thought if it be mixed with some sweet composition that it hath power to cure a quotidian Ague If the toong of Chamaelion be hung ouer an obliuious and forgetfull person it is thought to haue power to restore his memory The Chamaelion from the head to the tayle hath but one Nerue which beeing taken out and hung about the necke of him that holdeth his head awry or backeward it cureth him The other parts haue the same operation as the parts of the Hyaena the Sea-calfe If a Chamaelion be sod in an earthen pot and consumed till the waterbe as thicke as oile then after such seething take the bones out and put them in a place where the Sunne neuer commeth then if you see a man in the fit of the falling sicknesse turne him vppon his belly and annoynt his backe from the Os sacrum to the ridge bone and it will presently deliuer him from the fit but after seuen times vsing it will perfectly cure him The Oyle thus made must be kept in a Boxe This medicine following is a present remedy agaynst the gowt Take the head and feet of a Chamaeleon cut offalso the outward partes of the knees and feete and then keepe by themselues those parts that is to say the partes of the right legge by themselues and the partes of the left Legge by themselues then touch the Nayle of the Chamaeleon with your Thumbe and right finger of your hand dipping the tips of your fingers of the right hand in the bloud of the right foote of the beast and so likewise the fingers of the left hand in the bloud of the left foote then include those parts in two little Pipes and so let the sicke person carry the right partes in the right hand and the left parts in the left hand vntill he be cured and this must bee remembred that hee must touch euery morning about the Sun rising the said Chamaeleon yet liuing and lapped in a Linnen cloth with those parts that are oppressed with the Gout The like superstitious and magicall deuises are these that follow as they are recorded by Pliny and Democritus The head and thraot being set on fire with wood of Oake they beleeue to be good against Thunder and raine and so also the Liuer burned on a Tyle If the right eye be taken out of it aliue and applyed to the whitenes of the eyes in Goats Milke it is thought to cure the same The tongue bound to a woman with child preserueth her from danger in child-byrth if the same tongue be taken from the beast aliue it is thought it foresheweth the euent of iudgement The heart wrapped in blacke Wooll of the first shearing by wearing it cureth a quartane Ague the right claw of the forefeet bound to the left arme with the skinne of his cheekes is good against robberies and terrours of the night and the right pap against all feares If the left foote be scorched in a furnace with the Herb Chamaeleon and afterward putting a litle ointment to it made into little Pasties so being carryed about in a wooden boxe it maketh the party to go invisible The right shoulder maketh a man to preuaile against his aduersaries if they doe but tread vpon the Nerues cast down vpō the earth But the left shoulder they consecrate the same to monsterous dreames as if that thereby a man might dreame what hee would in his owne person and effect the like in others With the right foote are all paulsies resolued and with the left foote all Lethargies the Wine wherein one side of a Chamaeleon hath beene steeped sprinkled vppon the head cureth the ach thereof If Swines Grease be mingled with the powder of the left foote or Thigh and a mans foote be annoynted therewith it bringeth the gout by putting the Gall into fire they driue away Serpentes and into Water they draw together Weasels it pulleth off hayre from the body so also doth the Liuer with the Lightes of of a Toade likewise the Liuer dissolueth amorous inchantments Melancholy men are cured by drinking the iuyce of a Chamaeleon out of a Chamaeleons skin They also say that the Intrals and dung of this beast washed in the vrine of an Ape and hung vp at our enemies gates causeth reconciliation With the taile they bring Serpentes asleepe and stay the flowing of the flouds and Waters the same mingled with Ceder and Myrrhe bound to two rods of Palme and strucke vpon water causeth all thinges that are contained in the same water to appeare but I would to GOD that such Magitians were well beaten with Róddes of stronger wood vntill they forsooke these magicall fooleries And thus much for the story of the Chamaeleon OF THE COCKATRICE THis Beast is called by the Graecians Baziliscos and by the Latine Regulus because he seemeth to be the King of serpents not for his magnitude or greatnesse For there are many Serpents bigger then he as there be many Foure-footed-beastes bigger then the Lyon but because of his stately pace and magnanimious mind for hee creepeth not on the earth like other Serpents but goeth halfe vpright for which occasion all other Serpentes auoyde his sight And it seemeth nature hath ordained him for that purpose for beside the strength of his poyson which is vncurable he hath a certaine combe or Corronet vppon his head as shall be shewed in due place It is also cald Sibilus as we read in Isidorus Sibilus enim occidit antequam mordeat vel exurat The Cockatrice killeth before it burneth The Hebrewes call it Pethen and Curman also Zaphna and Zaphnaini The Chalde Armene Harmene and also Carmene The Aegyptians Vreus the Germans Ein Ertz Schlengle the French Vn Basilic The Spaniards and Italians Basilisco There is some question amongest Writers about the generation of this Serpent for some and those very many and learned affirme him to be brought forth of a Cockes egge For they say that when a Cock groweth old he layeth a certaine egge without any shell in stead whereof it is couered with a very thicke skinne which is able to withstand the greatest force of an easie blow or fall They say moreouer that this Egge is layd onely in the Summer-time about the beginning of Dogge-dayes being not long as a Hens Egge but round and orbiculer Sometimes of a dusty sometimes of a Boxie sometimes of a yellowish muddy colour which Egge is generated of the putrified seed of the Cocke and afterward set vpon by a Snake or a Toad bringeth forth the Cockatrice being halfe a foot in length the hinder part like a Snake the former partlike a Cooke because of a treble combe on his forehead But the vulger opinion of Europe is that the Egge is nourished by a Toad and not by a Snake howbeit in better experience it is found that the Cocke doth sit on that egge himselfe whereof Leuinus Lemnius in his twelth booke of the hidden miracles of nature hath this
we shall shew at large in their particular hystory The serpent hauing layd her egge sitteth vpon them to hatch them at seuerall times and in a yeare they are perfected into young ones But concerning the supposed copulation of serpents and Lampreys I will not meddle in this place reseruing that discourse to the historic of fishes and now only it sufficeth in this place to name it as a feigned invention although saint Ambrose and other anncient Writers haue beleeued the same yet Athaeneus and of late dayes P. Iouius haue learnedly and sufficientlie declared by vnanswearable arguments the cleane contrarie The serpents loue their egges most tenderly and doe euerie one of them know their owne euen among confused heapes of the multitude and no lesse is their loue to their young ones whom for their safeguard sometime they receiue into their mouthes and suffer them to runne into their bellies And thus much for the generation of serpents Of the Names of Serpents and their seuerall parts or Anatomie BY Serpents we vnderstand in this discourse all venomous Beasts whether creeping without legges as Adders and Snakes or with legges as Crocodiles and Lizards or more neerely compacted bodies as Toades Spiders and Bees following heerein the warrant of the best ancient Latinists as namely Cornelius Celsus Pliny Apuleius doe call Lyce Serpents in that their relation of the death of Pherecydes the Sirian who was the Praeceptor of Pythagoras of whom it is said Serpentibus perijsse to haue perrished by Serpents when on the contrary it is manifested he was killed by Lyce Aristotle and Galen define a Serpent to be animal sanguineū pedibus orbatum ouiparum that is a bloody Beast without feere yet laying egges and so properly is a Serpent to be vnderstood The Haebrewes call a Serpent Nachasch Darcon and Cheueia by the Chaldees so also Thaninim Schephiphon by the Hebrewes as Rabbi Salomon Munster Pagnine write The Graecians Ophidi and Ophis although this word doe also signifie a Viper in particular euen as the Latine Serpens or serpula doe sometime a Snake and sometime an Adder The Arabians Haie and Hadaie for all manner of serpents And Testuh or Tenstu or Agestim for serpents of the wood likewise Apartias Atussi The Germans Ein schlang which word seemeth to be deriued from Anguis by an vsuall figure and after the German fashion proposing Sch. The French call it Vn serpent the Italians Serpe serpente and Massarius saith that Scorzo and Scorzone are generall wordes for all manner of Serpents in Italy which strike with their teeth The Spanyards call them Sierpe The Graecians call the young ones in the Dammes belly Embrua and the Latines Catuli And thus much for their Names in generall which in holy Scripture is englished a Creeping thing Now it followeth that I should sette downe a particular description of all the outward parts of Serpents and first of all their colour is for the most part like the place of their habitation or abode I meane like the Earth wherein they liue and therefore I haue seene some blacke liuing in dung some yellow liuing in sandy rocks some of other colour as greene liuing in trees and fieldes but generally they haue spots on their sides and bellie like the scales of fish which are both white black greene yellow browne of other colours also of which Ouid writeth Longo caput extulit antro Caeruleus serpens horrendaque sibila misit that is The greenish Serpent extolld her head from denne so steepe And fearefull hyssing did send forth from throate so deepe The frame of their bodies doth not much varry in any except in the feete length so that with a reseruation of them we may expresse their vniuersall Anatomy in one viewe for almost all of them are of the same proportion that is seene in Lyzards if the feete be excepted and they made to haue longer bodies For they are inclosed in a kinde of shell or crustie skinne hauing their vpper parts on their backe and the nether parts on the bellie like a Lizard but they want stones haue such manner of places for copulation as fishes haue their place of conception beeing long and clouen All their bowels by reason of the length and narrownes of their bodies are also long and narrow and hard to be discerned because of the dissimilitude of their figures and shapes Their arterie is long their throate longer then that the ground or roote of the artery is neere the mouth so as a man would iudge it to be vnder the tongue so as it seemeth to hang out aboue the tongue especially when the tongue is contracted and drawne backward The head long like a Fishes and flatte neuer much bigger then the bodie except in monstrous and great shaped Serpents as the Boas Yea Aristotle maketh mention of a Serpent that had 2. heads and Arnoldus of a Serpent in the Piraeney Mountaines slaine by a souldier that had three heads in whose belly vvere found two sonnes of the said souldier deuoured by him and the back-bone thereof was as great as a mans skull or a Rammes head And such an one we read in our English story was found in England in the yeere 1349. And the 23 yeere of Edward the third there was a serpent found in Oxfordshire neere Chippingnorton that had two heads and faces like women one beeing shaped after the new attire of that time and another after the manner of the old attyre and it had great winges after the manner of a Bat. The Tongue of a Serpent is peculiar for besides the length narrownesse thereof it is also clouen at the tippe beeing deuided as it were with very little or small nailes points It is also thinne long and black of colour voluble neither is there any beast that moueth the tongue so speedily wherefore some haue thought that a Serpent hath three tongues but in vaine as Isidorus sheweth for they deceiue by the nimblenes thereof Their ventricle is large like their maw and like vnto a dogs also thinne and vniforme at the end The Hart is very small and cleaueth to the end of their artery but yet it is long sheweth like the reynes of a Man vvherefore sometimes it may be seene to bend the tippe or lappe thereof to the breast ward After this followeth the Lights but farre seperate from it being simple full of fibres and open holes like pipes and very long The Liuer long and simple the Melt small and round as in Lizards The Gall is for the most part as in fishes but in Water-snakes it is ioyned to the Liuer in other Serpents to the stomacke or maw All their teeth stand out of their mouth and they haue thirtie ribbes euen as there were among the Haebrewes and Egyptians thirtie daies to euery month Aristotle saith that as their eyes be small so also they haue the same good hap that befalleth young Swallowes for if by
chance they scratch or rend out their eyes then it is said they haue other grow vp naturally in their places In like manner their tayles beeing cut off grow againe And generally Serpents haue their hart in the throat the gall in the bellie or stomack and their stones neere their tayle Their egges are long and soft in their teeth they carrie poyson of defence and anoyance for which cause they desire aboue all other things to saue their heads Their sight is but dull and dim and they can hardlie looke atone side or backward because their eyes are placed in their temples and not in theyr fore-head and therefore they heare better then they see They haue eye-liddes for generally no creatures haue eye-liddes except those which haue haire in the other parts of their bodies foure-footed Beasts in the vpper cheeke Fowles in the nether or Lyzards which haue egges or Serpents which haue soft backs They haue also certaine passages of breathing in their nostrills but yet they are not so plaine that they can be termed nostrills but breathing places Theyr eares are like to finny Fishes namely small passages or hollowe places in the backer parts of their head by which they heare Their teeth are like sawes or the teeth of Combes ioyned one within the other that so they might not be worne out by grinding or grating together and yet they bend inward to the end that they may the better hold their meate in their mouthes beeing without all other externall helpe for that purpose for euen those Serpents which haue feete yet can they not apply them to their chaps In the vpper chap they haue two longer then all the residue on either side one bored thorough with a little hole like the sting of a Scorpion by which they vtter their poyson Yet there be some good Authors that affirme that this poyson is nothing els but their gall which is forced to the mouth by certaine veines vnder the ridge or backe-bone Some againe say that they haue but one long tooth that a crooked one which turneth vpward by often byting which sometime falleth off and then groweth againe of which kinde those are which men carry vp and downe tame in their bosoms Although they be great raueners yet is their throate but long and narrow for helpe whereof when they haue gotten a bootie they erect themselues vppon their tayles and swallow downe their meate the more easily They cannot be said properly to haue any neck yet somthing they haue which in proportion answereth that part They haue tailes like all other creatures except Men and Apes and some say that their poyson is contayned in their tayles is from thence conuayed into little bladders in their mouthes therefore the Mountebancks or Iuglers breake that bladder that they may keepe them without poyson but within the space of twentie foure houres they are recollected and growe anew againe Their bodies are couered ouer with a certaine skin like a thinne barke and vppon Serpents it supplieth the place that scales and haire doe vpon Beasts and Fishes for indeed it is a pure skinne and in most things they are like to Fishes except that they haue lights Fishes haue none the reason is they liue on the Earth and the Fishes in the Sea therfore haue finnes and gilles in stead thereof The little Serpents haue all their bones like thornes but the greater which stand in neede of greater strength haue solide bones for their firmitude and better