and inquire of him whether there be any wine to be had that we may offer it to the Satyre whereunto all consented and they filled four great Egyptian earthen vessels with wine and put it into the fountain where their cattel were watered this done Apollonius called the Satyre secretly threatning him and the Satyre inraged with the savour of the wine came after he had drunk thereof Now said Apollonius let us sacrifice to the Satyre for he sleepeth and so led the inhabitants to the dens of the Nymphes distant a furlong from the Town and shewed them the Satyre saying Neither beat curse or provoke him henceforth and he shall never harme you It is certain that the Devils do many wayes delude men in the likeness of Satyres for when the drunken feasts of Bacchus were yearly celebrated in Parnassus there were many sights of Satyres and voices and sounding of Cymbals heard yet is it likely that there are Men also like Satyres inhabiting in some desert places for S. Jerom in the life of Paul the Eremite reporteth there appeared to S. Antony an Hippocentaure such as the Poets describe and presently he saw in a rocky valley adjoyning a little man having crooked nostrils hornes growing out of his forehead and the neather part of his body had Goats feet the holy man not dismayed taking the shield of Faith and the breastplate of Righteousness like a good Souldier of Christ pressed toward him which brought him some fruits of palms as pledges of his peace upon which he fed in the journey which St. Antony perceiving he asked him who he was and received this answer I am a mortall creature one of the inhabitants of this Desert whom the Gentiles deceived with error do worship and call Fauni Satyres and Incubi I am come in ambassage from our flock intreating that thou wouldst pray for us unto the common GOD who came to save the world the which words were no sooner ended but he ran away as fast as any fowl could flie And lest this should seem false under Constantine at Alaxandria there was such a man to be seen alive and was a publick spectacle to all the World the carcass whereof after his death was kept from corruption by heat through salt and was carried to ANTIOCHIA that the Emperor himself might see it Satyres are very seldom seen and taken with great difficulty as is before said for there were two of those sound in the Woods of Saxoxy towards Dacia in a Desert the female whereof was killed by the darts of the hunters and the biting Dogs but the male was taken alive being in the upper parts like a Man and in the neather part like a Goat but all hairy throughout he was brought to be tame and learned to go upright and also to speak some words but with a voice like a Goat and without all reason he was exceeding lustful to women attempting to ravish many of what condition soever they were and of this kind there are store in Ethiopia The figure of another Monster THe famous learned man George Fabricius shewed me this shape of a monstrous beast the figure whereof see p. 12. that is fit to be joyned to the story of Satyres There was said he in the Territory of the Bishop of Saltzburgh in a forrest called Fannesburgh a certain four-footed beast of a yellowish-carnation colour but so wild that he would never be drawn to look upon any man hiding himself in the darkest places and being watched diligently would not be provoked to come forth so much as to eat his meat so that in a very short time it was famished The hinder legs were much unlike the former and also much longer It was taken about the year of the Lord One thousand five hundred thirty whose image being here so lively described may save us further labour in discoursing of his main and different parts and proportion Of the Norvegian Monsters WHen as certain Ambassadors were sent from James the fourth of that name King of Scotland among whom was James Ogill that famous Scholar of the University of Aberdene they no sooner took shipping and hoisted sail but there sudainly arose such a tempestuous storm that they were driven to the coasts of Norway and there going on shoar they were very strangely affrighted to see as to them it appeared certain wild monstrous men running on the tops of the mountains Afterward they were told by the inhabitants that they were beasts and not men which did bear mortal hatred to mankind although they could not abide the presence of a mans countenance yet in dark nights when the reverend visage of humane creatures are covered they will come down by troops upon the Villages and except the barking of Dogs drive them back they break open doors and enter houses killing and devouring whosoever they find for their strength is so unresistible and great that they can pull up by the roots a tree of mean stature and tearing the boughs from the body with the stock or stem thereof they fight one with another Which when the Ambassadors heard they caused a sure watch to be kept all night and withall made exceeding great fires and when the light appeared they took their farewel of those Monster-breeding-shores recovering with joy the course which before they had lost by tempest Of the AEGOPITHECUS UNder the Equinoctial toward the East and South there is a kind of Ape called Aegopithecus an Ape like a Goat For there are Apes like Bears called Arctopitheci and some like Lions called Leontopitheci and some like Dogs called Cynocephali as is before expressed and many other which have a mixt resemblance of other creatures in their members Amongst the rest is there a beast called PAN who in his head face horns legs and from the loins downwards resembleth a Goat but in his belly breast and armes an Ape such a one was sent by the King of Indians to Constantine which being shut up in a Cave or close place by reason of the wildness thereof lived there but a season and when it was dead and bowelled they pouldred it with spices and carried it to be seen at Constantinople the which having been seen of the ancient Grecians were so amazed at the strangeness thereof that they received it for a god as they did a Satyre and other strange beasts Of the SPHINGA or SPHINX The name of this Sphinx is taken from binding as appeareth by the Greek notation or else of delicacie and dainty nice loosness wherefore there were certain common strumpets called Sphinctae and the Megarian Sphingas was a very popular phrase for notorious harlets hath given occasion to the Poets to saign aâ— certain monster called Sphinx which they say was thus derived Hydra brought forth the Chymaera Chymaera by Orthus the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion now this Orthus was one of the Geryons Dogs This Sphinx they make
probable It is the property of these Dogs to be angry with the lesser barking Curs and they will not run after every trifling Beast by secret instinct of nature discerning what kinde of Beast is worthy or unworthy of their labour disdaining to meddle with a little or vile creature They are nourished with the same that the smaller hunting Dogs are and it is better to feed them with milk then whay There are of this kinde called Veltri and in Italian Veltro which have been procreated by a Dog and Leopard and they are accounted the swiftest of all other The Gray-hounds which are most in request among the Germans are called Windspill alluding to compare their swiftness with the winde the same are also called Turkischwind and Hetzhund and Falco a Falcon is a common name whereby they call these Dogs The French make most account of such as are bred in the Mountain of Dalmatia or in any other Mountains especially of Turkey for such have hard feet long ears and bristle tails There are in England and Scotland two kindes of hunting Dogs and no where else in all the world the first kinde they call in Scotland Ane Rache and this is a foot-smelling creature both of wilde Beasts Birds and Fishes also which lie hid among the Rocks the female hereof in England is called a Brache The second kinde is called in Scotland a Sluth-hound being a little greater then the hunting Hound and in colour for the most part brown or sandy-spotted The sense of smelling is so quick in these that they can follow the foot-steps of theeves and persue them with violence untill they overtake them and if the theef take the water they cast in themselves also and swim to the other side where they finde out again afresh their former labour untill they finde the thing they seek for for this is common in the Borders of England and Scotland where the people were wont to live much upon theft and if the Dog brought his leader unto any house where they may not be suffered to come in they take it for granted that there is both the stollen goods and the theef also hidden The Hunting Hound of Scotland called RACHE and in English a HOUND The SLVTH-HOVND of Scotland called in Germany a SCHLATTHVND The English BLOOD-HOVND WE are to discourse of lesser hunting Dogs in particular as we finde them remembred in any Histories descriptions Poets or other Authors according to the several Countries of their breed and education and first for the British Dogs their nature and qualities hereafter you shall have in a several discourse by it self The Blood-hound differeth nothing in quality from the Scottish Sluth-hound saving they are greater in quantity and not alway of one and the same colour for among them they are sometime red sanded black white spotted and of such colour as are other Hounds but most commonly brown or red The vertue of smelling called in Latine Sagacitas is attributed to these as to the former hunting Hound of whom we will first of all discourse and for the qualities of this sense which maketh the Beast admirable Plautus seemeth to be of opinion that it received this title from some Magicians or sage Wisards called Sagae for this â—e saith speaking of this Beast â—anem hanc esse quidem Magis par fuit nasum aedepol sagax habet It is also attributed to Mice not for smelling but for the sense of their palace or taste and also to Geese In a Dog it is that sense which searcheth out and descryeth the rousts fourms and lodgings of wilde Beasts as appeareth in this verrse of L 〈…〉 s Andronicus Cum primis fida Canum vis Dirige oderisequos ad certa cubilia canes And for this cause it hath his proper Epithets as Odora canum vis promissa canum vis naribus â—â—â—es utilis Pâ—ncianns called this kinde Plaudi for so did Festus before him and the Germans Spurhund and Leidthund Iaghund because their ears are long thin and hanging down and they differ not from vulgar Dogs in any other outward proportion except only in their cry or barking voyce The nature of these is being set on by the voyce and words of their leader to cast about for the sitting of the Beast and so having found it with continual cry to follow after it till it be wearyed without changing for any other so that sometimes the Hunters themselves take up the Beast at least wise the Hounds seldom fail to kill it They seldom bark except in their hunting chase and then they follow their game through woods thickets thorns and other difficult places being alway obedient and attentive to their leaders voyce so as they may not go forward when lie forbiddeth nor yet remain neer to the Hunters whereunto they are framed by Art and discipline rather then by any natural instinct The White Hounds are said to be the quickest sented and surest nosed and therefore best for the Hare the black ones for the Boar and the ded ones for the Hart and Roe but hereunto I cannot agree because their colour especially of the two later are too like the game they hunt although there can be nothing certain collected of their colour yet is the black Hound harder and better able to endure cold then the other which is white In Italy they make account of the spotted one especially white and yellowish for they are quicker nosed they must be kept tyed up 〈◊〉 they hunt yet so as they be let loose now and then a little to ease their bellies for it is necessary that their 〈…〉 be kept sweet and dry It is questionable how to discern a Hound of excellent sense yet as Blondus saith the square and flat nose is the best sign and index thereof likewise a small head having all his legs of equal length his breast not deeper then his belly and his back is plain to his tail his eyes quick his ears long hanging but sometimes stand up his tail nimble and the beak of his nose alway to the earth and especially such as are most silent or bark least There are some of that nature who when they have found the Beast they will stand still untill their Hunter come to whom in silence by their face eye and tail they shew their game Now you are to observe the divers and variable disposition of Hounds in their finding out of the Beast some when they have found the footsteps go forward without any voyce or other shew of ear or tail Again another sort when they have found the footings of the Beast prick up their ear a little but either bark or wag their tails other will wag their tail but not move their ears other again wring their faces and draw their skins through over much intention like sorrowful persons and so follow the sent holding the tail immoveable There be some again which do none of these but wander up and
There be some that suppose the Venetians to descend from a people of Paphlagonia called Venetans which after the destruction of Troy came to these places and by these they make an argument conjecturing it to be good in regard they are wholly imployed about breeding Horses which at this time faileth altogether but in former days they were very careful to follow their business about the training up of young Mules whereof Homer writeth And Dionysius the Tyrant of Sicilia ordained that the breed of Horses should be fetcht from hence to make warlike combates with them that among the Graecians the excellency of the Venetian breed should remain and that a great while after that breed of Horses got the praise Vuallachus this day is called of the Saxons a gelded Horse and brought out of that Countrey which sometimes was called Dacia The Lycospaâ—es and Lycophotians shall be spoken of hereafter Of the choice of good Horses PAlladius adviseth to observe four things in choice of a Stallion Horse the form or outward proportion the colour the merit and the beauty all which are necessary to be observed in the choice of Colts or elder Horses that they may be of a generous race having soft legs lofty paces gently treading such as will lead the way and be not afraid of any water bridge or sudden noises having a gentle neck a sharp head a short belly a fat back a dapple colour nimble ears thick mane lying on the right side a double bone descending by his loins a sounding hoof and legs that cannot stand still which Virgil expresseth in these words Nec non pecori est idem delectus equino Tumodo quos in sp 〈…〉 statuis summittere gent is Praecipuum jam ind◠〈…〉 impende laborem Continuo pecoris genâ—â—â—sâ— pullus in arvis Altius ingreditur nulla crura reponit Primus ire viam fluvios tentare minâ—ces Audet ignoto sese committere ponti Nec vanos horret crepittus illa ardua cervix Aâ—gâ—tâ—mqâ—â— caput brevis alvus obesaque terga Luxuriatque toris animosum pectus honesti Spadices glaucique color deterrimus albis Et gilvo tum si qua sonum procul armadedere Starâ— loco nescit micat auribus 〈◊〉 emit artus Collectumque premens volvit sub naribus ignem Densa juba dextro jacta recumbit in armo At duplex agitur per lumbos spina cavatque Tellurem solido gravites sonat ungula cornu Varro sheweth that at the first foaling of a Colt a man may observe by certain signes how he will prove when he is in perfection for if he be chearful bold and not terrified at any strange sight if he run before the company be want on and contend with his equals in course and over-run them if he leap over a ditch go over a bridge or through water and being provoked appeareth meek these are the most true signes of an elegible Colt Also it is to be considered whether they rise quickly being stirred from their rest and run away speedily if their bodies be great long full of muscles and 〈…〉 arp having a little head black eyes open and wide nostrils sharp pricked ears a soft and broad neck not long a thick mane curled and falling on the right side a broad and full breast large shoulders and shoulder-bones round ribs a little belly a double back-bone or at the least not thin bunchy and extended his loins pressed downwards broad and well set little and small stones a long tail with curled hair high straight and equal legs round knees not great not bending inward round buttocks brawny and fleshy thighs high hard hollow and round hoofs well set to the crown of their pastern having veins conspicuous and apparent over all his body That Colt which at the time of his foaling hath the most highest legs is likeliest by common reason to prove most able and noble in his age for of all the joynts in the body the knees and legs grow least and they which have flexible joynts in their infancy will be more nimble and flexible in their age And thus much for the parts of a Colt Now in the next place we must likewise take consideration of a Horse untamed and ready for the saddle For the outward parts of his body saith Xenophon yeeld evident signification of his minde before he be backed Plato willeth that the state of his body be straight and articulate his head bony his cheeks little his eyes standing out and not sunk into his head flaming like bloud looking cruelly if the body be black but black eyes if the body be white do argue a gentler and better disposition short and little ear the crown of his head greater then the residue broad nostrils whereby he not only looketh more terribly but breatheth more easily for when one Horse is angry with another in their rage they are wont to stretch out their nostrils vehemently The beak or snowt of a Horse ought not to stand out like a Swines but to bend down a little crooked the head to be so joyned to the neck as it may bend more commodiously that is if the neck be small next to the head so will the neck stand before the rider and his eyes appear before his feet and although he be full of stomach yet will he never be violent or stiffe necked It ought also to be considered whether his cheek bones be sharp tender or unequal standing one above another for their imparity maketh the Horses neck to be hard and stubborn The back-bone above his shoulders higher commodious to set the saddle upon and his whole body the better compacted if the back-bone be double and smooth for then shall the Rider sit more easily and the form of the Horse appear more delectable A large breast sheweth his comeliness and strength making him fit to take longer reaches without doubling of his legs because in a broad breast the legs stand further asunder large side or ribs swelling out above the belly for they shew the ability of the Horse both to his food and work a round even belly and his loins being broad and short causeth the fore-legs to be lifted up more easily and the hinder-legs to follow for the small loins do not only deform but enfeeble and oppress the Horse therefore the loins ought to be double the ribs broad and fleshy agreeable to the breast and sides buttocks solid and broad with a long tail reaching down to the heels of his hinder-legs Thighs full of sinews the bones of his legs thick like posts of the whole body but that thickness ought neither to be of veins nor flesh for then they are quickly inflamed and wounded when they travel in rough and sharp waâ—s for if the flesh be cut a little the commissures part asunder and causeth the Horse to halt and above all other things have a regard to his feet and therein especially to his hoof for being thick
their minde to any of these which are more worthy of derision then imitation If thou shalt fill the passages of these rustical or Field-mice with the ashes of an Oak he shall be possessed with a fervent desire to it often touching it and so shall die These Countrey Mice that is to say those Mice which are found in the fields being bruised and burned to ashes and mingled with fresh Hony doth comfort or restore the sight of the eyes by diminishing the darkness or dimness thereof in what field soever you shall finde any thing dig them up by the roots with a little stake or post Of the WOOD-MOVSE PLiny doth oftentimes make mention of this Wood-mouse or rather a Mouse belonging to the Wood but he doth it only in medicines but that it doth differ from this Countrey or Field-mouse we have have shewen in the chapter going before because it doth not inhabit or dwell in the Countries or tilled places as the Countrey or Field-mice do but doth inhabit in Woods and Forrests The Wood-mouse is called in Greek as the Countrey-mouse but I think it to be a kinde of Dormouse which proceedeth from the kinde of Wood-mouse Pliny truly doth make the same remedy or medicines of a Dormouse as he doth of a Wood-mouse as I will a little after rehearse or recite unto you Also I should have thought that a Sorex had been the same because it is a Wood-mouse but that that one place of Pliny did hinder me where he commendeth the ashes of a Wood-mouse to be very good for the clearness of the eyes and by and by after did shew or declare that the ashes of the Sorex were good also in the same use as I will recite or rehearse below in the medicines or remedies of the Wood-mouse Agricola a man of great learning doth interpret or judge the Wood-mouse to be that Mouse to the which they do appoint the name deriyed from Avellana but he doth account that to be the Sorex which I will shew or declare beneath to be the Shrew I do understand that there are properly two kindes of the Wood-mouse spoken of before The one of them that which Albertus doth write saying that there is a certain kinde of Mouse which doth build or make her habitation in trees and of a brown or swart colour and having also black spots in her face which only is called by the universal name of a Wood-mouse Of the same kinde Pliny doth mean if I be not deceived when he writeth that the mast of a Beech-tree is very acceptable to Mice and therefore they have good success with their young ones The other which is peculiarly named the Sorex which saith Pliny doth sleep all the Winter time and hath a tail full of hair whose shape or form we propose and set evidently before you But that I may more distinctly handle those things which Pliny hath shewed to us concerning the Wood-mouse I will write her down separately or by it self and afterwards concerning the Mouse which hath her name derived from Fil-birds which the Germans have left in writing and which I my self have considered or observed and last of all I will write concerning the Sorex peculiarly and severally from the Ancient Writers The ashes of a Wood-mouse being mingled with Hony doth cure all fractures of bones the brains also spread upon a little piece of cloth and covered with wooll is good also but you must now and then spread it over the wound and it doth almost make it whole and strong within the space of three or four days neither must you mingle the ashes of the Wood-mouse with Hony too late Hony also being mingled with the ashes of Earth-worms doth draw forth broken bones Also the fat of these Beasts being put to Kibes is very good but if the Ulcers are corrupt and rotten by adding Wax to the former things doth bring them to cicatrising The Oyl of a burned Locust is also very good and also the Oyl of a Wood-mouse with Hony is as effectual as the other They say also that the heads and tails of Mice mixed with the the ashes of them and anointed with Hony doth restore the clearness of the sight but more effectually being mingled with the ashes of a Dor-mouse or a Wood-mouse Of the Nut-mouse Hasel-mouse or Filbird-mouse THis Beast is a kinde of Sorex and may be that which the Germans tearm Ein gross Haselmus a great Hasel-mouse so called because they seed upon Hasel-nuts and Filbirds The Flemings call it Ein Slaperat that is a sleeping Rat and therefore the French call it by the name Lerot whereby also we have shewed already they understand a Dormouse For this sleepeth like that and yet the flesh thereof is not good to be eaten The colour of this Mouse is red like the Hasel and the quantity full as great as a Squirrel or as a great Rat upon the back and sides it is more like a Mouse and upon the head more red His ears very great and pilled without hair The belly white so also are his legs The neathermost of his tail towards the tip white His nostrils and feet reddish The tail wholly rough but most at the end with white hairs The eyes very great hanging out of his head and all black so that there is not in them any appearance of white The beard partly white and partly black both above and beneath his ears and about his eyes and the upper part of his tail next his body all black Upon his forefeet he hath four claws or distinct toes for he wanteth a thumb But upon his hinder-feet he hath five I mean upon each severally The outside of his hinder-legs from the bending to the tip of his nails is altogether bald without hair And the savour of all this kinde is like the smell of the vulgar Mice They live not only in the earth but also in trees which they climbe like Squirrels and therefore make provision of nuts and meat against the Winter which they lodge in the earth The Countreymen finding in the Summer their caves and dens do wisely forbear to destroy them knowing that they will bring into them the best Nuts and Fil-birds can be gotten and therefore at one side they stick up a certain long rod by direction whereof in the Winter time they come and dig out the den justly taking from them both their life and store because they have unjustly gathered it together Some have eaten it but they were deceived taking it for the Dormouse Of the LASCITT MOUSE THis Mouse is called by the Germans Lascitts and also Harnebal because of the similitude it holdeth with the Ermeline Weesil The skin of it is very pretious being shorter then the Ermeline two fingers breadth And forasmuch as else there is no difference between the Lascitt Mouse and the Lascitt Weesil except in the quantity My opinion is that they are all one and differ only in age
of edged tools Lycaon the brother of Nestor another the son of Priamus slain by Achilles But the famous and notorious among all was Lycaon the King of Arcadia the son of Titan and the earth whose Daughter Calisto was deflowred by Jupiter and by Juno turned into a Bear whom afterwards Juno pitying placed for a sign in heaven and of whom Virgil made this Verse Pleiadas Hyadas claramque Lycaonis Arcton There was another Lycaon the son of Pelasgus which built the City Lycosui in the Mountain Lyceus this man called Jupiter Lyceus upon a time sacrificed an Infant upon his Altar after which sacrifice he was presently turned into a Wolf There was another Lycaon after him who did likewise sacrifice another childe and it was said that he remained ten years a Wolf and afterwards became a man again whereof the reason was given that during the time he remained a beast he never tasted of mans flesh but if he had tasted thereof he should have remained a beast for ever I might adde hereunto Lycophron Lycastus Lycimnius Lycinus Lycomedes Lycurgus Lycus and of womens names Lyca Lyce Lycaste Lycoris Lycias and many such others besides the names of people as Irpinia of Mountains and places as Lycabetus Lyceus Lycerna Lycaonia Lycaspus Lyceum Aristotles School Of flouds and Rivers as Lycus Lycormas Of Plants as Wolfbane Lupum salictarium Lupinus Lycantheum Lycophrix Lycophone Lycopsis Lycoscitalion and many such others whereof I have only desired to give the Reader a taste following the same method that we have observed in other beasts And thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the names of this beast The Countreyes breeding Wolves are for the most part these that follow The inhabitants of Crete were wont to say that there was neither Wolves Bears nor Vipers could be bred in their Island because Jupiter was born there yet there is in a City called Lycastus so named for the multitude of Wolves that were abiding therein It is likewise affirmed of Sardinia and Olympus a Mountain of Macedonia that there come no Wolves in them The Wolves of Egypt are lesser then the Wolves of Greece for they exceed not the quantity of Foxes Africa likewise breedeth small Wolves they abound in Arabia Swevia Rhetia Athesis and the Earldome of Tyrol in Muscovia especially that part that bordereth upon Lituania The Wolves of Scanzia by reason of extremity of cold in those parts are blinde and lose their eyes There are no Wolves bred in Lombardy beyond the Alpes and if any chance to come into that Countrey presently they ring their Bells and arm themselves against them never giving over till they have killed him or drove him out of the Countrey In Norway there are three kinde of Wolves and in Scandinavia the Wolves fight with Elks. It is reported that there are Wolves in Italy who when they look upon a man cause him to be silent that he cannot speak The French men call those Wolves which have eaten of the flesh of men Encharnes Among the Crotoniatae in Meotis and divers other parts of the world Wolves do abound there are some few in France but none at all in England except such as are kept in the Tower of London to be seen by the Prince and people brought out of other Countreys where there fell out a rare accident namely a Mastive Dog was limed to a she-Wolf and she thereby conceived and brought forth six or seven young Whelps which was in the year of our Lord 1605. or thereabouts There are divers kindes of Wolves in the world whereof Oppianus in his admonition to Shepherds maketh mention of five the first is a swift Wolf and runneth fast called therefore Toxeuter that is Sagittarius a shooter The second kinde are called Harpages and these are the greatest raveners to whom our Saviour Christ in the Gospel compareth false Prophets when he saith Take heed of false Prophets which come unto you in Sheeps clothing but are inwardly Lyce Harpages ravening Wolves and these excell in this kinde The third kinde is called Lupus aureus a golden Wolf by reason of his colour then they make mention of two other kindes called Acmonae and one of them peculiarly Ictinus The first which is swift hath a greater head then other Wolves and likewise greater legs fitted to run white spots on the belly round members his colour betwixt red and yellow he is very bold howleth fearfully having fiery-flaming eyes and continually wagging his head The second kinde hath a greater and larger body then this being swifter then all other betimes in the morning he being very hungry goeth abroad to hunt his prey the sides and tail are of a silver colour he inhabiteth in the Mountains except in the Winter time wherein he descendeth to the gates of Cities or Towns and boldly without fear killeth both Goats and Sheep yet by stealth and secretly The third kinde inhabiteth the white Rocks of Taurua and Silicia or the the tops of the hill Amanus and such other sharp and inaccessible places being worthily for beauty preferred before the others because of his golden resplendent hairs and therefore my Author saith Non Lupus sed Lupo praestantior fera That he is not a Wolf but some wilde beast excelling a Wolf He is exceeding strong especially being able with his mouth and teeth to bite asunder not only stones but Brasse and Iron He feareth the Dog star and heat of Summer rejoycing more in cold then in warm weather therefore in the Dog dayes he hideth himself in some pit or gaping of the earth untill that Sunny heat be abated The fourth and fifth kindes are called by one common name Acmone now Acmon signifieth an Eagle or else an Instrument with a short neck and it may be that these are so called in resemblance of the ravening Eagle or else because their bodies are like to that instrument for they have short necks broad shoulders rough legs and feet and small snowts and little eyes herein they differ one kinde from the other because that one of them hath a back of a silver colour and a white belly and the lower part of the feet black and this is Ictinus canus a gray Kite-wolf the other is black having alesser body his hair standing continually upright and liveth by hunting of Hares Now generally all Authors do make some two some three some four and some five kindes of Wolves all which is needlesse for me to prosecute and therefore I will content my self with the only naming of such differences as are observed in them and already expressed except the Thus and the sea-Wolf of whom there shall be something said particularly in the end of this History Olaus Magnus writeth in his History of the Northern Regions that in the Mountains called Dâ—ffrini which do divide the Kingdomes of Swetia and Norway there are great flocks or heards of Wolves of white colour whereof some wander in the Mountains and some in the vallies They
The tail exceeding long far exceeding the quantity and proportion of his body being marked all over with certain white and yellowish spots The skin all covered with an equal smooth and fine coloured scale which in the midst of the belly are white and greater then in other parts It can abide no water for a little poured into the mouth killed it and after it had been two or three days dead being brought to the fire it moved and stirred again faintly even as things do that lye a dying It is not venomous nor hurtful to eat and therefore is digged out of his cave by any body safely without danger Of the CROCODILE of the Earth called Scincus a Scink THere have been some that have reckoned Scinks and Lizards among Worms but as the Greek words Expeix and Scolex differ in most apparent dialect and signification and therefore it is an opinion not worth the confuting for there are no Worms of this quantity But for the better explication of the nature of this Beast because some have taken it for one kinde and some for another some for a Crocodile and others for a Beast like a Crocodile we are to know that there are three kindes of Crocodiles the first is a water Beast or Serpent and vulgarly termed a Crocodile the second is a Scink or a Crocodile of the earth which is in all parts like that of the water except in his colour and thicknesse of his skin the third kinde of Crocodile is unknown to us at this day yet Pliny and others make mention of it and describe it to be a beast having his scales like a Gorgon growing or turning to his head from the tail and not as others do from the head to the tail The Grecians call this Beast Skigkot and some unlearned Apothecaries Stincus and Myrepsus Sigk. It is also called Kikaeros and the Hebrew Koach doth more properly signifie this Beast then any other Crocodile or Chamaeleon or Lizard Some of the Hebriws do expound Zab for a Scink and from thence the Chaldees and the Arabians have their Deo and Aldab turning Z into D So we read Guaril and Adhaya for a Scink or Crocodile of the earth Alarbian is also for the same Serpent among the Arabians Balecola and Ballâ—â—arâ— Sehanchur and Asehanchur and Askincor and Scerantum and Nudalep and Nudalepi are all of them Synonymaes or rather corrupted words for this Crocodile of the earth But there are at this day certain Ps 〈…〉 scink set out to be seen and sold by Apothecaries that are nothing else but a kinde of water Lizard but the true difference is betwixt them that these water Lizards are venomous but this is not and neither living in the Northern parts of the world nor yet in the water and so much shall suffice for the name and first entrance into this Serpents History They are brought out of the Eastern Countries or out of Egypt yet the Monks of Mesuen affirm that they had seen Scinks or Crocodiles of the earth about Rome Sylvaticus and Platearius in Apulia But howsoever their affections may lead them to conjecture of this Serpent I rather believe that it is an African beast and seldom found in Asia or Europe They love the banks of Nilus although they dare not enter the water and for this cause some have thought but untruly that when the Crocodile layeth her egges in the water the young is there also engendered and hatched and is a Crocodile of the water but if they lay their egges on the dry land from thence cometh the Scink or Crocodile of the earth This folly is evidently refuted because that they never say egs in the but all upon the dry land They are found as I have said before in Egypt and also in Africk and among the Lydians of Mauritania otherwise called Lodya or rather Lybia among the Pastoral or Plow-men Africans among the Arabians and neer the Red-sea for all those at this day sold at Venice are brought from those parts The greatest in the world are in India as Cardan teacheth who are in all things like Lizards saving in their excrements which smell or savour more strongly and generally the difference of their quantity ariseth from the countrey which they inhabit for in the hotter and moister countrey they are greater in the hotter dryer Region they are smaller and generally they exceed not two or three cubits in length with an answerable proportionable body which is thus described There be certain crosse lines which come along the back one by one somewhat white and of a dusky colour and those that be dusky have also in them some white spots The upper part of the neck is very dusky the head and the tail are more white the feet and all the neather part of the breast and belly are white with appearance upon them of some scales or rather the skin figured in the proportion of scales upon either feet they have five distinct fingers or claws the length of their legs is a thumb and a half that is three inches the tail two fingers long the body six so that the whole length from the head to the tip of the tail which is first thick and then very small at the end is about eight fingers When they have taken them they bowel them and fill their bodies with Sugar and Silk of Wooll and so they sell them for a reasonable price That which I have written of their length of eight fingers is not so to be understood as though they never exceeded or came short of that proportion for sometimes they are brought into these parts of the World twenty or four and twenty fingers long sometimes again not above five or six fingers long When they lay their Egges they commit them to the earth even as the Crocodiles of the water do They live upon the most odoriferous flowers and therefore is his flesh so sweet and his dung or excrements odoriferous They are enemies to Bees and live much about Hives insomuch as some have thought they did lay their Egges in Hives and there hatch their young ones But the occasion of this error was that they saw young ones brought by their parents into some Hive to feed upon the labouring Bee For the compassing of their desire they make meal of any tree which they have ground in the Mill of their own mouths and that they mix with black Hellebore juyce or with the liquor of Mallows this meal so tempered they lay before the Hives whereof assoon as the Bees tast they die and then cometh the Crocodile with her young ones and lick them up and beside Bees I do not read they are hurtful to any The Indians have a little Beast about the quantity of a little Dog which they call Phattage very like to a Scink or Crocodile of the earth having sharp scales as cutting as a saw There is some hurt by this beast unto men for which cause I may justly reckon
them There is great account or reckoning made of their egges which they lay in the Summer time for first of all they are so glewed and conjoyned together partly with the speetle and moistnesse which proceedeth from their mouths and partly with the spume and froath of their own body that a man seeing their beaps would judge them to be coupled together by some artificial devise These egges thus knotted together in bunches the Latinos call 〈◊〉 The Drâ—ides or ancient Wisards of England and Scotland have delivered that if the Snake hisse these will of their own accord fly up into the air and then if some wise man take them by prevention before they touch the ground again the Snakes will follow him as fast as any Horse until he come to some River into the which they dare not enter And the folly of these also proceeded so far that they were not ashamed to report that if one of these Anguines or bunches of egges were tyed to a piece of gold it would swim in a River against the stream These they commended unto Princes and Great mâ—n to carry about with them in the time of wars and other contentions and that therefore when a Roman Knight of Volentii was found by Claudius to carry one of these about him he was by the Emperors commandment put to death But to leave vanities we will prosecute the true and natural description of their egges in this manner They are round and soft in colour white cleaving as we have already said together in great bunches forty or fifty or a hundred in a cluster without they are covered with a skin or crust much harder and whiter then the substance contained within it which is like matter or the rotten Egges of a Hen or Duck in quantity as big as Bullies Plums and seldom bigger being most commonly very round and orbicular Yet Gesner reporteth that he had one sent him of the proportion of Lentil and as great as the fist of a Man and within every egge appear certain small things like the tails of Serpents or Leaches being in number ten five greater and five smaller one folded or lapped within another And these have also little pustules upon the skin or crusts whereof one doth not touch the other Out of these Egges come the young ones but I cannot affirm what great affection the old ones bear unto them or that when many Snakes lay their egges together every one in that multitude hath skill to discern her own Egges from the other For I have been with other my Colleagues or School-fellows when I was young at the destruction of many thousands of them and never perceived that the old Snake did with any extraordinary affection fight for their egges but rather forsook them and suffered us to do with them what we pleased which sometimes we brake sometimes scattered abroad upon the dunghill out of which we digged them and sometimes we cast them into the next River we came at but never saw any of them recollected again to their former place by the Snakes although the place were very full of them and therefore I conclude for mine own experience that Snakes cannot be perceived to bear any exceeding love in nature to their egges or young ones Their ordinary food for the most part is earth Frogs Worms Toads and especially Paddocks or crook-backed Frogs Newts and small fishes The Foxes and Snakes which are about the River Nilus are at continual variance and besides the Harts are by nature common enemies to all Serpents They are not in venom inferiour to other Serpents for they infect the waters neer to houses and are many times the causes of diseases and death whereof the Physitians cannot discern When they bite or sting there followeth extream pain inflamation greennesse or blacknesse of the wound dizzinesse in the head and death within three days Whereof dyed Phyloctetes General of the Fleet of Greece in Lemnos Daedalus and Menalippus The cure of this evil must be by Origan stamped and laid to the sore with Lie and Oyl or ashes of the root of an Oak with Pitch or Barley-meal mixed with Honey and Water and sod at the fire And in drink take wilde Nosewort Daffadil flowers and Fennel-seed in Wine And it is also said that a man carrying about him the Liver of a Snake shall never be bitten by any of that kinde And this Liver is also prescribed against the Stone in the Bladder being drunk in strong drink And thus much for this Serpent Of Spiders and their several sorts And first of those that are commonly called PHALANGIES THis kinde of venomous creature of the Latines is called Araneus or Aranea and of Cicero in his Books De natura Deorum Araneola and Araneolus Of the Grecians Arachnes or Arachne Hesichius termeth it Stibe the Hebrews name it Acobitha Acbar Acabith and Semamith the Arabians Sibth and Phihib in the German tongue Spin and Banker in English Attercop Spider and Spinner of the Brabanders Spinne in France Araigne in Italy Ragno and Ragna in Spain Arana or Taranna of the Illyrians it is called Spawanck of the Polonians Pajak and Pajeczino of the Hungarians Pox of the Barbarians Koatan and Kersenat Isidore in his twelfth Book saith that the Spider is termed Araneus because she is both bred and fed in the air but herein he hath fallen into a double error For if they lived only in the air and by the air as he would seem to enforce I marvel to what end and purpose they should so bustly make and pitch their nets for the ensnaring of flies And if they receive their first being and breeding in the air I cannot see to what purpose they do either lay egges or exclude small little Worms after their coupling together But we will easily pardon this presumptuous Etymologist and diver deep into Interpretations with others also of the same humor whose ordinary custom thus to to dally and play with words is with them esteemed as good as Statute-law for the most part There are many sorts of Spiders and all of them have three joynts a piece in their legs Estque caput minimum toto quoque corpore parvum est In latere exiles digiti pro crutibus haerent Latera venter habet de quo tamen illa remittet Stamina Which may be Englished thus Little is their head likewise the body small All over is and fingers thin upon the sides In stead of legs out of the bellies flanck do fall Yet out of which she makes her web to glide All Spiders are venomous but yet some more and some lesse Of Spiders that neither do nor can do much harm some of them are tame familiar and domestical and these be commonly the greatest among the whole pack of them Others again be meer wilde living without the house abroad in the open air which by reason of their ravenous gut and greedy devouring maw have purchased to themselves the names of Wolfs
