their enemy the Serpent by reason that the stalk is broader then the Serpent can gripe in his mouth and the other parts of the Chamaeleon so firm and hard as the Serpent cannot hurt them he laboureth but in vain to get a prey so long as the stalk is in the Chamaeleons mouth But if the Chamaeleon at any time see a Serpent taking the air and sunning himself under some green tree he climbeth up into that tree and setleth himself directly over the Serpent then out of his mouth he casteth a thread like a Spider at the end whereof hangeth a drop of poyson as bright as any pearl by this string he letteth down the poyson upon the Serpent which lighting upon it killeth it immediately And Scaliger reporteth a greater wonder then this in the description of the Chamaeleon for he saith if the boughs of the tree so grow as the perpendicular line cannot fall directly upon the Serpent then he so correcteth and guideth it with his fore-feet that it falleth upon the Serpent within the mark of a hairs breadth The Raven and the Crow are also at variance with the Chamaeleon and so great is the adverse nature betwixt these twain that if the Crow eat of the Chamaeleon being slain by him he dyeth for it except he recovereth his life by a Bay-leaf even as the Elephant after he hath devoured a Chamaeleon saveth his life by eating of the Wilde-olive-tree But the greatest wonder of all is the hostility which Pliny reporteth to be betwixt the Chamaeleon and the Hawk For he writeth that when a Hawk flyeth over a Chamaeleon she hath no power to resist the Chamaeleon but falleth down before it yeelding both her life and limbs to be devoured by it and thus that devourer that liveth upon the prey and bloud of others hath no power to save her own life from this little Beast A Chamaeleon is a fraudulent ravening and gluttonous Beast impure and unclean by the law of GOD and forbidden to be eaten in his own nature wilde yet counterseiting meeknesse when he is in the custody of man And this shall suffice to have spoken for the description of this Beast a word or two of the Medicines arising out of it and so a conclusion I finde that the Ancients have observed two kindes of Medicines in this Beast one magical and the other natural and for my own part although not able to judge of either yet I have thought good to annex a relation of both to this History And first of the natural medicines Democritus is of opinion that they deserve a peculiar Volume and yet he himself telleth nothing of them worthy of one page except the lying vanities of the Gentiles and superstitions of the Grecians With the gall if the suffusions and leprous parts of the body be anointed three days together and the whitenesse of the eyes it is believed to give a present remedy and Archigenes prescribeth the same for a medicine for the taking away of the unprofitable and pricking hairs of the eye-brows It is thought if it be mixed with some sweet composition that it hath power to cure a quotidian Ague If the tongue of a Chamaeleon be hung over an oblivious and forgetful person it is thought to have power to restore his memory The Chamaeleon from the head to the tail hath but one Nerve which being taken out and hung about the neck of him that holdeth his head awry or backward it cureth him The other parts have the same operation as the parts of the Hyaena and the Sea-calf If a Chamaeleon be sod in an earthen pot and consumed till the water be as thick as Oyl then after such seething take the bones out and put them in a place where the Sun never cometh then if you see a man in the fit of the Falling-sicknesse turn him upon his belly and anoint his back from the Os sacrum to the ridge-bone and it will presently deliver him from the fit but after seven times using it will perfectly cure him The Oyl thus made must be kept in a Box. This medicine following is a present remedy against the Gowt Take the head and feet of a Chamaeleon cut off also the outward parts of the knees and feet and then keep by themselves those parts that is to say the parts of the right leg by themselves and the parts of the left leg by themselves then touch the Nail of the Chamaeleon with your thumb and right finger of your hand dipping the tips of your fingers of the right hand in the bloud of the right foot of the Beast and so likewise the fingers of the left hand in the bloud of the left foot then include those parts in two little pipes and so let the sick person carry the right parts in the right hand and the left parts in the left hand until he be cured and this must be remembred that he must touch every morning about the Sun-rising the said Chamaeleon yet living and lapped in a linnen cloth with those parts that are oppressed with the Gout The like superstitious and Magical devises are these that follow as they are recorded by Pliny and Democritus The head and throat being set on fire with wood of Oak they believe to be good against Thunder and Rain and so also the liver burned on a Tyle If the right eye be taken out of it alive and applyed to the whitenesse of the eyes in Goats milk it is thought to cure the same The tongue bound to a woman with child preserveth her from danger in childe-birth if the same tongue be taken from the Beast alive it is thought it fore-sheweth the event of judgement The Heart wrapped in black Wooll of the first shearing by wearing it cureth a quartane Ague the right claw of the fore-feet bound to the lest arm with the skin of his cheeks is good against robberies and terrors of the night and the right pap against all fears If the left foot be scorched in a furnace with the herb Chamaeleon and afterward putting a little Ointment to it and made into little Pasties so being carryed about in a wooden box it maketh the party to go invisible The right shoulder maketh a man to prevail against his adversaries if they do but tread upon the nerves cast down upon the earth But the left shoulder they consecrate the same to monstrous dreams as if that thereby a man might dream what he would in his own person and effect the like in others With the right foot are all Palsies resolved and with the left foot all Lethargies the Wine wherein one side of a Chamaeleon hath been steeped sprinkled upon the head cureth the ach thereof If Swines Grease be mingled with the powder of the left foot or thigh and a mans foot be anointed therewith it bringeth the Gout by putting the gall into fire they drive away Serpents and into Water they draw together Weasels it pulleth off
seem to belong to all They saith he are of an admirable velocity or swiftness but yet inferiour to the Lybian Horses their belly is parted with black strakes and drops and the other parts of their body are of a red yellowish colour they have long feet but longer ears their eyes black and their horns are an ornament to their heads Their swiftness doth not only appear upon the earth but also upon the waters for with their feet they cut the waters when they swim as with Oares and therefore they love the lakes and strong streams breaking the floods to come by fresh pasture as Sweet-rushes and Bul-rushes Their horns grow only upon the males and are set with six or seven branches but the females have none and therefore also they differ in horn from the Fallow-deer so as they cannot be called Platycerotae for their horns are not palmed like a hand and although they be branchy yet are they shorter they differ not much from the common Deer but in their horn and whereas the horns of other beasts are hollow toward the root whereunto entereth a certain bony-substance the horns of these as also of the vulgar Buck and the Elk are solid without any such emptiness only they are full of pores It hath also been believed that a Roe doth not change her horns because they are never found whereas in truth they fall off yearly as doth a Harts but they hide them to the intent they should not be found It hath likewise been thought a Roe was called in Greek Dorcas because of the quickness of her sight and that she can see as perfectly in the night as in the day and not only for her self but the learned Physitians have observed a certain viscous humor about her bowels which being taken forth and anointed upon a mans eyes which are dark heavy and neer blinde it hath the same effect to quicken his eye-sight It is also said of them that they never wink no not when they sleep for which conceit their blood is prescribed for them that are purblinde The tail of this beast is shorter and lesser then is the fallow-Deers insomuch as it is doubtful whether it be a tail or not They keep for the most part in the Mountains among the rocks being very swift and when they are pursued by Dogs Martial saith they hang upon the rocks by their horns to deceive the Dogs after a strange manner ready to fall and kill themselves and yet have no harm whither the Dogs dare not approach as appeareth in this Epigram Pendentem summa capream de rupe videbis Casuram speres decipit illa Canes Yet this doth better agree with the wilde Goat then with the Roe as shall be manifested in due time Aelianus saith that the Cynoprosopi men with Dogs faces live upon the flesh of Roes and Bugles in the Wilderness of Egypt and also it is usual to conclude them in Parks for they will agree very naturally with Hares and Swine wherefore in the Lordship which Varro bought of Piso it was seen how at the sound of a Trumpet both Roes and Boars would come to their usual places for meat and although they be naturally very wilde yet will they quickly grow tame and familiar to the hand of man for Blondus did nourish many at Rome Being wilde they are hunted with Dogs shot with Guns taken in nets but this falleth out seldom because they live most among the rocks They are most easily taken in the Woods When they are chased they desire to run against the wind because the coldness of the air refresheth them in their course and therefore they which hunt them place their Dogs with the winde for sometimes against the hunters mindes do what they can to the contrary she taketh her course that way but Harts when they hear the barkings of Dogs run with the wind that the savour of their feet may pass away with them They are often taken by the counterfeiting of their voyce which the hunter doth by taking a leaf and hissing upon it They are very good meat as Philostratus affirmeth and that the Indians dress at their feasts whole Lyons and Roes for their ghests to eat and the Sophists in their banquet which is described by Atheneus had Roes therein and therefore Fiera preferreth it before the fallow-Deer alleadging the agreement that is betwixt it and the body of man being dressed according to Art Hic optata feret nobis fomenta calore Vda levi modicis moxque coquenda focis And therefore also affirmeth that it excelleth all wilde beasts whatsoever being not only fit for nourishment but for the sick as for them that have the Colick or the Falling Evill or the Tympany and therefore they are best at a year old or under Likewise their broth with Pepper Lovage seed of Rue Parsley Honey Mustardsecd and Oyl and for sauce to the meat they take Pepper Rue Hony melted and an Onyon sometime also they seethe the hanches or hips and make Pasties of the sides and ribs It is a beast full of fear and therefore the flesh thereof although it be very dry yet will it engender some melancholy of the fear Martial saith thus Tam dispar aquilae columba non est Ac dorcas rigido fugax leoni As the Dove from the Eagle and the Roe from the Lyon which afterward grew into a Proverb It hath also some Epithets among Authors which do confirm their disposition full of fear as flying weak wanton and such like yet will they fight one with another so fiercely that sometime they kill each other They fear also the Woolfs whereof came the proverb that first of all the Roes will be joyned to the Woolfs to express an incredible matter They have also been used for Sacrifice to Diana for the Saphriae women in Patras did lay upon her great Altar whole Harts Bores Roes and other beasts alive and the Coptitae did eat the males but religiously worshipped the females not daring to eat them because they believed that Isis loved them dearly Of these beasts came the Islands Capreae beyond Surrentum in Campania where Tiberius had a famous Castle and was ennobled by his presence but since the decay thereof it is now celebrated for the multitude of quails that are found therein The remedies or medicines coming from this beast are these first the flesh of them eaten is good against all pains in the small guts for it dryeth and stayeth the belly Pliny affirmeth that the teeth of a Dragon tyed to the sinews of a Hart in a Roes skin and wore about ones neck maketh a man to be gracious to his Superiors and them to be favourable and pitiful to him in all his supplications and if the white flesh in the brest of the Hiaena seven hairs thereof with the genital of a Hart be tyed in a piece of Roes skin and hanged about
fore-lock to the Mercurius there are contained eight inches the back-bone containeth three and thirty crosse ribs From the convulsion of the reins to the top of the tail are twelve commissures the length of his Sagula containeth also twelve inches from his shoulders to his legs six from his legs to his knees a foot in length from the Articles to the hoofs four inches in his whole length six feet And this is the stature of a couragious and middle Horse for I know there are both bigger and lesser The quality and the measure of the nerves or sinews is this from the middle nostrils through the head neck and back-bone is a dubble file or threed to the top of the tail which containeth twelve foot in length The two broad sinews in the neck do contain four-four-foot from the shoulders to the knees there are two sinews from the knee to the bottom of the foot there are four sinews in the fore-legs there are ten sinews in the hinder-legs there are other ten sinews from the reins to the stones there are four sinews so the whole number amounteth to thirty four Consequently the number of the veins is to be declared In the palat or roof of the mouth their are two veins under the eyes other two in the brest other two and in the legs other two four under the pasternes two in the ancles four in the crown of the pasternes four out of the thighes two out of the loins two out of the Gambaes one out of the rail and two in the womb or Matrix so the whole number is nine and twenty There are certain veins above the eyes which are divided in Horses wherein they are let bloud by making to them small incisions the bloud also is taken out of the veins in the palat or roof of the mouth There was an ancient custome of letting Horses bloud upon Saint Stevens day by reason of many holy dayes one succeeding another but that custom is now grown out of use Also some take bloud out of the Matrix veins but that is not to be admitted in Geldings because with their stones they lose a great part of their heat excepting extream necessity but out of the palat bloud may be let every moneth and stallions when they are kept from Mares if the vein of their mouths be opened fall into blindness although it is no good part of husbandry to let them bleed that year wherein they admit copulation for the vacuation of bloud and seed is a double charge to nature But the Organical vein of the neck is the best letting of bloud both in stoned and gelded Horses The later Leaches make incision in the great vein called Fontanella and in Inen Thymus or Jugulis The eyes of a Horses are great or glassie and it is reported by Augustus that his eyes were much more brighter then other mens resembling Horses these eyes see perfectly in the night yet their colour varieth as it doth in Men according to the caprine and glazie humour And some-times it falleth out that one and the same Horse hath two eyes of distinct colours When the eyes of a Horse hang outward he is called Exophthalmos Such fair eyes are best for Bucephalus the Horse of Alexander had such eyes but when the eyes hang inward they are called Coeloph-Thalmoi and the Parthians count them the best Horses whose eyes are of divers colours and are therefore called Heteroph Thalmoi because the breed of that Horse was said to take the beginning from the Parthians and the reason why the people loved not these Horses was because they were fearful and apt to run away in wars The ears of a Horse are tokens and notes of his stomach as a tail is to a Lion his teeth are changed yet they grow close together like a mans It is a hard thing for a Horse to have a good mouth except his stallion teeth be pulled out for when he is chafed or heated he cannot be held back by his rider but disdaineth the bridle wherefore after they be three year and a half old those teeth ought to be pulled forth In old age a Horses teeth grow whiter but in other creatures blacker A Mare hath two udders betwixt her thighes yet bringeth forth but one at a time many of the Mares have no paps at all but only they which are like their Dams In the heart of a Horse there is a little bone like as in an Oxe and a Mule he hath no gall like Mules and Asses and other whole-footed-beasts howsoever some say it lyeth in his belly and others that it cleaveth to his liver or to the gut-colon The small guts of a Horse lie near that gut that so one side of his belly may be free and full of passage and from hence it cometh that the best Horses when they run or travel hard have a noise or rumbling in their belly The Hip-bone of a Horse is called by some the haunch as the Arabians say the tail because therewith he driveth away flies is called Muscartum it ought to be long and full of hairs The legs are called Gambae of Campo signifying treading the hoofs of a Horse ought neither to be high nor very low neither ought the Horse to rest upon his anckles and those Horses which have straight bones in the Articles of their hinder knees set hard on the ground and weary the Rider but where the bones are short in the same places as they are in Dogs there the Horse also breaketh and woundeth one leg with another and therefore such Horses are called Cynopodae They have also quick flesh in their hoofs and their hoofs are sometimes called horns upon which for their better travel men have devised to fallen iron plates or shooes This hoof ought to be hard and hollow that the Beast may not be offended when he goeth upon stones they ought not to be white nor broad but almost kept moist that so they may travel the better having strong feet hard and sound hoofs for which cause the Graecians call them Eupodes Forasmuch as it is requisite for every man to provide him Horses of the best race and their kindes are divers in most places of the world so the coursers of Horses do many times beguile the simpler sort of buyers by lying and deceitful affirmation of the wrong Countreys of the best Horses which thing bringeth a confusion for there are as many kindes of Horses as Nations I will therefore declare severally the Countreys breeding the Horses for the Region and air maketh in them much alteration that so the Reader may in a short view see a muster of Horses made of all Nations The Wilderness of Acarnania and Etolia is as fit for feeding Horses as Thessaly The Horses of the Greeks Armenians and Trojans are fit for war of the Greckish I will speak more afterward Alexandria was wont to take great delight in Horses and combates of Horses Apollonius writeth