constitution It is questionable whether they haue any melt or no and some say they haue at the time of their laying of egges and not otherwise Theyr place of conception or secrete is large and standeth farre out beginning beneath and so arising vp to the back-bone double that is hauing one skinne or enclosure on either side with a double passage wherein the egges are engendered which are not layd one by one but by heapes or clusters together They haue no bladder to containe vrine like to all other Creatures which haue feathers scales or rinde-speckled-skinnes except the Torteises the reason is because of the exiguitie and smalenes of the assumed humour and also all the humour acquired is consumed into a loose and euaporate flesh And to conclude this Anatomie I will adde a short description vvhich Gregorius Macer a Phisition wrote to Gesner 1558. by his owne dissection as followeth saying As I lay at rest in a greene field there came vnto mee a great Serpent hyssing holdding vp her necke which I suddainly with a peece of vvood amazed at a stroake and so slevv without perrill to my selfe Afterward sticking her fast to a pale I drevv off her skin which was verie fast and sharpe and I found betwixt the skinne the flesh a certaine little thinne skinne descending all vppon the body with the outward skinne and this vvas some-what fat And when I came vnto the place of excrements I found it like a Fishes but there issued forth certaine filth farre exceeding in stinking sauour the excrements of a man After I had thus pulled off the skinne it was easie for mee to looke into the inward parts which I found to answere the inward Anatomy of Fishes Fowles in some parts and in other things there appeared a proper disposition to the Serpent it selfe For the arterie Trachaea was about three or foure fingers long turned about with little round circles and so discended to the lights vnto which the hart and the bladder contayning the gall did adhaere or cleaue fast Then the liuer was long like the fish Lucius and so a white caule or fatnes couered both the liuer and stomack which was halfe a spanne long The guttes began at the chappes and so descended downe to the place of excrements as vvee see they doe in Fishes Beneath the liuer were the guttes vpon either side descended a certaine neruy or hard veine vnto which the egges did cleaue which were couered with such little skinnes as Hennes egges are before they be layd but yet they were distinguished in seate or place because of their multitude for vpon either side I found two and thirty egges The tongue of the Serpent was clouen and very sharpe but there appeared not any poyson therein And so it is euident that in the veine Trachaea hart and lights it agreeth with Birdes in the liuer guttes and caule it resembleth a Fish but in the place of the gall and disposition of the egges it differeth from both And thus farre Macer with whose words I will conclude this Chapter of Serpents Anatomie Of the quantitie of Serpents and theyr abode foode and other accidents SO great is the quantitie of Serpents and their long during age increaseth them to so great a stature that I am almost afraide to relate the same least some suspitious and enuious minded persons should vtterly condemne it for fabulous but yet when I consider not onely the plentifull testimonies of worthy and
Pliny saith that if you take out the right eye of a serpent and so bind it about any part of you that it is of great force against the watering or dropping of the eyes by meanes of a rhume issuing out thereat if the serpent be againe let goe aliue And so hee saith that a serpents or snakes hart if either it be bitten or tyed to any part of you that it is a present remedie for the tooth-ach and hee addeth further that if any man doe â—ast of the snakes hart that he shall neuer after be hurt of any serpent Paulus Venetus in his second booke chap. 40 writeth howe that in the Prouince of Caraiam there be serpents of exceeding greatnes which beeing killed the inhabitants of the Country doe pull out their gall which they vse to prize at a verie high rate when they sell any of it for it is very medicinall so that they which are byt of a madde dogge if they take inwardlie in any drinke but the quantitie of a penny weight of this gall they are presently cured And if a woman be in her trauaile of child-birth if shee tast neuer so little of this gall the birth will be the more speedie So if any be troubled either with the Pyles or Haemerrhoides in the fundament if that the place be annoynted with this gall after a few dayes he is set free from his disease Hippocrates giueth the seede of serpents as a remedie against the suffocation of the belly Nicholaus Myrepsus preseribeth this medicine against straines hardnesses Take a dead serpent put him into a new pot luting it very well with Gypsum then set it in a furnace that it may be burnt after that commixe the ashes of a serpent with an equall portion of the seedes of Fennegreke so being wrought vp with Attick-hony throughly disgested annoynt the place affected And with him agreeth Pliny who expresly affirmeth that the ashes of snakes and serpents beeing annoynted vpon Strumes eyther with oyle or waxe is a singuler medicine And likewise to drinke the ashes of a serpent that is burrit to powder in new earthen potte is very good but it will be the more effectuall if the serpents be killed betweene two tracks or forrowes that are made with Cart-wheeles The ashes of a serpent burnt with salt in a pot beeing put with oyle of Roses into the contrary eare helpeth the tooth-ach An vnguent against the Morphue prescribed by Olaus Magnus Take of the ashes of a serpent burnt in a newe pot and well couered two ounces Lytarge Galbanum Ammoniacum and Opponax dissolued in Vineger three ounces boyle them vntill the Vineger be consumed then straine them putting to them of Turpentine three ounces Frankinsence Masticke and Sarcocolla three ounces Saffron two ounces working them with a Spathulor till they be cold The powder of a burnt serpent is likewise good against Fistuloes The fat of a snake or serpent mixt with oyle is good against Strumes as Pliny saith The fat of snakes mixt with Verdegrease healeth the parts about the eyes that haue any rupture To which agreeth the Poet when he saith Anguibus ereptos adipes â—rugine misce Hipoterant ruptos oculorum iungere partes Which may be thus englished The fat of snakes mingled with yron-rust The parts of eyes doth mend which erst were burst It is certaine that barrennesse commeth by meanes of that grieuous torment and paine in child-birth and yet Olympias of Thebes is of opinion that this is remedied with a Bulls gall the fat of serpents and Verdegrease with some honie added to them the place beeing there with annointed before the comming together of both parts When a Woman is not able to conceiue by meanes of weakenesse in the retentiue vertue then there is no doubt but there must needes growe some membrane in the bellies entrance for which it is not amisse to make a Pessarie of the fat of a serpent verdegrease the fat of a Bull mixt together c. and to be applied Hippocrates in lib. de Sterilibus Gesner had a friend who signified to him by his Letters that the fat of a Serpent vvas sent to him from those sulphureous Bathes which were neere vnto Cameriacum and was sold at a very deere rate namely twelue poundes for euery ounce and sometimes deerer They vse to mixe it with the emplaister of Iohn de Vigo that famous Chirurgeon for all hardnesses nodes and other priuie vnseene though not vnfelt torments proceeding of the Spanish-poxe They vse it yet further against leprous swellings and pimples and to smooth and thinne the skinne Matthiolus saith that the fat of a black Serpent is mixt to good purpose with those oyntments that are prepared against the French or Spanishpox And Pliny mixeth their fat with other conuenient medicines to cause haire to grow againe The suffumigation of an old serpent helpeth the monthlie course Michaell Aloisius saith that oyle of Serpents decocted with the flowers of Cowsleps euer remembring to gather and take that which swimmeth at the toppe is singuler to annoynt podagricall persons there-with NOvv followeth the preparing of Serpents Take a Mountaine-Serpent that hath a blacke backe and a vvhite bellie cut off his taile euen hard to the place where he sendeth forth his excrements and take away his head with the breadth of foure fingers then take the residue squise out the blood into some vessell keeping it in a glasse carefully then fley him as you doe an Eele beginning from the vpper grosser part and hang the skinne vpon a stick and dry it then deuide it in the middle and referue all diligently You must wash the flesh and put it in a pot boyling it in two parts of Wine and beeing well and throughly boyled you must season the broth with good spices and Aromaticall or cordiall powders and so eate it But if you haue a mind to rost it it must be so rosted as it may not be burnt and yet that it may be brought into powder and the powder thereof must be eaten together with other meat because of the loathing and dreadfull name and conceit of a serpent for beeing thus burned it preserueth a man from all feare of any future Lepry and expelleth that which is present It keepeth youth causing a good colour aboue all other Medicines in the vvorld it cleereth the eye-sight gardeth surelie from gray haires and keepeth from the Falling-sicknes It purgeth the head from all infirmitie and beeing eaten as before is said it expelleth scabbines the like infirmities with a great number of other diseases But yet such a kind of Serpent as before wee haue described and not any other beeing also eaten freeth one from deafenes You may also finelie mince the heads and tayles of Serpents feede there-with chickins or geese beeing mingled with crummes of bread or Oates and these Geese or Chickins beeing eaten they helpe to take away the Leprosie and all other foulenesse in mans
warme doth play vpon the sandes Oh what a shame of wicked gaine must we then vndergoe Which Libian deathes and aspish wares haue brought into our lands Their abode is for the most part in dryest soyles except the Chelidonian or water Aspe which liue in the bankes of Nylus all the yeare long as in a house safe Castle but when they perceiue that the water will ouer flow they forsake the bankes sides for safegard of their liues betake them to the Mountaines Sometimes also they will ascend and climbe trees as appeareth by an Epigram of Anthologius It is a horrible fearefull and terrible Serpent going slovvly hauing a vveake sight alvvayes sleepy and drowzy but a shrill and quicke sence of hearing whereby shee is vvarned and aduertised of all noyse which when she heareth presently she gathereth her selfe round into a circle and in the middest lifteth vp her terrible head Wherein a man may note the gratious prouidence of almighty GOD which hath giuen as many remedies against euill as there are euils in the world For the dulnesse of this Serpents sight and slownes of her pace doth keepe her from many mischiefes These properties are thus expressed by Nicander Formidabile cui corpus tardumque volumen Quandoquidem transuer sa via est prolixaque ventris Spira veternosique niuere videntur ocelli At simul ac facili forte abseruarit aure Vel minimum strepitum segnes è corpore somnos Exoutit teretem sinuat mox aspera tractum Horrendumque caput porrectaque pectora tollit In English thus This feared Aspe hath slow and winding pace When as her way on belly she doth trauerse Her eyes shrunke in her head winking appeare in face Till that some noyse her watchfull eare doth rauish Then sleepe shak't off round is her body gathered With dreadfull head on mounted necke vp lifted The voyce of the Aspe is hissing like all other Serpents and seldome is it heard to vtter any voyce or sound at all except when she is endangered or ready to set vpon her enemy Whereupon saith Nicander Graue sibilat ipsa Bestia dum certam vomit ira concita mortem In English thus This beast doth hisse with great and lowdest breath VVhen in her moode she threateneth certaine death That place of Dauid Psalme 58. which is vulgarly read a death Adder is more truely translated A deafe Aspe which when she is enchanted to auoyde the voyce of the Charmer she stoppeth one of her eares with her taile and the other she holdeth hard to the earth And of this incantation thus writeth Vincentius Belluacensis Virtute quorundā verborum incantatum aspis ne veneno interinat vel vt quidam dicunt vt quieta capi possit gemma de fronte eius auferri quae naturaliter in eo nascitur that is to say The Aspe is enchanted by vertue of certaine vvords so as she cannot kill with her poyson or as some say be taken quietly without resistance and so the Gemme or pretious stone be taken out of her forehead which naturally groweth therein And from the wordes of the Psalme a foresaid not onely the certaintie and effectuall vse of charming is gathered by Pierius but also by many iustified in the case of Serpents Whereof I haue already giuen mine opinion in the former generall Treatise vnto the which I will onely adde thus much in conclusion which I haue found in a certaine vnnamed Authour Daemones discurrunt cum verbis ad serpentes infectione interiori hoc faciunt vt serpentes ad nutum eorum moueantur ac sine laesione tractabiles exhibeantur Which is thus much in effect Deuils runne vp downe with words of enchauntment to Serpents and by an inward or secrete infection they bring to passe that the Serpents dispose thēselues after their pleasure and so are handled without all harme And indeed that it may appeare to be manifest that this incantation of Serpents is from the deuill and not from God this onely may suffice any reasonable man because the Psalmist plainely expresseth that the serpent shifteth it off auoideth Peritissimos mussitantium incantationes the most skilfull Charmers Now if it came from the vnresistable power of almighty God it should passe the resistance of them or deuills but beeing a fallacie of the deuill the serpent wiser in this poynt then men that beleeue it easily turneth tayle against it and in this thing we may learne to be wise as Serpents against the inchaunting temptations of the deuill or men which would beguile vs with shadowes of words and promises of no valuable pleasures If we may belieue Pliny Elianus and Philarchus the Egyptians liued familiarly vvith Aspes and with continued kindnes wanne them to be tame For indeede among other parts of their sauage beastlines they worshipped Aspes euen as houshold Gods by meanes whereof the subtill serpent grewe to a sensible conceit of his owne honour and freedome and therefore would walke vp and downe and play with their children doing no harme except they were wronged and would come and licke meate from the table when they were called by a certaine significant noyse made by knacking of the fingers For the guests after theyr dinner would mixe together hony wine and meale and then giue the signe at the hearing whereof they would all of them come foorth of their holes and creeping vp or lifting their heads to the table leauing their lower parts on the ground there licked they the said prepared meate in great temperance by little little without any rauening and then afterward departed when they were filled And so great is the reuerence they beare to Aspes that if any in the house haue neede to rise in the night time out of theyr beds they first of all giue out the signe or token least they should harme the Aspe and so prouoke it against them at the hearing whereof all the Aspes get them to their holes and lodgings till the person stirring be layd againe in his bed The holy kind of Aspes they call Thermusis and this is vsed and fedde in all their temples of Isis with the fat of Oxen or Kine Once in the yeere they crowne with them the Image of Isis and they say that this kind is not an enemy to men except to such as are very euill wherevpon it is death to kill one of them willingly It is reported of a certaine Gardiner making a ditch or trench in his Vineyarde by chaunce and ignorantly he set his spade vpon one of these Thermusis Aspes and so cut it asunder and when he turnd vp the earth he found the hinder-part dead and the fore-part bleeding and stirring at which sight his superstitious hart ouercome with a vaine feare became so passionately distressed that he fell into a vehement and lamentable frenzie So as all the day time he was not his owne man and in the night in his madde fits leapt out of his bed crying out with pittifull eager