former passions and griefs wirh which they were at first tormented and disquieted But yet this is the most strange deserving the greatest admiration of all that all those persons which are bitten or wounded by any Tarantula they will dance so well with such good grace and measure and sing so sweetly and withall descant it so finely and tunably as though they had spent all their life time in some dancing and singing-school Neverthelesse Cardan contrary to all authority and experience calleth in doubt and question this point and at last concludeth that they cannot be restored to health again by musick Wherein he doth marvelously repugn and contrary both Foelix Platerus Theodorus Zuingerus Andreas Matthiolus Bellunensis Ponzettus Paracelsus and many other famous learned men Truly a bare contradiction against so great authorities is far unworthy and unbeseeming a man any thing though never so little seen or exercised in Philosophy much more so great a Philosopher and Physitian as Cardan was Yet sure I am of the opinion that Cardan did not erre in Philosophy through ignorance but having a desire to appear more learned he did ever bend himself to impugn that which he knew the soundest and best part of men did hold and maintain But this little which I have here spoken shall serve sufficiently for the discussing of Cardans opinion And surely if the harmonical sound and melody of warlike drums and trumpets hath cured surious mad and enraged Horses and mitigated the pain of their legs and hips as Asclepiades hath written I see nothing to the contrary but that it may help those persons that are wounded of any Tarantula The Pope with his Poll-shorn generation have mustered divers of the Saints together and have assigned and appointed to each his sundry charge and several office apart for the cure of sundry diseases As for example S. Anthony can heal the burning S. Rooh the Pestilence notwithstanding that S. Sebistian hath some skill in it also Saint Cosmus and Damian are good for all biles and swelling diseases S. Job for the pocks S. Appolin for the tooth-ach S. Petronella can drive away all manner of Agues And S. Vitus or Vitulus we may well call him S. Calf that in times past excelled in the musical Art doth direct all Dancers or such as will leap or vault So that if this Saint be invocated and pacified with musical harmony and melodious sound of instruments he will be an excellent Apothecary and Doctor for the curation of any that are wounded with a Tarantula Superstitious people fondly imputing that to the Patron and Proctor sometimes of Musick which ought rather to be attributed to Musick it self and motion of the body Dioscorides concerning the common bitings of hurtful Spiders or Phalangies writeth thus The accidents saith he that do accompany the bitings of Spiders are these that follow The wounded place waxeth red yet doth it not swell nor grow very hot but it is somewhat moist If the body become cold there will follow trembling and shaking the groin and hams do much strout out and are exceeding distended there is great provocation to make water and striving to exonerate nature they sweat with much difficulty labour and pain Besides the hurt persons are all of a cold sweat and tears distil from their eyes that they grow dim-sighted therewith Aetius further addeth that they can take no rest or sleep sometimes they have erection of the yard and the head itcheth other whiles the eyes and calfs of the legs grow hollow and lank the belly is stretched by out means of winde the whole body is puffed up but in especial the face they make a maffeling with their mouth and stammer so that they cannot distinctly be understood Sometimes they can hardly void urine they have great pain in the lower parts the urine that they make is waterish and as it were full of Spiders webs the part affected hath a great pricking and swelling which Dioscorides as you read a little before will by no means yeeld to and it is a little red Thus far Aetius from whom Paulus Aegineta Actuarius Ardoynus and some others differ but a little In Zacynthus an Isle in the Ionian-Sea on the West of Peloponesus if any there be hurt of a Phalangium they are otherwise and more grievously tormented then in any other place for there the body groweth stiffe and benummed besides it is very weak trembling and exceeding cold They suffer also vomitting with a spasm or cramp and inflamation of the virge besides an intolerable pain in the ears and soals of their feet The people there do cure themselves by bathes into which if any sound man after that do enter to wash himself or be drawn into the same by any guile or deceitsul means he will forth-with fall into the same griefs and passions that the other sick patient endured before he received remedy And the like to this writeth Dioscorides in his Chapter of Trifolium asphaltites in these words following The decoction saith he of the whole plant being used by way of fomentation bathing or soking the body ceaseth all those pains which are caused by the biting or stinging of any venomous Serpent and with the same bathing or fomenting whatsoever ulcerous persons shall use or wash himself withall he will be affected and have the same accidents as he that hath been bitten of a Serpent Galen in his Book De Theriaca ad Pisonem ascribeth this to miracle accounting it a thing exceeding common reason and nature but I stand in doubt that that Book was never Galens but rather fathered upon him by some other man And yet Aelianus writeth more miraculously when he affirmeth that this hapneth to some healthy persons and such as be in good plight and state of body never so much as making any mention of ulcer or sore Thus much of the symptomes accidents passions or effects which stick and wait upon those that are hurt by Spiders And now I come the cure The general cure according to the opinion of Dioscorides is that first there must be scarification made upon the wounded place and that often and cupping glasses must be applyed and fastened with much flame to the part affected Absyrtus counsel is to make a fumigation with Egge-shels first steeped in water and then being cast on the coals with Harts-horn or Galbanum to perfume the venomed part therewith After that to use Scarifications to let bloud or to suck the place or to draw out the venom with Cupping-glasses or which is the safest course of them all to apply an actual Cautery except the place affected be full of sinews Lastly to provoke sweat well either in bed covering the patient well with cloathes or it is better by long and easie walking to procure sweating In some to attain to the perfect curation you must work both with inward and outward means such as here shall be prescribed and set before your eyes whereof the most choise and approved I
for that our Vintners know of no other bred in their cask But Scaligers Ephemerus I should rather have reckoned amongst the Flies called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had not he himself referred it to this Classis I shall not think it much also to speak of Pennius his Triemerus or a Fly living three daies for the likenesse of the one with the other that so the mindes of the studious may be filled with variety and rarity It is of body very long and somewhat like a Butterfly the head little and yellowish the eyes great black standing out of the head the promuscis or beak winding in of the colour of yellow mulleins with which it sucketh dew from the flowers two black cornicles fastened a little above the eyes the back and belly blewish the end of the tail dunnish it hath only four legs the hindermost whereof are yellowish the edges of the foremost black it hath as many wings as feet the outermost whereof are pale wan the utmost borders of them being of a dark yellow the innermost of a brightish yellow The outer wings when they are closed together for to cover the body they are so contiguous that you can hardly yea very hardly perceive where they touch it flies heavily and continues but a while in flight within three daies it expires it lives amongst Mallowes and Nettles this was found at Peterborough in England in the year 82. witnessed by very honest men and without exception Thus Pennius In flowers or rather the buds of the flower called white Bets there is a kinde of Fly that eats the flowers very small I know not whether bred there or coming thither from some other place It seems they abide there for warmth sake and feeding Pennius saith he was informed of this by his most learned friend Dr. Brown I thought good to place the Fly Bibio in this number because it is nourished by Wine i. e. the clear juice of the grape of which also it is bred In the Illyrian Tongue called Vinis robale by the Germans Wein Worme in the English Wine Fly Cardanus cals it Muscilio Scaliger not amisse Volucessam and Vinulam for it flies into cellars often cares for nothing but wine If you take it and look upon it you would think it had no snout or beak at all and yet it is reported that they will strike through a Cask made of inch board insomuch that the wine sometime runneth all out It may be Grapaldus meaneth these when he writeth thus The Muscillae Musculae Musciones Flies bred in Autumn in the mother of Wine and soiling the Wine-cups do not live so long and that deservedly as to come upon the table in the winter In the West Countrey in a Town called Tanton in the fruit of an Apple tree called Velin in the Summer being rotten to the Core there is found a glistering fly of a green colour which when the Apple is cut in twain flies out and seemeth to be bred there of some kinde of worm that is in it The wounds made by any of these Flies must be anointed with bitter Almonds bruised or Walnuts when ulcers are made it is fit to pour on liquid Pitch boyled with Hogs-grease Those things that kill and drive away the Tyke-flies called Ricini for the most part kill and drive away the Dog-flies Columella The Fly also by his boldnesse and saucinesse hath taught men how to provide remedies against them for whereas both at home and abroad every where they were so troublesome that nothing could be so safely kept by the Cook but presently they would be at it and spoil it yea all kinde of meats whatsoever they now use to strew or stick up in their houses or boyl and mingle with such kinde of things as Flies love Nigella seed Elder Lawrel Coriander Hellebore Buglosse Borage Sage Beets Loose-strife Origanum Basil royal Henbane Licebane Balm a shrub having a flower like a Rose Pepper Ferula Cockle Libbards-bane some give them Orpiment powdered with Milk or sweet Wine and sprinkle it about Rhasis writeth that Crocodile Broth chaseth away Flies who also commends the perfume of yellow Arsenick with Olibanum perfume of Vitriol writing Ink tempered with water wherein Wormwood hath been washed keeps the flies from the letters Plin. The seed of Henbane black Ellebore and the Froth 〈◊〉 Quicksilver with Barly flower beaten and kneaded and made into little morsels with Butter 〈◊〉 Grease and smeared with a little honey and so cast to the flies kils them Aetius The gall of a 〈…〉 are mingled with milk or boyled in water and sprinkled about the house will chase away all the flies Anonymus Flies are destroyed with the smell of Wine distilled with the herb Balm 〈◊〉 If you would gather flies together into one place cast Rhododaphne well bruised into a ditch the juice of the herb Ferula sprinkled worketh the same effect Aetius Bury the tail of a Wolf in the house and the flies will not come into it Rhasis Avicen Albertus Boors grease and Rosin melted entangles them Oyl choaks them Verdigrease kils them outright If you anoint any thing with Casia beaten in oyl it will be safe from flies There is found in my Countrey saith Petrus Cressentius a kinde of Toadstool or Mushrome broad and thick reddish about the top which sendeth forth certain knobs or little bunches some broken some whole it is called the Flies Mushrome because when it is made into a pultess with milk it destroyeth the flies If a man hold in his â—and the stone Heraclites or the touchstone although he were dawbed all over with honey yet will not the flies come at him by this means you may know whether the touch-stone he true or no. Aetius They write that the K. of Cambayes son was brought up by poyson who when he came to years was all over so venomous that flies at once sucking were swoln to death Scaliger If the fly get into one eye you may shut the other hard and it helpeth Aphrodisaeus in Problem If Camels chance to be stung by the Tabanus or Asilus a kinde of Fly so called as it often cometh to passe in Arabia anoint them with Whales grease and all sorts of fish and they will presently be gone Plia Solion in Geoponicis biddeth to sprinkle cattel with the decoction of Bay-berries and both these flies through a kinde of natural antipathy depart forthwith If cattel be already stung with the Asilus Fly anoint them with Ceruse and water The Tabani will die saith Ponzettus when you set before them Oyl of the decoction of land Crocodiles called Scinci bruised with Hogs seam the flour of soot Moreover let cattel be led to pasture in the evening the stars guiding them in the day time let them be kept in folds with boughs laid under them that they may lye the more easily and quietly Virgil. Or else let them be brought to the sides of thick woods where these slies by
easily understand the sense of Ausonius his Epigram upon Marcus that was gelded Rhodiginus l. 8. c. 5. Antiq. lect renders it to us Also the Aegyptians caused a picture of this creature to be made on the statnes of their Heroes intimating thereby their manhood that had no mixture of feminine weakness for men must be valiant and manly 〈◊〉 pufillanimity is a great disgrace to them All Beetles cast their skins and they have no sting when you touch them they are afraid and they leave off to move and they g 〈…〉 〈◊〉 tus did vainly ascribe to them four wings hid under a crusty cover for experience she 〈…〉 t two very tender and frail wherefore they have them shut up in a hard cover over 〈…〉 them that they may take no hurt by hard bodies For the greatest part of them either 〈◊〉 under ground or bites rotten wood with their teeth and makes houses and nests there so that if they were not excellent well guarded they could never keep themselves safe from external injuries When they fly they make such a humming or noise in the air that Laertius writ that the gods talk with men by these creatures Of all plants they cannot away with Rose trees and they hate them as the destruction of their kinde for they dye by the smell of them as we read in Geopas but on the contrary they take great pleasure in stinking and beastly places I have learned no other use of them in Physick than that taken in the left hand they drive away quartain Agues Plin. l. 30. cap. 11. It may be posterity by better experience will discover more of their vertues and will not suffer themselves to be perswaded that a creature God hath made so curiously can want rare vertues in Medicaments which he hath bestowed on far baser things according to his goodness unto mankinde Flitter-mice take this for their chief dainties and prefer it before Gnats especially if they can catch them and squeeze them alive A Hee begat me not nor yet did I proceed From any Female but my self I breed For it dies once in a year and from its own corruption like a Phoenix it lives again as Moninus witnesseth by heat of the Su 〈…〉 A thousand summers heat and winters cold When she hath felt and that she doth grow old Her life that seems a burden in a tomb Of spices laid comes younger in her room The second kinde of Nose-horn very rare and worthy to be seen sacred to Mercury Carolus Clusius sent painted from Vienna where it is very frequent the form is as you see it it would seem all pitch colour but that the belly is a full red that crooked horn in the nose is so sharp that what is said of an Elephant going to battle you would think it had got an edge by rubbing it against a rock The third Nose-horn and fourth seem to be alike but that the former hath wings growing out longer than the sheath covers but the others are shorter You would say they were rub'd with shining ink they are so perfectly all over black The Ram or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath knotty horns violet colour a head greenish from gold colour the shoulders like vermilion a purple coloured belly sheath wings of the colour of the head it goes forward with legs and feet of a light red but the wings shut up in the sheath do fitly express the small whitish membrane of a Cane The greater Beetles without horns are many namely that is called Pilularius and another that is called Melolanthes another purple one again that is dark coloured one called Arboreus and another Fullo Some call the Pilularius the dunghill Beetle because it breeds from dung and filth and also willingly dwels there The Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from its form like a cat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Germans Rosskafer Kaat or Mistkafer in English Dung-beetle Sharnbugg in French Fouille merde as you would say Dung-digger the Latines call it Pilularius because it turns up round pills from the dung which it fashions by turning it backwards with its hinder feet Porphyrie doth thus describe the nature of it All your Pilularii have no females but have their generation from the Sun they make great balls with their hinder feet and drive them the contrary way like the Sun it observes a circuit of 28. daies Aelian saith almost the same There is no female Beetle it puts the seed into a round ball of dung which it rowâ—s and heats in 28. daies and so produceth its young They would say thus much that the Beetle called Pilulariâ—â— makes a round ball of the roundness of the Heavens which it turns from East to West so 〈…〉 brought it to the figure of the World afterwards 〈…〉 es it up 〈◊〉 the earth whe 〈…〉 up it lets it remain there fo 〈…〉 when that 〈…〉 by it self which being â—issolved in water 〈…〉 ies it growes up to be a flying 〈…〉 For this 〈…〉 to Apollo and adored it for 〈…〉 mall god by 〈…〉 lected that the likeness of the Sun was given to th 〈…〉 and so he excused the 〈…〉 ustomes of his Countrey Pliny and Plutarch Symp 〈…〉 gue of their family but dung especially of Cow 〈…〉 the smell of them a very great way off they w 〈…〉 â—uddenly to it 〈…〉 of Smel But they 〈…〉 slowly yet they labour continually and exceedingly and delight most of all to produce the 〈…〉 â—oung ones for oft times the little 〈◊〉 bals that they make by the injury of the winds or of the place fall awâ—y and fâ—ll from a high place to the bottome but this Beeâ—â—e de 〈…〉 ing a propagation watcheth with perpe 〈…〉 care and raising this Sisyphian ball to its hold with continual striving and that tumbling back again at length she reduceth it And truly unless it were endued with a kinde of divine soul as all things are full of Gods wonderfulness it would â—aint and be spent in this great contest and would never take this pains any more Some say they die being blinded by the Sun but the most think they are choked by lice that creep all about them they hardly hold out one winter They chiefly delight in the shade of the Ivy-tree as most healthful for them Praxanus in Geopon I have â—et down the form of it so exactly and in its colours for it is all black that I need say no more Beetles first breed from dung saith Johan Langius as the Worms bâ—eed out of rotten wood then their seed being shed into a round ball and the same being enlivened breeds their young ones every one knoweâ— this sufficiently unlesse they live where no dung is for in dunghils they are obvious to every Man Beetles serve for divers uses for they both profit our mindes and they cure some infirmities of our bodies For when this living creature and scarce a living creature for it wants some senses
Sclerocephalus is like to this in form and forces and effects the same things as also the Scolecium We said that the downy Phalangium drives away barrenness if it be carried about one but whether it be violently venomous I know no man that hath determined it The spotted or Phalangium of Apulia doth produce divers and contrary symptomes according to the complexion of him that is wounded and his present disposition For some laugh some cry some speak faulteringly others are wholly silent this man sleeps the other runs up and down alwaies waking this man rejoyceth is merry and moves up and down that is sad slothful dull some think themselves to be Kings and command all some are sad and think they are in captivity and fettered lastly as men drunk are not of one quality so are these that are mad some are fearful silent trembling some are bold clamoâ—ous constant This is common to them all to delight in musical instruments and to apply their mindes and bodies to dancing and leaping at the sound of them Lastly when by continuance of the disease and the vehemency of it they seem next unto death yet when they hear musick they recollect their spirits and they dance with greater chearfulness every day These dancings being continued night and day at length the spirits being agitated and the venome driven forth by insensible transpiration they grow well But if the Musicians upon any cause do but leave off playing before the fuel of this mischief be spent the sick fall into the same disease that they were first oppressed with We must admire this most above other things that all those that are stung with the the Tarantula dance so well as if they were taught to dance and sing as well as if they were musically bred In Italy it was first invented and custome hath taken it up to call such as are bitten Tarantati or Tarantulati Cardanus against faith and experience denieth that musick can restore any that are bitten yet we heard the same thing fell out at Basil from Felix Platerus Theodore Zuingerus our most famous and dear Masters and we read the same in Matthiolus Bellunensis Ponzettus and Paracelsus And if the sweet musick of pipes could help mad horses and pains of the hips as Asclepiades writes why may it not help those are stung with a Tarantula Some there are that assign to this disease some I know not what small deity as superintendent over it they call him St. Vitus that had formerly great skill in singing he being called upon and pacified with musick as he is the patron of musick cures them so that men superstitiously impute that to him which they should do to musick and dancing Bellonius reports that the Cretian Phalangium induceth the like mischiefs and the pain and wound of it is also cured by musick It is no wonder the Ancients described not these two kindes of Phalangia because they knew them not nor did the shew the waies how to cure their stingings Dioscorides writes thus of the common bitings of the Phalangia The symptomes that follow their bitings are commonly these The place stung looketh red but neither swels nor waxeth hot but it is something moist when it growes cold the whole body quakes the hams and groins are stretched out there is a collection made in the loins they are often urged to make water and they sweat with very great pain and labour to go to the stool and cold sweat runs down every where and tears trickle down from their darkned eyes Aetius adds further They are kept waking they have frequent erection of the yard their head pricks sometimes their eyes and their legs grow hollow Their belly is unequally stretched out with winds and their whole body swels chiefly their face their gums their tongues and tonsils they bring forth their words foolishly and gaping sometimes they are troubled with difficulty to make water they are pained in their secrets they make urine like water and full of cobwebs The part affected is pricked and swels which Dioscorides denied before and it is moderately red So saith Aetius from whom Paulus Actuarius Ardoynus differ but little Gal. 3. de loc affec c. 7. hath it thus The bitings saith he of the Phalangia are scarce to be seen it first affects only the skin and from the superficies of it it is carried by the continuity of the fibres to the brain and into the whole body for the skin comes from the membranes and they from the nerves and the brain this is clear because by presently binding of it on the farther parts they are preserved from the venome that is near to them In Zacinthus they that are bit by the Phalangia are otherwise affected and more grievously in other parts their body is astonished weakned trembles and is very cold vomiting and convulsion followes and inflation of the yard their ears are afflicted with most cruel pains and the soles of their feet They use bathing for a remedy if the party recovered go willingly into bathes afterwards or were by chance or by craft brought into them by the hot water the contagion passeth over the whole body and he perceives the same mischief in the whole body Dioscorides writes the same things in the chapter concerning Trifoly that smels like Asphaltum The decoction of the whole plant easeth all the pain by fomentation where Serpents have stung men what man soever that hath ulcers and washeth himself in the same bath is so affected as he that was bit by a Serpent Galen saith he thinks it is done by a miracle Lib. de Theriaca ad Pisonom if Galen did write that Book But Aelian speaks more miraculously where he affirms that may happen to those that are sound making no mention of ulcers And thus much for symptomes Now for the cure The cure is particular or general Physitians speak of but a few particular cures because the general is commonly effectual But Pliny sets down a remedy against the biting of the Phalangium called Formicarium that hath a red head to shew another of the same kinde to him that is wounded and they are kept dead for this purpose Also a young Weasil is very good whose belly is stuft with Coriander kept long and drank in Wine A Wasp that is called Ichneumon bruised and applied drives back the venome of the Phalangium Vesparium saith Bellonius not otherwise than as one living kils another that is alive For Ichneumon saith Aristotle is a small creature that is an enemy to the Phalangia it often goes into their holes and goes forth again losing its labour For it is a matter of great labour for so small a creature to draw forth its enemy greater than it self by force but if he light upon his enemy preying abroad he drags the Phalangium as easily with him as a Pismire doth a corn and the more stifly he drawes himself back the Wasp draws him on the more fiercely and sparing
Roses cures Kibe-heels Marcellus Serenus saith that when the nerves are cut in sunder it is good to lay on Earth-worms bruised with Hogs-grease that is old and rank Marcellus Empiricus adds Groundsel to the Hogs-grease and Earth-worms with the tender tops of Box with Frankincense and this he laies on the nerves cut or pain'd Pliny saith that the ashes of these and of a wilde Mouse laid on for a plaister with oyl of Roses is excellent for broken bones For the great pains of Horses in their nerves or joynts to help them Russius Absyrtus Didymus collect a great number of Earth-worms whence Cardan gathers that they will ease all pains Mundella affirms that contraction of the nerves will be cured if you anoint them with oyl of Camomil that is well replenished with Worms Marcellus saith that the same is done with Honey and Worms as before Aetius saith without doubt they are an excellent remedy for the Gowt boyled in oyl and a little wax so saith Marcellus but he sometimes mingles Honey with them Vigo for pains in the joynts makes a plaister of these and Frogs to which he adds Vipets-grease For pains of the joynts Take ashes of Worms iij. ounces oyl of Roses or Foxes what may suffice mingle them to an ointment Another that is singular Take the marrow of a Calfs leg compleat and old oyl of Roses iij. ounces Earth-worms cleansed with Wine and Salt ij ounces let them boyl in Balneo to the consistence of a Mucilage with this anoint the neck shoulders and the places where the pain is for it gives great help Pliny Marcellus anoints them with Honey and then he laies on the Mucilage prepared When any part is wasted and receives no nutriment cleansed Worms must be put into a glass very well luted that nothing may breathe forth and so set in a warm oven or in Balneo and they will then resolve into a clammy moisture an admirable remedy and approved for the Palsie of the limbs Take the ashes of tender Earth-worms iij. pounds Ginger Galanga of each iij. ounces with clarified Honey incorporate them for an Unguent with this for three nights together anoint the Patient binding his arms forcibly over his belly or stomach then cover him warm and let him beware of cold Jacobus de parma To drive away hoary hairs women use these ashes mingled with oyl whilest they comb their head as Pliny saith to whom Serenus subscribes in these verses Earth-worms and oyl of Olives free from cares They will preserve a man from hoary hairs We said before how they cure the Tooth-ache But further the powder of them rubb'd on will preserve the sound teeth and being injected will make rotten teeth though it be a grinder to fall forth especially if the tooth be first scarified and fill'd with powder well sprinkled on it Aetius Gal. 5. sec loc bids us do almost the same out of Archigenes Also they are good with the root of Mulberries boyled in Vinegar of Squils to wash the teeth For purulent Ears poured in with oyl they help much as Galen thinks and cure their inflamations being boyled with oyl of Roses Aetius If that your hearing fail an old disease Is cur'd with Earth-worms boyled with Ducks grease Serenus Myrepsus bruiseth Worms with some small quantity of the earth from whence they were taken and works them together and anoints that upon ears that are bruised Marcellus bruiseth them with oyl of Roses Celsus with oyl of Olives Faventinus for pains of the ears anointeth the outward parts with oyl of Earth-worms and also pours it into the inward parts Marcellus bids to bruise Leeks not planted but sowed odd in number and as many Worms together and boyl these in the best Oyl to thirds and he saith that this oyl put into the ears is very good for their greatest pains and deafness Abinzoar cures clefts of the hands and feet with oyl of Earth-worms For an old pain of the head they are held very excellent bruised with Vinegar Frankincense and Castoreum Galen for the same prepares in his Euporists such a Remedy Take xv Earth-worms as many grains of Pepper Vinegar what is sufficient mingle them smeer them on Another Take Earth-worms Mouse-dung white Pepper Myrrhe each half an ounce bruise and mingle them with Vinegar and anoint that part of the head that the pain lies on Myrepsus will have the Worms to be odd and to be taken only with the left hand and so superstitiously anointed If thou wouldst try saith Marcellus whether a swelling in thy neck be the Kings-evill lay a live Worm upon each swelling if it be a scrophulous tumour each Worm will turn to earth if not he will be alive and receive no hurt so saith Pliny also Earth-worms are a part of that noble Plaister of Arnoldus 2 Breviarii of a Rams skin or the bloud of a man that is red against the Rupture and Hollerius commends it to cure Enterocele and Epiplocele They also diminish the Stone both taken inwardly as also anointed on the share somewhat thick Gal. What concerns womens diseases bound to the neck they retain the birth but contrarily applied to the hips they draw the birth out and the secundine for they draw mightily wheresoever they are applied living Plin. Inflamations of the breasts Earth-worms alone laid on will cure for they concoct open draw forth and heal Alex. Benedict So Myrepsus makes a plaister of them bruised Lay on Earth-worms with Quinces or with dried Barley flour upon Breasts hardned or inflamed Aetius But if after delivery womens breasts swell and to use the words of Serenus If the swoln breasts do feel great pain Smeer them with Earth-worms 't will help them amain For they will concoct the Impostumes and suppurations of the breasts and after concoction will heal them and void out the matter For the Shingles the Indians saith Carolus Clusius make an unguent thus Take Earth-worms and feed them some time with leaves fine flour or flour and milk and when they are grown fat boyl them in an earthen vessel alwaies scumming them when they are strained boyl them again to the consistence almost of a plaister which well prepared will be almost of a yellow colour dissolve some part of this in distilled water of Roses and wash the part affected with it twice a day A most excellent remedy saith Clusius and proved by very long experience Pliny saith they will do the same in Vinegar who together with Aetius and Myrepsus affirms that Worms bruised and laid on the place a Scorpion hath stung are an admirable remedy for they presently ease the pain and correct the malignity of the tumour Oâ—l of Earth-worms is known by all to be good against divers infirmities and the Ancients made it thus Take Earth worms half a pound Oyl of Roses Omphacine two pound the best white wine two ounces let them boyl in balneo till the wine be consumed This cures the nerves relaxed contracted astonished cut in sunder or cooled
a whole day in the deep hunting for fish and at length come forth with a great multitude Again there are some which abhor fishes as Orus saith which kind the Egyptians Emblematically use to paint when they will decipher a sacrifice Some there are which are able to write and naturally to discern letters which kind the old Egyptian Priests bring into their Temples and at their first entrance the Priest bringeth him a writing Table a pencil and inke that so by seeing him write he may make tryall whether he be of the right kind and the beast quickly sheweth his skill wherefore in ancient time they were dedicated to Mercury the fained god of learning The reason why the Egyptians do nourish them among their hallowed things is that by them they may know the time of the conjunction betwixt the Sun and Moon because the nature of this beast is to have a kind of feeling of that 〈◊〉 〈…〉 on for after that these two signs meet the male Baboun neither will look up n 〈…〉 s to the ground as it were lamenting the ravishment of the Moon with disda 〈…〉 manner the female who moreover at that time sendeth forth bloud out 〈…〉 of conception whereupon the Egyptians signifie by a Baboun the Moon the rising of the Mo 〈…〉 his standing up right holding his hands up toward heaven and wearing a crown on his 〈…〉 with such gestures doth that Beast congratulate her first appearance Another cause why they bring them into their Temples is because of the holyness of circumcision for it is most true though strange that they are brought forth circumcised at the least wise in some appearance whereunto the Priests give great heed to accomplish and finish the work begun The Egyptians also paint 〈…〉 to signifie the Equinoctium for in every Equinoctium they bark or howl twelve times in one day and so many times make water wherefore the Egyptians also upon their 〈…〉 grave a Baboun out of whose yard or privy part issued forth water and they also say that this beast so nourished among their holy things dyeth not at once like other beasts but every day one part by the space of 72 days the other parts remaining in perfection of nature which the Priests take and put in the earth day by day till all perish and be consumed The West region of Lybia and Aethiâ—pia have great store of Cynocephals Babouns and Acephals beasts without a head whose eyes and mouth are in their breasts In like sort in Arabia from Dira Southward in a 〈…〉 ry there are many 〈◊〉 and in the Continent called Dachinabades beyond Barygaza and the Eastern Mountains of the Mediterranean region and those which Apollonius saw betwixt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Hyphasis seem to be of this sort in that he describeth them to be black haird Dog 〈◊〉 and like little men wherewithall Aelianus seemeth to be deceived in saying that there are men 〈…〉 rosopoi Dog-faced whereas it is the error of vulgar people to think that Babouns are men differing only in the face or visage Concerning their members or parts in several they are black and hairy rough skinned red and bright eyes a long Dogs face and teeth stronger and longer then Dogs the face of a Lion must not be attributed to this beast nor yet a Satyres though it be more like It hath a grim and fearful face and the female hath naturally her womb cast out of her body and so she beareth it about all her life long their voice is a shrill whizing for they cannot speak and yet they understand the Indian language under their beard they have a chin growing like a Serpents and bearding about the lips like a Dragon their hands are armed with most strong nails and sharp they are very swift of foot and hard to be taken wherefore they will run to the waters when they are hunted being not ignorant that among waters they are most hardly taken they are very fierce and active in leaping biting deep and eagerly where they lay hold neither do they ever grow so tame but that they remain furious also They love and nourish sheep and Goats and drink their milk they know how to take the kernels out of Almonds Walnuts and Nuts as well as men finding the meat within though the shell be unprofitable they will also drink wine and eat flesh sod rosted or deliciously dressed and they will eat Venison which they by reason of their swiftness take easily and having taken it tear it in pieces and rost it in the Sun they can swim safely over any waters and therefore among the Egyptians they signifie swimming They are evill mannered and natured wherefore also they are pictured to signifie wrath they are so unappeasable The Latins use them adjectively to signifie any angry stubborn froward or ravening man They will imitate all humane actions loving wonderfully to wear garments and of their own accord they clothe themselves in the skins of wilde beasts they have killed they are as lustful and venereous as Goats attempting to defile all sorts of women and yet they love little children and their females will suffer them to suck their breasts if they be held to them and some say they will suck womens breasts like little children There was such a beast brought to the French King his head being like a Dogs and his other parts like a mans having legs hands and armes naked like a mans and a white neck he did eat sod flesh so mannerly and modestly taking his meat in his hands and putting it to his mouth that any man would think he had understood humane conditions he stood upright like a man and sat down like a man He discerned men and women asunder and above all loved the company of women and young maidens his genital member was greater then might match the quantity of his other parts he being moved to wrath would rage and set upon men but being pacified behaved himself as meekly and gently as a man and was overcome with fair words shewing himself well pleased with those that sported with him The Nomades people of Aethiopia and the Nations of Menitimori live upon the milk of Cynocephales keeping great herds of them and killing all the males except some few preserved for procreation A TARTARINE THere was at Paris another beast called a Tartarine and in some places a Magot much like a Baboun as appeareth by his natural circumcision being as great as a Gray-hound and walketh for the most part upon two legs being cloathed with a Souldiers coat and a sword girded to his side so that the most part thought him to be some Monster-little-man for being commanded to his kennel he would go and tarry there all night and in the day time walk abroad to be seen of every man it was doubtful whether he were of the Munkey kind or the Baboun his voice was like the
