Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	colour_n	flower_n	stalk_n	1,480	5	10.9998	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58159	A collection of curious travels & voyages in two tomes ... / by John Ray ...	Ray, John, 1627-1705.; Rauwolf, Leonhard, ca. 1540-1596. Seer aanmerkelyke reysen na en door Syrien t́ Joodsche Land, Arabien, Mesopotamien, Babylonien, Assyrien, Armenien, &c. in t́ Jaar 1573 en vervolgens gedaan. English.; Staphorst, Nicolaus, 1679-1731.; Belon, Pierre, 1517?-1564.	1693 (1693)	Wing R385; ESTC R17904	394,438	648

standing behind the Tree As soon as he saw it he gave over and beckened to me to give it him so I stepp'd to him and when I reached it to him he took it But my Table-book fell out of my Pocket when I pulled out the Money upon the Ground wherein I had recorded many things which when he saw he would have it also but I refusing it he grew mad and began to renew the same Game again then I repented that I did not dismount him when I gave him the Money yet I consider'd that if I should have done him a Mischief as he deserved yet although I had never so good a Cause I was sure I must be cast and perhaps come to a greater mischief and hurt so I gave him it and after he had received it he was pacified and rode away But to come to my former purpose again I found about the River the other Tragium Diosc in the ploughed Grounds and afterwards also in abundance upon the Hill but generally in moist places near to the Spring that runs down the Hill Its Root is whitish pretty long and slender from thence spread themselves some woody Stalks not above a little finger long whereon grew towards the top many Leaves together which were long and had of each side of their rib small Leaves one opposite to the other which were just like the Trichomanes divided only somewhat longer about the bigness of these of Asplenium and are as they delicately green within but without and against the Ground of an ash-Ash-colour and woolly chiefly the small ones that are just sprouting out between the others Out of these first-mentioned Stems come first naked long Stalks upon which grow at the top Violet-brown Flowers close together as if it was an Ear of Corn The Inhabitants call it Secudes and so did the ancient Arabians chiefly Avicen in the 679th Chapter where he also attributeth this Vertue that it is very proper in the Bloody-flux In their Gardens the Turks love to raise all sorts of Flowers wherein they take great delight and use to put them on their Turbant so I could see the fine Plants that blow one after another daily without trouble In December I saw our Violets with dark-brown and white Flowers whereof they gave me in that Season several Nosegays Then came the Tulips Hyacinths Narcissies which they still name by the old name Nergis Before all other I saw a rare kind with a double yellow Flower called Modaph and a strange Convolvulus hederae foliis with great purple Flowers whereout grew Seed-vessels as you see in the new Harmala with three distinct Capsula's wherein is kept its black Seed to which they attribute the vertue of evacuating tough Slime This is found sometimes in Gardens and by the Inhabitants called Hasnisca and the Persians Acafra and Serapio Chapt. 273. Habalnil the Latines Granum Indicum and Carthamus Indicus and he that hath a mind to know more of it let him look into the Author himself in the above-mentioned place in the 306th Chapter of Avicen and the 208th of Rhases I also found in their Gardens Balm Basil and a fine sort of Amaranthus which for his colour-sake may be called Symphonia Plinii and therefore called Parrots Feather I cannot forbear before I conclude to mention some which I found here and there in the Batzars and among them a strange sort of Lillies which as I am told grow in sunny moory mossy and moist places whereon groweth a long Stalk of the same colour and thickness of ours only a great deal broader but broadest of all at top where it is about three fingers broad so that it is like unto a Spatula that is painted at one end On this Stalk grow at each side several tender Leaves which are pretty long but very small and pointed and at the top thereof some white Flowers like unto ours When I was thinking of this at several times what they were called by the Ancients it came into my mind that I had read of them in Theophrastus lib. 4. cap. 9. and I really believe it to be the same But whereas Theophrastus writes in the quoted place that they do not touch the Ground I can say nothing to it for I never saw any of them growing They have also some small Roots to sell called Mamirani tchini good for Eyes as they say they are yellowish like Curcuma but a good deal longer and thinner and knotted and very like unto our Poligonatum and may be esteemed to be the true Mamican whereof Rhases maketh mention in several places There is also among others brought a great quantity of the Juice of Scammony that is still very soft it cometh in Leathern Bags from out of the