to feele a certaine pleasant itching but it is not long before hee perceiueth a great burning within loathing and detesting of meate and a continuall desire to vomit and goe to the stoole which neuerthelesse hee cannot doe At length vnlesse speedy succour be giuen they so miserably burne and parch the body that they bring a hard crustines skurffe or scald vpon the stomacke as though the sides thereof had beene plaistered with some hard shardes or other like thinges after the manner of Arsenicke as Dioscorides Aetius Pliny and Celsus doc assure vs. In like manner Galen in his eleuenth booke Simp. cap. 50. And Auicen 505. cap. 25. haue testified the same And for this cause Aetius and Aegineta doe say that it is nothing wholesome for any to sit downe to meate to spread the Table or make any long tariance vnder any Pine tree least peraduenture through the sauour or smell of the meates the reeke or vapour of their broathes or noyse of men the Pityocampies beeing disturbed from theyr homes and vsuall resting places might fall downe either into their meates beneath or at least-wise cast downe or let fall any of their seede as poysonous as themselues They that receiue hurt by them must haue recourse to those preseruatiues and medicines as were prescribed to those that were poysoned by Cantharides for by them they are to be cured and by no other meanes Yet for all that oyle of Quinces is properly commended to vomit withall in this case which must be taken twise or thrise euen by the prescript of Dioscorides and Aetius They are generated or to speake more aptly they are regenerated after the maner of Vine-fretters which are a kind of Catterpillers or little hayrie wormes with many feete that eate Vines when they begin to shoote of that Autumnall seede of theirs left reserued in certaine small bagges or bladders within their webbes There is another sort of these Catterpillers who haue no certaine place of abode nor yet cannot tell where to find theyr foode but like vnto superstitious Pilgrims doe wander and stray hither and thither and like Mise consume and eate vp that which is none of their owne and these haue purchased a very apt name amongst vs Englishmen to be called Palmer-wormes by reason of their wandering and rogish life for they neuer stay in one place but are euer wandering although by reason of their roughnes and ruggednes some call them Beare-wormes They can by no meanes endure to be dyeted and to feede vpon some certaine herbes and flowers but boldly and disorderly creepe ouer all and tast of all plants and trees indifferently and liue as they lift There are sundry other sorts of these Cankers or Catterpillers to be found in the herbes called Cranes-bill Ragwort Petie-Mullen Hoppes Coleworts Hasells Marigolds Fenell Lycorice Basill Alder Night shade Water-Betony Garden-spurge other sorts of that herbe in Elme-trees Peare-trees Nettles and Gilliflowers Yea there is not any plant to be found which hath not his proper and peculiar enemy and destroyer all which because they are so commonly knowne of all though perhaps not of all obserued I will least I should seeme to be infinite passe ouer with silence But yet I will adde a word or two of a strange and stinking Catter-piller which it was neuer my hap as yet to see described by Corradus Gesner in these wordes following This stinking Catterpiller saith he is very like to those that are horned but yet it wanteth hornes differing froÌ„ them all in colour I first espyed it creeping vpon a wall toward the end of August Anno. 1550. there commeth from it a lothsome and an abhominable sauour smell so that you would verily beleeue it to be very venomous It went forwards very frowningly with a quick angry and despightfull countenaunce as it were in bending wise the head alwaies stretched vp aloft with the former two feete I iudge her to be blind She was the length and breadth of a mans finger with a fewe scattering and rugged hayres somewhat bristly hard both on her backe and sides the backe was very blacke The colour of her belly and sides was some-what redde enclining to yellow and the whole body was distinguished deuided and easily discerned with foureteene ioynts or knots and euery ioynt had a certaine furrow like a kind of wrinckle running all along the back Her head was blacke and some-what hard her mouth crookedly bending like hookes hauing teeth notched like a saw and with these teeth as with pincers or nyppers whatsoeuer she layd hold on she as famished did bite She went on sixteene feete as for the most part all the sorts of Palmer-wormes doe Without doubt she must be concluded to be exceeding venomous The learned man Vergerus tooke it to be a Pityocampe and others thought it a Scolopendra but that could not be by reason of the number of her feete I could hardly with much adoe endure her vyle smell till I had drawne out her description Shee so infected two hot-houses with her abhominable sauour and stinke that my selfe and they that were with me could not endure in the place Thus farre Gesner as I haue to shew out of certaine scroles of paper of his neuer as yet imprinted Now will I proceede to discourse of the originall generation aliment and metamorphosis of Catterpillers Chare liber nostrûm test is benefide laborum Ne tua purpureo suffuderis or a rubore Agrestes abacis tine as si expressere nostris Vermiculosque leuem qui in the cam vellera mutant Hi siquidem artificis prudenti pollice Dij Finguntur tenui qui non tenuatur opella Et qui vermiculis dextrae miranda potentis Signa suae prodit potius quám corpore vasti Molifero Barnhi tumido vel robore Ceti Equam antisque alijs qui lata per aequoratentant Fulmine as sine mente minas et nostra profundo Lintea quá mergant large mare gutture ructant Which may be englished thus Deere Booke a witnes of my labour true Be not ashamed to write of little wormes Nor Catterpillers which from base things ensue And into easie cases againe returnes For these are fram'd by hand of GOD most wise Neuer abased in any worke so small For out of Wormes his wonders doe arise As well as from great beasts so tall Tower-bearing Elephant huge Whale And other monsters swimming in the Seas Irefull beasts in hills and deepest dale Death threatning to all that them displease For so I thinke it best to beginne with the verses of a good Poet who indeede did see and admire the inscrutable wisedome and diuine prouidenâ—â— of the Almightie in the generation and breeding of Catterpillers Which whilst diuers Authours laboured to expresse and set downe diuersly I knowe not what clowdes of errors they haue thrust vs into for swaruing themselues besides the way although they pretend a matchlesse vnderstanding in these misteries of Phylosophy they haue caused others to tread awry
the Trochilus doth awake the sleeping Crocodile when he seeth the Ichneumon lye in waite to enter into her I leaue it to the credite of Strabo the reporter and to the discretion of the indifferent Reader Monkeyes are also the haters of Crocodiles as is shewed in theyr story lye in waite to discouer and if it were in their power to destroy them The Scorpion also the crocodile are enemies one to the other and therefore when the Egyptians will describe the combat of two notable enimies they paint a crocodile and a Scorpion fighting together for euer one of them killeth another but if they will decypher a speedy ouerthrow to ones enemy then they picture a Crocodile if a slow and slacke victory they picture a Scorpion And as wee haue already shewed out of Philes that out of the egges of crocodiles many times come Scorpions which deuoure and destroy them that lay them Fishes also in their kinde are enemies to Crocodiles the first place whereof belongeth to the most noble Dolphin Of these Dolphins it is thought there be two kinds one bred in Nilus the other forraine and comming out of the Sea both of them professed enemies to the Crocodile for the first it hath vpon the backe of it sharp thorny prickles or finnes as sharp as any speares poynt which are well knowne to the fish that beareth them as her armour and weapons against all aduersaries In the trust and confidence of these prickles the Dolphin will allure and draw out the Crocodile from his denne or lodging place into the depth of the Riuer and there fight with him hand to hand For the Dolphin as it knoweth his owne armour and defence like other beasts and fishes so doth it knowe the weakest parts of his aduersary and where his aduantage of wounding lyeth Now as we haue said already the belly of the Crocodile is weake hauing but a thinne skin and penetrable with small force wherefore when the Dolphin hath the Crocodile in the midst of the deepe waters like one afrayd of the fight vnderneath him he goeth with his sharp finnes or prickles on his backe giueth his weake and tender belly mortall wounds whereby his vitall spirits with his guts entralls are quickly euacuated The other Dolphins of the Sea being greater are likewise armed with these prickles and of purpose come out of the Sea into Nilus to bid battell to the Crocodiles When Bibillus a worthy Romane was Gouernour of Egypt hee affirmed that on a season the Dolphins and the Crocodiles mette in the mouth of Nilus and bade battell the one to the other as it were for the soueraigntie of the waters and after that sharp combat it was seene how the Dolphins by diuing in the waters did auoyd the byting of the Crocodiles and the Crocodiles dyed by strokes receiued from the Dolphins vpon their bellyes And when many of them were by this meanes as it were cut asunder the residue betooke themselues to flight and ranne away giuing way to the Dolphins The Crocodiles doe also feare to meddle with the Sea-hogge or Hog-fish because of his bristles all about his head which hurt him also when he commeth nigh him or rather I suppose as it is a friend to the Swine of the earth and holdeth with them a sympathy in nature so it is vnto the Swine of the water and forbeareth one in the Sea as it doth the other on the Land There is likewise a certaine Wild-oxe or Bugill among the Parthians which is an enemie to the Crocodile for as Albertus writeth if he find or meete with a Crocodile out of the water he is not onely not afrayd of him but taketh hart and setteth vppon him and with the waight and violent agitation of his body treadeth him all to pectes no maruaile for all beasts are enemies to the Crocodiles on the Land euen as the Crocodile lyeth in waite to destroy all them in the water Hawkes are also enemies to Crocodiles especially the Ibis-bird so that if but a feather of the Ibis come vpoÌ„ the crocodile by chance or by direction of a mans hand it maketh it immoueable and cannot stirre For vvhich cause when the Egyptians will write or decypher a rauâ—ning greedy idle-fellowe they paynt a Crocodile hauing an Ibis feather sticking in his head And thus much for the enmitie betwixt the Crocodiles and other liuing creatures It hath beene sildome seene that Crocodiles were taken yet it is saide that men hunt them in the waters for Pliny saith that there is an assured perswasion that with the gall and fat of a Water-Adder men are wonderfully holpen as it were armed against Crocodiles and by it enabled to take and destroy them especially when they carry also about them the herbe Potamegeton There is also a kind of thorny Wilde-beane growing in Egypt which hath many sharpe prickles vpon the stalkes this is a great terrour to the Crocodile for he is in great dread of his eyes which are very tender easie to be wounded Therefore he auoydeth their sight being more vnwilling to aduenture vpon a man that beareth them or one of them then he is to aduenture vpon a man in compleate Armour and therefore all the people plant great store of these and also beare them in theyr hands when they trauaile There be many who in the hunting and prosecuting of these Crocodiles doe neither giue themselues to runne away from them nor once to turne aside out of theyr common path or roade but in a foolish hardinesse giue themselues to combat with the beast when they might very well auoyd the danger but many times it hapneth that they pay decrely for their rashnes and repent too late the too much reputation of their owne man-hoode for whiles with their speares and sharpe weapons they thinke to pierce his sides they are deceiued for there is no part of him penetrable except his belly and that he keepeth safe enough from his enemies blunting vpon his scales no lesse hard then plates ofyron all the violence of theyr blowes and sharpnesse of weapons but clubbes beetles and such like weapons are more irkesome to him when they be sette on with strength battering the scales to his body and giuing him such knocks as doth dismay and astonish him Indeede there is no great vse of the taking of this Serpent nor profit of merchandize commeth thereby his skinne and flesh yeelding no great respect in the world In auncient time they tooke them with hookes bayted with flesh or els inclosed them with nettes as they doe fishes and now and then with a strong yron instrument cast out a boat downe into the water vpon the head of the Crocodile And among all other there is this one worthy to be related The Hunter would take off the skin from a Swines backe and there-withall couer his hooke whereby hee allured and inticed the Serpent into the midst of the Riuer there
turning ball Or Seythian reede remou'd with windy breath This kind of Serpent is for the most part in Lybia in Rhodes in Lemnus in Italy Calabria and Sicilia and in many of the Northerne Countries and also in Germany wherof Gesner telleth this story following There is heere the Coasts of Zuricke a Riuer called Glat and a village or towne vpon that Riuer Glatfelden Neare this Riuer as a poore man was gathering wood there was a serpent of some three or foure foote long which from a tree endeuoured to leape vpon the poore man by gathering his body together as it were into foure spires or risings like halfe hoopes the man seeing it left his saâ—ke and ranne away neuerthelesse the Serpent leaped after him at the least sixteene or seuenteene foote but yet for that time hee last turned about him and not seeing the Serpent to follow him gathered courage and comfort and would come back againe for his sacke that he had left behind him The crafty Serpent expecting so much had set himselfe againe into another tree and priuily lay till the man came for his sacke and then ere he was aware came flying at him as hee did before and presently winded about his left arme All his body except his taile hung downe and his neck which he held vp hiâ—â—ing in the mans face the man hauing no sleeue on his arme except his shirt yet did the serpent so presse the skin and flesh that the circles of his winding spires and prints of his body appeared therein after he was taken off yet did he not bite the man for the poore country-fellow did presently with his other hand take him by the head and cast him away notwithstanding he had so foulded himselfe about his arme shortly after that arme becaâ—â—â— to grow mattery and all the flesh to the bone consumed yet was all the rotten puttyâ—… enuenomed flesh and substance by the skill of a worthy learned Physition taken aâ—… and as good flesh brought in the roome thereof as euer was before yet was the maâ—…ry yeare prescribed to let that arme bleede and then issued foorth blacke thicke 〈…〉 some of the woundes or rather scarres of the poyson outwardly remaining In the Northerne partes they leape tenne foote at a time first gathering tâ—…elues into the similitudes of Bowes or halfe Hoopes and then fight with those 〈◊〉 they would deuour making many times a noyse among the Hearbes or Floweâ—…ich are parched or withered by the Sunne and therefore by the bounty of GOD 〈◊〉 nature theyr owne noyse bewrayeth them to their supitious aduersaries and so 〈◊〉 times are auoyded in safety Like vnto these are certaine in Hungary as Vâ—…â—…ported â—…ported vnto Gesner whose bodies are of an equall crassitude or thicknesse so as 〈◊〉 appeare without tailes being for that purpose called Decurtati Curtailes these in tâ—â—â—ame manner do leape vpon men as these Darters do but they are very short sildome â—…ding the length of two hands breadth There is some difference among Authours about the nature of this Serpent for Aelianus confoundeth it with the Snake of the Earth called Chersydrus and sayth it liueth sometime in the Water and sometime on the Land lying in waight to destroy all lyuing Creatures And hee sayth it vseth this fraud it euer lyeth hidde in secret neere the high-wayes and many times climbeth