their minde to any of these which are more worthy of derision then imitation If thou shalt fill the passages of these rustical or Field-mice with the ashes of an Oak he shall be possessed with a fervent desire to it often touching it and so shall die These Countrey Mice that is to say those Mice which are found in the fields being bruised and burned to ashes and mingled with fresh Hony doth comfort or restore the sight of the eyes by diminishing the darkness or dimness thereof in what field soever you shall finde any thing dig them up by the roots with a little stake or post Of the WOOD-MOVSE PLiny doth oftentimes make mention of this Wood-mouse or rather a Mouse belonging to the Wood but he doth it only in medicines but that it doth differ from this Countrey or Field-mouse we have have shewen in the chapter going before because it doth not inhabit or dwell in the Countries or tilled places as the Countrey or Field-mice do but doth inhabit in Woods and Forrests The Wood-mouse is called in Greek as the Countrey-mouse but I think it to be a kinde of Dormouse which proceedeth from the kinde of Wood-mouse Pliny truly doth make the same remedy or medicines of a Dormouse as he doth of a Wood-mouse as I will a little after rehearse or recite unto you Also I should have thought that a Sorex had been the same because it is a Wood-mouse but that that one place of Pliny did hinder me where he commendeth the ashes of a Wood-mouse to be very good for the clearness of the eyes and by and by after did shew or declare that the ashes of the Sorex were good also in the same use as I will recite or rehearse below in the medicines or remedies of the Wood-mouse Agricola a man of great learning doth interpret or judge the Wood-mouse to be that Mouse to the which they do appoint the name deriyed from Avellana but he doth account that to be the Sorex which I will shew or declare beneath to be the Shrew I do understand that there are properly two kindes of the Wood-mouse spoken of before The one of them that which Albertus doth write saying that there is a certain kinde of Mouse which doth build or make her habitation in trees and of a brown or swart colour and having also black spots in her face which only is called by the universal name of a Wood-mouse Of the same kinde Pliny doth mean if I be not deceived when he writeth that the mast of a Beech-tree is very acceptable to Mice and therefore they have good success with their young ones The other which is peculiarly named the Sorex which saith Pliny doth sleep all the Winter time and hath a tail full of hair whose shape or form we propose and set evidently before you But that I may more distinctly handle those things which Pliny hath shewed to us concerning the Wood-mouse I will write her down separately or by it self and afterwards concerning the Mouse which hath her name derived from Fil-birds which the Germans have left in writing and which I my self have considered or observed and last of all I will write concerning the Sorex peculiarly and severally from the Ancient Writers The ashes of a Wood-mouse being mingled with Hony doth cure all fractures of bones the brains also spread upon a little piece of cloth and covered with wooll is good also but you must now and then spread it over the wound and it doth almost make it whole and strong within the space of three or four days neither must you mingle the ashes of the Wood-mouse with Hony too late Hony also being mingled with the ashes of Earth-worms doth draw forth broken bones Also the fat of these Beasts being put to Kibes is very good but if the Ulcers are corrupt and rotten by adding Wax to the former things doth bring them to cicatrising The Oyl of a burned Locust is also very good and also the Oyl of a Wood-mouse with Hony is as effectual as the other They say also that the heads and tails of Mice mixed with the the ashes of them and anointed with Hony doth restore the clearness of the sight but more effectually being mingled with the ashes of a Dor-mouse or a Wood-mouse Of the Nut-mouse Hasel-mouse or Filbird-mouse THis Beast is a kinde of Sorex and may be that which the Germans tearm Ein gross Haselmus a great Hasel-mouse so called because they seed upon Hasel-nuts and Filbirds The Flemings call it Ein Slaperat that is a sleeping Rat and therefore the French call it by the name Lerot whereby also we have shewed already they understand a Dormouse For this sleepeth like that and yet the flesh thereof is not good to be eaten The colour of this Mouse is red like the Hasel and the quantity full as great as a Squirrel or as a great Rat upon the back and sides it is more like a Mouse and upon the head more red His ears very great and pilled without hair The belly white so also are his legs The neathermost of his tail towards the tip white His nostrils and feet reddish The tail wholly rough but most at the end with white hairs The eyes very great hanging out of his head and all black so that there is not in them any appearance of white The beard partly white and partly black both above and beneath his ears and about his eyes and the upper part of his tail next his body all black Upon his forefeet he hath four claws or distinct toes for he wanteth a thumb But upon his hinder-feet he hath five I mean upon each severally The outside of his hinder-legs from the bending to the tip of his nails is altogether bald without hair And the savour of all this kinde is like the smell of the vulgar Mice They live not only in the earth but also in trees which they climbe like Squirrels and therefore make provision of nuts and meat against the Winter which they lodge in the earth The Countreymen finding in the Summer their caves and dens do wisely forbear to destroy them knowing that they will bring into them the best Nuts and Fil-birds can be gotten and therefore at one side they stick up a certain long rod by direction whereof in the Winter time they come and dig out the den justly taking from them both their life and store because they have unjustly gathered it together Some have eaten it but they were deceived taking it for the Dormouse Of the LASCITT MOUSE THis Mouse is called by the Germans Lascitts and also Harnebal because of the similitude it holdeth with the Ermeline Weesil The skin of it is very pretious being shorter then the Ermeline two fingers breadth And forasmuch as else there is no difference between the Lascitt Mouse and the Lascitt Weesil except in the quantity My opinion is that they are all one and differ only in age
shels of the Canker-worm covered with earth The day Flies from their Aureliae either hanging upon or sticking unto the boughs of trees They are for the most part rough and as it were dusty flying in the dark very tender these on the other side flying in the day light are more plain smooth even and have no dust upon them They fly seldome in the day but toward the close of the evening lest the dust that is upon them being dryed by the heat of the Sun and drowth should shake off being never used to be wet with rain But these are not able to fly by night lest the night dew should wet them quite through and hinder both their flight and their health wherefore in rainy weather and all night they shrowd themselves under the leaves and never fly abroad but in clear and fair weather The Phalenae are no lesse affected with the candle than these with the day-light wherefore these rejoyce at the day-star that is to say the Sun but those at the night-star to wit the Moon and Stars and candle-light resembling somewhat the nature splendor and glimmering light of the Stars The second Phalenae of the first magnitude as it is somewhat lesse in bulk of body than the former so it far excels it in the gloss and splendor of colours as if Nature in adorning of this had spent her whole painters shop and had intended the former for the King of Butterflies that is to say strong valiant blackish freckled and this for the Queen delicate tender fine all beset with pearls and precious stones and priding it self in embroidery and needle-work her body downy like Geese something smooth and hairy like Martens or Sable skins the head little great eyes standing out two cornicles like feathers of a yellow or boxie colour she hath four great wings every one of them having eyes of divers colours the apple whereof is black the circle or roundle next to it of various colours with yellow flame-like white and black coloured circles and semicircles The outer wings from their original to their extremities are whitish beautified with certain little veins and specks the edges whereof are adorned with a welt or guard and a hem of dunnish or dark yellow colour the inner wings brown or tawny having one eye apiece as the former with a three-fold border the first whereof is plain the middlemost part gosing in and out like a scollop both of a fiery colour the outmost of all of a pale white and as it were sown on by some Skinner or Furâ—â—er she goes upon strong rough brawny thighs of the same colour with the rest of her body This did Carolus Clusius send from Vienna of so elegant and notable figure that it is easier to wonder at and admire than with fit expressions to describe The third sort hath a great body rough and blackish each wing hath one eye the sight or apple whereof is black the roundle brown the half circle white There are divers pieces in the wings of a watry Amethyst colour the edges of the wings at the first sight appear ash-colour afterwards Eagle-colour The head very short and little putteth forth on either side a black eye the apple whereof is of a notable whiteness between those break forth two very small short horns of a dunnish colour It is begotten of a rough Canker-worm not a smooth The fourth hath a great dark coloured head out of which arise two streight cornicles somewhat black the neck is adorned with vermilion specks the brest rough square duskish the shoulders coil black the belly of Amethyst or purple colour divided with five or six circles or rounds the feet black as pitch the wings of a light brown full of long black little veins The fifth hath a white head black eyes the horns a little yellow the outmost wings long of a sad colour between white and brown the innermost being lightly and as it were by the by coloured reddish the shoulders very black the rest of the body somewhat of a rose colour bound about with seven black circles a white line running all along the middle of the belly The seventh hath the outer wings white with certain brown spots here and there as if it were watered Chamblet the neck ring'd about as it were with a red skin reaching all down the shoulders like a Fryers cowle the head is red the eyes pearl colour the horns flame colour the innermost wings of a shining red speckled black the feet red the belly all of the same colour with seven incisures or clifts of a deep red lead colour The eighth is almost all over brown but the edges of the wings and the middle part of the horns are of yellow or box colour The ninth is almost like unto it but that the edges of the wings are like black sand it hath horns broad and bended of a whity-brown colour the middle of the outermost wings stopped with a round white spot The tenth is of a like bignesse all over of a white brown but that the middle of the outermost wings is marked with a white spot and the eye with a very black apple The head of the eleventh is tuberous the horns slender the body like clay trodden otherwise the wings are all of a dark silver colour The twelfth somewhat of an ash-colour the wings spotted black the eyes black the apple white The thirteenth hath very little or no horns at all the body all over yellow except the eyes which are little and black and the wings which are whitish The fourteenth appears of colour various it hath black tuberous horns as also the eyes and feet the shoulders are drest with five white plumes as it were of which the two middlemost have three black specks the wings snow white bespeckled here and there with black yellow and blew specks the body russet articulate or jointed the sides whitish she puts her tail in or out as she pleaseth it is sharp yellowish jointed all the body as it were sprinkled with dust otherwise in regard of the tuberous cornicles it had come in the number of the day Butterflies It layeth abundance of yellowish eggs in the laying whereof she puts forth a little tail which she puls in again at pleasure The fifteenth hath two black slender cornicles the head and shoulders hairy of a dun colour the neck adorned with a collar of Vermilion the shanks reddish the outmost wings chamoletted with white and dun the innermost are exactly red spotted with black spots the body of a light vermilion rounded about with six black guards or welts The sixteenth seems to be very rare if you look upon it as it lies on its back it seems to be all over of a murry colour if as it lies green and yellow it hath five very red lines or streaks drawn along the shoulders as also seven spots set quite through the middle of the back do adorn the rest of the body the wings also traverst
work The field Spider with a body almost round and brown that lives about grasse and Sheep the English call it Shepheard either because it is pleased with the company of Sheep or because Shepherds think those fields that are full of them to be good wholsome Sheep-pasture and no venome to be it for this Shepherd taken inwardly or outwardly applyed is a harmlesse Creature There are yet more kindes of Spiders for there is a kinde of black Spider with short feet that hath a white Egge under the belly white as snow and running swiftly when the Egge breaks many young Spiders run forth which go all with their Dam to feed and at night they rest upon the Dams back Pennius supposed that this was rough with warts untill he touched it with a straw and saw the young Spiders to run down Also in rotten hollow trees there are very black Spiders with great bodies very short feet that dwell with Cheeslips and Catterpillers called Juli. Also saith Gesner we have seen them all white with a compacted and broad little body upon the flower of Mountain Parsley Roses and grasse they have most long slender legs the mouth is noted with a spot and both sides with a red line he thought it was venemous because he saw a Munkey almost dead that had eaten one and could hardly be recovered by powring Oyl down his throat We know also Spiders with a long body and a sharp tail they are red from black as also green Also there are red ones of two kindes one great one that dwells only in the Caves of the earth with a body Cinnaber colour with feet yellow from red the tail and belly tend toward yellow a little from brown There is another sort very small lesse then a Sheeps Tike as red as Scarlet it hath but six feet being a monster amongst Spiders it hath a head like as Spiders have but it is very small It lives in the earth and weaves a very course Web and not well wrought sometimes she wandreth abroad and shews great agility to catch her prey We grant willingly that there are more kindes of Spiders and of more colours for our land brings not all things forth nor yet did Actorides though he was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 see all things It may be future times may delineate the rest better In the mean time we have spoken of Spiders if not to delight yet according as we thought fit and we would do no more because in writing so much of them we have taken great pains Yet this we shall observe that all Net-workers and Web-workers amongst Spiders do grow to have greater skill by age and that shut up in Wooll they increase the generation of Moths and they yearly oft times cast off their old skin and the greater and lustier they are the more ingenious are they found to be in their gifts of life CHAP. XV. Of the generation copulation and use of Spiders IT is manifest that Spiders are bred of some aereall seeds putrefied from filth and corruption because that the newest houses the first day they are whited will have both Spiders and Cobwebs in them But their propagation is frequently by copulation the desire and act whereof lasts almost all the Spring They do by a mutual and frequent attraction of their Net as it were kindle venery and continually aâ— they draw they come neerer then at last they copulate backwards because that manner of copulation by reason of their round body was most convenient After the same manner do all the Phalangia that weave copulate together and they are generated from creatures of the same kinde as Aristotle testifies But they copulate not in the Spring but at beginning of the Winter at which time they go fastest and hurt certainly and seem to be more venemous Some after copulation lay one Egge alone and carry it under their belly and it is white as snow and they sit on it by course the male sometimes helping the female Others lay many and very small Egges like Poppy-seeds out of which sometimes thirty small Spiders are bred after some trifling sports in their Web they go forth with their Dam and in the evening they come in again untill such time as each of them hath learned to spin its own Web to live more safely and pleasantly they thrust forth their young by leaping they sit on their Egges three dayes and in a Lunar moneth they bring their young to perfection The House Spiders lay their Egges in a thin Web but the field Spiders in a thick because they may resist the greater forces of winde and rain the place helps much for Generation For as in the Countrey of Arrhentia and in the Island of Crete there are great store of Phalangia so in Ireland there are none they did not long indure in England the Tower at Gratianâ—â—oâ—is would suffer none for though many of our Spiders swallowed down do hurt us yet their bite is harmlesse and no man is killed by it buâ— the bitings of all Phalangia are deadly Where shall you not finde these Spiders that bite without doing hurt they climbe up into Kings Courts to teach them vertue they work in Noble mens Chambers to teach them their Duties they dwell in poor mens houses to teach them patience to suffer and to labour Goe but into your Orchard and each tree is inhabited by them in your Garden they hide in Roses in the field they work in hedges you shall finde them at home and abroad that you may have no cause to complain that there are no examples for vertue and diligence every where The Spider though Pallas called her impudent Martial unconstant Claudian bold Politian pendulous Juvenal dry Propertius corrupt Virgil light Plautus unprofitable yet is she good and created for many uses as shall appear clearly wherefore adoring the Majesty of God who hath given so great vertues to so small a Creature we shall proceed to speak of the profits we receive by her The Flie-catching Spider wrapt in a linnen cloth and hang'd on the left arm is good to drive away a Quotidian saith Trallianus But better iâ— many of them be boyld with Oyl of Bayes to the consistence of a Liniment if you anoynt the arteries of the Wrists the arms and Temples before the fit the Feaver abates and seldome comes again Kiramides A Spider bruised with a plaister and spread on a cloath and applyed to the Temples cures a Tertian Dioscorides The Spider called Loycos put in a quill and hang'd on the breast doth the same Pliny That House Spider that spins a thick fine and white Web shut up in a piece of leather or a Nur-shell and hang'd to the arm or neck is thought to drive away the fits of a Quartane Dioscorid Pennius saith he proved it to be true Three living Spiders put into Oyl let them presently boyl on the fire drop some of that Oyl warm into the ear that
a treble formed monster a Maidens face a Lions legs and the wings of a Fowl or as Ausonius and Varinus say the face and hand of a Maid the body of a Dog the wings of a Bird the voice of a man the claws of a Lion and the tail of a Dragon and that she kept continually in the Sphincian mountain propounding to all travellers that came that way an Aenigma or Riddle which was this What was the creature that first of all goeth on four legs afterwards on two and lastly on three and all of them that could not dissolve that Riddle she presently flew by taking them and throwing them down headlong from the top of the Rock At last Oedipus came that way and declared the secret that it was a Man who in his infancy creepeth on all four afterward in youth goeth upright upon two legs and last of all in old age taketh unto him a staffe which maketh him to go as it were on three legs which the monster hearing she presently threw down her self from the former rock and so she ended Whereupon Oedipus is taken for a subtle and wise opener of mysteries But the truth is that when Cadmus had maried an Amazonian woman called Sphinx and with her came to Thehes and there slew Draco their King and possessed his Kingdom afterward there was a sister unto Draco called Harmona whom Cadmus maried Sphinx being yet alive She in revenge being assisted by many followers departed with great store of wealth into the Mountain SPHINCIVS taking with her a great Dog which Cadmus held in great account and there made daily incursions or spoils upon his people Now Aenigma in the Theban language signifieth an inrode or warlike incursion wherefore the people complained in this sort This Grecian Sphinx robbeth us in setting upon with an Aenigma but no man knoweth after what manner she maketh this Aenigma Cadmus hereupon made Proclamation that he would give a very bountiful reward unto him that would kill Sphinx upon which occasion the CORINTHIAN Oedipus came unto her being mounted on a swist Courser and accompanied with some Thebans in the night season slew her Others say that Oedipus by counterseiting friendship slew her making shew to be of her faction and Pausanias saith that the former Riddle was not a Riddle but an Oracle of Apollo which Cadmus had received whereby his posterity should be inheritors of the Theban Kingdom and whereas Oedipus being the Son of Laius a formeâ— King of that Countrey was taught the Oracle in his sleep he recovered the Kingdom usu ped by Sphinx his Sister and afterward unknown maried his own Mother Jâ—casta But the true moral of this Poetical fiction is by that learned Alciatus in one of his emblems deciphered that her monstrous treble-formed-shape signified her lustful pleasure under a Virgins face her cruel pride under the Lions claws her winde-driven levity under the Eagles or Birds feathers and I will conclude with the words of Suidas concerning such Monsters that the Tritons Sphinges and Centaures are the images of those things which are not to be sound within the compasse of the whole world The true Sphinx first described is of a fierce though a tameable nature and if a man do first of all perceive or discern these natural Sphinges before the beast discern or perceive the man he shall be safe but if the beast first descry the man then is it mortal to the man These Sphinges were of great account for their strangeness with their image did Augustus sign all his Grants Libels and Epistles afterward he left that and signed with the image of Alexander the great and last of all with his own Syclis the King in the City of the Boristhenites had a fair house about which there were Sphinges and Gryphins wrought out of white stone At Athens in the Temple Parthenâ—na there is described the contention betwixt Pallas and Neptune about the earth and the image of Pallas made of Ivory and gold hath in the midst of her shield the picture of a Sphinx Amasis the King of Egypt built in the porch of Pallas an admirable work called Sar where he placed such great Colosses and Aâ—dro-Sphinges that it was afterward supposed he was buried therein and was lively to be seen imputrible To conclude the Egyptians in the porches of their Temples painted a Sphinx whereby they insinuated that their divine wisdom was but dark and uncertain and so covered with fables that there scarce appeared in it any sparkles or footsteps of yerity Of the SAGOIN called GALEOPITHECUS THis figure of the Sagoin I received of Peter Cordenberg a very learned Apothecary at Antwerpe w ch is three times as big as my picture and John Cay that famous English Doctor hath advertised me that it no way resembleth the Sagoin it self which is not much greater then a Rat a little Conny or a young Hedghog for he had seen several ones of that bigness of a grisseld colour a neat beard and somewhat ash coloured a tail like a Rat but hairy the feet of a Squirrel and the face almost like a Martine or Satyre a round ear but very short and open the hair black at the root and white at the end and in other conditions like a Munkey They are much set by among women and by the Brasilians where they are bred and called Sagoins it being very probable that they are conceived by a small Ape and Weasell for in that Countrey by reason of the heat thereof there are many such unnatural commixtions It is a nimble lively and quick spirited beast but fearful it will eat white-bread Apples Sweet-grapes dryed in the Sun Figs or Pears There was one of them at Antwerpe sold for fifty Crowns In France they call a Sagoin a little beast not much bigger then a Squirrel and not able to endure any cold Some other affirme that a Sagoin is a bearded creature but without a tail of an ash-colour not much bigger then a fist but of this beast there is not any author writeth more then is already rehearsed Of the Bear-Ape ARCTOPITHECUS THere is in America a very deformed beast which the inhabitants call Haut or Hauti and the Frenchmen Guenon as big as a great African Munkey His belly hangeth very low his head and face like unto a childs as may be seen by this lively picture and being taken it will sigh like a young child His skin is of an ash-colour and hairy like a Bear he hath but three claws on a foot as long as four fingers and like the thornes of Privet whereby he climeth up into the highest trees and for the most part liveth of the leaves of a certain tree being of anexceeding height which the Americans call Amahut and thereof this beast is called Haut Their tail is about three fingers long having very little hair thereon it hath been often tried that though