Country and so it 's sold to our Merchants in their Fondiques but those that buy it must have a great care because it is often adulterated that they be not cheated There is also a good deal of the Juice by the Apothecaries called Opium and by the Inhabitants Ofinn which the Turks Moors and Persians and other Nations take inwardly not only in War at the time when they go to fight their Enemies to make them couragious and valiant but also in time of Peace to drive away Melancholy and Care or at least to ease it Their religious People make also use of it but above all the rest the Deruis and take so much of it that it maketh them presently drowsie and without consideration that when after their barbarous and silly way they cut slash or burn themselves they may feel less smart or pain If any one hath so begun to make use of it they take about the quantity of a large Pea at a time they cannot well leave it off again except they have a mind to throw themselves into a Sickness or other Inconveniencies For as they confess themselves that if they omit taking of it they find themselves very ill in their Bodies Opium is commonly taken from the white Poppy-heads in their Language called Cascasch wherein they cut when they are young and tender a spiral or winding-circle round about it from top to bottom one under the other out of those runs some Milk which they let be there until it groweth thick then they gather it and make it into Balls like unto our perfumed Soap-balls Being that the Turks use this Opium so commonly it happens sometimes that they take so much of it that it is very dangerous wherefore they have an Antidote as I was informed that is the Root Aslab whereof I have made mention before which they give to bring them to rights again I found also in the great Batzars a sort of Alga sold in their Shops which was dark-red and therefore very useful for Dyers it had Stalks of the thickness of a Finger and was surrounded with several thin Scales or rather Leaves and round Wherefore it may be taken to be a Saderva Serap and Herb Alargivan of Andreas Bellunensis

Tythimalus Paralius and also a kind of Conyza Diosc out of one Root there spring up several Stalks whereof some grow upright but the greater part of them lie down upon the ground and so shoot new Roots which afterwards sprout out into new Stalks it beareth long Olive-leaves which are thick fattish and somewhat woolly and have a strong and equally sweet smell for the rest as the Flowers it is very like unto the great one You find there also the lesser and greater Medica which the Moors to this day still call Fasa Likewise so great and many Squills that the Inhabitants weed them up chiefly those that grow near their Gardens and fling them up in high heaps like Stones There also groweth Securidaca minor Tribulus terrestris by the Inhabitants called Haseck and a kind of Echium which groweth by the way as you go to St. Jame's Church which from thence is situated upon an ascent at a Mile's distance Hereabout and in other adjacent places groweth a great quantity of Sugar-canes so that there is yearly sold a great many Sugar-loaves that are made thereof These are as high and big as our Canes and not much differing from them but within and down towards the Root where they are best they are full of this pleasant Juice wherefore the Turks and Moors buy a great many of them being very pleasant to them to chew and eat for they are mightily pleased with Sweet-meats whereof they have variety Before they begin to eat or chew them they stript off the long Leaves and cut away what is tasteless so that only the juicy and good remaineth which is hardly two Foot Of the thus prepared Canes they carry many along with them through the Streets and cut off one piece after another skale them and so chew and eat them openly every where in the Street without shame for they are principally near the Root very tender and feel as mellow between your Teeth as if it were Sugar it self So the Turks use themselves to Gluttony and are no more so free and couragious to go against their Enemies to fight as they have been in former Ages The Sugar Canes do not grow there from Seeds neither are they propagated by the Root but by the Canes themselves whereof they lay into the Ground some green pieces of two or three Joints long and that they may grow the sooner they bore prety large holes in between the Joints when they begin to grow they sprout out in the Joints and grow up into great Canes and so bring in good profit There also by the Rivers are found Anthillis marina Visnaga the first Apocymum and Oleander with Purple Flowers by the Inhabitants called Defle and a delicate kind of Scabiosa Melisra Maluca and if you go to the Gardens you see Heliotropium majus Convolvulus folio acuto Vitis nigra Phaseolus Turcicus with yellow Flowers which still retain the ancient Name of Lubie Lysimachia lutea and wild Vines called Labruscae whereon nothing groweth but only the Flowers called Ocnanthe and also a Shrub