its own accord when the Cloves fall down Mathiol in l. 2. Dioscorid c. 253. It growes to perfection in 8. years and lasts a hundred years It bears fruit onely in the Molucco Islands The keepers of it beat the Tree with Canes covering the Earth before with Palm-Tree coverings For 3. years it yields fruit then it growes barren and degenerates Scalig. Exerc. 146. s. 1. Cichory called Wart-Succory kills Warts Many by once eating one Sallet of the leaves of it have been freed The seed doth the like taken one dram for three dayes after Supper Mathiol in l. 2. c. 125. CHAP. XIII Of Saffron and Cherries SAffron flowrs almost for a moneth After the flowers by and by come forth the leaves that are green all the Winter not caring for the cold they grow dry and fall off in the Spring they never appear in Summer Mathiol ad l. 1. Dioscorid c. 25. It flowers when the Pleiades set and presently with the leaf it drives out the flower The root loves Lime it comes up by perishing whence those Verses were made Saffron that 's bruis'd growes fairer be not sad To suffer for at last 't will make thee glad Minder Aloed c. 4. It is good for shortnesse of breath Cardanus de spirat diffic It recovered the Mother in law of Caesar de Comitibus who for 2. moneths was so short-winded that she was next to deaths-door Given to women in labour it presently flyes to the Matrix so that one woman was delivered with a child dy'd in Saffron Heurn l. 2. medic c. 14. It is hurtful to the brain and with much using of it it will cause one to laugh we have an example of a Merchant who fell into such a laughter after meat when he had eaten over-much of it that he was ready to die A Mule-driver at Pisanta sleeping upon two little bags of Saffron dyed that night Lusitan Com. ad c. 25. l. 1. Dioscor Cherry-Trees cannot away with dung if therefore you dung their roots they degenerate they prosper well if you cut off the branches of them and bury them by the roots that they may corrupt there They grow without stones if you cut the Tree off when it is young about 2. foot from the ground and pick out the pith of it with an iron clearing the stock and bind both parts together again Mathiol ad l. 1. Dioscor c. 129. CHAP. XIV Of the Dog-Tree Cypresse-Tree and Cucumbers THe Inhabitants of Ida by Troy say that the male Dog-Tree is barren In Macedonia they are both fruitfull but the Male brings ripe berries in Summer the Female in Autumn These Berries are not so good as those for they can hardly be eaten Bees that taste of its flower die by a dysentery The Cypresse-Tree growes naturally onely in Candie for in what place soever the earth is digged unlesse it be planted as it should be it will come forth again of it self In Mount Ida it growes very well and numerous in ground that is not forced Plin. l. 16. c. 33. Set in watry grounds it presently decayes and it is kill'd by laying dung to it The seed is as small as Atoms The Pismires desire it which is the greater wonder that so small Creatures can devour it all the leaves are alwaies green and the substance is never rotten nor breeds Worms Rhodigin l. 25. c. 2. Plin. l. 26. c. 40. The Image of Vejovis made of this wood remained in the fortresse from the year the City was built 551. even to the dayes of Rhodiginus In Arcadia at Phophis there were some so tall that they overshadowed the Mountain that was next to them Dalechamp ad loc cit Plin. Cucumbers are sometimes wonderful grâ—at that in India one man cannot carry one of them Scaliger saw one was 7. foot and a half long He saith also Exerc. 171. That he had a dry Gourd which a man that carried it in sport seemed to have a great Log on his back It was 13 hands breadth Eaten they remain in the stomach till the next day for they are of a clammy and cold substance Plin. l. 19. c. 5. They so hate oyl that if a vessel of oyl be put under them when they hang on the stalk they will turn from it and grow crooked They grow very tender if the seed be steeped in milk before they be set CHAP. XV. Of Onions Celandine Hemp and River Sponge THe Onions of the Ascalonitae are of a peculiar nature they onely are cleft from the root and barren nor will they grow from that part Theophr l. 7. c. 4. Therefore they are not set but sowed with their seed and in the Spring they are transplanted with their branches In Candie also there is a kind of them that growes thick in the root sowed in seed but set it spreads into stalks and seed it is sweet in taste but hath no head Seed of Elinus being put into Onions there will spring up an herb with leaves like flax of a sharp taste they call it Dragons Yet Scaliger was deceived when he sowed it and thought to try this miracle Scalig. Exerc. 169. s. 2. They say of Celandine that Swallowes lay it on the Eyes of their young ones and restore their lost sight Dioscor l. 2. c. 186. Hence Aristotle 4. de generat Animal c. 6. saith prick the young Swallows eys and they will see again Worn next the soles of the feet it cures the Jaundies laid to womens breasts is will stop the too great abundance of their Terms Mathiol ad Dioscor loc cit Garden Hemp-seed will make Hens lay and it extinguisheth mans nature eaten too largely Mathiol ad l. 3. Dioscor c. 48. The decoction of new Hemp if you presse it out strongly and pour it on the ground it will force the Worms out of their holes and kills Worms in the ears Plin. l. 20. c. 23. River Sponge is proper especially to the Rivers by the Alps. A pruner of Trees was cured by it that fell from a Tree and brake almost all his bones They laid it round his body and as oft as it grew dry they sprinkled it with water Though they did this but seldom yet he was quickly restored Mathiol ad l. 4. Dioscor c. 94. CHAP. XVI Of Hemlock Ciacompalon and Cocco HEmlock is a kind of poyson that makes men mad and kills them Franciscus Trapollinus dyed mad with it when his Maid had put it into his Pottage instead of Parsley It hath made some Creatures lie for dead and when they stood up again they were astonished a long time and afterwards they ran wildly up and down Scaliger writes he never saw any man that was killed by it Starlings feed on it From Plato we collect that the force of it may be abated if one be moderately hot before he take the juice of it Therefore Scaliger Exerc. 152. s. 1. saith That the Executioner that was to give this most deadly Poyson warned Crito that he should not
