many times is bigger than the Dolphin and put them to such pain that to auoid them they oftentimes are driuen to lance themselues and skip into the very ships Which propertie they haue also at other times for feare of the violence of other fishes most of all the Mullets haue this cast with them and this they doe with such exceeding swiftnesse and agilitie that they will fling themselues otherwhiles crosse ouer the ships CHAP. XVI ¶ Of presages and foretokenings by fishes and of their diuersitie NAture willing to endue this Element also of the water with some Auguries hath giuen to fishes likewise a kind of prescience and foreknowledge of things ro come And verily during the Sicilian war as Augustus Caesar walked along the shore vpon the sands there was a certain fish leapt forth of the sea and light at his very feet The Soothsaiers and wisards vpon this occurrent being sought vnto gaue this construction thereof and presaged thereby That they who at that time were lords of the sea and held it in subiection should be ranged vnder the obedience of Caesar and at his deuotion And yet at that present it is thought and said That god Neptune had adopted Sex Pompeius for his son so fortunate he was and such exploits had he atchieued vpon the sea The female kind of fishes are commonly bigger than the males And there are some sorts of them whereof there be no males at all but all females as the Erythini and the Chani For they be taken alwaies spawners and full of egs Fishes that be skaled for the most part swim in troups and sort together The best fishing is before the sun be vp for then fishes see least or not at all For if the nights be cleere and Moon-shine they see as well by night as day Moreouer they say that it is good fishing twise in one and the same hole for commonly vpon the second cast the draught is better than the first Fishes loue passing well to tast oile they ioy also and like well in soft gentle shewers therewith they wil feed and grow fat And good reason there is of it for why we see by experience that canes reeds although they breed in meers and standing waters yet they grow not to the purpose without rain Moreouer it is obserued that fish keeping euermore in one dead poole and neuer remoued wil die wheresoeuer it be vnlesse there fall rain water to refresh them All fishes feele the cold of a sharpe and hard winter but those especially who are thought to haue a stone in their head as the Pikes the Chromes Scienae Pagri If it be a bitter season in winter many of them are taken vp blind And therefore during those cold moneths they lurk hidden in holes and within rocks like as we haue said certain land creatures doe But aboue all others the Lobstars called Hippuri and the Coracini cannot abide extremity of cold therefore be neuer caught in winter vnles it be at certain times when they come forth of their holes which they keep duly and neuer stir but then In like sort the Lamproie the Orphe the Conger Perches and all Stone-fishes that loue rocks and grauell Men say verily that the crampefish the Plaice and the Sole lie hidden all winter in the ground that is to say in certain creuises and chinks which they make in the bottome of the sea Contrariwise some again be as impatient of heat and can as ill away with hot weather and therefore about Mid-summer for 60 daies they lie hidden and are not to be seen as the fish Glaucus the Cod and the Gilthead Of riuer fishes the Silurus or Sturgeon in the beginning of the dog-daies is blasted and stricken with a planet at other times also in a thunder lightening he is smitten so as therewith he is astonied and lieth for dead And some thinke that the like accident befalleth to the sea Bream Cyprinus And verily all quarters of the sea throughout feele the rising of the dog-starre but most of all the influence and power thereof is to be seen in the streight of Bosphorus for then may a man perceiue ordinarily the reits of the sea and the fishes flote aloft and the sea so troubled that euery thing is cast vp from the bottome to the vpper part of the water CHAP. XVII ¶ Of the Mullet and other fishes and that the same in all places are not of like request THe Mullets haue a naturall ridiculous qualitie by themselues to be laughed at for when they be afraid to be caught they wil hide their head and then they think they be sure enough weening that all their body is likewise hidden These Mullets neuerthelesse are so lecherous that in the season when they vse to ingender in the coasts of Phoenice Languedock if they take a milter out of their stews or pooles where they vse to keep them and draw a long string or line through the mouth and gils and so tie it fast and then put him into the sea holding the other end of the line still in their hands if they pul him again vnto them they shal haue a number of spawners or femals follow him hard at taile to the bank side Semblably if a man do the same with a female in spawning time hee shall haue as many milters follow after her And in this manner they take an infinit number of Mullets In old time our ancestors set more store by the Sturgeon it carried the name aboue all other fishes He is the only sish that hath the scales growing ouer the head hee swims against the streame But now adaies there is no such reckoning account made of him wherat I maruell much considering he is so hard and seldome to be found Some call him Elops afterwards Cornelius Nepos and Laberius the Poet and maker of mery rimes haue written that the sea Pikes and the cods got away all the credit from the Sturgeon were of greatest request As for the Pikes aforesaid the best and most commendable of all others be they which are called Lanati as a man would say cotton Pikes for the whitenesse tendernesse of their flesh Of cods there be two sorts Callariae or Haddocks which be the lesse and Bacchi which are neuer taken but in the deep and therfore they are preferred before the former But the Pikes that are caught in the riuer be better than all others The fish called Scarus now carrieth the price praise of all others this fish alone is said to chew cud to liue of grasse and weeds and not to prey vpon other fishes In the Carpathian sea great store of them is found by their good will they neuer passe the cape or promontorie Lectos in Troas In the daies of Tiberius Claudius the Emperor Optatius his freed man who sometime had bin a slaue of his and then Admiral and Lieutenant generall of a fleet vnder him brought them
but couetousnesse neuer consider that the same might with more safetie be performed by skill and learning And therfore seeing there be so many thousand poore sailers that hazard themselues on the seas I will treat of the winds more curiously and exquisitly than perhaps beseemes the present worke that is begun CHAP. XLVII ¶ Many sorts of Windes MEn in old time obserued foure Windes only according to so many quarters of the world and therefore Homer nameth no more a blockish reason this was as soone after it was iudged The Age ensuing added eight more and they were on the other side in their conceit too subtill and concise The Modern sailers of late daies found out a meane betweene both and they put vnto that short number of the first foure windes and no more which they tooke out of the later Therefore euery quarter of the Heauen hath two windes a piece From the equinoctiall Sunne-rising bloweth the East-winde Sub-solanus from the rising thereof in the Mid-winter the South-east Vulturnus The former of these twaine the Greekes call Apeliotes and the later Eurus From the Mid-day riseth the South winde and from the Sun-setting in Mid-winter the South-west Africus They also name these two Notus and Libs From the Equinoctiall going down of the Sun the West winde Fauonius commeth but from that in Summer season the North-west Corus And by the same Greekes they are termed Zephyrus and Argestes From the North waine or pole Ar cticke bloweth the North winde Septentrio betweene which and the Sun rising in Summer is the North-east winde Aquilo named Aparctias and Boreas by the Greekes A greater reckoning than this for number is brought in by some who haue thrust in foure more betweene namely Thracias betweene the North and the Summer setting of the Sunne in like manner Caecias in the midst betweene the North-east Aquilo and that of the Sun rising in the Equinoctiall Sub-solanus Also after the Sun-rising in Sommer Phoenicias in the middest betweene the South-east and the South Last of all betweene the South and the South-west Lybonotus iust in the middest compounded of them both namely betweene the Noonestead and the Sunsetting in Winter But here they could not lay a straw and see to make an end For others haue set one more yet called Mese betweene the North-east winde Borias and Caecias also Euronotus betweene the South and the Southwest winds Besides all these there be some winds appropriate and peculiar to euery nation which passe not beyond one certaine tract and region as namely Scyros among the Athenians declining a little from Argestes a winde vnknowne to other parts of Greece In some other place it is more aloft and the same then is called Olympias as comming from the high hill Olimpus But the vsuall and customable manner of speech vnderstandeth by all these names Argestes only Some call Caecias by the name of Hellespontias and giue the same winds in sundry places diuers names In the prouince likewise of Narbone the most notorious winde is Circius and for violence inferiour to none driuing directly before it very often the current at Ostia into the Ligurian sea The same wind is not only vnknown in all other climats of the heauen but reacheth not so much as to Vienna a citie in the same prouince As great boisterous a wind as he is otherwise yet a restraint he hath before he come thither and is kept within few bounds by the opposition of a meane and small hill Fabianus also auouches that the South winds enter not so far as into Aegypt Whereby the law of Nature sheweth it selfe plainely that euen windes haue their times and limits appointed To proceed then the Spring openeth the sea for sailers in the beginning whereof the West winds mitigate the Winter weather at what time as the Sun is in the 25 degree of Aquarius and that is the sixt day before the Ides of February And this order holdeth in manner with all other winds that I will set downe one after another so that in euery leape yeare ye anticipate and reckon one day sooner and then againe keep the same rule throughout all the foure yeares following Some call Fauonius which beginneth to blow about the 7 day before the Calends of March by the name of Chelidonius vpon the sight of the first Swallows but many name it Orinthias comming the 71 day after the shortest day in winter by occasion of the comming of birds which wind bloweth for nine dayes Opposite vnto Fauonius is the VVind which we called Sub-solanus Vnto this VVind is attributed the rising of the Vergiliae or seuen stars in as many degrees of Taurus six daies before the Ides of May which time is a southerly constitution and to this Winde the North is contrarie Moreouer in the hottest season of the Sommer the Dog-star ariseth at what time as the Sun entreth into the first degree of Leo which commonly is the 15 day before the Calends of August Before the rising of this star for eight daies space or thereabout the Northeast winds are aloft which the Greekes call Prodromi i. forerunners And two daies after it is risen the same winds hold still more stiffely and blow for the space of fortie daies which they name Etesiae The Suns heate redoubled by the hotnesse of that star is thought to be asswaged by them and no winds are more constant nor keep their set times better than they Next after them come the Southerne winds againe which are vsually vp vntill the star Arcturus riseth and that is nine daies before the Aequinoctiall in Autumne With it entereth Corus and thus Corus beginneth the Autumne And to this Vulturnus is contrarie After that Aequinoctiall about 44 daies the Virgiliae go downe and begin winter which season vsually falleth vpon the third day before the Ides of Nouember This is the winter Northeast wind which is far vnlike to that in Sommer opposit and contrary to Africus Now a seuen night before the Mid-winter day and as much after the sea is allaied and calme for the sitting and hatching of the birds Halciones whereupon these daies tooke the name Alcionis the time behind plaieth the part of Winter And yet these boisterous seasons full of tempests shut not vp the sea for pyrats and rouers at the first forced men with present perill of death to run headlong vpon their death and to hazard themselues in Winter seas but now a daies couetousnesse causeth men to do the like The coldest winds of all other be those which we said to blow from the North-pole and together with them their neighbor Corus These winds do both allay and still all others and also scatter and driue away clouds Moist winds are Africus and especially the South wind of Italy called Auster Men report also that Caecias in Pontus gathereth draweth to it selfe clouds Corus and Vulturnus are dry but onely in the end when they giue ouer The Northeast and the North engender snow
they call Hercules his town Two Arsinoites there be they and Memphites reach as farre as two the head of Delta Vpon it there do bound out of Affrica the two Ouafitae There be that change some names of these and set down for them other iurisdictions to wit Heroopolites and Crocodilopolites Between Arsinoites and Memphites there was a lake 250 miles about or as Mutianus saith 450 fifty paces deep i. 150 foot the same made by mans hand called the Lake Maeridis of a king who made it 72 miles from thence is Memphis the castle in old time of the Aegyptian kings From which to the Oracle of Hammon is twelue daies iournie so to the diuision of Nilus which is called Delta fifteen miles The riuer Nilus rising from vnknowne springs passeth thorow desarts and hot burning countries and going thus a mighty way in length is known by fame onely without armes without wars which haue discouered and found out all other lands It hath his beginning so far forth as Iabâ—… was able to search and find out in a hil of the lower Mauritania not far from the Ocean where a lake presently is seen to stand with water which they call Nilides In it are found these fishes called Alabetae Coracini Siluri and the Crocodile Vpon this argument presumption Nilus is thought to spring from hence for that the pourtract of this source is consecrated by the said prince at Caesaria in Iseum and is there at this day seene Moreouer obserued it is that as the Snow or rain do satisfie the countrie in Mauritania so Nilus doth encrease When it is run out of this lake it scorneth to run through the sandy and ouergrown places and hides himself for certaine daies iourny And then soone after out of a greater lake it breaketh forth in the country of the Massaesyli with Mauritania Caesarienses and lookes about viewing mens company carrying the same arguments still of liuing creatures bred within it Then once again being receiued within the sands it is hidden a second time for twenty daies iourny in the desarts as farre as to the next Aethiopes and so soone as hee hath once againe espied a man forth hee startes as it should seem out of that spring which they called Nigris And then diuiding Affrick from Aethiopia being acquainted if not presently with people yet with the frequent company of wild and sauage beasts and making shade of woods as he goes he cuts through the middest of the Aethiopians there surnamed Astapus which in the language of those nations signifieth a water flowing out of darkenesse Thus dasheth he vpon such an infinite