like unto the Polygonus of Carol Clusius which climbs up into high Trees and hang down again from the Twigs and I very believe they are the same with Ephedra whereof Pliny maketh mention in the 7 th Chapter of his 26 th Book When I went farther with an intention to consider the Plants that grew in the Country first came before me some Sycomors whereof chiefly Dioscorides and Theophrastus make mention and tell us of two sorts and when I called these things to mind I light of one of the second sort of Sycomors whereof abundance grow in Cyprus wherefore these wild Figg-Trees might be called the one the Cyprish Sycomore-Tree and the other the Aegyptian Sycomore-Tree according to the places where they are most frequent and fruitful I found a great many of them the Moors and Arabians call them Mumeitz they are as great and as high as the white Mulberry-Trees and have almost the same Leaves but they are only somewhat rounder and are also whole at or about the sides they bear Fruit not unlike to our Figg-Trees only they are sweeter and have no little Seeds within and are not so good wherefore they are not esteemed and are commonly sold only to the poorer sort of People they grow in all Fields and Grounds as you may see by the Words of the second Book of the Chronicles in the 9 th Chap. Vers 27 th And the King made Silver in Jerusalem as Stones and Cedar-Trees made he as the Sycomore-Trees that are in the low Plains in abundance Zacheus did climb upon such a one when he had a great mind to see our Saviour Essaias also maketh mention of them in his 9 th Chap. Vers 10. and Amos in his 7 th Chap. Vers 14. where he saith of himself I was a Herds-man and a Gatherer of Sycomore-Fruit These two sorts are very like one another in Stem Leaves and Fruit only as the Fruit of the one comes more out of the great Stem and great Twigs so that of the other does the same but not out of the Stems and Twigs immediately but out of Twigs or Sprouts without Leaves of the length of five or six Inches whereon they grow sometimes very thick and in a bunch together These Trees bear Fruit three or four times yearly which are small of an Ash colour oblong round like Prunes and are found upon the Trees almost all the Year long Hereabout also grow many Thorns whereof is made mention in the Scriptures by the Inhabitants called Hauseit and by the Arabians Hausegi but the Latins call them Ahamnus and also white Poplars still to this day called Haur by the Arabians There also groweth a great and high Tree which beareth delicate Leaves and Flowers pleasant to look upon by the Inhabitants called Zensetacht but by Rhazes and Avicenna Astirgar Astergir and Azadaracht whereof you see here and there several planted in the Streets to make a pleasant Shade in the Summer the Fruit thereof remaineth upon them all the Year long until they put out again a new for they are hurtful and kill the Dogs if they eat thereof Near the Town upon the Highlands where you see abundance of Corn-fields and abundance of pleasant Olive-Trees that reach quite up to Mount Libanus are found Polium montanum Pecten veneris ferrum equinum Chamaeleon niger with its sharp pointed and black Roots and Leaves very like unto the Leaves of Carlina whereof the Stalks are of a reddish colour a Span long and of the thickness of a Finger whereon are small prickly Heads of a blewish colour not unlike to these of the little Eryngium Another fine Plant grows thereabout called Sathar in their Language but when I consider its beautiful Purple-coloured Flowers and its small Leaves which are something long withall I rather judge it to be the Hasce of the Arabians or the true Thyme of Diosc which we call Serpillum Romanum It

sort of Horminum with small woolly and dissected leaves a Garden-Cypress with gold-colour'd flowers Seabiosa Anchusa and a Salvia which hath many roundish leaves and about their square stalks grow purple-colour'd Bells wherein is its black Seed like unto that of Melissa Molucca whereof I have made mention above In the Corn also groweth Leontopetalon in their Language Aslab with its brown-colour'd round Root and large Leaves which are roundish and very near divided like unto these of our Paeonia the Stalk hath at the top which is about a foot high and hollow more Twiggs whereof the point of each of them beareth several small purple and yellow Flowers which make roundish Bladders that contain one two and sometimes three Seeds the Children use to play their Tricks with them as they do with the Flowers of Papaver erraticum in our Country The great Roots they bruise and rub with it Spots in Cloaths which they as they say draw out immediately By these in the Corn groweth also the true Chrysogonum of Diosc which is as high as the former and also in Flowers Stalks and roundish Root which is redder within very like it only the Stalk is slenderer and hath more and longer by-shoots or germina at the end whereof you see stately yellow Flowers so that it is thicker and more spriggy than the other