nourished is very great at the place he comes forth of his shell This is very brittle milk white shining polished altogether representing the form of a round ship for it swims on the top of the Sea arising from the bottom and the shell comes the bottom upwards that it may ascend the better and sail with an empty Boat and when she is come above the water then she turns her shell Moreover there is a membrane that lyes between the fore-legs of the Boat-fish as there is between the toes of water-fowl but this is more thin like a cobweb but strong and by that she sails when the wind blowes the many tufts she hath on both sides she useth for rudders and when she is afraid then she presently sinks her shell full of Sea water Farther she hath a Parrots bill and she goes with her tufts as the Polypus doth and after the same manner she conceives in hollow partitions CHAP. XVIII Of Oysters and Muscles THough Oysters love sweet waters yet Pliny reports that they are found in stony places but Aristotle saith that though they live in water and cannot live without it yet they take in no moysture nor Ayre When in the time of the Warr with Mithridates the earth parted at Apumaea a City of Phrygia Rivers did suddenly appeare and not only sweet but salt waters brake out of the bowels of the earth though the Sea were farr distant so that they filled all that Coast with Oysters Athen. l. 8. The Oysters are of divers colours In Spain they are red in Sclavonie brown in the red Sea they are so distinguished with flaming Circles that by mixture of divers colours it is like the Rainbow Aelian l. 10. c. 13. At the beginning of Summer they are great and full of milk At Constantinople they cast this wheish matter into the water which cleaving to stones will beget Oysters Gillius writes it and it is very probable For of the decoction of Mushroms powred on the ground it is certain that Mushroms will grow the Crabfish doth wonderfully desire the meat of them but he comes hardly by them because they have a strong shell by nature wherefore he useth his cunning For when in places where the wind blows not he sees them taking pleasure in the Sun and to open their shells against the Suns beams he privately casts in a stone that they cannot shut again and so he conquers them CHAP. XIX Of the Butterflye and the Polypus THe Butterflies couple after August the male dying after copulation the female lays egs and dieth also How they are preserved in winter is hardly discovered by any man except by Aldrovandus de Insectis But he enquired of Country people and they hold him that the leaves were great with the Butterflies seed at what time they plowed the ground they were hid in the bowells of it and fostered by its heat yet he thinks that they only are preserved that lye hid in the hollow barks of Trees but what lyes on leaves is quickned the same yeare And Aldrovandus adds I saw eggs layd under the leaves of Chamaeficus out of which about the end of August little Catterpillars naturally came forth They were wrapped in a thin down that the ayre might not hurt them and these little Catterpillars falling did not fall to the ground but hung by a small thred like Spiders in the Ayre When they lay under leaves they fold them so that the rain cannot hurt them and lay them up as under a penthouse I twice observed one Catterpillar that I took amongst the Coleworts first to lay yellow eggs wrapt up also in fine down and when they were laid she turned into a Chrysalis of the same colours that she was that is yellow green and black and that which seemed strange to me out of those eggs little flying creatures came forth that I could hardly see them such as are wont to be found in the bladders of Elms when they are in great abundance they shew contagion of the Ayre Anno 1562 they flew at Bannais neere the waters in such multitudes that they darkned the course of the River especially after Sun set then coming hither about night they wandred through the Villages as in Battel aray little differing from Moths Cornelius Gemma testifieth that that was a tempestuous yeare The Polypus in time grows so great that it is taken for a kind of Whale In the bowells of them there is a strange thing like a Turbane that you would say it had the nature of the Heart or of the Liver but it suddenly dissolves and runs away They exceedingly love the Olive-Tree For if a bough on which Olives hang be let down into the Sea and held there you may catch abundance of them hanging about the bough Somtimes they are taken sticking to Figg-Trees growing by the Seaside and they eat the fruit of them They also delight wonderfully in Locusts of which you shall find a cleare Testimony in Petrus Berchorius I have heard saith he that some Fishermen in the Sea of Province had set Locusts on the shore to boyle over burning coles and a Polypus smelling the Locust came forth of the Sea and coming to the fire would with his foot have taken a Locust forth but he feared the heat of the fire and so went back to the Sea and filâ—'d a coat which he had on his head like a Friers cowle with water and went and came so often with it and cast it on the fire that he put the fire out and so taking the Locust he had carryed it to the Sea unlesse one of the Fishermen that saw him had caught him and broyl'd him to eat instead of the Locust CHAP. XX. Of a Lowse and a Flea SOme think that Lice are bred of flesh others of blood but both opinions are false For first they breed in the skin of the head and we know they abound in the second and third kind of hectick feavers when as there is little flesh and here they are almost consumed Again in putrid Feavers they breed not and things bred do confirm their principles Their colour shews they proceed not from blood Wherefore some think they breed from putrid matter that is cold and moyst which abounds in the skin in places where they cannot be blown away Experience teacheth that they will leave those that are dead either because the blood is cold in the body when the heat is gone or because the dead body is cold and they fly from the cold Nolanus Problem 225. They that eat figs often are thought to be troubled with them Nolanus makes the juice of them to be the cause For this increasing in the veins heats the blood and makes it moyst and frothy which because it naturally tends to the skin and retain'd under that it putrefies it turns to lice Truly they that feed on figs have little knots and warts on their skins A Flea is a small Creature yet Africanus a cunning