vppe into trees where it roundeth it selfe round into a circle and hideth his head within the foldes of his owne body so soone as euer it espyeth a Passenger eyther a man or beast it leapeth vppon him as swift as a Dart flyeth For it is able to leape twenty cubits space and so lighting vppon the man or beast sticketh fast vnto it without falling off of his owne accord vntill they fall downe dead But herein Aelianus seemeth to be deceiued because hee maketh but one Serpent of twaine namely this Dart and the Land-Snake which are most apparantly different in nature kind and quality Aetius also confoundeth this serpent with the Millet-serpent called Cenchrites and sayth it is of the quantity of two cubits great on the head and the fore part smaller at the tayle being of a greenish colour And he saith further that at such time as the Millet-seede groweth and flowrisheth this serpent is most strong and hurtfull and so with the residue hee agreeth vvith Aelianus but heerein hee is also deceiued writing by here say as himselfe confesseth and therefore it is more safe for vs to haue recourse to some eie-witnesse for the description of this serpent then to stand vppon the opinions of them which writ by the relation of others Bellonius saith that he saw one of these in Rhodes being full of small round black spots not greater then the seedes of Lentiles euery one hauing a round circle about him like an eye after such fashion as is to be seene in the little Eish called the Torpedo In length it exceedeth not three palmes and in bignesse no greater then the little finger It was of an Ashe-colour comming neere to the whitenesse of Milke but vnder the belly it was altogether white vpon the backe it had scales but vppon the belly a thin skin as in all other Serpents The vpper part of the backe was somewhat blacke hauing two blacke lines in the middle which beginne at the head and so are drawne along the whole body to the tayle As for the Cafezati and Alterarati or Altinatyri those are redde Serpentes as Autcen saith which are but small in quantity yet as deep and deadly in poyson as in any other for they hurt in the same manner that these Darters do Some of theÌ„ do so wound with theyr poyson as the afflicted person dyeth incontinent without sence or payne Some againe dye by languishing payne after many hopes of recouery loosing life Among all the people of the Worlde the Sabians are most annoyed with this kinde of redde Serpentes for they haue many odoriferous and sweete smelling Woods in the which these Serpentes doe abound but such is their rage and hatred against men that they leape vppon them and wounde them deadly whensoeuer they come within their compasse And surely if it be lawfull to coniecture what kinde of Serpentes those were which in the Scripture are called fiery Serpentes and did sting the Israelites to death in the Wildernesse vntill the brazen Serpent was erected for their cure among all the Serpentes in the world that kind of paine and death can be ascribed to none more porperly then to these Cafezati or Red-Dart-Serpents For first the wildernesse which was the place wherein they annoyed the people doth very well agree to their habitation Secondly those fiery Serpentes are so called by figure not that they were firey but as all Writers doe agree eyther because they were redde like fire or else because the paine which they inflicted did burne like fire or rather for both these causes together which are ioyntly and seuerally found in these red Serpents
mouthes vppon euery iawe and with most bright and cleere-seeing eyes vvhich caused the Poets to faine in their writings that these dragons are the watchfull-keepers of Treasures They haue also two dewlappes grovving vnder their chinne and hanging downe like a beard which are of a redde colour theyr bodies are sette all ouer with very sharpe scales and ouer theyr eyes stand certaine flexible eye-liddes When they gape wide with their mouth and thrust foorth their tongue theyr teeth seeme very much to resemble the teeth of Wilde-Swine And theyr neckes haue many times grosse thicke hayre growing vpon them much like vnto the bristles of a VVilde-Boare Their mouth especially of the most tame-able Dragons is but little not much bigger then a pype through which they drawe in theyr breath for they wound not vvith theyr mouth but with theyr tayles onely beating with thē when they are angry But the Indian Ethiopian and Phrygian dragons haue very wide mouthes through which they often swallow in whole foules and beasts Theyr tongue is clouen as if it were double and the Investigators of nature doe say that they haue fifteene teeth of a side The males haue combes on their heads but the females haue none and they are likewise distinguished by their beards They haue most excellent sences both of seeing and hearing and for this cause theyr name Drakon cōmeth of Derkein and this was one cause why Iupiter the Heathens great God is said to be metamorphised into a Dragon whereof there flieth this tale vvhen he fell in loue with Proserpina he rauished her in the likenes of a dragon for hee came vnto her and couered her with the spires of his body and for this cause the people of Sabazij did obserue in their misteries or sacrifices the shape of a dragon rowled vp within the cōpasse of his spires so that as he begot Ceres with child in the likenes of a Bull he likewise deluded her daughter Proserpina in the likenes of a dragon but of these transmutations we shall speake more afterwards I thinke the vanity of these tooke first ground frō the Affricans who beleeue that the originall of dragons tooke beginning from the vnnaturall cōiunction of an Eagle a shee-Wolfe And so they say that the Wolfe growing great by this conception doth not bring forth as at other times but her belly breaketh and the dragon commeth out who in his beake and wings resembleth the dragon his father and in his feete and tayle the vvolfe his mother but in the skin neither of them both but this kind of fabulus generation is already sufficiently confuted Their meates are fruites and herbes or any venomous creature therfore they liue long without foode and when they eate they are not easily filled They grow most fat by eating of egs in deuouring wherof they vse this Art if it be a great dragon he swalloweth it vp whole and then rowleth him selfe whereby hee crusheth the egges to peeces in his belly and so nature casteth out the shells keepeth in the meate But if it be a young dragon as if it were a dragons whelp he taketh the egge within the spire of his tayle and so crusheth it hard holdeth it fast vntill his scales open the shell like a knife then sucketh hee out of the place opened all the meate of the egge In like sort do the young ones pull off the feathers frō the foules which they eate and the old ones swallow them whole casting the feathers out of theyr bellyes againe The dragons of Phrygia when they are hungry turne themselues toward the west gaping wide with the force of their breath doe draw the birdes that flie ouer their heads into their throats which some haue thought is but a voluntary lapse of the fowles to be drawne by the breath of the dragon as by a thing they loue but it is more probable that some vaporous and venomous breath is sent vp from the dragon to them that poysoneth and infecteth the ayre about them whereby their sences are taken from them and they astonished fall downe into his mouth But if it fortune the dragons find not foode enough to satisfie their hunger then they hide themselues vntill the people be returned from the market or the Heard-men bring home their flocks and vppon a suddaine they deuoure eyther men or beastes which come first to their mouthes then they goe againe and hide themselues in their dennes and hollow Caues of the earth for theyr bodies beeing exceeding hote they very sildome come out of the cold earth except to seeke meate and nourishment And because they liue onely in the hottest Countries therefore they commonlie make theyr lodgings neere vnto the waters or else in the coldest places among the Rocks and stones They greatlie preserue their health as Aristotle affirmeth by eating of Wild-lettice for that they make them to vomit and cast foorth of theyr stomacke what-soeuer meate offendeth them and they are most speciallie offended by eating of Apples for theyr bodies are much subiect to be filled with winde and therefore they neuer eate Apples but first they eate Wilde-lettice Theyr sight also as Plutarch sayth doth many times grow weake and feeble and therefore they renew and recouer the same againe by rubbing their eyes against Fennell or else by eating of it Their age could neuer yet be certainely knowne but it is coniectured that they liue long and in great health like to all other Serpents therefore they grow so great They doe not onely liue on the land as we haue said already but also swimme in the water for many times they take the Sea in Ethyopia foure or fiue of them together folding theyr tayles like hurdles and holding vp their heads so swim they ouer to seeke better foode in Arabia We haue said already that when they set vpon Elephants they are taken and killed of men now the manner how the Indians kill the Mountaine-dragons is thus they take a garment of Scarlet and picture vpon it a charme in golden letters this they lay vpon the mouth of the Dragons denne for with the redde colour and the gold the eyes of the dragon are ouer-come and he salleth asleepe the Indians in the meane-season watching muttering secretly words of Incantation when they perceiue he is fast asleepe suddainely they strike off his necke with an Axe and so take out the balls of his eyes wherein are lodged those rare precious stones which containe in them vertues vnvtterable as hath beene euidently prooued by one of them that was included in the Ring of Gyges Manie times it falleth out that the dragon draweth in the Indian both with his Axe and Instruments into his denne and there deuoureth him in the rage whereof hee so beateth the Mountaine that it shaketh When the dragon is killed they make vse of the skin eyes teeth and flesh as for the flesh it is of a vitriall or glassie colour and the Ethiopians doe eate it
doth deliuer him from his cough and being bound in a Cranes skinne vnto a mans thigh procureth venerious desires but these are but magicall deuices and such as haue no apparant reason in nature wherefore I vvill omit them and proceede to them that are more reasonable naturall First for the Oyle of Frogs that is the best which is made out of the Greene-Frogs as it is obserued by Siluius and if they are held betwixt a mans handes in the fit of hot burning Ague do much refresh nature and ease the paine For Feauer-heptickes they prepare theÌ„ thus they take such frogs as haue white bellies then cut off their heads and pull out their bowels afterwards they seeth them in water vntill the flesh fall from the bones theÌ„ they mingle the said flesh with Barly Meale made into Paste wherewithall they cram feed Pullen with that paste vpon which the sicke man must be fed and in default of Frogs they do the like with Eeles and other like Fishes But there is no part of the Frog so medicinable as is the bloud called also the matter or the iuyce and the humour of the Frogge although some of them write that there is no bloud but in the eyes of a Frogge first therefore with this they kill haire for vpon the place where the haire was puld off they poure this bloud and then it neuer groweth more And this as I haue said already is an Argument of the venome of this Frogge and it hath beene proued by experience that a man holding one of these Frogges in his hand his hands haue begunne to swell and to break out into blisters Of this vertue Serenus the Poet writeth Praeterea quascunque voles auertere setas Atque in perpetuum rediuiua occludere tela Corporibus vulsis saniem perducito ranae Sed quae parua situ est rauco garula questu That is to say Besides from whatsoeuer bodyes haires thou will Be cleane destroyed and neuer grow againe On them the mattery bloud of Frogs all spread and spill I meane the little Frog questing hoarse voyce amaine The same also being made into a Verdigreace drunke the weight of a Crowne stoppeth the continuall running of the vrine The humour which commeth out of this Frog being aliue when the skinne is scraped off from her backe cleareth the eyes by annoyntment and the flesh laid vpon them easeth their paines the flesh and fat pulleth out teeth The povvder made of this Frogge beeing drunke stayeth bleeding and also expelleth spots of bloud dryed in the body The same being mingled with Pitch cureth the falling off of the haire And thus much shall suffice for the demonstration of the nature of this little Greene-Frogge OF THE PADDCKE OR CROOKED backe Frogge IT is apparent that there be three kinds of Frogs of the earth the first is the little greene Frog the second is this Padocke hauing a crooke back called in Latine Rubeta Gibbosa and the third is the Toade commonly called Rube tax Bufo This second kind is mute or dumbe as there be many kind of mire Frogges such as is that which the Germans call Feurkrott and our late Alchymists Puriphrunon that is a Fire-frogge because it is of the coloure of fire This is found deepe in the earth in the midst of Rocks and stones when they are cleft asunder and amongst mettalls where-into there is no hole or passage and therefore the wit of man cannot deuise how it should enter therein onely there they find them when they cleaue those stones in sunder with their wedges other instruments Such as these are are found neere Towers in Fraunce among a redde sandy stone whereof they make Milstones and therfore they breake that stone all in peeces before they make the Milstone vp least while the Paddock is included in the middle and the Mill-stone going in the Mill the heate should make the Paddocke swell and so the Mill-stone breaking the corne should be poysoned As soone as these Paddocks come once into the ayre out of their close places of generation and habitation they swell and so die This crooke-backed Paddocke is called by the Germans Gartenfrosch that is a Frog of the Garden and Grasfrosch that is a Frogge of the grasse It is not altogether mute for in time of perrill when they are chaced by men or by Snakes they haue a crying voyce which I haue oftentimes prooued by experience and all Snakes and Serpents doe verie much hunt and desire to destroy these also I haue seene a Snake hold one of them by the legge for because it was great she could not easily deuoure it during that time it made a pittifull lamentation These Paddocks haue as it were two little hornes or bunches in the middle of the back and their colour is betweene greene and yellow on the sides they haue redde spots and the feete are of the same colour their belly is white and that part of their backe which is directly ouer their breast is distinguished with a few blacke spots And thus much may serue for the particuler description of the Paddocke not differing in any other thing that I can reade of from the former Frogges it being venomous as they are and therefore the cure is to be expaected heereafter in the next history of the Toade OF THE TOADE TO conclude the story of Frogges we are now to make description and narration of the Toade which is the most noble kinde of Frogge most venomous and remarquable for courage and strength This is called in Hebrew by some Coah the Graecians call it Phrunon the Arabians Mysoxus the Germans Krott the Saxons Quap the Flemings Padde the Illirians Zaba the French â—rapault the Italians Rospo Botta Boffa Chiatto Zatta Buffo Buffa Buffone and ramarro the Spanyards Sapo escu erco the Latines Rubeta because it liueth among bushes and Bufu because it swelleth when it is angry Like vnto this there is a Toade in Fraunce called Bufo cornutus a horned Toade not because it hath hornes for that is most apparantly false but for that the voyce thereof is like to the sound of a Cornet or rather as I thinke like to a Rauen called Cornix and by a kind of barbarisme called Bufo cornutus The colour of this Toade is like Saffron on the one part and like filthy durt on the other besides there are other venomous Toades liuing in sinckes priuies and vnder the rootes of plants There is another kind also like to the Toade of the water but in steed of bones it hath onely grissels and it is bigger then the Toade of the Fenne liuing in hot places There is another also which although it be a Toade of the water yet hath it beene eaten for meate not many yeeres since the mouth of it is very great but yet without teeth which he doth many times put out of the water like a Torteyse to take breath and in taking of his meate which are flyes Locustes