Its pennated Leaves whereof there are commonly four that come from the Root with long foot-stalks almost as slender as a Thread lye close to the Ground as you may easily imagin and have every one their Ribs two and two Leaves growing together on each side one after another so that four of them stand together in a cross they are darkish green and at the out side where they are broader very like unto Oaken leaves Now as these and others that grow in these Countries are as yet very little known so may also the following that groweth in plowed Fields be reckoned among the unknown which is very like unto the Lycopsis of Diosc for which in my opinion it ought to be taken This Plant hath a red Coat and a straight Stalk about two foot high from whence round about below spread themselves many strong and rough Leaves in a circle as if it were from one center not unlike the wild Bugloss they decrease a little by degrees as they grow higher and higher Out of each of them close to the Stalk sprouts out many Twigs with their peculiar small Leaves as you see in Echium between them shoot out very tender purple-colour'd Flowers which are whole within and divided into six small or longish Leaves almost like unto these of the Caryophillus montanus In the beginning of February I have seen several Sorts of Hyacinths and the Oriental one in the greatest quantity which they call Zumbel in their Language In April I saw another very delicate one known to them by the name Ayur with long and very small Leaves of our Philangium it groweth pretty high and beareth at the top four Stalky Flowers the Leaves thereof are very like in shape and colour unto the three Leaves that stand up in our Flower de luce the Root is very like to that of a Tulip whereof I have also seen a great number in these Grounds of all sorts of colours I have also found some Daisies like unto our own and also another sort of them with nine or ten white saffron-Saffron-flowers which sprout sooner in the Spring in the Corn not so bare as ours but between the Leaves The Leaves are pretty thick but narrower longer and narrower pointed than the before-mentioned They also spread more about upon the Ground and come from a white Coat with a brown-red Skin surrounded and divided in the middle it is called Kusan in their Tongue but by some others it is still called Surugen These and a great many more strange Herbs have I found but because they were unknown to me I forbear to mention any more of them But yet I cannot but describe to you one more for the taking of which I and my two Comrades fell into great danger as we often did both of Turks and Moors which needs not all to be related here This is called by the Inhabitants Rhasut and also Rumigi it hath a strong yet unpleasant savour and about four stalks of a whitish colour and so tender towards the Root and so small as a Packthread whereon at each side grow seven or eight tender ash-colour'd Leaves one against the other distributed like unto those of Osmond-Royal only they have round Ears towards the St●lk like unto the small Sage and between the lowermost which are a little more distant Flowers like unto our Aristolochia yet a great deal bigger of a more brownish colour and hanging on longer Stalks The Root striketh very deep and is very like unto our Pellitory of a drying quality and somewhat hot as the bitter taste intimates When I was busie about this tender Plant and strove to get it out whole which took me up the more time because I had no proper Tools by me a Turk well armed came galloping upon us to see what we were doing but when we perceived him to be fuddled and that he earnestly set upon us to make booty of us each of us gave him according to his own desire seeing that he would not leave us without it something that so we might get rid of him so he rode away very well pleased out of our sight so that we took no further care of him But before I could get the Root quite out he came back again with full speed upon us so I bid my Comrades to run to the next Olive-Trees and I would follow them presently but when I saw him come pretty near me and found I could not get the Plant whole I pulled it up as well as I could and so ran to my Companions But when I came to the Olive-trees I found they were ran several Olive-trees further which stand row by row and found my self quite alone and destitute and that I must defend my self behind the Tree so he came down upon me with his Cymeter drawn and fetch'd one blow after the other at me which I still declined running from one side of the Tree to the other so that they went into the Tree and mangled it mightily In the mean time defending my self thus unarmed against him I took a Resolution that if he should take hold of his Bow and Arrow to shoot at me which he could not do except he left his Cymeter to run in upon him and struggle with him But this Fight during very long and perhaps his Anger did not give him leave to think of it I found out another way knowing them to be very covetous to make my self free again with a piece of Money and to give him a small Silver piece which in their Language they call Saict worth about three-pence or a Groat so pulled it out and shew'd it him still