hath a stalk like a Cane that hath a white pith in it like to Sugar-Canes in the top whereof it puts forth branches divided and empty The fruit wherein the Corn is shut up in thin covers come forth of the sides of the stalk The Ear is as great as the apple of the Pitch-Tree there are round about it clear white grains within as great as Pease disposed of in 8. or 10. right lines on all sides From the Top of the Cod hang long shoots of the same colour with the corn the Indians call it Malitz It is steeped 2 dayes in water before they sow it nor do they trust it untill it be wet with rain They reap it in 4 months but that which growes in Eubaea is ripe in 40 dayes Theophrast lib. cit Thyme begins about the Summer Solstice and honey from thence is successefull for Bees and Bee-masters Theophrast l. 6. c. â— If it put forth its flowers otherwise the making of honey doth not succeed well the flower perisheth if a shower fall There runs oyl from it of a golden colour when the herb is distilled through a bath of hot water when it is green It tastes like a pome Citron Mathiol in l. 3. Dioscor c. 37. CHAP. XLII Of Tobacco TObacco or Nicotiana from the finder of it is called also the holy Herb the Queens herb the herb of the holy Crosse and Petum It is well known to them that know the Indian Merchandise and those that have smelt the fume of it in Britany France and the Low-Countries It is sowed when the Moon increaseth and cut down when she decreaseth There is one kind call'd the Male with a broad leaf and another called the female with a narrower leaf but a longer stalk The least seed of it falling of its own accord lies safe in the coldest winter and the next Summer being carried into many grounds with the wind cometh up of itself Camerar in hort Neaâ—der in Tobaccolog From the seed of the male they say the female will spring if it fall into a ground where Tobacco grew before and that so fruitfully that it will yearly grow up of it self But it will not endure the cold but if it be well preserved it will like Citron Trees continue all the year and remain 4 years without damage Monardus de simpl medicam As for the forces of it it will cause thirst hath an acrimonious taste it troubles the mind and makes head-ach Neander They that drink it too greedily have fallen down dead and stupified for a whole day Benzon l. 1. c. 26. hist. nov orb Hence it was that King James of famous memory King of England writ Misocapnos For he supposed it weakned the bodies of his Subjects Yet many famous men have written high commendations of it The Spaniards say it resists poyson For when the Cannibals had wounded them with poyson'd darts they cured themselves with the juice of Tobacco laying on the bruised leafs Monard loc cit The Catholick King made tryal of it on a Dog wounded with a venomâ—â— weapon and it cured him Heurnius writes that it oures perfectly the pain of the teeth and takes away all the dolour His words are When I was vehemently pain'd with Tooth-ache about a year since I boyled Tobacco in water with some Camomil flowers and I held a spoonfull of the warm decoction in my mouth I spit it forth and used this for two houres the pain abated The next day saith he I went to my Garden in the Subburbs as I was wont to do and bending down with my head to pull up some grasse there ran a moysture out of my nostrills yellow as Saffron it smelt like Tobacco and all the pain of my teeth was gone Never did blood nor any thing but a flegmatick matter run forth of my nose in all my life and I never saw any deeper yellow than what ran now out of my nostrills That it restores the sight see Wiburgius ad Schnitz Epist. 209. A certain Maid had the pupil of her eye covered he with the juice of the best Tobacco boyl'd to an unguent with May butter and anointing the Eye outwardly with it the eye being shut effected so much that none could discern it but those that stood close by Clusius saith That the Indians use to make pills with the juice of it and Cockle-shells bruised that will stop their hunger for 3. dayes It is no wonder for by resolving of slime that falls upon the stomachs mouth it abates the appetite Castor Durantes in an Epigram describes the vertues of it thus An herb call'd Holy Crosse doth help the sight It cures both Wounds and Scabs and hath great might 'Gainst Scrophulous and Cancerous Tumours Burnings and Wild-fires repressing humours It heats it binds resolves and also dries Asswages pains diseases mundisies Pains of the Belly Head or Teeth with ease It helps old Coughs and many a sad disease Of Spleen and Reins and Stomach and more parts As Womb sore Gums and Wounds with venom'd darts Are cur'd thereby with sleep it doth refresh And covers naked bones with perfect flesh For Breast and Lungs when that we stand in need All other herbs Tobacco doth exceed CHAP. XLIII Of Trifoly Teucrium Thelyphonon Yew Thapsia and Thauzargent TRifoly foreshews a tempest at hand for when it is coming it will rise up against it It hath been observed that when this hearb hath plenty of flowers it portends many showers and frequent inundations that year and a few flowers shew drinesse Fuchs in herb It is called Cuccow bread either because she feeds of it or because it comes forth about the time the Cuccow sings seven times in a day it hath a sweet smell and seven times in the day it loseth it But pulled up it always holds it and when a showr is coming it will smell so sweet that it will fill all the houses Teucrion otherwise Hermion neither beares flowers nor seed It cures the Spleen and they say it was so found out Plin. l. 25. c. 5. when the entralls were thrown upon it they report it stuck to the Spleen and drew it empty It is said that swine that feed on the root of it dye without a Spleen Thelyphonum hath a root like to a Scorpion and put to them it kills them but if you strew white Hellebour upon them they will revive again it is scarce credible Theophrast l. 9. c. 19. The Yew brings forth berries that are red and like red Wine they that eat them fall into Feavers and Dysenteries Cattel will dye if they eat the leaves of it and do drivel Theophrastus writes it l. 3. c. 10. but Pliny confutes it l. 16. c. 10. It is so Venemous in Arcadia that it kills such as sleep under its shadows Ovetan Sum c. 78. In India it makes the eyes and mouth of such as sleep under it to swell Thapsia grows in the Athenian land Cattle bred there will not touch it but strange Cattle will