number of Islands and some of them so mighty great that albeit he bare a swift streame yet is he not able to passe beyond them in lesse space than 5 daies About the goodliest and fairest of them Meroe the chanell going on the left hand is called Astabores that is the branch of a water comming forth of darkenesse but that on the right hand Astusapes which is as much as lying hid to the former signification And neuer taketh the name of Nilus before his waters meet again accord all whole together And euen so was he aforetime named Siris for many miles space and of Homer altogether Aegyptis and of others Triton here and there and euer and anon hitting vpon Islands and stirred as it were with so many prouocations and at the last enclosed and shut within mountaines and in no place he caries a rougher and swifter stream whiles the water that he beareth hastens to a place of the Aethiopians called Catadupi where in the last fall among the rockes that stand in his way he is supposed not to runne but to rush downe with a mighty noise But afterwards he becomes more milde and gentle as the course of his streame is broken and his violence tamed and abated yea and partly wearied with his long way and so though with many mouths of his he dischargeth himselfe into the Aegyptian sea Howbeit at certaine set daies he swelleth to a great height and when he hath trauelled all ouer Aegypt hee ouerfloweth the land to the great fertility and plenty thereof Many and diuers causes of this rising and increase of his men haue giuen but those which carry the most probabilitie are either the rebounding of the water driuen back by the winds Etesiae at that time blowing against it and driuing the sea withall vpon the mouths of Nilus or else the Summer rain in Aethiopia by reason that the same Etesiae bring clouds thither from other parts of the world Timaeus the Mathematician alledged an hidden reason therof to wit that the head and source of Nilus is named Phyala and the riuer it selfe is hidden as it were drowned within certain secret trenches within the ground breathing forth vapors out of reeking rockes where it thus lieth in secret But so soone as the sunne during those daies commeth neere drawne vp it is by force of heate and so all the while he hangeth aloft ouerfloweth and then againe for feare he should be wholly deuoured and consumed putteth in his head againe and lieth hid And this happeneth from the rising of the dog starre Sicinus in the Sunnes entrance into Leo while the planet standeth plumbe ouer the fountaine aforesaid for as much as in that climate there are no shadows to be seene Many againe were of a different opinion that a riuer Howeth more abundantly when the Sunne is departed toward the North pole which happeneth in Cancer and Leo and therefore at that time is not so easily dried but when he is returned once againe back toward Capricorn and the South pole it is drunke vp and therefore floweth more sparely But if according to Timaus a man would thinke it possible that the water should be drawne vp the want of shadowes during those daies and in those quarters continueth still without end For the riuer begins to rise and swell at the next change of the Moone after the Sun-steed by little and little gently so long as he passes through the signe Cancer but most abundantly when he is in Leo. And when he is entred Virgo he falleth and settleth low again in the same measure as he rose before And is cleane brought within his bankes in Libia which is as Herodotus thinketh by the hundreth day All the whiles it riseth it hath been thought vnlawfull for kings or gouernours to saile or passe in any vessell vpon it and they make conscrence so to do How high it riseth is known by markes and measures taken of certaine pits The ordinary height of it is sixteen cubits Vnder that gage the waters ouerflow not all Aboue that stint there are a let and hinderance by reason that the later it is ere they be fallen and downe again By these the seed time is much of it spent for that the earth is too wet By the other there is none at all by reason that the ground is dry and thirsty
yeelds a safe commodious hauen Also that the riuer Tuberum is nauigable along the bankes whereof the Parites inhabit And after them the Ichthyophagi who tooke vp so long a tract that they were 20 daies sailing by their coasts They make relation likewise of the Isle of the Sun named also the couch or bed of the nimphs This Island is red all ouer and no liuing creature will liue therin but is consumed perishes no man knoweth how or vpon what cause They speake besides of the nation of the Orians as also of Hytanis a riuer in Carmania which affordeth many baies and harbours yea and plentie of gold in the grauell and sand therof And here was the first place wherin they obserued that they had a sight of the North-pole star As for the starre Arcturus they affirmed that they saw it not euery night nor at any time all night long Furthermore that the country of the Achaemenides in Persea reached thus farre Ouer and besides that as they trauelled ordinarily they found good store of mines wherein was digged for brasse yron Arsenicke or Sardaracha and Vermilion And then they came to the cape of Carmania from which to the coast ouer-against them of the Marae a people in Arabia the cut ouer sea is 50 miles Vpon these coasts they discouered 3 Islands whereof Organa onely is inhabited by reason of fresh water within it and from the continent it lieth about 25 miles And foure Islands more they fell vpon euen in the Persian gulf ouer-against Persia. And about these Islands they might se sea-adders Serpents so monstruous great that as they came swimming toward them they put the very fleet in great fright for there were among them some 20 cubits long Beyond it they met with the Island Acrotadus likewise the Gaurates Isles wherein the nation the Chiani doe inhabit About the middle of this gulfe or arme of the sea the riuer Hiperus hath his course able to beare great hulkes and ships of burden Also the riuer Sitiogagus vpon which a man may passe in 7 daies to Pasargadia Also a riuer that is nauigable called Phirstimus and an Island within it but it is namelesse As for the riuer Granius which runs through Susiane it carries but small vessels Along the coast on the right hand of this riuer dwell the Deximontanes who dresse and prepare Bitumen Then the come to the riuer Oroatus with a dangerous hauen or mouth where it falls into the sea vnlesse a man be guided by skilfull pilots full against this riuer there are discouered 2 little Islands Past which the sea is very low and shallow full of shelues and sands more like a meere and marish water than a sea Howbeit there be certaine trenches or channels in it that draw deepe water wherein they may without danger saile Then met they with the mouth of the riuer Euphrates Also the lake which the two riuers Eulaeus and Tigris doe make neere vnto Characum And so from thence they arriued vpon the riuer Tigris at Susa. And there an end of the nauigation performed by Onesicritus and Nearchus For after they had beene three months embarked and in their voiage vpon the sea they found Alexander at Susa wherehe feasted and made solemne bankets and that was 7 monthes after he parted from them at Patalae And thus much concerning the voiage of Alexander his fleet Now afterwards from Syagrus a Promontory in Arabia it was counted vnto Patale 1332 miles held it was for certain then that the West wind with the people of that country call Hypalus was thought most proper for to make saile to the same place Howbeit the age ensuing discouered a shorter and safer cut namely if from the said promontorie or cape Syagrus they set their course directly to the mouth of the riuer Zizerus which maketh an harborough in India And in truth this passage held a long time vntill such time that in the end the merchants found out a more compendious and shorter course and gained by their voiage to India for euery yeere now they saile thither and for feare of pirats and rouers that were wont very much to infest and annoy them they vsed to embarke in their ships certaine companies of Archers And seeing that all these seas are now discouered and neuer before so certainly I will not thinke much of my pains to declare and shew the whole course of our Indian voiages from out of Aegypt And first and formost this is a thing worthy to be noted and obserued of euery man that there is not a yeere goeth ouer our heads but it costs our State to furnish a voiage into India 500 hundred thousand Sesterces i. fifty millions of Sesterces For which the Indians sendeth backe againe commodities and merchandise of their owne which being at Rome are sold for an hundred times as much as they cost or yeeld in the price an hundred fold gain But to returne againe to our voiage from Alexandria in Aegypt it is two miles to Iuliopolis from whence vpon the riuer of Nilus they saile 303 miles to Coptus which may be done in 12 daies space hauing the Etesian winds at the poupe From Coptus they trauell forwards vpon Cammels backs and for great default of water in those parts there be certain set places for bait lodging and watering The first is called Hydreuma 32 miles from Coptus The second one days journey from thence in a certaine mountaine The third watering place at another Hydreuma 95 miles from Coptus The fourth againe in a second mountaine The fifth is at a third Hydreuma of Apollo from Coptus 184 miles Beyond which the resting place is vpon another hill And then to Hydreuma the new from Coptus 234 miles Another water towne there is called Hydreuma the old named also Trogloditicum where two miles out of the port way lieth a garrison keeping watch and ward both day night and foure miles distant it is from new Hydreuma From whence they trauell to the towne Berenice an hauen towne standing vpon the red sea 258 miles from Coptus But for as much as the journey all this way is for the most part performed in the night season by reason of the excessiue heat the trauellers are forced to rest all the day long therefore twelue daies are set down for the whole voiage between Coptus and Berenice The time then that they vsually begin to set saile is about Midsummer before the dog daies or presently vpon the rising of the dog starre And about the 30 daies end they arriue to Ocelis in Arabia or els at Cama within Saba the countrey of incense A third port there is besides called Muza vnto which there is no resort of merchants out of India neither is it in request but with merchants that aduenture only for incense drugs spices of Arabia Howbeit peopled this country is within-forth and hath diuers great townes Of which Saphar is the principall and the
famous city Alexandropolis bearing the name of Alexander the first founder CHAP. XXVI Media Mesopotamia Babylon and Seleucia REquisit now it is and needfull in this place to describe the positure and situation of the Medians kingdom and to discouer all those countries round about as farre as to the Persian sea to the end that the description of other regions hereafter to be mentioned may the better be vnderstood Wherein this first and formost is to be obserued that the kingdome of Media on the one side or other confronteth both Persis and Parthia and casting forth a crooked and winding horne as it were toward the West seemeth to enclose within that compasse both the said realmes Neuerthelesse on the East side it confineth vpon the Parthians and Caspians on the South Sittacene Susiane and Persis Westward Adiabene and Northward Armenia as for the Persians they alwaies confronted the red sea whereupon it was called the Persian gulfe Howbeit the maritime coast thereof is called Cyropolis and that part which confineth vpon Media Elymais In this realme there is a strong fort called Megala in the ascent of a steep high hill so direct vpright that a man must mount vp to it by steps and degrees and otherwise the passage is very streight and narrow And this way leadeth to Persepolis the head city of the whole kingdome which Alexander the great caused to be rased Moreouer in the frontiers of this Realme standeth the city Laodicea built by king Antiochus From whence as you turn into the East the strong fort or castle Passagarda is seated which the sages or wise men of Persia called Magi do hold and therein is the tomb of Cyrus Also the citie Ecbatana belonging to these sages which Darius the king caused to be translated to the mountaines Between the Parthians and the Arians lie out in length the Parotacenes These nations and the riuer Euphrates serue to limit and bound the seuen lower realmes abouenamed Now are we to discourse of the parts remainitg behind of Mesopotamia setting a side one point and corner thereof as also the nations of Arabia wherof we spake in the former booke This Mesopotamia was in times past belonging wholly to the Assyrians dispersed into pettie villages and burgades all saue Babylon Ninus The Macedonians were the first that after it came vnder their hands reduced it into great cities for the goodnesse and plenty of their soile and territorie For now besides the abouenamed townes it hath in it Seleucia Laodicea and Artemita likewise within the quarters of the Arabians named Aroei Mardani Antiochea and that which being founded by Nicanor gouernor of Mesopotamia is called Arabis Vpon these ioine the Arabians but well within the countrey are the Eldamarij And aboue them is the citie Bura situat vpon the riuer Pelloconta beyond which are the Salmanes and Maseans Arabians Then there joine to the Gordiaeans those who are called Aloni by whom the riuer Zerbis passeth and so discharged into Tigris Neere vnto them are the Azones and Silices mountainers together with the Orentians vpon whom confronteth the city Gaugamela on the West side Moreouer there is Sue among the rocks aboue which are the Sylici and Classitae through whom Lycus the riuer runneth out of Armenia Also toward the Southeast Absitris and the town Azochis Anon you come down into the plains champion country where you meet with these towns Diospage Positelia Stratonicea Anthemus As for the city Nicephorium as we haue already said it is seated neer to the riuer Euphrates where Alexander the great caused it to be founded for the pleasant seat of the place and the commodity of the country there adioining Of the city Apamia we haue before spoken in the description of Zeugma from which they that goe Eastward meet with a strong fortified town in old time carrying a pourprise compasse of 65 stadia called the royall pallace of their great dukes potentates named Satrapae vnto which from all quarters men resorted to pay their imposts customs and tributes but now it is come to be but a fort and castle of defence But there continue still in their entire and as flourishing state as euer the city Hebata and Oruros to which by the fortunat conduct of Pompey the Great the limits and bounds of the Roman empire were extended and is from Zeugma 250 miles Some writers report that the riuer Euphrates was diuided by a gouernor of Mesopotamia and one arme thereof brought to Gobaris euen in that place where we said it parted in twain which was done for feare lest one day or other the riuer with his violent streame should indanger the city of Babylon They affirme also that the Assyrians generally called it Armalchar which signifieth a royall riuer Vpon this new arme of the riuer aforesaid stood sometime Agrani one of the greatest towns of that region which the Persians caused to be vtterly rased and destroyed As for the city of Babylon the chiefe city of all the Chaldaean nations for a long time carried a great name ouer all the world in regard whereof all the other parts of Mesopotamia and Assyria was named Babylonia it contained within the walls 60 miles the walls were 200 foot high and 50 thick reckoning to euery foot 3 fingers bredth more than our ordinary measure Through the middest of this goodly great city passeth the riuer Euphrates a wonderfull piece of worke if a man consider both the one and the other As yet to this day the temple of Iupiter Belus there stands entire This prince was the first inuenter of Astronomie It is now decayed and lieth waste and vnpeopled for that the city Seleucia stands so neere it which hath drawne from it all resort and traffique and was to that end built by Nicator within 40 miles of it in the very confluent where the new arm of Euphrates is brought by a ditch to meet with Tigris notwithstanding it is named Babylonia a free state at this day and subiect to no man howbeit they liue after the lawes and manners of the Macedonians And by report in this city there are 600000 citisens As for the walls thereof it is said they resemble an Eagle spreading her wings and for the soile there is not a territorie in all the East parts comparable to it in fertilitie The Parthians in despight again of this city and to do the like by it as somtime was done to old Babylon built the city Ctesiphon within three miles of it in the tract called Chalonitis euen to dispeople and impouerish it which is now the head city of that kingdom But when they could do little or no good thereby to discredit the said new Babylon of late dayes Vologesus their king founded another city hard by called Vologeso Certa Moreouer other cities there are besides in Mesopotamia namely Hipparenum a city likewise of the Chaldaeans and innobled for their learning as well as Babylon scituate vpon the riuer Narragon