their drunken god Bacchus Of the BADGER otherwise called a Brocke a Gray or a Bauson THe Badger could never find a Greek name although some through ignorance have foisted into a Greek Dictionary Melis whereas in truth that is his Latin word Mele or Meles and so called because above all other things he loveth hony and some later writers call him Taxus Tassus Taxo and Albertus Magnus Daxus But whereas in the Scripture some translate Tesson Tahas or Tachasch and plurally Techaseim Badgers yet is not the matter so clear for there is no such beauty in a Badgers skin as to cover the Arke or to make Princes shooes thereof therefore some Hebrews say that it signifieth an Oxe of an exceeding hard skin Onkelus translateth it Sasgona that is a beast skin of divers colours Symmachus and Aquila a jacinct colour which cannot be but the Arabians Darasch and the Persians Asthak yet it may be rather said that those skins spoken of Exod. 25. Numb 4. Ezek. 26. be of the Lynx or some such other beast for Tachasch cometh neer Thos signifying a kind of Wolf not hurtful to men being rough and hairy in Winter but smooth in Summer The Italians call a Badger Tasso the Rhetians Tasoh the French Tausson Taixin Tasson Tesson and sometime Grisart for her colour sometime Blareau and at Paris Bedevo The Spaniards Tasugo Texon the Germans Tachs or Daxs the Illyrians Gezwecz Badgers are plentiful in Naples Sicily Lucane and in the Alpino and Helvetian coasts so are they also in England In Lueane there is a certain wilde beast resembling both a Bear and a Hog not in quantity but in form and proportion of body which therefore may fitly be called in Greek Suarctos for a Gray in short legs ears and feet is like a Bear but in fatness like a Swine Therefore it is observed that there be two kinds of this beast one resembling a Dog in his feet which is is cald Canine the other a Hog in his cloven hoof and is cald Swinish also these differ in the fashion of their snowt one resembling the snowt of a Dog the other of a Swine and in their meat the one eating flesh and carrion like a Dog the other roots and fruits like a Hog as both kinds have been found in Normandy and other parts of France and Sicilie This beast diggeth her a den or cave in the earth and there liveth never coming forth but for meat and easement which it maketh out of his den when they dig their den after they have entred a good depth for avoiding the earth out one of them falleth on the back and the other layeth all the earth on his belly and so taking his hinder feet in his mouth draweth the belly-laden Badger out of the cave which disburdeneth her cariage and goeth in for more till all be finished and emptied The wily Fox never makth a Den for himself but finding a Badgers cave in her absence layeth his excrements at the hole of the Den the which when the Gray returneth if she smell as the savour is strong she forbeareth to enter as noisome and so leaveth her elaborate house to the Fox These Badgers are very sleepy especially in the day time and stir not abroad but in the night for which cause they are called Lucifugae that is avoiders of the light They eat hony and wormes and hornets and such like things because they are not very swift of foot to take other creatures They love Orchards Vines and places of fruits also and in the autumn they grow therewith very fat They are in quantity as big as a Fox but of a shorter and thicker body their skin is hard but rough and rugged their hair harsh and stubborn of an intermingled grisard colour sometime white sometime black his back covered with black and his belly with white his head from the top thereof to the ridge of his shoulder is adorned with strakes of white and black being black in the middle and white at each side He hath very sharp teeth and is therefore accounted a deep-biting beast His back is broad his legs as some say longer on the right side then on the left and therefore he runneth best when he getteth to the side of a hill or a cart-road-way His tail is short but hairy and of divers colours having a long face or snowt like the Zibethus his forelegs being a full span long and the hinder legs shorter short ears and little eyes a great bladder of gall a body very fat betwixt the skin and the flesh and about the heart and it is held that this fat increaseth with the Moon and decreaseth with the same being none at all at the change his forelegs have very sharp nails bare and apt to dig withall being five both before and behind but the hinder very short ones and covered with hair His savour is strong and is much troubled with lice about his secrets the length of his body from the nose which hangeth out like a Hogs nose to the tail or rump is some thirty inches and a little more the hair of his back three fingers long his neck is short and like a Dogs both male and female have under their hole another outwardly but not inwardly in the male If she be hunted out of her Den with Hounds she biteth them grievously if she lay hold on them wherefore they avoid her carefully and the Hunters put great broad collars made of a Grayes skin about their Dogs neck to keep them the safer from the Badgers teeth her manner is to fight on her back using thereby both her teeth and her nails and by blowing up her skin above measure after an unknown manner she defendeth her self against the strokes of men and the teeth of Dogs wherefore she is hardly taken but by devises and gins for that purpose invented with their skins they make quivers for arrows and some shepheards in Italy use thereof to make sacks wherein they wrap themselves from the injury of rain In Italy and Germany they eat Grays flesh and boil with it pears which maketh the flesh tast like the flesh of a Porcupine The flesh is best in September if it be fat and of the two kinds the Swinish Badger is better flesh then the other There are sundry vertues confected out of this beast for it is affirmed that if the fat of a Badger mingled with crude hony and anointed upon a bare place of a horse where the former hairs are pulled off it will make new white hairs grow in that place and it is certain although the Grecians make no reckoning of Badgers grease yet it is a very soveraign thing to soften and therefore Serenus prescribeth it to anoint them that have Fevers or Inflamations of the body Nec spernendus adept dederit quem bestia melis And not to be despised for other cures as for example the easing of the pain of the
sharp claws but a very small tail as all other long haired creatures have They are exceeding full of fat or lard-grease which some use superstitiously beaten with Oyl wherewith they anoynt their Grape-sickles when they go to vintage perswading themselves that if no body know thereof their tender Vine-branches shall never be consumed by Caterpillers Other attribute this to the vertue of Bears blood and Theophrastus affirmeth that if Bears grease be kept in a vessel at such time as the Bears lie secret it will either fill it up or cause it to run over The flesh of Bears is unfit for meat yet some use to eat it after it hath been twice sod other eat it baked in pasties but the truth is it is better for medicine then for food Theophrastus likewise affirmeth that at the time when Bears lie secret their dead flesh encreaseth which is kept in houses but Bears fore-feet are held for a very delicate and well tasted food full of sweetness and much used by the German Princes The skins of Bears are used in the far Northern regions for garments in the Winter time which they make so artificially covering themselves with them from the crown of the head to the feet that as Munster affirmed some men deceived with that appearance deemed the people of Lapponia to be hairy all over The souldiers of the Moors wear garments made of Lyons Pardals and Bears skins and sleep upon them and so it is reported of Herodotus Megarensis the Musitian who in the day time wore a Lyons skin and in the night lay in a Bears skin The constitution of the body of a Bear is beyond measure phlegmatique because he fasteth in the Winter time so long without meat His voyce is fierce and fearful in his rage but in the night time mournful being given much to ravening If a Bear do eat of Mandragoras he presently dyeth except he meet with Emmets by licking of whom he recovereth so likewise if he be sick of a Surfeit A Bear is much subject to blindness of the eyes and for that cause they desire the Hives of Bees not only for the Hony but by the stinging of the Bees their eyes are cured It hath not been seen that a female Bear was taken great with young which cometh to pass by reason that they go to their Deâ—â— so soon as they are conceived and come not out thence till they have littered And because of the fierceness of this beast they are seldom taken alive except they be very young so that some are killed in the Mountains by poyson the Countrey being so steep and rocky that Hunters cannot follow them some taken in ditches of the earth and other gins Oppianus relateth that near Tygris and Armenia the Inhabitants use this stratagem to take Bears The people go often to the Woods to find the Den of the Bear following a Leam-hound whose nature is so soon as he windeth the Beast to bark whereby his leader discovereth the prey and so draweth off the Hound with the leam then come the people in great multitude and compassing him about with long nets placing certain men men at each end then tye they a long rope to one side of the net as high from the ground as the small of a mans belly whereunto are fastned divers plumes and feathers of Vultures Swans and other resplendent coloured birds which with the wind make a noise or hissing turning over and glistering on the other side of the net they build four little hovels of green boughs wherein they lay four men covered all over with green leaves then all being prepared they sound their Trumpets and wind their Horns at the noise whereof the Bear ariseth and in his fearful rage runneth to and fro as if he saw fire the young men armed make unto him the Bear looking round about taketh the plainest way toward the rope hung full of feathers which being stirred and haled by them that hold it maketh the Bear much affraid with the ratling and hissing thereof and so flying from that side half mad runneth into the nets where the Keepers entrap him so cunningly that he seldom escapeth When a Bear is set upon by an armed man he standeth upright and taketh the man betwixt his fore-feet but he being covered all over with iron plates can receive no harm and then may easily with a sharp knife or dagger pierce through the heart of the beast If a she Bear having young ones be hunted she driveth her whelps before her untill they be wearied and then if she be not prevented she climbeth upon a tree carrying one of her young in her mouth and the other on her back A Bear will not willingly fight with a man but being hurt by a man he gnasheth his teeth and licketh his fore-feet and it is reported by an Ambassador of Poland that when the Sarmatians find a Bear they inclose the whole Wood by a multitude of people standing not above a cubit one from another then cut they down the outmost trees so that they raise a wall of wood to hem in the Bears this being effected they raise the Bear having certain forks in their hands made for that purpose and when the Bear approacheth they with those forks fall upon him one keeping his head another one leg another his body and so with force muzzle him and tie his legs leading him away The Rhaetians use this policy to take Wolves and Bears they raise up great posts and cross them with a long beam laded with heavy weights unto the which beam they fasten a cord with meat therein whereunto the beast coming and biting at the meat pulleth down the beam upon her own pate The Inhabitants of Helvetia hunt them with mastiff Dogs because they should not kill their Cattel left at large in the field in the day time They likewise shoot them with guns giving a good sum of money to them that can bring them a slain Bear The Sarmatians use to take Bears by this sleight under those trees wherein Bees breed they plant a great many of sharp pointed stakes putting one hard into the hole wherein the Bees go in and out whereunto the Bear climbing and coming to pull it forth to the end that he may come to the Hony and being angry that the stake sticketh so fast in the hole with violence plucketh it forth with both her fore-feet whereby she looseth her hold and falleth down upon the picked stakes whereupon she dieth if they that watch for her come not to take her off There was reported by Demetrius Ambassador at Rome from the King of Musco that a neighbour of his going to seek Hony fell into a hollow tree up to the brest in Hony where he lay two days being not heard by any man to complain at length came a great Bear to this Hony and putting his head into the tree the poor man took hold thereof whereat the Bear suddenly
is so hard and thick that of it the Scythians make breast-plates which no dart can pierce through His colour for the most part like an Asses but when he is hunted or feared he changeth his hew into whatsoever thing he seeth as among trees he is like them among green boughs he seemeth green amongst rocks of stone he it transmuted into their colour also as it is generally by most Writers affirmed as Pliny and Sclinus among the Ancient Stephanus and Eustathius among the later Writers This indeed is the thing that seemeth most incredible but there are two reasons which draw me to subscribe hereunto first because we see that the face of men and beasts through fear joy anger and other passions do quickly change from ruddy to white from black to pale and from pale to ruddy again Now as this beast hath the head of a Hart so also hath it the fear of a Hart but in a higher degree and therefore by secret operation it may easily alter the colour of their hair as a passion in a reasonable man may alter the colour of his face The same things are reported by Pliny of a beast in India called Lycaon as shall be afterward declared and besides these two there is no other among creatures covered with hair that changeth colour Another reason forcing me to yeeld hereunto is that in the Sea a Polypus-fish and in the earth among creeping things a Chamaeleon do also change their colour in like sort and fashion whereunto it may be replyed that the Chamaeleon and Polypus-fish are pilled or bare without hair and therefore may more easily be verse-coloured but it is a thing impossible in nature for the hair to receive any tincture from the passions but I answer that the same nature can multiply and diminish her power in lesser and smaller Beasts according to her pleasure and reserveth an operation for the nails and feathers of birds and fins and scales of fishes making one sort of divers colour from the other and therefore may and doth as forcibly work in the hairs of a Buffe as in the skin of a Chamaeleon adding so much more force to transmute them by how much farther off they stand from the blood like as an Archer which setteth his arm and bow higher to shoot farther and therefore it is worthy observation that as this beast hath the best desence by her skin above all other so she hath a weakest and most timerous heart above all other These Buffes are bred in Scythia and are therefore called Tarandi Scythici they are also among the Sarmatians and called Budini and neer Gelonis and in a part of Poland in the Duchy of Mazavia betwixt Oszezke and Garvolyin And if the Polonian Thuro before mentioned have a name whereof I am ignorant then will I also take that beast for a kinde of Bison In Phrygia there is a territory called Tarandros and peradventure this beast had his name from that Countrey wherein it may be he was first discovered and made known The quantity of this beast exceedeth not the quantity of a wilde Ox whereunto in all the parts of his body he is most like except in his head face and horns his legs and hoofs are also like an Oxes The goodness of his hide is memorable and desired in all the cold Countries in the world wherein only these beasts and all other of strong thick hides are found for the thinnest and most unprofitable skins of beasts are in the hot and warmer parts of the world and God hath provided thick warm most commodious and precious covers for those beasts that live farthest from the Sun Whereupon many take the hides of other beasts for Buffe for being tawed and wrought artificially they make garments of them as it is daily to be seen in Germany Of the Vulgar BUGIL ABugil is called in Latine Bubalus and Buffalus in French Beufle in Spanish Bufano in German Buffel and in the Illyrian tongue Bouwol The Hebrews have no proper word for it but comprehend it under To which signifieth any kind of wilde Oxen for neither can it be expressed by Meriah which signifieth fatted Oxen or Bekarmi which signifieth Oxen properly or Jachmur which the Persians call Kutzcohi or Buzcohi and is usually translated a Wilde-Asse For which beast the Hebrews have many words neither have the Graecians any proper word for a vulgar Bugil for Boubatos and Boubatis are amongst them taken for a kinde of Roe-buck So that this Bubalus was first of all some modern or barbarous term in Africk taken up by the Italians and attributed to this beast and many other for whom they knew no proper names For in the time of Pliny they used to call strange beasts like Oxen or Bulls Vri as now a days led with the same error or rather ignorance they call such Bubali or Buffali The true effigies of the vulgar Bugil was sent unto me by Cornelius Sittardus a famous Physitian in Norimberg and it is pictured by a tame and familiar Bugil such as liveth among men for labour as it seemeth to me For there is difference among these beasts as Aristotle hath affirmed both in colour mouth horn and strength This vulgar Bugil is of a kinde of wilde Oxen greater and taller then the ordinary Oxen their body being thicker and stronger and their limbs better compact together their skin most hard their other parts very lean their hair short small and black but little or none at all upon the tail which is also short and small The head hangeth downward to the earth and is but little being compared with the residue of his body and his aspect or face betokeneth a tameable and simple disposition His fore-head is broad and curled with hair his horns more flat then round very long bending together at the top as a Goats do backward insomuch as in Crete they make bows of them and they are not for defence of the beast but for distinction of kinde and ornament His neck is thick and long and his rump or neather part of his back is lower then the residue descending to the tail His legs are very great broad and strong but shorter then the quantity of his body would seem to permit They are very fierce being tamed but that is corrected by putting an Iron ring through his Nostrils whereinto is also put a cord by which he is led and ruled as a Horse by a bridle for which cause in Germany they call a simple man over-ruled by the advise of another to his own hurt a Bugle led with a ring in his nose His feet are cloven and with the formost he will dig the earth and with the hindmost fight like a Horse setting on his blows with great force and redoubling them again if his object remove not His voyce is like the voyce of an Oxe when he is chased he runneth forth right seldom winding or turning and when he is angred he
taken wich Hony into the mouth helpeth the clifts and sores therein and taken with the Water of new Coloquintida and given to a woman in travel causeth an easie childe-birth Galen was wont to give of a Bulls gall the quantity of an Almond with two spoonfuls of Wine called Vinum Lymphatum to a woman that hath her childe dead within her body which would presently cause the dead Embryon to come forth The genital of a red Bull dryed to powder and drunk of a woman to the quantity of a golden Noble it maketh her to loath all manner of copulation but in men as the later Physitians affirm it causeth that desire of lust to increase The dung of a Bull laid to warm helpeth all hardness and burnt to powder helpeth the member that is burnt The urine or stale of Buls with a little Nitre taketh away Scabs and Leprosie Of another Beast called BUSELAPHUS THere was saith D. Cay a cloven-footed beast brought out of the Deserts of Mauritania into England of the bigness of a Hinde in form and countenance betwixt a Hinde and a Cow and therefore for the resemblance it beareth of both I will call it Buselaphus or Bovicervus or Moschelaphus or a Cow-Hart having a long and thin head and ear a lean and slender leg and shin so that it may seem to be made for chase and celerity His tail not much longer then a foot but the form thereof very like a Cows and the length like a Harts as if nature seemed to doubt whether it should encline to a Cow or a Hart his upper parts were yellowish and smooth his neither parts black and rough the hair of his body betwixt yellow and red falling close to the skin but in his fore-head standing up like a Star and so also about the horns which were black and at the top smooth but downward rough with wrinkles meeting on the contrary part and on the neerer side spreading from one another twice or thrice their quantity These horns are in length one foot and a hand-breadth but three hands-breadth thick at the root and their distance at the root was not above one fingers breadth so arising to their middle and a little beyond where they differ or grow asunder three hands breadth and a half then yeeld they together again a little and so with another crook depart asunder the second time yet so as the tops of the horns do not stand afunder above two hands-breadth three fingers and a half From the crown of the head to the nostrils there goeth a black strake which is one foot two palms and one finger long in breadth above the eyes where it is broadest it is seven fingers in thickness one foot and three palms it hath eight teeth and wanteth the uppermost like a Cow and yet cheweth the Cud it hath two udders under the belly like a Heifer that never had a Calf it is a gentle and pleasant beast apt to play and sport being not only swift to run but light and active to leap It will eat any thing either bread broth salted or powdred beef grafs or herbs and the use hereof being alive is for hunting and being dead the flesh is sweet and pleasant for meat Of the OXE and COW WE are now to describe those beasts which are less forein and strange and more commonly known to all Nations then any other four-footed beast for howsoever Bugils Buffes Lyons Bears Tigers Beavers Porcupines and such other are not alway found in every Nation yet for the most part are Oxen Kine Buls and Horses by the Providence of Almighty God disseminated in all the habitable places of the world and to speak the truth Oxen and Horses were the first riches and such things wherein our Elders gat the first property long before houses and lands with them they rewarded men of highest desert as Melampus who opened an Oracle to Neleus that sought out the lost Oxen of Iphiclus And Erix King of Sicily so much loved Oxen that Hercules recovered from Geryon that when he was to contend with Hercules about these he rather yeelded to depart from his Kingdom then from his Cattel and Iulius Pollux affirmeth that there was an ancient coin of mony which was stamped with the figure of an Oxe and therefore the Cryet in every publick spectacle made proclamation that he which deserved well should be rewarded with an Oxe meaning a piece of mony having that impress upon it which was a piece of Gold compared in value to an English Rose-noble and in my opinion the first name of mony among the Latines is derived from Cattel for I cannot invent any more probable etymologie of Pecunia then from Pecus signifying all manner of Cattel howsoever it is related by some Writers that on the one side of their coin was the Kings face and on the other an Oxes picture and that Servius was the first that ever figured money with Sheep or Oxen. Miron the great painter of Eleutheris and disciple of Agelos made an Heifer or Cow of Brass which all Poets of Greece have celebrated in sundry Epigrams because a Calf came unto it to suck it being deceived with the proportion and Ausonius also added this following unto the said Calf and Cow saying Vbera quid pulsas frigentia matris abenae O vitula succumlactis ab are petis Whereunto the brazen Cow in caused to make this answer following Hunc quoque praestarem si me pro parte parasset Exteriore Miron interiore Deus Whereby he derideth their vain labours which endeavour to satisfie themselves upon mens devises which are cold and comfortless without the blessing of Almighty God To begin therefore with these beasts it must be first of all remembred that the name Bos or an Oxe as we say in English is the most vulgar and ordinary name for Bugils Bulls Cows Buffes and all great cloven-footed horned beasts although in proper speech it signifieth a beast gelded or libbed of his stones and Boas signifieth a huge great Serpent whereof there were one found in Italy that had swallowed a childe whole without breaking one of his bones observing also in Oxen the distinction of years or age which giveth them several names for in their young age they are called Calves in their second age Steeres in their third Oxen and the Latines adde also a fourth which they call Vetuli old Oxen. These are also distinguished in sex the Male Calf is Vitulus the Female Vitula likewise Iuvencus a Steer and Iuvenca an Heifer Bos an Oxe and Vacca a Cow Taurus a Bull Taura a barren Cow and Horda a bearing and fruitful Cow of whom the Romans observed certain festival days called Hordicalia wherein they sacrificed those Cattel The Latines have also Vaccula and Bucula for a little Cow Vaccula non nunquam secreta cubilia captans Virg. And again Aut Bucula Coelum And Bucalus or Bos novellus for a little Oxe Schor in the Hebrew
his wit to rail at Christian Religion even as he lacerated and rent his first profession so was he rent in pieces by Dogs and Heraclitus the Philosopher of Athens having been long sick and under the hands of Physitians he oftentimes anointed his body with Bugils sewet and on a day having so anointed himself lying abroad sleeping in the Sun the Dogs came and for the desire of the fat tore his body in pieces I cannot here forget that memorable story of two Christian Martyrs Gorgonius and Dorotheus which were put to death under Diocletian in the ninth persecution and when they were dead their carkases were cast unto hungry Dogs of this kinde kept for such purposes yet would not the Dogs once so much as stir at them or come neer to touch them and because we may judge that the ravening nature of these creatures was restrained by divine power We also read that when Benignus the Martyr by the commandment of Aurelian was also thrown alive to be devoured of these Dogs he escaped as free from their teeth as once Daniel did from the Lyons den I may also adde unto these the Dogs of Alania and Illyria called Mastini who have their upper lips hang over their neather and look fierce like Lyons whom they resemble in neck eyes face colour and nails falling upon Bears and Boars like that which Anthologius speaketh of that leaped into the Sea after a Dolphin and so perished or that called Lydia slain by a Boar whose Epitaph Martial made as followeth Amphitheatrales inter nutrita magistros Venatrix silvis aspera blanda domi Lydia dicebar domino fidissima dextro Qui non Erigones mallet habere Canem Nec qui Dictaea Cephalum de gente secutus Luciferâ— pariter venit ad astra deae Non me longa dies nec inutilis abstulit aetas Qualia Dulychio fata fuere cani Fulmineo spumantis apri sum dente perempta Quantus erat Calydon aut Erymanthe tuus Nec queror infernas quamvis cito rapta per â—mbras Non potui fato nobiliore mori There be in France certain great Dogs called Auges which are brought out of Great Britain to kill their Bears Wolves and wilde Boars these are singularly swift and strong and their leaders the better to arm them against the teeth of other Beasts cover some of their parts with thick clouts and their necks with broad collars or else made of Badgers skins In Gallia Narbon they call them Limier and the Polonians call all made Dogs for the Wolf and such like Beasts Vislu and peculiarly for the Bear and Bore Charzii for Hares and Fowl Pobicdnizcii and Dogs of a middle scantling betwixt the first and the second Psii Gray-hounds are the least of these kindes and yet as swift and fierce as any of the residue refusing no kinde of Beast if he be turned up thereunto except the Porcupine who casteth her sharp pens into the mouth of all Dogs The best Gray-hound hath a long body strong and reasonable great a neat sharp head and splendent eyes a long mouth and sharp teeth little ears and thin gristles in them a straight neck and a broad and strong breast his fore-legs straight and short his hinder-hinder-legs long and straight broad shoulders round ribs fleshy buttocks but not fat a long tail strong and full of sinews which Nemesian describeth elegantly in these verses Sit cruribus altis Costarum sub fine decenter prona carinam Renibus ampla satis validis diductaque coras Sit rigidis multamque gerat sub pectore lato Quae sensim rursus sicca se colligat alvo Cuique nimis inblles fluitent in cursibus aures Elige tunc cursu facilem facilemque recursu Dum superant vires dum laeto flore juventus Of this kinde that is a way the best to be chosen among the whelps which weigheth lightest for it will be soonest at the game and so hang upon the greater beasts hindering their swiftness untill the stronger and heavier Dogs come to help and therefore besides the marks or necessary good parts in a Gray-hound already spoken of it is requisite that he have large sides and a broad midriffe or film about his heart that so he may take his breath in and out more easily a small belly for if it be great it will hinder his speedy course likewise that he have long legs thin and soft hairs and these must the Hunter lead on the left hand if he be a foot and on the rigâ—â— hand if he be on Horseback The best time to try them and train them to their game is at twelve months old howbeit some hunt them at ten months if they be males and at eight months if they 〈◊〉 female yet is it surest not to strain them or permit them to run any long course till they be twenty months old according to the old verse Libera tâ—â—c primum consuescant colla ligari Iam cum bis denos Phoebe reparaverit ortus Sed parvos vallis spatio septove novelli Nec cursus virtute parem c. Keep them also in the leam or slip while they are abroad untill they see their course I mean the Hare or Deer and loosen not a young Dog till the game have been on foot a good season lest if he be greedy of the prey he strain his limbs till they break When the Hare is taken divide some part thereof among your Dogs that so they may be provoked to speed by the sweetness of the flesh The Lacedemon Gray-hound was the best breed they were first bred of a Fox and a Dog and therefore they were called Alopecides these admit copulation in the eight moneth of their age and sometime in the sixt and so continue bearing as long as they live bearing their burthen the sixth part of a year that is about sixty days one or two more or less and they better conceive and are more apt to procreation while they are kept in labour then when they lie idle without hunting And these Lacedemon Dogs differ in one thing from all other Dogs whatsoever for whereas the male out-liveth in vulgar Dogs of all Countries the female in these the female out-liveth the male yet the male performeth his labour with more alacrity although the female have the sharper sense of smelling The noblest kinde of Dog 〈…〉 or the H 〈…〉 eep â—ome unless they be led abroad and seldom bark they are the best which 〈…〉 for which cause they use this artificial invention to stretch their necks they dig a deep hole in the earth wherein they set the Gray-hounds meat who being hungry thrusteth down his head to take it but 〈…〉 ng it to be paâ—â— his reach stretcheth his neck above the measure oâ— nature by custom whereof 〈◊〉 neck is very â—uch lengthened Other place the Gray-hound in a ditch and his meat above him and so he reacheth upward which is more
from their Cattel and also to guide govern them in executing their masters pleasure upon signs given them to which of the stragling Beasts they ought to make force Neither is it requisite that this Dog be so large or nimble as is the Grey-hound which is appointed for Deer and Hares But yet that he be strong quick ready and understanding both for brauling and fighting so as he may fear away and also follow if need be the ravening Wolf and take away the prey out of his mouth wherefore a square proportion of body is requisite in these Beasts and a tolerable lightness of foot such as is the Village Dog used only to keep houses and hereof also they are the best who have the greatest or loudest barking voyces and are not apt to leap upon every stranger or beast they see but reserve their strength till the just time of imployment They approve also in this kinde above all other the white colour because in the night time they are the more easily discerned from the Wolf or other noisome beast for many times it falleth out that the Shepheard in the twy-light striketh his Dog instead of the Wolf these ought to be well faced black or dusky eyes and correspondent nostrils of the same colour with their eyes black ruddy lips a crooked camoyse nose a flat chap with two great broches or long straight sharp teeth growing out thereof covered with their lips a great head great ears a broad brest a thick neck broad and solid shoulders straight legs yet rather bending inward then standing outward great and thick feet hard crooked nails a thick tail which groweth lesser to the end thereof then at the first joint next the body and the body all rugged with hair for that maketh the Dog more terrible and then also it is requisite that he be provided of the best breed neither buy him of a Hunter for such an one will be gone at the sight of a Deer or Hare nor yet of a Butcher for it will be sluggish therefore take him young and bring him up continually to attend Sheep for so will he be most ready that is trained up among Shepherds They use also to cover their throat and neck with large broad collars pricked through with nails for else if the wilde beast bite them in those places the Dog is easily killed but being bitten at any other place he quickly avoideth the wound The love of such to the Cattel they keep is very great especially to Sheep for when Publius Aufidius Pontianus bought certain flocks of Sheep in the farthest part of Vmbria and brought Shepherds with him to drive them home with whom the dogs went along unto Heraclea and the Metapontine coasts where the drovers left the Cattel the Dogs for love of the Sheep yet continued and attended them without regard of any man and forraged in the fields for Rats and Mice to eat untill at length they grew weary and lean and so returned back again unto Vmbria alone without the conduct of men to their first Masters being many daies journey from them It is good to keep many of these together at the least two for every flock that so when one of them is hurt or sick the herd be not destitute and it is also good to have these male and female yet some use to geld these thinking that for this cause they will the more vigilantly attend the flock howbeit I cannot assent hereunto because they are too gentle and lesse eager when they want their stones They are to be taken from their Dam at two moneths old and not before and it is not good to give them hot meat for that wil encrease in them madness neither must they taste any of the dead carkasses of the Cattel lest that cause them to fall upon the living for when once they have taken a smatch of their bloud or flesh you shall seldom reclaime them from that devouring appetite The understanding of these Shepherds Dogs is very great especially in England for the Shepherds will there leave their Dogs alone with the flocks and they are taught by custom to keep the Sheep within the compass of their pasture and discern betwixt grasse and Corn for when they see the Sheep fall upon the Corn they run and drive them away from that forbidden fruit of their own accord and they likewise keep very safely their Masters garments and victuals from all annoyance untill their return There is in Xenophon a complaint of the Sheep to the Shepherds concerning these Dogs We marvel said the Sheep at thee that seeing we yeeld thee milk Lambs and Cheese whereupon thou feedest nevertheless thou givest unto us nothing but that which groweth out of the earth which we gather by our own industry and whereas the Dog doth none of all these him thou feedest with thine own hand and bread from thine own trencher The Dog hearing this complaint of the Sheep replyed That his reward at the Shepherds hand was just and no more then he deserved for said he I look unto you and watch you from the ravening Wolf and pilfering Theef so as if once I forsake you then it will not be safe for you to walke in your Pastures for perill of death whereunto the Sheep yeelded and not replyed to the reasonable answer of so unreasonable a beast and this complaint you must remember was uttered when Sheep could speak as well as men or else it noteth the foolish murmuring of some vulgar persons against the chief Ministers of state that are liberally rewarded by the Princes own hands for their watchful custody of the Common-wealth And thus much for the Shepherds Dog Of the VILLAGE-DOG or HOVSE-KEEPER THis Village Dog ought to be fatter and bigger then the Shepherds Dog of an elegant square and strong body being black coloured and great mouthed or barking bigly that so he may the more terrifie the Theef both by day and night for in the night the beast may seize upon the robber before he discern his black skin and therefore a spotted branded party coloured Dog is not approved His head ought to be the greatest part of his body having great ears hanging down and black eyes in his head a broad breast thick neck large shoulders strong legs a rough hair short tail and great nails his disposition must not be too fierce nor yet too familiar for so he will faun upon the Theef as well as his Masters friend Yet is it good that sometime he rise against the household servants and alway against strangers and such they must be as can wind a stranger afar off and descry him to his Master by barking as by a watch-word and setting upon him when he approcheth neer if he be provoked Blondus commendeth in this kinde such as sleep with one eye open and the other shut so as any small noise or stir wake and raise him It is not good to keep many
called Melita from whence are transported many fine little Dogs called Melitaei Canes they were accounted the Jewels of Women but now the said Town is possessed by Fisher-men and there is no such reckoning made of those tender little Dogs for these are not bigger then common Ferrets or Weasils yet are they not small in understanding nor mutable in their love to men for which cause they are also nourished tenderly for pleasure whereupon came the proverb Militaea Catella for one nourished for pleasure and Canis digna throno because Princes hold them in their hands sitting upon their estate Theodorus the tumbler and dancer had one of these which loved him so well that at his death he leaped into the fire after his body Now a dayes they have sound another breed of little Dogs in all Nations beside the Melitaean Dogs either made so by art as inclosing their bodies in the earth when they are Whelps so as they cannot grow great by reason of the place or else lessening and impayring their growth by some kind of meat or nourishment These are called in Germany Bracken Schosshundle and Gutschenhundle the Italians Bottolo other Nations have no common name for this kind that I know Martial made this Distichon of a little French Dog for about Lions in France there are store of this kinde and are sold very dear sometimes for ten Crowns and sometimes for more Delicias parvae si vis audire catellae Narranti brevis est pagina tota mihi They are not above a foot or half a foot long and alway the lesser the more delicate and precious Their head like the head of a Mouse but greater their snowt sharp their ears like the ears of a Cony short legs little feet long tail and white colour and the hairs about the shoulders longer then ordinary is most commended They are of pleasant disposition and will leap and bite without pinching and bark prettily and some of them are taught to stand upright holding up their fore legs like hands other to fetch and carry in their mouths that which is cast unto them There be some wanton women which admit them to their beds and bring up their young ones in their own bosomes for they are so tender that they seldom bring above one at a time but they lose their life It was reported that when Grego in Syracuse was to go from home among other Gossips she gave her maid charge of two things one that she should look to her childe when it cryed the other that she should keep the little Dog within doors Publius had a little Dog called Issa having about the neck two silver bels upon a silken Collar which for the neatness thereof seemed rather to be a picture then a creature whereof Martial made this elegant Epigram comprehending the rare voice and other gestures in it Issa est puriot osculo columbae Issa est blandior omnibus puellis Issa est carior Indicis lapillis Issa est deliciae â—â—tella Publii Hanc ut si queritur loqui pulabis Seâ—tit tristi tiamque gaudiumque Collo nexa cubat capitque somnos Vt suspiria nulla sentiantur Et desideriâ— coacta ventris Gutta pallia non fefellit ulla Sed blando pede suscit at toroque Deponi monet rogat levari Caste tantus inest pudor catellae Hanc ne lux rapiut suprema totam Pictam Publius exprimit tabella In qua tam similem vibebis Issam Vt sit tam similis sibi nec ipsa Issam denique pone cum tabella Aut utramque putabis esse veram Aut utramque putabis esse pictam Marcellus Empiticus reciteth a certain charm made of the rinde of a wilde Figtree held to the Spleen or Liver of a little Dog and afterward hanged up in the smoak to dry and pray that as the rind or bark dryeth so the Liver or Spleen of the Dog may never grow and thereupon the Dog saith that foolish Emperick shall never grow greater then it was at the time that the bark was hanged up to drying To let this trifle go I will end the discourse of these little Dogs with one story of their love and understanding There was a certain noble Woman in Sioily which understanding her husband was gone a long journey from home sent to a lover I should say an Adulterer she had who came and by bribery and money given to her servants she admitted him to her bed but yet privately more for fear of punishment then care of modesty and yet for all her craft she mistrusted not her little Dog who did see every day where she locked up this Adulterer at last her husband came home before her lover was avoided and in the night the little Dog seeing his true Master returned home ran barking to the door and leaped up thereupon within which the Whoremonger was hidden and this he did oftentimes together fauning and scraping his Lord and Master also in so much as he mistrusted and that justly some strange event at last he brake open the door and found the Adulterer ready armed with his sword wherewithal he slew the good man of the house unawares and so enjoyed the Adulterate woman for his wife for Murther followeth if it go not before Adultery This story is related by Aelianus to set forth a virtue of these little Dogs how they observe the actions of them that nourish them and also some descretion betwixt good and evill The Dogs of Egypt are most fearful of all other and their custome is to run and drink or drink of the River Nilus running for fear of the Crocodiles whereupon came the Proverb of a man that did any thing slightly or hastily Vt Canisâ—e Nilo bibit Alcibiades had a Dog which he would not sell under 28 thousand Sesterces that is seven hundred French Crowns it was a goodly and beautiful Dog yet he cut off his tail whereof he gave no other reason being demanded why he so blemished his beast but only that by that fact he might give occasion to the Athenians to talke of him The Dogs of Caramania can never be tamed for their men also are wilde and live without all Law and Civility and thus much of Dogs in special In the next place I thought good to insert into this story the Treatise of English Dogs first of all written in Latin by that famous Doctor in Physick John Cay and since translated by A. F. and directed to that noble Gesner which is this that followeth that so the Reader may chuse whether of both to affect best The Preamble or Entrance into the Treatise following I Wrote unto you well beloved friend Gesner not many years past a manifold history containing the divers forms and figures of Beasts Birds and fishes the sundry shapes of Plants and the fashions of Herbs c. I wrote moreover unto you severally a certain abridgement of Dogs which in your discourse upon the