came newly from a bath and therefore it is given in Fevers Hecticks and all consuming diseases because the substance of it is fitter for detersion then nutriment when the brests are in pain by drinking Asses milk they be holpt and the same mingled with hony causeth Womens purgation by drinking Asses milk an exulcerate stomach is relieved likewise all other pains in the stomach which come of sadness or sorrow sighing and desperation and Heraclides gave Asses milk with Anniseed to one that had his lights stopped and it is likewise commended against the Cough extenuation spitting of bloud Dropsie and hardness of the Spleen but it is not good for a weak head troubled with giddiness or noise yet will it loosen the hardness of the belly in a Fever It is also privately used against eating of Morture White-lead Sulphur and Quicksilver and when a mans meat doth not neither nourish nor digest let him drink Asses milk safely and it is also good to gargarize in sore chaps or throats Likewise in a Fever when there is no head-ache The ancient in old time gave Asses milk to children before meat and for want thereof Goats milk for sore mouthes it must be gargarized It is very profitable against the Colick and Blondy-flux if hony be put thereto loosness or desire of stool is taken away by drinking Asses milk the whay or milk of an Asse did Hippocrates prescribe against the Consumption of the reins or back and the same with the root of a pomgranat against the looseness and other diseases of the belly to be drunk Also there are examples where the whay of Asses milk have helped the Gowt both in hand and foot sweet water with Asses milk is wholesome against poison of Hen-bane and other poisons but it must be used new or else soon after warmed This milk will make womens skins whiter wherefore Pappea the wife of Demitius Nero carryed about with her in her progress fifty milch Asses wherewith she did use to bath her self The Urine with the own dung healeth straight shooing scabs in a man and the roughness of the nails It taketh away the scurffe of Oxen. It is given in drink to cure them that have ache in their reins and with Pepper-wort it is prositable against Suppurations and Apostems in the flesh If any be hurt by the Stars wash them in Asses stale mingled with Spiknard the same force hath it against cornes and all hardness or thickness of skin The dung of Asses new with oil of Roses distilled warme into the ears helpeth deafness and pushes or suddain boils of the head are cured with the juice of Asses dung and of Sea-onions beat to powder and the fat of beef layed to the boils like a plaister both the dung of Asses and Horses either raw or burnt mingled with Vinegar restraineth bleeding both in Fluxes and Wounds used like a plaister being new and mingled with Vinegar and for the bleeding at the nose snuffe in the ashes of Asses dung burnt to powder The dung of Asses cureth the Piles and the same dried and moistened in wine being drunk of Cattel which are stung with Scorpions cureth them if it be at grasse and it is found true by long experience that the dung of an Asse rubbed in quantity two spoonfuls and taken every day delivereth one from the falling evill mitis prodest ex ubere succus asellae Si tepido vino infundas ac mella piperque This is good against the gall and running over thereof if it be mingled with warm wine pepper and hony The Syrians call the dung of a young Fole which it first castest up after the foling Polean and give it against the sickness of the milt In sapa decoctum colo magnopere prodest The same is good against the Colick and the Bloudy-flux The juice of Asses dung Asses milk and sweet wine anointed on the sick member cureth the Gowt and the same stayeth the flowres of women with child the juice hereof cureth the closing up of the eyes in the night The skin wherein the young Fole lyeth in the dams belly being smelled unto by him that hath the Falling evill it easeth him Anaxilaus hath reported that if the excrements of a Mares copulation be burned there will appear monstrous shapes of Horses heads If a Horse have a web in his eye mingle together the milk of an Asse the bloud of a Dove and the dew of Cabages and anoint him therewith and there be some which take of the dirt where an Asse hath made water in the way and therewith anoint the Scabs of sheep for their recovery but when one is strucken with a Scorpion the Asses dung must be presently applyed or else it profiteth nothing in that malady Of the Hinnus Innus and Ginnus Mannus mannulus Befi Burdenes c. THere is no language besides the Greek that have any words to express these Beasts and the Latins have derived these termes from them These are beasts of a small size as dwarfes among men and therefore seldom seen in these parts parts of the world They which are called Hinni are conceived of a Horse and a she Asse who although they take their denomination from the male yet do they more resemble the female In ancient time the males which were conceived of a Horse and a she Asse were called Hinnuli and likewise of an Asse and a Mare Muli so are the young ones of little Goats Deer Hares and other like although some take Innuli for the young Harts and the Hinni and Hinnuli for the breed of a Horse and an Asse so that there appeareth two kinds and both of them transplanted out of other The Hinnus is lesse then the Mule but more ruddy having ears like a Horse and a mane and tail like an Asse lying in the womb before the foling twelve moneths like a Horse and are brought up like little Horses whose age is discerned by their teeth and they are sometimes procreated of a Horse and a Mule and because of their aptness to beare they are called Burdones or else of Bardus by reason of their folly and slowness Manni and Mannuli are very little low horses being very gentle and easie to be handled being called also among the Civilians Burdi There is in France not far from Grationopolis a kind of Mules which in the Countrey speech are called Iumar being bred of an Asse and a Bull and in the Helvetian Alpes beyond Curia about the Town Speluga I have been sincerely informed that there was a Horse conceived of a Bull and a Mare and therefore Scaliger saith that such a fole is called Hinnulus whereof he reporteth he had seen many and he himself had two of them and at that instant had only one female betwixt whose ears there were two bony bunches about the bigness of half a Wal-nut giving evident testimony by the forehead that her father or Syre
their drunken god Bacchus Of the BADGER otherwise called a Brocke a Gray or a Bauson THe Badger could never find a Greek name although some through ignorance have foisted into a Greek Dictionary Melis whereas in truth that is his Latin word Mele or Meles and so called because above all other things he loveth hony and some later writers call him Taxus Tassus Taxo and Albertus Magnus Daxus But whereas in the Scripture some translate Tesson Tahas or Tachasch and plurally Techaseim Badgers yet is not the matter so clear for there is no such beauty in a Badgers skin as to cover the Arke or to make Princes shooes thereof therefore some Hebrews say that it signifieth an Oxe of an exceeding hard skin Onkelus translateth it Sasgona that is a beast skin of divers colours Symmachus and Aquila a jacinct colour which cannot be but the Arabians Darasch and the Persians Asthak yet it may be rather said that those skins spoken of Exod. 25. Numb 4. Ezek. 26. be of the Lynx or some such other beast for Tachasch cometh neer Thos signifying a kind of Wolf not hurtful to men being rough and hairy in Winter but smooth in Summer The Italians call a Badger Tasso the Rhetians Tasoh the French Tausson Taixin Tasson Tesson and sometime Grisart for her colour sometime Blareau and at Paris Bedevo The Spaniards Tasugo Texon the Germans Tachs or Daxs the Illyrians Gezwecz Badgers are plentiful in Naples Sicily Lucane and in the Alpino and Helvetian coasts so are they also in England In Lueane there is a certain wilde beast resembling both a Bear and a Hog not in quantity but in form and proportion of body which therefore may fitly be called in Greek Suarctos for a Gray in short legs ears and feet is like a Bear but in fatness like a Swine Therefore it is observed that there be two kinds of this beast one resembling a Dog in his feet which is is cald Canine the other a Hog in his cloven hoof and is cald Swinish also these differ in the fashion of their snowt one resembling the snowt of a Dog the other of a Swine and in their meat the one eating flesh and carrion like a Dog the other roots and fruits like a Hog as both kinds have been found in Normandy and other parts of France and Sicilie This beast diggeth her a den or cave in the earth and there liveth never coming forth but for meat and easement which it maketh out of his den when they dig their den after they have entred a good depth for avoiding the earth out one of them falleth on the back and the other layeth all the earth on his belly and so taking his hinder feet in his mouth draweth the belly-laden Badger out of the cave which disburdeneth her cariage and goeth in for more till all be finished and emptied The wily Fox never makth a Den for himself but finding a Badgers cave in her absence layeth his excrements at the hole of the Den the which when the Gray returneth if she smell as the savour is strong she forbeareth to enter as noisome and so leaveth her elaborate house to the Fox These Badgers are very sleepy especially in the day time and stir not abroad but in the night for which cause they are called Lucifugae that is avoiders of the light They eat hony and wormes and hornets and such like things because they are not very swift of foot to take other creatures They love Orchards Vines and places of fruits also and in the autumn they grow therewith very fat They are in quantity as big as a Fox but of a shorter and thicker body their skin is hard but rough and rugged their hair harsh and stubborn of an intermingled grisard colour sometime white sometime black his back covered with black and his belly with white his head from the top thereof to the ridge of his shoulder is adorned with strakes of white and black being black in the middle and white at each side He hath very sharp teeth and is therefore accounted a deep-biting beast His back is broad his legs as some say longer on the right side then on the left and therefore he runneth best when he getteth to the side of a hill or a cart-road-way His tail is short but hairy and of divers colours having a long face or snowt like the Zibethus his forelegs being a full span long and the hinder legs shorter short ears and little eyes a great bladder of gall a body very fat betwixt the skin and the flesh and about the heart and it is held that this fat increaseth with the Moon and decreaseth with the same being none at all at the change his forelegs have very sharp nails bare and apt to dig withall being five both before and behind but the hinder very short ones and covered with hair His savour is strong and is much troubled with lice about his secrets the length of his body from the nose which hangeth out like a Hogs nose to the tail or rump is some thirty inches and a little more the hair of his back three fingers long his neck is short and like a Dogs both male and female have under their hole another outwardly but not inwardly in the male If she be hunted out of her Den with Hounds she biteth them grievously if she lay hold on them wherefore they avoid her carefully and the Hunters put great broad collars made of a Grayes skin about their Dogs neck to keep them the safer from the Badgers teeth her manner is to fight on her back using thereby both her teeth and her nails and by blowing up her skin above measure after an unknown manner she defendeth her self against the strokes of men and the teeth of Dogs wherefore she is hardly taken but by devises and gins for that purpose invented with their skins they make quivers for arrows and some shepheards in Italy use thereof to make sacks wherein they wrap themselves from the injury of rain In Italy and Germany they eat Grays flesh and boil with it pears which maketh the flesh tast like the flesh of a Porcupine The flesh is best in September if it be fat and of the two kinds the Swinish Badger is better flesh then the other There are sundry vertues confected out of this beast for it is affirmed that if the fat of a Badger mingled with crude hony and anointed upon a bare place of a horse where the former hairs are pulled off it will make new white hairs grow in that place and it is certain although the Grecians make no reckoning of Badgers grease yet it is a very soveraign thing to soften and therefore Serenus prescribeth it to anoint them that have Fevers or Inflamations of the body Nec spernendus adept dederit quem bestia melis And not to be despised for other cures as for example the easing of the pain of the
natural operations in Bears Pliny reporteth that if a woman be in sore travail of childe-birth let a stone or arrow which hath killed a Man a Bear or a Bore be thrown over the house wherein the woman is and she shall be eased of her pain There is a small worm called Volvox which eateth the Vine-branches when they are young but if the Vine-sickles be anoynted with Bears blood that worm will never hurt them If the blood or grease of a Bear be set under a bed it will draw unto it all the fleas and so kill them by cleaving thereunto But the vertues medicinal are very many and the first of all the blood cureth all manner of Bunches and Apostumes iu the flesh and bringeth hair upon the eye-lids if the bare place be anoynted therewith The fat of a Lyon is most hot and dry and next to a Lyons a Leopards next to a Leopards a Bears and next to a Bears a Buls The later Physitians use to cure convulsed and distracted parts spots and tumors in the body It also helpeth the pain in the loyns if the sick part be anoynted therewith and all Ulcers in the legs or shins when a Plaister is made thereof with Bole-Armorick Also the Ulcers of the feet mingled with Allom. It is soveraign against the falling of the hair compounded with wilde roses The Staniards burn the brain of Bears when they die in any publick sports holding them venemous because being drunk they drive a man to be as mad as a Bear and the like is reported of the heart of a Lyon and the brain of a Cat. The right eye of a Bear dryed to powder and hung about childrens necks in a little bag driveth away the terror of dreams and both the eyes whole bound to a mans left arm easeth a quartain Ague The Liver of a Sow a Lamb and a Bear put together and trod to powder under ones shooes easeeth and defendeth Cripples from inflamation the gall being preserved and warmed in water delivereth the body from cold when all other medicine falleth Some give it mixt with water to them that are bitten with a mad Dog holding it for a singular remedy if the party can fast three days before It is also given against the Palsie the Kings Evill the Falling-sickness an old Cough the Inflamation of the Eyes the running of the Ears the difficulty of Urine and delivery in Childe-birth the Hemorrhoides the weakness of the Back The stones in a Perfume are good against the Falling evill and the Palsie and that women may go their full time they make Amulets of Bears nails and cause them to wear them all the time they are with childe Of the BEAVER Male and Female A Beaver is called in Greek Castor in Latine Fiber in Italian Bivarro or Bivero and Ilcastoreo in Spanish Castor in French Bieure and sometime Castor in Illyrian Bobr in Germain Biber all which words at the first sight seem to be derived from the Latine There is no certain word for it in Hebrew in Arabia it is called Albednester it is also called in Latine Canis Ponticus but Canis Fluviatilis is another Beast as we shall manifest in the succeeding discourse of an Otter and the reason why in Latine it is called Fiber is because as Varro saith it covereth the sides banks or extremities of the river as the extremities or laps of the ear and liver are called Fibrae and the skirts of garments Fimbriae but the reason why the Graecians call it Castor is not as the Latines have supposed because it biteth off his own stones quasi castandro seipsum as shall be manifested soon after but of Castrando because for the stones thereof it is hunted and killed or rather of Gaster signifying a belly for that the body is long and almost all belly or rather because of the colour ill savour thereof Their quantity is not much bigger then a Countrey Dog their head short their ears very small and round their teeth very long the under teeth standing out beyond their liâ—s three fingers breadth and the upper about half a finger being very broad crooked strong and sharp standing or growing double very deep in their mouth bending compass like the edge of an Axe and their colour yellowish red where with they defend themselves against beasts take fishes as it were upon books and will gâ—aw in sunder trees as big as a mans thigh they have also grinding teeth very sharp wherein are certain wriâ—ckles or folds 〈◊〉 that they seem to be made for grinding some hard substance for with them they eat the rindes or bark of trees wherefore the biting of this beast is very deep being able to 〈◊〉 a 〈…〉 the hardest bones and commonly 〈…〉 ever loseth his hold untill he feeleth his teeth g 〈…〉 one against â—other Plioy and Solinus affirm that the 〈…〉 son so bitten cannot be cured except he hear the rashing of the teeth which take to be an opinion without truth This tail he useth for a stern when he swimmeth after fish to catch them There hath been taken of them whose tails have weighed four pound weight and they are accounted a very delicate dish for being dressed they eat like Barbles they are used by the Lotharingians and Savoyans for meat allowed to be eaten on fish-dayes although the body that beareth them be flesh and unclean for food The manner of their dressing is first roasting and afterward seething in an open pot that so the evill vapor may go away and some in pottage made with Saffron other with Ginger and many with Brine it is certain that the tail and forefeet tast very sweet from whence came the Proverbe That sweet is that fish which is not fish at all These beasts use to build them Caves or Dens neer the Waters so as the Water may come into them or else they may quickly leap into the water and their wit or natural invention in building of their Caves is most wonderful for you must understand that in the night time they go to land and there with their teeth gnaw down boughes and trees which they likewise bite very short fitting their purpose and so being busied about this work they will often look up to the tree when they perceive it almost asunder thereby to discern when it is ready to fall lest it might light upon their own pates the tree being down and prepared they take one of the oldest of their company whose teeth could not be used for the cutting or as others say they constrain some strange Beaver whom they meet withal to fall flat on his back as before you have heard the Badgers do and upon his belly lade they all their timber which they so ingeniously work and fasten into the compasse of his legs that it may not fall and so the residue by the tail draw him to the water side where these buildings are to be framed and
