consists 130 The naturall perfection of the Nose in men and women 131 What figure of the Nose agrees with such a face ibid. Where a high aquiline or hawks Nose was and is in request as a note of honour and magnanimity 134 135 That it was an honourable office to looke to the conforming of the Princes Nose to make it as beautifull as might be and crooked like a hawks bill ibid. Mercurialis his conjecture what artifice and instruments they used to conforme the Nose to their desire ibid. A Hawkes-Nose where gentililitious and native ibid. 136 That when there is an ill conformation of the Nostrils it belongs to the corrective part of medicine to reform it 135 A high prominent Nose where affected 1â—6 Nations who in a bravery and as an ensigne of nobility and greatnesse bore holes in their Noses wearing Nose-Jewels therein 137 13â— That foolish fashion of Nose Jewels exploded 139 140 Where they have markes on their Noses made for a bravery 138 How they make them ibid. That their invention was much put to it who first bored the Nose to introduce a fashion 139 That such an invention is to the prejudice of natures Nasall operations 140 Where they stick pins on their Noses 138 Wherein the beauty of the Nose consists 139 P Privy-parts VVHere they were in their yards betwixt the skin and the flesh Bels of Gold silver or brasse as big as nuts 347 â—48 A description of these yard bals 349 How and when they put them in 347 348 Why they were invented 348 This invention where it might be usefull against Sodomy 350 Absurd projects of women to gaine regard 351 Where it was a custome to fasten a Ring or Buckle on the foreskin of their Yard and for what ends 352 The art of infibulation or butning up the Prepuce with a brasse or silver button and whence it came 353 Where they weare rings in their Yards ibid. Where they trusse up their Genitals within their body ibid. Their ends of this Custome 354 Semi-Eunuchs or men with one stone one being alwaies taken from them by their Nurses 354 Men with three stones ibid. Whether the testicles be required to the forming of the voice 355 Who was the first that caused young male children to be made Eunuches 354 The reasons and ends of introducing Eunuchisme ibid. and 356 How many waies there are of this uÌ„natural dilapidatioÌ„ of the body 359 The time of mâ—king Eunuches 360 That the name Eunuch is but a cloake wherewith they cover the injury done to nature 357 The first rise of the reputation of such Semi-virs or halfe men ibid. The story of Gombalus ibid. Where they sell their children to be made Eunuches 359 Religious Eunuchs 358 The reason of their castration ibid.