they fail and wax dry the hair also shorteneth with them and as it were rotteth away in length but if they abound and overflow then do they loosen the roots of the hair and cause them to fall off totally This disease is called Alopecia and the other Ophiasis because it is not general but only particular in one member or part of the body or head and there it windeth or indenteth like a Serpents figure Michael Ferus affirmeth that sometime the liver of the Fox inflameth and then it is not cured but by the Ulcerous blood flowing to the skin and that evill blood causeth the Alopecia or falling away of the hair for which cause as is already said a Foxes skin is little worth that is taken in the Summer time The length of the life of a Fox is not certainly known yet as Stumpsius and others affirm it is longer then the life of a Dog If the urine of a Fox fall upon the grasse or other herbs it dryeth and killeth them and the earth remaineth barren ever afterward The savour of a Fox is more strong then of any other vulgar beast he stinketh at nose and tail for which cause Martial calleth it Olidam Vulpem an Olent or smelling beast Hic olidam clamosus ages in retia vulpem Touching the hunting or taking of Foxes I approve the opinion of Xenophon who avoucheth Leporum capturam venatico studio quam vulpium digniorem that is the hunting of the Hare is a more noble game or pastime then the hunting of the Fox This beast is more fearful of a Dog then a Hare for the only barking of Dogs causeth him to rise many times from his den or lodgings out of the earth or from the middle of bushes briars and brambles wherein he hid himself and for his hunting this is to be observed that as in hunting of a Hart it hath been already related the Hunter must drive the beast with the winde because it hindereth his refrigeration so in hunting of a Fox he drive him against the winde and then he preventeth all his crafty and subtill agitations and devises for it stayeth his speed in running and also keepeth his savour fresh alway in the nose of the Dogs that follow him for the Dogs that kill a Fox must be swift strong and quick sented and it is not good to put on a few at once but a good company together for be assured the Fox will not lose his own bloud till he hazzard some of his enemies and with his tail which he windeth every way doth he delude the Hunters when the Dogs are pressed neer unto him and are ready to bite him he striketh his tail betwixt his legs and with his own urine wetteth the same and so instantly striketh it into the Dogs mouths whereof when they have tasted so many of them as it toucheth will commonly leave off and follow no farther Their teeth are exceeding sharp and therefore they fear not to assault or contend with beasts exceeding their stature strength and quantity Sometime he leapeth up into a tree and there standeth to be seen and bayed at by the Dogs and Hunters like as a Champion in some Fort or Castle and although fire be cast at him yet will he not descend down among the Dogs yea he endureth to be beaten and pierced with Hunters spears but at length being compelled to forsake his hold and give over to his enemies down he leapeth falling upon the crew of barking Dogs like a flash of lightning and where he layeth hold there he never looseth teeth or asswageth wrath till other Dogs have torn his limbs and driven breath out of his body If at any time he take the earth then with Terriar Dogs they ferret him out of his den again In some places they take upon them to take him with nets which seldom proveth because with his teeth he teareth them in pieces yet by Calentius this devise is allowed in this Verse Et laqueo Vulpes decipe casse fuinas But this must be wrought under the earth in the caves dens or surrowes made of purpose which is to be performed two manner of wayes one by placing the Gin in some perch of wood so as that as soon as the beast is taken by the Neck it may presently flie up and hang him for otherwise with his teeth he will shear it asunder and escape away alive or else that neer the place where the rope is fastened to slip upon the head of the Fox there be placed some thick collar or brace so as he can never bite it asunder The French have a kinde of Gin to take by the legs which they call Hausepied and I have heard of some which have found the Foxes leg in the same Gin bitten off with his own teeth from his body rather putting himself to that torment with his own teeth then to expect the mercy of the Hunter and so went away upon three feet and other have counterfeited themselves dead restraining their breath and winking not stirring any member when they saw the Hunter come to take them out of the Gin who coming and taking his leg forth not suspecting any life in them so soon as the Fox perceiveth himself free away he went and never gave thanks for his deliverance for this cause Blondus saith truly that only wise and old Hunters are fit to take Foxes for they have so many devises to beguile men and deliver themselves that it is hard to know when he is safely taken untill he be throughly dead They also use to set up Gins for them baited with Chickens in bushes and hedges but if the setter be not at hand so soon as the Fox is insnared it is dangerous but that the beast will deliver it self In some places again they set up an iron toile having in it a ring for the Fox to thrust in his head and through that sharp pikes at the farther end whereof is placed a piece of flesh so that when the hungry Fox cometh to bite at the meat and thrusteth in his head the pikes stick fast in his neck and he inevitably insnared Moreover as the harmefulness of this beast hath troubled many so also they have devised more engins to deceive and take him for this cause there is another policy to kill him by a bow full bent with a sharp arrow and so tenderly placed as is a trap for a Mouse and as soon as ever the Fox treadeth thereon presently the arrow is discharged into his own bowels by the weight of his foot Again for the killing of this beast they use this sleight they take of Bacon-grease or Bacon as much as ones hand and rost the same a little and therewith anoint their shooe-soles and then take the liver of a Hog cut in pieces and as they come out of the wood where the beast lodgeth they must scatter the said pieces in their foot-steps
said to be derived of these wilde Goats these are called Cynthian Goats because they are bred in the Mountains of Delos called Cynthus There are of these which are found in the tops of the Lybian Mountains as great as Oxen whose shoulders and legs abound with loose shaggy hair their shins small their faces are round their eyes are hollow and hard to be seen Their horns crooking backward to their shoulders not like other Goats for they stand far distant one from another and among all other Goats they are indued with a most singular dexterity of leaping for they leap from one top to another standing a great way asunder and although many times they fall down upon the hard rocks which are interposed betwixt the Mountains yet receive they no harm for such is the hardness of their members to resist that violence and of their horns to break their falls that they neither are offended thereby in head nor legs Such are the Goats of Soractum as Cato writeth which leapeth from Rock to Rock above threescore foot of this kinde are those Goats before spoken of in the History of the tame Goat which are thought to breath out of their ears and not out of their nostrils they are very swift and strong horned the love betwixt the Dams and the Kids in this kinde is most admirable for the Dam doth most carefully educate and nourish her young the young ones again do most thankfully recompense their mothers carefulness much like unto reasonable men which keep and nourish their own Parents in their old decrepit age which the love of God and nature doth enjoyn them for satisfaction of their own education so do these young wilde Goats toward their own mothers for in their age they gather their meat and bring it to them and likewise they run to the rivers or watering places and with their mouths suck up water which they bring to quench the thirst of their Parents and when as their bodies are rough and ugly to look upon the young ones lick them over with their tongues so making them smooth and neat And if at any time the Dam be taken by the Hunters the young one doth not forsake her till he be also insnared and you would think by the behaviour of the imprisoned Dam towards her young Kids and likewise of the Kid towards his Dam that they mutually contend one to give it self for the other for the Dam foreseeing her young one to hover about her in the hands of her enmies and continually to follow with sighs and tears seemeth to wish and perswade them to depart and to save themselves by flight as if they could say in the language of men Fugite filii infostos venatores ne me miseram capti materno nomine private that is to say Run away my sons save your selves from these harmful and greedy Hunters lest if you be taken with me I be for ever deprived of the name of a mother The young ones again on the other side wandring about their Mother bleat forth many a mournful song leaping to the Hunters and looking in their faces with pitiful aspects as if they said unto him We adjure you oh Hunters by the Maker of us all that you deliver our Mother from your thraldom and instead of her take us her unhappy children bend your hard hearts fear the laws of God which forbiddeth innocents to be punished and consider what reverence you owe to the old age of a mother therefore again we pray you let our lives satisfie you for our Dams liberty But poor creatures when they see that nothing can move they unexorable minde of the Hunters they resolve to dye with her whom the cannot deliver and thereupon of their own accord give themselves into the hands of the Hunters and so are led away with their mother Concerning the Lybian Goats before spoken of which live in the tops of Mountains they are taken by nets or snares or else killed by Darts and Arrows or some other art of hunting But if at any time they descend down into the plain fields they are no less troubled then if they were in the waves of some great water And therefore any man of a slow pace may there take them without any great difficulty The greatest benefit that ariseth from them is their skin and their horns with their skins they are clothed in Winter time against Tempests Frosts and Snow and it is a common weed for Shepherds and Carpenters The horns serve them in steed of Buckets to draw water out of the running streams wherewithall they quench their thirst for they may drink out of them as out of cups they are so great that no man is able to drink them off at one draught and when cunning artificers have the handling of them they make them to receive three times as much more The self same things are written of the Wilde Goats of Egypt who are said never to be hurt by Scorpions There is a great City in Egypt called Coptus who were wont to be much addicted to the worship of Isis and in that place there are great abundance of Scorpions which with their stings and poyson do oftentimes give mortal and deadly wounds to the people whilest they mourn about the Chappel for they worship that Goddess with funeral lamentation against the stinging of these Scorpions the Egyptians have invented a thousand devises whereof this was the principal At the time of their assembly they turn in wilde female Goats naked among the Scorpions lying on the ground by whose presence they are delivered and escape free from the wounds of the Serpents whereupon the Coptites do religiously consecrate these female Goats to divinity thinking that their Idoll Isis did wholly love them and therefore they sacrificed the males but never the females It is reported by Plutarch that wilde Goats do above other meat love meal and figs wherefore in Armenia there are certain black fishes which are poyson with the powder or meal of these fishes they cover these figs and cast them abroad where the Goats do haunt and assoon as the Beasts have tasted them they presently dy Now to the Wilde Goat before pictured called in Latine Rupicapra and Capricornus and in Greek a Gargos and Aigastros and of Homer Ixalon of the Germans Gemmes or Gemmus the Rhetians which speak Italian call it Camuza the Spaniards Capramontes the Polonians Dzykakoza the Bohemians Korytanski Kâ—zlik that is to say a Carinthian Goat because that part of the Alpes called Carinthia is neer bordering upon Bohemia Bellonius writeth that the French call him Chambris and in their ancient tongue Ysard this is not very great of body but hath crooked horns which bend backward to his back whereupon he stayeth himself when he falleth from the slippery Rocks or Mountains These horns they are not fit to fight they are so small and weak and therefore nature hath bestowed them upon them for the cause aforesaid Of all
leaves or small twigs of trees and whereas commonly they are brought forth in twins it is best to choose out the strongest headed Kid for the flock and to sell the other away to the Butchers Out of the rennet of the Calves or Kids is the Coagulation There was a certain law as appeareth by Baifyus in the Books of the civill Lawyers that shooes should be made of the skins of Kids as appeared by ancient Marble monuments at Rome which thing Martiall approveth in his verses to Phebus shewing how time altereth all things and that the skins of Kids which were wont to cover bald heads are now put upon bare legs the verses are these that follow Hoedina tibi pelle contegenti Nudae tempora verticemque calvae Festive tibi Phaebe dixit ille Qui dixit caput esse calceatum Out of the hide of a Kid is made good glew and in the time of Cicero they stuffed beds with Kids hair their flesh hath been much esteemed for delicate meat and for that cause dressed and trimmed sundry ways the best Kids for meat have been said to come from Melos or Vmbralia or Viburtinum which never tasted grass but have more milk in them then bloud according to the saying of Juvenal De Viburtino veniet pinguissimus agro Hoedulus toto grege mollior inscius herbae Nec dum ausus virgas humilis mordere salicti For this cause they may safely be eaten all the year long while they suck both of men of temperate and hot constitution for they are less hurtful then the Rams and do easily digest and nourish temperately for they engender thin and moist bloud and also help all hot and temperate bodies and they are at the best when as they are neither two old that is above six moneths nor too young that is under two moneths The red or sandy coloured are the best yet is their flesh hurtful to the Colick Simeon Sethi affirmeth that if a man eat a Kids liver before he drink in the morning he shall not be over drunk that day Celtus also prescribeth it in the sickness of the Holy-fire They are wholesome sod roasted or baked but the ribs are best sod Platina teacheth one way whereby it was dressed in his time for a delicate dish they took some field Herbs and fat broth two whites of an Egge well beaten together with two heads of Garlick a little Saffron and a little Pepper with the Kids flesh put all together into a dish rosted before at the fire upon a spit with Parsely Rosemary and Lawrel leaves and so serv'd out with that sauce and set on the table but if they did not eat it before it was cold it weakened the eye-sight and raised up venereal lust The bloud also of a Kid was made into a bludding and given to be eaten of them which have the Bloudy-flix They have also devised to dress a Kid hot and to fill his belly with Spices and other good things likewise it is sod in Milk with Lawrel with divers other fashions which every Cook is able to practise without the knowledge of learning And thus I might conclude the discourse of Kids with a remembrance of their constellation in the Waggoner upon the Bulls horn which the Poets observe for signes and tokens fore-shewing rain and clowdy weather according to Virgils verse Quantus ab occasu veniens pluvialibus Hoedis These Stars rise in the Evening about the Nones of October and in December they wont to sacrifice a Kid with Wine to Faunus There is a Bird called 〈…〉 ptilus which is a great devourer of Kids and Lambs and the same also is hunted by a Dragon for when she hath filled her self with these Beasts being wearyed and idle the Dragon doth easily set upon her and overtake her Also when they fish for the Worm seven cubits long in the River Indus they bait their hook with a Lamb or Kid as is reported by Aelianus and the Ancients were wont by inspection into the intrails of Kids to declare or search into things to come as Gyraldus amongst other their superstitious vanities rehearseth The manifold medicinal properties of Goats come now in the end of this story to be declared and first of all it is to be noted that these properties are several both in the male female and Kid and therefore they are not to be confounded but as the diligence of learned Authors hath invented and left them severally recorded so they require at our hands which are the heirs of such beneficial helps the same care and needful curtesie There are some which do continually nourish Goats in stables neer their dwelling houses with an opinion that they help to continue them in health for the Ancients ordained that a man which had been bitten or stroke by Serpents and could not easily be cured thereof should be lodged in a Goats stable The hairs of a Goat-buck burned and perfumed in the presence or under a man whose genital is decayed it cureth him The powder of a Wine bottle made of a Goats skin with a little Rozen doth not only stanch the bloud of a green wound but also cure the same The powder of the Horn with Nitre and Tamarisk seed Butter and Oyl after the head is shaven by anointing it therewith strengthneth the hair from falling off when it groweth again and cureth the Alopecia and a horn burnt to powder and mingled with meal cureth the chippings in the head and the scabs for taking away the smell of the arm-pits they take the horn of an old Goat and either scrape or burn the same then adde they to it a like quaintity of Myrrhe the Goats gall and first scrape or shave off the hair and afterward rub them therewith every day and they are cured by that perfrication The bloud fryed in a pan and afterwards drunk with Wine is a preservative against intoxications and cureth the Bloudy-flix and the bloud in a Sear-cloth is applyed against the Gout and cleanseth away all Leprosies and if the bloud come forth of the nose without stay then rub the nose with this bloud of a Goat It being fitted to meat cureth all the pains of the inward parts being sod upon coals stayeth the looseness of the belly and the same applyed to the belly mixed with fine flowre and Rozen 〈…〉 aseth the pain in the small guts the same mixed with the marrow of a Goat which hath been fed with Lentils cureth the Dropsie and being drunk alone breaketh the stones in the reins and with Parsley drunk in Wine also dissolveth the stone in the bladder and preventeth all such calculating gravel in time to come There is a Medicine called by the Apothecaries Divina manus Gods hand against the Stone and they make it in this manner When Grapes begin to wax ripe they take a new earthen pot and pour into it water and seethe the same till all the scum or earthy
Caballus The Grecians call it Hippos which seemes to be derived from standing upon his feet and this beast only seemeth to be one of the number of them which are called Armenta And besides all Histories are filled with appellative names of Horses such as these are Alastor Aethon Nicteus and Orneus the Horses of Pluto Aetha a Mare of Agamemnon remembred by Homer Aethion Statio Eous Phlego Pyrois the Horses of the Sun Lampus Podargus Xampus Arnon the Horses of Erymus by whose aid Hercules is said to overcome Cygnus the Son of Mars Balius Xanthus and Padasus the Horses of Achilles Boristenes for whom Adrianus made a grave as Dion writeth Bromius Caerus Calydon Camphasus Cnasius Corithe and Herpinus two names of Britain Horses cited by Martial and Gillius Cylarus the swift Horse of Castor Dimos and Phobos the Horses of Mars Euriole Glaucus and Sthenon the Horses of Neptune Parthenia and Euripha Mares belonging to the Centaurs of Hippodamia slain by Ornomaus Harpe another Mare Phoenix and Corax the Horses of Eleosthenes Epidaminus who wan the prizes in the sixty sixth Olympiade and caused a statue to be made in Olympus and his said Horses and Chariot called Pantarces and beside these other Cnacias and Samus Also Podarces Rhoebus Strymon Tagus Theron Thoes Volneris which was a Horse of Prasinum and it is repoted that Verus the Emperor so much affected this Horse that he not only caused him to be brought into his own Palace and to have his meat alway given in his presence but made of him a picture with a manger wherein were Grapes and Corn from whence came the first Golden Horses or prizes of Chivalry Primus equum volucrem Massyli munera regis Haud spernenda tulit Unto these may be added the affected names of Poets in love of their favorites as Rholandus Vegiantinus Baiardus the Horse of Rainaldus Rubicanus of Argalifas Hippogrysus of Rugerius Frontinus and Fratalatus of Sacrapan and Rondellius of Oliverius The Epithets that belong to Horses are either general or particular the general may be rehearsed in this place such as these are following brasse-footed continual horn-footed sounding-footed foming bridle-bearer neighing maned dusty four-footed fretting saddle-bearing watery or sweating whole-footed and many such others both among the Greeks and Latins which howsoever they may contain divers Allegories in them and therefore may seem to be figuratively sed down yet I thought good being of other opinion to reckon them in the beginning that so the Reader may consider that I would be unwilling to omit any thing in this story which might any way tend to the dignity of the subject we intreat of or the expressing of his nature Wherefore we will first of all begin with the description of the natural parts of a good Horse The hair of a Horse falleth off every year the neather eye lid or brow hath no long hairs growing upon it and therefore Nicon that famous painter of Greece when he had most curiously limbed forth a Horses perfection and faild in no part of nature of art but only in placing hairs under his eye for that only fault he received a disgraceful blame The hair of the manes ought to be long that part which groweth betwixt the ears upon the Temples hanging down betwixt the eyes the Grecians term Procomion the Latins Caprona and in English it may be called a fore-top which is granted to Horses not only for ornament sake but also for necessity to defend their eyes The Horses are naturally proud of these locks and manes as may appear by those Mares which are kept for procreation of Mules by copulation with Asses which at the first despise to ingender with those shaveling and short haired Stalions Wherefore their keepers shave off their manes and their fore-tops afterwards leading them to the waters wherein while the Mares behold their own deformity they grow so shamed dejected and discouraged that ever after they admit with quietness the Asses to cover them Therefore it is never good to cut the mane or the fetter-locks except necessity require for the mane and fore-top is an ornament to the neck and head and the fetter-locks to the legs and feet and he that keepeth Horses must as well regard to have them comely for outward grace as strong and able for necessary labour Many use to cut the necks of their riding Horses even as they do of their drawing Horses which thing although it may seem to be done for greater encrease and farther growth of hair yet is it unseemly for an honest rider some again cut it to stand compass like a bow and many use the Armenian fashion cutting the Mane by rowes leaving some longer then other as it were the batlements of a Church but the best fashion of all is the Persian cut whereby the one half of the thickness is cut away on the left side and the other on the right side smoothly turned over and combed according to the saying of Virgil Densa juba dextro jactata recumbit in armo But if the Horse be double maned and so the hair fall half on the one side and half on the other then cut all the middle hairs away and leave both the sides whole for such was the intention of the Parthians In a Colt or young fole the hinder part is higher then the forepart but as he grows in years so likewise the forepart groweth higher then the hinder This beast hath two bones in his head and other two descending from his forehead to the Nostrils two inferiour Gumbes or cheek-bones forty teeth that is to say four and twenty grinders four canine and twelve biting teeth there are seven crosse ribs in his neck and seven from his reins to his hole his tail hath twelve commissures and two Ragulae in his fore-shoulders from his shoulders to his legs other two from his legs to his knees two more in his knees there are two supporters and from the shin to the Articles two more there are sixteen small bones in the bottom of his hoof and but one in his brest in the inward parts there are six and twenty ribs from the hinder parts to the top of his reins the two grinding bones and from them to the hinder part of the head there are two more and two little ribs from the upper part of the thigh to the Gamba and from thence to the hairs of the pasterns there are two and the little ones to the hooves sixteen so all the bones in number are accounted a hundred and seventy Now it followeth to declare the measure and number of the members there are twelve steps or degrees in the roof of his mouth his tongue is half a foot long the upper lip hath twelve inches the under lip five every one of the cheeks ten from the fore-lock to the Nostrils he hath one foot in length his two ears contain six inches and his eyes four inches a piece From his
Noble Beast The Gelanoian Horses are a kinde of base Horses not fit for war whether this name proceed of a strange Countrey I have no certain knowledge thereof There is a certain River in Sicilia called Gelas of which Countrey the Horses are of great value and much set by And also the Gelons are a people of Scythia who in their flight fight upon Horses of which Lucanus writeth to this effect Massagetes quo fugit equo fortesque Geloni And Virgil Bisaltae quo more solent acerque Gelonus Cum fugit in Rhodopen aut in deserta Getarum Et lao concretum cum sanguine potat equino Signifying thus much that the Massagetes valiant Gelons fly away upon Horses like the Bisaltans when they fly into Rhodope or into the Wilderness of the Gelans and drink milk mixed with Horse-bloud for hunger and famine But these fearful Horses are not meet for war Germania hath greater Horses and hard trotters whose pace is very hard and troublesome The Getican Horses run most swiftly The Horses of the Greeks have good sound broad feet and of a great body a comely fine head their fore-part somewhat high of stature straight and well compacted and of a well fashioned body but the joyning of their buttocks not so agreeable and answerable to the rest they are most swift and couragious yet notwithstanding in all Greece the Thessalian Horses are most esteemed Nemesianus writeth also of the Greekish Horses Greece therefore yeeldeth choice Horses and well hoofed In Helvetia the Horses are fitted and very expert in war and especially the Algecian Horses which will last and continue a long time In Spain also the Horses are of a great stature of body well proportioned and straight having a fine head the joynts of their bodies very well divided set apart and ready or flexible simple and short buttocks but not very strong and comely They are strong and able to sustain the undergoing or compassing of journeys neither are they slender bodyed or subject to leanness but they are nothing nimble for course as shall appear by the words of the Authors following neither are they spurred when they are ridden from their growing even to their middle age they are pliant and easie to be handled afterward they wax wilde and biting The Cappadocian Horse is renowned the like or the next triumph or victory have the Spanish Horses in running the ring Neither doth Sivilia yeeld Horses inferior for the ring then those and Africa is accustomed to bring forth the most swift Horses by copulation with the Spanish bloud to the use of the saddle Oppianus saith that their Iberian Horses are more excellent and do so much surpass other Horses in swiftness how much the Eagle or the winding Hawk in the air and the Dolphin in the Sea excelleth other birds and fishes but they are small and of little strength and no courage although Absyrtus affirmeth if you read him well that they are of a great stature of body they being rid but a little way do lose their swiftness of pace they are of a comely body but their hoofs are not hollow or hard The Spanish Horses are desired of great Princes and Peers and the Magnates because their opinion is that they are swift and nimble and out of Spain they are respected for lightness and elegancy The judgement of the Ancients for the general breed of Horses was this that the greatest Horses are bred from the third Climate to the end of the sixt and most of all in Spain yet we have seen stronger and bigger Horses bred in the seventh Climate and those more able to endure labour then those that are under the third or fourth climate The Horses of the Celtiberans somewhat a dusty colour and they change if they be transported into the farther Spain and the â—arthian Horses are like them in regard they excel in nimbleness and dexterity of running whereof Martial writeth thus Videbis altam Liciane Bilbilim equis armis nobilem which Bilbilis is a City of Celtiberia Of the Callacians and Gennets we will speak also in the Spanish Horses that are bred in the Calpian Mountain afterward when we entreat of the differences of Horses according to their degree The Huns bring up their Horses hardly able to endure cold and hunger and they have great and crooked heads staring eyes strait nostrils broad chaps and strong and rough necks and long manes down to their legs great ribs straight backs bushy tails strong shanks or legs small feet full and wide hoofs their flanks hollow and their whole body full of holes There is no fatness in their hanch or buttocks they have no strings in their sinews or arteries and they exceed in length more then in height having great bellies hanging down big-boned and leanness which is a deformity in other Horses in these it sheweth their stateliness their courage is moderate and wary and these are able to endure wounds These Hunnian Horses elsewhere he calleth them Hunnican Horses and the same in times past Huns but they are called now a days Vngarian Horses The Companies or Armies of Huns wandering up and down with most swift Horses filled all things with slaughter and terrour They are biting and kicking Horses as most Pannonicks are for they call Pannonia at this day Hungaria of which there is a Proverb of Malignity sprung up Non nisi irritati opinione aut offensae metu ferociunt that is to say They wax not stern or rage not but either by opinion or fear of offence affirming that the Pannonians are very fit for War There is not any that can hold and constrain or draw the bridles in or loose them forth that rideth an Indian Horse when he pranseth and runneth violently but such a one that hath been trained up from his childehood in the skill of Horses these men have accustomed to hold them with the bridle and also to break their wilfulness by snaffles or hits and those that are well skilled in handling Horses do compell them from their unruliness as restrain them within a small circuit Yet notwithstanding to make this circle and finish it it requireth the help of hands and it is a great skil belonging to Horsemen They which are most skilful of this Art and cunning doers of it know very well how to bring their course into a circle whose compass is not to be regarded chiefly when it can bear but two Souldiers fighting together at one time There are among the Indian Psyllans for there are also other Africks of that name Horses bred no bigger then Rams and they say that in India there are Horses with one horn of which horn drinking cups may be made having this vertue in them that if you put poyson into them and a man drink thereof it shall not hurt him because the horn doth drive away or expell the evill or poyson Whereof you shall see more at large
it is better then being thin likewise if they be hard causeth the pastern to stand higher from the ground for so in their pace the soft and hard parts of the foot do equally sustain one another and the hard hoof yeeldeth a sound like a Cymbal for the goodness of a Horse appeareth by the sound of his feet Now on the contrary side it is good also to set down the faults and signes of reprobation in Horses and first of all therefore a great and fleshy head great tears narrow nostrils hollow eyes a long neck a mane not hairy a narrow breast hollow shoulders narrow sides and little fleshy sharp loins bare ribs hard and heavy legs knees not apt to bend weak thighs not strong crooked legs thin full fleshy plain and low hoofs all these things are to be avoided in the choise of your Horse Of the choise of Stallions and breeding Mares NOw in the next place let us consider the choise of Horses and Mares appointed for breed and procreation and we have shewed already that in a Stallion we are principally to consider the colour form merit and beauty This Stallion is called in Italy Rozzâ—ne in France Estalon in Germany Ein Springhengst and in Latine Admissarius quia ad generandam sobolem admittitur because he is sent to beget and engender The Graecians Anabates or Oeheutes First of all therefore to begin with the colour that Horse is best which is of one continued colour although oftentimes as Rufus saith Horses of a despicable colour prove as noble as any other The chief colours are these bay white carnation golden russet mouse-colour flea-bitten spotted pale and black of all those the black or bay is to be preferred Opplanus maketh distinction of Horses by their colour in this manner the gray or blewish spotted is fittest for the hunting of the Hart the bright bay for the Bear and Leopards the black with flaming eyes against the Lyons The natural colour of the wilde Horses are an ash colour with a black strake from the head along the back to the tail but among tame Horses there are many good ones of black white brown red and flea-bitten colour But yet it is to be remembred that seldom or never Colts be foaled white but rather of other colour degenerating afterward by the increase of their age for such Horses are more lively durable and healthy then other of their kinde and therefore Plutarch commendeth a white Horse of Sylla for his swiftness of foot and stomach among all colours first the black then the bay next the white and last the gray are most commended Camerarius commendeth a certain colour called in Latins Varius and may be englished daple gray because of the divers in-textures of colours which although many Nations do disallow yet undoubtedly that colour saith he is a signe and argument of a good nature constituted and builded upon a temperate commixture of humors Where black white and yellow hairs appear so that the sight of one of these is nothing inferiour to the equestrial party coloured caparisons Among Horses which are divers coloured they which have stars in their fore-head and one white foot were most commended such were the Thracian Horses not admitted in copulation of which Virgil speaketh in this manner Thraoius albis Portat equus bicolor maculis vestigia primi Alba pedis frontemque ostentans arduus albam Black Horses also which have one russet or swart spot in their faces or else a black tongue are highly commended for generation but the pale coloured Horses are no wayes to be admitted to cover Mares because their colour is of no account and likewise it is seldom seen that the Foal proveth better then the Sire The bay colour hath been received without exception for the best travellers for it is supposed that Baudius amongst the Latines is derived of Vadium quia inter caetera animalia fâ—rtius vadat because among other creatures he goeth most surely It is also behoveful that in a Stallion Horse the mane be of the same colour with the body Horse-keepers have devised to make their Mares conceive strange colours for when the Mares would go to the Horse they paint a Stallion with divers colours and so bring him into the sight and presence of the Mare where they suffer him to stand a good while untill she perfectly conceive in her imagination the true Idea and full impression of those pictures and then they suffer him to cover her which being performed she conceiveth a Foal of those colours In like manner Pigeons conceive young ones of divers colours The Germans to mingle the colour of Horses hairs especially to bring black among white take the roots of Fearn and of Sage and seethe them together in lee and then wash their Horses all over therewith For the making of their Horses white they take that fat which ariseth from the decoction of a moul in an earthen pot and therewithall anoint the places they would have white Also they shave off the hairs and put upon the bald place crude Hony and Badgers grease which maketh the hairs to arise white and many other means are used by Horse-leaches as afterward shall be shewed In the old age of a Horse his hair doth naturally change white above all other beasts that we know and the reason is because the brain-pan is a more thin and slender bone then the greatness of his body would require which appeareth by this that receiving a blow in that place his life is more endangered then by hurting any other meniber according to the observation of Homer Et quasetae haerent caepiti lethaleque vulnus Praecipue sit equis And thus much shall suffice for the colour of a Stallion now followeth the form or outward proportion of the body which ought to be great and solid his stature answerable to his strength his sides large his buttocks round his breast broad his whole body full and rough with knots of muscles his foot dry and solid having a high hoof at the heel The parts of his beauty are these a little and dry head the skin almost cleaving to the bones short and pricked ears great eyes broad nostrils a long and large mane and tail with a solid and fixed rotundity of his hoofs and such an one as thrusteth his head deep into the water when he drinketh his ribs and loins like an Oxes a smooth and straight back his hanches or hips long broad and fleshy his legs large fleshy and dry the sinews and joynctures thereof great and not fleshy near the hoofs that the hinder part of his body be higher then his forepart like as in a Hart and this beauty better appeareth in a lean body then in a fat for fatness covereth many faults the former parts are thus expressed by Horace Regibus hic mos est ubi equos mercantur opertos Inspiciunt ne si facies ut saepe decora Molli sulâ—a pede est