holy Demusaris which foolish people have thought as it were bv a witchcraft to cure the evils of their Cattel But to let passe these and such like trifles let us follow a more perfect description and rule to cure all manner of diseases in this Cattel whose safegard and health next to a mans is to be preferred above all other and first of all the means whereby their sickness is discovered may be considered as all Lassitude or wearisomeness through overmuch labour which appeareth by forbearing their meat or eating after another fashion then they are wont or by their often lying down or else by holding out their tongue all which and many more signes of their diseases are manifest to them that have observed them in the time of their health and on the other side it is manifest that the health of an Ox may be known by his agility life and stirring when they are lightly touched or pricked starting and holding their ears upright fulness of their belly and many other wayes There be also herbs which increase in Cattel divers diseases as herbs bedewed with Hony bringeth the Murrain the juyce of black Chamaeleon killeth young Kie like the Chine black Hellebore Aconitum or Wolf-bane which is that grasse in Cilicia which inflameth Oxen herb Henry and others It is also reported by Aristotle that in a piece of Thracia not far from that City which is called the City of Media there is a place almost thirty furlongs in length where naturally groweth a kind of Barley which is good for men but pernicious for beasts The like may be said of Aegolothros Orobanche and Aestur but I will hasten to the particular description of their diseases In the first place is the Malis or Glaunders already spoken of in the story of the Asse which may be known by these signes the Oxes hair will be rough and hard his eyes and neck hang down matter running out of the nose his pace heavy chewing his cud little his backbone sharp and his meat loathsome unto him for remedy hereof take Sea-onions or Garlick Lupines or Cipres or else the foam of oil And if a beast eat Hogs dung they presently fall sick of the Pestilence which infecteth the herbs and grasse they breath on the waters whereof they drink and the stals and lodgings wherein they lie The humors which annoy the body of Oxen are many the first is a moist one called Malis issuing at the nose the second a dry one when nothing appeareth outwardly only the beast forsaketh his meat the third an articular when the fore or hinder legs of the beast halt and yet the hoofs appear sound the fourth is Farciminous wherein the whole body breaketh forth into mattry bunches and biles and appear healed till they break forth in other places the fifth Subtercutaneus when under the skin there runneth a humour that breaketh forth in many places of the body the sixth a Subrenal when the hinder legs halt by reason of some pain in the loins the seventh a Maungie or Leprosie and lastly a madness or Phrensie all which are contagious and if once they enter into a herd they will infect every beast if they be not separated from the sick and speedy remedy obtained The remedies against the last seven are thus described by Columella First take Oxipanum and sea-holy roots mingled with Fennel-seed and meal of beaten wheat rath-ripe put them in spring water warmed with hony nine spoonfuls at a time and with that medicine anoint the breast of the beast then take the bloud of a Sea-snail and for want thereof a common Snail and put it into wine and give the beast in at his nose and it hath been approved to work effectually It is not good at any time to stir up Oxen to running for chasing will either move them to looseness of the belly or drive them into a Feaver now the signes of a Feaver are these an immoderate heat over the whole body especially about the mouth tongue and eares tears falling out of the eyes hollowness of their eyes a heavy and stooping drowzie head matter running out of his nose a hot and difficult breath and sometime sighing and violent beating of his veins and loathing of meat for remedy whereof let the beast fast one whole day then let him be let bloud under the tail fasting and afterward make him a drink of bole-wort stalkes sod with oil and liquor of fish sauce and so let him drink it for five daies together before he eat meat afterward let him eat the tops of Lentils and young small Vine branches then keep his nose and mouth clean with a spunge and give him cold water to drink three times a day for the best means of recovery are cold meats and drinks neither must the beast be turned out of doors till he be recovered When an Ox is sick of a cold give him black wine and it will presently help him If an Ox in his meat tast of hens dung his belly will presently be tormented and swell unto death if remedy be not given for this malady take three ounces of parsley seed a pinte and a half of Cummin two pounds of honey beat these together and put it down his throat warme then drive the beast up and down as long as he can stand then let as many as can stand about him rub his belly untill the medicine work to purgation and Vegetius addeth that the ashes of Elme wood well sod in oil and put down the beasts throat cureth the inflamation of hen-dung If at any time it happen that an Ox get into his mouth and throat a horse-leech which at the first will take fast hold and suck the place she holds be it mouth or throat til she have kild the beast if you cannot take hold on her with the hand then put into the Oxes throat a Cane or little hollow pipe even to the place where the Leech sucketh and into that pipe put warm oil which as soon as the Leech feeleth she presently leaveth hold It fortuneth sometimes that an Ox is stung or bitten with a Serpent Adder Viper or other such venomous beast for that wound take sharp Trifoly which groweth in rockie places strain out the juice and beat it with salt then scarifie the wound with that ointment till it be wrought in If a field-mouse bite an Ox so as the dint of her teeth appear then take a little Cumin or soft Pitch and with that make a plaister for the wound or if you can get another field-mouse put her into oil and there let it remain till the members of it be almost rotten then bruise it and lay it to the sore and the same body shall cure whose nature gave the wound Oxen are also much troubled with a disease called the Hide-bonnd for remedy wereof when the beast is taken faom his work and panteth then let him be sprinkled over with wine and put pieces of fat into his
Ptisick or short breath made into pils with Honey The powder of a Cowes horn mixed with Vinegar helpeth the morphew being washed or anointed therewith The same infused into the Nostrils stayeth the bleeding likewise mingled with warm water and Vinegar given to a Splenitick man for three daies together it wonderfully worketh upon that passion powder of the hoof of an Ox with water put upon the Kings evill helpeth it and with Water and Honey it helpeth the apostemes and swelling of the body and the same burned and put into drink and given to a Woman that lacketh Milk it encreafeth milk and strengtheneth her very much Other take the tongue of a Cow which they dry so long till it may be beaten into powder and so give it to a woman in white wine or broath The dust of the heel of an Ox or ancle bone taken in wine and put to the gums or teeth do fasten them and remove the ach away The ribs of Oxen beaten to powder do stay the flux of bloud and restrain the aboundance of monthly courses in women The ancle of a white Cow laid forty daies and nights into wine and rubbed on the face with white Linet taketh spots and maketh the skin look very clear Where a man biteth any other living creature seethe the flesh of an Ox or a Calf and after five daies lay it to the sore and it shall work the ease thereof The flesh being warm layed to the swellings of the body easeth them so also do the warm bloud and gall of the same beast The broath of beef healeth the loosness of the belly coming by reason of choler and the broath of Cowes flesh or the marrow of a Cow healeth the ulcers and chinks of the mouth The skin of a Ox especially the leather thereof warm in a shooe burned and applyed to pimples in the body or face cureth them The skin of the feet and nose of an Ox or Sheep sod over a soft and gentle fire untill there arise a certain scum like to glew from it and afterward dried in the cold windie air and drunk helpeth or at least easeth burstness very much The marrow of an Ox or the sewet helpeth the strains of sinews if they be anointed therewith If one make a small candle of Paper and Cowes marrow setting the same on fire under his browes or eye-lids which are bald without hair and often anointing the place he shall have very decent and comely hair grow thereupon Likewise the sewet of Oxen helpeth against all outward poison so in all Leprosies Botches and Scurviness of the skin the same mingled with Goose grease and poured into the eares helpeth the deafness of them It is also good against the inflamation of the ears the stupidity and dulness of the teeth the running of the eyes the ulcers and rimes of the mouth and stifness of the neck If ones bloud be liquid and apt to run forth of the body it may be well thickned and retained by drinking Ox bloud mingled with Vinegar and the bloud of a Cow poured into a wound that bleedeth stayeth the bloud Likewise the bloud of Oxen cureth the scabs in Dogs Concerning their Milk volumes may be written of the several and manifold virtues thereof for the Arcadians refused all medicine only in the Spring time when their beasts did eat grasse they drank Cowes milk being perswaded that the virtue and vigour of all good herbs and fruits were received and digested into that liquor for they gave it medicinally to them which were sick of the Ptisick of Consumption of an old Cough of the Consumption of the reins of the hardness of the belly and of all manner of poisons which burn inwardly which is also the opinion of all the Greek Physitians and the shell of a Walnut sod in Cow-milk and said to the place where a Serpent hath bitteh it cureth it and stayeth the poison The same being new and warm Gargarized into the throat helpeth the soreness of the kernels and all pain in the Arteries and swelling in the throat and stomach and if any man be in danger of a short breath let him take dayly soft pitch with the hearb Mummie and Harts suet clarified in a Cup of new Milk and ithath been proved very profitable Where the pains of the stomach come by sadness Melancholy or desperation drink Cow-milk Womans milk or Asses milk wherein a flint stone hath been sodden When one is troubled with a desire of going often to the stool and can egest nothing let him drink Cow-milk and Asses-milk sod together the same also heated with gads of Iron or steel and mingled with one fourth part of water helpeth the Bloudy flux mingled with a little Hony and a Buls gall with Cummin and gourds layed to the Navel and some affirm that Cow-milk doth help conception if a woman be troubled with the whiteflux so that her womb be indangered let her drink a purgation for her upper parts and afterward Asses milk last of all let her drink Cow-milk and new wine for forty daies together if need be so mingled that the wine appear not in the milk and it shall stay the flux But in the use of milk the rule of Hippocrates must be continually observed that it be not used with any sharp or tartd liquor for then it curdleth in the stomach and turneth into corruption The whay of Cow-milk mingled with Hony and Salt as much as the tast will permit and drunk looseneth the hardness of the belly The marrow of a Cow mingled with a little meal and with new cheese wonderfully stayeth the Bloudyflux It is affirmed that there is in the head of an Ox a certain little stone which only in the fear of death he casteth out at his mouth if this stone be taken from them suddenly by cutting the head it doth make children to breed teeth easily being soon tyed about them If a man or woman drink of the same water whereof an Ox drunk a little before it will ease the headach and in the second venter of a Cow there is a round black Tophus found being of no weight which is accounted very profible to Women in hard travails of child-birth The Liver of an Ox or Cow dryed and drunk in powder cureth the flux of boud The gall of a Cow is more forcible in operation then all other beasts gals whatsoever The gall of an Ox mixed with Hony draweth out any thorn or point of a needle or other Iron thing out of the flesh where it sticketh Likewise it being mingled with Alome and Myrrhe as thick as hony it cureth those evils which creep and annoy the privie parts laying upon it afterward Beets sod in wine It will not suffer the Kings evill to grow or spread it self if it be laid upon it at the beginning The hands washed in an Oxes gall and water are made white how black soever they were before time and if purblind eyes be anointed with
the gall of a black Cow one may read any writing the more plainly there is in the gall of an Ox a certain little stone like a ring which the Philosophers call Alcheron and some Guers and Nassatum which being beaten and held to ones Nose it cleareth the eyes and maketh that no humour do distil to annoy them and if one take thereof the quantity of a Lintel seed with the juice of Beets it is profitable against the Falling evill If one be deaf or thick of hearing take the gall of an Ox and the urine of a Goat or the gall of Goose likewise it easeth the headach in an Ague and applyed to the temples provoketh sleep and if the breasts of a woman be anointed therewith it keeps her milk from curdling The milt of an Ox is eaten in hony for easing the pains of the milt in a man and with the skin that a Calf cast out of his dams belly the ulcers in the face are taken away and if twenty heads of Garlick be beaten in a Oxes bladder with a pinte of Vinegar and laid to the back it will cure the milt It is likewise given against the Spleen and the Colick made like a plaister and layed to the Navel till one sweat The urine of an Ox causeth a cold stomach to recover and I have seen that the urine of a Cow taken in Gargarizing did cure intolerable ulcers in the mouth When the Bee hath tasted of the flower of the Corn-tree she presently dyeth by looseness of the belly except she tast the urine of a Man or an Ox. There are likewise many uses of the dung of Oxen made in Physick whereof Authors are full but especially against the Gowt plaistering the sick member therewith hot and newly made and against the Dropsie making a plaister thereof with Barley meal and a little Brimstone aspersed to cover the belly of a man And thus much for the natural properties of this kind now we will briefly proceed to the moral The moral uses of this beast both in labour and other things do declare the dignity and high account our forefathers made hereof both in Vintage Harvest Plowing Carriage Drawing Sacrificing and making Leagues of truce and peace in so much as that if this failed all tillage and vintage must in many places of the world be utterly put down and in truth neither the fowls of the air nor the Horse for the battle nor the Swine and Dogs could have no sustenance but by the labor of Oxen for although in some places they have Mules or Camels or Elephants which help them in this labor yet can there not be in any Nation a neglect of Oxen and their reverence was so great that in ancient time when an offender was to be fined in his Cattel as all amerciaments were in those daies the Judge might not name an Ox untill he had first named a Sheep and they fined a smal offence at two Sheep and not under and the greatest offence criminal at thirty Oxen and not above which were redeemed by giving for every Ox an hundred Asses and ten for every Sheep It is some question among the ancients who did first joyn Oxen together for plowing some affirming that Aristeus first learned it of the Nymphs in the Island Co and Diodorus affirmeth that Dionysius Son of Jupiter and Ceres or Proserpina did first of all invent the plow Some attribute it to Briges the Athenian other to Triptolemus Osiris Habides a King of Spain and Virgil affirmeth most constantly that it was Ceres as appeareth by this verse Prima Ceres ferro mortales vertere terram Instituit c. Whereunto agreeth Servius but I rather incline to Josephus Lactantius and Eusebius who affirm that long before Ceres was born or Osiris or Hercules or any of the residue their was a practise of plowing both among the Hebrews and Egyptians and therefore as the God of plowing called by the Romans Jugatinus because of yoaking Oxen was a fond aberration from the truth so are the residue of their inventions about the first man that tilled with Oxen seeing it is said of Cain and Noah that they were husbandmen and tilled the earth The Athenians had three several plow-feasts which they observed yearly one in Scirus the other in Rharia and the third under Pelintus and they call their mariage-feasts plow-seasons because then they endevoured by the seed of man to multiply the world in procreation of children as they did by the plow to encrease food in the earth The Grecians had a kind of writing called Boustraphedon which began turned and ended as the Oxen do in plowing a furrow continuing from the left hand to the right and from the right hand to the left again which no man could read but he that turned the Paper or Table at every lines end It is also certain that in ancient time the leagues of truce and peace were written in an Oxes hide as appeareth by that peace which was made by Tarquinius betwixt the Romans and the Gabli the which was hanged up in the Temple of Jupiter as Dionysius and Pompeius Sextus affirm in the likeness of a buckler or shield and the chief heads of that peace remained legible in that hide unto their time and therefore the ancients called the Oxes hide a shield in regard that by that conclusion of peace they were defended from the wars of the Gabii And there were certain people called Homolotti by Herodotus who were wont to strike up their leagues of peace after war and contention by cutting an Ox into small pieces which were divided among the people that were to be united in token of an inseparable union There be that affirm that a Team or yoak of Oxen taking six or eight to the Team wil plow every year or rather every season a hyde of ground that is as some account 20 Mansa or in English and Germane account 30 Acres which hath gotten the name Jugera from this occasion as Eustathius and Varinus report When Sychaeus the husband of Dido who was daughter of Agenor sister to Pygmalion wandered to and fro in the world with great store of treasure he was slain by Pygmalion secretly in hope to get his wealth After which time it is said that he appeared to his wife Dido bidding her to save her life from her cruell brother who more esteemed money then nature she fled into Lybia taking with her some Tyrians among whom she had dwelled and a competent sum of money who being come thither craved of Iarbas King of Nomades to give her but so much land as she could compass in with an Oxes hide which with much ado she obtained and then did cut an Oxes skin into smal and narrow thongs or lists wherewithall she compassed in so much as builded the large City of Carthage and first of all was called the New City and the Castle thereof Byrsa which signifieth a Hide Eustuthius also
which is expressed in the former treatise of an Oxe The Ancients called Victoria by the name of the Goddess Vitula because they sacrificed unto her Calves which was tearmed a Vitulation and this was usual for victory and plenty as is to be seen at large in Giraldus Macrobius Nonius Ovid and Virgil but the Heathens had this knowledge that their Gods would not accept at their hands a lame Calf for a Sacrifice although it were brought to the Altar and if the tail of the Calf did not touch the joynts of his hinder legs they did not receive him for Sacrifice And it is said of Aemilius Paulus when he was to go against the Macedonians he sacrificed to the Moon in her declination eleven Calves It is very strange that a Calf being ready to be sacrificed at the Temple of Ierusalem brought forth a Lamb which was one fore-shewing sign of Ierusalems destruction But Aristotle declareth that in his time there was a Calf that had the head of a childe and in Luceria a Town of Helvetia was there a Calf which in his hinder parts was a Hart. When Charles the fifth went with his Army into Africk and arrived at Largherd a Noble City of Sardinia there happened an exceeding great wonder for an Oxe brought forth a Calf with two heads and the woman that did owe the Oxe presented the Calf to the Emperor and since that time I have seen the picture of a more strange beast calved at Bonna in the Bishoprick of Colen which had two heads one of them in the side not bigger then a Hares head and two bodies joyned together whereof the hinder parts were smooth and bald but the tail black and hairy it had also seven feet whereof one had three hoofs this Monster lived a little while and was brought forth in Anno 1552. the 16. day of May to the wonder and admiration of all them who either knew the truth or had seen the picture Butchers are wont to buy Calves for to kill and sell their flesh for in all creatures the flesh of the young ones are much better then the elder because they are moist and soft and therefore will digest and concoct more easily and for this cause Kids Lambs and Calves are not out of season in any time of the year and are good from fifteen days to two months old being ornaments to the Tables of great Noble men which caused Fiera to make this Distichon Assiduos habeant vitulum tua prandia in usus Cui madida sapida juncta tepore caro est And principally the Germans use the chawthern the head and the feet for the beginning of their meals and the other part either roasted or baked and sometime sod in broath and then buttered spiced and sauced and eaten with Onyons The Medicines arising from this beast are the same that come from his Sires before spoken of and especially the flesh of a Calf doth keep the flesh of a new wound if it be applyed thereunto from swelling and being sodden it is precious against the bitings of a mans teeth and when a mad Dog hath bitten a man or a beast they use to pare the wound to the quick and having sodden Veal mingled with the sewet and heel they lay some to the wound and make the patient drink of the broath and the same broath is soveraign against all the bitings of Serpents The horns of a Calf sod soft are good against all intoxicate poyson and especially Hemlock The powder of a Calves thigh drunk in Womans Milk cureth all filthy running Ulcers and out of the brains of a Calf they make an Oyntment to loosen the hardness of the belly The marrow softneth all the joynts driveth away the bunches arising in the body having an operation to soften fill dry and heat Take Oyl Wax Rust and the marrow of a Calf against all bunches in the face and Calves marrow with an equal quantity of Whay Oyl Rose-cake and an Egge do soften the hardness of the cheeks and eye-lids being laid to for a plaister and the same mixed with Cummin and infused into the ears healeth the pains of them and also easeth the Ulcers in the mouth The marrow with the sewet composed together cureth all Ulcers and corruptions in the Secrets of Men and Women The Fat pounded with Salt cureth the Louzy evill and likewise the ulcerous sores in the head The same mixed with the fat of a Goose and the juyce of Basil or wilde Cummin and infused into the ears helpeth deafness and pains thereof The fat taken out of the thigh of a Calf and sod in three porringers of water and supped up is good for them that have the Flux and the dung of a Calf fryed in a pan laid to the Buttocks and Secrets doth wonderfully cure the Bloodyflix also laid to the reins provoketh Urine and fod with Rue cureth all the inflamations in the seat of a man or woman The Sewet of a Calf with Nitre asswageth the swelling of the cods being applyed to them like a plaister and the Sewet alone doth cure the peeling of the Nails The Liver with Sage leaves cut together and pressed to a liquor being drunk easeth the pain in the small of the Belly The gall mingled with powder of a Harts-born and the Seed of Marjoram cureth Leprosies and Scurfs and the gall alone anointed upon the head driveth away nits The milt of a Calf is good for the milt of a man and for Ulcers in the mouth and glew made of his stones as thick as Hony and anointed upon the seprous place cureth the same if it be suffered to dry thereupon With the dung of Calves they perfume the places which are hurt with Scorpions and the ashes of this dung with Vinegar stayeth bleeding Marcellus magnifieth it above measure for the cure of the Gout to take the fime of a Calf which never eat grass mixed with lees of Vinegar and also for the deafness of the ears when there is pain withall take the Urine of a Bull Goat or Calf and one third part of Vinegar well fod together with the herb Fullonia then put it into a flagon with a small mouth and let the neck of the Patient be perfumed therewith Of the supposed Beast CACUS THere be some of the late Writers which take the Cacus spoken of by Virgil in his eight Book of Aeneids to be a wilde beast which Virgil describeth in these words Hic spelunca fuit vasto submota recessu Semihominis Caci facies quam 〈…〉 tegebat Solis inaccensam radiis semperque recenti Caede tepebat humus foribusque affixa superbis Ora virum tristi pendebant pallida tabo Huic monstro Vuloanus erat pater illius atros Ore vomens ignes magna se mole ferebat Nequeunt expleri corda tuendo Pectora semiferi atque extinctos faucibus ignes That is Cacus was half a beast and half a man