North-west wind blowes the North wind makes them well again In Tercera it eats Iron and stones Bertius in Geograph Amongst the rest are the Etesia that are very moderate winds every year two dayes after the rising of the dog-star they are wont to blow 40 dayes They temper the heat with their blast and cool the Summer and defend us from the burthen of the hot moneths They rise at 3. of the clock of the day thence they are called sleepy winds and they cease at night It is likely they are bred by great heat melting the Snow that yet remains in the Northern parts It is credible that the Earth being freed from Snow and uncovered they will blow the freer The Ancients sacrificed to the winds to please them Herodotus saith That a Temple in Ilissum was built to Boreas They call'd them at Athens Boreasmi who kept the Feasts of Boreas We believe P. Victor that at Rome there was a Temple for Tempest Rhodigin l. 20. c. 25. CHAP. VII Of the Earth-quake Artic. 1. Of the rising of an Earthquake THe Ancients believed that the Earth moved by waters fluctuating in the Caves of the Earth Whence they called Neptune Earth-shaker and mover Gell. l. 2. c. 28. Others thought the wind in the surface of the Earth returning into the hollow caves of it did shake it Others again that the Sun kept the vapours within the ground and they seeking passage to come forth did wander where they could when they found none Reason and Experience are against it There is in the West part of Spain a Mountain of wonderfull height with many hollow Caves Scalig. Exerc. 38. waters fall down in them with so great noise that they are heard five miles yet there is no Earthquake there nor yet is the wind or Ayr that goes under very great it is dispersed in the largenesse of the Channels and the diverticles it finds going farther it is stopt Mineral operations shew this For they make mighty bellowes to draw the ayr lest they should be choked for want of it The contest of winds doth nothing for that rather tends to the sides or flyes upwards by its leightnesse and at the first hindrance they fly from the Earth like a whirlwind It is uncertain whether the Sea can stop the passages there are seldom any such great Caves by the Sea nor can that go in at once but it will be thrust back again The Sun cannot more easily exercise its force upon the Earth and beget an Exhalation than he can bring it forth being begotten for the Sun beams operate noâ— but by resistance Whilest they heat and dry they open the same because exhalations ascend more strongly to that place which is neer One in respect of continuity followes another but howsoever they enter in they easily come out of the Earth and more easily than they can shake it for in Mines where the powder finds but a chink when it is fired it is lost labour Wherefore Exhalation bred from fire under the Earth and shut up in the bowels of the Earth causeth an Earthquake And that is apparent by this For before an Earthquake Well-waters will not onely boyl but be more troubled and brimstony vapours come forth From whence The like vapours are tossed in the bowels of the Earth Pliny l. 2. Artic. 2. Of the place time and effects of an Earth-quake THose places are subject to Earth-quakes which can easily take in wind Solid places will not admit it sandy places mixed with lime do easily discuss it they want receptacles for winds Champion places have no Caves Yet the whole Earth is never shaken for the Vapours included have no proportion to the Globe of the Earth If it should happen it must be ascribed to divine power which nature would seem to challenge to her self If you consider the duration it differs as the resistance is few Vapours are sooner discussed many last longer and rage a greater time Senec. naturalâ— l. 6. c. 3. Campania trembled many dayes Livy writes that at that time when L. Cornelia and Q. Minucius neer Consuls the Earth-quakes were so frequent that men were weary not only of it but of all businesse The same Author sayes that an Earth-quake lasted 40 days others say one hath lasted two yeares and returned again and again Livy l. 44. l. 45. Aristot. l. 2. Meteor c. 8. Plin. l. 2. c. 82. Such is the condition of the effects of it that those that hear of it will be astonished at it and those that see it dye Oft times it doth not devour Houses Cities or whole famelies only but whole Nations and Countries somtimes the Earth falls upon them somtimes it takes them into its deep jaws and leaves not so much whereby it may appear that what is not now ever was Seneca L. 6. natur c. 1. The ground covers somtimes the most noble Cities without leaving any mark of their formeâ— being when as the great hollow Caves in the Earth are forced and shaken with winds and fall down oft times in the Sea a hollow pit opening drinks up the waters on the Land Rivers that both fish and shipping sink into it On the otherside the Earth lifted up into a high tumour hath caused Mountains on land and Islands at Sea somtimes the course of Rivers hath been changed that hilly ground having been removed on that side that they formerly ran Histories are full of these calamities The last yeare of Nero fields and Olive Trees that the high way passed between in the Country of the Mâ—rrucinum were transported to the other side L. Marcius and Sextus Julius being Consuls in the Country of the Mutinenses two Mountains fell together with a mighty noise Plin. l. 2. and l. 16. c. 40. Many Villages were then beaten down and Cattel killed In Parthia there is a place called Ragai from the clifts where many Towns and Villages 2000 were overwhelmed At Cajeta in Italy there is a Mountain toward the South a part whereof an Earthquake so divided that one would believe the division was made by the art of Man the Sea runs under it with a great noise Agricol in reb quae efflu ex terra The Houses of Helice and Bura two Towns in the Sinus of Corinth did appeare in the Sea In the Island Aenania a Town was so taken in that there was no appearance of it left Not far from Ptolemais the Waves of the Sea were carried into the deep and so lifted up themselves that they appeared like a great Mountain and afterwards they were carryed to the land and drownd the Army of Tryphon When Cneius Octavius and C. Scribonius were Consuls the River at Velia brake down the bridges and threw the banks of the River into the waters drove away the stones that were in the Market place in Town and Field it shook the Churches which a few days after fell down By an Earthquake the City of Lacedemon fell all down when the Mountain Taygetus was broken