nor eat their meat upon the ground except they bend down upon their knees The males in this kinde do only bear horns and such as do not grow out of the Crowns of their head but as it were out of the middle on either side a little above the eyes and so bend to the sides They are sharp and full of bunches like Harts no where smooth but in the tops of the speers and where the veins run to carry nutriment to their whole length which is covered with a hairy skin they are not so rough at the beginning or at the first prosses specially in the fore-part as they are in the second for that only is full of wrinckles from the bottom to the middle they grow straight but from thence they are a little recurved they have only three speers or prosses the two lower turn away but the uppermost groweth upright to heaven yet sometimes it falleth out as the Keepers of the said Beast affirmed that either by sickness or else through want of food the left horn hath but two branches In length they are one Koman foot and a half and one finger and a half in breadth at the root two Roman palms The top of one of the horns is distant from the top of the other three Roman feet and three fingers and the lower speer of one horn is distant from the lower of the other two Roman feet measured from the roots in substance and colour they are like to Harts horns they weighed together with the dry broken spongy bone of the fore-head five pound and a half and half an ounce I mean sixteen ounces to the pound they fall off every year in the month of April like to Harts and they are not hollow The breadth of their fore-heads betwixt the horns is two Roman palms and a half the top of the crown betwixt the horns is hollow on the hinder part and in that siecel lyeth the brain which descendeth down to the middle region of the eyes Their teeth are like Harts and inwardly in their cheeks they grow like furrows bigger then in a Horse the tooth rising out sharp above the throat as it should seem that none of his meat should fall thereinto unbruised This Beast in young age is of a Mouse or Ass colour but in his elder age it is more yellowish especially in the extream parts of his body the hair smooth but most of all on his legs but under his belly in the inner part of his knee the top of his neck breast shoulders and back-bone not so smooth In height it was about twenty two handfuls and three fingers being much swifter then any Horse the female beareth every year as the Keeper said in Norway two at a time but in England it brought forth but one The flesh of it is black and the fibres broad like an Oxes but being dressed like Harts flesh and baked in an Oven it tasted much sweeter It eateth commonly grass but in England seldom after the fashion of Horses which forbear hay when they may have bread but leaves rindes of trees bread and oats are most acceptable unto it It reacheth naturally thirty hand breadths high but if any thing be higher which it doth affect it standeth up upon the hinder-legs and with the fore-legs there imbraceth or leaneth to the tree and with his mouth biteth off his desire It drinketh water and also English Ale in great plenty yet without drunkenness and there were that gave it Wine but if it drink plentifully it became drunk It is a most pleasant creature being tamed but being wilde is very fierce and an enemy to mankinde persecuting men not only when he seeth them by the eye but also by the sagacity of his nose following by foot more certainly then any Horse for which cause they which kept them near the high ways did every year cut off their horns with a saw It setteth both upon Horse and Foot-men trampling and treading them under-foot whom he did over-match when he smelleth a man before he seeth him he uttereth a voice like the gruntling of a Swine being without his female it doth most naturally affect a woman thrusting out his genital which is like a Harts as if it discerned sexes In Norway they call it an Elk or Elend but it is plain they are deceived in so calling it because it hath not the legs of an Elk which never bend nor yet the horns as by conference may appear Much less can I believe it to be the Hippardius because the female wanteth horns and the head is like a Mules but yet it may be that it is a kinde of Elk for the horns are not always alike or rather the Elk is a kinde of Horse-hart which Aristotle calleth Arrochosius of Arracolos a region of Assya and herein I leave every man to his judgement referring the Reader unto the former discourses of an Elk and the Tragelaphus Of the SEA-HORSE THe Sea-horse called in Greek Hippotomos and in Latine Equus Fluviatilis It is a most ugly and filthy Beast so called because in his voyce and mane he resembleth a Horse but in his head an Oxe or a Calf in the residue of his body a Swine for which cause some Graecians call him some-times a Sea-horse and sometimes a Sea-oxe which thing hath moved many learned men in our time to affirm that a Sea-horse was never seen whereunto I would easily subscribe such Bellon 〈…〉 were it not that the antient figures of a Sea-horse altogether resembled that which is here expressed and was lately to be seen at Constantinople from whom this picture was taken It liveth for the most part in Nilus yet is it of a doubtful life for it brings forth and breedeth on the land and by the proportion of the legs it seemeth rather to be made for going then for swimming for in the night time it eateth both hay and fruits sorraging into corn fields and devouring whatsoever cometh in the way and therefore I thought it fit to be inserted into this story As for the Sea-calf which cometh sometimes to land only to take sleep I did not judge it to belong to this discourse because it feedeth only in the waters This picture was taken out of the Colossus in the Vatican at Rome representing the River Nilus and eating of a Crocodile and thus I reserve the farther discourse of this beast unto the History of Fishes adding only thus much that it ought to be no wonder to consider such monsters to come out of the Sea which resemble Horses in their heads seeing therein are also creatures like unto Grapes and Swords The Orsean Indians do hunt a Beast with one horn having the body of a Horse and the head of a Hart. The Aethiopians likewise have a Beast in the neck like unto a Horse and the feet and legs like unto an Ox. The Rhinocephalus hath a neck like a Horse and also the other parts of his body but it is said to breath
with Wool and make him this purging drink Take of Radish roots two ounces of the root of the herb called in Latine Panex or Panaces and of Scammony of each one ounce beat all these things together and boyl them in a quart of Honey and at sundry times as you shall see it needful give him a good spoonful or two of this in a quart of Ale luke-warm whereunto would be put three or four spoonfuls of Oyl It is good also to blow the powder of Motherwort or of Pyrethrum up into his nostrils and if the disease do continue still for all this then it shall be needful to pierce the skin of his fore-head in divers places with a hot iron and to let out the humors oppressing his brain Of the Night-mars THis is a disease oppressing either Man or Beast in the night season when he sleepeth so as he cannot draw his breath and is called of the Latines Iucubus It cometh of a continual crudity or raw digestion of the stomach from whence gross vapours ascending up into the head do oppress the brain and all the sensitive powers so as they cannot do their office in giving perfect feeling and moving to the body And if this disease chancing often to a man be not cured in time it may perhaps grow to a worse mischief as to the Falling-evil Madness or Apoplexy But I could never learn that Horses were subject to this disease neither by relation nor yet by reading but only in an old English Writer who sheweth neither cause nor signes how to know when a Horse hath it but only teacheth how to cure it with a food foolish charm which because it may perhaps make you gentle Reader to laugh as well as it did me for recreation sake I will here rehearse it Take a flint stone that hath a hole of his own kinde and bang it over him and write in a bill In nomine patris c. Saint George our Ladies Knight He walked day so did he night Vntil â—e her found He her beat and he her bound Till truly her trâ—ath she him plight That she would not come within the night There as Saint George our Ladies Knight Named was three times Saint George And hang this Scripture over him and let him alone with such proper charme as this is the 〈◊〉 Fryers in times past were wont to charm the money out of plain folke purses Of the Apoplexy THe Apoplexy is a disease depriving all the whole body of sense and moving And if it deprive but part of the body then it is called of the Latines by the Greek name Paralysis in our tongue a Palsie It proceeds of cold gross and tough humors oppressing the brain all at once which may breed partly of crudities and raw digestion and partly by means of some hurt in the head taken by a fall stripe or otherwise As touching Apoplexy few or none writing of Horse-â—leach-craft do make any mention thereof but of the Palsie Vegetius writeth in this manner A Horse saith he may have the Palsie as well as a man which is known by these signes He will go 〈…〉 ing and 〈◊〉 like a Crab carrying his neck awry as if it were broken and goeth crookedly with his legs beating his head against the wals and yet forsaketh not his meat nor drink and his provender seemeth moist and wet The cure Let him bloud in the temple vein on the contrary side of the â—rying of his neck and anoint his neck with comfortable Oyntment and splent it with splents of wood to make it stand right and let him stand in a warm stable and give him such drinks as are recited in the next chapter following But if all this profiteth not then draw his neck with a hot iron on the contrary side that is to say on the whole side from the neather part of the ear down to the shoulders and draw also a good long strike on his temple on that side and on the other temple make him a little star in this sort * and from his reins to his mid back draw little lines in manner of a ragged staffe and that will heal him Of the Cramp or Convulsion of the Sinews and Muscles A Convulsion or Cramp is a forcible and painful contraction or drawing together of the sinews and muscles which do happen sometime through the whole body and sometime but in one part or member only And according as the body may be diversly drawn so do the Physitians and also mine Authors that write of Horse-leech-craft give it divers names For if the body be drawn forward then they call it in Greek Emprosthotonos in Latine Tensio ad anteriora And if the body be drawn back it is called in Greek Opisthotonos in Latine Tensio ad posteriora But if the body he stark and strait bowing neither forward nor backward then it is called simply in Greek Tetanos in Latine Distensio or Rigor which names also are applyed to the like Convulsions of the neck Notwithstanding Vegetius writing of this disease entituleth his chapters de Roborosis a strange tearm and not to be found again in any other Author A Convulsion as I said before may chance as well to one part or member of the body as to the whole body as to the eye to the skin of the fore head to the roots of the tongue to the jaws to the lips to the arm hand or leg that is to say whensoever the sinew or muscle serving to the moving of that part is evill affected or grieved Of which Convulsions though there be many divers causes yet Hippocrates bringeth them all into two that is to say into fulness and emptiness for when a Convulsion proceedeth either of some inflamation of superfluous eating or drinking or for lack of due purgation or of overmuch rest and lack of exercise all such causes are to be referred to repletion or fulness But if a Convulsion come by means of over-much purging or bleeding or much watching extream labour long fasting or by wounding or pricking of the sinews then all such causes are to be referred unto emptiness And if the Convulsion proceed of fulness it chanceth suddenly and all at once but if of emptiness then it cometh by little and little and leisurely Besides these kindes of Convulsions there is also chancing many times in a mans fingers legs and toes another kinde of Convulsion which may be called a windy Convulsion for that it proceeds of some gross or tough vapour entred into the branches of the sinews which maketh them to swell like a Lute string in moist weather which though it be very painful for the time yet it may be soon driven away by chasing or rubbing the member grieved with a warm cloth And this kinde of Convulsion or Cramp chanceth also many times to a Horses hinder-legs standing in the stable For I have seen some my self that have had one of their hinder-legs drawn up with the Cramp almost to the belly
so stiffe and hard as no man hath been able to stir it neither could the Horse himself set it down to the ground of a long season which I think might be soon remedied first by continual chasing fretting or rubbing his legs with a good wispe and then by tying up the other hinder-leg or else the foreleg on the sore side whereby he should be forced to set down the pained leg Thus far I have discoursed of the Convulsion of sinews and of the causes thereof according to the opinions of the learned Physitians Now I will briefly shew you the causes signes and cure thereof according to the doctrine of mine Authors that write of Horse-leech-craft Absyrtus saith that this disease doth come either by driving the Horse into a sweat when he halteth or for that he hath troden upon some nail or by taking cold after journeying and sweating in Winter season whereby his lips are clung together or by long lying and rest after sweating whereby the sinews of his fore-legs be nummed or by having some stripe of his privy members or by long travelling in the cold Mountains where Snow and Ice doth abound For Theomnestus writeth that coming out of Paeonia with the King and his Army and passing over the Mountains to go into 〈…〉 ly there fell such abundance of Snow as not only many Souldiers dyed sitting still on their Horses backs with their Weapons in their hands being so stark and stiffe and cleaving so fast to their Saddles as they could not easily be pulled out of them but also divers Horses in their going were so nummed as they could not bow their legs yea and some were found stark dead standing still on their feet and few Horses or none escaped at that time free from this Convulsion of sinews insomuch that Theomnestus his own Horse which he loved dearly was sore vexed therewith The signes to know whether a Horse be troubled with the Convulsion in the sinews or not be these His head and neck will be so stiffe and stark as he can bow it no manner of way his ears will stand right up and his eyes will be hollow in his head and the fleshy parts thereof in the great corners will be turned backward his lips will be clung fast together so as he cannot open his mouth and his tongue so nummed as he can neither eat nor drink his back-bone and tail will be so stiffe as he cannot move it one way nor other and his legs so stiffe as they will not bow and being laid he is not able to rise and specially on his hinder-legs but falleth down on his buttocks like a Dog when he sitteth on the ground and by means of the Convulsion in his back his bladder also for neighbour-hood sake suffereth whereby the Horse cannot stale but with great pain The cure Put him into a sweat either by burying him all save the head in some warm dunghill or it he be a Horse of price carry him into a hot house where is no smoke and let him sweat there Then anoint all his body head neck legs and all with Oyl of Cypres and Oyl of Bay mingled together Or else with one of these Ointments Take of Hogs grease two pound of Turpentine half a pound of Pepper beaten in powder one dram of new Wax one pound of old Oyl two pound boil all these together and being made very warm anoint all his body therewith Or else with this Ointment Take of new Wax one pound of Turpentine four ounces of Oyl-de-bay as much of Opopanax two ounces of Deers sewet and Oyl of Storax of each three ounces melt all these together and anoint all his body therewith It is good also to bath his head with the decoction of Fitches or else of Lupines and make him this drink Take twenty grains of long Pepper finely beaten into powder of Cedar two ounces of Nitre one ounce of Laserpitium as much as a Bean and mingle all these together with a sufficient quantity of white Wine and give him thereof to drink a quart every morning and evening for the space of three or four days or else this drink Take of Opopanax two ounces of Storax three ounces of Gentian three ounces of Manna Succary three ounces of Myrrhe one scruple of long Pepper two scruples give him this with old Wine or make him a drink of Laserpitium Cumin A â—ise seed Fenigreek Bay-berries and old Oyl In old time they were wont to let him bloud in the Temples which Absyrtus doth not allow saying that it will cause the sinews of his lips to dry up so as the Horse being not able to move them shall pine for hunger As touching his diet give him at the first warm mashes and such soft meat as he may easily get down and wet Hay bringing him to harder food by little and little And in any case let him be kept very warm and ridden or walked once a day to exercise his legs and limbs Theomnestus cured his Horse as he saith by placing him in a warm stable and by making a clear fire without any smoke round about him and the Horse not being able to open his jaws of himself he caused his mouth to be opened and put therein sops dipt in a confection called Entrigon conditum and also anointed all his body with a Medicine or Ointment called Acopum the making whereof hereafter followeth dissolved in Cypres Oyl which made him to fall into a sweat and being before half dead and more brought him again to his feeling and moving so as he did rise and eat his meat Of the Cramp or Convulsions of the Sinews or Muscles A Convulsion or Cramp is a forcible drawing together of the sinews sometimes universally over the whole body as I have seen one Horse in my life time and sometimes but in one part or member as I have known and helpt divers These Convulsions have two grounds namely either natural or else accidental natural as proceeding of cold windy humors ingendered in the body and dispersed into those parts work there the effects of grievance Accidental is by wounding or pricking the sinews of which immediately ensueth a Convulsionâ— If it be natural and the disease generally dispersed then the cure is thus Dig a great deep hole in some old dung-hil and there bury him all save the head so as he may sweat there for the space of two hours at the least then take him out and anoint his body all over with Nerve oil Turpentine and Deers suet mingled together on the fire and bath his head in the juyce of Rue and Camomile Then give him to drink old Ale brewd with Cinamon Ginger Fenigreek and long Pepper of each three ounces As for his diet let it be warm mashes sodden wheat and hay throughly carded with a pair of Wool-cards let him be kept very warm and aired abroad once a day at the least If this Convulsion be but only in one member then it is sufficient
cloth and then put thereunto of Sugar one pound of Cinamon two ounces of Conserve of Roses of Barberries of Cherries of each two ounces and mingle them together and give the Horse every day in the morning a quart thereof luke warm untill all be spent and after every time he drinketh let him be walked up and down in the stable or else abroad if the weather be warm and not windy and let him neither eat nor drink in two hours after and let him drink no cold water but luke-warm the space of fifteen days and let him be fed by little and little with such meat as the Horse hath most appetite unto But if the Horse he nesh and tender and so wax lean without any apparent grief or disease then the old Writers would have him to be fed now and then with parched Wheat and also to drink Wine with his water and eat continually Wheat-bran mingled with his provender untill he wax strong and he must be often dressed and trimmed and ly soft without the which things his meat will do him but little good And his meat must be fine and clean and given often and by little at once Russius saith that if a Horse eating his meat with good appetite doth not for all that prosper but is still lean then it is good to give him Sage Savin Bay-berries Earth-nuts and Boares-grease to drink with Wine or to give him the intrails of a Barbel or Tench with white Wine He saith also that sodden Beans mingled with Bran and Salt will make a lean Horse fat in very short space Of grief in the Breast LAurentius Russius writeth of a disease called in Italian Gravezza di petto which hath not been in experience amongst our Farriers that I can learn It comes as Russius saith of the superfluity of bloud or other humors dissolved by some extream heat and resorting down the breast paining the Horse so as he cannot well go The cure whereof according to Russius is thus Let him bloud on both sides of the breast in the accustomed veins and rowel him under the breast and twice a day turn the rowels with your hand to move the humors that they may issue forth and let him go so roweled the space of fifteen days Of the pain in the Heart called Anticor that is to say contrary to the Heart THis proceedeth of abundance of ranck bloud bred with good feeding and over much rest which bloud resorting to the inward parts doth suffocate the heart and many times causeth swellings to appear before the brest which will grow upward to the neck and then it killeth the Horse The signes The Horse will hang down his head in the manger for saking his meat and is not able to lift up his head The cure according to Martin is thus Let him bloud on both sides abundantly in the plat veins and then give him this drink Take a quart of Malmsie and put thereunto half a quartern of Sugar and two ounces of Cinamon and give it him luke-warm then keep him warm in the stable stuffing him well about the stomach that the wind offend him no manner of way and give him warm water with mault always to drink and give him such meat as he will eat And if the swelling do appear then besides letting him bloud strike the swelling in divers places with your fleam that the corruption may go forth and anoint the place with warm Hogs grease and that will either make it to wear away or else to grow to a head if it be covered and kept warm Of tired Horses BEcause we are in hand here with the vital parts and that when the Horses be tired with over-much labour their vital spirits wax feeble I think it best to speak of them even here not with long discoursing as Vegetius useth but briefly to shew you how to refresh the poor Horse having need thereof which is done chiefly by giving him rest warmth and good feeding as with warm mashes and plenty of provender And to quicken his spirits it shall be gâ—od to pour a little Oyl and Vinegar into his nostrils and to give him the drink of Sheeps heads recited before in the Chapter of Consumption of the flesh yea and also to bath his legs with this bath Take of Mallows of Sage of each two or three handfuls and of a Rose-cake boil these things together and being boyled then put unto it a good quantity of Butter or of Sallet-oyl Or else make him this charge Take of Bole Armony and of Wheat-flowre of each half a pound and a little Rozen beaten into powder and a quart of strong Vinegar and mingle them together and cover all his legs therewith and if it be Summer turn him to grass Of the diseased parts under the Midriff and first of the Stomach THe old Authors make mention of many diâ—eases incident to a Horses stomach as loathing of meat spewing up his drink surfeting of provender the hungry evil and such like which few of our Farriers have observed and therefore I will briefly speak of as many as I think necessary to be known and first of the loathing of meat Of the loathing of Meat A Horse may loath his meat through the intemperature of his stomach as for that it is too hot or too cold If his stomach be too hot then most commonly it will either inflame his mouth and make it to break out in blisters yea and perhaps cause some Cancker to breed there The cure of all which things hath been taught before But if he forsake his meat only for very heat which you shall perceive by the hotness of his breath and mouth then cool his stomach by giving him cold water mingled with a little Vinegar and Oyl to drink or else give him this drink Take of Milk and of Wine of each one pinte and put thereunto three ounces of Mel Rosatum and wash all his mouth with Vinegar and Salt If his stomach be too cold then his hair will stare and stand right up which Absyrtus and others were wont to cure by giving the Horse good Wine and Oyl to drink and some would seethe in Wine Rew or Sage some would adde thereunto white Pepper and Myrrhe some would give him Onyons and Rocket-seed to drink with Wine Again there be other some which prescribe the bloud of a young Sow with old Wine Absyrtus would have the Horse to eat the green blades of Wheat if the time of the year will serve for it Columella saith that if a Horse or any other Beast do loath his meat it is good to give him Wine and the seed of Gith or else Wine and stampt Garlick Of casting out his Drink VEgetius saith that the Horse may have such a Palsie proceeding of cold in his stomach as he is not able to keep his drink but many times to cast it out again at his mouth The remedy whereof is to let him bloud in the neck and to
parts like a fish and his fore-part like a Goat according to these verses Tum gelidum valido de pectore frigus anhelans Corpore semifero magno capricornus in or be Wherefore by the signes Cancer and Capricornus the Ancients were wâ—nt to understand the descending and ascending of the soul that is to say by the Cancer or Crab which goeth backward the souls descent by Capricorst because the Goat climbeth the souls ascent and therefore they place it in the Zoduck where the Sun after the short days beginneth to ascend for no other cause then for that which I have rehearsed The Epithers that are given unto this Capricorn do also belong unto the Ibex such as are these moist cold swift horn-beaâ—er watery snowy wool-bearer tough bristly cared horrible fierce tropick frowning showring threatning black and such like To return therefore unto the Ibex although I do not dislike the opinion of them which take it to be a wilde Goat yet I have reserved it into this place because of many eminent differences as may appear by the story First these are bred in the Alpes and are of an admirable celerity although their heads be loaded with such horns as no other Beasts of their stature beareth For I do read in Eusiathius that their horns are sixteen palms long of five spans and one palm and sometimes â—eaven spans such was the horn consecrated at Delos being two cubits and a span long and six and twenty pounds in weight This Beast saith Polybius in his neck and hair is like a Buck-goat bearing a beard under his chin of a span long as thick as a Colts tail and in other parts of his body resembleth a Hart. These Beasts inhabit and keep their abode in the tops of those Mountains where the ice never thaweth or dissolveth for it loveth cold by nature otherwise it would be blinde for cold is agreeable to the eye sight and beauty It is a noble Beast and very fat In the small head and lean legs it resembleth a Hart the eyes are very fair and bright the colour yellowish his hoof cloven and sharp like wilde Goats It far excelleth a wilde Goat in leaping for no man will believe how far off or what long space it will leap except he saw it For there is no place so steep or cragged that if it afford him but so much space as his foot may stand on but he will pass over it with a very few jumps or leaps The Hunters drive them to the smooth and high Rocks and there they by enclosing them take them in ropes or toils if they cannot come near them with shot or swords When the Beast seeth his hunter which descendeth to him by some Rock he observeth very diligently and watcheth if he can see any distance or space betwixt him and the Rock yea but so much as his eye-sight can pierce through and if he can then he leapeth up and getteth betwixt the Hunter and the Rock and so casteth him down head-long and if he can espy no distance at all then doth he keep his standing until he be killed in that place The hunting of this Beast were very pleasant but that it is encumbred with much labour and many perils and therefore in these days they kill them with guns The Inhabitants of Valuis neer the River Sedunus take them in their infancy when they are young and tame them and until they be old they are contented to go and come with the tame Goats to pastune but in their older and 〈◊〉 age they return to their former wilde nature Aristotle affirmeth that they couple or engender together not by leaping upon each other but standing upright upon their hinder legs whereunto I cannot consent because the joynts and nerves of their hinder-legs will not be stretched to such a copulation and it may be that he or his relator had seen them playing together as Goats do standing upright and so took that gesture in their pastime for carnal copulation The female hath lost 〈◊〉 then the male but a greater body and her 〈◊〉 are very like to a wilde Goats When this Beast feeleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of her death and perceived in that her end by some wound or course of nature approacheth and is at hand it is reported by the Hunters that the ascendeth to the top of some Mountain or high Rock and there fasteneth one of her horns in the same sleep place going round continually and never standing still until she have worn that horn asunder whereby she stayeth her self and so at length at the instant or point of death breaking her horn falleth down and perisheth And because they the among the Rocks it falleth out seldom that their bodies are found but many times when the Snow falleth from the Mountains in great and huge masses it meeteth wish a living 〈◊〉 and other wilde Beasts and to oppressing them 〈…〉 veth them down to the foot of the Hils or Mountains as it doth trees and small houses which are built upon the sides of them In Creet they make bows of the horns of these Beasts And concerning their taking it is not to be forgotten how the Hunter which persueth her from one rock to another is forced many times for the safegard of his own life to forsake his standing and to observe the Beast when it maketh force at him and to rid himself from danger of death by leaping upon his back and taking fast hold on his horns whereby he escapeth In the house of Pompey where the memorable Forrest of Gordianus was painted there were among other Beasts two hundred Ibices which Pompey gave unto the people at the day of his triumph for to make spoil thereof at their own pleasure The M 〈…〉 es of the Ibex Some do commend the bloud of the Ibex to be a very good remedy against the stone of the bladder being used in this manner First they divide it in parte and put one part of the bloud and about some six parts of Wine Apiat and Hony mixed together and do 〈…〉 them both together luke-warm and afterwards they reserve it in a clean vessel and the third day in the morning they give it unto the party to drink who is grieved and then they put him into a Bath about noon time and in the evening and this order is to be obse 〈…〉 for three days together for it will come to pass that in that space the Stone will be dissolved and turned into sand gravel and so by that means will have vent together with the urine There is also by the dung of the aforesaid Beast an excellent remedy against the Sciatica or Hip-gout by which that most excellent Physitian Ausonius himself was healed and many other lying desperate of remedy which is this to gather the dung of this Beast in the seventeenth day of the Moon neither is it any great matter whether you gather it in some part
Helsyngia likewise in all the Regions upon the Alpes and in Sylva Martia they are also very plentiful in Ethiopia in France and Italy about the River Padus and in the Island Carpathus And thus having discoursed of their Countrey and proportion whereby their differences and kinds may be discerned we will leave every one of them to their particular and proceed to the treatise and description of their general natures There is no great difference betwixt their outward shapes and proportion for both the smaller and the greater have bright eyes divers coloured skins a little head a nimble and chearful face and Albertus saith that their body is longer then the body of a Wolf but their legs shorter mistaking the Linx for the Thoes Their eyes stand forth of their heads very far their tongue like the tongue of a Serpent and Textor affirmeth that they have paps or udders in their Breasts but surely he taketh Lynx for Sphinx Their meat goeth into the belly straight through the maw without staying and therein is a note of their insatiable voracity for none but insatiable Beasts or Birds are so affected as in Birds the Cormerant It hath no ankle bone but a thing like unto it the nails are very long as you may see in two of the former pictures but he hideth them within his skin till he be angry ready to fight or climb or otherwise affected as you may see by the picture of the Linx taken in the Tower of London The inward proportion and anatomy of their bodies is like unto a man and therefore Galen giveth this lesson to students in Physick Prastat simiarum homini quam simillimarun artus dissâ—care cum 〈◊〉 in exemplo exercese institues sin ea non detur aliquam ei proximam deligito an t si nulla omnino Simia reperiatur Cynocephalum vel Satyrum vel Lincem ea omnia quibus artuum extrema in digitos quieque discreta sual that is to say It is good to diffect those bodies which are likest to a man when one would instruct himself in Anatomy and if he cannot finde an Ape let him take a Baboon a Satyr or a Linx and generally any creature the extremity of whose sinews and joynts are divided into five fingers or toes There be some that have thought that Panthers Pardals Linxes or Tygers had been all of the kinde of Cats because of mutual resemblance in the greatness and strength of their nails in the distinction of their skins which are party coloured and fair having also a round head a short face a long tail a nimble body a wild mind and get their meat by hunting but herein I leave every man to this own best liking and opinion for when we have done our best to expresse their natures and several properties it shall be idle to spend time about disputation to what rank or order every beast ought to be referred For every one that readeth our story and seeth out pictures may either be satisfied or else amend our labour The Linx therefore biteth most cruelly and deep and therefore is accounted Rapax animal instar lupi sed callidius a Beast as revening as a Wolf but more crafty they get up into trees and from them leap down upon very great beasts and destroy them being enemies Both to men and beasts and at their pleasure according to necessity set upon both They are taken sometimes in Germany in the Dutchy of Wertinberg and that it was once credibly affirmed one of them leaped down from a tree upon a Countrey man as he passed under the same tree but being weary and having an Ax on his neck received her on the sharp edge thereof and so killed her otherwise she would soon have killed him They live in the mountains also where they are killed by poison or else hunted by armed men on Horse-back and included with multitudes for their hunting is perilous and therefore they must be inclosed with great company Some take them with ditches as we heard before Lions were taken others in snares or gins laid upon the rocks and stones and whensoever they are hunted with Dogs they run directly to the woods or to the next trees wherein they are killed by gun shot In the Summer time they are very weak and live among the Rockes never straying far from their own lodging hurting no man untill the Autumn They hunt wilde Goats whom they follow from Rock to Rock leaping as fast or faster then the Goats They Hunt also wilde Cats and Hares and some other little Beasts but the greatest Linxes hunt Harts and Asses and their manner is as we have said already to get up into trees and there to lie in wait for their prey untill they espy it under the boughs and then suddenly leap into the neck thereof whether it be a Man or a great Beast wherein they fix their claws so last that no violence can shake them off but with the sharpness of their teeth bite into the scull and eat out the brains to the utter destruction of the Man or Beast whomsoever they light upon but if it be a small Beast they eat the whole body thereof and not only the brains Yet this is a wonderful secret in their nature that although they be long afflicted with hunger yet when they eat their meat if they hear any noise or any other chance cause them to turn about from their meat out of the sight of it they forget their prey notwithstanding their hunger and go to seek another booty never remembring that which they had before them nor yet return back again to eat thereof The voice of this Beast is called by a speciall word in Latin Orcare or Corcare which I may English Croaking or Whining for the voice thereof is not great and therefore the Author of Philomela saith Dum Linces orcando fremunt ursus ferus uncat While the Linx croaketh the wilde bear whineth And Arlunus saith Corcare vox lupi Cervarll to croak is the voice of a Linx It is thought that of all Beasts they see most brightly for the Poets faign that their eye sight pierceth through every solid body although it be as thick as a wall yet if you offer unto it any thing which is transparent it is much offended and sometimes blinded but I cannot tell whether the sight be attributed to the Linx truely according to nature or fabulously in imitation of the Poetical fiction of Lynceus of whom it was said in ancient time that he saw through stone wals of whom Horace writeth thus Si possâ—s oculo quantum contendere Lyneeus Non tamen 〈◊〉 contemnâ—â— lippus inungl Marcus Tullius also saith in this manner in the admiration of Lynceus eye-sight as though darkness did not hinder it Quis est tam Lynccus qui in tantis tenebris nihil effendat Apollonius saith that so great was the perfection of this mans eye-sight as he was believed to
fall And you may lay a stone upon the uppermost board that it may fall the heavier And there are some also which to the lower board do fasten iron pins made very sharp against the which the Mice are driven by the weight of the fall Furthermore there is another kinde of trap made to cover them alive one part of it cut out of a small piece of wood the length of the palm of thy hand and the breadth of one finger and let the other part of it be cut after the form of a wedge and let this piece of wood be erected like a little pillar and let the wedge be put into the notch of another piece of wood which must be made equal with the other or very little shorter and this pillar must be so made that the Moule may not perish before she come to the meat the wood where the meat must stand ought to be a span long and you must fasten the meat about the middle of it but the former part of it must have a cleft which must begin a little from the brim and shall be made almost the length of two fingers and you must make it with two straight corners and take away half the breadth of the wood These three pieces of wood being thus made ready thou shall erect a little pillar so that the wedge may be downward whereby the Mouse may see the meat every where and let the meat be hung in the former corner of the pillar so if the Mouse shall touch the meat he shall be pressed down with the fall of the board Mice also by the fall of a cleft board are taken which is held up with a pillar and having a little spattular of wood whereon the meat shall lye so made that the pillar doth not open being parted except when the Mouse cometh to touch the meat and so by that means she is taken There is also another manner of Mouse-trap used among us which is let there be a hole made and compassed about with a board of a foot long and five or six fingers broad the compass whereof must be four fingers into this hole let there be put a vessel made of wood the length of ones fist but round and very deep and in the middle of each side of this vessel let there be made a hole wherein there is put in a thread made of Iron with meat and let it be compassed about with a small thread which must be fastened overthwart the hole and the part of the thread which hangeth down must be crooked that the meat may be fastened thereto and there must be a piece of the thread without to the which may be tied a stronger piece of wood which is the thread whereon the meat is hanged by the which the Mouse is taken by putting her head into the vessel to catch at the meat And also Mice are taken otherwise with a great Cane wherein there is a knot and in the top of it let there be made a little bow with a Lute string and there stick a great needle in the middle of the pole of the Cane and let the pole be made just in the middle and let there be bound a piece of flesh beneath so prepared that when the Mouse shall bite and move the skin that then the string slippeth down and so the needle pierceth through his head and holdeth him that he cannot run away But among all the rest there is an excellent piece of workmanship to catch Mice which I will here set down Take a piece of wood the length of both thy fists one fist broad and two fingers thick and let there be cut off about some two fingers a little beyond the middle of half the breadth And that breadth where it was cut ought to be more declining and lower after the manner of this letter A. And you must put to the side of this a piece of wood half a circle long bending and in the middle part of each side holes pierced through so that the half circle may be strait and plainly placed to the foundation of the wood that the trap being made it may rest upon the same half circle and upon this half circle let there be placed Iron nails very sharp so that the instrument by falling down may cover the Irons of the half circle assoon as ever they touch the same Furthermore there is another manner of trap when a vessel out of which they cannot escape is filled half up with water and upon the top thereof Oat meal is put which will swim and not sink making the uppermost face of the water to seem white and solid whereunto when the Mouse cometh she leapeth into the Oatmeal and so is drowned And the like may be done with chaffe mingled with Oatmeal and this in all traps must be observed wherein Mice are taken alive that they be presently taken forth for if they make water in the place their fellows will for ever suspect the trap and never come near it till the favour of the urine be abolished â—alladius saith that the thick froth of Oyl being infused into a dish or brasen Caldron and set in the middle of the house in the night time will draw all the Mice unto it wherein they shall stick fast and not be able to escape Pliny saith that if a Mouse be gelded alive and so let go she will drive away all the residue but this is to be understood of the Sorex If the head of a Mouse be flead or if a male Mouse be flead all over or her tail cut off or if her leg be bound to a post in the house or a bell be hung about her neck and so turned going she will drive away all her fellows And Pliny saith that the smoke of the leaves of the Ewe tree because they are a poyson will kill Mice so also will Libbards-bane and Henbane-seed and Wolf-bane for which cause they are severally called Myâ—ctonos and the roots of Wolf-bane are commonly sold in Savoy unto the Country people for that purpose In Germany they mingle it with Oatmeal and so lay it in balls to kill Mice The fume of Wallwort Calcauth Parsely Origanum and Deaths-herb do also kill Mice you may also drive them away with the fume of the stone Haematites and with green Tamarisk with the hoof of a Mule or of Nitre or the ashes of a Weesil or a Cat in water or the gall of an Ox put into bread The seed of Cowcumbers being sod and sprinkled upon any thing Mice will never touch it likewise wilde Cowcumber and Coloquintida kill Mice To keep Mice from Corn make morter of the froth of Oyl mingled together with chaff and let them well dry and afterwards be wrought throughly then plaister the walls of your garnery therewith and when they are dry cast more froth of Oyl upon them and afterwards carry in your corn and the Mice will never annoy it Wormwood