eat a Camel for although it chew the cud yet is not the hoof altogether cloven and besides the flesh thereof is hard of digestion and the juyce thereof very naught heating the body above measure yet many times have men of base condition and mindes eaten thereof as in Arabia and in the Kingdom of Fezzen and Atheneus affirmeth that the King of Persia was wont to have a whole Camel rosted for his own table at his royal feastings and Heliogabalus likewise caused to be prepared for himself the heels of Camels and the spurs of Cocks and Hens pulled of alive and whole Ostriches and Camels saying though falsly that God commanded the Jews to eat them Camels milk is wholesome for meat because it is thinnest of all other and because thereof it breedeth fewer obstructions and is good for softning of the belly For the natural disposition of this beast it is partly already related whereby the singular use thereof may be collected yet there are certain proverbs and stories thereof farther expressing their qualities It is disdainful and a discontented creature whereupon it it is faigned of the Poets that they besought Iupiter to give them Horns with which Petition he was so offended that he took from them their ears and therefore in that those are reproved which are so far in love with other things they want that they deserve to lose the things they have Likewise the wantonness thereof appeareth by the proverb of a dancing Camel when one taketh upon him more then his skill will serve to discharge yet hath not this beast been free from ignominy for when the Emperor Iustinian had found the Treason of Arsaces the Armenian he caused him to ride through the City upon a Camel to be shamed for his offence although in former times it was a kinde of triumph and honor to be carryed upon a Camel led through a City In the lake of Asphaltites wherein all things sink that come in it many Camels and Buls swim through without danger The Arabians sacrifice a Camel to the unknown God because Camels go into strange Countries and likewise sacrifice their Virgins before they be marryed because of the chastity of this beast and the Sagarentes with great observance keep the combat of Camels in the honour of Minerva These Beasts are hated of Horses and Lyons for when Xerxes travailed over the river Chidorus through Paeonia and Crestonia in the night time the Lyons descended into the camp and touched no creatures therein except the Camels whom they destroyed for the most part A Camel will live in the soil wherein he is bred fifty or an hundred years and if he be translated into any other Nation he falleth into madness or scabs or the gowt and then they live not above thirty years There is a kinde of grass that groweth by the high ways in the Countrey of Babylon that killeth Camels when they taste thereof There are also medicinal properties in Camels for by reason he is of a hot and dry temperament if a man infected with poyson be put into the warm belly of a Camel newly slain it looseneth the power of the poyson and giveth strength to the natural parts of the body The fat taken out of the bunch and perfumed cureth the Hemmorhoides and the blood of a Camel fryed is precious against the bloodyflix or any other looseness of the belly the brain dryed and drunk with Vinegar helpeth the Falling-evill the gall drunk with Hony helpeth the Quinzy and if it be laid to the eye-brows and forehead sod in three cups of the best Hony it cureth the dimness of the eyes and avoideth the flesh that groweth in them and if the hairs of a Camels tail be wound together like a string and tyed to the left arm Pliny affirmeth they will deliver one from a quartan Ague The milk of Camels newly delivered of young helpeth obstructions and all shortness of breath and is also good against the Dropsie and hardness of the milt Also when one hath drunk poyson this is a good Antidote and amendeth the temper of the body The fime of Camels dryed to dust with Oyl will crispe and curl the hair and stay bleeding at the nose and the same hot is good against the Gowt The urine is most profitable for running sores there have been which have preserved it five years together and used against hardness of the belly washing also therewith sore heads and it helpeth one to the sense of smelling if it be held to the nose likewise against the Dropsie the Spleen and the Ring-worm Of the Camel DROMEDARY A Camel is called of the Grecians Dromos by reason of the swiftness of his race and also an Arabian Camel which hath all things common with the former Bactrian Camel except first in the shape for she hath but one bunch on the back land many Nations as the Italians French Germans and Spaniards use the word Dromedary only without addition the Graecians never name it without the addition of a Camel Therefore this is a kinde of Camel of less stature but much swifter for which cause it is derived from running It cheweth the cud like a Sheep and the other Camel the French King had sent him from the great Turk two of these white coloured and I my self have seen one of them being fifteen cubits high wanting some nine inches and about six cubits in length having the upper lip cloven in the middle like a Hare and two broad nails in his feet which in the upper part appeared cloven but underneath they were whole and fleshy without division and round in proportion like a pewter dish It hath also a hard bunch on its brest whereon it leaned sitting down and rising and also upon either knee one these are said to live fifty years but the Bactriam an hundred they were used for drawing of Chariots and great presents for Princes and when they go to war every one carryeth two Archers which sit upon him back to back shooting forth their darts one against the front of the enemy and the other against the prosecutors and 〈◊〉 lowers They are able to go an hundred miles in a day bearing a burthen of fifteen hundred weight yea sometimes two thousand bending upon his knee to take up his load and rider which received he riseth up again with great patience being obedient and ruleable yet kicking when he is angry which is very seldom and therefore Terence did significantly describe a good servant by the name of Dromo derived from Dromas a runner And for the conclusion of the History of these two sorts of Camels I will here adde the relation and memorable observations of Iohannes Leo Afer in his ninth Book of the description of Africk in his own words following A Camel is a gentle and pleasant tame beast whereof there are plenty in Africa especially in the Deserts of Lybia Numidia and Barbary by which
probable It is the property of these Dogs to be angry with the lesser barking Curs and they will not run after every trifling Beast by secret instinct of nature discerning what kinde of Beast is worthy or unworthy of their labour disdaining to meddle with a little or vile creature They are nourished with the same that the smaller hunting Dogs are and it is better to feed them with milk then whay There are of this kinde called Veltri and in Italian Veltro which have been procreated by a Dog and Leopard and they are accounted the swiftest of all other The Gray-hounds which are most in request among the Germans are called Windspill alluding to compare their swiftness with the winde the same are also called Turkischwind and Hetzhund and Falco a Falcon is a common name whereby they call these Dogs The French make most account of such as are bred in the Mountain of Dalmatia or in any other Mountains especially of Turkey for such have hard feet long ears and bristle tails There are in England and Scotland two kindes of hunting Dogs and no where else in all the world the first kinde they call in Scotland Ane Rache and this is a foot-smelling creature both of wilde Beasts Birds and Fishes also which lie hid among the Rocks the female hereof in England is called a Brache The second kinde is called in Scotland a Sluth-hound being a little greater then the hunting Hound and in colour for the most part brown or sandy-spotted The sense of smelling is so quick in these that they can follow the foot-steps of theeves and persue them with violence untill they overtake them and if the theef take the water they cast in themselves also and swim to the other side where they finde out again afresh their former labour untill they finde the thing they seek for for this is common in the Borders of England and Scotland where the people were wont to live much upon theft and if the Dog brought his leader unto any house where they may not be suffered to come in they take it for granted that there is both the stollen goods and the theef also hidden The Hunting Hound of Scotland called RACHE and in English a HOUND The SLVTH-HOVND of Scotland called in Germany a SCHLATTHVND The English BLOOD-HOVND WE are to discourse of lesser hunting Dogs in particular as we finde them remembred in any Histories descriptions Poets or other Authors according to the several Countries of their breed and education and first for the British Dogs their nature and qualities hereafter you shall have in a several discourse by it self The Blood-hound differeth nothing in quality from the Scottish Sluth-hound saving they are greater in quantity and not alway of one and the same colour for among them they are sometime red sanded black white spotted and of such colour as are other Hounds but most commonly brown or red The vertue of smelling called in Latine Sagacitas is attributed to these as to the former hunting Hound of whom we will first of all discourse and for the qualities of this sense which maketh the Beast admirable Plautus seemeth to be of opinion that it received this title from some Magicians or sage Wisards called Sagae for this â—e saith speaking of this Beast â—anem hanc esse quidem Magis par fuit nasum aedepol sagax habet It is also attributed to Mice not for smelling but for the sense of their palace or taste and also to Geese In a Dog it is that sense which searcheth out and descryeth the rousts fourms and lodgings of wilde Beasts as appeareth in this verrse of L 〈…〉 s Andronicus Cum primis fida Canum vis Dirige oderisequos ad certa cubilia canes And for this cause it hath his proper Epithets as Odora canum vis promissa canum vis naribus â—â—â—es utilis Pâ—ncianns called this kinde Plaudi for so did Festus before him and the Germans Spurhund and Leidthund Iaghund because their ears are long thin and hanging down and they differ not from vulgar Dogs in any other outward proportion except only in their cry or barking voyce The nature of these is being set on by the voyce and words of their leader to cast about for the sitting of the Beast and so having found it with continual cry to follow after it till it be wearyed without changing for any other so that sometimes the Hunters themselves take up the Beast at least wise the Hounds seldom fail to kill it They seldom bark except in their hunting chase and then they follow their game through woods thickets thorns and other difficult places being alway obedient and attentive to their leaders voyce so as they may not go forward when lie forbiddeth nor yet remain neer to the Hunters whereunto they are framed by Art and discipline rather then by any natural instinct The White Hounds are said to be the quickest sented and surest nosed and therefore best for the Hare the black ones for the Boar and the ded ones for the Hart and Roe but hereunto I cannot agree because their colour especially of the two later are too like the game they hunt although there can be nothing certain collected of their colour yet is the black Hound harder and better able to endure cold then the other which is white In Italy they make account of the spotted one especially white and yellowish for they are quicker nosed they must be kept tyed up 〈◊〉 they hunt yet so as they be let loose now and then a little to ease their bellies for it is necessary that their 〈…〉 be kept sweet and dry It is questionable how to discern a Hound of excellent sense yet as Blondus saith the square and flat nose is the best sign and index thereof likewise a small head having all his legs of equal length his breast not deeper then his belly and his back is plain to his tail his eyes quick his ears long hanging but sometimes stand up his tail nimble and the beak of his nose alway to the earth and especially such as are most silent or bark least There are some of that nature who when they have found the Beast they will stand still untill their Hunter come to whom in silence by their face eye and tail they shew their game Now you are to observe the divers and variable disposition of Hounds in their finding out of the Beast some when they have found the footsteps go forward without any voyce or other shew of ear or tail Again another sort when they have found the footings of the Beast prick up their ear a little but either bark or wag their tails other will wag their tail but not move their ears other again wring their faces and draw their skins through over much intention like sorrowful persons and so follow the sent holding the tail immoveable There be some again which do none of these but wander up and
Amulets which are used to be bound to the arms necks and breasts as the Canine-tooth bound up in a leaf and tyed to the arm a Worm bred in the dung of Dogs hanged about the neck the root of Gentian in an Hyaenaes skin or young Wolfs skin and such like whereof I know no reason beside the opinion of men The inward compound potions or remedies against the bitings of Dogs may be such as these Take Sea-crabs and burn them with twigs of white Vines and save their ashes then put to them the powder of Gentian root well cleansed and small beaten and as oft as need requireth take two spoonfuls of the first and one of the second and put them into a cup of pure and unmixed Wine and so drink it for four days together being well beaten and stirred so as the Wine be as thick as a Cawdle and there is nothing more forcible then Sea-crabs Hiera Diascincum powder of Walnuts in warm rain Water Triacle Castoreum Pills Spurge-seed and a decoction of Indian thorn with Vervine given in water These may serve for several compound inward remedies against these poysons and now sollow the simple First eating of Garlike in our meat drinking of Wormwood Rams flesh burned and put into Wine so drunk There is an Herb called Alysson by reason of the power it hath against this evill which being bruised and drunk cureth it The liver of a Boar dryed and drunk in Wine hath the same operation Jews lime drunk in water Leeks and Onyons in meat Dogs bloud the head the vein under the tongue commonly supposed to be a worm and the liver of the Dog which hath done the hurt are also prescribed for a remedy of this evill but especially the liver or rennet of a young Puppey the rinde of a wilde Fig-tree a dram of Castoreum with Oyl of Roses Centaury or Chamaeleon the root of a wilde Rose called Cynorrhodon and Cynosbaton Ellebor the brain of a Hen drunk in some liquor Sorrel Honey Mints and Plantaine but Pimpinella Germanica is given to all Cattel which are bitten by a mad Dog Besides many other such like which for brevity sake I omit concluding against all superstitious curing by Inchantments or supposed Miracles such as is in a certain Church of S. Lambert in a City of Picardy where the Mass Priests when a man is brought unto them having this evill they cut a cross in his forehead and lay upon the wound a piece of S. Lamberts stole burning which they say though falsly is reserved to this day without diminution then do they sow up the wound again and say another plaister upon it prescribing him a dyet which is to drink water and to eat hard Egs but if the party amend not within forty days they binde him hand and foot in his bed and saying another bed upon him there strangle him as they think without all sin and for preventing of much harm that may come by his life if he should bite another This story is related by Alysius and it is worth the noting how murther accompanieth superstitious humane inventions and the vain presumptuous confidence of Cross-worshippers and thus much of the madness of Dogs and the cure thereof in men and beasts In the next place the conclusion of this tedious discourse followeth which is the natural medicines arising out of the bodies of Dogs and so we will tye them up for this time Whereas the inward parts of men are troubled with many evils it is delivered for truth that if little Melitaean Dogs or young sucking Puppies be laid to the breast of a childe or man that hath infectious passions or pains in his entrails the pain will depart from the man into the beast for which cause they burned them when they were dead Serenus doth express this very elegantly saying Quin etiam catulum lactentem apponere membris Convenit omne malum transcurrere fertur in illum Cui tamen extincto munus debetur humandi Humanos quia contactus mala tanta sequuntur Et junctum vitium ducit de conjuge conjux If a Whelp be cut asunder alive and laid upon the head of a mad melancholike woman it shall cure her and it hath the same power against the Spleen If a woman grow barren after she hath born children let her eat young Whelp-flesh and Polypus fish sod in Wine and drink the broath and she shall have ease of all infirmities in her stomach and womb Water distilled out of Whelps causeth that pieled or shaven places shall never have more hair grow upon them With the fat of whelps bowelled and sod till the flesh come from the bones and then taken and put into another Vessel and the weak resolute or paralytike members being therewith anointed they are much eased if not recovered Alysius saith he made experience of Puppies sod alive in Oyl whereby he cured his Gowty legd Horses and therefore it cannot chuse but be much more profitable for a man The skin of a Dog held with the five fingers stayeth Distillations it hath the same operation in gloves and stockins and it will also ease both Ach in the belly head and feet and therefore it is used to be worn in the shoes against the Gowt The flesh of mad Dogs is salted and given in meat to them which are bitten by mad Dogs for a singular remedy The bloud is commended against all intoxicating poysons and pains in the small guts and it cureth scabs The fat is used against deafness of the ears the Gowt Nits in the head and incontinency of urine given with Alum A plaister made of the Marrow of a Dog and old Wine is good against the falling of the fundament The hair of a black Dog easeth the Falling sickness the Brains of a Dog in Lint and Wool laid to a mans broken bones for fourteen days together doth consolidate and joyn them together again which thing caused Serenus to make these excellent verses Infandum dictu cunctis procul absit amicis Sed fortuna potens omen convertat in hostes Vis indigna novo si parserit ossa fragore Conveniet cerebrum blandi Canis addere fractis Lintea deinde super que inductu nectere lanas Saepius succos conspergere pinguis olivi Bis septem credunt revale scere cuncta diebus The brain-pan or skull of a Dog clove asunder is applyed to heal the pain in the eyes that is if the right eye be grieved thereunto apply the right side of the skull if the left eye the left side The vertues of a Dogs head made into powder are both many and unspeakable by it is the biting of mad Dogs cured it cureth spots and bunches in the head and a plaister thereof made with Oyl of Roses healeth the running in the head it cureth also all tumors in privy parts and in the fear the chippings in the fingers and many other diseases The powder of the teeth of Dogs