infected and to change the colour thereupon Furthermore doubtlesse it is that children breed their fore teeth in the seuenth moneth after they are borne and first those in the vpper chaw for the most part likewise that they shed the same teeth about the seuenth yere of their age others come vp new in the place Certaine it is also that some children are borne into the world with teeth as M. Curius who thereupon was surnamed Dentatus and Cn. Papyrius Carbo both of them very great men and right honourable personages In women the same was counted but an vnlucky thing presaged some misfortune especially in the daies of the KK regiment in Rome for when Valeria was borne toothed the wizards and Soothsayers being consulted thereabout answered out of their learning by way of Prophesie That look into what citie she was caried to nource she should be the cause of the ruine and subuersion thereof whereupon had away shee was and conueied to Suessa Pometia a city at that time most flourishing in wealth and riches and it proued most true in the end for that city was vtterly destroied Cornelia the mother of the Gracchi is sufficient to proue by her own example that women are neuer borne for good whose genitall parts for procreation are growne together and yeeld no entrance Some children are borne with an entire whole bone that taketh vp all the gum instead of a row of distinct teeth as a son of Prusias king of the Bythinians who had such a bone in his vpper chaw This is to be obserued about teeth that they onely check the fire and burn not to ashes with other parts of the body and yet as inuincible as they are and able to resist the violence of the flame they rot and become hollow with a little catarrhe or waterish rheume that droppeth and distilleth vpon them white they may be made with certaine mixtures and medicines called Dentifices Some weare their teeth to the very stumps onely with vse of chawing others againe loose them first out of their head they serue not onely to grind our meat for our daily food and nourishment but necessary also they be for the framing of our speech The fore-teeth stand in good stead to rule and moderate the voice by a certaine consent and tuneable accord answering as it were to the stroke of the tongue and according to that row and ranke of theirs wherein they are set as they are broader or narrower greater or smaller they yeeld a distinction and varietie in our words cutting and hewing them thicke and short framing them pleasant plaine and ready drawing them out at length or smuddering and drowning them in the end but when they bee once falne out of the head man is bereaued of all means of good vtterance and explanation of his words Moreouer there are some presages of good or bad fortune gathered by the teeth men ordinarily haue giuen them by nature 32 in all except the nation of the Turduli They that haue aboue this number may make account as it is thought to liue the longer As for women they haue not so many they that haue on the right side in the vpper iaw two eie-teeth which the Latines call Dogs-teeth may promise themselues the flattering fauors of Fortune as it is well seene in Agrippina the mother of Domitius Nero but contrariwise the same teeth double in the left side aboue is a signe of euill lucke It is not the custome in any countrey to burne in a funerall fire the dead corps of any infant before his teeth be come vp but hereof will we write more at large in the Anatomie of man when wee shall discourse purposely of euerie member and part of the body Zoroastres was the onely man that euer wee could heare of who laughed the same day that he was borne his brain did so euidently pant and beat that it would beare vp their hands that laid them vpon his head a most certain presage fore-token of that great learning that afterward he attained vnto This also is held for certain and resolued vpon that a man at three yeares of age is come to one moitie of his growth and height As also this is obserued for an vndoubted truth that generally all men come short of the ful stature in time past and decrease stil euery day more than other and seldome shall you see the son taller than his father for the ardent heat of the elementarie fire whereunto the world enclineth already now toward the later end as somtimes it stood much vpon the waterie element deuoureth and consumeth that plentifull humor and moisture of naturall seed that engendreth all things and this appeareth more euidently by these examples following In Crete it chanced that an hill claue asunder in an earth-quake and in the chink thereof was found a body standing 46 cubits high some say it was the body of Orion others of Otus We find in chronicles records of good credit that the body of Orestes being taken vp by direction from the Oracles was seuen cubits long And verily that great and famous poet Homer who liued almost 1000 yeres ago complained and gaue not ouer That mens bodies were lesse of stature euen then than in old time The Annales set not downe the stature and bignesse of Naevius Pollio but that he was a mighty gyant appeareth by this that is written of him namely that it was taken for a wonderfull strange thing that in a great rout presse of people that came running together vpon him he had like to haue bin killed The tallest man that hath bin seen in our age was one named Gabbara who in the daies of prince Claudius late Emperor was brought out of Arabia nine foot high was hee and as many inches There were in the time of Augustus Caesar 2 others named Pusio and Secundilla higher than Gabbara by halfe a foot whose bodies were preserued and kept for a wonder in a charnell house or sepulchre within the gardens of the Salustians Whiles the same Augustus sate as president his niece Iulia had a little dwarfish fellow not aboue 2 foot and a hand bredth high called Conopas whom she set great store by and made much of as also another she dwarfe named Andromeda who somtime had been the slaue of Iulia the princesse and by her made free M. Varro reporteth that Manius Maximus and M. Tullius were but two cubits high yet they gentlemen and knights of Rome and in truth we our selues haue seen their bodies how they lie embalmed and chested which testifieth no lesse It is well knowne that there be some that naturally are neuer but a foot and a halfe high others again somwhat longer and to this heigth they came in three yeres which is the full course of their age and then they die Wee reade moreouer in the Chronicles that in Salamis one Euthimenes had a son who in three yeres grew to be three cubits high
waspes hunt after the greater flies and when they haue whipt off their heads carry away the rest of their bodies for their prouision The wild Hornets vse to keep in hollow trees all winter time like other Insects they lie hid and liue not aboue two yeres If a man be stung with them hardly he escapes without an ague and some haue written that 27 pricks of theirs will kill a man The other Hornets which seeme to be the gentler be of two sorts the lesse of body do worke and trauell for their liuing and they die when winter is come but the greater sort of them continue two yeares and those also are nothing dangerous but mild and tractable These make their nests in the spring and the same for the most part hauing foure dores or entries vnto them wherein the lesser labouring hornets abouesaid are ingendred When those are quick brought to perfection gotten abroad they build longer nests in which they bring forth those that shall be mothers and breeders by which time those yong hornets that worke be ready to do their businesse and feed these other Now these mothers appeare broader than the rest and doubtfull it is whether they haue any sting or no because they are neuer seen to thrust them forth These likewise haue their drones among them as wel as Bees Some think that toward winter these all do lose their stings Neither Hornets nor Waspes haue kings or swarmes after the maner of Bees but yet they repaire their kind and maintaine their race by a new breed and generation CHAP. XXII ¶ Of Silk-wormes the Bombylius and Necydalus And who first inuented silke cloath AFourth kind of flie there is breeding in Assyria greater than those aboue named called Bombyx i. the Silke-worme They build their nests of earth or clay close sticking to some stone or rock in manner of salt and withall so hard that scarcely a man may enter them with the point of a spear In which they make also wax but in more plenty than bees and after that bring forth a greater worme than all the â—…est before rehearsed These flies ingender also after another sort namely of a greater worme or grub putting forth two hornes after that kind and these be certain canker-wormes Then these grow afterwards to be Bombylij and so forward to Necydali of which in six moneths after come the silke-wormes Bombyces Silk-worms spin weaue webs like to those of the spiders and all to please our dainty dames who thereof make their fine silks and veluets forme their costly garments and superfluous apparell which are called Bombycina The first that deuised to vnweaue these webs of the silke-worme and to weaue the same againe was a woman in Coos named Pamphila daughter of Latous and surely she is not to be defrauded of her due honor and praise fot the inuention of that fine silke Tiffanie Sarcenet and Cypres which in stead of apparell to couer and hide shew women naked thorough them CHAP. XXIII ¶ Of the Silkeworme in Cos. IT is commonly said that in the Isle Cos there be certaine Silkwormes engendred of floures which by the meanes of rain-showers are beaten downe and fall from the Cypres tree Terebinth Oke and Ash and they soone after doe quicken and take life by the vapor arising out of the earth And men say that in the beginning they are like vnto little Butterflies naked but after a while being impatient of the cold are ouergrowne with haire and against the winter arme themselues with good thick-clothes for being rough-footed as they are they gather all the cotton and downe of the leaues which they can come by for to make their fleece After this they fal to beat to felt thicken it close with their feet then to card it with their nailes which done they draw it out at length and hang it betweene branches of trees and so kembe it in the end to make it thin and subtill When al is brought to this passe they enwrap enfold themselues as it were in a round bal and clew of thread and so nestle within it Then are they taken vp by men put in earthen pots kept there warme and nourished with bran vntill such time as they haue wings acording to their kind and being thus well clad and appointed they be let go to do other businesse Now as touching the wooll or fleece which they haue begun men suffer it to relent in some moisture and so anon it is spun into a small thread with 〈◊〉 spindle made of some light Kex or Reed This is the making of that fine Say wherof silk cloth is made which men also are not abashed to put on and vse because in summer they would go light and thin And so far do men draw back now a daies from carying a good corslet armor on their backs that they think their ordinarie apparell doth ouer-lode them Howbeit hitherto haue they not medled with the Assyrian Silkworme but left it for the fine wiues and dames of the city CHAP. XXIV ¶ Of Spiders and their generation IT were not amisse to joine hereunto a discourse of Spiders for their admirable nature which deserues a speciall consideration Wherin this is first to be noted that of them there be many kinds and those so well known vnto euery man that needles is to be particularize stand much vpon this point As for those which be called Phalangia their stinging and biting is venomous their bodie small of diuers colors and sharpe pointed forward and as they go they seeme to hop and skip A second sort be black and their feet are exceeding long All of them haue in their legs three joints The least of this kind called Lupi spin not at all nor make any webs The greater stretch forth their webs before the small entries into their holes within the ground But the third kind of Spiders be they which are so wonderfull for their fine spinning and skilful workmanship these weaue the great and large cobwebs that we see yet their very womb yeeldes all the matter and stuffe wherof theybe made Whether it be that at some certain season naturally their belly is so corrupt as Democritus saith or that within it there is a certain bed as it were which engenders the substance of silke But surely whatsoeuer it is so sure and steadie nailes the Spider hath so fine so round and euen a thread she spinnes hanging thereunto herselfe and vsing the weight of her owne bodie in stead of a wherue that a wonder it is to see the manner thereof She begins to weaue at the very mids of the web and when she hath laid the warpe brings ouer the woofe in compasse round The mashes and marks she dispenses equallâ—… by euen spaces yet so as euery course growes wider than other and albeit they do increase still from narrow to be broader yet are they held and tied fast by knots that canot be vndone Mark I