is troubled with the abundance and loose hanging down or over-growning of his hair it will very speedily and without any difficulty ease him of the same The dust of a Mouse pounded and beaten to powder and mingled with a certain Oyl is very good and wholesome for those which are grieved with a Tetter or scab which may over-run their whole body The brains or tail of a Mouse being dryed and beaten to powder is very medicinable for those which are troubled with the casting and shedding of their hair as also for the disease called the Foxes evill but this operation will work more effectually if the shedding of the hair doth happen by any venom or poyson The same in operation hath the whole body of the Mouse being used in the aforesaid manner There is also another excellent remedy to cure and heal the aforesaid disease which is this To take Mice which inhabit in houses and to burn or dry them in a pot and then beat them and being so used to mix them with Oyl of Lawrel and to rub the hairs which are like to fall or shed with Garlick and to put them all together into a Frontlet or fore-head cloth and daily to keep the same medicine or plaister unto them until the hair do grow fast and they be rid of that disease There is also another remedy for the same disease which is this To burn a Mouse and beat him into powder and then to mingle the same with Hony and the grease of a Bear and so to anoint the head and this is accounted for a very speedy and effectual cure The dust or powder of Mice being mixed with Hony and Oyl of Roses and so baked or boiled together and afterward distilled into a clear water and so poured into the ears of any one which is deaf or troubled with any pain in his ears and it will quickly bring him help and remedy The dust of a dryed Mouse being also mingled with Hony and rubbed upon the teeth of any one which is troubled with a stinking breath will presently take away the savour thereof If the urine of a man or woman be too fluent and abundant let them take the dust or powder of a dryed Mouse being beaten and stamped and mix it with Wine or with Goats milk and so drink it up and he shall speedily have remedy The grievous and violent inflammation or turning of the eye-lids is cured after this manner First they take the flesh of the Mice assoon as ever it is beaten small and mingle it with the yolk of an Egge and mollifie it into a salve or plaister like unto wax and then put it into a linnen cloth and so wrap it upon the eye-lids in the time of sleep and it will easily bring help and remedy There is an excellent remedy for the over-spreading of the eyes or to cure the disease in them called the Pin and the Web or to help them which are altogether blinde which is this To take the bloud of a Mouse the gall of a Cock and some part or quantity of womans milk and to take of each of them alike and then to mingle or mix them together and being well wrought or kneaded until it come to an ointment to rub or spread it upon the eyes and this will in very short space help them unto their sight for it hath been tryed and hath helped many The skin of a Mouse being burned or dryed and beaten into powder and so mingled with Vinegar and then anointed upon the head of any one who is pained or troubled with the Head-ach it will presently ease and help him The head of a Mouse being also born or carryed in a linnen cloth doth cure the same disease The heads of Mice being burned and beaten into small powder and then mixed or mingled with Hony and so anointed upon the legs or feet of them which are troubled with the Gowt are excellent good and wholesome for the curing of that grievous disease The same vertue hath the tails or bodies of Mice being used in the aforesaid manner in them Some do think that the aforesaid disease is more speedily and effectually cured after this manner First to take a Beetle or Horse-fly and stamp it all to pieces and then to mingle it with soft and liquid Pitch the skin being prepared or made ready with Nitre but there must be great care taken that it eat not too far in the flesh then to take the head of a Mouse and the gall and dung of a Mouse and mingle them together with Ling-wort and Pepper and so to anoint them and spread them upon the aforesaid eaten or lanced wounds and this is very much commended for a very good and medicinable cure for the aforesaid disease The heads of Mice dryed and beaten into powder or dust and then mixed with Hony and so anointed upon the eyes for the space of ten days together will clarifie the eyes and expel all pain or blemishes from them Of the heads of Mice being burned is made that excellent powder for the scowring and clensing of the teeth called Tooth-soap unto which if Spikenard be added or mingled it will take away any filthy sent or strong savour in the mouth The brains of a Mouse being taken and put or steeped in Wine and stamped and beaten small and anointed upon the brow or fore-head of any one who is troubled with a pain or ach in the head and the shall soon finde ease and remedy If any man shall but touch or kiss with his mouth the snowt or nostrils of a Mouse and be troubled with the disease called the Rhume which falleth down and stuffeth the nostrils he shall in very short space be eased of the same The Magiâ— or wise men do very much commend this medicine for the expelling of a quartain Ague or Fever which is thus To take the nose or snowt of a Mouse as also the very tops of the ears and bruise them together and afterward tie them in a linnen cloth which hath had Roses or Rose-leaves in the same and then binde them unto the arms or wrists of him which is so troubled and they will very effectually and speedily cure and heal him For the rottenness and deminishing of the teeth the best remedy is to take a living Mouse and to take out one of her teeth whether the greatest or the least it is no great matter and hang it by the teeth of the party grieved but first kill the Mouse from whom you had the tooth and he shall presently have ease and help of his pain The heart of a living Mouse being taken out and hanged upon the left arm of any woman is of such force and power as it will cause her never to conceive The laps or fillets of the liver of a Mouse being beaten small and mingled with four drams of sowre and unpleasant Wine
to take Egyptian Salt Mouse-dung and Gourds which are sowen in Woods and afterwards to pour in half a pinte of Hony being half boyled and to cast one dram of Rozen into the Hony the Gourds and the Mouse-dung and beat them well and throughly together and then rowl them up and fashion them in the manner of Acorns and put them to the belly of the party â—o grieved as often as you shall think it meet and convenient and in using this some short space or time you shall see the aforesaid putrified fruit to proceed and issue forth Mouse-dung being parched or burned and mingled with Hony is very good and medicinable aswell for those which are troubled with the swellings in their legs and feet as also for those whose eye-lids are pilled and bald to make hair to grow again upon them being spread or anointed there-upon The dung of Mice being dryed and beaten into small dust or powder and put into the teeth of any one which are hollow will presently expel away all pain from them and also confirm and make the teeth strong The dust or powder which proceedeth from Mouse-dung is also very good to cure any disease in the fundament of either man or woman The urine of a Mouse is of such strong force that if it shall but touch any part of a mans body it will eat unto the very bones The bitings of Mice are healed by no other means but by green Figs and Garlick being mixed or mingled together and so anointed thereupon Of the RAT THere is no doubt that this Beast belongeth also to the rank of Mice and the name thereof we have shewed already is common both to the French Spanish Italian and English and it may seem to be derived from the Greek word Rastes or Heurex or Riscos for the Graecians use all those words And this beast is four times so big as the common Mouse being of a blackish dusky colour more white on the belly having a long head not much unlike the head of the Martin short and round ears a reasonable rough skin short legs and long claws and exceeding great eyes such as can see very perfectly in the dark night and more perfectly then by candle light with their nails they climbe up steep and hard walls their tail is very long and almost naked void of hair by reason whereof it is not unworthily counted venomous for it seemeth to partake with the nature of Serpents The quantity of their body is much like a Weesils and sometime you shall see a Rat exceeeding the common stature which the Germans call Ratzen Kunig the King of Rats because of his larger and greater body and they say that the lesser bring him meat and he lyeth idle But my opinion is that as we read of the Dor-mouse she nourisheth her patent when she is old so likewise the younger Rats bring food unto the elder because through their age they are not able to hunt for themselves and are also grown to a great and unweeldy stature of body Sometimes you shall see white Rats as was once seen in Germany taken in the middle of April having very red eyes standing forth of their head and a rough and long beard And at Auspurg in Germany about the Temple called the Church of S. Huldric they abound in greater number then in other places They do not lie in the earth like Mice except in the vally of Ioachim where for the Summer time they forsake houses and go into Cony holes but in the Winter time they return to the houses again They are more noysome then the little Mouse for they live by stealth and feed upon the same meat that they feed upon and therefore as they exceed in quantity so they devour more and do far more harm They are killed by the same poysons and meats that the common Mice are killed except Wolf-bane for if they eat thereof they vomit it up again and are safe They are also taken in the same traps but three or four times so big Their flesh is far more hot and sharp then the flesh of the vulgar Mouse as we have gathered by the dissection of it and therefore in operation it is very like that it expelleth and dryeth more then the other The excrements are also of the same vertue and with the dung of Rats the Physitians cure the falling off the hair And it is said also that when they rage in lust and follow their copulation they are more venemous and dangerous then at other times For if the urine do fall upon the bare place of a man it maketh the flesh rot unto the bones neither will it suffer any scar to be made upon the ulcer and thus much of the vulgar Rat. Of the WATER-RAT SEeing there are two kindes of Rats one of the earth called Rattus terrestris and the other of the water called Rattus Fluviatilis of which we are now to entreat being also called of the Latines Mus aquaticus by the Germans Twassermaus and Wafferrat by the Italians Sorgomogange by the French Rat d' eau This beast hunteth fishes in the Winter and have certain caves in the water sides and banks of the Rivers or Ponds For which occasion it being seen in the waters deceiveth their expectation which look for the return of it to the land And this beast hath been forgotten by the Ancients for they have left of it no description nor story because it liveth partly in the water and partly on the land and therefore he said true that spake of the habitation and place of abode of this beast in this sort Ego non in fluviis nec aliis aquis magnis sed parvis tantum riois atque herbosis omnium ripis hoc aâ—urnal frequentissimum versari audio That is to say That this beast doth not keep in great Waters of Rivers but in small and little currents and Ponds where abundance of grass and other weeds do grow on the sides and banks Pliny attributeth that to the Water-rat which is proper to the Tortoise for indeed there is some similitude of natures bewixt these beasts with this exception that the females in this kinde have three visible passages for their excrements one for their urine another for the dung and the third for the young ones that is a peculiar place for the littering of their young ones and this Water-rat over and beside her common nature with other Rats doth swim over Rivers and feed upon herbs and if at any time she be hunted from her native biding and accustomed lodging then also she goeth among vulgar and common Rats and Mice and feedeth upon such as they eat and Bellonius saith that there are great store of these in Nilus and Strymen and that in calm nights when there are no windes they walk to the shores get up upon the banks eating and gnawing such plants as grow near the waters and if
or field Mice or young Worms being mixed with Oyl doth heal those that have Kibes on their heels or Chilblains on their hands The fat of a Dormouse the fat of a Hen and the marrow of an Ox melted together and being not infused into the Ears doth very much profit both the pains and deafness thereof The fat of Dormice being boiled as also of field-mice are delivered to be most profitable for the eschewing of the Palsie The fat of a Dormouse is also very excellent for those which are troubled with a Palsie or shaking of the joints The skins and inward part of a Dormouse being taken forth and boiled with Hony in a new vessel and afterwards poured into another vessel will very effectually heal all diseases which are incident to the ears being anointed thereupon The skin of a Dormouse or a Silkworm being pulled off and the inward parts thereof being boiled in a new brafen vessel with Hony from the quantity of twenty seven ounces even to three and so kept that when there is need of a certain bathing vessel the medicine being made warm and poured into the ears doth help all pains deafness or inflammation of the ears The fat of a Dormouse is commended to be very medicinable for the aforenamed diseases The same is profitable for all pains aches or griefs in the belly The urine of a Dormouse is an excellent remedy against the Palsie And thus much shall suffice concerning the medicinal vertues of the Dormouse Of the Hamster or Cricetus the first figure taken by Michael Horus The second picture taken by John Kentmant and it is her fashion and and protracture to lie thus when she is angry for so doth her colour appear both on the back and belly THis Beast is called in Latine Cricetus and in the German tongue Hamester Traner and Kâ—rnfaerle that is Pigs of the corn It is a little Beast not much bigger then a Rat dwelling in the earth of the roots of corn she is not drawn against her will out of her Cave at any time but by pouring hot water or some other liquor The head of it is of divers colour the back red the belly white and the hair sticketh so fast to the skin that it is easier to pull the skin from the flesh then any part of the hair from the skin It is but a little Beast as we have said but very apt to bite and fight and full of courage and therefore hath received from nature this ornament and defence that it hath a bony helmet covering the head and the brain when it standeth up upon the hinder-hinder-legs It resembleth both in colour and proportion a Bear And for this cause some Writers have interpreted it to be the Beast called Arctomys thus described by Saint Jerom. It is a creature saith he abounding in the Regions of Palestina dwelling always in the holes of Rocks and Caves of the earth not exceeding the quantity of a Hedgehog and of a compounded fashion betwixt a Mouse and a Bear But we have shewed already that this is the Alpine Mouse and therefore we will not stand to confute it here The name Cricetus seems to be derived from the Illyrian word which we read in Gelenius to be Skuzecziek this Beast saith he is common in the Northern parts of the world and also in other places in figure and shape it resembleth a Bear in quantity it never exceedeth a great Sorex It hath a short tail almost like no tail it goeth upon two legs especially when it is moved to wrath It useth the fore-feet in stead of hands and if it had as much strength as it hath courage it would be as fierceful as any Bear For this little Beast is not afraid to leap into the Hunters face although it can do no great harm either with teeth or nails It is an argument that it is exceeding hot because it is so bold and eager In the uppermost chap it hath long and sharp teeth growing two by two It hath large and wide cheeks which they always fill both carrying in and carrying out they eat with both whereupon a devouring fellow such a one as Stasimus a servant to Plautus was is called Cricetus a Hamster because he filleth his mouth well and is no pingler at his meat The fore-feet are like a Moulds so short but not altogether so broad with them he diggeth the earth and maketh his holes to his den but when he diggeth so far as he cannot cast the earth out of the hole with them then he carryeth it forth in his mouth His Den within he maketh large to receive corn and provision of fruit for his sustentation whereinto he diggeth many holes winding and turning every way that so he may be safe both against Beasts that hunt him and never be killed in his Den And also if a man dig the earth he may finde his lodging with more difficulty In the harvest time he carryeth in grain of all sorts and my Author saith Neque minus in colligendo industrius quam in eligendo conservandoque est astutus optima enim reponit He is no less industrious in the gathering of his provision then crafty and politick in the choise and keeping it for it lays up the best and lest that it should rot under the earth it biteth off the fibres and tail of the grain laying up the residue amongst grass and stubble It lies gaping over his gathered grain even as the covetous man is described in the Satyre sleeping upon his mony bags It groweth fat with steep like Dormice and Conies The holes into the Cave are very narrow so that with sliding out and in they wear their hair The earth which cometh out of their holes doth not lie on heaps like Mole-hils but is dispersed abroad and that is fittest for the multitude of the holes and all the holes and passages are covered with earth but that hole which for the most part he goeth out at is known by a foot path and hath no hinderance in it the other places at which she goeth out are more obscure and hid and she goeth out of them backwards The male and female do both inhabit in one Cave and their young ones being brought forth they â—leave their old Den and seek them out some new habitation In the male there is this perfidity that when they have prepared all their sustenance and brought it in he doth shut out the female and fuffereth her not to approach nigh it who revengeth his perfidiousness by deceit For going into some adjoyning Cave she doth likewise partake of the fruits which were laid up in store by some other secret hole in the Cave the male never perceiving it So that nature hath wonderfully fore-seen the poverty of all creatures neither is it otherwise amongst men for that which they cannot do by equity they perform by fraud This also cometh in the speech of the common people
in the fifth moneth as it were in the seventeenth week For so is this beast enabled by nature to bear twice in the year and yet to suck her young ones two moneths together And there is no cloven-footed beast that beareth many at a time except the Sow except in her age for then she beginneth to lose her Apria or purgation and so many times miscarryeth and manny times bear but one Yet this is marvailous that as she beareth many so she engendereth them perfect without blindness lamenesse or any such other distresse although as we have said before that in some places you shall see Swine whole hoofed like a Horse yet most commonly and naturally their feet are cloven and therefore is the wonder accounted the greater of their manifold multiplication and the reason thereof may arise from the multitude and great quantity of their food for the humor cannot be so well avoided and dispersed in so little a body as Swine have as in Mares and Cowes and therefore that humour turneth to multiply nature and natural kinde and so it cometh to pass that by overmuch humour turned into a natural seed it breedeth much young and for little humor it bringeth forth a fewPigs and those also are not only perfect but also she is sufficiently furnished with milk to nourish them till they be able to feed themselves For as a fat ground or soil is to the plants that groweth on it even so is a fruitful Sow to the Pigs which she hath brought forth Their ordinary number which they bring forth and can nourish is twelve or sixteen at the most and very rare it is to see sixteen brought up by one Sow Howbeit it hath been seen that a Sow hath brought forth twenty but far more often seven eight or ten There is a story in Festus of a Sow that brought forth thirty at a time his words be these The Sow of Aeneas Lavinus did bring forth thirty white Pigs at one time wherefore the Lavinians were much troubled about the signification of such a monstrous farrow at last they received answer that their City should be thirty years in building and being so they called it Alba in remembrance of the thirty white Pigs And Pliny affirmeth that the images of those Pigs and the Sow their dam were to be seen in his days in publick places and the body of the Dam or Sow preserved in Salt by the Priests of Alba to be shewed to all such as desired to be certified of the truth of that story But to return to the number of young Pigs which are ordinary and without miracle bred in their dams belly which I finde to be so many as the Sow hath dugs for so many she may well nourish and give suck unto and not more and it seemeth a special work of God which hath made this tame beast so fruitful for the better recompence to man for her meat and custody By the first farrow it may be gathered how fruitful she will be but the second and third do most commonly exceed the first and the last in old age is inferior in number to the first Juvenal hath a comparison betwixt a white Sow and an Heifer Scropha foecundior alba more fruitful then a white Sow but belike the white Sowes do bring more then any other colour Now the reason of the Poets speech was because that there was an Heifer in the days of Ptolmy the younger which at one time brought forth six Calves whereupon came the proverb of Regia Vacca for a fruitful Cow for Helenus telleth this to Aeneas Upon the Sow and thirty Pigs there is this answer of the Oracle to the Lavinians concerning Alba Cum tibi sollicito secreti ad fluminis undam Littoreis ingens inventa sub ilicibus sus Triginta capitum foetus enixa jacebit Alba solo recubans albi circum ubera nati Is locus urbis erit requies ea certa laborum And Juvenal saith thus of it Conspicitur sublimis aper cui candida nomen Scropha dedit laetis Phrygibus mirabile sumen Et nunquam visis triginta clara mamillis When the young one cometh forth of the dams â—belly wounded or imperfect by reason of any harm therein received it is called Metacherum and many times Swine engender Monsters which cometh to pass oftner in the little beasts then in the greatest because of the multitude of cels appointed for the receipt of the seed by reason whereof sometimes there are two heads to one body sometimes two bodies and one head sometime three legs sometime two before and none behinde such were the Pigs without ears which were farrowed at that time that Dionysius the Tyrant went to war against Dion for all their parts was perfect but their ears as it were to teach how inconsiderately against all good counsel the Tyrant undertook that voyage such are commonly found to be bred among them also now and then of an unspeakable smalness like Dwarfs which cannot live having no mouth nor ears called by the Latines Aporcelli If a Sow great with Pig do eat abundantly of Acorns it causeth her to cast her farrow and to suffer abortment and if she grow sat then is she less fruitful in Milk Now for the choice of a Pig to keep for store it must be chosen from a lusty and strong dam bred in the Winter time as some say for such as are bred in the heat of Summer are of less value because they prove tender small and overmoist and yet also if they be bred in the cold Winter they are small by reason of extreme cold and their dams forsake them through want of milk and more over because they through hunger pinch and bite their dugs so as they are very unprofitable to be nourished and preserved in the Winter time rather they are fit to be killed and eaten young But this is to be observed for reconciliation of both opinions namely that in hot Countries such Hogs are preferred that be bred in the Winter but in cold such as are bred in Maich or April within ten days after their farrowing they grow to have teeth and the Sow ever offereth her fore-most Dug to the Pig that cometh first out of her belly and the residue take their fortune as it falleth one to one and another to another for it seemeth she regardeth the first by a natural instinct not so much to prefer it as that by the example thereof the residue may be invited to the like sucking by imitation yet every one as Tzetzes saith keepeth him to his first choice And if any of them be taken away from his Dug that is killed or sold that dug presently dryeth and the milk turneth backward and so until all be gone one excepted and then it is nourished with no more then was ordained at the beginning for it If the old Sow want milk at any time the supply must be made by giving the young ones fryed or
taken that the â—eet thereof are not cloven into two partslike Swine but rather into many like Dogs for upon the hinder feet there are five toes and upon the fore feet four whereof two are so small that they are scarce visible The breadth of that same skin was about seven fingers and the length of it two spans the shell or crust upon the back of it did not reach down unto the rump or tail but broke off as it were upon the hips some four fingers from the tail The Merchants as I have heard and Citizens of London keep of these with their Garden worms Of the AIOCHTOCHTH THere is another beast that may be compared to this whereof Cardanus writeth and he calleth the name of it Aiotochth It is a strange creature found in Hispania Nâ—va neer the River Alvaradus being not greater then a Cat having the bill or snowt of a Mallard the feet of a Hedge-hog and a very long neck It is covered all over with a shell like the trappings of a Horse divided as in a Lobster and not continued as in an Oyster and so covered herewith that neither the neck nor head appear plainly but only the ears and the Spaniards for this cause call it Arma 〈…〉 and Coâ—texto There be some do affirm that it hath a voice like a Swine but the feet thereof are not indeed so cloven that they remain unequal but are like to a Horses I mean the severall cloves There are of these as I have heard to be seen in Gardens in London which are kept to destroy the Garden worms Of the TIGER THE word Tigris is an Armenian word which signifieth both a swift Arrow and a great River and it should seem that the name of the River Tigris was therefore so called because of the swiftnesse thereof and it seemeth to be derived from the Hebrew word Gir and Griera which signifie a Dart. Munster also in his Dictionary of three languages doth interpret Tigros for a Tiger In the 4. of Job the word Laisk by the Septuagints is translated Mâ—rmeleon and by S. Jerom Tigris The Jewes call the same beast Phoradei which the Grecians call Tigris and all the people of Europe to whom this beast is a stranger call it after the Greek name as the Italians Tigre and Tigra the French Vn Tigre and the Germans Tigerthier Now concerning the name of the River Tigris which because it joyneth in affinity with this beast it is necessary that I should say something in this place because that we finde in holy Scripture that it is one of the four Rivers which runneth through Paradise which according to Josephuâ— maketh many compasses and windings in the world and at last saileth into the Red sea and they further say that there is no River of the world that runneth so swiftly as this And therefore Tigris vocatur id est Sagitta quod jaculum vel sagittam velocitate aequet That is it is called a Tiger a Dart or Arrow because it runneth as fast as an Arrow flyeth and for this cause we finde in Theâ—critus that a River in Sicilia was called Acis that is Spiculum a Dart. Some of the Poets do derive the name of the River Tigris from this Tiger the wilde beast where-upon these Histories are told They say that when Bacchus was distracted and put out of his wits by Juno as he wandered to and fro in the world he came to the River Sylax which was the first name of this water and being there desirous to pass over but found no means to accomplish it Jupiter in commiseration of his estate did send unto him a Tiger who did willingly take him upon his back and carry him over Afterward Bacohus called that swift River by the name of that swift beast Tiger Others do report the tale thus When Dionysius fell in love with the Nymph Alphesiboea whom by no means either by promises intreaties or rewards he could allure unto him at last he turned himself into a Tiger and so oppressing the Nymph through fear did carry her over that River and there begot upon her his son Medius who when he came to age remembring the fact of his father and mother called the name of the River Tigris because of his Fathers transformation But to leave this matter as not worth the standing upon whether the River was called after the name of the beast or the beast after the name of the River or rather both of them after the name of the dart or swift Arrow we will proceed to the natural story of the Tiger commending that to the Readers judgement which is essential to this story containing in it necessary learning and garnished with all probability First of all therefore Tigers like Lyons are bred in the East South and hot Countries because their generation desireth abundance of heat such as are in India and near the Red sea and the people called Asangae or Besingi which dwell beyond the River Ganges are much troubled and annoyed with Tigers Likewise the Prasians the Hyrcanians and the Armenians Apollonius with his companions travelling betwixt Hiphasis and Ganges saw many Tigers In Berigaza and Dachinabades which is beyond the Mediterranean Region of the East there are abundance of Tigers and all other wilde beasts as Arrianus writeth In Hispaniola Ciamba and Guanassa Peter Martyr saith by the relation of a Spaniard inhabiting there that there are many Lyons and Tigers The Indians say that a Tiger is bigger then the greatest Horse and that for strength and swiftnesâ— they excel all other beasts There be some which have taken them for Tigers which are called Thoes greater then Lyons and lesser then the Indian Tigers as it were twice so big as Lyons but I rather agree to the relation of Arrianus Strabo Megasthenes and Mearcus for they say thâ—t a Tiger feareth not an Elephant and that one of them hath been seen to fly upon the head of an Elephant and devour it and that among the Prastans when fâ—ur men led one of these Tigers tamed by the way they met with a Mule and that the Tiger took the Mule by the hinder leg drawing him after him in his teeth notwithstanding all the force of the Mule and his four leaders which is unto 〈◊〉 a sufficient argument not only of his strength but of his stature also and if any have been seen of lesser stature they have been mistaken either for the Linxes or for the Thoes The similitude of the body of this beast is like to a Lionesses for so is the face and the mouth the lower part of the fore-head and gnashing or grinning teeth and all kinde of creatures which are ravening are footed like a Cat their neck short and their skins full of spots not round like a Panthers nor yet divers coloured but altogether of one colour and square and sometimes long and therefore this beast and the Panther are of singular note among all the four-footed
are whole and not cloven like the Unicorns and their colour white in their body and purple on their head and Aelianus saith that the horn also differeth in colour from the Unicorns for the middle of it is only black the root of it white and the top of it purple which Bellonius doth interpret that the superficies or upper face of the horn is all purple the inner part white and the inward part or middle black but of this Indian wilde Ass we have spoken already and therefore I will adde nothing in this place but the words of 〈…〉 stratus in the life of Apollonius who writeth in this manner There are many wilde Asses which are taken in the Fens near the River Hiphasis in whose fore-head there is one horn wherewith they fight like Buls and the Indians of that horn make pots affirming that whosoever drinketh in one of those pots shall never take disease that day and if they be wounded shall feel no pain or safely pass through the fire without burning nor yet be poysoned in their drink and therefore such cups are only in the possession of their Kings neither is it lawful for any man except the King to hunt that Beast and therefore they say that Apollonius looked upon one of those Beasts and considered his nature with singular admiration Now there was one Damis in his company who asked him whether he did believe that the vulgar report of the Unicorns horns were true or no Apollonius made this answer Adhibeo si hujus regionis immortalem regem esse intellexero qui enim mihi aut aâ—tâ—râ— cuiquam poculum ita salubre potest dare nónne verisimile est ipsum quotidie illo uti ex eo cornâ— frequenter vel ad crapulam usque bibere nemo 〈…〉 m ut puto illum calumniabitur qui in tali poculo etiam inebrâ—etur That is to say I would believe that report if I found in this Countrey a King that were immortal and could never dye for if a man would give me such a cup or any other man do not you think that I would believe he drunk in the same cup and who would blame a man if he drunk in such a cup till he were drunk for it were lawful to use that horn unto surfeiting whereby we may gather the minde of that wise man concerning the Asses horn and the Unicorns namely that they may give one some ease against accicidental diseases although they cannot prolong a mans life the space of one day these things said he There be Beasts saith Aristotle as the Oryx and Indian Ass which are armed with one horn and the cloven footed Oryx is no other then the whole footed Ass for in the middle of their fore-head they have one horn by which both sides of their head are armed Cum medium pariter commune utrique extremo sit Because the middle is equally distant from both the extremes and the hoof of this Beast may well be said to be cloven and whole because the horn is of the substance of the hoof and the hoof of the substance of the horn and therefore the horn is whole and the hoof cloven for the cleaving either of the horn or of the hoof cometh through the defect of nature and therefore God hath given to Horses and Asses whole hoofs because there is greatest use of their legs but unto Unicorns a whole and entire horn that as the ease of men is procured by the helps of Horses so the health of them is procured by the horn of the Unicorn These things saith Aristotle And Strabo also writeth that there are Horses in India which have Harts heads with one horn of which horn their Princes make cups out of which they drink their drink against poyson and therefore by this which hath been said it appeareth unto me that either the Indian Ass is a Unicorn or differeth from it only in colour and the objection of the hoofs is answered by Aristotle Unto this discourse I will adde the travails of Ludovicus Roman wherein he saw two Unicorns at Mecha in Arabia where Mahomets Temple and Sepulcher is There are preserved saith he within the walls and Cloysters of that Temple two Unicorns which by way of miracle they bring forth to the people and truly not without cause for the sight is worthy admiration Now their description is on this sort One of them and the elder was about the stature of a Colt of two years and a half old having a horn growing out of his fore-head of two cubits length and the other was much less for it was but a year old and like a Colt of that age whose horn was some four spans long or thereabouts The colour of them was like a Weaseled coloured Horse the head like the head of a Hart the neck not long and the mane growing all on one side The legs slender and lean like the legs of a Hinde the hoofs of the fore-feet were cloven like a Goats feet and the hinder-legs are all hairy and shaggy with the outside the Beasts although they were wilde yet by Art or superstition they seemed to be tempered with no great wildeness it was said that the King of Aethiopia did send them to the Sultan of Mecha with whom he is constrained to observe perpetual amity Now these Unicorns are of another kinde then the Unicorns of Pliny and Aelianus because their Unicorn hath a whole hoof and this cloven but this objection was answered before and although Pliny and Aristotle do acknowledge no other Unicorn then the Oryx whose horn is black as hard as Iron and sharp at the point yet it is clear that there is another Unicorn beside that Now Paulus Venetus saith that in the Kingdom of Basman which is subject to the great Cham that there are Unicorns somewhat lesser then Elephants having hair like Oxen heads like Boars feet like Elephants one horn in the middle of their fore-heads and a sharp thorny tongue wherewith they destroy both man and beast and besides he addeth that they muddle in the dirt like Swine Now if it were not for the horn in the middle of the fore-head I would take this Beast for a Rhinocerot but because the horn of the Rhinocerot groweth out of the nose I deem this to be a second kinde of Unicorn for there is no man that shall read this story but will think that the learned Author had reason to discern betwixt the eyes and the fore-head and therefore there can be no exception taken to my observation Nicolaâ— Venetus an Earl saith that in Masinum or Serica that is the Mountains betwixt India and Cathay as Aeneas Sylvius writeth there is a certain Beast having a Swines head an Oxes tail the body of an Elephant whom it doth not only equal in stature but also it liveth in continual variance with them and one horn in the fore-head now this if the Reader shall think it different from the former I do make
more to be doubted in the kinde of Unicorns for the horns of Harts are not only solid as Aristole supposed but also the horns of Unicorns as here I have said The horn of an Unicorn is at this day used although age or longinquity of time hath quite abolished it from the nature of a horn There are some which mingle the Rhinoceros with the Unicorn for that which is named the Rhinoceros horn is at this day in Physical use of which notwithstanding the Authors have declared no effectual force Some say that the Unicorns horn doth sweat having any poyson coming over it which is false it doth perhaps sometimes sweat even as some solid hard and light substance as also stones and glass some external vapour being about them but this doth nothing appertain to poyson It is in like manner reported that a kinde of stone called the Serpents tongue doth sweat having poyson come over it I have heard and read in a certain book written with ones hands that the true horn of a Unicorn is to be proved in this manner To give to two Pigeons poyson red Arsnick or Orpin the one which drinketh a little of the true Unicorns horn will be healed the other will die I do leave this manner of trial unto rich men For the price of that which is true is reported at this day to be of no less value then gold Some do sell the weight thereof for a floren or eight pence some for a crown or twelve pence But the marrow thereof is certainly of a greater price then that which is of harder substance Some likewise do sell a dram thereof for two pence half penny so great is the diversity thereof For experience of the Unicorns horns to know whether it be right or not put silk upon a burning coal and upon the silk the aforesaid horn and if so be that it be true the silk will not be a whit consumed The horns of Unicorns especially that which is brought from new Islands being beaten and drunk in water doth wonderfully help against poyson as of late experience doth manifest unto us a man who having taken poyson beginning to swell was preserved by this remedy I my self have heard of a man worthy to be believed that having eaten a poysoned cherry and perceiving his belly to swell he cured himself by the marrow of this horn being drunk in Wine in very short space The same is also praised at this day for the curing of the Falling sickness and affirmed by Aelianus who called this disease cursed The ancient Writers did attribute the force of healing to cups made of this horn Wine being drunk out of them but because we cannot have cups we drink the substance of the horn either by it self or with other medicines I happily sometime made this Sugar of the horn as they call it mingling with the same Amber Ivory dust leaves of gold coral certain other things the horn being included in silk and beaten in the decotion of Raisins and Cinamon I cast them is water the rest of the reason of healing in the mean time not being neglected It is moreover commended of Physitians of our time against the pestilent feaver as Aloisius Mundellus writeth against the bitings of ravenous Dogs and the strokes or poysonsome stings of other creatures and privately in rich mens houses against the belly or maw worms to conclude it is given against all poyson whatsoever as also against many most grievous diseases The King of the Indians drinking out of a cup made of an Indian Unicorns horn and being asked wherefore he did it whether it were for the love of drunkenness made answer that by that drink drunkenness was both expelled and resisted and worser things cured meaning that it clean abolished all poyson whatsoever The horn of a Unicorn doth heal that detestable disease in men called S. Johns evill otherwise the cursed disease The horn of an Unicorn being beaten and boiled in Wine hath a wonderful effect in making the teeth white or clear the mouth being well cleansed therewith And thus much shall suffice for the medicines and vertues arising from the Unicorn Of the VRE-OX THis beast is called by the Latines Vrus by the Germans Aurox and Vrox and Grossevesent by the Lituanians Thur the Scythians Bubri and these beasts were not known to the Grecians as Pliny writeth of whom Seneca writeth in this manner Tibi dant variae pectora Tigres Tibi villosi terga Bisontes Latisque feri cornibus uri And Viâ—gil also maketh mention of them in his Georgicks writing of the culture or tilling of Vines Texenda saepes etiam pecus omne tenendum Praecipuâ— cum frons tenera imprudensâ— laborum Cui super indignas hyemes â—olemque potentem Silvestres uri assidue capreaeque sequaces Illudunt These wilde beasts or Ure-oxes are wilde Oxen differing from all other kindes already rehearsed in the story of Oxen Bugles Bisons or any other although some have unskilfully taken them for Bisons and Sir Thomas Eliot in his Dictionary doth English Vrus a Bugil but beside him no body that I know and for this cause he is reprehended by other Now although there be nothing in this beast but ordinary yet seeing it is a creature so well known we have less reason to omit his shape and story lest we should justly be condemned of negligenee and carelesneâ—s In outward proportion of the body it differeth little from the Bull It is very thick and his back somewhat bunched up and his length from the head to the tail is short no ways answerable to the proportion of his stature and sides the horns as some say are but short yet black broad and thick his eyes red a broad mouth and a great broad head his temples hairy a beard upon his chin but short and the colour thereof black his other parts as namely in the face sides legs and tail of a reddish colour These are in the wood Hercynia in the Pyrâ—ney Mountains and in Mazovia near Lituania They are call'd Vri of Oron that is the Mountains because their savage wildeness so great that they seldom descend from those safeguards They far excel Bulls and other wilde Oxen coming nearer to the quantity or stature of Elephants then to the Bull. In resemblance a man would think them to be compounded of a Mule and a Hart for their outward resemblance so seem It is said they could never be taken by men although they were taken when they were young yet they love other heards of Cattel and will not forsake them easily after they have once joyned themselves unto them whereby many times they are deceived and killed twenty thirty or forty at a time Caligula Caesar brought of these alive to Rome and did shew them in publick spectacle to the people and at that time they were taken for wilde Bulls Some affirm that there are of these in Prussia and that they are so wilde cruel and