of the earth It is a bold and audacious Beast enemy to all other except his own kinde drinking and sucking in the bloud of the Beast it biteth but eateth not the flesh When the Warrener setteth it down to hunt he first of all maketh a great noise to fray all the Conies that are abroad into their holes and so having frighted them pitcheth his Nets and then putteth his tame Ferret into the earth having a long string or cord with Bels about her neck whose mouth he muzzleth that so it may not bite the Cony but only terrifie her out of her borough and earth with her presence or claws which being performed she is by Dogs chased into the nets and there overwhelmed as is aforesaid in the history of the Conies Their body is longer for the proportion then their quantity may afford for I have seen them two spans long but very thin and small Their colour is variable sometime black and white on the belly but most commonly of a yellowish sandy colour like Hermeline or Wool dyed in urine The head little like a Mouses and therefore into whatsoever hole or chink she putteth it in all her body will easily follow after The eyes small but fiery like red hot iron and therefore she seeth most clearly in the dark Her voyce is a whyning cry neither doth she change it as a Cat She hath only two teeth in the neather chap standing out and not joyned or growing together The genital of the male is of a bony substance wherein Pliny and Scaliger agree with Cardan and Strabo for the Ictys also and therefore it alway standeth stiffe and is not lesser at one time then at other The pleasure of the sense in copulation is not in the yard or genital part but in the nerves muscles and tunicles wherein the said genital runneth When they are in copulation the female lyeth down or bendeth her knees and continually cryeth like a Cat either because the Male pincheth and claweth her skin with his sharp nails or else because of the rigidity of his genital And when the female desireth copulation except she be with convenient speed brought to a male or he suffered to come to her she swelleth and dyeth They are very fruitful in procreation for they bring forth seven or eight at a time bearing them in their little belly not above forty days The young ones newly littered are blinde 30 days together and within forty days after they can see they may be set to hunting The Noble men of France keep them for this pleasure who are greatly given to hunt Conies and they are sold there for a French crown Young boys and scholars also use them to put them into the holes of rocks and walls to hunt out birds and likewise into hollow trees where-out they bring the Birds in the claws of their feet They are nourished being tamed with Milk or with Barley bread and they can fast a very long time When they go they contract their long back and make it stand upright in the middle round like a bowl When they are touched they smell like a Martel and they sleep very much being wilde they live upon the bloud of Conies Hens Chickens Hares or other such things which they can finde and over-master In their sleep also they dream which appeareth by whyning and crying in their sleep Whereas a long fly called a Fryer flying to the flaming candles in the night is accounted among poysons the Antidote and resister thereof is by Pliny affirmed to be a Goats gall or liver mixed with a Ferret or wilde Weasil and the gall of Ferrets is held pretious against the poyson of Aspes although the flesh and teeth of a Ferret be accounted poyson Likewise the gall of a Ferret is commended against the Falling disease and not only the gall saith Marcellus but the whole body if it be rosted dressed and eaten fasting like a young pig It is said by Rasis and Albertus that if the head of a Wolf be hanged up in a Dove-cote neither Cat Ferret Weasil Stoat or other noysome Beast dare to enter therein These Ferrets are kept in little hutches in houses and there sed where they sleep much they are of a very hot temperature and constitution and therefore quickly digest their meat and being wilde by reason of their fear they rather seek their meat in the night then in the day time Of the FITCH or POUL-CAT THe difference of a Poul-Cat from the Wilde-Cat is because of her strong stinking savour and therefore is called Putorius of Putore because of his ill smell for all Weasils being incensed and provok't to wrath smell strongly and especially the Poul-Cat likewise when in the Spring time they endeavour procreation for which cause among the Germans when they would express an infamous Whore or Whoremaster they say they stink like an Iltis that is a Fitch or Poul-Cat The French call this Beast Putois and Poytois as it is to be found in Carolus Figulus the Savoyans Poutte 〈…〉 the Illyrians and Bohemians Tchorz and the Polonians Vudra and Scaliger calleth it in Latine Catum fuinam by another name then Putorius It is greater then an ordinary Weasil but lesser then the wilde Martel and yet commonly fatter the hairs of it are neither smooth and of one length or of one colour for the short hairs are somewhat yellowish and the long ones black so as one would think that in many places of the body there were spots of divers colours but yet about the mouth it is most ordinarily white The skin is stiff harsh and rugged in handling and therefore long lasting in Garments yet because the Beast is alway fat the savour of it is so rank that it is not in any great request and moreover it is said that it offendeth the head and procureth ach therein and therefore it is sold cheaper then a Fox skin and the fattest is alway the worst of all The Skinners approve the skins of Fitches and Martels best which are killed in Winter because their flesh and lust is much lower and therefore rendereth a less hurtfull smell then at other times The tail is not above two hands or palms long and therefore shorter then is a Martels In all other parts of the body it equalleth a Martell or exceedeth very little having thinner necks but larger and greater bellies the tail legs and breast are also of a blacker colour but the belly and sides more yellow Some have delivered that the left legs thereof are shorter then the right legs but this is found untrue by daily experience They keep in the tops of houses and secret corners delighting to kill and eat Hens and Chickens whose craft in devouring his prey is singular for to the intent that the silly creatures to be devoured may not bewray them to the House-keepers the first part that they lay hold upon with their mouths is the head of the Hen and
the humour flowing out at their Childrens noses may never hurt them burn a vein in the crown of the head with Wool when they are four year old and thereby they conceive that they are kept and conserved in perpetuall good health and if when they burnt their children they fell into a Cramp they eased them presently by casting upon them the urine of Goats When a Man is thick of hearing mingle together the Gall of an Ox and the Urine of a Goat and infused into the ears although there be in them a very mattery substance Galen prescribeth this portion to evacuate that Water which lyeth betwixt the skin by Urine if one drink Hysope water and the Urine of a Goat Likewise it helpeth the Dropsie and the dust of an Elephants tooth drunk in this Goats Urine it dissolveth the stone in the reins and bladder without all fearful peril and danger The medicines arising out of the female Goat are these We finde that the female Goat and the land toad being sodden together are cures of singular worth for the diseases of all living four-footed beasts The Magi or wisemen say that the right eye of a green living Lizard being taken out and his head forthwith struck off and put in a Goats skin is of a great force against quartan Agues The ashes of a Goats hide besmeared over with Oil taketh away the spots in the face The same ashes made of a Goats hide recovereth the blisters and gals of the feet The shaving of the Goats skin being rubbed with Pumice stone and mixed with Vinegar is an excellent approved good remedy for the Smalpox If a Woman bleed overmuch at the nose let her breasts be bound with a thong made of a Goats skin The same being sodden with the hair on it the juyce being soked up stayeth the belly It is not good for those that have the falling sickness to sleep or lie in a Goats skin if at any time the passion moveth them to it yet it is hurtful for their head by reason of the rank smell and not for any other particular private cause Goats hairs being burnt do appease all issues of bloud which being mixed with Vinegar they are good to stanch the bleeding at nose and you may blow in their nostrils Goats hairs burnt and whole and also Myrrhe mixed with Goats hairs so burnt The same also burned and mingled with Pitch and Vinegar helpeth the bleeding at nose and being put in the nose they stir up lethargies The favour of the Goats horn or of the hair doth the like Goats dung in sweet water doth expell the stone in the body so doth the ashes of Goats hair in like manner which being burned and bruised and given in a medicine they do mightily help and recover the Strangury It is also reported that Goats horn and the hair being burnt will drive away Serpents and their ashes soked or anointed is very good against strokes or stinging of Serpents To stay the Flux in the belly take the hairs that grow behind on the Goats sitting place and burn them which being tempered with beaten Barley and Oil must be perfumed under a mans seat Goats flesh being rosted by the fire where dead men are burnt is good for those that have the Falling-sickness The same is a good remedy against the falling sickness It is good for such to abstain from Hogs flesh Beef or Goats flesh They that drink Goats bloud wax pale presently on it which is excellent to get out spots of any thing it is also good against those that are intoxicate with poison and therefore must be drunk with wine and being sod with marrow it is good against the same disease so is the male Goats bloud The root of Cinkefoyle drunk in wine helpeth ill humors Goats bloud also either of the male or female asswageth the inwards and the flowings or laskes of the belly it is good for those that have the Dropsie being tempered with Hony and also sodden with marrow Some use it against the Bloudy flux and pain of the belly being also sodden with marrow it is good against the same disease If you mix Goats bloud with Chisel steept in broath and a little Rosin put into it whereof make a plaister and lay it to the belly or other parts and it recovereth any pain thereabouts The fat of a male Goat is more faster and therefore good for those that have the Bloudy flux The substance of a Goat is fat yet is not the fat of a Goat so moist as a Swines but for bitings and those that are grieved in their belly Goats fat is better then Swines not because it hath more operation in it to expell the grief but by reason it is thick whereas the Swines grease will run about like oil neither is the fat of Kids so warm and dry as female Goats neither the male Goats so fat as the gelded Goats in Latin called Hireus also female Goats fat is more binding then the Tallow of Oxen but the males fat is good against Scorpions made in a perfume It is also good for those that are poisoned with French green flies called Cantharides Being tempered with Wax it taketh away the stinging of Serpents it helpeth any biting or wound If a Womans breast grieve her after her delivery of childe let her seethe husked Barley and Scallions and the fat of a male Goat whereof let her drink a little Against the ache of the eyes take Goats fat and Sheeps together with a little warm water Almost every grief of the body if it be no wound will be more easily recovered by plaisters but if the grief be as it were grounded or an old grief let it be burned and upon the place so scorched put Butter or the fat of a male Goat it will also recover and heal kibes and Chilblanes It helpeth the Kings evill so doth the fat of the female Goats help the same disease The males fat mixed with Arsenicke taketh away the roughness of the nails it also healeth the nails of the Leprosie without any pain it expelleth the Cantharidans being applyed with the juyce of the Grape that groweth on a wilde Vine This Goats fat is profitable to help any about the straightness of their mouths or lips being tempered with wax it allayeth Sores and Blisters and with Pitch and Brimstone it healeth them and being applyed with Hony and the juice of a Brambel it cureth the swellings arising in the hands or fingers especially in curing of Fellons The fat of a Bull well salted or if it be in an ach or grief dipt in oil without Salt and so after the same manner is the male Goats fat used which being tempered with Roses taketh away the wheales or blisters that rise in the night being also dropped into the ears of one that is deaf it recovereth him It helpeth the Falling sickness putting thereto as
much of the gall of Buls just of the same weight and seethe it together and then lay it in the skin of the gall that it touch not the ground and drink it out of the water It is also good against the stinging of Scorpions being applied with Butter and the meal of Zea warmed and washed with red Wine The broath that is confected of Goats fat sodden is excellent for those that are troubled with the Ptisick to sup now and then a few also it helpeth the Cough being tempered with new sweet wine that an ounce may be put in a goblet and so mixed with a branch of Rue It being also sodden with husked Barley easeth those that have fretting in the guts The same also sodden with Barley flowre and Wine made of Pomgranates and Cheese let it be given to those that are troubled with the Bloudy flux and let them take it with the juice of husked Barly Rasis also saith that the fat of a fierce Lion is of such singular account that if a Glyster be made of it with the water of Barly sod either with the water of tosted meal and boyled Sunach and so dissolved with Wax it is a most pretious remedy for the swelling of the inwards But Goats fat doth much help the griefs of the inward parts that nothing cometh forth but cold water The fat of the Buck Goat many use being sod with bread and ashes against the Bloudy flux and also the She Goats fat being taken out of her back alone being a little cold and then supped up Other allow the fat to be sodden with Barly flower Cinnamon Annise and Vinegar mixed together The same fat taken so out of the back mixed with Barly Bran and Cinnamon Annise and Vinegar of each of them alike and seethe thereof and being strained give it the patient that is diseased with the Bloudy flux and it shall most speedily help him The same also mixed with Pellitory and Cyprian Wax may be laid to the Gowt Also sodden with Goats dung and Saffron and layed on the Gowt it asswageth the grief The marrow of the female Goat in the fourth place next after the marrow of the Hart the Calf and the Bull is commended of Dioscorides but the last of all is the Sheeps fat The Harts is most renowned of all next the Calves then the Buck Goats and last of all the female Goats To help the grief of the eye take the marrow of Goats and anoint your eyes and it will cure them Goats bloud sod with marrow may be taken against all toxical poison Pliny saith that their dung being anointed with Hony is good for the watering or dropping of the eys and their marrow against aches The bloud of Goats their marrow and their Liver is very good to ease the belly Goats bloud sodden with the marrow helpeth the Bloudy flux and those that have the Dropsie and I think that the Bucks is more effectual and of greater operation so it be eaten with Mastick Also the Goats marrow is good for the eyes of Horses The right horn of a Goat is of some held to be of more effect then the other which I rather hold to be superstitious whatsoever other reason or secret quality the Horn may afford for the bitings of Serpents take Goats horn and burn the hairs of them and the ashes of them soked in water and Goats milk with the horn and wilde Marjoram and three cups of Wine put together and being drunk against the stinging of an adder expelleth the poison The ashes of Goats horn being all anointed with Oil tempered with Mirtle stayeth the sweating of the body Harts horn and Goats being burned and if it be requisite is good to wash the teeth withal and it will make them look white and the gums soft It is also good against the Bloudy flux and watering of the eyes in regard they are most usual yet they neither asswage the griefes nor consume them which are of a cold and dry nature Harts horn being burnt as also a Goats horn taketh away bitings Goats dung or the horn being burnt to ashes and dipped in Vinegar stoppeth the bloud The corrupt bloud that cometh out of a Buck Goat is more effectual and of a better operation and the ashes of a Goats horn or dung soked in Wine or Vinegar and anoint the Nostrils stayeth bleeding at the Nose Goats horn being burned at the end and the pieces or scorchings that arise thereof must be shaken into a new vessel untill the horn be quite consumed then beat and bruise them with Vinegar made of Sea onions and anoint the evill called Saint Anthonies fire and it is of a miraculous operation It will make one sleep that is troubled with the weakness of his head and watching if it be laid under their pillow It being mixed with Bran and Oil of Mirtle it keepeth the hairs fast that are falling off the head The savour of the horn burned descrieth the Falling sickness so doth the smell of the intrails of a Goat or the Liver eaten likewise it raiseth up a Lethargick man They use also the horns of Harts and Goats to make white the teeth and to fasten the gums The same shorn or shaven into mixt hony represseth the flux of the belly In the pain of the belly perfume the shavings of the same mingled with Oil and burned Barly the same perfume is good to be laid upon the Ulcers of Horses The hoofs of Goats are prescribed by Palladius to be burned for the driving away of Serpents and the dust of them put into Vinegar cureth the Alopecias The dust of their hoofs is good to rub the teeth withall also to drive away the swellings in the disease called St. Anthonies fire burn the foot of the Goat with the horn and reserve the dust thereof in a box and when you will use it wet the place first with Wine and afterwards cast on the powder The juice of a Goats head sod with hair is commended for burstness in the belly and the ancient Magicians gave the brain of the Goats to little infants against the Falling sickness but pressed through a gold Ring the same cureth Carbunkles in the belly being taken with Hony If the body or head be rubbed with that water or meat which falleth out of the mouth of a Goat mingled with Hony and Salt they kill all kinde of Lice and the same thing giveth remedy to the pain of the belly but if it be taken overmuch it purgeth The broth of the entrails to be gargarized in the mouth cureth the exulceration of the tongue and arteries The Liver of the female Goat sod and eaten is given against the Falling evill and taketh from them Convulsion and with the liquor thereof after it is sod it is good to anoint the purblind eyes also it is good to hold the eyes open over it while it seetheth
with a false appearance as the flattering love of Harlots doe simple mindes by fained protestations Of the GVLON THis Beast was not known by the Ancients but hath been since discovered in the Northern parts of the World and because of the great voracity thereof it is called Gulo that is a devourer in imitation of the Germans who call such devouring creatures Vilsiuss and the Swedians Gerff in Lituania and Muscovia it is called Rossomokal It is thought to be engendered by a Hyaena and a Lioness for in quality it resembleth a Hiaena and it is the same which is called Crocuta it is a devouring and an unprofitable creature having sharper teeth then other creatures Some think it is derived of a Wolf and a Dog for it is about the bigness of a Dog it hath the face of a Cat the body and tail of a Fox being black of colour his feet and nails be most sharp his skin rusty the hair very sharp and it feedeth upon dead carkases When it hath found a dead carkass he eateth thereof so violently that his belly standeth out like a bell then he seeketh for some narrow passage betwixt two trees and there draweth through his body by pressing whereof he driveth out the meat which he had eaten and being so emptied returneth and devoureth as much as he did before and goeth again and emptieth himself as in former manner and so continueth eating and emptying till all be eaten It may be that God hath ordained such a creature in those Countries to express the abominable gluttony of the men of that Countrey that they may know their true deformed nature and lively ugly figure represented in this Monster eatingbeast for it is the fashion of the Noble men in those parts to sit from noon till midnight eating and drinking and never rise from the table but to disgorge their stomachs or ease their bellies and then return with refreshed appetites to ingurgitate and consume more of Gods creatures wherein they grow to such a heighth of beastliness that they lose both sense and reason and know no difference between head and tail Such they are in Muscovia in Lituania and most shameful of all in Tartaria These things are reported by Olaus Magnus and Mathias Michou But I would to God that this same more then beastly intemperate gluttony had been circumscribed and confined within the limits of those unchristian or heretical-apostatical countries and had not spread it self and infected our more civil and Christian parts of the World so should not Nobility Society Amity good fellowship neighbourhood and honesty be ever placed upon drunken or gluttonous companions or any man be commended for bibbing and sucking in Wine and Beer like a Swine When in the mean season no spark of grace or Christianity appeareth in them which notwithstanding they take upon them being herein worse then Beasts who still reserve the notes of their nature and preserve their lives but these lose the markes of humanity reason memory and sense with the conditions of their families applying themselves to consume both patrimony and pence in this voracity and forget the Badges of Christians offering sacrifice to nothing but their bellies The Church forsaketh them the spirit accurseth them the civil world abhorreth them the Lord condemneth them the Devil expecteth them and the fire of Hell it self is prepared for them and all such devourers of Gods good creature To help their digestion for although the Hiena and Gulon and some other monsters are subject to this gluttony yet are there many creatures more in the world who although they be Beasts and lack reason yet can they not by any famine stripes or provocations be drawn to exceed their natural appetites or measure in eating or drinking There are of these Beasts two kindes distinguished by colour one black and the other like a Wolf they seldom kill a Man or any live Beasts but feed upon carrion and dead carkasses as is before said yet sometimes when they are hungry they prey upon Beasts as Horses and such like and then they subtilly ascend up into a tree and when they see a Beast under the same they leap down upon him and destroy him A Bear is afraid to meet them and unable to match them by reason of their sharp teeth This Beast is tamed and nourished in the Courts of Princes for no other cause then for an example of incredible voracity When he hath filled his belly if he can finde no trees growing so near together as by sliding betwixt them he may expel his excrements then taketh he an Alder-tree and with his fore-feet rendeth the same asunder and passeth through the midst of it for the cause aforesaid When they are wilde men kill them with bows and gins for no other cause than for their skins which are precious and profitable for they are white spotted changeably interlined like divers flowers for which cause the greatest Princes and richest Nobles use them in garments in the Winter time such are the Kings of Polonia Sweveland Goatland and the Princes of Germany neither is their any skin which will sooner take a colour or more constantly retain it The outward appearance of the said skin is like to a damaskt garment and besides this outward part there is no other memorable thing worthy observation in this ravenous Beast and therefore in Germany it is called a four-footed Vulture Of the GORGON or strange Lybian Beast AMong the manifold and divers sorts of Beasts which are bred in Africk it is thought that the Gorgon is brought forth in that Countrey It is a fearful and terrible beast to behold it it hath high and thick eye-lids eyes not very great but much like an Oxes or Bugils but all flery-bloudy which neither look directly forward nor yet upwards but continually down to the earth and therefore are called in Greek Catobleponta From the crown of their head down to their nose they have a long hanging mane which make them to look fearfully It eateth deadly and poysonful herbs and if at any time he see a Bull or other creature whereof he is afraid he presently causeth his mane to stand upright and being so lifted up opening his lips and gaping wide sendeth forth of his throat a certain sharp and horrible breath which infecteth and poysoneth the air above his head so that all living creatures which draw in the breath of that air are grievously afflicted thereby losing both voyce and sight they fall into lethal and deadly Convulsions It is bred in Hesperia and Lybia The Poets have a fiction that the Gorgones were the daughters of Midusa and Phoroynis and are called Stringo and by Hesiodus Sthenp and Euryale inhabiting the Gorgadian Islands in the Aethiopick Ocean over against the gardens of Hesperia Medusa is said to have the hairs of her head to be living Serpents against whom Perseus fought and cut off her head for which cause he was placed in