seen at one time together about the number of 3 or 4000 Camels They are strong and hardy Creatures fit to carry heavy Burthens and also to subsist without Drinking in the greatest Heats for Three Days together They stale out between their hind Legs so that those that go in Caravans behind them must have a great Care that they be not hit by them and so become all bedaubed Their Horses are very Noble Neat and fit for business they seldom feed them more than once a Day altho' they ride them very hard all Day long through the Wildernesses They commonly cut off all the Hair from their Mains and Tail so that their Tails remain very naked and look something like the Tail of a Lion They put their Wives on little Asses and also upon high Camels with their Children three or four of them together in Boxes as it is the fashion in these Countries They are of a brown Colour like unto our Gypsies and almost the fourth Part of them black which difference of Colour proceedeth from that in travelling up and down to places where Blacks are They sometimes leave their own there and take Blacks in the room of them The King of Arabia is always encamped in the Fields and never cometh into a place that is shut up or enclosed and this the less now after the Mischance of losing his Son that retired into one happened so he goeth from place to place like unto the Tartars so that often it is not known where he is In the Summer time he goeth further to the North and in the Winter to the South to avoid both the Heat and Cold and to have better Subsistance and Provision for himself his Men and Cattle So it hath happened several times that the Arabians in their march have come too near to the Turks Dominions and the Turks again to his from whence arose between these two great Princes such Differences that they are come to great and bloody Wars And yet for all this as I am credibly informed they have now both made a peculiar League and Contract between them wherein it is agreed that if the Grand Turk should go to a War with his Neighbours then the Arabian King will Assist and Defend him wherefore the Grand Signior writes to him as his Cousin and good Friend and is to pay him the sum of 60000 Ducats yearly as his certain Salary or retaining Fee And besides all this the Sultan sends to the New King of Arabia after the Decease of the Old one a Standard with his Coat of Arms in it which together with other Presents he sends him with usual Ceremonies to congratulate him on his happy coming to the Throne and to renew and confirm their Alliances Their Religion doth contribute not a small matter to this which together with all their Ceremonies and all other Points is the same almost they profess in both Nations And they take as many Wives as the Turks do neither do they extol or magnifie one before the other because they come from better Parents being they buy them all from them And therefore none of them is excused because she cometh from a greater Extraction from doing the Family-business nor hath a poor one more put upon her because she came from mean Extraction So one of the King of Arabia's Wives is a Daughter of a Man that keepeth a Sawing-Mill at Racka which by him although of a mean Extraction is as much respected as any of the rest Her Father and Brothers are very good People they came very often to us and shewed great Compassion for that we were so abused by the Publican His Milk is not drawn by Horses as ours are nor by Water for they know nothing of that but two of them cut the Wood with great hand-labour During our staying there a Young Arabian Gentleman nearly related to the King of Arabia came very often to us to the Water-side who was always accompanied with Twenty Servants with Bows and Darts he had a delicate white Turbant on and a long Violet coloured Caban made of Wooll but his Servants went pretty bare for some of them wore black Caps and long Indigo coloured Shirts with wide Sleeves which they girt up with broad Leathern Girdles wherein stuck bended Daggers or Bagonets as it is their usual Custom It once happened that some of us being upon the High-Town Walls together from whence we had a pleasant Prospect down into the Valley to the great River Euphrates this same Gentleman came to us again and seated himself with his Retinue over against us and presented us with some dried Cicer Pease whereof I have made mention before and some Cibebs mixt together which we thankfully received and to shew our thankfulness we presented him again with some Almonds Figs Nuts and some very good Sweet-meats we had brought with us from Halepo which he also received very kindly So we all began to eat each of us part of his Present and drunk with it some Water of the Euphrates After we had eat them all and we thought the time to be long he beckon'd