The chiefe commeth from Parapotamia the second from Antiochia and Laodicea in Syria and a third sort from the mountaines of Media and this is best for medicine Some prefer before all these that which groweth in the Island Cyprus As for that which is made in Africke it is meet for Physitions onely and is called Massaris Now the better euer is that which they gather from the white wild vine than from the black Moreouer there is another tree which serues for perfumes some call it Elate and we Abies i. the Fir others Palma or the Date and some againe Spathe That which grows about the sands of Africk where Iupiter Hammons temple standeth is highly commended aboue the rest and after it that in Aegypt Next thereto is the Syrian This tree is odoriferous when it grows in dry places only it hath in it a certaine fat liquor or Rosin and entreth into compositions of sweet ointments for to correct and mitigate the other oile In Syria there is a drug which they call Cinnamum Caryopon A iuice or oyle this is pressed out of a certain nut This Cinnamon differeth much in forme from the stickes of true Cinnamon indeed aboue specified although in smell it commeth neare vnto it A pound thereof is worth to be bought and sold 40 Asses i. 2 shil 6. d. THE THIRTEENTH BOOK OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS The Proeme THus far forth the woods and forrests are of estimation in regard of the pleasure they doe vnto vs for perfumes and sweet odors and in truth if we consider duly these aromaticall plants admirable they be cuerie one in their kinde euen as they be weighed apart by themselues alone But such is the riot and super fluitie of man that being not content with that perfection of Nature shining in those plants and trees aboue rehearsed he hath not ceased to mingle and compound them and so of them all together for to make one confused smell and thus were our sweet ointments and precious perfumes deuised whereof we purpose to write in this booke next insuing CHAP. I. ¶ Of Ointments Perfumes and their compositions and when they came into knowledge first at Rome AS touching the inuention of Ointments it is not well knowne who was the first that deuised them Certaine it is that during the raigne of the Troianes and whilest Ilium stood men knew not what they meant nay they vsed not so much as Incense in Sacrifice and diuine seruice The sume and smoke of the Cedar and the Citron trees onely the old Troianes were acquainted with when they offered sacrifice their fuming and walming steame more truly I may so terme it than any odoriferous perfume they vsed which they might easily come by since they were plants growing among them and so familiar notwithstanding they had found out the iuice of Roses wherwith yet they would not correct the foresaid strong fumes in those daies for that also was knowne to be a commendable qualitie of Oile Rosate But the truth is The Persians and none but they ought to be reputed the inuentors of precious perfumes and odoriferous ointments For they to palliate and hide the ranke and stinking breath which commeth by their surfet and excesse of meats and drinkes are forced to helpe themselues by some artificiall meanes and therefore goe euermore all to be perfumed and greased with sweet ointments And verily so farre as euer I could finde by reading histories the first prince that set such store by costly perfumes was King Darius among whose coffers after that Alexander the Great had defeated him and woon his campe there was found with other roiall furniture of his a fine casket full of perfumes and costly ointments But afterwards they grew into so good credit euen among vs that they were admitted into the ranke of the principal pleasures the most commendable delights and the honestest comforts of this life And more than that men proceeded so far as therewith to honour the dead as if by right that duty belonged to them And therefore it shall not be amisse to discourse of this theame more at large Wherein I must aduertise the Reader by the way that for the present I will but only name those ingredients that go into the composition of these ointments such I mean as came not from herbs and trees shrubs plants reseruing the treatise of their natures vertues and properties vnto their due place First and formost therefore all perfumes took their names either of the country where they were compounded or of the liquors that went to their making or of the plants that yeelded the simples and the drugs or els of the causes and occasions proper and peculiar vnto them And here it would be noted also principally that the same ointments were not alwaies in like credit and estimation but one robbed another of their honor and worth insomuch as many times vpon sundry occasions that which was lately in request and price anon gaue place to a new and later inuention At the first in antient time the best ointments were thought to come from Delos but afterwards those that were brought out of Aegypt no talke then but of Mendesium compounded at Mendes a city there And this varietie and alteration was not occasioned alwaies by the diuersity of composition and mixture but otherwhiles by reason of good or bad drugs for ye should haue the same kind of liquors and oiles better in this country for one purpose and in that for another yea and that which in some place was right and true the same did degenerat and grow to a bastard nature if you changed once the region for a long time the oile or ointment of Iris or the Floure-de-luce root made at Corinth was in much request and highly praised but afterwards that of Cizicum won the name and credit for the artificiall composition thereof Semblably the oile of Roses that came from Phaselus was greatly called for but in processe of time Naples Capua and Praeneste stole that honor and glory from thence in that behalfe The ointment of Saffron confected at Soli in Cilicia imported for a good while and carried the praise alone but soone after that of Rhodes was euery mans money The oile drawne out of the floures of the wild vine in Cyprus bare the name once but afterwards that of Egypt was preferred before it in the end the Adramyttians gained the credite and commendation from both places for the perfect and absolute confection thereof The ointment made of Marjoram gaue credit for a certain time to the Isle Cos but not long after their name was greater for another made of Quinces As for the oile Cyprinum which came of Cypros the best was thought to be made in Cyprus but afterwards there was a better supposed to be in Egypt where the ointments Metopium and Mendesium all of a sudden were better accepted than all the rest It was not long first but that Phoenice put Aegypt
determine all quarrels These shafts they arme with sharpe barbed arrow heads in manner of fish-hooks which wound with a mischiefe because they cannot be drawne out of the body againe and to make these arrowes flie the faster and kill more presently they set feathers vnto them Now say that a shaft be broken as it is set fast in the body that end without the flesh wil serue againe to be shot so inured are the people in those parts to these kind of weapons so practised withall in discharging of them so nimbly that a man seeing how thick the shafts flie in the aire would say they were a cloud of arrowes that shadowed the very Sun And therefore when they goe to battell they wish euer for faire weather and Sunne-shine daies Windes and raine as most aduerse vnto their warres they cannot abide then are they quiet and rest in peace ful sore against their wils because their weapons at such a time wil not serue their turne Certes if a man would fall to an exact reckoning and aestimate of Aethyopians Egyptians Arabians Indians Scythians and Bactrians of so many nations also of the Sarmatians and other East-countries together with all the kingdomes of the Parthians hee should finde that the one moietie or halfe of the world hath been vanquished and conquered by the meanes of arrowes and darts made of Reedes The Candiots aboue all others were so readie and perfect in this kinde of feat that the ouerweening of their owne skill and the confidence which they had in this manner of seruice made them too bold and was in the end their owne ouerthrow But herein also as in all other things else whatsoeuer Italie hath carried the name and woon the prize for there is not a better Reed growing for to make shafts than that which is found about the Rhene a little riuer running vnder Bononia very full of marrow or pith stiffe also it is and weightie withall it cutteth the aire it flyeth away most swiftly and last of all it will hold the owne and stand in the weather so counterpoised that no winde hath any power on it And those Reeds in Picardie and the Low-countries are nothing comparable ne yet of Candie how highly soeuer they be commended for warre-seruice And yet the Reeds that grow in India be preferred before them and beare the name which indeed some thinke to be of another nature considering they bee so firme and bigge withall that beeing well headed with yron they serue in stead of Speares and Iauelins In very truth the Indian Canes for the most part grow to the bignesse of Trees such as we see commonly in Temples standing there for a shew The Indians doe affirme that there is a difference amongst them also in regard of sexe and namely That the substance and matter of the male is more fast and massie but that of the female larger and of greater capacitie within Moreouer if wee may beleeue their words the verie Cane betweene euery ioint is sufficient to make a boat These great Canes do grow principally along the riuer Acesine All Reeds in generall doe shoot and spring in great number from one root and principall stocke and the more they bee cut the better they come againe The root liueth long and without great iniurie offered vnto it will not die it also is divided into many knottie ioints Those onely of India haue short leaues But in all of them the leafe springeth out of the ioint which embracing the Cane doth clad it round about with certaine thin membranes or tunicles as far as to the middle space between the ioints and then for the most part they giue ouer to claspe the Cane and hang downeward to the ground As well Reeds as Canes spread their leaues like wings round one after another on either side vpon the very ioints and that in alternatiue course alwaies very orderly so as if the one sheath come forth of the right side the other at the next ioint or knot aboue it putteth out on the left and thus it doth throughout by turnes From these nodosities otherwhiles a man shall perceiue as it were certaine little branches to breake foorth and those bee no other but small and slender Reeds Moreouer there be many kindes of Reedes and Canes for some of them stand thicker with ioints and those are more fast and solid than others small distance there is between the same there be again that haue not so many of them and greater space there is from the one to the other and such Canes for the most part are of a thinner substance Yee shall haue a Cane all full of holes within called therupon Syringias and such are very good to make whistles or smal flutes because they haue within them neither gristly nor fleshy substance The Orchomenian Cane is hollow throughout from one end to the other and this they call Auleticus or the pipe Cane for as the former was fit for flutes so is this better for great pipes Now you shall meet with Canes also that stand more of the wood haue but a narrow hole and concauity within and this is full of a spungeous pith or marow within-forth Some be shorter some longer than other and where you haue one that is thin and slender you shall spie a fellow to it more grosse and thicker That which brancheth most putteth forth greatest store of shoots is called Donax and is neuer known to grow but in marishes and watery places for herein also lieth a difference and preferred it is far before the Reed that commeth vp in dry ground The archers reed is a seuerall kind by it selfe as we haue shewed before but of this sort those in Candy haue the greatest spaces betweene euery ioint and if they be made hot they are very pliable and will bend and follow which way soeuer a man would haue them Moreouer Reeds are distinguished one from another by the leafe not for the number but the strength and colour The leaues of those about Lacedaemon are stiffe and strong growing thicker of the one side than of the other And such as these are thought generally to grow along standing pooles and dead waters far vnlike to those about running riuers and besides to be clad with long pellicles which claspe and climbe about the Cane higher aboue the ioint than the rest doe Furthermore there is another kind of Reeds that groweth crooked and winding trauers and not vpright vnto any height but creeping low toward the ground and spreading it selfe in manner of a shrub Beasts take exceeding great delight to feed thereof and namely when it is young and tender for the sweet and pleasant taste that it hath Some cal this Reed Elegia Ouer and besides there breedeth in Italy also among the fens a certain salt fome named Adarca sticking to the rind or vtmost barke of Reedes and Canes onely vnder the verie tuft and head passing good it is for the
and sharpned that their steles helues or handles be fitted and set to their heads that shaken tubs barrels and such like vessels be new cowped bound with hoops and calfretted that their staues â—…e well scraped and cleansed or else new set into them And thus much of this Winter Quarter as farre as to the comming of the Westerne winde Favonius Now as touching the entrance of the new Spring which is from the rising of the said winde to the Equinox in March Caesar sets downe for it the time which for three daies together is variable and inconstant weather to wit seuenteen daies before the calends of March which is the thirteenth of Februarie Also 8 daies before the said Calends which is the 22 of Februarie vpon the sight of the first Swallow and the morrow after vpon which day the star Arcturus riseth Vespertine i. appeareth in the â—…ning In like manner Caesar hath obserued that the said wind hath begun to blow three daies before the Nones of March to wit the fift of March just with the rising or apparition of the Crab-star Cancer Howbeit most writers of Astrologie do assigne the first entry of the Spring and the comming of this wind to the 8 day before the Ides of March which is the eight of that moneth when as the star Vinâ—…emiator id est the Grape-gatherer beginneth to appeare at what time also the Northerly starre called the Fish ariseth vpon the morrow whereof to wit the ninth day the great starre Orion sheweth himselfe in his likenesse In the region Atâ—…ica where Athens standeth it is obserued that the star Milvus i the Kite or Glede appeareth then in that climat Caesar moreouer noted that the star Scorpio rises vpon the Ides of March those fatall Ides I say that were so vnfortunate vnto himselfe also that vpon the 15 Calends of Aprill which is the 18 of March the foresaid Milvus i the Kitestar appeareth to them in Italie and three daies after the Horse-star is hidden toward the morning This is the freshest the most busie or stirring interual or time between that husbandmen haue and yet therin they be oftenest deceiued for commonly called they are not to their work the very same day that the wind Fauonius should by course blow but when it begins to be aloft which is a point to be considered and obserued with right great regard for if a man would take heede and marke well this is that moneth wherein God giueth vs that sure and infallible sign which neuer faileth Now from what quarter or coast this wind doth blow and which way it commeth albeit I haue shewed alreadie in the second booke of this storie yet will I speake thereof more distinctly and exactly anon mean while from that day whensoeuer it hapneth on which that wind beginneth to blow come it sooner as namely when it is a timely and forward spring or come it later if it be a long winter for it is not alwaies the sixth day just before the Ides of February from that time I say must the rustical paisants settle to their work then are they to goe about a world of toilesome labour then must they plie their businesse and make speed to dispatch those things first that may not be defer'd put off then or neuer would their summer three month corne be sowne their vines be pruned in manner abouesaid their Oliue trees dressed and trimmed accordinglâ—… Apple-tree stocks and such like fruits