medicament wherewith she anointed the Crown and Garment of Creon's daughter and burnt her by this art Of this in Persia is made a Physical oyl wherewith a dart anointed if it be shot slowly by a weak Bow for with swift flying it is extinguished wheresoever it sticks fast it burns and if any would put it out with water it burns the more and there is no means to put it out but by casting dust upon it It is thus made They season common oyl tainted with a certain herb By experience of these things and by continuance a certain kind is made by the Persians that congealing from a matter very natural is like to thick oyl and they call it Naptha a barbarous name Libav Tom. 3. singul l. 2. c. 7. Petroleum is more liquid than Naphtha In Italy and the Country of Matina it distills out of a Rock white and red of a strong smell In Sicilia it swims upon Fountains which they call Sicilian oyl and they burn it for Lamp oyl Pliny commends it against the Scabs of Cattle In the Country of Parma it runs forth white at the Village Meiana There are 3. Fountains there they gather it every or every other day thus They shake the water with brooms and foroing the oyl into a corner they take it with vessels Every day half a pound in the most hot and dry time of the year Baubinâ—nâ—â— l. 1. Dioscor c. 85. Of the red at the Mount Zibethum in the Winter they collect 15. ounces in Summer 45 ounces In the Village Allense it is collected black with a fleece and a scoop The more water is drawn forth the more oyl they take sometimes 240 ounces It varies as the place doth The Italian burns not in its Fountain the Babylonian doth That is wonderfull which Mathiolus reports in l. 1. Dioscorid c. 82. Hercules of Ferrara â— Contrariis had in his possession a pit into which Petroleum distilled He hired a Plaisterer to stop it and because he could not do it without light he let down a Candle and the Petroleum took fire by it and threw forth the Plaisterer and brake down the sides of his pit Maltha is the straining of Bitumen mingled with mud that is like clay Pliny speaks of it l. â— c. 104. In the City Samosata saith he of Comagena there is a Lake that sends forth burning mud it sticks to any solid thing it toucheth and it followes when you draw from it In joyning of walls it serves for lime And the Babylonians used it to build their walls with Vitruvius l. 1. c. 5. CHAP. VIII Of Pissaphaltum and the wayes of Embalming dead Corps PIssaphaltum is Bitumen that Pitch is boyled with Bauhinus thinks it is Mummy of the Arabians But this is of two sorts naturall and artificiall that they embalmed with consisting of Myrrhe and Aloes But of the materials and the manner how to embalm we shall speak of them here as we come to fall upon them Diodorus Siculus and Herodotus l. 3. are large concerning it Three men perform this work The first is called a Grammarian who as the body lyes on the ground appoints how great the incision shall be about the small guts on the left side The other is the Cutter and he opens the side with an Aethiopian stone and then suddenly runs away for those that stand by detesting the fact pursue him with stones Then follow the Embalmers One of these drawes his incision through the inside of the body besides the Heart and Kidneys Another washeth it with Phoenician wine mingled with spices Lastly they anoint the body washed with Unguents of Cedar and other pretious things for 30. dayes Then it is delivered to the kindred that mourn for him the hairs of his eye-lids and eye-brows being preserved that he may seem to be asleep Herodotus speaks of three kinds of embalming The first was by pulling the brains through the Nostrills with a hook and the bowels taken forth with an Aethiopian stone they cleanse it with Phoenician wine and stuffe it with spices then they fill the fat pannicle with Myrrhe Cassia and sweet odours beaten without Frankincense and sew them in then they salt it for 70 dayes then they wash the Corps and wrap it in a linnen cloth and smeer it with Gum and lay it into the fashion of a Man made of wood The other is by salting it 70 dayes which drawes forth the inward filth The third way is the poor cleanse the belly with washing then for 70 dayes they dry it with salt and then they lay it up And not onely men have been so honoured but beasts also For some beasts were sacred to the Egyptians and when they were dead they covered them with a linnen cloth and spread them with salt striking their breasts and howling And to preserve the body the longer they anointed it with oyl of Ceder and kept it in hallowed places Also they put divers Idols into the brest of it Rondeletius found in the breast of one of them 20 leaves of ancient Paper written with Arabian letters Bauhin ad l. 1. Dioscor c. 85. Moreover the French commend Mummy so much that the Nobility will never be without it They say that Francis the 1. alwayes carried it in his purse fearing no accident if he had but a little of that by him CHAP. IX Of Camphir THe Moors write that Camphir is a Gum of a Tree that spreads out its boughes so far that 100 men may stand under the shadow of it They adde that the wood is white reedy and hath the Camphir in its spungy pith That 's uncertain but it is more certain that it is made of a kind of Bitumen thus The Indian Bitumen which springs from the native Camphir is boyled in a vessel with fire under it the thinner parts turn into a white colour and are carried to the cover which gives them the form we see when they are collected Merchants say there is native Camphir in the Indies It is so near to fire that once fired it will burn all out The flame that comes from it is bright and smells sweet Hanged in the ayr it evaporates by degrees the most thin parts are the cause Hence Apothecaries put it in a close vessel with Milium or Linseed and cover it Plater de l. f. p. 165. The smell of it hinders lust drank or smelled to and carried about it extinguisheth the seed And because it flyes to the head if it carry up with it cold humours it may cause sleep and make men hoary before they be old If to women sick of the Mother or fainting of heart pains a small cup of water be exhibited wherein so much Camphir is burned as a hazel-nut it presently helps Heurnius l. 2. Medic. The Neotericks hold it is cold and that it is mitigated by Ambergreece and that the drynesse may do no hurt oyl of Violets is poured upon it Garzias ab Horto saith he learned by experience that in