Catterpillers gnattes and small creeping things it imitateth the Camaelion for it putteth out the tongue and licketh in his meate by the space of three fingers in the toppe whereof there is a soft place hauing in it viscous humour which causeth all thinges to cleaue fast vnto it which it toucheth by vertue whereof it deuoureth great flyes And therefore the said tongue is said to haue two little bones growing at the roote thereof which by the wonderfull worke of Nature doth guide fortifie strengthen it And thus much may serue as a sufficient relation vnto the Reader 〈◊〉 â—…uersitie of Toades Nowe wee will proceede to the common description of both kindes together This Toade is in all outward parts like vnto a Frogge the fore-feete beeing short and the hinder feete long but the bodie more heauy and swelling the colour of a blackish colour the skinne rough viscous and very hard so as it is not easie to be broken with the blowe of a staffe It hath many deformed spottes vppon it especially blacke on the sides the bellâ— exceeding all other parts of the body standing out in such manner that beeing smitten vvith a staffe it yeeldeth a sound as it were from a vault or hollow place The head is broade and thicke and the colour thereof on the nether part about the necke is white that is some-what pale the backe plaine without bunches and it is saide that there is a little bone growing in theyr sides that hath a vertue to driue away doggeâ— from him that beareth it about him and is therefore called Apocynon The whole aspect of this Toade is vglie and vnpleasant Some Authours affirme that it carrieth the hart in the necke and therefore it cannot easily be killed except the throate thereof be cutte in the middle Theyr liuer is very vitious and causeth the whole body to be of ill temperament And some say they haue two liuers Theyr melt is very small and as for theyr copulation and egges they differ nothing from Frogges There be many late Writers which doe affirme that there is a precious stone in the head of a Toade whose opinions because they attribute 〈◊〉 the veâ—… of this stone it is good to examine in this place that so the Reader may be satisfied whether to hold it as a fable or as a true matter exemplâ—fying the powerfull working of Almightie God in nature for there be many that weâ—re these stones in Ringes beeing verily 〈◊〉 aded that they keepe them from all manner of grypings and paines of the belly and the small guttes But the Art as they terme it is in taking of it out for they sayâ— must be taken out of the head aliue before the Toade be dead with a peece of cloth of the colour of redde Skarlet where-withall they aro much delighted so that while they stretch out theÌ„selues is it were in sport vpon that cloth they cast out the stone of their head but instantly they sâ—p it vp againe vnlesse it be taken from them through some secrete hole in the said cloth whereby it falleth into a cesterne or vessell of water into the which the Toade lateth not enter by reason of the coldnes of the water These things writeth â—assarius Brasauolus saith that he found such a thing in the head of a Toade but he rather tooke it to be a bone then a stone the colour wherof was browne inclyning to blacknes Some say it is double namely outwardly a hollow bone and inwardly a stone contained 〈◊〉 in the vertue whereof is said to breake preuent or cure the stone in the bladder now how this stone should be there ingendered there are diuers opinions also they say that stones are ingendered in liuing creatures two manner of wayes either through heate or extreame cold as in the Snaile Pearch Crabbe Indian Tortizes and Toades so that by extremitie of cold this stone should be gotten Against this opinion the colour of the stone is obiected which is some-times white sometimes browne or blackish hauing a cittrine or blew spot in the middle sometimes all greene wher-vpon is naturally engrauen the figure of a Toade and this stone is somtimes called Borax sometimes Crapodinae and sometimes Nisae or Nusae and Chelonites Others doe make two kindes of these stones one resembling a great deale of Milke mixed with a little blood so that the white exceedeth the Redde and yet both are apparant and visible the other all blacke wherein they say is the picture of a Toade with her legges spredde before and behind And it is further affirmed that if both these stones be held in ones hand in the presence of poyson it will burne him The probation of this stone is by laying of it to a liue Toade and if she lift vp her head against it it is good but if shee run away from it it is a counterfeyte Geor Agricola calleth the greater kind of these stones Brontia and the lesser smoother sort of stones Cerauniae although some coÌ„trary this opinion saying that these stones Brantia Cerauniae are bred on the earth by thundering and lightning Whereas it is said before that the generation of this stone in the Toade proceedeth of colde that is vtterly vnpossible for it is described to be so solide and firme as nothing can be more hard and therefore I cannot assent vnto that opinion for vnto hard and solide things is required abundance of heate and againe it is vnlikely that whatsoeuer this Toade-stone be that there should be any store of them in the world as are euery where visible if they were to be taken out of the Toades aliue and therefore I rather agree with Salueldensis a Spaniard who thinketh that it is begotten by a certaine viscous spume breathed out vppon the head of some Toade by her fellowes in the Spring-time This stone is that which in auncient time was called Batrachites and they attribute vnto it a vertue besides the former namely for the breaking of the stone in the bladder and against the Falling-sicknes And they further write that it is a discouerer of present poyson for in the presence of poyson it will change the colour And this is the substaunce of that which is written about this stone Now for my part I dare not conclude either with it or against it for Hermolaus Massarius Albertus Syluaticus and others are directlie for this stone ingendered in the braine or head of the Toade on the other side Cardan and Gesner confesse such a stone by name and nature but they make doubt of the generation of it as others haue deliuered and therefore they beeing in sundry opinions the hearing were of might confound the Reader I will referre him for his satisfaction vnto a Toade which hee may easily euery day kill For although when the Toade is dead the vertue thereof be lost which consisted in the eye or blew spot in the middle yet the substaunce remaineth and if the stone be found there in substance
them to be the same which Hesychius called Sauritae and Pliny by a kind of excellency Snakes of whom we shall speake afterwards for I haue no more to say of theÌ„ at this present but that they are very venomous And it may be that of these came the common prouerbe Latet Anguis sub herba vnder the greene herbe lyeth the Greene-Snake for it is a friendly admonition vnto vs to beware of a falshoode couered vvith a truth like vnto it OF THE HAEMORRHE THis Serpent hath such a name giuen vnto it as the effect of his byting worketh in the bodies of men for it is called in Latine Hâ—morrhous to signifie vnto vs the male and Haemorrhois to signifie the female both of them being deriued from the Greeke word Aima which signifieth blood and Reo which signifieth to flow because whomsoeuer it byteth it maketh in a continuall bleeding sweat with extremitie of paine vntill it die It is also called Affodius and Afudius Sabrine and Halsordius or Alsordius which are but corrupted barbarous names from the true and first word Haemorrhus It is doubtfull whether this be to be ascribed to the Aspes or to the Vipers for Isidorus saith it is a kind of Aspe and Elianus a kind of Viper They are of a sandy colour and in length not past one foote or three handfulls whose tayle is very sharpe or small theyr eyes are of a fiery-flaming-colour their head small but hath vppon it the appearance of hornes When they goe they goe straight and slowly as it were halting and wearilie whose pace is thus described by Nicander Et inster Ipsius oblique suaparvula terga Cerasta Claudicat ex medio videas appellere dorso Parvùm nauigium terit imam lubrica terram Alvus et haud alio tacitè trahit ilia motu Ac per arundineum si transeat illa grabatum In English thus And like the Horned-serpent so trayles this elfe on land As though on backe a little boate it draue His slyding belly makes path be seene in sand As when by bedde of Reedes she goes her life to saue The scales of this Serpent are rough sharpe for which cause they make a noyse wheÌ„ they goe on the earth the female resteth herselfe vppon her lower part neere her tayle creeping altogether vppon her belly and neuer holdeth vp her head but the male when he goeth holdeth vp his head theyr bodies are all set ouer with blacke spots and themselues are thus paraphrastically described by Nicander Vnum longa pedem totoque gracillima tractu Ignea qundoque est quandoque est candida forma Constrictumque satis collum et tenuissima cauda Bina super gelidos oculos frons cornua profert Splendentum quadam radiorum albentia luce Syluestres vt apes populatricesque Locuste Insuper horribile ac asprum caput horret Which may be englished in this manner following On foote in length and slender all along Sometime of fiery hue sometime milke-white it is The necke bound in and tayle most thinne and strong Whose fore-head hath two hornes aboue cold eyes Which in theyr light resemble shining beames Like Bees full wilde or Locusts spoylers bredde But yet to looke vpon all horrible in seames For why the cruell Bore they shew in head They keepe in Rocks and stony places of the houses and earth making theyr deunes winding and hanging according to these verses Rimosas colit illa Petras sibique aspera recta Et modice pendens facit inflexumque cubile In English thus The chincks of Rocks and passages in stone They dwell wherein their lodgings bare A little hanging made for euery one And bending too theyr sleepie harbours are It is said that Canobus the Gouernour of Menelaus chaunced to fall vpon this Serpent in reuenge whereof Helen his charge the wife of Menelaus broke his backe-bone and that euer since that time they creepe lamely and as it were without loynes which fable is excellentlie thus described by Nicander Quondam animosa Helene cigni Iovis inclyta proles Euersa rediens Troia nisi vana vetustas Huic indignata est generi Pharias vt ad oras Venit aduersi declinans flamina venti Fluctiuagam statuit iuxta Nili ostia classem Namque vbi nauclerus sefessum fortè Canobus Sterneret et bibulisfusus dormiret arenis Laesa venenosos Haemorrhois impulitictus Illatamque tulit letali dente quietem Protinus ouipera cernens id filia Ledâ— Oppressae medium serpenti feruida dorsum Infregit tritaeque excussit vinculae spinae Quae fragili illius sic dempta è corpore fugit Et graciles Haemorrhoi obliquique Cerastae Ex hoc clauda trahunt iam soli tempore membra Which may be englished thus Once noble Helen Ioues child by Swan-like shape Returning backe from Troy destroyed by Graecian warre If that our Auncients doe not with fables vs be-clappe This race was enuyed by Pharias anger farre When to his shores for safety they did come Declyning rage of blustering windy Seas Water-byding-Nauy at Nilus mouth gan runne Where Canobus all tyred faynted for some ease For there this Pilot or Maister of the Fleete Did hast from boate to sleepe in drery sand Where he did feele the teeth of Hemorrhe deepe Wounding his body with poyson deaths owne hand But when egge-breeding Ledaes wench espyed This harme she prest the Serpents backe with stroke Whereby the bands thereof were all vntyed Which in iust wrath for iust reuenge she broke So euer-since out of this Serpents frame And body they are taken which is the cause That Cerasts and leane Haemorrhs are euer lame Drawing their parts on earth by natures lawes They which are stunge with there Haemorrhs do suffer very intollerable torments for out of the wound continually floweth blood and the excrements also that commeth out of the belly are bloody or sometimes little roules of blood in steed of excrements The colour of the place bitten is black or of a dead bloody colour out of which nothing floweth at the beginning but a certaine watery humour then followeth paine in the stomack and difficultie of breathing Lastly the powers of the body are broken opened so that out of the mouth gumbs eares eyes fingers-ends nayles of the feete and priuie parts continually issueth blood vntill a crampe also come then followeth death as we reade in Lucan of one Tellus a young noble man slaine by this Serpent described as followeth Impressit dentes Haemorrhois aspera Tullo Magnanimo iuveni miratorique Catonis Vtque solet pariter totis se effundere signis Coricij pressura croci sic omnia membra Emisêre simul rutilum pro sanguine virus Sanguis erant lachrimae quaecunque for amina novit Humor ab ijs largus manat cruor or a redundant Et patulaenares sudor rubet omnia plenis Membra fluunt venis totum est pro vulnere corpus In English thus The Haemorrhe fierce in noble Tullus fastened teeth That valiant youth great Catoes scholler deere
description of the old one the other two being like to her in all things except in their hornes for being small they were not yet growne Generally all these horned Serpents haue hard dry scales vpon their belly wherewithall they make a noyse when they go themselues it is thus described by Nicander Nunc potes actutum insidiatoremque Cerasten Noscere vipereum veluti genus huic quia dispar Non is corpus habet sed quatuor 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-kind whose bodies much agree Yet these foure hornes and brandy colour poyse Where Viper none but forehead plaine we see There is no Serpent except the Viper that can so long indure thirst as this horned-serpent for they seldome or neuer drinke and therefore I thinke they are of a Vipers kind for besides this also it is obserued that their young ones do come in and out of their bellies as Vipers doe The liue in hatred with all kind of Serpents and especially with Spiders The Hawes of Aegypt also doe destroy Horned-serpents and Scorpions but about Thebes in Aegypt there are certain sacred Snakes as they are tearmed which haue hornes on their head and these are harmelesse vnto men and beasts otherwise all these Serpents are virulent and violent against all creatures especially men yet there bee certaine men in Libia called Psylli which are in a league or rather in a naturall concord with Horned-Serpents For if they bee bitten by them at any time they receiue no hurt at all and besides if they bee brought vnto any man that is bitten with one of these Serpents before the poyson be spred all ouer his body they help and cure him for if they finde him but lightly hurt they onely spet vpon the wound and so mittigate the paine but if they find him more deeply hurt then they take much water within their teeth and first wash their owne mouth with it then spet out the water into a pot and make the sicke man to drinke it vp Lastly if the poyson bee yet strong they lay their naked bodies vppon the naked poysoned body and so breake the force of the poyson And this is thus described by the Poet saying Audiui Lybivos Psyllos quos aspera Syrtis Serpentumque ferax patria alit populos Non ictu inflictum diro morsuúe venenum Laedere quin lasis ferre opem reliquis Non viradicum proprio sed corpore iuncto That is to say The Lybian Psylli which Serpent-breeding Syrtes dwell As I haue heard do cure poyson stings and bytes Nor hurt themselues but it in other quell By no rootes force but ioyning bodies quites When a Horned-Serpent hath bitten a man or beast first about the wound there groweth hardnesse and then pustules Lastly blacke earthy and pale matter the genitall member standeth out straight and neuer falleth he falleth mad his eyes grow dimme his Nerues immanuable and vppon the head of the wound groweth a scab like the head of a Naile and continually pricking like the pricking of Needles And because this Serpent is immoderately dry therefore the poyson is most pernitious for if it be not holpen within nine daies the patient cannot escape death The cure must be first by cutting away the flesh vnto the bone where the wound is or else the whole member if it can bee then lay vpon the