are then to to be set and graffed then is the time to be digging and deluing in vineyards to remoue some yong plants out of their seminaries and digest them in order as they must grow and to supply their plots with new seed and impes Canes and Reeds Willows and Osiers Broom also would then some be set and others cut downe Elmes Poplars and Plane trees ought then to be planted as hath been said before then is the meetest season to cleanse the corne fields to sarcle and rid the winter corn from weeds and especially the bearded red wheat Far in doing wherof this must be the certain rule to direct the husbandmen namely when the root of the said Far begins to haue foure strings or threads to it As for Beans they must not be medled withall in that order before they haue put out three leaues and then verily they must be lightly gone ouer and cleansed rather with a light hooke than otherwise When Beanes be bloumed for 15 daies together they ought not to be touched As touching Barley it would not be sarcled or raked but in a drie ground and when the weather holds vp Order the matter so that by the Aequinox in March all your pruning and binding of Vines be done and finished If it be a vineyard foure men are enough to cut and tie an acre of vines and if they grow to trees one good workeman will be able to ouercome fifteen trees in one day This is the very time moreouer of gardening and dressing rose-plots or rosiers whereof I mean to treat apart and seuerally in the booke next following of drawing vinets also knots and fine storie works in gardens this is the only season to make trenches and ditches the ground also would now be broken vp for a fallow against the next yeare according to the mind and counsell of Virgil especially to the end that the Sunne might throughly parch and concoct the clots and thereby make it more mellow for the Seednes Howbeit I doe like better of their opinion as the more thristie and profitable of the two who aduise to plough no ground in the mids of the Spring but that which is of a mean temperature for if it be rich and fat presently the weeds will ouergrow and take vp the seams and furrowes againe say it be poore and leane the hot weather comming so soon vpon the fallow will dry it too fast spend all the moisture and kill the heart therof which should maintain the seed When thou hast found out in this maner the North-east wind Aquilo be sure that the wind which bloweth ful against it from the point where the Sun setteth in midwinter when daies be shortest is the Southwest called in Latin Africus and in Greek Lybs Obserue this wind wel for if a beast after she be couered turn about directly into this wind she will for certaine conceiue a female And thus much of the Line in the Quadrant next to the North point on the East side The third line from the North point which we drew first through the latitude of the shadow before said and which we called Decumana pointeth out the Equinoctial Sun-rising in March and September directeth thee also to the East wind vnder it called in Latine Subsolanus and in Greek Apeliotes Where the climat is healthful and temperat let vineyards be planted and arranged into this wind let ferm-houses also in the country be so built as the dores and windowes open into it This wind
the pleurisie Touching that Plant which the French cal Halum the Venetians Cotonea it is holden excellent for the griefe of the sides for the reines those that be plucked with the cramp and bursten by any inward rupture this herb somwhat resembleth wild Origan or Marjeram saue that in the â—…ead it is like rather vnto Thyme sweet it is in tast and quencheth thirst a spungeous and â—…ht root it hath in one place white in another black Of the same operation for the paires of the â—…de is Chamaerops an herbe which hath leaues growing double about the stalk and those like vnto the Myrtle leaues and bearing certain buttons or heads much after the manner of the Greekish Rose and the way to take it is in wine Agarick drunk in that order as it was prescribed for the cough doth assuage the paine of the Sciatica and the back bone Semblably doth the pouder of dried Stoechas or Betony if it be taken in mead or honied water CHAP. VIII ¶ Of all the infirmities and remedies of the belly and those parts that either be adioining to it or within contained The means how to loosen and bind the belly TOuching the panch or belly much ado there is with it and although most men care for nothing els in this life but to content and please the belly yet of all other parts it putteth them to most trouble for one while it is so costiue as that it will giue no passage to the meat another while so slippery as it will keep none of it one time you shal haue it so peeuish as that it can receiue no food and another time so weake and feeble that it is able to make no good concoction of it And verily now adaies the world is growne to that passe that the mouth and panch together are the chiefe meanes to worke our death The wombe I say the wickedest vessell belonging to our bodies is euermore vrgent like an importunat creditour demanding debt and oftentimes in a day calleth vnto vs for victuals for the bellies sake especially we are so couetous to gather good for the belly we lay vp so many dainties and superfluities to content the belly we stick not to saile as far as the riuer Phasis and to please the belly we seek sound the bottome of the deep seas and when all is done no man euer thinketh how base and abject this part of the body is considering that filthy ordure and excrement which passeth from it in the end No maruell then if Physitians be much troubled about it and be forced to deuise the greatest number of medicines for the help and cure thereof And to begin with the staying and binding of it a dram of Scordotis the herbe stamped greene and taken in wine doth the feat so doth the decoction thereof if it be drunke Also Polemonia is a soueraigne herb to be giuen in wine for the bloudy flix The root of Mullen or Lungwort taken to the quantity of two fingers in water worketh the same effect The seed of Nymphaea Heraclea drunk in wine is of the like operation so is the vpper part of the double root of Glader or the Flagge ministred to the weight of two drams in vineger To this purpose also serueth Plantaine seed done into pouder and put into a cup of wine or the herb it selfe boiled with vineger or els frumenty pottage taken with the juice thereof Plantaine sodden with Lentils or the pouder of the dry herb strewed like spice into drinke together with the pouder of starched Poppie The iuice also of Plantain or of Betony put into wine that hath bin heat with a red hot gad of steele either ministred by clystre or drunk in the said case is very commendable Moreouer the same Plantain or Betony is singular to be giuen in some green or austere wine for those who are troubled with the lask proceeding from a weake stomack and for that purpose Iberis may be applied vnto the region of their belly as I haue before said In the disease Tinesmus which is an inordinat quarrell to the stool and a straining vpon it without doing any thing the root of Nemphar or Nymphaea Heraclia is singular good to bee drunk in wine likewise Fleawort taken in water the decoction of Galangale root the juice of Housleeke or Sengreene stoppeth the flux of the womb staieth the bloudy flix and chaseth out of the body the round worms The root of Comfrey and of the Carot stoppeth likewise the bloudy flix The leaues of Housleeke stamped and taken in wine are singular good against the wringing torments of the belly The pouder of dried Alcaea drunk cureth the said wrings Astragalus i. Pease Earth-nut an herb bearing long leaues indented with many cuts or jags and those which be about the root made bias riseth vp with three or foure stems full of leaues carieth a floure like to the Hyacinth or Crow toes the roots are bearded and full of strings enfolded one within another red of colour and exceeding hard in substance it groweth in rockes and stonie grounds exposed to the Sun and yet charged or couered with snow the most part of the yeare such as is the mountain Pheneus in Arcadia This herb hath an astringent power the root if it be drunk in wine bindeth the belly by which means it prouoketh vrine namely by driving backe the serous and watery humors to the reines like as most of those simples that be astringent that way are diureticall The same root stamped and taken in red wine healeth the exulceration of the guts thereby staieth the bloudy flix but suâ—…ely hard it is to bruise or stamp it the same is singular for the apostumation of the gums if they be fomented therwith the right season to draw and gather those roots is in the end of Autumne when the herb hath lost the leaues and then they ought to be dried in the shade Both sorts of Ladanum growing among corne be excellent for to knit the belly if they be stamped and searced The manner is to drink them in mead likewise in wine to represse choler Now the herb whereof Ladanum is made is called Lada groweth in the Island Cypros the liquor wherof sticketh commonly to goats beards The excellent Ladanum commeth out of Arabia There is a kind of it made now adaies in Syria and Africke which they call Toxicon for that in those countries the people vse to take their bow strings lapped about with wooll trail the same after them among those plants which beare Ladanum and so the fattie dew cleaueth therto Of this Ladanum I haue written more at large in my treatise of ointments redolent compositions but this later kind is strongest in sauor hardest in hande and no maruell for it gathereth much grosse and earthy substance whereas indeed the best Ladanum is commended and chosen when it is pure clear odoriferous soft green and full of rosin The
filthy matter a liniment or salue made of the root of all kinds of Panaces wine together are thought to be a soueraigne means to heale them But that Panaces which they call Chironia hath a singular property aboue the rest to drie vp such sores the same root beaten to pouder and incorporat with honey breaketh and openeth any swelling impostumes This herb tempered with wine it makes no matter whither you take floure seed or root so it be applied with Verdegrease or the rust of brasse healeth any sores be they neuer so desperat and principally such vlcers as be corrosiue and eat as they go The same if it be mingled with fried Barly meal is good for old festered vlcers Also Heraclion Sidâ—…rion Henbane Fleawort Tragacanth and Scordotis incorporat accordingly with hony cleanse the said sores As for this last named the very pouder of it alone strewed vpon vlcers eateth away the excrescence of proud flesh Polemonia healeth those malignant sores which be called morimals and are hard to be cured Centaury the greater reduced either into a pouder and so cast vpon the sore or brought into a liniment and applied accordingly the tops also of the lesse Centaurie either sodden or beaten to pouder do mundifie and heale vp all inueterate and cankered vlcers The tender crops or husks of Clymenos are good to be laid vnto fresh green wounds Moreouer the root of Gentian either stamped or boiled in water to the consistence of hony or the very iuice thereof serueth very well to be applied vnto corrosiue and eating vlcers like as a kind of Lycium made of it is as appropriat for wounds Lysimachia is an excellent wound herb and healeth wounds speedily if they be taken whiles they be new Plantam is a great healer of any sore whatsoeuer but principally of such vlcers as be in the bodies of women children and old folk If it be made soft tender at the fire first it doth the cure so much the better and being incorporat in some ordinary cerot it mundifieth and cleanseth the thicke edges and swollen brims of any sore and staieth the canker of corroding vlcers But when Plantaine is thus reduced into a pouder strewed vpon the sore you must not forget to couer the same with the own leaues Moreouer Celendine is singular for all impostumes and botches whether they be broken or no vea it mundifieth and drieth vp hollow vlcers called Fistulaes and for wounds is is such a singular desiccatiue that Chirurgions vse it in stead of Spodium The same being incorporat with hogs grease is excellent to be applied vnto them when they be in manner past cure and giuen ouer by the Chirurgion The herbe Dictamnus taken in drinke thrusteth out arrow-heads and in a liniment outwardly draweth forth the ends of darts and any spils whatsoeuer sticking within the body for which effect the leafe would be taken to the weight of one obolus in one cyath of water Next to this in operation is the other bastard kind therof call'd Pseudodictamnum and there is neither of them both but is good for to draw all biles imposthumes that are broken do run matter Moreouer Aristolochia is an excellent herb to eat and consume putrified vlcers full of dead flesh it mundifieth also those that be foule and filthie if it be applied with honey yea and draweth out the vermin bred of the corruption within them the callosities likewise and hard excrescences arising in sores it fetcheth away also it drawes forth any thing sticking in the flesh especially arrows and the spils of broken and scaled bones if it be laid too with rosin Of it selfe alone without any thing els it is a good incarnatiue and filleth vp hollow vlcers with good flesh butmixed with the pouder of the Flour-de-lis root and so incorporat with vineger it is singular for to heale vp green wounds Moreouer for old sores Veruaine and Cinquefoile medled together with salt and hony do make a soueraign salue The roots of the great Clot bur are good to be laid vnto fresh wounds made by the sword or any edged tooles but the leaues are better for old wounds if the same be tempered with hogs grease howbeit this charge ought to be giuen That as well the one as the other haue a leafe of the own laid ouer them to couer the whole place As for Damasonium it would be vsed in these cases prepared in that manner as it is ordained for the Kings euill And the leaues of Mullen serue wel for the same purpose if they be applied with vineger or wine Veruaine is a good herbe for all sorts of wounds and sores were they ouergrowne with callosities and ful of putrefaction the root of Nymphaea Heraclea healeth perfectly all running and filthy vlcers In like manner the root of Cyclamin i. Sowbread either alone of it selfe or incorporat with vineger or hony The same is singular good for those wens or impostumes that ingender within them a certaine matter like vnto fat or tallow Like as Hyssop is an appropriat herb for running vlcers Semblably Peucedanum which is of that efficacy for the healing of green wounds that it will draw corruption from the very bone The same effects haue both the Pimpernels and besides they doe represse those cancerous sores that eat deepe they stay also the flux of a rheume to any sore which hindereth the healing thereof they be good also for green wounds but especially in old bodies The fresh leaues of Mandragoras newly gathered incorporate with the masse of some cerot are singular for impostumes and maligne vlcers like as the root healeth wounds beeing made into a plaster with honey or oile Likewise Hemlocke tempered with the floure of fine white wheat and wrought into a paste with wine Housleeke cureth shingles ringwormes and such like wild-fires yea if they grow to be wolues and begin to putrifie like as Groundswell healeth those vlcers which be giuen to ingender vermin but the roots of the mountaine Cich or pease earth-nut are soueraign for green wounds and both kinds of Hypocisthis do mundifie inueterat vlcers The seed of Pied-de-lion stamped with water and reduced into a liniment with parched Barley groats concorporate all together draweth forth arrow heads so doth the seed of Pycnocomon in the same sort vsed and applied The iuice of the Spurge called Tithymalus Characias healeth gangrens cankers and putrified sores tending to mortification The decoction also of the branches sodden in oyle with fried barley meale As for Ragworts they cure morimals also either drie or greene so they be applied with vineger and honey and Oenothera by it selfe healeth those vntoward and fretting vlcers which are the worse and more angry for the handling The Scythians are woont to heale wounds with their hearbe Scythica And for cancerous sores the herb Argemonia incorporat with honey is knowne to be most effectuall When any wound or sore is ouer healed