their enemy the Serpent by reason that the stalk is broader then the Serpent can gripe in his mouth and the other parts of the Chamaeleon so firm and hard as the Serpent cannot hurt them he laboureth but in vain to get a prey so long as the stalk is in the Chamaeleons mouth But if the Chamaeleon at any time see a Serpent taking the air and sunning himself under some green tree he climbeth up into that tree and setleth himself directly over the Serpent then out of his mouth he casteth a thread like a Spider at the end whereof hangeth a drop of poyson as bright as any pearl by this string he letteth down the poyson upon the Serpent which lighting upon it killeth it immediately And Scaliger reporteth a greater wonder then this in the description of the Chamaeleon for he saith if the boughs of the tree so grow as the perpendicular line cannot fall directly upon the Serpent then he so correcteth and guideth it with his fore-feet that it falleth upon the Serpent within the mark of a hairs breadth The Raven and the Crow are also at variance with the Chamaeleon and so great is the adverse nature betwixt these twain that if the Crow eat of the Chamaeleon being slain by him he dyeth for it except he recovereth his life by a Bay-leaf even as the Elephant after he hath devoured a Chamaeleon saveth his life by eating of the Wilde-olive-tree But the greatest wonder of all is the hostility which Pliny reporteth to be betwixt the Chamaeleon and the Hawk For he writeth that when a Hawk flyeth over a Chamaeleon she hath no power to resist the Chamaeleon but falleth down before it yeelding both her life and limbs to be devoured by it and thus that devourer that liveth upon the prey and bloud of others hath no power to save her own life from this little Beast A Chamaeleon is a fraudulent ravening and gluttonous Beast impure and unclean by the law of GOD and forbidden to be eaten in his own nature wilde yet counterseiting meeknesse when he is in the custody of man And this shall suffice to have spoken for the description of this Beast a word or two of the Medicines arising out of it and so a conclusion I finde that the Ancients have observed two kindes of Medicines in this Beast one magical and the other natural and for my own part although not able to judge of either yet I have thought good to annex a relation of both to this History And first of the natural medicines Democritus is of opinion that they deserve a peculiar Volume and yet he himself telleth nothing of them worthy of one page except the lying vanities of the Gentiles and superstitions of the Grecians With the gall if the suffusions and leprous parts of the body be anointed three days together and the whitenesse of the eyes it is believed to give a present remedy and Archigenes prescribeth the same for a medicine for the taking away of the unprofitable and pricking hairs of the eye-brows It is thought if it be mixed with some sweet composition that it hath power to cure a quotidian Ague If the tongue of a Chamaeleon be hung over an oblivious and forgetful person it is thought to have power to restore his memory The Chamaeleon from the head to the tail hath but one Nerve which being taken out and hung about the neck of him that holdeth his head awry or backward it cureth him The other parts have the same operation as the parts of the Hyaena and the Sea-calf If a Chamaeleon be sod in an earthen pot and consumed till the water be as thick as Oyl then after such seething take the bones out and put them in a place where the Sun never cometh then if you see a man in the fit of the Falling-sicknesse turn him upon his belly and anoint his back from the Os sacrum to the ridge-bone and it will presently deliver him from the fit but after seven times using it will perfectly cure him The Oyl thus made must be kept in a Box. This medicine following is a present remedy against the Gowt Take the head and feet of a Chamaeleon cut off also the outward parts of the knees and feet and then keep by themselves those parts that is to say the parts of the right leg by themselves and the parts of the left leg by themselves then touch the Nail of the Chamaeleon with your thumb and right finger of your hand dipping the tips of your fingers of the right hand in the bloud of the right foot of the Beast and so likewise the fingers of the left hand in the bloud of the left foot then include those parts in two little pipes and so let the sick person carry the right parts in the right hand and the left parts in the left hand until he be cured and this must be remembred that he must touch every morning about the Sun-rising the said Chamaeleon yet living and lapped in a linnen cloth with those parts that are oppressed with the Gout The like superstitious and Magical devises are these that follow as they are recorded by Pliny and Democritus The head and throat being set on fire with wood of Oak they believe to be good against Thunder and Rain and so also the liver burned on a Tyle If the right eye be taken out of it alive and applyed to the whitenesse of the eyes in Goats milk it is thought to cure the same The tongue bound to a woman with child preserveth her from danger in childe-birth if the same tongue be taken from the Beast alive it is thought it fore-sheweth the event of judgement The Heart wrapped in black Wooll of the first shearing by wearing it cureth a quartane Ague the right claw of the fore-feet bound to the lest arm with the skin of his cheeks is good against robberies and terrors of the night and the right pap against all fears If the left foot be scorched in a furnace with the herb Chamaeleon and afterward putting a little Ointment to it and made into little Pasties so being carryed about in a wooden box it maketh the party to go invisible The right shoulder maketh a man to prevail against his adversaries if they do but tread upon the nerves cast down upon the earth But the left shoulder they consecrate the same to monstrous dreams as if that thereby a man might dream what he would in his own person and effect the like in others With the right foot are all Palsies resolved and with the left foot all Lethargies the Wine wherein one side of a Chamaeleon hath been steeped sprinkled upon the head cureth the ach thereof If Swines Grease be mingled with the powder of the left foot or thigh and a mans foot be anointed therewith it bringeth the Gout by putting the gall into fire they drive away Serpents and into Water they draw together Weasels it pulleth off
save it self from further danger whereupon Lucanus saith Latè sibi sub 〈…〉 vet omne Vulgus in vacua regnat Basiliscus arena Which may be thus Englished He makes the vulgar far from him to stand While Cockatrice alone raigns on the sand So then it being evident that the hissing of a Cockatrice is terrible to all Serpents and his breath and poyson mortall to all manner of Beasts yet hath God in nature not left this vile Serpent without an enemy for the Weasil and the Cock are his triumphant Victors and therefore Pliny saith well Huic tali monstro quod saepe enectum concupivere reges videre mustelaerum virus exitio est adeò naturae nihil placuit esse sine pari That is to say This monster which even Kings have desired to see when it was dead yet is destroyed by the poyson of Weasils for so it hath pleased Nature that no Beast should be without his match The people therefore when they take Weasils after they have found the Caves and lodging places of the Cockatrices which are easily discerned by the upper face of the earth which is burned with their hot poyson they put the Weasil in unto her at the sight whereof the Cockatrice flyeth like a weakling over matched with too strong an adversary but the Weasil followeth after and killeth her Yet this is to be noted that the Weasil both before the fight and after the slaughter armeth her self by eating of Rue or else she would be poysoned with the contagious air about the Cockatrice and besides this Weasil there is no other beast in the World which is able to stand in contention against the Cockatrice saith Lemnius Again even as a Lyon is afraid of a Cock so is the Basilisk for he is not only afraid at his sight but almost dead when he heareth him crow which thing is notoriously known throughout all Africa And therefore all Travellers which go through the Deserts take with them a Cock for their safe conduct against the poyson of the Basilisk and thus the crowing of the Cock is a terror to Lyons and a death to Cockatrices yet he himself is afraid of a Kite There are certain learned Writers in Saxony which affirm that there are many kindes of Serpents in their Woods whereof one is not unlike to a Cockatrice for they say it hath a very sharp head a yellow colour in length not exceeding three Palms of a great thicknesse his belly spotted and adorned with many white pricks the back blew and the tail crooked and turned up but the opening of his mouth is far wider then the proportion of his body may seem to bear These Serpents may well be referred to Cockatrices for howsoever their poyson is not so great as the Basilisks of Africa even as all other Serpents of the hot Countries are far more pestiferous then those which are bred in the cold Countries the very same reason perswadeth me that there is a difference among the Cockatrices and that those of Saxonia may differ in poyson from those in Africa and yet be true Cockatrices Besides this there is another reason in Lemnius which perswadeth the Reader there are no Cockatrices because when the Countreymen set upon them to kill them with Clubs Bills or Forks they receive no hurt at all by them neither is their any apparent contagion of the air but this is answered already that the poyson in the cold Countrey is nothing so great as in the hot and therefore in Saxony they need fear the biting and not the airs infection Cardan relateth another story of a certain Serpent which was found in the walls of an old decayed House in Millan the head of it saith he was as big as an Egge too big for the body which in quantity and shape resembled a Stellion There were teeth on either chap such as are in Vipers It had two legs and those very short but great and their feet had claws like a Cats so that when it stood it was like a Cock for it had a bunch on the top of the head and yet it wanted both feathers and wings The tail was as long as the body in the top thereof there was a round bunch as big as the head of an Italian Stellion It is very likely that this beast is of the kinde of Cockatrices Now we are to intreat of the poyson of this Serpent for it is a hot and venomous poyson infecting the air round about so as no other creature can live near him for it killeth not only by his hissing and by his sight as is said of the Gorgons but also by his touching both immediately and mediately that is to say not only when a man toucheth the body it self but also by touching a Weapon wherewith the body was slain or any other dead beast slain by it and there is a common fame that a Horse-man taking a Spear in his hand which had been thrust through a Cockatrice did not only draw the poyson of it into his own body and so dyed but also killed his Horse thereby Lucan writeth Quid prodest miseri Basiliscus cuspide Mauri Transactus velox currit per tela venenum Invadit manum equumque In English thus What had the Moore to kill The Cockatrice with Spear Sith the swift poyson him did spill And Horse that did him bear The question is in what part of this Serpent the poyson doth lie some say in the head alone and that therefore the Basilisk is deaf because the Air which serveth the Organ of hearing is resolved by the intensive calidity but this seemeth not to be true that the poyson should be in the head only because it killeth by the fume of the whole body and besides when it is dead it killeth by only touching it and the Man or Beast so slain doth also by touching kill another Some again say that the poyson is in the breast and that therefore it breatheth at the sides and at many other places of the body through and betwixt the scales which is also true that it doth so breath for otherwise the burning fume that proceedeth from this poysonful beast would burn up the Intrails thereof if it came out of the ordinary place and therefore Almighty GOD hath so ordained that it should have spiraments and breathing places in every part of the body to vent away the heat left that in very short time by the inclusion thereof the whole compage and juncture of the body should be utterly dissolved and separated one part from another But to omit inquiry in what part of his body the poyson lyeth seeing it is most manifest that it is universal we will leave the seat thereof and dispute of the instruments and effects First of all therefore it killeth his own kinde by sight hearing and touching By his own kinde I mean other Serpents and not other Cockatrices for they can live one beside another for if it were true which I
nature spared the man that had but so cunningly carryed it And this is a wonderful work of Almighty GOD that so ordereth his actions in the nature of this Beast that he beguileth the cruel nature of the living by the tast and savour of the dead howbeit some think that the water Crocodile is daunted with the savour of the fat from the land Crocodile and the land Crocodile by the water again And some again say that all venomous Beasts run away from the savour of the fat thereof and therefore no marvail if it also be afraid being venomous as well as any other Wherefore the saying of Firmus was not to be attributed to any indulgence of the Crocodile toward their own kinde but rather to a deadly antipathy reflecting themselves upon themselves though not in shape and figure as the Cockatrice yet in sense savour and rancknesse of their pestiferous humor The use of Crocodiles taken is for their skin flesh caul and medicine arising out of it Their skin as it is exceeding hard upon their backs while they are alive so is it also when they are dead for with that the common people make them better armour then coats of Mail against Darts Spear or Shield as is well known in all Egypt at this day For the flesh of Crocodiles it is also eaten among those people that do not worship it as namely the people about Elephantina Apollinopolis Notwithstanding by the Law of God Levit. 11. it is accounted an unclean Beast yet the tast thereof being found pleasant and the relish good without respect of GOD or health the common people make use thereof The medicines arising out of it are also many The first place belongeth to the caul which hath moe benefits or vertues in it then can be expressed The bloud of a Crocodile is held profitable for many things and among other it is thought to cure the bitings of any Serpent Also by anointing the eyes it cureth both the dregs or spots of bloud in them and also restoreth soundnesse and clearnesse to the sight taking away all dulnesse or deadnesse from the eyes And it is said that if a man take the liquor which cometh from a piece of a Crocodile fryed and anoint there withall his wound or harmed part that then he shall be presently rid of all pain and torment The skin both of the land and water Crocodile dryed into powder and the same powder with Vinegar or Oyl laid upon a part or member of the body to be seared cut off or lanced taketh away all sense and feeling of pain from the instrument in the action All the Egyptians do with the fat or sewet of a Crocodile anoint all them that be sick of Feaversâ— for it hath the same operation which the fat of a Sea-dog or Dog-fish hath and if those parts o men and beasts which are hurt or wounded with Crocodiles teeth be anointed with this fat it also cureth them Being concocted with water and Vinegar and so rowled up and down in the mouth it cureth the tooth-ach and also it is outwardly applyed against the biting of Flies Spiders Worms and such like for this cause as also because it is thought to cure Wens bunches in the flesh and old wounds It is sold dear and held pretious in Alcair Scaliger writeth that it cureth the Gangren The canine teeth which are hollow filled with Frankincense and tyed to a man or woman which hath the Tooth-ach cureth them if the party know not of the carrying them about And so they write that if the little stones which are in their belly be taken forth and so used they work the same effect against Feavers The dung is profitable against the falling off of the hair and many such other things The biting of a Crocodile is very sharp deep and deadly so that wheresoever he layeth his teeth seldom or never followeth any cure But yet the counsel of Physitians is that so soon as the patient is wounded he must be brought into a close chamber where are no windows and there be kept without change of air or admission of light for the poyson of the Crocodile worketh by cold air and light and therefore by the want of both is to be cured But for remedy if any be they prescribe the same which is given for the cure of the biting of a mad Dog or as Avicen the biting of a Dog not mad But most proper is the dung of a man the Fish Garum and Mysy pounded together and so applyed or else the broth of salt sod flesh and such other things as are vulgarly known to every Physitian and therefore seeing we live in a countrey far from the annoyance of this Serpent I shall not need to blot any paper to expresse the cure of this poyson The Crocodile of Nilus only liveth on land and water all other are contented with one element the picture of the Crocodile was wont to be stamped upon coin and the skin hanged up in many famous Cities of the world for the admiration of the people and there is one at this day at Paris in France Of the Arabian or Egyptian LAND CROCODILE THe figure of this Crocodile sheweth evidently the difference betwixt him and the other of Nilus and beside it is neither so tall or long as is the other the which proportioned Beast is only particular to Egypt and Arabia and some because of his scaly head legs articles and claws have observed another difference in it from the former yet in his nature manner of living and preying upon other cattel it differeth not from that of the water The tail of this Crocodile is very sharp and standeth up like the edges of wedges in bunches above the ground wherewithal when he hath mounted himself up upon the back of a Beast he beateth and striketh the beast most cruelly to make him go with his Rider to the place of his most fit execution free from all rescue of his Heard-man or Pastor or annoyance of passengers where in most cruel and savage manner he teareth the limbs and parts one from another till he be devoured The Apothecaries of Italy have this Beast in their shops to be seen and they call it Caudiverbera that is a Tail-bearer for the reason aforesaid And thus there being nothing in this Beasts nature different from the former besides his figure and that which I have already expressed I will not trouble the Reader with any more Narration about it Of the LAND CROCODILE of Bresilia THe figure and proportion of this Serpent was altogether unknown in this part of the world till of late our discoverers and Navigators brought one of them out of Bresilia The length of it is about a fathom and the breadth as much as ten fingers broad the fore-legs have ten claws five upon a foot the hinder-legs eight and both before and behinde they are of equal length
palude Perpetitur querulae semper convitia ranae Which may be Englished in this manner The Frogs amidst the earthly slime Their old complaints do daily sing Not pleas'd with pools nor land that drine But new displeasures daily bring When Ceres went about seeking Proserpina she came to a certain Fountain in Lycia to quench her thirst the uncivil Lycians hindered her from drinking both by troubling the water with their feet and also by sending into the water a great company of croaking Frogs whereat the Goddesse being angry turned all those Countrey people into Frogs But Ovid doth ascribe this transmutation of the Lycians to the prayer of Latona when she came to drink of the Fountain to increase the milk in her breasts at such a time as she nursed Apollo and Diana which Metamorphosis or transmutation is thus excellently described by Ovid Aeternum stagno dixit vivatis in isto Eveniunt optata deae jnvat esse sub undis Et modo toâ—a cava summergere membra paludâ— Nunc proferre caput summo modo gurgite nare Saepe super ripam stagni consistere saepe In gelidos resiâ—ire lacus sed nunc quoque turpes Litibus exercent linguas pulsoque pudore Quamvis sint sub aqua sub aqua male dicere tentant Vox quoque jam raucâ— est inflataque colla tumescunt Iplaque dilatant patulos convitia rictus Tergâ— caput â—angunt colla intercepta videntur Spina viret venter pars maxima corporis albet Limosoque novae saliunt in gurgite ranae In English thus For ever mought you dwell In this same pond she said her wish did take effect with speed For underneath the water they delight to be indeed Now dive they to the bottom down now up their heads they pop Another while with sprawling legs they swim upon the top And oftentimes upon the banks they have a minde to stond And oftentimes from thence again to leap into the pond And there they now do practise still their filthy tongues to scold And shamelesly though underneath the water they do hold Their former wont of brauling still avoid the water cold Their voyces still are hoarse and harsh their throats have puffed goawls Their chaps with brawling widened are their hammer-headed joawles Are joyned to their shoulders just the necks of them do seem Cut off the ridge bone of their back sticks up with colour green Their panch which is the greatest part of all their trunck is gray And so they up and down the pond made newly Frogs do play Whatsoever the wisdom of Frogs is according to the understanding of the Poets this is certain that they signifie impudent and contentious persons for this cause there is a pretty fiction in Hell betwixt the two Poets Furipides and Aeschylus for the ending of which controversie Bacchus was sent down to take the worthyest of them out of Hell into Heaven and as he went over Charons Ferry he heard nothing but the croaking of Frogs for such contentious spirits do best befit Hell And thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the wisedom of Frogs Their common enemies are the Weasels Poul-cats and Ferrets for these do gather them together and lay of them great heaps within their dens whereupon they feed in Winter The Hearn also and Bittern is a common destroyer of Frogs and so likewise are some kinde of Kites The Night-birds Gimus and Gimeta the Water-snake at whose presence in token of extream terror the Frog setteth up her voyce in lamentable manner The Moles are also enemies to Frogs and it is further said that if a burning Candle be set by the water side during the croaking of Frogs it will make them hold their peace Men do also take Frogs for they were wont to bait a hook with a little red wooll or a piece of red cloth also the gall of a Goat put into a vessel and set in the earth will quickly draw unto it all the Frogs that be near it as if it were unto them a very grateful thing And thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the enemies of Frogs Now in the next place we are to consider the several uses both Natural Medicinal and Magical which men do make of Frogs And first of all the green Frogs and some of the yellow which live in Flouds Rivers Lakes and Fish-pools are eaten by men although in ancient time they were not eaten but only for Physick for the broth wherein they were sod and the flesh also was thought to have vertue in it to cure them which were strucken by any venomous creeping Beast especially mixed with Salt and Oyl but since that time Aetius discommendeth the eating of Frogs proving that some of them are venomous and that by eating thereof extream vomits have followed and they can never be good except when they are newly taken and their skins diligently flayed off and those also out of pure running waters and not out of muddy stinking puddles and therefore adviseth to forbear in plenty of other meat this wanton eating of Frogs as things perilous to life and health and those Frogs also which are most white when the skin is taken off are most dangerous and fullest of venom according to the counsel of Fiera saying Vltima sed nostros non accessura lebetes Noluimus succi est pluvii limosa maligni Ni saliat putris rana paraba titer Irata est adhuc rauca coaxat aquis In English thus We will not dresse a Frog unlesse the last of all to eat Because the juyce thereof is muddy and of rain unclean Except it go on earth prepared way to leap For angry it ever is and hath hoarse voyce amid the stream They which use to eat Frogs fall to have a colour like lead and the hotter the Countries are the more venomous are the Frogs in colder Countries as in Germany they are not so harmful especially after the Spring of the year and their time of copulation passed Besides with the flesh of Frogs they were wont in ancient time to bait their hooks wherewithal they did take purple Fishes and they did burn the young Frogs putting the powder thereof into a Cat whose bowels was taken out then rosting the Cat and after she was roasted they anointed her all over with Honey then â—aid her by a Wood side by the odour and savour whereof all the Wolfs and Foxes lodging in the said Wood were allured to come to it and then the Hunters lying ready in wait did take destroy and kill them When Frogs do croak above their usual custom either more often or more shrill then they were wont to do they do foreshew rain and tempestuous weather Wherefore Tully saith in his first Book of Divination who is it that can suspect or once think that the little Frog should know thus much but there is in them an admirable understanding nature constant and open to it self but more secret and obscure to the knowledge of
that many times whole troops of men and cattell are in an instant overwhelmed and buryed in those sands And this is a wonderfull worâ— of God that those places which are least habitable for man are most of all annoyed with the most dangerous biting Serpents It is also said that once these Horned Serpents departed out of Lybia into Egypt where they depopulated all the Countrey Their habitation is neer the high-wayes in the sands and under Cart-wheels and when they goe they make both a sound with their motion and also a surrow in the earth according to the saying of Nicander Ex iis alter echis velocibus obvia spinis Recto terga tibi prolixus tram te ducit Sed medio diffusius hic cerastes se corpore volvit Curvum errans per iter resonantibus aspera squamis Qualiter aequoreo longissima gurgite navis Quam violentus agit nunc huc nunc Africus illuc Pellitur et laterum gemebunda fragore suorum Extra sulcandas sinuose fluctuat undas Which may be Englished thus Of these the Viper with swift bones thee meets Trayling her back in path direct and strait The Cerast more diffused in way thee greets With crooked turning on scales make sounds full great Like as a ship tossed by the Western winde Sounds afarre off moved now here now there So that by noyse of shrilling sides we finde His furrowes turned in Seas and water sphere The quantity of this horned Serpent is not great it exceedeth not two cubits in length the colour of the body is branded like sand yet mingled with another pale white colour as is to be seen in a Hares skin Upon the head there are two horns and sometimes four for which occasion it hath received the name Cerastes and with these horns they deceive Birds for when they are hungry they cover their bodies in sand and only leave their horns uncovered to move above the earth which when the Birds see taking them to be Worms they light upon them and so are devoured by the Serpent The teeth of this Serpent are like the teeth of a Viper and they stand equall and not crooked In stead of a back-bone they have a gristle throughout their body which maketh them more flexible and apt to bend every way for indeed they are more flexible then any other Serpent They have certain red strakes crosse their back like a Crocodile of the earth and the skins of such as are bred in Egypt are very soft stretching like a Cheverell-glove both in length and breadth as it did appear by a certain skin taken off from one being dead for being stuffed with Hay it shewed much greater then it was being alive but in other Countreys the skins are not so I have heard this History of three of these Serpents brought out of Turkey and given to a Noble man of Venice alive who preserved them alive in a great Glasse made of purpose upon sand in that Glasse neeâ—the fire The description as it here followeth was taken by John Faltoner an English Travailer saying They were three in number whereof one was thrice so big as the other two and that was a female and she was said to be their Mother she had laid at that time in the sands four or five Egges about the bignesse of Pigeons Egges She was in length three foot but in breadth or quantity almost so big as a mans Arm her head was flat and broad as two fingers the apple of the eye black all the other part being white Out of her eye-lids grew two horns but they were short ones and those were truly Horns and not flesh The neck compared with the body was very long and small all the upper part of the skin was covered with scales of ash-colour and yet mixed with black The tail is at it were brown when it was stretched out And this was the description of the old one the other two being like to her in all things except in their horns for being small they were not yet grown Generally all these horned Serpents have hard dry scales upon their belly wherewithall they make a noyse when they go themselves and it is thus described by Nicander Nunc potes actutum insidiatoremque Cerasten Noscere vipereum veluti genus huic quia dispar Non is corpus habet sed qnatuor aut duo profert Cornua cum mutila videatur Vipera fronte Squalidus albenti color est In English thus You well may know the treacher Cerasts noyse A Viper-kinde whose bodies much agree Yet these four hâ—rns and brandy colour poyse Where Viper none but forehead plain we see There is no Serpent except the Viper that can so long indure thirst as this horned Serpent for they seldome or never drink and therefore I think they are of a Vipers kinde for besides this also it is observed that their young ones do come in and out of their bellies as Vipers doe They live in hatred with all kinde of Serpents and especially with Spiders The Hawes of Aegypt also do destroy horned Serpents and Scorpions but about Thebes in Aegypt there are certain sacred Snakes as they are termed which have horns on their head and these are harmlesse unto men and beasts otherwise all these Serpents are virulent and violent against all creatures especially men yet there be certain men in Lybia called Psilli which are in a league or rather in a naturall concord with horned Serpents For if they be bitten by them at any time they receive no hurt at all and besides if they be brought unto any man that is bitten with one of these Serpents before the poyson be spread all over his body they help and cure him for if they finde him but lightly hurt they only spit upon the wound and so mitigate the pain but if they finde him more deeply hurt then they take much water within their teeth and first wash their own mouth with it then spit out the water into a pot and make the sick man to drink it up Lastly if the poyson be yet strong they lay their naked bodies upon the naked poysoned body and so break the force of the poyson And this is thus described by the Poet saying Audivi Lybicos Psyllos quos aspera Sirâ—is Serpentumque ferax patria alit populos Non ictu inflictum diro morsuve venenum Laedere quin laesis ferre opem reliquis Non vi radicum proprio sed corpore juncto That is to say The Lybian Psylli which Serpent-breeding Syrtes dwell As I have heard do cure poyson stings and bites Nor hurt themselves but it in other quell By no roots force but joyning bodies quites When a horned Serpent hath bitten a man or beast first about the wound there groweth hardnesse and then pustules Lastly black earthy and pale matter the genital member standeth out straight and never falleth he falleth mad this eyes grow dim and his nerves immanuable and upon the head of the wound groweth
the Scorpion it self And thus much for the history of the Scorpion Of the SCYTALL THis Serpent called by the Grecians Scytale is likewise termed by the Latinists Scytalis and by some Scicalis Picalis Sciscetalis and Seyseculus and by Albertus Situla which we have already interpreted a Dipsas but all of them are most manifestly corrupted from Scytale the first Grecian word And therefore I will not stand to confute them that call it also Caecilia a blinde worm because after the manner of other Serpents it eateth no Fennell but this Caecilia or blinde Worm we shall afterward demonstrate to be our English Slow-worm This Scytall is very full of marks or spots upon the back so variable and delectable that it possesseth the beholders with admiration and almost bringeth them asleep looking thereon for it is also slow and moveth softly wherefore it cannot pursue where it would do harm in stead therefore of celerity these naturall spots doe hold them that it doth desire to harm like as they were stupefied and astonished And in this brightnesse of the scales first of all it must lay aside the winter-skin or else there appeareth not any splendour at all And it is also said to be so hot and fervide that it casteth skin in the Winter according to this saying of Lucan Et Scytale sparsis etiam nunc sola pruinis Exuvias positurasuas That is in English thus None but the Scytall while Winter-frosts abide Out of his spotted skin and Seales doth glide The outward form or visible proportion of this Serpent is like that which we have already called a Double-head and the Latines Amphisbena except that the tayl hereof is flatter and thicker The length of this Serpent is like the longest Worms of the earth and the thickness like the helve or handle of a spade And the greatest difference betwixt this and the Double-head is that this goeth but one way and the Double-head goeth as well one way as another and the colour hereof is like the colour of the other The generall description of this Serpent is thus expressed by Nieandeâ— Bifronti similem reperis Scytalam Amphisbena Ptnguior est tamen cauda quae nulla fere exit Crassior ut quantum solita est comprendere lignum Curva manus strictum quoties tenet ipsa ligonem Tam prolixa vagans pluvio quam reptile coelo Quod foecunda genus suq gignit viscera tellus Nec postquam â—uvenis venienti tempore veris Magna Deum quando profert serpentia mater Liquerit obscuram consueta cubila petram Et nitidos tepido sub sole extriverit artus Pandentis se foeniculi teneram exedit 〈◊〉 Sed per opaca morans imi declivia montis Se tenet multo graviter latet obruta somme Eque alta sua conquirit sibi pabula terra Nec licet id magno cupiat studeatque labare Arescente sitim potis est depellere faâ—es Which may be Englished thus The Scytall like the Double-head thou shalt in feature finde Yet is it fatter and tayl that hath no end much thicker is As big as crooked hand is wonted for to winde The haft and helve of digging spade the earth that rifts As long it is as that thin crawling worm which heavens rain Begets on fruitfull earth when bowels warmly maystened are And when the Mother-goddesse great sends forth her creoping train Which is Yeers-youth fresh time of Spring both calm and fair Then leaves it off his wonted bed in rock obscure And in what sun he stretches out his limbs and sinewer all Eating the new sprung-blades of Fennell-herb so putting teeth in ure In holes of the declining hills so keeps both great and small Where time in deepest sleep of buried nature it doth passe And being hungry the earth in top of hole it eats Quenching the thirst by force of dryest chappes as grasse Though without pain desirelesse it seeks these drinks and meats The biting of this Serpent is like the biting of the Double-head and therefore the cure is in the same manner wherefore I shall not need to repeat the signs thereof or the cure in this place And so I will conclude the story of this Serpent Of the SEA-SERPENTS AMong the manifold kinds of Sea-serpents as well known as unknown whereof some are like the Lamprey some like the Myrus and many other like the Serpents of the earth except in their head as Aristotle writeth for that is more like the head of a Conger then a Serpent it peculiarly hath one kinde in colour and form not unlike an Eel in length about three cubits in the gills and sinnes resembling a Conger but it hath a longer snout or beak which is also fortified inwardly with very many small sharp teeth the eyes not so great a smooth or pield skin and hanging over at the back having no scales so as it may easily be fleyed The belly of it is betwixt red and white and all the body over is set with spires so as being alive it is not handled without danger And this is by Pliny called the Dragon of the Sea which cometh out of the Sea into the sands and therein with an admirable celerity and dexterity maketh his lodging place For the snout thereof is sharper then the Serpents of the earth therefore therewith it diggeth and hideth it self in the hole or hollow place which it hath made This is also called by Pliny Ophidion but I think it better to follow Aristotle who doth call it Ophis thalattios a Sea-serpent the colour whereof is blacker or dimmer then the Conger There be also Vipers of the Sea which are in shew little fishes about a cubit long having a little horn in their forehead the biting or sting whereof is very deadly and therefore when the Fisher-men have taken any one of these they instantly cut off the head and bury it in the sand but the body they eat for good meat yet these Serpents are thought to be none other then the Fishes called Arauci or Spider-fishes saving that they are said to have a sharp sting in their head this a horn for all Water or Sea-serpents have harder and less heads then the Serpents of the land In the Germane Ocean there is found a Serpent about the bignesse of a mans leg which in the tayl carryeth a sting as hard as any horn this haunteth only the deepest part of the Sea yet is it sometime taken by the Fisher-men and then they cut off the tail and eat the residue of the body Yet I will not expresly define whether this may be called a Sea-Serpent or a Serpentine-fish it may be it is the same that is a Fork-fish or Ray which by reason of the tayl thereof it might give occasion to Albertus to call it a Serpent of the Sea There be also Snakes or Hyders in the Sea for although all Water-serpents as well of the fresh salt and sweet waters may be called Hyders or Snakes yet there be