wound Goats dung sodde with Vineger or Garlike and Vineger or Barley Meale or the iuyce of Cedar Rue or Nep with Salt and Honny or Pitch and Barley meale and such like thinges outwardly inwardly Daffadill and Rew in drinke Raddishseede Indian Cummen with wine and Castoreum and also Calamint and euery thing that procureth vomit And thus much for the description of the Horned-Serpent OF THE HYAENA THere be some that make question whether there be any such Serpent as this or no for it is not very like that there is any such and that this Hyaena is the selfe same which is described to bee a Foure-footed-Beast for that which is said of that is likewise attributed to this namely that it changeth sex being one yeare a Male another yeere a female and that the couples which seeme to bee married together do by continuall entercourse bring forth their young ones so that the Male this yeare is the female next yeare the female this yeare is the Male next yeare And this is all that is said of this Serpent OF THE HYDRA SVPPOSED TO be killed by Hercules THE Poets do faine that neare to the Fountaine Amymona there grew a Plantaine vnder which was bred a Hydra which had seeuen heads whereof one of these heads vvas said to bee immortall with this Hydra Hercules did fight for there was in that immortall head such a poyson as vvas vncurable wherewithall Hercules moystened the head of his Darts after he had killed it they say that while Hercules strucke offone of these heads there euer arose two or three more in the roome thereof vntill the number of fifty or as some say fourescore and ten heads were strucken off and because this was done in the fenne of Lerna therefore there grew a Prouerb of Lerna malorum to signifie a multitude of vnresistable euils And some ignorant men of late daies at Venice did picture this Hydra with wonderfull Art and set it forth to the people to be seene as though it had beene a true carkase with this inscription In the yeare of Christes incarnation 550. about the Month of Ianuary this monstrous Serpent was brought out of Turky to Venice afterwards giuen to the French king It was esteemed to be worth 6000. duckats These mōsters signifie the mutation or change of worldly affaires but I trust said the Author of the inscription who seemed to be a German the whole Christian world is so afflicted that there is no more euill that can happen to the Christian VVorld except destruction and therefore I hope that these mōsters do not foreshew any euil to the christians Therfore seeing the Turkish empire is grown to that height in which estate all other former kingdomes fell I may deuine Prophecy that the danger threatned hereby belongeth to the Turkes and not vnto vs in whose gouerment this Monster was found to be bred and the hinder part of his head seemeth to resemble a Turkes Cap. Thus farre this inscribing Deuiner But this fellovv ought first of all to haue enquired about the truth of this Picture whether it were sincere or counterfeit before he had giuen his iudgment vpon it for that there shold be such a serpent with seauen heads I thinke it vnpossible and no more to bee beleeued and credited then that Castor and Pollux were conceiued in an Egge or that Pluto is the GOD of Hell or that Armed menne were created out of Dragons teeth or that Vulcan made Achilles armour
young ones are conceiued of themselues by the help of the sun Some there be which affirme that the old one deuoureth the young ones assoone as they be hatched except one which she suffereth to liue this one is the basest most dullard hauing in it least spirit of all the residue yet notwithstanding afterwards it deuoureth both his parents which thing is prooued false by Albertus for seeing they want memory to finde out their owne Egges it is not likely that they haue so much vnderstanding as to discerne their own young ones nor yet so vnnaturall as to destroy the noblest of their broode but rather they should imitate the crocodile which killeth the basest and spareth the best spirits It is affirmed that they liue but halfe a yeare or sixe months but it is also false for they hide themselues the foure coldest monthes and therefore it is likely they liue more then sixe for else what time should they haue for generation Twice a yeare they change their skinne that is in the Spring and Autume like other Serpents that haue a soft skinne and not hard like the Tortoyces Their place of conception and emission of their Egges is like to Birds and therefore it is a needlesse question to inquire whether they bring egges foorth of their mouth or not as some haue foolishly affirmed but without all warrant of truth or nature They liue by couples together and when one of them is taken the other waxeth mad and rageth vppon him that tooke it whether it be Male or Female In the old Testament Lizards Weasels and Mice are accounted impure beastes and therefore forbidden to be eaten not onely because they liue in Graues and designe in constancy of life but also Theeues and trecherous persons They are affraide of euery noyce they are enemies to Bees for they liue vpon them and therefore in ancient time they mixed Meale and iuyce of Mallowes together and layde the same before the Hiues to driue away Lizards and Crocodiles They fight with all kind of Serpents also they deuour Snailes and contend with Toades and Scorpions The Night-Owles and the Spiders doe destroy the little Lizards for the Spider doth so long wind her thred about the iawes of the Lizard that hee is not able to open his mouth then she fasteneth her stings in her braines The Storkes are also enemies to Lizards according to this saying of the Poet Serpente ciconia pullos Nutrit inuent a per deuia rura lacerta In english thus With Lizards young and Serpents breede The Storke seeketh her young ones to feed Notwithstanding that by the law of GOD men were forbidden to eate the Lizard yet the Troglodytes Ethiopians did eate Serpents and Lizards and the Amazons did eate Lizards and Tortoyces for indeede those Women did vse a very thinne and slender diet and therefore Caelius doth probably coniecture that they were called Amazons because Mazis carebant that is they wanted all manner of delicate fare Wee haue also shewed already that the Inhabitants of Dioscorides Isle do eate the flesh of Lizards and the fat after it is boyled they vse instead of Oyle Concerning the venome or poyson of Lizards I haue not much to say because there is not much thereof written yet they are to be reproued which deny they haue any poyson at all for it is manifest that the flesh of Lizards eaten I meane of such Lizards as are in Italy do cause an inflamation and apostemation the heare of the head-ach and blindnesse of the eyes And the Egges of Lizards doc kill speedily except there come a remedy from Faulkens dung and pure VVine Also when the Lizard byteth he leaueth his teeth in the place which continually aketh vntill the teeth bee taken out the cure of which wound is first to suck the place then to put into it cold water afterward to make a plaister of Oyle and Ashes and apply the same therevnto And thus much for the naturall description of the Lizard The Medicines arising out of the Lizard are the same which are in the Crocodile and the flesh thereof is very hot wherefore it hath vertue to make fat for if the fatte of a Lizard bee mixed vvith Wheate Meale Halinitre and Cummen it maketh Hennes very fat and they that eate them much fatter for Cardan saith that their bellies will breake vvith fatnesse and the same giuen vnto Hawkes maketh them to chaunge theyr Fethers A Lizard dissected or the head thereof being very well beaten vvith Salt draweth out yton poyntes of Nayles and splentes out of the flesh or body of man if it bee well applyed thereunto and it is also said that if it bee mingled with Oyle it causeth hayre to to grow againe vpon the head of a man where an Vlcer made it fall off Likewise a Lyzard cut asunder hot and so applyed cureth the stinging of Scorpions and taketh away Wennes In Ancient time with a field-Lizard dryed and cut asunder and so bruzed in peeces they did draw out teeth without paine and with one of these sod and stamped and applyed vvith Meale or Frankensence to the forehead did cure the watering of the eyes The same burned to powder and mixed with Creticke Hony by an oyntment cureth blindnesse The Oyle of a Lizard put into the eare helpeth deafenesse and dryueth out Wormes if there bee any therein If Children bee annoynted with the bloud fasting it keepeth them from swellinges in the belly and Legges also the Liuer and bloud lapped vp in Wooll draweth out Nailes and Thornes from the flesh cureth all kind of freckles according to this verse of Serenus Verrucam poterit sanguis curare Lacertae That is to say The bloud of Lizards can Cure freckles in a man The vrine and if there be any at all helpeth the rupture in Infants The bones taken out of the Lizards head in the full Moone doe scarifie the teeth and the braine is profitable for suffusions The Liuer laide to the gumbes or to hollow teeth easeth all the paine in them The dung purgeth wounds and also taketh away the whitenesse and itching of the eyes and so sharpneth the sight and the same with water is vsed for a salue Arnoldus doth much commend the dung of Lizards mixed with Meale the blacke thereof being cast away and so dryed in a furnace and softned againe with water of Niter and froth of the Sea afterwards applyed to the eyes in a cloth is very profitable against all the former euils And thus much shall suffice to haue spoken of the first and vulgar kinde of Lyzard for killing of whom Apollo was in ancient time called Sauroctonos OF THE GREENE LIZARD THe greater Lizard which is called Lacerta Viridis the greene Lizard by the Graecians Chlorosaura by the Italians Gez and by the Germans Gruner Heydox is the same which is called Ophiomachus because it fighteth with Serpents in the defence of man They are of colour greene from whence they
with rage of sandy flankes Nor sayles bend downe to blustering Corus wayne Now can it not the swelling sinewes keepe in hold Deformed globe it is and truncke ore-come with waight Vntoucht of flying foules no beakes of young or old Doe him dare eate or beasts full wilde vpon the body bayte But that they dye No man to bury in earth or fire Durst once come nigh nor stand to tooke vpon that haplesse case For neuer ceased the heat of corps though dead to swell Therefore afrayde they ranne away with speedie pace The cure of the poyson of this Serpent is by the Phisitians found out to be wild Purslaine also the flowers and stalke of the bush the Beauers stones called Castoreum drunke with Opponax and Rew in wine and the little Sprat-fish in dyet And thus much of this fire-burning venomous Serpent OF THE RED SERPENT THis kinde of Serpent beeing a serpent of the Sea was first of all found out by Pelicerius Bishoppe of Montpelier as Rondoletus writeth and although some haue taken the same for the Myrus or Berus of which we haue spoken already yet is it manifest that they are deceiued for it hath gills couered with a bony couering and also sinnes to swym withall much greater then those of the Myrus which wee haue shewed already to bee the male Lamprey This Serpent therefore for the outward proportion thereof is like to the Serpents of the Land but of a redde or purplish colour beeing full of crooked or oblique lines descending from the backe to the belly and deuiding or breaking that long line of the backe which beginneth at the head and so stretcheth foorth to the tayle The opening of his mouth is not very great his teeth are very sharpe and like a saw his gills like scalie fishes and vppon the ridge of his backe all along to the tayle and vnder-neath vppon the ryne or brimme of his belly are certaine haires growing or at the least thinne small things like hayres the tayle beeing shut vp in one vndeuided finne Of this kind no doubt are those which Bellonius saith hee sawe by the Lake Abydus which liue in the waters and come not to the Land but for sleepe for hee affirmeth that they are like Land-serpents but in theyr colour they are redde-spotted with some small and duskie spots Gelliusâ—…th â—…th that among the multitude of Sea-serpents some are like Congers and I cannot teâ—…ether that of Vergill be of this kind or not spoken of by Laocoon the Priest of Neptune Solennes taurum ingentum mactabat ad aras Ecce autem gemini á Tenedo tranqulla per alta Horresco referens immensis orbibus angues Incumbunt pelago pariterque ad littora tendunt Pectora quorum inter fluctus arecta iubaeque Sanguineae exuperant vndas pars caetera pontum Pone legit sinuatque immensa volumine terga Fit sonitus spumante saelo c. Which may be englished thus Whilst he a Bull at Altars solemne sacrifice Behold I feare to tell two monstrous snakes appeared Out of Tenedus shore both calme and deepe did rise One part in Sea the other on Land was reared Their breasts and redde-blood manes on waters mounted But backe and tayle on Land from foaming sea thus sounded OF THE SALAMANDER I Will not contrary their opinion which reckon the Salamander among the kinds of Lyzards but leaue the assertion as somewhat tollerable yet they are not to be followed or to be beleeued which would make it a kinde of Worme for there is not in that opinion eyther reason or resemblance What this beast is called among the Hebrewes I cannot learne and therfore I iudge that the Iewes like many other Nations did not acknowledge that there was any such kinde of creature for ignorance bringeth infidelitie in strange things and propositions The Graecians call it Salamandra which word or terme is retained almost in all Languages especially in the Latine and therefore Isidore had more boldnesse and wit then reason to deriue the Latine Salamandra quasi valincendram resisting burning for beeing a Greeke word it needeth not a Latine notation The Arabians call it Saambras and Samabras which may wel be thought to be deriued or rather corrupted from the former word Salamandra or else from the Hebrew word Semamit which signifieth a Stellion Among the Italians and Rhaetians it retaineth the Latine vvord and sometimes in Rhaetia it is called Rosada In the dukedome of Sauoy Pluuina In Fraunce Sourd Blande Albrenne and Arrassade according to the diuers Prouinces in that Kingdome In Spayne it is called Salamantegna In Germany it is called by diuers names as Maall and Punter maall Olm Moll and Molch because of a kinde of liquour in it like milke as the Greeke word Molge from à melgein to sucke milke Some in the Country of Heluetia doe call it Quattertetesh And in Albertus it is likewise called Rimatrix And thus much may suffise for the name thereof The description of theyr seuerall parts followeth which as Auicen and other Authours write is very like a small and vulgar Lyzard except in their quantitie which is greater theyr legges taller and their tayle longer They are also thicker and fuller then a Lyzard hauing a pale white belly and one part of their skinne exceeding blacke the other yellow like Verdigreace both of them very splendent and glistering with a blacke line going all along their backe hauing vppon it many little spots like eyes And from hence it commeth to be called a Stellion or Animal stellatum a creature full of starres and the skinne is rough and balde especially vpon the backe where those spots are out of which as writeth the Scholiast issueth a certaine liquour or humour which quencheth the heate of the fire when it is in the same This Salamander is also foure-footed like a Lyzard and all the body ouer it is set with spots of blacke and yellow yet is the sight of it abhominable and fearefull to man The head of it is great and sometimes they haue yellowish bellyes and tayles and some-times earthy It is some question among the Learned whether there be any discretion of sexe as whether there be in this kinde a male and a female Pliny affirmeth that they neuer engender and that there is not among them eyther male or female no more then there are among Eeles But this thing is iustly crossed both by Bellonius and Agricola for they affirme vpon their owne knowledge that the Salamander engendereth her young ones in her belly like vnto the Viper but first conceiueth egges and she bringeth forth fortie and fiftie at a time which are fully perfected in her wombe and are able to runne or goe so soone as euer they be littered and therefore there must be among them both male and female The Countries wherein are found Salamanders are the Region about Trent and in the Alpes and some-time also in Germany The most commonly frequent the coldest and moystest places as in the shaddow