to one of his Musicians and bid him to divert us with his Instrument which he pulled out presently which about the Neck looked very like unto a Cittern and we expected to hear some rarity but when I looked upon it and saw it had but one String that was as big as a Cord of their Bows he began to play some of their Tunes but with what Art and Dexterity you may easily fansie He did this for almost two Hours and according to his Opinion very harmoniously but we thought the time so long that we were very glad when he had done About the River I found that sort of Acacia that beareth roundish and brown-coloured Pods called Schock and Schamuth by the Arabians Some Thorns called Algul whereon the Manna falleth chiefly in the County of Corascen as Avicen tells us Chamesyces some strange kinds of Mosses which are very much differing in bigness Among the rest I saw the low prickly Herb by some esteemed to be the Tragun of Dioscorides Below close to the River I found the Herba Sacra of Dioscorides which the Learned Carolus Clusius hath accurately described in his Second Book and the 45th Chapter of his History of Out-landish Plants and just by these more strange ones chiefly a delicate one growing plentifully there in the Sand which had from Five to Eight tender Stalks which spread themselves into others that were very full of Joints so that it crept rather on the Ground than grew up by each of them stood three or four roundish Marjoram or Origanum Leaves together and above between them some Star like white Flowers with six pointed Leaves like unto our Ornithogalum each of them on a peculiar foot-Foot-stalk the Seeds thereof I have not seen but the Roots are small and fibrous which together with their small bitterness have a pretty exsiccating quality and so in this

we were at the Top we could not see far about being hindered by some Hills After we were come down from the Mountains into the little Village again our Conductors brought us into a pleasant Garden where their Wives came to us which brought to us several yet strange sorts of Milk-Meats to eat and very good Wine to drink so we sat down in the Grass according to their Fashion to eat and drink and to make merry and spoke to them in the common Arabian Country Language and what we could not speak out we made them understand by Signs After we had dined we returned them many thanks for all their Kindness and good Chear and so we went away By the way we saw more Plants viz. the Alyssum of Diosc a delicate kind of Cynoglossum And also near the Stairs some wild Fir-Trees Polium Montanum Marrubium Creticum Lobelii as I judged according to its shape A delicate yellow Jacea with scaly Heads and prickles like unto the Spina Solstitialis which is low yet it hath a long and strong Root covered with a gray and hairy Rind like unto the Victorialis the Leaves are jagged or laciniated of an Ashen colour and hairy as also the two before mentioned and another kind of Jacea with purple coloured Flowers which is very like unto the yellow one of Lobelius which I have also found in Provence in France near Aix saving only the prickles that are about the Heads Just before we came quite down I found two kinds of Linaria one whereof that is of a pretty bitter Taste puts forth long and slender Stalks from the Root closely surrounded with a great number of Linaria Leaves and hath at top one two or three long scaly Heads from whence issue small purple coloured Flowers the other groweth also in Leaves and Stalks almost like unto the first only they are smaller and tenderer and hath quite to the top abundance of light and small purple coloured Flowers round about it as the blue one of our Gardens At length after a long travelling and climbing we came just when the Night broke in down to the Monastery again after Supper we went strait to rest that we might be up early again to go for Tripoli After break of the Day when we had taken our leave of the Patriarch and his Brethren and made our selves ready for our Journey we came strait away By the way we saw several of Arbores Judae with their red coloured Husks and also in the Rock a fine Gnaphalium with Ash coloured roundish Mouse-ear Leaves and Snow-white double Flowers As we went on and were almost come to the House that stood upon the height whereof we made mention before these Inhabitants came down again got before us stopt us and would not let us pass until we had drunk with them Then we went on again and I found in the deep and dark Valley the right Medium Dioscoridis and Mindium Rhazis which I did spie immediately among the Bushes by its hight and specious purple coloured Flower This Plant is very like unto the Viola Mariana of the learned Rempert Dodonus very stately so that no great Difference can be found but only in the Leaves which in this are more carved like unto those of Plantain and in the Flowers which are more open and spread themselves with their long and narrow Leaves whereof each hath eight into a round Circle the Seeds I