suffer me to have the next place to our President I farther add that thou didst never oppose thy self to the many petitions or commendations that were offered by me to our most excellent Colleagues but thou didst alwaies afford me thy ear to hear me and thy hands to help me Lastly thou didst alwaies praise me being absent and as far as it was in thy power of thy own accord from the imbred motion of thy noble minde thou didst defend my good name privately wounded by the calumnies of envious men and torn by malice which is the condition of good and of the greatest Princes by that authority which thou hast amongst thy own Countreymen of what condition soever and thou wouldst not suffer this scab of backbiting to proceed any farther O most excellent Man what shall I repay unto thee who as a true Philosopher hast no desire of vain glory and such things as make a great shew and are vulgarly praised sought for and desired by other men are now esteemed base with thee My grateful minde and most full of love towards thee commands me to offer this small token to thee in testimony thereof which accept freely and willingly and suffer that by this sincere gift that wicked saying may be disanulled that men of one profession cannot endure one the other God the best and the greatest hath granted unto thee long life by a prosperous aspect of the Stars for the good of thy Citizens whose health thou hast preserved and restored by thy care for very many years effectually hitherto that posterity must justly acknowledge that thou hast lived long worthy not only of a Garland of oak but a Statue of gold also if our times would afford such honour Now thou well deserving Captain discharged by age thou Champion freed by reason of years with a token of honour thou conqueror of monsters that daily spring up with too fruitful an increase for the destruction of mankinde dwellest with thy self thy soul yet sustaining thy dry body yeelding to wasting time by degrees very easily which being defiled with no conditions of her prison sees the Hav 〈…〉 and is almost come into it thy minde being abstracted from the sad vexations of humane life and what time thou hast to spare from divine Meditations penetrating into all Nature and the secrets of things thou dost expatiate into the pleasant green Gardens of various natural Philosophy Behold here is a most exquisite Garland for thee gathered out of the most secret Orchard of our great Parent which will not only feed the eyes but will lead the singular acuteness of thy wit which thou aboundest with into her most hidden places Thou being an excellent Anatomist I beseech thee try if thou canst dissect Insects the great Stagyrite being thy guide who did not disdain to search into the parts of Animals Thou shalt finde in the little body of Bees a bottle which is the receptacle of Honey sucked from flowers and their legs loaded with Bitumen which sticks fast to make wax Also in the tail there is a horny sting full of revenging poyson that is ready to draw forth as soon as the Bee please but the King of the swarm is said to want one for there naturally belongs to the supreme power who can overthrow all when he will at his pleasure and there ought to be an imbred gentleness whence it is that Kings by their proper attribute are called Fathers and Pastors of the people In Gnats you shall observe their sounding trumpet that will suck bloud out of Animals and will draw out moisture through the joynts of the most solid wood and wine-vessels How wilt thou be pleased to see the small proboscis of Butter-flies wreathed alwaies into a spiral line after they have drawn forth nutriment from flowers their extended large wings painted by natures artificial pencil with paints cannot be imitated to which the very Rain-bow is scarse comparable Which right against the Sun a thousand colours shewes What a pleasant spectacle will this be when the artificial hands carefully and curiously guide the most sharp pen-knife and very fine instrument by direction of the sight To behold the pipe of the Grashoppers that live upon dew and the organs of the shril sound they make that in the heat of the Dog-daâ—es importunately beats upon the ears of travellers which are so framed that their concave belly is made vaulted under the Diaphragm over which is extended a cover of a thin and dry membrane like to a Drum which lets in the air by an oblique turning which being beaten by the regular and successive motion of their wings and stomach coming in at a straâ—t passage and presently dilated beating against the rough-cast wals of the hollow place and refracted makes a sound To see the horns of the great Beetles that are like to Stags horns and with sharpest points are able to make wounds and the muscles that move them and tye them on exceeding fast The Rhinoceros is of the kinde of great Beetles The swelling purse which is the matter of the silk and is wound back again into many turnings by Silk-worms which are chief of all Caterpillers of divers forms and colours in which after the time destinated for the concoction of their food which is gathered chiefly from Mulberry-leaves a tenacious glew or jelly is reserved untill such time as their ventricle swelling and nature affecting to attain her end the Worm by degrees belcheth forth her spittle the thred whereof growing firm by the air which is provided to make garments for great men this little creature dispenseth through her very narrow claws and spinning with the motion of her head and of half her body with the kembing of it by the help of her forefeet she first disposeth it for the strengthning of her clew of yarn and after that upon her own sepulchre where she must receive her transmutation How the Spider thrusts out her excrements by her lower parts of her body which is drawn forth into a web of which she poor creature frames-nets with great labour which are necessary to sustain her life and with her long legs that end in sharp clawes she knits them into knots being continually obnoxious to repair her work In the uppermost cases of the green Locusts which feed upon hedges there are two scales that are hard as horn the mutual rubbing together whereof by the ministration of the air beaten with their softer wings make a very sharp sound The head of all of this kinde is armed their hinder legs are hard dry long by the vehement thrusting whereof against some firm object with the help of their most strong tendons they will cast their body a great way being equally ballanced and is heavy enough for the proportion of it like an arrow coming forth of a bow as it happens to Fleas that leap with a huge force But which is yet more besides their pincers which are as sharp as keen rasors where is a direct
worms as the Hen doth eggs which afterwards by a strange Metamorphosis are again changed into Flyes Although Pliny contrary to experience doth without ground affirm that nothing else doth arise out them Very rightly Scaliger saith that the Flyes at first do generate Insects unlike themselves but yet in a capacity of becoming the same that is to say white little worms which afterwards being made like to Flies have eyes hanging down by their sides in reference to whose likeness there is a kinde of disease in the eye called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. headed like a Fly Now a great number of Flyes if not the more part of them arise from dung whence I have seen them to come perfect where before they were begun But in this kinde of generation we must note that Flyes are not immediately procreated of dung but of the little worms proceeding of digested dung as the Philosopher writes in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Which Gaza translateth thus Muscae ex vermiculis fimi digesti in partes gignuntur c. In English thus Flyes are begotten of dung digested into parts therefore they that desire to meddle in this businesse strive to distinguish the dung that is not digested from that is mingled with that which is digested Now these worms at the first are exceeding small afterwards begin to be red then as yet without motion as it were cleaving by fibres they begin to move then they become unmovable worms afterwards they move again then become they again to be without motion and in conclusion by the assistance of air and sun there is begotten a living Fly Arist here as it seems spake rather from others observation than his own skill For neither those worms that are generated by copulation nor those which are bred of putrefaction are subject to so many metamorphoses or transmutations before they are transformed into Flyes For they only grow to such a bignesse afterwards are turned into a Nymph or young Fly and so lie still then at a certain time appointed by Nature the Nymph groweth to be a Fly Neither are Flies begotten of dung only but of any other filthy matter putrefied by heat in the summer time and after the same way spoken of before as Grapaldus and Lonicerus have very well noted But yet the question would be whether Flyes are not immediately generated of putrefaction and not of those worms For experience witnesseth that there are a certain kinde of Flies which are begotten in the back of the Elm Turpentine-tree Wormwood and so perchance in other herbs and plants without any preceding vermiculation or being turned into little worms first So that Scaliger that angelical man and the most learned of this Age writeth thus of their original Peradventure saith he they may seem not to arise from putrefaction but from some certain principles changed as from some kind of liquid gum or from some other matter concocted by Nature for this end Now whether concoction can be without putrefaction there is the scruple Each part of mans body hath its conveyance for the expurgation of its excrements called in Latine Emunctoria But whether a living creature may be the excrement of a creature that never had life let others determine here my sight fails me or rather I am altogether blind A third way how Flyes are begotten Sir Tho. Knivett an English man and of singular learning did first of all inform Pennius of and it was thus The corrupted body of a Caterpillar or a little bruised is converted into an imperfect Aurelia then from that not a Butterfly but three black eggs are cast out that are somewhat long fashioned from whence proceed ordinary Flyes or others like to them and some times the Aurelia being putrefied neither Butterfly nor eggs come forth of it but white worms sometimes one sometimes many come forth whence are generated very small Flyes The which famous observations of natural History truth it self doth enjoyn us to acknowledge received from the foresaid Knight for no man before him did ever observe the like Peter Martyr in his 3 Decad. and 6 Book reports that he saw drops of sweat falling from the fingers of labourers turned into Flyes and so they write that in the marshy Countrey of Paria by reason of the contagiousnesse and venemous quality of the air the drops that fall from the hands of the labourers do bring forth Toads But whether it be done immediately or mediately by some worm out of which the Fly should break forth he doth not shew In the year 766. before the Nativity of Christ Rivallus then being K. of Britains there were showres of bloud three daies together very great very many from whence came abundance of Flyes and so poysonous that with their stings they killed a great number of people so saith the English History Now the Fly for the most part is not at the first a Fly but a worm proceeding either from the dead corpses of men or the carkasses of other creatures then it gets feet and wings and so becomes of a creeping creature a flying and begets a little worm which afterwards becomes a Fly Take off the head of a Fly yet the rest of his body will have life in it yea it will run leap and seem as it were to breath Yea when it is dead and drowned with the warmth of the sun and a few ashes cast upon it it will live again being as it were anew made and a fresh life put into it insomuch that Lucians disciples were perswaded and did verily beleeve that the soul of them was indeed immortal Forasmuch as it goes and comes it owns its own body and raiseth it up so that it drinketh eateth wipes its head and eyes makes clean its snout rubs its shanks and legs claps its wings and flies verifying the opinion of Plato concerning the immortality of the soul and the fable concerning Hermotimus Clazomenius whose soul would often go out of hi◠body wander up and down a great way by it self and afterwards would return into the body replenish and raise it up again Some will put drowned Flyes into warm Ashes or warm Bran and in a quarter of an hour fostering them in their hands and breathing on them they will bring them to life again CHAP. XI Of the divers kindes of Flies THere is a great deal of difference amongst Flies whether you respect the matter or form of them Some of them come from themselves by way of copulation as hath been said others from some ascititious or external matter such are they that are bred in Dung Apples Oaks Beans c. In regard of their form or shape some have two wings others four with horns or without some short some long some have round tails others sharp or piked hairy and without hairs in a word they vary in colour shape bigness according to the nature of the Countrey they live in or the putrefied matter whereof they are made I
Grashoppers were of old time men born of the earth but by the favour of the Muses turned into that Musical sort of creatures the Grashoppers Even at this day sustaining their lives with no other food than dew and feeding themselves by continual â—inging they live For this cause the Athenians were called Tettigophori because they wore golden Grashoppers for ornament in their hair and for a token of their nobility and antiquity as Thucidides 1. Syngraph and Heraclides Ponticus de priscis Atheniensibus testifie Erytheus makes a proof of this custome being born of the earth as they say who first governed the Common-wealth of the Athenians and they too in the judgement of Plato the Natives were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. born of the earth Afterwards it came to be a custome that none but an Athenian or one born in the place might wear a Grashopper in his hair of this opinion is Aristoph as also his Scholiast Iâ—idore saith that the Cuckow-spittle doth generate Grashoppers which is not true but that it produceth small Locusts is manifest Lucretius in his 4 Book saith that the Grashopper in the Summer doth shift his skin according to this verse Cum veteres ponunt tunicas aestate Cicada And for that reason he is called by Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the naked Grashoppers or without a skin whom I should not have believed unless I had the picture of the skin so cast off by me Before Copulation the Males are of the more delicate taste afterwards the females for that they have in them white eggs very pleasant to the palat The Parthians as Pliny writeth and the rest of the eastern Nations feed upon them not only for nutrition sake but to open their veins and to stir up their languishing appetite as Atheneus in his 4. Book and Natalis Comes expresly affirm Hence Aristophanes in his Anagyrus out of Theocritus writes that the gods did feed upon Grashoppers at what time they had lost their appetite through choler or passion I have seen saith Aelian l. 12. c. 6. those that sold them tyed in bundles together for men to eat to wit the most voracious of all living creatures did sell the most jejune lest any thing should be lacking to their exquisite dainties Dioscorides gave rosted Grashoppers to eat and saith they are very good against the diseases of the bladder Some saith Galen use dryed Grashoppers for the Colick they give according to the number 3 5 or 7 grains of Pepper as well when it goes off as when it comes on Trallianus bids to give them for the Stone dried and beaten the wings and feet first of all taken away and this to be done in a bath with sweet Wine and Hippocrass Aegineta useth them dryed for the Stone in the reins and for the diseases of the reins he invented the composition called Diatettigon Such another like Antidote doth Myrepsus prescribe but all heads and feet as supervacaneous members being cast away Luminaris hath transcribed an Electuary out of Nicolaus of this sort Take Grashoppers their heads and legs cast away two ounces Grommel seed Saxifrage seed each 1 ounce Pepper Galanga Cinnamon of each 2 drams Lignum Aloes half a dram honey what is sufficient Nicolaus useth Grashoppers burned and powdered mingled with honey and gives them about the bigness of a bean in a quantity of wine Aetius gives three Grashoppers beat in Wine Some in stead of Cantharides use Grashoppers to provoke urine and in my judgement not without very good reason for they are taken with lesse danger and do work sooner as well in this disease as in the weakness of venery Nonus the Physician prescribes an Antidote of Grashoppers and Xenophyllum against the Stone in the kidneys Aretaeus for the remedies of the bladder speaks thus of Grashoppers The best remedy for the bladder is a Grashopper given in its time to eat Males before copulation but afterwards Females as we finde in Aristotle but out of their time dried and powdered boyl them with water and a little spike also let the patient sit in the same for a bath to ease the pains of the bladder Some of our later practitioners put Grashoppers in oyl and set them in the Sun and mingle them with oyl of Scorpions and anoint the privities of men and women the testicles and parts about with it for pains of the bladder Arnoldus Breviar l. 1. c. 20. 32. commends the powder of Grashoppers for the Colick and Iliack passion and also to drive forth the Stone if half a Grashopper in powder be drank with Goats bloud or Diuretick wine Lauframus highly esteems the ashes of Grashoppers to break the Stone taken with Radish water or the decoction of chich Pease Also they cause idle and lazy boyes to hunt after them Theocritus speaks thus of it in his first Idyllium Hee with thin ears of corn bound to a cane did make A whip for Grashoppers to hunt and take Neither are they only excellent meat and very usefull in Physick to men but they feed Birds also and insnare them For the youth of Crete as Bellonius witnesseth hide a hook in the body of a Grashopper and when they have fastned it to a line they cast it up into the air which the Merops seeing catch it and swalloweth which when the boyes perceive they draw it to them and so do exercise their air-fowling not without profit and pleasure The Grashoppers abounding in the end of the Spring do foretel a sickly year to come not that they are the cause of putrefaction in themselves but only shew plenty of putrid matter to be when there is such store of them appear Oftentimes their coming and singing doth pottend the happy state of things so Theocritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niphus saith that what year but few of them are to be seen they presage dearness of victuals and scarcity of all things else But whereas Jo. Langius a Philosopher of great reading and learning and a famous Physician saith lib. 2. epist that Grashoppers did eat the corn in Germany as the Locusts do Stumsius that it was done in Helvetia Lycosthenes lib. prodig and the Greek Epigram doth affirm that they eat the fruits and crop the herbs truly unless they mean a Locust in stead of a Grashopper they declare a strange thing and saving the credit of so famous men I will not believe for they have neither teeth nor excrement as hath been said but only feed and swell with the dew Besides although I have gone over all Helvetia Germany and England and have searcht for a Grashopper as for a needle yet could I fâ—nde none And therefore I suppose that both they themselves as also Guill de Conchy and Albert. Vincentius to have mistaken the Locust or Bruchus for the Grashopper being deceived by the common error who take the one for the other They that desire more of their nature and use may consult the Authors
Ulcers and all symptomes of Ulcers and diseases of the head also being burnt and powdered with their weight of dry Dill they cure Cankers Marcellus But Aetius addes three Worms bred of wood to an Oyntment against the Elephantiasis which he learned of a certain Physitian that took his oath of secrecy The rottennesse that is made by their biting dries without pain and is profitable for many things Galen Eupor 3 c. 7. commends this kinde of powder against knobs clifts and sores of the Fundament Take Orpiment in pieces three ounces rotten wood of an Oke four ounces make a fine powder then foment the place affected first with the warm urine of a young boy and afterwards strew on this powder But the Cossi are not only food for the Inhabitants of Pontus and Phrygia and they delight much in them as Worms in Cheese are to the Germans but they also cure Ulcers increase milk and as Pliny saith when they are burnt to ashes they cure creeping sores The Worm in Fullers Teazil put into a hollow tooth will give wonderfull ease Pliny And if it be hanged in a bladder about the neck and arms it will cure Quartane Agues Dioscorides One Samuel Quickelbergius a learned young man in an Epistle he writ to D. Gesner hath these words Saith he as I was gathering of Simples a certain old man came unto me whilst I sought for a little Worm in the head of the Fulleâ—s Teazill and he said unto me O thou happy young man if thou didst but certainly know the secret vertues of that little Worm which are many and great And when I intreated him that he would acquaint me with them he held his peace and by no intreaty could I obtain it of him Pliny asserts that the Colewort Catterpillars being but touched with it will fall and die The Worms of Galedracon which plant some men confound with Fullers Teazil being put into a box and bound with bread to the arm on that side the tooth akes will wonderfully remove the pain saith Xenocrates The Worms of the Eglantine will cause sleep and therefore some Germans call them Schlafoirs They are applyed alive to a Felon but alwayes their number must be odde and they do certainly cure it saith Quickelbergius A little Worm found in the herb Carduus bound up in a piece of Skarlet and hang'd about the neck will cure the tooth-ache Marcellus The Worms that are found in the root of Pimpernel make a most incomparable purple colour Gesner that I wonder the Ancients said nothing of them All little Worms found in prickly herbs if any meat stick in the narrow passage of the throat of children will presently help them Pliny Rub a faulty tooth with the Worms in Coleworts and it will in a few dayes fall forth it self Meal-worms are good and seem to be bred to catch black-heads and Nightingales and to feed them nor is there in winter wholesomer meat for them for they purge heat and nourish also those Birds that have but a thin nutriment to preserve them I spake before of the profitablenesse of the Cochineel Worms Brassavolus affirms the same of Vine-worms but how rightly let others judge but they are not only good for dying but necessary in Physick for they both binde and dry and scowr without biting and incarnate also they cure rheumatick eyes mingled with Pigeons bloud they help suffusions of the eyes they cure Dysenteries they help hard labour in Childe-birth and debility they cure Melancholy fear Epilepsies they provoke urine and the terms they heat the Matrix they dissolve water and choler they abate the panting of the heart and upon that score they are put into Confection of Alkermes and are the Basis thereof Dioscor Avicen Kiranides I say nothing how greedily Sparrows Wood-peckers Hens Wood-cocks Snipes the Pardus a Black-bird Larks Gnat-snappers Reed-sparrows and many other birds that are good physick or else meat for us do feed on the Worms of trees and herbs Now since God hath mingled conveniences and inconveniences together both to rouse up our providentiall prudence and to punish us with punishments due to our sins how both of these may be prevented I shall shew briefly Jonas being cherished under the shadow of the Gourd he thought it safe and happy to be so when the heat was so vehement But God sent a worm and took that from him both to try his patience and demonstrate his frailty There was an Arch-bishop of Yorke whose surname was Grey as our Histories relate when he had abundance of all Corn in the time of great scarcity yet he refused to let the poor have victoals either for money or intreaty A little after this his barns that were full of Corn were so exhausted with Weevils that they left not one whole grain of Wheat or Barley Even as Solomon said He that hoards up his Corn the people shall curse him but blessing shall be on the head of him that selleth it So God that he may call forth a sluggish father of a family sends the Moths and Worms into his Orchardâ— and fields both to make him laborious by this means and also to teach him to make use of such helps and means that God offers to him Our Ancestors have delivered by tradition many of these But because Cato Vitruvius Pliny Palladius Theophrastus Columella Varro Virgil and many of those that were Princes in husbandry have abundantly set down these things we shall only give you a smack of them here because others have given a full draught That trees may not be eaten with worms plant them in the new of the Moon and cut them down between the new and old Moon in the conjunction Also anoynt them with Tarre and often wet them with the lees of Oyl Also keep them under Covert every where that they may not stand exposed either to great heat of the 〈◊〉 or tempests of weather Also that trees may not grow worm-eaten anoynt their roots before the first planting of them and then afterwards moysten their roots with mans urine and a third part of the strongest vinegar Some steep a long while Squills with Lupins and they sprinkle the places that are worm-eaten or presse out their liquor with a Sponge or they besmear the stock of the tree till it be very wet and they powr into the holes Bitumen mingled with Oyl Others sprinkle on quick-lime others Oyl-lees and old pisse others Hogs or Dogs dung steept in Asses pisse the roots being first uncovered Democritus taught men to bruise Terra Lemnia with water it may be he meant Carpenters red and to smear them with that Some pick out the Worm with a brasse pin and put Cow-dung over the hole Red hairy Worms search to the inward pith if you can draw these forth and not break them and burn them hard by it is reported that all the rest will dy with it It is good also to powr often upon the roots Bulls gall and lees of Oyl To plant
nor increaseth for Dormice sleep all the Winter and eat nothing The life of it doth resemble that sleep which is partly waking wherein men are not properly awake nor yet asleep but are alive and move a little But I conjecture that the Philosopher wrote this that he might confirm that Axiome of his to credulous posterity that all Insects either lay egges or little Worms His words are these Insects first breed Worms but that which is called Chrysallis is an Egge and afterwards from this is bred a living Creature that at the third changing hath the end of its generation Yet it is manifest enough by what I said before that an Aurelia is no Egge and it ought not to be called a generation but a transmutation of a Caterpillar into this and of this into a Butterflie I say this for that purpose that such as adore Aristotle for a God may remember that he was but a man and that he was subject to humane errors There are two kindes of Aurelias that I have seen some are downy and others smooth both are of divers colours and sometimes they are Gold coloured which are the true Chrysallides and others that are but bastard ones are without any colour of Gold They have their Original from the death of the Catterpillars which as they do waste by degrees in certain dayes so by degrees their covering grows continually more hard and changeth into an Aurelia These again the next Spring or Autumn by degrees losing their life a Butterflie comes forth of them that is bred by the like metamorphosis What use they serve for for the good of man kinde I am wholly ignorant of I know well enough how much they perplexed Aristotles wit by their wonderfull transmutation and they set forth to us the boundlesse power of Almighty God George Agricola only propounds to us the Teredo without feet which from the brasen colour of it he call Kupter-worm It creeps like a Serpent saith he because it wants wings and feet It is as thick as a small Goose quill and it is as long as a Scolopendra It is round and breeds under rotten wood and sometimes found hard by the Scolopendra or long Ear-wig You may easily finde the figure of it placed amongst the Scolopendrae CHAP. XXXVII Of Water Insects without feet and first of the Shrimp or Squilla WEE said before that all water Insects were with feet or without feet Some of those that have feet swim with six feet as the Lobster the Shrimp the lake Scorpion the Evet and the Sea-lowse others with four feet some with more We shal treat of them severally The Squilla an Insect differs but little from the fish Squilla but that it hath the sail-yards much shorter and a more red colour or rather a more earthly colour Some of these are covered with a thin shell and some again are smooth and naked Those with shells live chiefly in small Brooks and stick to the roots of Reeds or water-flags They are of a yellowish colour and sometimes of a white or Ash-colour They go only with six feet the rest that are joyned to them serve in stead of fins The naked ones are either soft or hard The soft ones are represented well e 〈…〉 ough by this figure only suppose their heads to be of a bright Bay colour and their body died with a dark Ash-colour All those that are covered with a hard crust are made with joynts but some have round joynts others other fashions The form of the round joynted is exactly represented here if you suppose him to be easily dyed with a lighter red And such is the colour of the first and second that are not round joynted The third kinde is black upon the back and with a brown belly but they are all with a forked mouth and that will hold fast what is applyed to it The fourth kinde moves it self with the three former feet and useth the rest that hang by in stead of Oares The neck of it and the sailyards and the nippers are of a watry red colour the body is brownish or more Ash coloured The fifth hath a very black head and the body like to a Pomegranate shell The sixth seems to be cruel and in the same form you see it of an Ash-colour All of them have 〈…〉 ard eyes and black covered over with a membrane shining like unto glasse which move continually almost like to the ears of four-footed beasts They leap quickly one upon the other as the Fishes Squillae doe in coupling and when they grow bold and have liberty they fill the Females with young The time when they are ready for this is signified by a gentle biting The Female takes hold with her mouth and what she layes hold on she kills and gives part of it to her companion for they couple at the mouth as Crabs and Lobsters doe But what use they serve for in physick I cannot finde either in writers or from Empiricks who either knew not these Squillae or thought them not worthy to say any thing of them Yet this is certain that in April and May there is no better bait to catch Fish with CHAP. XXXVIII Of the Locust Scorpion Notonectum the Grashopper the Wasp the forked Claw the Newt the little Heart and the Lowse all Water-Insects THE Insect-Locust is like the Lobster for that cannot be called either flesh or fish you see the figure of it it is of a pale green colour I have seen three kindes of Lake Scorpions and I have them by me the first is somewhat black the other two are like to white sand we call some Insects of the water Notonâ—cta which do not swim upon their bellies as the rest do but upon their backs from whence it is probable that men learned the art of swimming upon their backs also Some of these have eyes shoulders and bodies all black some are green some are fiery coloured and some pitch coloured For you shall seldom see two of them of the same colour nature hath so variously sported her self in adorning them Water-Grashoppers hold the forâ—h described but their eyes are extreme black and their bodies are ash coloured The Wasp hath a brownish body all over except the black eyes The Forked Claw hath almost the same colour but it is more full it seems to want eyes but it hath them hid within whereby it both sees and perceives the object The Lizard is of divers colours and delights in catching Fish it is common about the British shores where it lyeth in wait to catch Fish The Corculus hath the just fashion of a heart the feet and head being taken away it hath very little black eyes and six legs of the same colour each with two clawes The Sea-Lowse is an Insect that is an enemy to all kinde of Whales which by biting and tickling it puts into such a rage that they are forced to run upon the sand and hasten to dry land I
let it be wholesome clean fresh and sweet without dust gravel mustiness or evill smell In the morning give them Barly or provender a little at a time in distinct or several portions twice or thrice one after another so as he may chew and eke digest it throughly otherwise if he raven it in as he will do having much at a time he rendreth it in his dung whole and not digested About three hours after he hath eaten his provender give him a little of hay and three hours after that his dinners allowance of grain as in the morning and afterwards about two or three a clock hay again and then some drink last of all give him his allowance of provender for supper with a bottle or two of hay which ought to be more plentiful then the former servings and yet these rules are not to be understood as though they might not be altered for the times prefixed may be prevented if occasion require Their best provender is Oats and Barley yet Barly ingendreth the thinner and better bloud and therefore it is to be preferred only the measure of the provender is left to the discretion of the Horse-keeper and there is no meat more wholesome for a Horse then Barly and Chaffe because it will make him full of life and also able to indure labour yet not over fat In England in many places they give their Horses bread made of Fitches Beans and Pease When one is to make a journey on horse-back let him not give his Horse too much provender the noon before but so much the more hay and bread steeped in wine and also let him serve him sooner at night then ordinary that so the beast may take the more rest There be which refuse to give Horses wet provender or steeped bread because they conceive that it will breed in them loathsomeness of meat but the truth is a reasonable Horse-keeper preventeth that mischief and besides the meat of a Horse is altogether so dry that the beast himself is indangered to be sick of that disease and therefore it is as safe to give him moistened food sometimes as well as to give him bread mingled with salt When a Horse is weary or sweateth let him not drink nor eat provender but after he is walked a little while give him hay first of all covering him with a large cloth and remember that hay is not to be cast before a Horse as it is out of the reek but first of all it must be pulled and shaken betwixt the hands for the avoiding of dust and other filth Restrain the Horse as much as you may from eating the litter under his feet for even the best meat so defiled is unwholesome It is also good sometimes to suffer him to pick up his meat on the ground betwixt his forelegs that will make his neck to grow thinner leaner and more comely Let his neck be fast bound in the stable with a Leathern collar and binde with a manicle his fore-leg to the hinder-leg on the contrary side and so shall his be preserved in more health because they cannot move out of their place but with difficulty Concerning the drink of Horses something more is to be added in this place and namely brackish and troubled water such as runneth softly as in great ponds is fittest for Horses because that water being hot and thick nourisheth better but the swift Water is colder and therefore more unwholesome but in hot times as in Summer the sweet and clearer water is more convenient if custome be not against it And because a Horse except he drink freely can never be fat let his mouth oftentimes be washed within with Salt and Wine and that will make him eat and drink more liberally and yet the running water is more wholesome for Horses because whatsoever is moveably fluent is lesse subject to poison then that which standeth still but if a Horse sweat or be weary it is not safe to let him drink any thing except he first stale for in such cases followeth distention And it is better to turn or lead forth your Horse to water then to bring it unto them And if at any time necessity cause this to be done then let the Water be very clear and fresh His stable or lodging ought to be ordered as neither it offend him by cold in Winter nor yet through heat in Summer for both these extremities are pernicious and therefore when the weather is extream cold then must the Horses back and belly be covered with a cloth and when on the contrary it exceedeth in heat then must his litter be taken away Also in heat he must be covered with linnen to avoid flies and in cold with woollen to help nature likewise it is good toward night to pick cleanse and open his hoofs with some artificial instrument and to thrust into the hollow Cow-dung or in defect thereof Horse-dung with a little straw that so he may not shake it out again but this is not good to be done every day but rather every second day and it is good to mingle therewith sewet or grease or else a new laid Egge with warm ashes In ancient time they used not to shooe their Horses with iron untill the dayes of Catulius who remembreth this custome saying Ferream ut soleam tenaci in voragine mula So that it seemeth that this devise was first of all invented for Mules The Horse-shooes ought to be round like his feet and not heavie lest the Horses nimbleness be thereby hindered and great care must be had in nailing or setting them on lest the tender and fleshie part of the foot be thereby pierced Another charge of a Horse-keeper is to keep his Horses lips soft tender and gentle so as he may more sensibly feel his bit and for this cause let him often rub them with his hands and warm water and if need require with oil also and in handling of a Horse this must be observed for a general rule That neither he come to the Horse right before his face nor behind his tail because both these are dangerous to the rider lest by his heels or mouth he harme him but on his side he may safely set upon him or handle his Horse and when he leadeth him he must likewise go on his side Likewise good and painful dressing of Horses is no small means to retain him in sound and perfect health and therefore he must often be touched with the Curry-comb and afterward with a handful of straw so as the hand may follow the stroke to lay the hair smooth and their fashion was in old time to brush over their Horses with a little linnen instrument made like a sword whereby they excusse all dust from the beast and herein it is wisdom to begin at the head and mane and so to descend to other parts and to touch the Horses back gently he may wash the head and mane because it being so bony
it is dangerous lest the comb offend and grieve the beast except it be layed on very tenderly but it is not good to wash the legs because dayly washing loftneth the hoof by sliding down of the water and therefore it is sufficient only to stroke them down with his hands The neather part also of the belly is not to be kept over clean for the more it is cleansed with water the more is the Horse pained therein when a Horse is dressed it is good to bring him out of the stable that so in the open air he may be tyed in a longer halter and seem to be at liberty whereby he shall be brought to more cleanness and tractable gentleness standing upon some smooth stones till all the dust and loose hairs both by the Comb and Brush be driven away and in the mean time the stable be emptied and this is to be performed before the Horses watering You must also regard the skin wherein the Horses yard runneth be kept clean for if it be stopped it hindereth urine and maketh the Horse sick and when your Horse is in dressing let him have before him no manner of meat either of hay or provender Let them be led to the Water twice a day and wash therein both legs and belly except in the Winter time wherein it is not safe to wet the Beast so often and if there be in them any appearance of sickness and infirmity or if you have any purpose to give unto them any kind of medicine then must you altogether forbear to water them Some use to wash their Horses legs with warm wine-lees to refresh their joints and sinews after hard journies which custome seemeth very allowable other use in stead thereof warme dish-water out of the kitchin and the backes they wash with cold water and salt Underneath their tails and near their yards you shall find them in the Summer time to be much annoyed with flies and therefore it is a needful part of the Horse-keepers watchfulness to look in those places and drive them away for so his charge will take the better rest And evermore there must be nourished a mutual benevolence betwixt the Horse and Horse-keeper so as the Beast may delight in the presence and person of his attendant and for this cause he may be kept from hunger wet litter cold in the Winter and flies in the Summer and furthermore a diligent caution must be had that the Beast be not provoked through overmuch severity for if the Horse by his keepers violence be often driven to his rack and manger to avoid stripes either he hurteth his shoulders or legs by his own weight or force or else groweth into a trembling at the presence of a man and so never yeeldeth any loving obedience or else falleth into some furious and unreclaimable evill qualities The Master therefore ought often to enter into his stable and take a view of his Horses usage whereby the Beast will quickly take notice of him especially if he have but one for it is a great folly and piece of ill husbandry to trust Servants and not to oversee them Cato was wont to say Frons occipitio prior that is as the forehead is before the nape of the neck meaning thereby that nature hath set him highest and formost which should not hide himself but take his place upon him and discharge it for it is not safe or any part of wisdome to see by another mans eyes or work altogether by Deputies Men must also be affraid of lending their Horses for the Germans have a pretty proverb that they will not trust their wives at great feasts out of their sight for commonly they learn some evill fashion or other more then they had before and so much more Horses after lending return home again to their Masters with alteration of strength and quality Of adorning and furnishing Horses I Cannot approve them that cut off their Horses tail or foretop one received beginning from an ignorant perswasion of increasing the strength of the Horses back and the other from an imagined comliness by trimming it with ribben or some devised knot or that it hindred the Horses sight In the first the Beast is wronged and deprived of his help against the flies and decency of his hinder parts and in the second nature accused for not adorning the Horses forehead with more gaudy and variable coloured hairs and providing a bunch of hair to weaken his eyes but neither of these are tolerable for a wise man once to imagine and therefore I will not spend any more time to confute this vain adorning of Horses Let the horse-keeper take heed that he harm not the Beast when he putteth on his Bridle for a little negligence quickly bringeth a great offence by touching wringing and oppressing any tender part in the Horses head or mouth He must alway put on his Bridle on the left side and if the Horse of his own accord do not open his mouth to the bit then must he gently open his mouth with one finger and so put it upon him and if by that means he open not his mouth then presse or wring his lip upon his great canine tooth which thing causeth any Horse to open his mouth Also it must be regarded that the Horse in leading be not drawn after you for so will he be made hard headed unwilling to follow Again his Cheeks must not be pinched by the Bridle left the skin grow senseless and also it must not hang long or loose in his mouth for so he will be alway biting his bit and give lesse obedience to his Rider Camerarius writeth that he hath seen some put Salt upon their bits whereof the Horse licking or tasting became more willing to take it into his mouth and for the better performance hereof it is necessary to observe by often triall what kind or fashioned bit best beseemeth and fitteth the Horses mouth and finding it keep him thereunto continually and when it is put on neither wring his Cheeks or let him rowl it betwixt his teeth The Saddle also must be so fastened to his back as that it may not turn or rowl upon the same wherefore he which layeth it thereupon must come on the left side and gently without violence or noise set it upon the Beast so that neither girths peytril sturrops trappings or crupyard fall betwixt the Back and Saddle neither covering therewith the Horses wither nor yet touching his hips or loins First of all let the peytrill on the breast be buckled then the girths in order neer the forelegs not upon the belly for upon the belly they will be sliding off and that is against the rules of riding for Bene equitant qui bene cingunt that is to say they ride well which bind fast and this ought to be done in an open place where both the Rider and the Horse may have more liberty wherewithal a generous and great stomached