health if they be intellegible and deliuered to their capacity than in others which they vnderstand neuer a whit And hereupon verily it is come to passe that the art of Physicke hath this peculiar gift and priuiledge alone That whosoeuer professeth himselfe a Physitian is straightwaies beleeued say what he wil and yet to speak a truth there are no lies dearer sold or more dangerous than those which proceed out of a Physitians mouth Howbeit we neuer once regard and looke to that so blind we are in our deep persuasion of them and feed our selues each one in a sweet hope and plausible conceit of our health by them Moreouer this mischiefe there is besides That there is no law or statute to punish the ignorance of blinde Physitians though a man lost his life by them neither was there euer any man known who had reuenge or recompence for the euill intreating or misusage vnder their hands They learne their skil by indangering our liues and to make proofe experiments of their medicines they care not to kill vs. In a word the Physitian only is dispensed withal if he murder a man so clear he goeth away without impunity that none so hardy as once to twit or challenge him for it but say that one be so bold as to charge them with any vntoward dealing out they cry presently vpon the poor patients at them they rail with open mouth they are found fault with their vnrulinesse distemperature wilfulnesse and I know notwhat and thus the sillie soules that be dead and gone are shent bear away the blame The decuries or bands at Rome of those knights which are deputed and called Iudges are not chosen but by an ordinary triall and examination of their estate quality and person and the same by the principal of that order and degree both taken and approued streight inquisition there is made of their demeanor from house to house of their parentage also yea and true information giuen to the electors before they can be chosen Mint-masters such as are to giue their judgement of mony and the touch of coin be not taken hand ouer head but if any be more skilfull than others therein they are sent for rather than to faile as far as from Calis and the straits of Gilbretar And for to pronounce sentence as touching the banishment of a Roman citizen the fiue deputed or elected delegats named Quinqueviri had no warrant or decree passed before 40 daies were expired But for these Physitians who are the judges themselues to determine of our liues and who many times are not long about it but giue vs a quick dispatch send vs to heauen or hel what regard is there had what inquiry and examination is made of their quality and worthines But surely wel enough are we serued and we may thank none but our selues if we come by a shrewd turn so long as there is not one of vs hath any care or desire to know that which is good for his life and health We loue to walk forsooth with other mens feet We read we looke by the eies of others we trust the remembrance of another when we salute any man and to conclude in the very main point of all we commit our bodies and liues to the care and industry of others No reckoning is there now made of the riches and treasure of Nature but the most precious things indeed which serue for the maintenance and preseruation of health and life are vtterly rejected and cast away no account make we of any thing and think our owne but to liue in pleasures and dainty delights I will not leaue my hold of M. Cato whom I haue opposed as a shield and buckler against the enuie and spight of this ambitious and vain-glorious Art neither will I giue ouer the protection of that honorable Senat which hath judged no lesse and that without catching aduantage of the sinfull pranks lewd parts which are committed and practised vnder the pretence of this art as some man haply would look that I should set them abroad for to say a truth is there any trade or occupation goeth beyond it for poisoning what is the cause of more gaping and laying wait after wils and testaments than this What adulteries haue beene committed vnder the colour hereof euen in Princes and Emperors palaces as for example Eudemus with Livia the Princesse wife to Drusus Caesar Valens likewise with the Queen or Empresse aboue named Messalina But say that these crimes and odious offences are not to be imputed vnto the Art it selfe but rather to be charged vpon the persons I meane the corrupt and lewd professors thereof yet surely I am of this beleefe that in regard of these enormities Cato was as much afraid of the entrance of Physicke as of some Queene into the citie of Rome For mine own part I mean not to say ought of their extreme auarice of the merchandise spoile and hauocke that they make when they see their patients in danger of death and drawing to their end nor how high they hold as it were in open market the easement and release of the sicke mans pains whiles he is vnder their hands ne yet what pawnes and pledges they take as earnest of the bargaine to dispatch the poore Patient out of the way at once and lastly of their hidden secrets and paradoxes which forsooth they will not divulge abroad but for some round summe of money As for example that a â—…ataract or pearle in the eie is to be couched rather and driuen down by the needle than quite to be plucked forth wherby it is come to passe that it is a very good turne the best for vs as the case standeth that we haue so great a number of such murderers and theeues in the commonwealth for I assure you it is not long of any shame and honesty where of there is none in them but their malicious aemulation being so many as they are that the market is well fallen and the prices come down of their workmanship Notorious it is that Charmis the abouenamed Physitian that came from Marsiles bargainedwith one patient that he had to haue 200,000 Sesterces for his cure and yet hee was but a flranger and a prouinciall inhabitant Also as well knowne it is that Claudius Caesar vpon a condemnation and judgement tooke at one time by way of confiscation one hundred thousand sesterces from one Alcontes who was no better than a Chirurgion or Wound-healer who beeing confined into France and afterwards restored gathered vp his crums again got as much within few yeares I am content also that these faults should be laid not vpon the art but the men that professe it Neither verily do I mean to shew and reproue the base abject and ignorant sort of that crew nor how little order and regiment they obserue in the cure of diseases or in the vse of bains and hot waters how imperiously they
yong hare or leueret it is wonderfull to see how effectually they will worke Snakes bones incorporat with the rennet of any foure-footed beast whatsoeuer within lesse than 3 daies shew the same effect and draw forth any thing that sticketh within the body Finally the flies called Cantharides are much commended for this operation if they be stamped and incorporat with barly meale CHAP. XIIII ¶ Proper remedies for the cure of womens maladies and to help them for to goe out their full time and bring forth the fruit of their wombfully ripe and accomplished THe skin or secundine which an Ewe gleaneth after she hath yeaned and which inlapped the lambe within her belly prepared ordered and vsed as I said before as touching goats it is very good for the infirmities that properly bee incident vnto women and occasioned by their naturall parts The dung likewise of sheep be they rammes ewes or weathers hath the same operation But to come vnto particulars the infirmity which otherwhiles putteth them to passe their vrine with difficulty and by dropmeale is cured principally by sitting ouer a perfume or suffumigation of Locusts If a woman after that she is conceiued with child vse eft-soons to eat a dish of meat made of cock-stones the infant that she goeth with shall proue a man child as it is commonly thought and spoken When a woman is with childe the meanes to preserue her from any shift and slip that she may tarry out her full terme is to drink the ashes of Porkepines calcined also the drinking of a bitches milk maketh the infant within the womb to come on forward to grow to perfection before it seek to come forth vntimely also if the child stick in the birth or otherwise make no haste to come forth of the mothers body when the time is come the skin wherein the bitch bare her whelps within her body and which commeth away from her after she hath puppied hasteneth the birth if so be it were taken away from her before it touch the ground If women in labour drinke milke it will comfort their loins or smal of the back Mice dung delaied and dissolued in rain water is very good to annoint the brests of a woman new laied to break their kernel and to allay their ouermuch strutting presently after childbirth The ashes of hedgehogs preserueth women from abortion or vntimely births if they be annointed with a liniment made of them and oile incorporat together The better speed and more ease shall those women haue of deliuerance which in the time of their trauell drinke a draught of Goose dung in two cyaths of water or else the water that issueth out of their owne body by the natural parts a little before the child should be borne and that out of a weazils bladder A liniment made of earth-wormes if the nouch or chine of the necke and the shoulder blades be annointed therewith preserueth a woman from the pain of the sinews which commonly followeth vpon child-bearing and the same send away the after-birth if when they bee newly brought to bed they drink the same in wine cuit A cataplasme made of them simply alone without any other thing and applied to womens sore brests which are impostumat bring the same to maturation breake them when they are ripe draw them after that they runne and in the end heale them vp cleane and skin all again The said earthwormes also if they be drunk in honied wine bring down milk into their brests There be certain little wormes found breeding in the common Coich-grasse called Gramen which if a woman weare about her neck serue very effectually to cause her for to keep her infant within the wombe the ordinary terme but she must leaue them off when she drawes neere to the time when she should cry out for otherwise if they be not taken from her they would hinder her deliuerance Great heed also there must be taken that these wormes bee not laid vpon the ground in any hand Moreouer there be Physitians who giue women to drink 5 or 7 of them at a time for to help them to conceiue If women vse to eat snailes dressed as meat they shall be deliuered with more speed if they were in hard labour let them be applied to the region of the matrice or naturall parts with Saffron they hasten conception If the same be reduced into a liniment with Amylum and gum Tragacanth and laid too accordingly they do stay the immoderat flux of reds or whites Being eaten in meat they are soueraigne for their monthly purgations And with the marrow of a red Deere they reduce the matrice againe into the right place if it were turned a to-side but this regard must be had that to euery snaile there be put a dram weight of Cyperus also If the matrice be giuen to ventosities let the same snails be taken forth of their shels stamped and laid too with oile of Roses they discusse the windinesse thereof And for these purposes before named the snailes of Astypalaea be chosen for the best Also for to resolue the inflation of this part there is another medicine made with snailes especially those of Barbarie namely to take two of them and to stampe them with as much Fenigreeke seed as may be comprehended with three fingers adding thereto the quantity of four spoonfuls of hony and when they be reduced all into a liniment to apply the same to the region of the womb after the same hath been well and throughly annointed all ouer with the iuice of Ireos i. Floure-de-lis There be moreouer certaine white snailes that be small and long withall and these be commonly wandering here and there in euery place These beeing dried in the Sun vpon tiles and reduced into pouder they vse to blend with bean floure of each a like quantity And this is thought to be an excellent mixture for to beautifie their body and make the skin white and smooth Also if the itch be offensiue so as a woman be found euer and anone to scratch and rub those parts there is not a better thing therefore than the little flat snails if they be brought into a liniment with fried Barly groats If a woman with child chance to step ouer a Viper shee shall be deliuered before her time of an vnperfect birth The like accident wil befal vnto her in case she go ouer the serpent Amphisbaena if the same were dead before And yet if a woman haue about her in a box one of them aliue shee shall not need to feare the going ouer them though they were dead And one of these Amphisbaenes dead as it is and preserued or condite in salt procureth safe and easie deliuerance to a woman that hath it about her A wonderfull thing that it should be so dangerous for a woman with childe to passe ouer one of them which hath not bin kept in salt and that the same should be harmelesse and do no hurt at