saw not because they were not yet ripe yet I found a greater Austerity in the Root than in the Seed Vessels Not far off I also saw in the Valley a strange Plant which was of the height of a Cubit and had whitish and woolly Leaves like unto our Mullein only they are less and grow quite to the Stalk as those of Tabaco or of Hyoscyamus Peruvianus of Rempert Dodon at the top thereof grow fine purple coloured and white double Flowers which stand close together as those of the yellow Amaranth or in the little Auricula Muris of Fuchsius so that according to all this having also fragrant Roots and like unto those of black Hellebore which broke because I pulled it up in haste as I judged by that part thereof which still was left to them I clearly take it to be the true Baccharis of Dioscor In the Valley further down towards the Water grew also the Oleander and the Apocynum Repens which climbeth upon the Trees that stand nigh it and covereth them so that it hangeth down again at the sides like the Ephedra of Pliny After we came out before the Mountain there appeareth the Italian Sphondylium Visnagia c. there we went into the next Village and looked after the Victuals we had left to refresh our selves When we came from thence I found the black Chamaeleon with its handsome blue coloured Tops Origanum Onites Lycium called also Zaroa by the Inhabitants the second Acacia with trefoil Leaves and when we came near to Tripoli to the old and high Rivolet between the Mountains I found the second Tragoriganum of Carol. Clusius Ceterach and low St. John's Wort a fine Chamaedrys c. but above all a Thorn-bush about the height of a Cubit very thick of Twigs and Stalks so that some of them lie upon the Ground The Stalks whereof many grow out of a Root of a drying quality and somewhat bitter are surrounded with a tender gray Rind underneath which is another reddish one to be found It s long tender Leaves that grow one against the other which are of the colour of Ashes underneath and green above are very like unto the Leaves of our Sanguisorba between them at the Top or the Crown sprout out many Thorns the biggest whereof divide themselves at the Top into other less ones in very good order so that some point down and some upwards and others towards the sides and some thereof sprout out further before the rest which sprout our early in the Spring and bear small greenish coloured starry Flowers from underneath them grow out small soft Berries of a whitish Colour and some reddish which are so close together and stand in their Ranks at the Top whereof the Flower is still plainly to be seen like unto our Currans The Seeds thereof I have raised in the famous Garden of the Generous and eminent Hans Heinrich Herwarts Alderman of this Place very easily and they grew up until they were ready to blow But as other Outlandish Plants do seldom endure our Climate so did this also die the next Winter It is called by the Inhabitants Bellen But I am of Opinion according to its shape for of its Virtue and Use I can say nothing because I never tried it that it is the Hippophië of Dioscor so long until others give me a better instruction Not far from hence I found on the Height near to the Town in a rough place another fine Plant not unlike unto our Gingidium only that it hath less Fenil Leaves and beareth a roundish

than a thousand and four hundred in length out of the hard Rock these Buildings have been cut in a perpendicular and squared by the Chessel as I suppose for Lodgings of the Priests They run along at a convenient distance parallel to the two sides we mentioned of this Pyramid meeting in a right angle and making a very fair and graceful Prospect The entrance into them is by square openings hewn out of the Rock much of the same bigness with those I described in the first Pyramid Whether these were symbolical as the Theology of the Aegyptians consisted much in mysterious figures and the depressure and lowns of these were to teach the Priests humility and the squareness and evenness of them an uniform and regular deportment in their actions I leave to such as have written of their Hieroglyphicks to determine The hollow space within of them all is somewhat like to a square and well-proportion'd Chamber covered and arched above with the natural Rock In most of which as I remember there was a passage opening into some other compartiment which the rubbage and darkness hindered me from viewing On the North side without I observed a line and only one engraven with sacred and Aegyptian Characters such as are mentioned by Herodotus and Diodorus to have been used by the Priests and were different from the vulgar characters in civil Affairs In which former kind Justin Martyr makes Moses to have been skilful as the Scripture makes him to have been learned in all the wisdom of the Aegyptians These ran not downwards as the Chinese in our times write but were continued in a streight line as we use to write And are to be read if any understand those mysterious