their meate instantly leape out and so the man that deluded them is ready with a paire of tonges or other instrument to lay hold vpon them and take them by which meanes they take many and of them so taken make oyle of Scorpions And Constantius writeth that if a mans hand be well annointed with iuyce of Radish he may take them without danger in his bare hand In the next place we are to proceede to the venom poyson of Scorpions the instrument or sting whereof lyeth not onely in the tayle but also in the teeth for as Ponzettus writeth Laedit scorpius morsu ictu the Scorpion harmeth both with teeth tayle that is although the greatest harme doe come by the sting in the tayle yet is there also some that cōmeth by their byting This poyson of Scorpions as Pliny out of Apollodorus writeth is white and in the heate of the day is very feruent and plentifull so as at that time they are insatiably and vnquenchably thirsty for not onely the wild or wood Scorpion but also all other are of a hot nature and the symptomes of their bytings are such as follow the effects of hote poysons and therefore saith Rasis all their remedies are of a colde qualitie Yet Galen thinketh otherwise and that the poyson is cold and the effects thereof are also cold For which cause Rondeletus prescribeth oyle of Scorpions to expell the stone and also the cure of the poyson is by strong Garlicke and the best Wine which are hote things And therefore I conclude that although Scorpions be most hote yet is their poyson of a cold nature In the next place I thinke is needfull to expresse the symptomes following the striking or stinging of these venomous Scorpions and they are as Aetius writeth the very same which follow the byting or poyson of that kinde of great Phalanx Spyder called also Teragnatum and that is they are in such case as those persons be which are smitten with the Falling-sicknesse He which is stung by a Scorpion thinketh that he is pressed with the fall of great and cold hayle beeing so cold as if hee were continually in a cold sweat and so in short space the poyson disperseth it selfe vvithin the skinne and runneth all ouer the body neuer ceasing vntill it come to possesse some predominant or principall vitall part and then followeth death For as the skinne is small and thin so the sting pierceth to the bottom thereof and so into the flesh where it woundeth and corrupteth eyther some veyne or arterie or sinew and so the member harmed swelleth immediatly into an exceeding great bulke and quantity and aking with insufferable torment But yet as we haue already said there is a difference of the paine according to the difference of the Scorpion that stingeth If a man be stung in the lower part of his body instantly followeth the extension of his virile member the swelling thereof but if in the vpper part then is the person affected with cold and the place smitten is as if it were burned his countenaunce or face discorted glewish spots about the eyes the teares viscous and slymie hardnes of the articles falling downe of the fundament and a continuall desire to egestion foaming at the mouth coughing conuulsions of the braine and drawing the face backward the hayre standes vpright palenesse goeth ouer all the body and a continuall pricking like the pricking of needels Also Gordomus writeth that if the pricke fall vppon an artery there followeth swouning but if on a nerue there speedily followeth putrefaction and rottennesse And those Scorpions which haue wings make wounds with a compasse like a bow whose succeeding symptomes are both heate and cold and if they hurt about the caniculer dayes their wounds are very sildome recouered The Indian Scorpions cause death three months after their wounds But most wonderfull is that which Strabo relateth of the Albenian Scorpions and Spyders whereof hee saith are two kinds and one kind killeth by laughing the other by weeping And if any Scorpion hurt a vaine in the head it causeth death by madnesse as writeth Paracelsus When an oxe or other beast is strooken with a Scorpion his knees are drawne together and he halteth refusing meate out of his nose floweth a greene humour and when hee is layd he careth not for rising againe These and such like are the symptomes that follow the bytings and stingings of Scorpions for the cure whereof I will remit the Reader to that excellent discourse written by Wolphius wherein are largely and learnedly expressed whatsoeuer Art could collect out of nature And seeing we in our Country are free from Scorpions and therefore shal haue no neede to feare their poyson it shall not I trust offend my Reader if I cut off the relation of Scorpions cures as a thing which cannot benefit either the English-Reader or else much adorne this history and so I will proceede to the medicines drawne out of Scorpions The application or vse of Scorpions in medicine is eyther by powder or by oyle or by applying them brused to their owne wounds wherefore euery one of these are to be handled particularly and first of all for the powder it is made by vstion or burning in this manner They take tenne Scorpions and put them aliue into a new earthen potte whose mouth is to be dammed vp with loame or such like stuffe then must it be sette vpon a fire of Vine-tree-shreddes and therein must the pot stand day and night vntill all within it be consumed to powder and you shall know by their white colour when they be enough otherwise if they be browne or burned they must be continued longer and the vse of this powder is to expell the stone Againe they vse to make this powder another way they take twentie Scorpions and put them in a little earthen pot with a narrow mouth which mouth must be stopped and then the potte put into a Furnace by the space of sixe houres which Furnace must also be kept close within and with a gentle fire then after sixe houres take off the pot and bruse the Scorpions into powder and keepe that powder for the vse afore-said There are other waies also to prepare this powder but in all preparations the attendant and assistant must take heede of the fume or smoake that commeth from it for that is very venomous and contagious But besides there are many things to be obserued heerein as first that the Scorpions be aliue and that they be killed in oyle then that they be put in whole with euery member without mutilation and that the Scorpions appointed for this confection be of the strongest poyson and the time of their collection to be when the Sunne is in Leo and not in Scorpius as some without reason haue imagined The oyle so made is distinguished into two kindes one simple and the other compound The simple is made of a conuenient number of Scorpions as
or 4. cubits long hauing a rounder belly then an Eele but a head like a Conger the vpper chap is longer and standeth out further then the neather chap the teeth grovv therein as they doe in Lampreys but they are not so thicke and it hath two small finnes neere the gills like an Eele The colour of it is yellow but the beake and belly is of Ash-colour the eyes yellow and in all the inward parts it doth not differ from a Lamprey and there is no man of any vnderstanding as writeth Rondeletius but at the very first sight will iudge the same to be a Serpent although the flesh thereof be no more harmefull then the Conger or Lamprey yet for similitude with other Serpents I could not chuse but expresse the same in this place There be also in the Sueuian-Ocean or Balthicke-sea Serpents of thirty or forty foote in length whose picture is thus described as it was taken by Olaus Magnus and hee further writeth that these doe neuer harme any man vntill they be prouoked The same Authour also expresseth likewise the figure of another Serpent of a hundred and twenty foote long appearing now and then vpon the coasts of Norway very dangerous and hurtfull to the Sea-men in calmes and still weather for they lift vp themselues aboue the hatches and suddainely catch a man in their mouthes and so draw him into the Sea out of the Shippe and many times they ouer-throw in the waters a laden vessell of great quantitie with all the wares therein contained And sometimes also they sette vp such a Spire aboue the water that a boate or little Barke without sayles may passe thorow the same And thus much for the Sea-Serpents OF THE SEPS OR SEPEDON ALthough I am not ignorant that there be some which make two kindes of these Serpents because of the two names rehearsed in the title yet when they haue laboured to describe them seuerally they can bring nothing or very little wherein their story doth not agree so as to make twaine of them or to handle them asunder were but to take occasion to tautologize or to speake one thing twice Wherefore Gesner wisely pondering both parts and after him Carronus deliuer their opinions that both these names doe shew but one Serpent yet according to theyr manner they expresse them as if they were two For all their writings doe but minister occasion to the Readers to collect the truth out of their labours wherefore I will follow their opinion and not their example Sepedon and Seps commeth of Sepein because it rotteth the body that it byteth in colour it neerely resembleth the Haemorrhe yet it vsually goeth by spyres and halfe-hoopes for which cause as it goeth the quantitie cannot be well discerned the pace of it beeing much swifter then the Haemorrhe The wound that it giueth is smarting entering deepe and bringing putrefaction for by an inexplicable celeritie the poyson passeth ouer all the body the hayre rotteth and falleth from all parts darknes and dimnesse is in the eyes spots vpon the body like as if a man had beene burned in the sunne And this Serpent is thus described vnto vs by Nicander Iam quae Sepedonis species sit qualeque corpus Accipe diuersa tractum ratione figurat Quin etiam mutilae nulla insunt cornua fronti Et color hir suti qualem est spect are tapetis Grande caput breuior dum currit cauda videtur Quam tamen obliquo maiorem tramite ducit Quod fit ab hoc vulnus magnos nocuosque dolores Excitat interimens quia fundit ipse venenum Quo sata marcentes tabes depascitur artus Indeque siccata resolutus pelle capillus Spargitur volitans candentis pappus achantae Praeterea foedum turpi vitiligine corpus Et veluti vrenti maculas á sole videre est Which may be englished thus Sepedons shape now take and what his forme of body is It doth not goe as Haemorrhe doth but trayleth diuersly His powled head of Haemorrhs hornes full happily doth misse And colours are as manifold as works of Tapestry Great is his head but running seemes the tayle but small Which winding it in greater path drawes after to and fro But where it wounds by paines and torments great it doth appall Killing the wounded infusing poyson so Whereby consumed are the leane and slender sinewes And dryed skinne lets hayre fall off apace Like as the windes driue whites from top of thistle Cardus Besides the body filth as with sunne parched looseth grace Thus doth Nicander describe the Sepedon now also we wil likewise relate that which another Poet saith of the Seps that both compared together may appeare but one therefore thus writeth Lucan vpon occasion of one Sabellus wounded by this Serpent Miserique in crure Sabelli Seps stetit exiguus quem flexo dente tenacem Auulsitque manu piloque affixit arenis Parua modò serpens sed qua non vlla cruentae Tantum mortis habet nam plagae proxima circum Fugit rapta cutis pallentiaque ossa retexit Iamque sinu laxo nudum est sine corpore vulnus Membra natant sanie surae fluxere sine vllo Tegmine poples erat femorum quoque musculus omnis Liquitur nigra distillant inguina tabe Dissiluit stringens vterum membrana fluuntque Viscera nec quantum toto de corpore debet Effluit in terras saeuum sed membra venenum Decoquit in minimum mors contrahit omnia virus Vincula neruorum laterum textura cauumque Pectus abstrusum fibris vitalibus omne Quicquid homo est aperit pestis natura profana Morte patet manant humeri fortesque lacerti Colla caput fluunt calido non ocyus Austro Nix resoluta cadit nec solem cera sequetur Parua loquor corpus sanie stillasse perustum Hoc flamma potest sed quis rogus abstulit ossa Haec quoque discedunt putresque secuta medullas Nulla manere sinunt rapidi vestigia fati Cynphias inter pestes tibi palma nocendi est Eripiunt omnes animam tu sola cadauer Mole breuis seps peste ingens nec viscera solum Sed simul ossa vorans tabificus Seps Which is to be englished thus On wretched Sabells legge a little Seps hung fast Which with his hand from hold of teeth he pluckt away From wounded place and on a pyle the Serpent all agast He staked in sands to him ô wofull wretched day To kill this Serpent is but small yet none more power hath For after wound falls off the skinne and bones appeare full bare As in an open bosome the hart whole body gnaweth Then all his members swamme in filth corruption did prepare To make his shankes fall off vncouered were knee bones And euery muscle of his thigh resolued no more did hold His secrets blacke to looke vpon distilled all consumptions The rym of belly brake out fierce which bowels did infold Out fell his guts on earth and
all that corps containe The raging venom still heating members all So death contracted all by little poysons maine Vnloosing nerues and making sides on ground to fall This plague the hollow brest and euery vitall part Abstrused where the fibres keepe the life in vre Did open vnto death The life the lungs the hart O death prophane and enemy vnto nature Out flow the shoulders great and arme-blades strong Both necke and head gush out in matter all doth runne No snow doth melt so soone the Southerne blast among Nor waxe so fast dissolue by heate of shyning sunne These things which now I speake I doe account but small That corps should runne with filthy core may caused be by flame Yet bones are spared in fire heere all away they fall Of them and marrow sweete fate lets no signe remaine Among the Cyniph plagues this still shall beare the bell The soule they take this soule and carkasse both The Seps though short it be in force it is a hell Deuouring bones the body all vndoeth Thus you heare that more largely expressed by Lucan of the Seps which was more briefely touched by Nicander of the Sepedon and all commeth to one end that both kill by putrefaction The length of this Serpent is about two cubits being thicke toward the head but thinne and slender toward the tayle The head thereof is broad and the mouth sharpe it is of many colours so as some haue thought that it could change colour like a Camaelion The foure vnder teeth are hollow and in them lyeth the poyson which are couered ouer with a little skinne Pausanias affirmeth that he himselfe saw one of them and that Egyptus the sonne of Elatus a King of Arcadia was slaine by one of these They liue in Rocks in hollow places of the valleys vnder stones they feare no winter according to this verse of Pictorius Hâ—â— hyemis calidus frigora nulla timeâ— Which may be englished thus Of Winters coldit hath no feare For warme it is throughout the yeere First of all after the wound appeareth some blood but that symptom lasteth not long for by and by followeth matter smelling very strong swelling tumour and languishing paine and all the parts of the body affected herewith become white and when the hayre falleth off the patient sildome liueth aboue three or foure dayes after The cure hereof is by the same meanes that the poyson of the Viper the Ammodyte and Horned-serpent is cured withall And particulerly Aetius prescribeth a spuÌ„ge wet in warme vineger to be applyed to the wound or else to lay the ashes of chaffe with the earth vppon which they are burned to the place and to annoynt it with butter and hony or else lay vnto it Millet Hony likewise Bay-springs Oximell Purslaine and in their diet salt fish Aristotle writeth of a little Serpent which by some is called a sacred or holy Serpent and he saith that all other Serpents doe auoyde it and flye from it because whatsoeuer is bytten by it presently rotteth It is in length as he saith a cubit and it is rough all ouer and therefore I take this Serpent to be a kind of Sepedon Also Aristoxenus saith that he knew a man by touching this Serpent to dye and afterward that the garment which hee wore at the time of the touching the Serpent did likewise rot away And thus much for the Seps and Sepedon OF THE SLOVV-VVORME THis Serpent was called in auncient time among the Graecians Tythlops and Typhlines and Cophia because of the dimnes of the sight thereof and the deafenes of