Apelles for to countenance and credit the man demanded of him what price he would set of al the pictures that he had ready made Protogenes asked some small matter and trifle to speake of howbeit Apelles esteemed them at fifty talents and promised to giue so much for them raising a bruit by this means abroad in the world that he bought them for to sel againe as his owne The Rhodians hereat were moued and stirred vp to take better knowledge of Protogenes what an excellent workeman they had of him neither would Protogenes part with any of his pictures vnto them vnlesse they would come off roundly and rise to a better price than before time As for Apelles he had such a dexterity in drawing pourtraits so liuely and so neer resembling those for whom they were made that hardly one could be known from the other insomuch as Appion the Grammarian hath left in writing a thing incredible to be spoken that a certain Physiognomist or teller of Fortune by looking onely vpon the face of men and women such as the Greekes call Metoposcopos judged truly by the portraits that Apelles had drawne how many yeres they either had liued or were to liue for whom those pictures were made But as gracious as he was otherwise with Alexander and his train yet he could neuer win the loue and fauor of prince Ptolomaeus who at that time followed the court of K. Alexander and was afterwards king of Egypt It fortuned that after the decease of Alexander and during the reigne of K. Ptolomae aforesaid this Apelles was by a tempest at sea cast vpon the coast of Aegypt and forced to land at Alexandria where other painters that were no well willers of his practised with a jugler or jeaster of the kings and suborned him in the kings name to train Apelles to take his supper with the king To the court came Apelles accordingly and shewed himself in the presence Ptolomae hauing espied him with a stern and angry countenance demanded of him what he made there and who had sent for him and with that shewed vnto him all his seruitors who ordinarily had the inuiting of ghests to the kings table commanding him to say which of all them had bidden him whereat Apelles not knowing the name of the party who had brought him thither and beeing thus put to his shifts caught vp a dead cole of fire from the hearth thereby and began therewith to delineat and draw vpon the wall the proportion of that cousiner beforesaid He had no sooner pourfiled a little about the visage but the king presently tooke knowledge thereby of the party that had played this pranke by him and wrought him this displeasure This Apelles drew the face of K. Antiochus also who had but one eie to see withall for to hide which deformity and imperfection he deuised to paint him turning his visage a little away and so he shewed but the one side of his face to the end that whatsoeuer was wanting in the picture might be imputed rather to the painter than to the person whomhe portraied And in truth from him came this inuention first to conceale the defects blemishes of the visage and to make one halfe face onely when it might be represented full and whole if it pleased the painter Among other principall pieces of worke some pictures there be of his making resembling men and women lying at the point of death and euen ready to gasp and yeeld vp the ghost But of all the pictures portraitures that he made to say precisely which be the most excellent it were a very hard matter as for the painted table of Venus arising out of the sea which is commonly knowne by the name of Anadyomene Augustus Caesar late Emperour of famous memory dedicated it in the temple of Iulius Caesar his father which hee inriched with an Epigram of certaine Greeke verses in commendation as well of the picture as the painter And albeit the artificiall contriuing of the said verses went beyond the worke which they seemed to praise yet they beautified and set out the table not a little The nether part of this picture had caught some hurt by a mischance but there neuer could be found that painter yet who would take in hand to repaire the same and make it vp again as it was at first so as this wrong harm done vnto the work and continuing still vpon the same turned to the glory of the workeman This table remained a long time to be seen vntill in the end for age it was worm-eaten and rotten in such sort as Nero being Emperor was fain to set another in the place wrought by the hand of Doratheus But to come againe vnto Apelles he had begun another picture of Venus Anadyomene for the inhabitants of the Island Cosor Lango which hee minded should haue surpassed the former howbeit before he could finish it surprised he was with death which seemed to enuie so perfect workmanship and neuer was that painter knowne to this day who would turne his hand to that piece of worke and seeme to go forward where Apelles left or to follow on in those traicts and liniments which he had pourfiled and begun One picture he drew of K. Alexander the Great holding a thunderbolt and lightening in his hand which cost twentie talents of gold and was hung in the temple of Diana at Ephesus And verily this deuise was so finely contriued that as Alexanders fingers seemed to bear out higher than the rest of the work so the lightening appeared to be clean without the ground of the table and not once to touch it But before I proceed any farther let the readers take this with them and alwaies remember that these rich and costly pictures were wrought with foure colours and no more And for the workmanship of this picture the price thereof was paid him in good gold coine by weight and measure and neuer told and counted by tale Of his handyworke was the picture of a Megabyzus or guelded priest of Diana in Ephesus sacrificing in his pontificall habits vestiments accordingly Also the counterfeit of prince Clytus armed at all pieces saue his head mounted on horse-back and hasting to a battell calling vnto his squire or henxman for his helmet who was portraied also reaching it vnto him To reckon how many pictures Apelles made of K. Alexander and his father Philip were but losse of time and a needlesse discourse But I cannot omit the painted table containing the pourtrait of Abron that wanton and effeminat person which piece of work the Samians so highly extoll and magnifie ne yet another picture of Menander the K. of Caria that he made for the Rhodians and which they so much admire Neither must I forget the counterfeit of Ancaeus of Gorgosthenes the Tragaedian which he made at Alexandria or while he was at Rome one table containing Castor and Pollux with the image of Victorie and Alexander the
during those dangerous troubles Moreouer he made the picture of lady Cydippe and of * Tlepolemus he painted also Philiscus a writer of Tragoedies sitting close at his study meditating and musing Also there be of his making a wrestler or champion Antigonus the king and the mother of Aristotle the Philosopher who also was in hand with Protogenes persuading him to busie himselfe in painting all the noble acts victories and whole life of king Alexander the Great for euerlasting memoriall and perpetuitie but the vehement affection and inclination of his minde stood another way and a certaine itching desire to search into the secrets of the art tickled him and rather drew him to these kinds of curious workes whereof I haue already spoken Yet in the later end of his daies he painted K. Alexander himselfe and god Pan. Ouer and besides this flat painting he gaue himselfe greatly to the practise of founderie and to cast certaine images of brasse according as I haue already said At the very same time liued Asclepiodorus whom for his singular skill in obseruing symetries and just proportions Apelles himselfe was wont to admire This Painter pourtraied for Mnason the foresaid king of the Elateans the 12 principall gods and receiued for euery one of them 300 pound of siluer The said Mnason gaue vnto Theomnastus for painting certaine Princes or Worthies one hundred pounds apiece In this rank is to be ranged Nicomachus son and apprentice both to Aristodemus This Nichomachus pourtraied the rauishing of Proserpine by Dis or Pluto which picture standeth in a table within the Chappell of Minerua in the Capitoll aboue the little cell or shrine of Iuventus In the same Capitoll another table there is likewise of his making which Plancus Lord Generall of an army for the time being had there dedicated and set vp the same doth represent Victorie catching vp a triumphant chariot drawn with four horses aloft into heauen He was the first that pourtraied prince Vlixes in a picture with a cap vpon his head He painted also Apollo and Diana Cybele likewise the mother of the gods sitting vpon a Lyon of his workmanship is the table representing the religious priestresses of Bacchus in their habite together with the wanton Satyres creeping and making toward them Semblably the monstrous meermaid Scylla which at this day is to be seen at Rome within the temple of Peace A ready workeman he was you shall not heare of a painter that had a quicker hand than he at his worke for proofe wherof this voice goeth of him That hauing vndertaken for a certain sum of money to Aristratus the tyrant of Sicyone to paint a monument or tombe which he caused to bee made for Telestes the Poet and to finish it by such a day appointed and set downe in the couenants of the bargain he made no great hast to go about it but came some few daies before the expiation of the prescript term for to begin the same worke whereat the tyrant was wroth and menaced to punish him for example howbeit he quit himselfe so well and followed his worke with such wonderfull celeritie that in few daies space he brought it to an end and yet the art and workmanship therof was admirable Vnder him were brought vp as apprentices his brother Aristides his owne son Aristocles and Philoxenus the Eretrian This Philoxenus made one painted table for Cassander the king containing the battel between Alexander the Great and K. Darius which for exquisitart commeth not behind any other whatsoeuer One picture there is of his doing wherein he would seeme to depaint lascious wantonnesse which he pourtraied by 3 drunken Sylenes making merry and banquetting together He gaue himselfe also to the speedy workemanship of his master before him and for that purpose inuented other compendious means of greater breuitie to make riddance and quicke dispatch with his pencill With these may be sorted Nicophanes also a proper feat and fine workman whose manner was to take out all pictures and paint them new againe thereby as it were to immortalize the memory of things a running hand hee had of his owne and besides was by nature hasty and furious howbeit for skill and cunning there were but few comparable vnto him In all his workes hee aimed at loftinesse and grauity so that a man may attribute the stately port that is in this Art vnto him and no other As touching Perseus apprentice to Apelles who wrote a book to him of the very art he came far short both of his master also of Zeuxis As for Aristides the Theban who also liued in this age he brought vp vnder him his two sons Niceros and Aristippus This Aristippus pourtraied a Satyre crowned with a chaplet and carrying a goblet or drinking cup he taught Antonides and Euphranor his cunning of whom I will write anon for meet it is to annex vnto the rest such as haue bin famous with the pencill in smaller works and lesse pictures among whom I may reckon Pyreicus who for art and skill had not many that went before him and verily of this man I wot not well whether he debased himselfe and bare a low sale of purpose or no for surely his mind was wholly set vpon painting of simple and base things howbeit in that humble lowly carriage of himselfe hee attained to a name of glory in the highest degree his delight was to paint shops of barbers shoomakers coblers taylers and semsters hee had a good hand in pourtraying of poore asses with the victuals that they bring to market such homely stuffe whereby he got himselfe a by-name and was called Rhyparographus Howbeit such rude and simple toies as these were so artificially wrought that they pleased contented the beholders no thing so much Many chapmen he had for these trifling pieces and a greater price they yeelded vnto him than the fairest and largest tables of many others Whereas contrariwise Serapion vsed to make such great and goodly pictures that as M. Varro writeth they were able to take vp fill all the stals bulks and shops jutting forth into the street vnder the old market place Rostra this Serapion had an excellent grace in pourtraying tents booths stages and theaters but to paint a man or woman he knew not which way to begin On the other side Dionysius was good at nothing els and therefore he was commonly called Anthropographus Moreouer Callicles also occupied himselfe in smal works and Calaces set his mind especially vpon little tables and pictures which were to set out comoedies and interludes but Antiphilus practised both the one and the other for he pictured the noble ladie Hesione K. Alexander the Great and Philip the king his father with the goddesse Minerva which tables hang in the Philosophers schoole or walking-place within the stately galleries of Octauia where the learned clerks and gentlemen fauorers of learning were wont to meet and conuerse Within the galleries also of
are of diuers and sundry colors Moreouer this would be noted That if glasse and sulphur be melted together they will souder and vnite into a hard stone To conclude hauing thus discoursed of all things that are knowne to be done by wit or art according to the direction of Nature I cannot chuse but maruell at fire and the operations thereof seeing that nothing in a manner is brought to perfection but by fire and thereby any thing may be done CHAP. XXVII ¶ The wonderfull operations of fire the medicinable properties that it hath and the prodigious significations obserued thereby FIre receiueth sundry sorts of sand earth out of which it doth extract and melt one while glasse another while siluer in this place vermilion in that diuers sorts of lead and tin somtime Painters colours and another while matters medicinable By fire stones are resolued into brasse by fire iron is made and the same is tamed likewise therewith fire burneth and calcineth stone whereof is made that mortar which bindeth all worke in masonry As for some things the more they be burnt the better they are and of one and the same matter a man shall see one substance ingendred in the first fire another in the second and another also in the third As for the coles that go to these fires when they be quenched they begin to haue their strength and after they are thought extinct and dead they are of greatest vertue This element of Fire is infinit and neuer ceaseth working insomuch as it is hard to say whether it consume more than it ingendreth The very fire also is of great effect in physick for this is known for certain by experience there is not a better thing in the world against the pestilence occasioned by the darknesse of the Sun and the want of cleare light from him than to make fires and perfumes in diuers sorts either to clarifie or to correct the aire according as Empedocles and Hippocrates haue testified in diuers places M. Varro writeth that fire is good for convulsions cramps and contusions of the inward parts and for this purpose I will alledge the very words he vseth the Latine word Lix quoth he is nothing else but the ashes of the hearth and hereupon comes Lixivus cinis i. Lie ashes which being drunk is medicinable as we may see by fencers and sword-plaiers who after they haue done their flourishing and be ready to enter into fight at sharpe refresh themselues with this potion Furthermore it is said That a cole of oke wood being reduced into ashes and incorporat with hony cureth the carbuncle which is a pestilent disease whereof two noblemen at Rome both Consuls in their time died of late according as I haue shewed already See the wonderfull power in nature that things despised and of no account as ashes and coles should afford remedies for the health of man But before I make an end of fire and the hearth where it burneth I will not passe one admirable example commended vnto vs by the Roman Chronicles in which we reade That during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus king of Rome there appeared all on the sudden vpon the hearth where hee kept fire out of the very ashes the genital member of a man by vertue whereof a wench belonging vnto Tanaquil the queen as she sate before the said fire conceiued and arose from the fire with childe and of this conception came Servius Tullus who succeeded Tarquin in the kingdome And afterwards while hee was a yong childe and lay asleep within the court his head was seen on a light fire whereupon he was taken to be the son of the domestical spirits of the chimney Which was the reason that when he was come to the crown he first instituted the Compitalia and the solemne games in honour of such house-gods or familiar spirits THE XXXVII BOOKE OF THE HISTORIE OF NATVRE WRITTEN BY C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS The Proem TO the end that nothing might be wanting to this historie of mine concerning Natures works there remaine behind nothing but pretious stones wherein appeareth her Maiesty brought into a narrow and streight roome and to say a truth in no part of the world is she more wonderfull in many respects whether you regard their varietie colours matter or