is neere to the Tartars of Cathay The root of it 〈…〉 kills one presently The fruit of Niraâ—und is a remedie for the mischief of it It drives away any Poyson whatsoever Scaliger Exerc. 153. s. 6. Bâ—uâ—athâ—er are Sea-Trees in the Sâ—â—us of China So great are they that birds of wonderfull bignesse do lodge in them They are so vast saith Scaliger that the greatest Creatures may be born up by them and taken above ground Scalig. exerc 181. s. 10. Josephus writ of Baaras In a valley saith he where the City is conpassed on the North side there is a certain Lake called Baaras where there is a root called by the same name It is of a flame colour and about the evening it shines like the Suns beams Those that come to it and would pul it up cannot easily do it but it draws from them nor will it stâ—y untill some body powre the urine of the menstrual blood of a woman upon it Also then if any one touch it it is certain death unlesse he carry the same root hanging in his hand It is taken an other way without danger which is this They dig round about it so that very little of the root be covered with the Earth then they tye a dog to it and he striving to follow him that tied him pulls the root out very easily but the dog allwaies dies as in place of him that should take it up for after that there is no fear for any man to take it up It seems to be a Fable unlesse there be some other meaning in it CHAP. X. Of Cachi Cacavate Cassia our Ladies Thistle and Corallina CAchi is a prickly Tree in Malabar they call the fruit of it Ciccara It is like the Pine-nut for within the severall divisions are distinguished by Membranes as in the Pomegranate The Apples are like figs in shape and sweetnesse without any rind there are 250 and somtimes 300 upon them Scalig. exerc 181 s. 12. Amongst these small fruits there is another like a Chesnut and cracks like it when it is rosted The fruit grows forth of the stock as it doth on the Mulberry Fig-Tree between the prickles and the leaves Somtimes which is the greater wonder it comes forth of the root under ground and it brings forth but one Apple but so great that it will load a strong Man Maiol col de Plant. Cacavate is a Tree in the Province of America Nicaragna which so abhors the Sun that it must be kept allwaies in the shade and must be covered with the shadow of some higher Tree In Woody places that are wet if it come to the Sun it perisheth Libavius de orig rerum Cassia oft times is changeed into Cinnamon Galen saw some boughs that were exceeding good and alltogether like it and some twigs of Cinnamon like to Cassia hence grew his opinion that for one part of Cinnamon two parts of choise Cassia might be substituted in physicall compositions Galen de Antid l. 1. The twigs of it were cut in peices and sowed up in green Oxe-hides least the wood should grow unprofitable by Worms that will breed in it Plin. l. 12. c. 29. Of solutive Cassia men say that he that shall daily swallow three drams of the pulp of it before dinner shall never be troubled with the stone nor colick Mathiol in Dioscor l. 1. The flowers of the milky Thistle which they call Carduus Mariae Platerus de vit saith they cured a Souldier of the Strangury onely by looking upon them Corallina is of so great force against Worms that it drives them forth the same day it is taken There was a Boy that took it and voided 70 Worms The Antients knew it hot now they use it all over Greece Lemn occult l. 3. c. 9. CHAP. XI Of Cinnamon and Cedar CInnamon growes in Zeilam and in one of the Molucco Islands Mutir It bears no fruit In the heat the rind cleavs and comes off it is pull'd off twice a year Scalig. Exerc. 144. First it growes sweet and the next moneth it comes to perfection In Galen's dayes it was so scarce that no man had any but the Emperour Galen l. 1. de Antid But even at this day there is scarce any such as Galen describes Scalig. loc cit It holds not good for 30 years for it is false that others write that it never growes old I saith Galen loc cit observed some change in Cinamon not that was 200 years old but far younger in comparison For at the time that I made Theriac for the Emperour Antoninus I saw many woodden vessels wherein such Cinamon was some were laid up in the time of Trajan others of Adrian some in Antoninus his time and all these in taste and smell did exceed or fall short one of another so much as they differed in age Cedar doth bring spungy flesh to putrefaction without pain because it is dry and preserves dead bodies from corruption for it drinks up the superfluous moysâ—ure in them not medling with what is firm Mathiol l 1. Dioscor c. â—9 It kills Nits Lice Moaths and Worms bred in the ears â—aid on it kills the Child that is living and drives forth the dead Theophrast l. 5. c. 8. It corrupts the seed in copulation and hinders procreation It grew formerly abundantly in Libanus now adayes it is very little there Rhanwolsius reckoned but 24 Trees It is wonderful for height and thicknesse The body is so great that three Men cannot fathom it It is far greater in Orchards if it be let alone and not cut down At Utica there was the Temple of Apollo where the beams of the Numidian Cedars lasted for they were laid there at the first founding of that City that was 1188 years Plin. l. 16. c. 40. CHAP. XII Of Chamaeleon Cloves and Cichory THe root of black Chamaeleon is venomous in Greece and Pontus Mathiolus ascribes it to the goodnesse of the climate where it is not so For the Peach Tree was formerly deadly to the Persians but safe to the Egyptians and Cuckowpint was so mild amongst them of Cyrene that they eat it for meat like Rape roots In Greece and Italy they cannot eat it boyled nor raw It kills both Dogs and Sows Dogs when it is kneaded with barley meal oyl and water Sows with Coleworts If you would try whether a sick man shall live some say he must be washed with that root for 3. dayes if he can endure it they think he will not die The clammy substance growing at the roots of it is present venom but taken moderately it makes sleepy persons wakeful Theophrast l. 9. de Plant. c. 23. Hence the women of Crete that they may not sleep at their work eat a little of it after Supper The Clove-Tree growes in the Indies in some Islands of the Indian Sea it is like a Bay-Tree with narrower and most sweet smelling leaves Cloves proceed from them that are nothing but the beginning of the fruit It growes of