Sculptures by proceeding from the right hand to the left and as it were imitating the motion and course of the Planets For so Herodotus expresly informs us That the Graecians write and cast account going from the left hand to the right the Aegyptians from the right hand to the left And this is that which in an obscure expression is also intimated by Pomponius Mela Aegyptii suis literis perverse utuntur A manner practised by the Hebrews Chaldaeans and Syrians to this day and not unlikely to have been borrowed by them from the Aegyptians to whom the Chaldaeans also owed their first Skill in Astrology as the Graecians did their knowledge in Geometry the former being attested by Diodorus and the latter confessed by Proclus and other Graecians And surely in imitation of these or of the Jews the Arabians neighbouring upon both have taken up this manner of writing and continued it to our times communicating it also by their Conquests to the Persians and Turks A Description of the third Pyramid out of Mr. Belon and Greaves AMongst many modern Writers none deserves to be placed before Bellonius or rather before P. Gillius For Thuanus makes the other to have been a plagiarius and to have published in his own name the observations of P. Gillius a man very curious and inquisitive after Truth as appears by his Typography of Constantinople and his Bosphorus Thracius to whom Bellonius served as an Amanuensis The third Pyramid is much less than the former two but is a third part greater than that which is at Rome near the Mons teitaceus as you pass to St. Pauls in the Ostian way It is still perfect and no more corrupted than as if it had been newly built For it is made of a kind of Marble called Basaltes or Aethiopick Marble harder than Iron it self It will be in vain to repeat the Traditions and Descriptions of several others all which by a kind of Confederacy agree in the same Tale for the substance only differing in some circumstances So that I shrewdly suspect that Diodorus hath borrowed most of his Relation from Herodotus and Strabo and Pliny from Diodorus or from them both and the more learned Neotericks from them all For else how can it be imagined they should so constantly agree in that which if my Eyes and Memory extreamly fail me not is most evidently false And therefore I have a strong jealousie that they never came near this third Pyramid but that they did as I have observed all Travellers in my time in Aegypt to do fill themselves so full and as it were so surfeit with the sight of the greater and fairer Pyramid that they had no Appetite to be Spectators of the rest where they should only see the same Miracle for the Pyramids are all of the same figure the farther they went decreasing and presented as it were in a less Volume Or if they did view this it was quasi per transennam very perfunctorily and slightly and that through a false and coloured Glass for they have mistaken both in the quality of the Stone and colour of the Pyramid I begin with Herodotus who by a notable piece of Forgetfulness if it be not a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Copies makes the dimensions of each of the sides in the Basis of this to be three hundred feet and yet want but twenty of the first Pyramid to which he assigned before eight hundred feet an Impossibility in Arithmetick and therefore it will be no Presumption to correct the place and instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know not how to palliate or excuse his other Error where he makes this Pyramid to be built as far as to the middle of it with Aethiopick Marble If this sort of Marble be ferrei coloris as it is described by Pliny and granted by Diodorus and Strabo both of them expressing the colour to be black and the latter bringing it from the remotest Mountains of Aethiopia where the Marble hath the same Tincture and Colour with the Inhabitants then can this relation of Herodotus no way be admitted for the whole Pyramid seems to be of clear and white Stone somewhat choicer and brighter than that in either of the two other Pyramids And therefore I wonder that Diodorus Strabo and Pliny and amongst latter Authors Bellonius Gillius and several others should have all follow'd Herodotus when with a little pains and circumspection they might have reformed his and their own errour It may perhaps be alledged in their defence that they mean the Buildings within are erected with black and Aethiopick Marble and yet if this be granted since there is no entrance leading into this no more than is into the second Pyramid what may be within depends upon the uncertainty of Tradition or Conjecture both which are very fallible though it cannot be denied but that close by this on the East side of it there are the ruines of a Pile of Building with a sad and dusky colour much like that we described in passing to the second Pyramid which might be the ground and occasion of this Error I cannot excuse the Ancients but Bellonius or Gillius for it is no matter which of