joyneth and seasoneth the same so is Rennet to Cheese and therefore both of them have the same qualities of dissolving and binding Galen affirmeth that he cured one of Gowty tumours and swellings by applying thereunto old and strong putrified Cheese beaten in a morter and mixed with the salted fat or leg of a Swine If a Man sick of the Bloudy flux drink thereof in a reer Egge two scruples for two dayes together fasting it will procure him remedy For pacifying the Colick drink the Rennet of a Hare the same mingled with Goose grease stayeth the incontinencie of Urine it also retaineth womens flowers If it be drunk with Vinegar it helpeth the seconds and being applyed with Saffron and the juyce of Leeks driveth a dead childe ouâ— of the womb If it be drunk three or four dayes together after childe-birth it causeth barrenness There are saith Pliny a kind of Wormes which being bound to Women before the Sun rising in a Harts skin cause them that they cannot conceive this power is called Asocion Masarius saith that if a Woman drink this Rennet to her meat before she conceive with childe she should be delivered of a Male child and such is the foolish opinion of them which affirm at this day that if men eat parsly or white buds of black ivie it maketh them unable to carnall copulation The Rennet of a Hare easeth and disperseth all tumors and swellings in Womens brests the Lights of a Hare powdred with salt with Frankincense and white wine helpeth him that is vexed with the Falling sickness if he receive it thirty dayes together Sextus ascribeth the same remedy to the Hart and Pliny commendeth the Lights to heal the pain in the eyes Being drunk in powder it cureth the secrets If the heels be troubled with Kibes they are healed with the fat of Bears but if they be wrâ—ng with a cold they are healed with the dust of a Hares hair or the powder of the Lights Likewise when the foot is hurt with stâ—ait shooes it hath the same operation The ancient Magâ— took the skin of an Oxe in powder with the Urine of Boyes and sprinkled it on the 〈◊〉 of their feet binding the heart of a Hare to the hands of him that hath a Quartan Ague and some cure it by hanging the heart of a young Hare or Leveret to the neck or arme in the beginning of the fit of him that is so visited The heart of a Hare dried mixed with Frankineense or Manna 〈…〉 white wine drunk thirty dayes together cureth the Falling sickness For the pain in the belly take the same medicine and drunk with warm water mingled with Samia cureth the fluxes of women also if a man that hath the flux eat the Liver of a Hare dipped in sharp Vinegar it helpeth him if he be Liver sick or if one have the Falling sickness eat the quantity of an ounce thereof and it helpeth him The Gall of a Hare the Heart Lungs Lights and Liver of a Weasel mixed together three drams one dram of Castoreum four drams of Myrrha a dram of Vinegar and Hony beat together cureth him that hath a swimming or dizziness in his brain The gall newly taken forth mingled with a like portion of hony and warm in the skin of an onion and so put into the ear giveth remedy to him that can hear nothing If he that is sick in the milt that is if it be over hard swallow down the milt of a Hare not touching it with his teeth or seeing it with his eyes it cureth him The belly of a Hare with the intrails tosted and burned in a frying-pan mixed with Oil and anointed upon the head restoreth decayed hairs The reins of a Hare inveterated and drunk in Wine expelleth the stone and being sod cut and dryed in the Sun helpeth the pain in the reins if it be swallowed down and not touched with the teeth The reins of a Hare and of a Moor-hen cureth them that are poisoned by Spiders the stones of a Hare roasted and drunk in Wine stayeth the incontinency of Urine In the pain of the loins and of the hip bones they have the same operation The secrets and stones of Hares are given to Men and Women to make them apâ—er to copulation and conception but this opinion hath no other ground beside the foecundity of the beast that beareth them They which carry about with them the ankle bone of a Hare shall never be pained in the belly as Pliny saith So likewise Sextus and Marcellus Take the ankle bone out of a live Hare and hairs from her belly therewithal make a threed and bind the said bone to him that hath the Colick and it shall ease him The said bone also beaten to powder is reckoned among the chief remedies against the stone When Women have hard travel put it into Cretick-wine with the liquor of Penyroyal and it procureth speedy delivery being bound to the benummed joynts of a mans leg bringeth great ease so also do the feet being bruised and drunk in warm Wine relieve the arteries and shortness of breath and some belive that by the foot of a Hare cut off alive the Gout is eased The fime of a Hare cureth scorched members and whereas it was no small honour to Virgins in ancient time to have their brests continually stand out every one was prescribed to drink in Wine or such other things nine grains of Hares dung the same drunk in Wine in the evening stayeth Coughing in the night in a potion of warm wine it is given to them that have the Bloudy flux likewise if a man be sick of the Colick and drink three pieles thereof in sweet Wine it procureth him much ease being decocted with hony and eaten every day the quantity of a Bean in desperate cases mendeth Ruptures in the bowels Asclepiades in his medicine whereby he procured fruitfulness to Noble Women he gave them four drams of Myrrha two drams of Flower-deluce two of Hares dung confected with Collyrial water so put up into their bellies after ceasing of the flowers before they lay with their Husbands Albertus and Raphael prescribe this medicine to help a woman that wanteth milk in her brests Crystal white Mustard-seed and Hares dung put into broath made with Fennel Of the HEDGE-HOG FOrasmuch as there be two sorts of Hedge-hogs one of the Sea and another of the Land our purpose in this place is only to discourse of the Land Hedge-hog the Hebrews call him Kipod which in the 14. of Isa and Zepha 2. is so translated by the Septuagints although that some of the Hebrews would have it to signifie a ravening bird but seeing that I find the word Kapaz in most Hebrew dictionaries to signifie Claudere and Contrahere and that is most proper to shut up and draw together I do rather believe that the proper meaning thereof is a Hedge-hog because this beast so draweth it self together when it
it is better then being thin likewise if they be hard causeth the pastern to stand higher from the ground for so in their pace the soft and hard parts of the foot do equally sustain one another and the hard hoof yeeldeth a sound like a Cymbal for the goodness of a Horse appeareth by the sound of his feet Now on the contrary side it is good also to set down the faults and signes of reprobation in Horses and first of all therefore a great and fleshy head great tears narrow nostrils hollow eyes a long neck a mane not hairy a narrow breast hollow shoulders narrow sides and little fleshy sharp loins bare ribs hard and heavy legs knees not apt to bend weak thighs not strong crooked legs thin full fleshy plain and low hoofs all these things are to be avoided in the choise of your Horse Of the choise of Stallions and breeding Mares NOw in the next place let us consider the choise of Horses and Mares appointed for breed and procreation and we have shewed already that in a Stallion we are principally to consider the colour form merit and beauty This Stallion is called in Italy Rozzâ—ne in France Estalon in Germany Ein Springhengst and in Latine Admissarius quia ad generandam sobolem admittitur because he is sent to beget and engender The Graecians Anabates or Oeheutes First of all therefore to begin with the colour that Horse is best which is of one continued colour although oftentimes as Rufus saith Horses of a despicable colour prove as noble as any other The chief colours are these bay white carnation golden russet mouse-colour flea-bitten spotted pale and black of all those the black or bay is to be preferred Opplanus maketh distinction of Horses by their colour in this manner the gray or blewish spotted is fittest for the hunting of the Hart the bright bay for the Bear and Leopards the black with flaming eyes against the Lyons The natural colour of the wilde Horses are an ash colour with a black strake from the head along the back to the tail but among tame Horses there are many good ones of black white brown red and flea-bitten colour But yet it is to be remembred that seldom or never Colts be foaled white but rather of other colour degenerating afterward by the increase of their age for such Horses are more lively durable and healthy then other of their kinde and therefore Plutarch commendeth a white Horse of Sylla for his swiftness of foot and stomach among all colours first the black then the bay next the white and last the gray are most commended Camerarius commendeth a certain colour called in Latins Varius and may be englished daple gray because of the divers in-textures of colours which although many Nations do disallow yet undoubtedly that colour saith he is a signe and argument of a good nature constituted and builded upon a temperate commixture of humors Where black white and yellow hairs appear so that the sight of one of these is nothing inferiour to the equestrial party coloured caparisons Among Horses which are divers coloured they which have stars in their fore-head and one white foot were most commended such were the Thracian Horses not admitted in copulation of which Virgil speaketh in this manner Thraoius albis Portat equus bicolor maculis vestigia primi Alba pedis frontemque ostentans arduus albam Black Horses also which have one russet or swart spot in their faces or else a black tongue are highly commended for generation but the pale coloured Horses are no wayes to be admitted to cover Mares because their colour is of no account and likewise it is seldom seen that the Foal proveth better then the Sire The bay colour hath been received without exception for the best travellers for it is supposed that Baudius amongst the Latines is derived of Vadium quia inter caetera animalia fâ—rtius vadat because among other creatures he goeth most surely It is also behoveful that in a Stallion Horse the mane be of the same colour with the body Horse-keepers have devised to make their Mares conceive strange colours for when the Mares would go to the Horse they paint a Stallion with divers colours and so bring him into the sight and presence of the Mare where they suffer him to stand a good while untill she perfectly conceive in her imagination the true Idea and full impression of those pictures and then they suffer him to cover her which being performed she conceiveth a Foal of those colours In like manner Pigeons conceive young ones of divers colours The Germans to mingle the colour of Horses hairs especially to bring black among white take the roots of Fearn and of Sage and seethe them together in lee and then wash their Horses all over therewith For the making of their Horses white they take that fat which ariseth from the decoction of a moul in an earthen pot and therewithall anoint the places they would have white Also they shave off the hairs and put upon the bald place crude Hony and Badgers grease which maketh the hairs to arise white and many other means are used by Horse-leaches as afterward shall be shewed In the old age of a Horse his hair doth naturally change white above all other beasts that we know and the reason is because the brain-pan is a more thin and slender bone then the greatness of his body would require which appeareth by this that receiving a blow in that place his life is more endangered then by hurting any other meniber according to the observation of Homer Et quasetae haerent caepiti lethaleque vulnus Praecipue sit equis And thus much shall suffice for the colour of a Stallion now followeth the form or outward proportion of the body which ought to be great and solid his stature answerable to his strength his sides large his buttocks round his breast broad his whole body full and rough with knots of muscles his foot dry and solid having a high hoof at the heel The parts of his beauty are these a little and dry head the skin almost cleaving to the bones short and pricked ears great eyes broad nostrils a long and large mane and tail with a solid and fixed rotundity of his hoofs and such an one as thrusteth his head deep into the water when he drinketh his ribs and loins like an Oxes a smooth and straight back his hanches or hips long broad and fleshy his legs large fleshy and dry the sinews and joynctures thereof great and not fleshy near the hoofs that the hinder part of his body be higher then his forepart like as in a Hart and this beauty better appeareth in a lean body then in a fat for fatness covereth many faults the former parts are thus expressed by Horace Regibus hic mos est ubi equos mercantur opertos Inspiciunt ne si facies ut saepe decora Molli sulâ—a pede est
them afterward when it waxeth stronger turn him out into the field with his dam lest the Mare over-mourn her self for want of her foal for such beasts love their young ones exceedingly After three dayes let the Mare be exercised and rid up and down but with such a pace as the foal may follow her for that shall amend and encrease her milk If the Colt have soft hoofs it will make him run more speedily upon the hard ground or else lay little stones under their feet for by such means their hoofs are hardned and if that prevail not take Swines grease and Brimstone never burned and the stalks of Garlick bruised and mingled all together and therewithal anoint the hoofs The Mountains also are good for the breeding of Colts for two causes first for that in those places their hoofs are hardened and secondly by their continual ascending and descending their bodies are better prepared for induring of labour And thus much may suffice for the educating and nursing of foals For their weaning observe this rule first separate them from their dams twenty four hours together in the next morning let them be admitted to suck their belly full and then removed to be never more suckled at five moneths old begin to teach them to eat bread or hay and at a year old give them Barly and Bran and at two years old wean them utterly Of handling taming or breaking of Horses THey which are appointed to break Horses are called by the Grecians Eporedicae Hippodami and Hippocomi the Latins Equi ones Arulatores and Cociones in Italian lo Rozone Absyrtus is of opinion that foals are to be used to hand and to be begun to be tamed at 18 moneths old not to be backed but only tyed by the head in a halter to a rack or manger so that it may not be terrified for any extraordinary noise for which cause they use them to brakes but the best time is at three years old as Cresce 〈…〉 ensis teacheth in many Chapters wherefore when they begin to be handled let him touch the rough parts of his body as the mane and other places wherein the Horse taketh delight to be handled neither let him be over severe and Tyrannous and seek to overcome the beast by stripes but as Cicero saith by fair means or by hunger and famine Some have used to handle them sucking and to hang up in their presence bits and bridles that so by the sight and hearing the gingling thereof in their ears they might grow more familiar And when they came to hand to lay upon their backs a little boy flat on his belly and afterward to make him sit upon him formally holding him by the head and this they do at three year old but commit him to no labour untill he be four year old yet domestical and small Horses for ordinary use are tamed at two year old and the best time for the effecting hereof is in the moneth of March. It is also good in riding of a young Horse to light often and to get up again then let him bring him home and use him to the stable the bottom whereof is good to be paved with round stones or else planks of Oak strewing litter upon it when he lyeth down that so he may lie soft and stand hard It is also good to be regarded that the plankes be so laid as the Urine may continually run off from them having a little close ditch to receive it that so the Horses feet may not be hurt thereby and a good Master of Horses must oftentimes go into his stable that so he may observe the usage of this beast The manger also ought to be kept continually clean for the receiving of his provender that so no filth or noisome thing be mingled therewith there ought also to be partitions in it that so every beast may eat his own allowance for greedy Horses do not only speedily raven up their own meat but also rob their fellows Others again have such weak stomachs that they are offended with the breath of their fellows and will not eat except they eat alone The rack also is to be placed according to their stature that so their throat may not be too much extended by reaching high nor their eyes or head troubled because it is placed too low There ought also to be much light in the stable lest the beast accustomed to darkness be offended at the Sun light and wink over much being not able to indure the beams when he is led abroad but yet the stable must be warm and not hot for although heat do preserve fatness yet it bringeth indigestion and hurteth a Horses nature therefore in the Winter time the stable must be so ordered as the beast may not be offended or fall into diseases by overmuch heat or suddain cold In the Summer time let them lodge both night and day in the open air This also in stabling of your Horses must be avoided namely the sties of Swine for the stink the breath the gruntling of Hogs is abominable for Horses and nature hath framed no sympathy or concord betwixt the noble and couragious spirit of a Horse and the beastly sluggish condition of a Swine Remove also far away from your Horses stables all kinde of fowl which were wont to haunt those places to gather up the remnant grains of their provender leaving behind them their little feathers which if the Horse lick up in his meat stick in his throat or else their excrements which procureth the looseness of his belly It must also be regarded that the stable must be kept neat sweet and clean so as in absence of the Horse it may not lie like a place for Swine The instruments also and implements thereof such as are the Horse cloathes the Curry-combs the Mane-combs Saddles and Bridles be disposed and hung up in order behind the Horse so as it may neither trouble him eating or lying nor yet give him occasion to gnaw eat and devour them to their own damage or hurt for such is the nature of some wanton Horses to pull asunder and destroy whatsoever they can reach They are therefore oftentimes to be exercised and backed and principally to be kept in a good diet for want of food dejecteth the spirit of the noblest Horse and also maketh the mean Horse to be of no use but on the contrary a good diet doth not only make a mean Horse to be serviceable but also continue the worth and value of the beast which thing Poets considered when they fained that Arion the Horse of Neptune and some others were made by Ceres the Goddess of Corn which any mean witted man may interpret to signifie that by abundance of provender the nature of Horses was so far advanced above ordinary that like the Sons of the Gods they perform incredible things whether therefore they eat chaffe or hay or grasse or grain according to the diversities of Countries