the eares and hearing vulgarly at this day it is called in Greece Tephloti Tefliti Tephlini and from hence the Latines haue taken their word Caecilia quasi caecus serpens a blind serpent it is also called Cerula Caecula and Ceriella as witnesseth Albertus because the eyes thereof are none at all or very small The Italians call it Bisa orbala and the Florentines Lucignola the Germans Blyndenschlycher the Heluetians En vieux al' annoilx and the people of Narbon Nadels It beeing most euident that it receiueth name from the blindnes and deafenes thereof for I haue often prooued that it neither heareth nor seeth here in England or at the most it seeth no better then a Mole The teeth are fastned in the mouth like the teeth of a Camaelion the skinne is very thicke and therefore when the skin is broken by a hard blow the whole body doth also breake and part asunder The colour is a pale blew or sky-colour with some blackish spots intermixed at the sides There is some question whether it hath one or two rymes on the belly for seeing they conceiue theyr young ones in theyr wombe they haue such a belly by nature as may be distended and stretched out accordingly as the young ones growe in their wombe It hath a smooth skinne without all scales The neather eye-lidde couereth all the eye it hath which is very small about the head they are more light coloured then about the other partes of the body The tongue is clouen and the toppe thereof very blacke They are in length about a spanne and as thicke as a mans finger except toward the tayle which is more slender and the Female is more blacke then the Male. The passage or place of excrements or conception is transuerse If they be killed with the young in their belly the little ones will instantly creepe out at their dammes mouth and some times as witnesseth Bellonius in this little serpent are found forty little young ones They are in Greece and England and come not abroad till Iuly and they goe into the earth in August and so abide abroad all haruest and they loue to hide themselues in Corne-fieldes vnder the rype corne when it is cut downe It is harmelesse except being prouoked yet many times when an Oxe or a Cow 〈◊〉 downe in the pasture if it chaunce to lye vppon one of these Slow-wormes it byteth the beast if remedy be not had there followeth mortalitie or death for the poyson thereof is very strong If it swell it is good to pricke the place with a brazen bodkin and then apply vnto it Fullers-earth and Vineger There is a Triacle made of the Slow-worme which smelleth like Aqua-vitae with this some men are cured of the plague And thus much of this little Serpent OF THE SNAKE THere is no reasonable Learned-man that maketh question that Anguis in Latine is a generall word for all kind of Snakes and Serpents and therefore when Virgill writeth of the Fury Alecto how she cast a Snake into the bosome of Amata he first of all calleth it Anguis a Snake and presently after Coluber Vipera a Serpent as appeareth by these verses of his following Aeneid 7. Huic dea coeruleis vnum de crinibus anguem Conijcit inque sinum praecordia adintima subdit Vipeream inspirans animam fit tortile collo Aurum
starres on it Nicander calleth it Agrostes and Aetius Lucos The Latines terme it Venator that is the Hunter This stingeth but weakely without any paine at all but yet it is some-what venomous though not very much This kind of Phalanx is often found among Spyders-webbes where after the fashion of some Hunters they beguile and intrap flyes gnats and Bees gad-flyes and Waspes And if Lonicerus write no more then may be warranted for truth those great horse-flyes or oxe-flyes and Brimsees that in Sommer-season vexe cattle and what-soeuer they lay their clowtches on that they hold fast and destroy and thus liue they by taking of booties and preyes There is no man I thinke so ill aduised that will confesse this to be the same creature which Aristotle calleth Pulex for the body of that by his description is broade rowling round and the parts about the necke haue certaine lines or cuts and besides about the mouth there appeare and seeme to bud forth three eminenties or standings out There is another sort of Phalangiū called by Nican Rox of Aetius Ragion of Aelianus Rhax because it is so like the kernell or stone that is found in Grapes and this kinde of Spyder is of a round figure blacke in colour the body glistering and round as a ball with very short stumped feete yet neuerthelesse of a very swift pace They haue teeth and their mouth is nigh their belly and when they stirre they gather vp their feete very round In the description of this Spyder Aetius Aelianus and Pliny doe wholy consent and agree in opinion and yet Aelianus was a little besides the way when he set downe podas macrous for microus long feete for short feete and that this kind of Spyder was onely found in Lybia and not els where That kind of Spyder termed of Pliny Asterion seemeth to be all one with the former sauing that this is more knowne by his little white spots made starre-wise the glistering stripes or rayes where-with his body seemeth to be ouer-sprinckled Pliny onely mentioneth this as if Aristotle Galen Aetius and Auicen had neuer heard of it The most venomous and hurtfull of all these is that which Nicander calleth Pedeoros of colour azure or bright blew which hath long high and loftie feete on both sides of the body The Scholiast addeth Dasu and meteoron that is lanugiosum and sublime soft like cotten or wooll and loftie or high and not sublime lanuginosum as Lonicerus translateth it Pliny saith that this Spyder hath a black mossines or soft downe although it will scarce sinke into my head that any Spyder that is of an azure or blew colour hath any soft hayres or woollie substance of a blacke colour There is another kind of Phalangium Spyder called of Nicander Dysderi which name is neither to be found in Aristotle Pliny nor Aetius nor yet in any other auncient Author that euer I could reade which some others call and that very properly Sphekion quasi vesparium because it is so like a redde Waspe sauing that it lacketh wings this waspelike Spyder is of a passing deepe redde colour and counted far worser then the blew-Spyder although the azure or blew-spyder onely by touching doth infect with poyson and will breake any Christall glasse if it runne ouer it though neuer so speedily or doe but touch it in glauncing wise as Scaliger beareth witnesse There are two sorts of Phalangie-Spyders called Tetragnatha and the worser is that which hath halfe of his dead deuided with one white line and another white line running crosse-wise There is another of these not so hurtfull as the former and this is of an ashe-colour and very white in the hinder-parts There is also a Spyder coloured as this is that maketh her webbe by walls sides for the taking of flyes which as some affirme hath little or no venome in it at all Aetius saith that the Tetragnathus is a kinde of Phalangium hauing a broade and a whitish body rough footed with two swelling or little bunches standing out in the head the one some-what broad the other standing right foorth so that at the first one would imagine that it had two mouthes and foure iawes Aelianus in his xvij booke chap. 40. saith that there is great store of these to be found in India about the Riuer Arrhata where their multitude is so dangerous and mischiuous as that they bring death and destruction to the Cittizens and people bordering nie those places And Strabo the Geographer in his xvj booke telleth vs that beyond the Lybians and on the westerne-side of Affricke there is a Country left destitute of inhabitants hauing goodly large fieldes and pastures beeing vnhabitable by reason of the multitude of Scorpions there bred and of the Spyders called Tetragnathoi There is to be found in Haruest-time amongst Pease Beanes and other sorts of pulse when they are gathered and reaped by the hand certaine small Spyders called Kantharidessi Eikela in shew like vnto Cantharides or Spanish-flyes of a very redde and fiery colour such as we Englishmen call Twinges by eating or licking vp of which both oxen other beasts doe many times dye There is another kinde of phalangium that breedeth altogether in the pulse called Ervum which is like vnto Tares and likewise in the Peach-tree which Nicander and Aetius terme Cranocalaptes and Dioscorides nameth it Kephalokroustes because it is so presumptious bolde as to strike at the hands of trauailers by the high-wayes when as eyther it passeth downe in glyding manner by her fine thredde or that she tumbleth downe without any stay of thred or other support It is a small creature to see to keeping on the pace very fearefully nodding with the head reeling and as it were staggering beeing great and heauie in the belly some-what long of body and of a greenish colour It carryeth a sting in the toppe of her necke and striking at any she commonly aymeth at those parts which are about the head And as Aetius saith En tois phullois tes perseias trepheteis kai taptera echei homoia tais en tais kustais psuchais That is they are nourished in Peach-tree-leaues and they haue wings like vnto Butter-flyes that are found amongst Barly Where-vpon the Scholiast seemeth to insinuate to vs that this kind of Spyder is winged which no man as I iudge hath hetherto obserued Ponzettus and Ardoynus do take the Cranocalaptes to be a Tarantula but herein they are both mistaken as was Rabbi Moses before them The Spyder called Sclerocephalus in forme differeth but little from the former It hath a head as hard as a stone and the lineaments and proportion of the body do much resemble those small creatures which are seene about Lamps-lights or candles in the night time There commeth in the last place to be described the Phalangie-Spyder of Apulia commonly knowne by the name of Tarantula taking his denomination from the Countrey of Tarentum where there are found great store and plenty of
also Diodorus Siculus and Herodotus telleth this story When Hercules was dryuing away the Oxen of Geryon hee came into Scythia and there fell asleepe leauing his Mares feeding on his right hand in his Chariot and so it happened by diuine accident that vvhiles hee slept they vvere remooued out of his sight and strayed avvay from him Afterward hee awaked and missing them sought all ouer the Countrey for them at last hee came vnto a certaine place where in a caue hee found a Virgin of a double natured proportion in one part resembling a Mayde and in the other a Serpent whereat he wondered much but shee told him that if he would lye with her in carnall copulation shee would shewe him vvhere his Mares and Chariot vvere whereunto hee consented and begat vppon her three Sonnes famous among Poeticall Writers Nmely Agathyrsus Gelonus and Scythus but I will not prosecute eyther the names or these Fables any further and so I will proceede to the description of Vipers The colour of Vipers is somewhat yellowish hauing vpon theyr skins many round spottes theyr length about a cubit or at the most three palmes The tayle curled at the end very small and sharpe but not falling into that proportion equally by euen attenuation growing by little and little but vneuenly sharped on the sudden from thickenesse to thinnesse It is also without flesh consisting of skinne and bone and very sharp The head is very broad compared with the body and the Necke much narrower then the head The eyes very redde and flaming the belly winding vppon which it goeth all in length euen to the tayle and it goeth quickly and nimbly some affirme that it hath two canyne teeth and some foure And there is some difference betwixt the Male the female the female hath a broader head the neceke is not so eminent a shorter and thicker body a more extended tayle and a softer pace and foure canyne teeth Againe the Male hath a narrower head a necke swelling or standing vp a longer and thinner body and a swifter pace or motion so that in the Pictures proposed in this discourse the first of them are for the Male and the last for the Female and this is the peculiar outward difference betwixt the Male and the Female Vipers Auicen sayth besides that the tailes of Vipers make a noyse when they goe or mooue Those are taken to bee the most generous and liuely that haue the broadest and hollowest head like a Turbot quick and liuely eyes two canyne teeth a gristie or claw in the Nose or tayle a short body or tayle a pale colour a swift motion and bearing the head vpward For the further description of theyr seuerall partes Theyr teeth are very long vppon the vpper chappe and in number vppon eyther side foure and those vvhich are vppon the neather Gumbe are so small as they can scarce be discerned vntill they be rubbed and pressed but also it is to bee noted that while they liue or when they bee dead the length of theyr teeeth cannot appeare excetp you take from them a little bladder in which they lye concealed In that Bladder they carry poyson which they infuse into the wound they make with their teeth They haue no eares yet all other liuing Creatures that generate their like and bring foorth out of their bellies haue eares except this the Sea-Calfe and the Dolphin yet in stead hereof they haue a certaine gristly caue or hollownesse in the same place where the eares should stand The Wombe and place of conception saith Pliny is double but the meaning is that it is clouen as it is in all Females especially women Cowes They conceiue Egges and those Egges are contained neere theyr raynes or loynes Their skin is soft yeelding also to any stroake and when it is fleyed off from the body it stretcheth twice so bigge as it appeared while it couered the liuing Serpent To conclude Phyliologus writeth that their face is somewhat like the face of a man and from the Nauell it resembleh a Crocodile by reason of the small passage it hath for his egestion which exceedeth not the eye of a Needle It conceiueth at the mouth And thus much for the description in generall There is some difference among this kinde also according to the distinction of place wherein they liue for the Vipers in Aethiopia are all ouer blacke like the men and in other Countryes they differ in colour as in England France Italy Greece Asia and Aegypt as writeth Rellonius There is scarce any Nation in the World wherein there are not found some Vipers The people of Amyctae which were of the Graecian bloud droue away all kinde of Serpents from among them yet they had Vipers which did byte mortally and therefore could neuer bee cured beeing shorter then all other kindes of Vipers in the World Likewise in Arabia in Syagrus the sweete Promontory of Frankinsence the Europaen Mountaines Seiron Pannonia Aselenus Corax and Riphaeus the Mountaines of Asia Aegages Bucarteron and Cercaphus abound vvith Vipers Likewise Aegypt and in all Affrica they are found also and the Affrycans affirme in detestation heereof that it is not so much Animal as Malum naturae Thar is A liuing Creature as euill of Nature To conclude they are found in all Europe Some haue taken exceptions to Crete because Aristotle vvriteth that they are not found there but Bellonius affirmeth that in Creete also he saw Vipers which the Inhabitants call by the name of Cheudra which seemeth to be deriued from the Greeke Echidna At this day it is doubted whether they liue in Italy Germany or England for if they doe they are not knowne by that name yet I verily thinke that we haue in England a kinde of yellow Adder which is the Viper that Bellonius saw heere for I my selfe haue killed of them not knowing at that time the difference or similitude of Serpents but since I haue perceiued to my best remembrance that the proportion and voyce of it did shew that it was a Viper The most different kindes of Vipers are found in Aegypt and Asia Concerning the quantity that is the length and greatnesse of this Serpent there is some difference for some affirme it to be of a cubit in length and some more some lesse The Vipers of Europe are very small in comparison of them in Affrica for among the Troglodytes as writeth Aelianus they are fifteene cubits long and Nearchus affirmeth as much of the Indian Vipers Aristobulus also writeth of a Viper that hee saw which was nine cubits long and one hand breadth and some againe as Strabo affirme that they haue seene Vipers of sixteene Cubits long and Nicander vvriteth thus of the Vipers of Asia Fert Asia vltra tres longis qâ—i tractibus vlnas Se tendant rigidum quales Bucarteron atque Arduus Aegagus celsus Cercaphus intra Se multos refouet In English thus Such as Asia yeelds in length as are three