beauty which are so rich and pretious that many make conscience to seale with them thinking it vnlawfull to engraue any print in them or to diminish their honour and estimation by that means Some of them are reckoned inestimable or valued at all the goods of the world besides insomuch as many men thinke some one pretious stone or gem sufficient to behold therein the very perfection of Nature and her absolute worke Touching the first inuention of wearing such stones in jewels and how it tooke first root and grew afterwards to that height as all the world is in admiration thereof I haue alreadie shewed in some sort in my treatise of Gold and Rings And yet I will not conceale from you that which poets do fable of this matter who would beare vs in hand that all beg an at the rocke Caucasus whereunto Prometheus was bound fast who was the first that set a little fragment of this rocke within a peece of iron which being done about his finger was the ring and the foresaid stone the gemme whereof the Poets make much foolish moralization CHAP. I. ¶ Of ihe rich precious stones of Polycrates the Tyrant and King Pyrrhus The first Lapidaries or Cutters in pretious stones And who was the first that had a case of rings and gems at Rome PRometheus hauing giuen this precedent brought other stones into great price and credit insomuch as men were mightily inamoured vpon them and Polycrates of Samos the puissant prince and mighty monarch ouer all the Islands and coasts thereabout in the height of his felicitie and happy estate which himself confessed to be excessiue being troubled in his mind that he had tasted of no misfortune and willing after a sort to play at Fortunes game one while to win and another while to lose and in some measure to satisfie her inconstancie was persuaded in his minde that he should content her sufficiently in the voluntarie losse of one gem that he had and which he set so great store by thinking verily that this one hearts griefe for parting from so pretious a jewell was sufficient to excuse and redeeme him from the spightful enuy of that mutable goddesse Seeing therefore the world to come vpon him still and no foure sorrowes intermingled with his sweet delights in a wearinesse of his continual blessednesse he imbarked himselfe and sailed into the deep where wilfully he flung into the sea a ring from his finger together with the said stone so pretious set therein But see what ensued A mighty fish euen made as a man would say for the king chanced to swallow it down as if it had bin some bait which being afterwards caught by fishers
to be like in leaf vnto Plantain in stem four square bringeth forth certain little cods full of seed in folded and interlaced one within another after the manner of the tufted and curled haires about the Pourcuttle fiâ—…hes called Polypi But be it what it will the juice of the herb is refrigeratiue and of great vse in Physicke As for the herb Gentian we must acknowledge Gentius king of the Illyrians for the Authour and patron therof for he brought it first into name credit and howsoeuer it grow in al places yet the best is that which is found in Illyricum or Sclauonia The leaues come neare in fashion and forme to those of the Ash tree but that they be small in manner of Lettuce the stem is tender of a thumb thicknesse hollow as a kex and void with in leafed here and there with certain spaces betweene growing vp other while 3 cubits high The root is pliable and will winde euery way somwhat blacke or duskish without any smell at all it groweth in great plenty vpon waterish hillocks that lie at the foot of great mountains such as the Alps be The juice of the herb is medicinable like as the root it selfe also which is very hot of nature and not to be giuen in drinke to women with childe Lysimachia the herbe so much commended by Erasistratus beareth the name of king Lysimachus who first gaue light of the vertues that it hath greene leaues it beareth like vnto those of the willow the floures be purple giuen much it is to branch from the root and those stalkes grow vpright a sharp smell it carrieth with it and delighteth to liue in watery places Of so effectuall vertue it is that if it be laid vpon the yoke of two beasts which will not draw gently together it staieth their strife and maketh them agree well enough Not men only and great kings but women also and queens haue affected this kind of glory To giue names vnto herbs Thus queen Artemisia wife to Mausolus king of Caria eternized her owne name by adopting as it were the herb Mugwort to her selfe calling it Artemisia whereas before it was named Parthemis Some there be who attribute this denomination vnto Diana called in Greek Artemis Ilithya because it is of speciall operation to cure the maladies incident to women It brancheth and busheth thick much like to wormwood but that the leaues be bigger fat and wel liking withal Of this Mugwort there be two kinds the one carieth broad leaues the other is tender and the leaues smaller this grows no where but along the sea coasts There be writers who call by this name Artemisia another herb growing in the midland parts of the main and far from the sea with one simple stem bearing very small leaues and plentie of floures which commonly break forth and blow when grapes begin to ripen and those cast no vnpleasant smel which herb some thereupon name Botrys others Ambrosia and of this kind there is great store in Cappadocia Nenuphar is called in Greeke Nymphaea the originall of which herb and name also arose by occasion of a certain maiden Nymph or yong lady who died for jealousie that she had conceiued of prince Hercules whom she loued and therefore by some it is named also Heraclion of others Rhopalos for the resemblance that the root hath to a club or mace But to come againe to our first name Nymphaea this quality it hath alluding and respectiue thereunto That whosoeuer do take it in drink shal for 12 daies after find no prick of the flesh no disposition I say to the act of venery or company of women as being depriued for that time of all naturall seed The best Nemphar or Nymphaea is found in the lake Orchomenus and about the plain of Marathon The people of Boeotia who also vse to eat the seed thereof commonly call it Madon It taketh great contentment to grow in waters the leaues floting vpon the face of the water be broad and large whiles others put forth from the root The floure resembleth the Lillie which when it is once shed there be certain knobs remaining like vnto the bolls or heads of Poppie The proper season to cut the stems and heads of this plant is in Autumne The root is blacke which being gathered and dried in the Sunne is counted a soueraigne remedy for those that be vexed with the flux or fretting of the belly A second Nemphar or Nymphaea there is growing in Thessaly within the riuer Peneus with a white root but a yellow flour in the head about the bignesse of a rose No longer ago than in our forefathers daies Iuba king of Mauritania found out the herb Euphorbia which he so called after the name of his own Physitian Euphorbus brother to that learned Musa Physitian to Augustus Caesar who saued the life of the said Emperor as heretofore I haue declared These two brethren Physitians ioined together in counsell and gaue direction for to wash the body all ouer in much cold water after the hot baine or stouve thereby to knit and bind the pores of the skin for before their time the maner was to bathe in hot water only as we may see plainly in the Poet Homer But now to return vnto our herb Euphorbia the foresaid K. Iuba wrote one entire book at this day extant wherin he doth nothing els but expressely set forth the commendable vertues and properties of this one herb He found the same first vpon the mountain Atlas where it was to be seen saith he bearing leaues resembling Branc-vrsin so strong and forcible it is that those who receiue the juice or liquor issuing from it must stand a good way off for the manner is to launce or wound it first and then presently to retire backe and so at the end of a long pole to put vnder it a paile or trey made of kids or goats leather for a receptory into which there runneth forth out of the plant a white liquour like vnto milke which when it is dried and growne together resembleth in shew a lumpe or masse of Frank incense They that haue the gathering of this juice called Euphorbium find this benefit thereby That they see more clearly than they did before an excellent remedy this is against the venom of serpents for what part soeuer is stung or wounded by them make a light incision vpon the crown of the head and apply therto this medicinable liquor it wil surely cure it But in that country the Getulians who commonly do gather Euphorbium for that they border vpon the mount Atlas sophisticate it with goats milke Howbeit fire will soon detect this imposure of theirs for that which is not right but corrupt when it burneth doth yeeld a lothsome fume and stinking sent The juice or liquor which in France is drawn out the herb Chamaelea the same that beareth the red grain named by the Latines Coccum commeth far short of this
Euphorbium The same being grown thick and hard if a man break it resembleth gum Ammoniacke Tast it neuer so little at the tongues end it setteth all the mouth on a fire and so continueth it a long time hot but more by fits vntill in the end it parcheth and drieth the chaws and throat also far within CHAP. VIII ¶ Of Plantain Buglosse and Borrage Of Cynoglossa or Hounds tongue Of Buphthalmus i. Oxe eie or Many-weed Of Scythica Hippice and Ischaemon Of Vettonica and Cantabrica Of * Consiligo and Hiberis Of Celendine the great Canaria and Elaphoboscos Of Dictamnum Aristolochie or Hertwort That fish are delighted so much therwith that they will make hast vnto it and be soon taken Also the medicinable vertues of those herbs aboue named THemison a famous Physitian set forth a whole booke of the herbe Way-bred or Plantaine wherein he highly praiseth it and challengeth to himselfe the honor of first finding it out notwithstanding it be a triuiall and common herb trodden vnder euery mans foot Two kinds of it be found the one which is the lesser hath also narrower leaues and inclining more to a blackish green resembling for all the world sheepe * or lambs tongues the stalke is cornered bending downward to the ground it growes ordinarily in medows The other is greater with leaues enclosed as it were within certain ribs resembling the sides of our body which being in number seuen gaue occasion to some herbarists for to call it Heptapleuron as a man would say the seuen ribbed herb The stem of this Plantain riseth to a cubit in height much like to that of the Naphew That which groweth in moist and waterie places is of greater vertue than the other Of wonderfull power and efficacy it is by the astringent quality that it hath for to dry and condensate any part of the body and serueth many times in stead of a cautery or searing yron And there is nothing in the world comparable vnto it in staying of fluxes and destillations which the Creeks call Rheumatismes To Plantain may be ioined the herb * Buglossos so called for that the leafe is like an Oxe tongue This herb hath one speciall property aboue the rest that if it be put into a cup of wine it cheareth the heart and maketh them that drink it pleasant and merry whereupon it is called Euphrosynon Vnto this for affinity of name it were good to annex Cynoglossos i. Hounds tongue for the resemblance that the leaues haue to a dogs tongue a proper herb for vinet-works and knots in gardens It is commonly said That the root of that Cynoglossos which putteth forth 3 stems or stalks and those bearing seed if it be giuen to drink cureth tertian agues but the root of that which hath foure is as good for the Quartains Another * Cynoglossos there is like to it which carrieth small burs the root whereof being drunke in water is a singular counterpoison against the venome of toads and serpents An herb there is with flours like vnto oxe eies wherupon it took the name in Greek * Buphthalmos the leaues resemble Fennel it groweth about town sides it shutteth forth stalkes from the root plentifully which being boiled are good to be eaten Some there be who call it Cachla This herb made into a salue with wax resolueth all * schirrous and hard swellings Other plants there be which beare the names not of men but of whole nations which first found them and their vertues out And to begin withall beholden we are to Scythia for that which is called Scythica It groweth notwitstanding in Boeotia and is exceeding sweet in tast Also there is another of that name singular good for the cramps called by the Greeks Spasmata An excellent property it hath besides for that whosoeuer holds it in their mouth shall for the time be neither hungry nor thirsty Of the same operation there is another herb among the Scythians or Tartars called Hippice because it workes the like effect in horses keeping them from hunger and thirst And if it be true that is reported the Scythians with these herbs wil endure without meat or drink for twelue daies together Touching the herbe Ischaemon the Thracians first found out the rare vertue that it hath in stanching bloud according as the very name implies For say they it wil stop the flux of bloud running and gushing out of a veine not only opened but also if it were â—…ut through It coucheth and creepeth low by the ground and is like vnto Millet but that the leaues be rough and hairy The manner is to stuffe the nosthrils therewith for to stay the bleeding at nose And that which groweth in Italy stancheth bloud if it be but hanged about the neck or tied to any part of the body The people in Spaine named Vettones were the first authors of that herb which is called in France * Vettonica in Italy Serratula and by the Greeks Cestron or Psychotrophon Surely an excellent herb this is and aboue all other simples most worthy of praise It commeth forth of the ground and riseth vp with a cornered stalke to the heigh of two cubits spreading from the very root leaues of the bignesse of Sorrell cut in the edges or toothed in manner of a saw with floures of a purple color growing in a spike seed correspondent therto The leaues dried and brought into pouder be good for very many vses There is a wine and vineger made or condite rather with Betony soueraign for to strengthen the stomack and clarifie the eiesight This glorious prerogatiue hath Betony that look about what house soeuer it is set or sowed the same is thought to be in the protection of the gods and safe enough for committing any offence which may deserue their vengeance and need any expiation or propitiatory sacrifice In the same Spain groweth * Cantabrica lately found by the people Cantabri and no longer since than in the daies of Augustus Caesar. This herb is to be seen euery where rising vp with a benty or rushy stalk a foot high vpon which you may behold small long floures like to cups or beakers wherein lie enclosed very small seeds Certes to speak the truth of Spain it hath bin alwaies a nation curious in seeking after simples And euen at this day in their great feasts where they meet to make merry Sans-nombre they haue a certain wassell or Bragat which goeth round about the table made of honied wine or sweet mead with a hundred distinct herbs in it and they are persuaded that it is the most pleasant and wholsomest drinke that can be deuised yet there is not one amongst them all who knoweth precisely what speciall herbs there be in all that number in this only they be all perfect that there go a hundred seuerall kinds therto according as the name doth import In our age we remember well that there was an hero discouered