violently that in one night it buds all over with a noyse so that the whole Tree will be covered with flowers Pliny l. 16. c. 25. CHAP. XXX Of Napellus NApellus kills with every part but chiefly the root For held in the hand till it wax hot it will destroy you It is certain that some shepherds that used the stalk for a spit to rost birds dyed of it Mathiolus Com. in l. 4. Dioscor c. 73. confirms this venomous quality of it by many examples I shall adde one One dram of Napellus was given to a Thief that was 27 years old He drank it down and said it tasted like pepper Most grievous symptoms followed for he vomited often something green as Leeks He felt a thing like a ball about his Navell it came upwards and sent a cold vapour to his head then he became stupified as if he had a palsie that laid hold on his left arm and leg that he could scarce stir the top of his hand all motion being lost in the other parts By and by this force of the disease forsook his left side which became sound and seized on his right side and wrought the like effects there He said That all the veins of his body were grown cold He had giddinesse in his head and his brain was so often disturb'd that he said it seem'd to him like boyling water He had Convulsions in his Eyes and Mouth and a very sharp pain in his Mandibles wherefore he often held those parts with his hands fearing they would fall off His eyes appeared outwardly swoln his face wan lips black and his belly was seen to swell like a Tympany His Arteries beat strongly and his mind was diversly troubled as the symptoms increased For sometimes he thought he should die and presently he hoped to live sometimes he spake rationally and sometimes he doted sometimes he wept and sometimes he sang He affirmed that in all this time he was thrice blind and thrice in an agony of death but his tongue was firm never troubled with any symptome Thus far Mathiolus But all these symptomes by giving him Bezars stone vanished in seven hours CHAP. XXXI Of Nyctegretum Granum Nubiae Nutmegs and Olive Trees NYctegretum was admired by Democritus amongst a few things it is hot as fire and hath thorny leafs nor doth it rise from the ground It must be dug up after the vernal Equinoctial and dryed by the Moon-light for 30 dayes and then it will shine in the night Plin. l. 21. c. 11. It is also called Chenomychon because Geese are afraid at the sight of it In Nubia which is Aethiopia by Aegypt there is a grain that swallowed will kill living Creatures A tenth part of it will kill them in a quarter of an hour Scalig. Exerc. 153. s. 11. In Banda an Island of the Molucco's the Nutmeg growes and it is covered with a cup for a shell when 't is ripe it is all covered over Under the first covering the shell is not presently that covers the kernel but a thick skin which the Arabians call Macin The Olive-Tree if it be cropped at the first budding by a Goat growes so barren that it will never bear by any means but if there be any other cause the certain cure is to lay open their roots to the Winter cold Plin. l. 7. c. 14. The Olive and the Oak so disagree that one planted by the other will shortly die The Lees of oyl mingled with Lime if walls be plaistered with it and the roofs they not onely drop down all adventitious humours that they contract but neither Moth nor Spiders will endure them Mathiol in Dioscor It flowereth in July the flowers coming forth by clusters From whence grow first green berries and they are pale as they grow ripe then they become a full purple colour and lastly black They are pulled in November and December then are they laid in pavements till they become wrinkled then are they put in under a milstone and are pressed out with presses pouring scalding water on and so they yield their oyl The wood of the Tree burns as well green as dry At Megoris a wild Olive Tree stood long in the Market-place to which they had fastned the Arms of a valiant man but the bark grew over it and hid them for many years That Tree was fatall to the Cities ruine as the Oracle foretold when a Tree should bear arms for it so fell out when the Tree was cut down spurs and helmets being found within it Plin. l. 16. c. 29. The Olive Tree lasts 200 years Plin. l. 16. c. 44. CHAP. XXXII Of the Palm-Tree THey say that the female Palm-Trees will bring forth nothing without the Males which is confirmed when a wood growes up of its own accord so about the Males many females will grow enclining toward them and wagging their boughes But the male with branches standing up as it were hairy doth marry them by the blowing on them and by standing near them on the same ground Plin. l. 13. c. 4. When the Male is cut up the females are in widowhood and are barren Hence in Egypt they so plant them that the wind may carry the dust from the Male to the Female but if they be far off they bind them together with a cord Pontanus reports that two Palm-Trees one set at Brundusium the other at Hydruntum were barren till they were grown up to look one upon the other and though it were so great a distance yet they both did bear fruit Dalechamp ad lib. cit Poets write thus of them A Tree there grew in large Brundusium Land A Tree in Idumaea much desir'd And in Hydruntum Woods one rare did stand Like Male and Female 't is to be admir'd On the same ground they did not grow but wide Asunder and they both unfruitful stood They many leaves did bear nothing beside At last they grew so high above the wood That of each other they enjoy'd the light Then they grew fruitful like to Man and Wife Each in the other seem'd to take delight And to be partners each of th' others life Cardanus reports that in Data a City of Numidia there was a Palm-Tree the fruit whereof unlesse the boughes of the flourishing male were mingled with the boughes of the female the fruit was never ripe but were lean with a great stone in them and by no help could they be kept from consuming but if any leaf or rind of the male were present then they would grow ripe Philo. l. 1. de vita Mosis saith that the vital force of it is not in the roots but in the top of the stock as in the heart and in the middle of the boughes that it is guarded about with all as with Halberdiers There is a kind of Palm-Tree growes in India out of the stock whereof the boughes being for that purpose cut in the moneth of August a liquor like wine runs forth that the Inhabitants receive in vessels
Chyrurgians expected he would dye in four days or seven at farthest he recovered by Rhubarb next under God One writes thus of it Camerar Cent. 8. in 51. Rhubarb is hot and dry the belly binds And opens Children Women great with Child May safely use it t is good for all kinds Opens Obstructions and gives purges mild Both Flegme and Choler 't is for 'th stomach good And helps the Liver serves to clense the blood Stops spitting blood and ruptures and we prise This root for weak folk and dysenteries From the small seed of Rhubarb in 3â— months so great a root grows that in some places it weighs 100 pound weight Mathiol in l. 2. c. 104. Mathiolus saw Turneps in the Country of Anamum that one of them weighed 30 pounds Those that are sowed in Summer are free from Worms mingling sutt with the seed when t is sowed or else steep the seed a night in the juyce of the greater housleek It hath been proved Columella By Harlem Anno 1585. there was one dug up like a Mans hand with nails and fingers exactly I saw the picture of it at Leyden with Cl. Bundarcius Ros solis or Sun dew which shines under the Sun like a Starr with his beams hath its name from its admirable nature for though the Sun in summer shine long and hot upon it yet the leaves of it are almost alwaies wet and the down of them is alwaies full of drops And which is admirable that moysture that is contain'd in the cups of the leaves so soon as you touch it with your fingers while it yet growes on the ground or else is pulled up presently and held in the Sun beames is drawn forth by and by into white threads like Silke which harden immediately and so continue ever after Camerar cent 8. memorab 98. CHAP. XXXVI Of Crow-foot Rue Rose-mary Rose-root and rose-Tree CRowfoot if Men eat it will cause Convulsions and draw their mouths awry They seem to laugh that dye with it Pausan. Also Salustius speaks of it In Sardinia saith he there grows an herb called Sardea like wild Smallage this contracts the Mouths and Jaws of Men with pain and kills them as it were laughing Rue resists Venome therefore a Weasel will carry it when he fights with a Serpent It is of a mighty greatnesse at Macheruntum Joseph l. 7. de bell Juddic c. 25. It was as high as any Fig-Tree and had remain'd from the time of Herod It is a singular remedy for the Epilepsy as a Country man found by accident Camerar Cent. 3. Memorab 36. He bruised it and with the smell of the Rue he stopt the nose of this Epileptick person fallen and presently he rose up Rosemary grows so plentifully in France that they burn it so thick that they make Tables of it It flowers both spring and fall Mathiol l. 3. c. 37. Barclay in his Icon animarum c. 4. writes thus of it in England Rosemary in many Countries is costly â—y the very paines is used about it to cherish it here it is common and somtimes serves to make hedges for Gardens Rhodium root is the most lively of all roots for dug out of the earth unlesse it be laid up in very dry places if it be planted again after many Months it will grow It grows on the highest Rocks where it hath scarse so much earth as to stick by Mathiol l. 4. c. 41. The Rosebush at Carthage in Spain is alwaies full of Roses in Winter and was alwaies honour'd by the Romans for they were wont to strew the leaves on their dishes of meat and to besmear their Citron Tables with the juyce of them that they might by reason of their bitternesse be free from Worms Heliogabalus commanded to throw Roses on his Banqueting guests from the top of the Room as if it rayned Roses Dalechamp in l. 21. c. 4. That is wonderfull that is related concerning revification There was a famous Physitian at Cracovia who could so curiously prepare the ashes of every part of a Plant that he would exactly preserve all the Spirits of them The ashes waxing a little hot by putting a Candle to the Glasse represented a Rose wide open which you might behold growing by degrees to augment and to be like a stalke with leaves flowers and at last a double Rose appeared in its full proportion when the Candle was taken away it fell againe to ashes Rosenberg Rhodolog c. ult The same thing allmost was done with a Nettle as Quercetan testifieth in his History of the Plague For when one would appoint a remedy against the stone at the end of Autumn he pull'd a great many Nettles up by the roots of these Nettles he made a lye the common way with hot water and by strayning and filtring he purified this lixivium that he might at last produce salt artificially as he intended but when he had set the lixivium all night to cool in an Earthen Vessel the next day when he thought to Evaporate to extract the Salt it hapned that night that the ayre was so cold that all the Lixivium was over frozen When therefore in the Morning he purposed to cast that Lixivium out at the Window besides his expectation he saw that all the water of the Lixivium was frozen and a thousand figures there of Nettles were in it so perfect with roots leaves and stocks and shewing so exactly that no Painter could paint them better CHAP. XXXVII Of Scorzonera Squills Sage and Scordium SCorzonera is no ancient Plant Mathiolus first described it l. â— c. 137. It was found in Catalonia by an African servant he that found it shew'd that it was a present remedy against the bitings of Adders he that will escape must drink the juice Of Squills vinegar is made of an admirable quality saith Mathiolus if one daily drink a little his jawes and Mouth will never be ill his stomach will be well he will breathe well see well he will be troubled with no wind in his belly and will be well coloured and long winded He that useth this vinegar will digest his meat well though he eat much There will be no crudities in his body not wind nor choler no drâ—gs nor will the urine or ordure passe away with over loosenesse Mathiol in l. 2. c. 168. Of Sage they say that it stops the flowing of the courses if one smell to it and eaten by one with Child it will retain the child and keep it lusty Mathiol in l. 3. c. 34. Hence it is that Agrippa calls it sacred If a woman drink a Hemina of the juice of it with a little salt the fourth day she hath abstain'd and layn alone and then lie with her husband she will conceive It is reported that in Coptus of Egypt after a great plague that the women drank it and did bear many children In many places of Asia they bear Apples In Calabria of Consentia Scaliger saith Exerc 168 that one did bring forth a gall of an