it is called Morte deschien that is to say the death of the back Because many do hold this opinion that this disease doth consume the marrow of the back for remedy whereof they use strange kinds of cures For some taking it to be a rheume go about to stop it by laying astrictive or binding charges to the nape of the neck Some again do twine out the pith of the back with a long wire thrust up into the Horses head and so into his neck and back with what reason I know not Well I know that few Horses do recover that have this disease Some again think that the Lungs of the Horse be rotten and that the Horse doth cast them out at his Nose But Martin saith that he hath cut up divers Horses which have been judged to have dyed of the mourning of the Chine but he could finde never either Back or Lungs to be perished but only the Liver and most commonly that side of the Liver which answereth the Nostril whereat he casteth whereof we will talk in his proper place when we come to speak of the diseases in the Liver The Italians do call this disease Ciamorro the old Authors do call it the moist malady whereof Theomnestus maketh two differences For in the one the matter which he doth cast at the Nose is white and doth not smell at all and in the other that which he casteth is filthy and stinking corruption They proceed both of cold humors congealed in the head but more abounding in the one then in the other by reason perhaps that the Horse was not cured in time for of cold first cometh the Pose and the Cough then the Glanders and last of all the Mourning of the Chine When the Horse casteth matter at the Nose that is not stinking he may easily be cured by such remedies as have been before declared in the Chapter of the Pose but if the matter be very filthy and stinking then it is very hard to cure Notwithstanding it shall not grieve me to write unto you here the experience of Theomnestus and of Laurentius Russius Theomnestus cure is thus Take of Water and Hony called of the Physitians Hydromel a quart and put thereunto three ounces of Oyl and powre that into his Nostril every morning the space of three dayes and if that do not profit him then let him drink every day or once in two dayes a quart of old Wine mingled with some of the medicine or rather the precious meat called of the old writers Tetrapharmacum and that will restore him to his former estate Laurentius Russius saith that of all diseases there is none more perillous nor more to be suspected then the rheume which cometh of cold for Horses have large Conduites and are full of moisture and therefore if cold once enter it findeth matter enough to work on to breed continual distillation as well outwardly at the Nose as inwardly descending down to the vitall part in such sort as it doth not suffocate the same The signes according to the said Russius be these the Horse doth cast matter continually at the Nose sometime thin and sometime thick his Nostrils Ears and all his outward parts will be cold to the feeling his eyes head and all his body heavy and he will cough and have small appetite to his meat and lesse to his drink and sometime he will tremble and shake His cure is in this sort Purge his head partly by perfuming him partly by making him to neeze in such sort as hath been before taught in the Chapter of the Pose which wayes of perfuming and purging his head as they be good so doth Russius praise these two here following to be most excellent the first is this Take of the stalks of Vitis alba otherwise called Brionie or wilde Vine two or three good handfuls and being bruised put them into a linnen bag and fasten the bag to the Horses head so as he may receive the sent up into his Nostrils without touching the hearb with his mouth and this will cause the humors to run down abundantly The second medicine Take of Euforbium beaten into fine powder three ounces of the juice of Betes one pound of Swines bloud half a pound boyl all these together until they be throughly mingled together and liquid like an ointment and then take it from the fire and put thereunto one ounce more of Euforbium and mingle them again throughly together and preserve the same in a box to use at needful times in this sort Make two stiffe long rols or tampins of linnen clouts or such like stuffe sharp pointed like Sugar loaves which tampins are called of the Physicians in Latin Pessi and being anointed with the ointment aforesaid thrust them up into the Horses Nostrils and let them abide therein a pretty while then pull them out and you shall see such abundance of matter come forth at his Nose as is marvellous to behold Russius also praiseth very much this medicine here following Take as much of the middle bark of an Elder tree growing on the water side as will fill a new earthen pot of a mean size putting thereunto as much clear water as a pot will hold and let it boyl until one half be consumed and then to be filled up again with fresh water continuing so to do three times one after another and at the last time that the one half is consumed take it from the fire and strain it through a linnen cloth Then take two parts of that decoction and one part of Hogs grease or Butter and being warmed again together give the Horse to drink thereof one hornful and powre another hornful into his Nostril that casteth and whensoever you give him this medicine let the Horse be empty and fasting and keep him without meat also two or three hours after for this is a very good drink for any sickness that cometh of cold Moreover open the skin of his forehead and of his temples and also of his tail with a sharp hot iron that the corrupt humors may issue outward That done take hot brickes or else a pan of fresh burning coles and hold it nigh unto his belly and flanks to the intent that they may be throughly warmed and being so warmed anoint them all over with Oyl-de-bay or Dialthea to defend his body from the cold and let his head be well covered and all his belly kept warm Yea and it were good to bathe his head sometime as Russius saith with a bath made of Rew Wormwood Sage Juâ—iper Bay leaves and Hysop And let his drink be warm water mingled with Wheat meal yea and to make it the more comfortable it were good as Russius saith to put thereunto some Cinamon Ginger Galingale and such hot pieces And his meat in Winter season would be no other but sodden Corn or warm Mashes made of ground Malt and Wheat bran in Summer season if he went to grasse I think it would do him
the inside suffering him not to bleed from above but all from beneath Of the Foundering in the Fore-legs THe cause of this grief is declared before in the Chapter of foundering in the body whereas I shewed you that if a Horse be foundered in the body the humors will immediately resort down into his legs as Martin saith within the space of 24 hours and then the Horse will go crouching all upon the hinder-legs his fore-legs being so stiffe as he is not able to bow them The cure whereof according to Martin is in this sort Garter each leg immediately one handful above the knee with a list good and hard and then walk him or chafe him and so put him in a heat and being some-what warmed let him bloud in both the breast veins reserving the bloud to make a charge withall in this manner Take of that bloud two quarts and of Wheat-flowre half a peck and six Egges shels and all of Bole Armony half a pound of Sanguis Draconis half a quartern and a quart of strong Vinegar mingle them all together and charge all his shoulders breast back loyns and fore-legs therewith and then walk him upon some hard ground suffering him not to stand still and when the charge is dry refresh it again And having walked him three or four hours together lead him into the stable and give him a little warm water with ground Mault in it and then a little Hay and provender and then walk him again either in the house or else abroad and continue thus the space of four days and when all the charge is spent cover him well with a housing cloth and let him both stand and lie warm and eat but little meat during the four days But if you see that at four days end he mendeth not a whit then it is a sign that the humor lies in the foot for the which you must search with your Butter paring all the soles of the fore-feet so thin as you shall see the water issue through the sole That done with your Butter let him bloud at both the toes and let him bleed well Then stop the vein with a little Hogs grease and then tack on the shooes and Turpentine molten together and laid upon a little Flax and cram the place where you did let him bloud hard with Tow to the intent it may be surely stopt Then fill both his feet with Hogs grease and bran fryed together in a stopping pan so hot as is possible And upon the stopping clap a piece of leather or else two splents to keep the stopping And immediately after this take two Egges beat them in a dish and put thereto Bole Armony and Bean-flowre so much as will thicken the same and mingle them well together and make thereof two plaisters such as may close each foot round about somewhat above the cronet and binde it fast with a list or roller that it may not fall away not be removed for the space of three days but let the sole be cleansed and new stopped every day once and the cronets to be removed every two days continuing so to do untill it be whole Dating which time let him rest walked for fear of loosening his hoofs But if you see that he begin to amend you may walk him fair and softly once a day upon some soft ground to exercise his legs and feet and let him not eat much nor drink cold water But if this fundering break out above the hoof which you shall perceive by the looseness of the coffin above by the cronet then when you pare the sole you must take all the fore-part of the sole clean away leaving the heels whole to the intent the humors may have the freer passage downward and then stop him and dress him about the cronet as is before said Of Foundring OF all other sorances foundering is soonest got and hardlyest cured yet if it may be perceived in twenty four hours and taken in hand by this means hereafter prescribed it shall be cured in other twenty and four hours notwithstanding the same reâ—eit hath cured a Horse that hath been foundered a year and more but then it was longer in bringing it to pass Foundering cometh when a Horse is heated being in his grease and very fat and taketh thereon a sudden cold which striketh down into his legs and taketh away the use and feeling thereof The sign to know it is the Horse cannot go but will stand cripling with all his four legs together if you offer to turn him he will couch his buttocks to the ground and some Horses have I seen sit on their buttocks to feed The cure is thus Let him bloud of his two breast veins of his two shackle veins and of his two veins above the cronets of his hinder hoofs if the veins will bleed take from them three pintes at least if they will not bleed then open his neck vein and take so much from thence Save the blood and let one stand by and stir it as he bleeds lest it grow into lumps when he hath done bleeding take as much Wheat flowre as will thicken the blood the whites of twenty Egges and three or four yolks then take a good quantity of Bolearminack and a pinte of strong Vinegar incorporate all these well together and withal charge his back neck head and ears then take two long rags of cloth and dip in the same charge and withal garter him so strait as may be above both his knees of his forelegs then let his keeper take him out to some stony causie or high-way paved with stone and there one following him with a cudgel let him trot up and down for the space of an hour or two or more that done set him up and give him some meat and for his drink let him have a warm mash some three or four hours after this take off his garters and set him in some pond of water up to the mid-side and so let him stand for two hours then take him out and set him up the next day pull off his shooes and pare his feet very thin and let him blood both of his heels and toes then set on his shooes again and stop them with Hogs grease and bran boiling hot and splint them up and so turn him out to run and he shall be sound Of the splent as well in the inside or outside of the knee as other where in the Legs THis sorance to any mans feeling is a very gristle sometime as big as a Walnut and sometime no more then a Hasel-nut which is called of the Italians Spinella and it cometh as Laurentius Russius saith by travelling the Horse too young or by oppressing him with heavie burthens offending his tender sinews and so causeth him to halt It is easie to know because it is apparent to the eye and if you pinch it with your thumb and finger the Horse will shrink up his leg The cure whereof according to
of the party so grieved The dust of a Horse hoof anointed with Oyl and Water doth drive away impollumes and little bunches which rise in the flesh in what part of the body soever they beâ— and the dust of the hoof of an Asse anointed with Oyl Water and hot urine doth utterly expell all Wens and kernels which do rise in the neck arme-holes or any other part of the body of either man or woman The genital of a gelded Horse dryed in an Oven beaten to powder and given twice or thrice in a little hot broth to drink unto the party grieved is by Pliny accounted an excellent and approved remedy for the seconds of a woman The soam of a Horse or the dust of a Horse hoof dryed is very good to drive away shamefastness being anointed with a certain titulation The scrapings of the Horses hoofs being put in wine and poured into the Horses nostris do greatly provoke his urine The ashes also of an Horses hoof being mingled with wine and water doth greatly ease and help the disease called the Colick or Stone as also by a perfume which may be made by the hoofs of Horses being dryed a childe which is still born is cast out The milk of Mares is of such an excellent virtue that it doth quite expell the poison of the Sâ—ahare and all other poison whatsoever drink also mingled with Mares milk doth make the body loose and laxable It is also counted an excellent remedy against the falling sickness 〈◊〉 drink the stones of a Boar out of a Mares milk or water If there be any filth or m 〈…〉 ying in the matrice of a woman let her take Mares milk boiled and througly strained and presently the 〈◊〉 and excrements will void clean away If so he that a Woman be barren and cannot conceive leb her then take Mares milk not knowing what it is and let her presently accompany with a man and she will conceive The milk of a Mare being drunk doth asswage the labor of the matrice and doth cause a still childe to be cast forth If the seed of Henbane be beaten small and mingled with Mares milk and bound with a Harts skin so that it may not touch the ground and fastened or bound to a woman they will hinder her conception The thinnest or latest part of the milk of a Mare doth very easily gently and without any daâ—ger purge the belly Mares milk being dayly anointed with a little Hony doth without any pain or punishment take away the wounds of the eyes being new made Cheese made of Mares milk doth represse and take away all wringings or aches in the belly whatsoever If you â—â—dint a co 〈…〉 wâ—th the foam of a Horse wherewith 〈◊〉 young man or youth doth use to comb his head it is of 〈…〉 as it will cause the hair of his head heither to encrease or any whit to appear The 〈…〉 a Horse is also very much commended for them which have either pain or difficulty of hearing in their ears or else the dust of Horse dung being new made and dryed and mingled with Oyl of Roses The grief or soreness of a mans mouth or throat being washed or anointed with the foam of a Horse which hath been sed with Oates or Barly doth presently expell the pain of the foreness if so be that it be two or three times washed over with the juyce of young or green Sea-crabs beaten small together but if you cannot get the Sea-crabs which are green sprinkle upon the grief the small powder which doth come from dryed Crabs which are baked in an Oven made of Brasse and afterward wash the mouth where the pain is and you shall finde present remedy The foam of a Horse being three or four times taken in drink doth quite expell and drive away the Cough But Marcellus doth affirm that whosoever is troubled with the Cough or consumption of the lungs and doth drink the foam of a Horse by it self alone without any drink shall finde present help and remedy but as Sextus saith the Horse will presently die after it The same also being mingled with hot water and given to one who is troubled with the â—ame diseases being in manner past all cure doth presently procure health but the death of the Horse doth instantly ensue The sweat of a Horse being mingled with Wine and so drunk doth cause a woman which it very big and in great labor to cast a still childe The sweat of any Beast but as Albertus saith only of a Horse doth breed wind in a man or womans face being put thereupon and besides that doth bring the Squince or Squincy as also a filthy stinking sweat If Swords Knives or the points of Spears when they are red fire hot be anointed with the sweat of a Horse they will be so venemous and full of poyson that if a man or woman be smitten or pricked therewith they will never cease from bleeding as long as life doth last If a Horse be wounded with an Arrow and have the sweat of another Horse and bread which hath been brent being mingled in mans urine given him to drink and afterwards some of the same being mingled with Horse grease put into the wound it will in short time procure him ease and help There are some which will assure us that if a man be troubled with the belly worms or have a Serpent crept into his belly if he take but the sweat of a Horse being mingled with his urine and drink it it will presently cause the Worms or the Serpent to issue forth The dung of a Horse or Asse which is fed with grasse being dryed and afterward dipped in wine and so drunk is a very good remedy against the bitings and blowes of Scorpions The same medicines they do also use being mingled with the genital of a Hare in Vinegar both against the Scorpion and against the Shrew-mouse The force is so great in the poyson of a mad Dog or Bitch that his pargeted Urine doth much hurt especially unto them that have a â—ore boil upon them the chiefest remedy therefore against the same is the dung of a Horse mingled with Vinegar and being warmed put into the scab or sore The dung as well of Asses as of Horses either raw cold or burned is excellent good against the breaking forth or issues of the bloud The dung of Horses or Asses being new made or warm and so clapped and put to a green wound doth very easily and speedily stanch the bleeding If the vein of a Horse be cut and the bloud do issue out in too much aboundance apply the dung of the same Horse unto the place where the vein is cut and the bleeding will presently cease wherefore the Poet doth very well express it iâ— these Verses following Sive fimus manni cum testis uritur ovi Et reprimit fluâ—dos miro 〈…〉 The same
at this day call a Mouse The French call it Taulpe the Germa 〈…〉 Mu 〈…〉 f and in Saxon Molwurffe from whence is derived the English Mole and Molewarp The H 〈…〉 tians Schaer and Schaermouse and the Molehil they call Schaerusen of digging The Holland 〈…〉 and the Flemmings call it Mol and Molmuss in imitation of the German word the Illyrians 〈◊〉 And generally the name is taken from digging and turning up the earth with her nose and back accoâ—to the saying of Virgil Aut oculis capâ—â— fodere cubilia Talp 〈…〉 Some are of opinion that it is called Toilpa because it is appointed to an everlasting darkness in the earth of which sort Isidorus writeth thus Talpa dicta est to quod per 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 ris dammata est enim absqu 〈…〉 is It is called also in Greek Indouros and Siphneus of Siphnon the earth because in liveth the earth and turneth it upward to make it hollow for passage The like I might say of his other names Ixliocha and Orthoponticos But this shall suffice for his name In Butotia about the Champaig 〈…〉 called Orchomani 〈…〉 there are the greatest store of Moles in the world for by digging they undermine all the fields and yet in Lâ—â—badia another Countrey of Boeotia there are none at all and if they be brought thither from any other place they will never dig but die Rodolphus Oppianus and Albertus affirm that they are created of themselves of wet earth and rain water for when the earth beginneth to putrifie the Mole beginneth to take life They are all for the most part of a black duskie colour with rough short and smooth soft hair as wooll and those hairs which were whitest when they are yong are most glistering and perfect black when they are old and Gesner affirmeth that he saw in the end of October a Mole taken which was very white mixed with a little red and the red was most of all upon her belly betwixt her forelegs and the neck and that it could not be a young one because it was two palms in length betwixt his head and tail These Beasts are all blinde and want eyes and therefore came the proverb Talpa caecior Tuphloteros aspalacos blinder then a Mole to signifie a man without all judgement wit or foresight for it is most elegantly applyed to the minde Yet if any man look earnestly upon the places where they should grow he shall perceive a little passage by drawing up the membrane or little skin which is black and therefore Aristotle saith of them in this manner probably All kindes of Moles want their sight because they have not their eyes open and naked as other Beasts but if a man pull up the skin of their browes about the place of their eyes which is thick and shadoweth their sight he shall perceive in them inward covered eyes for they have the black circle and the apple which is contained therein and another part of the white circle or skin but not apparently eminent neither indeed can they because nature at the time of generation is hindered for from the brains there belong to the eyes two strong nervie passages which are ended at the upper teeth and therefore their nature being hindered it leaveth an imperfect work of sight behinde her Yet there is in this Beast a plain and bald place of the skin where the eyes should stand having outwardly a little black spot like a Millet or Poppey-seed fastened to a nerve inwardly by pressing it there followeth a black humor or moistness and by dissection of a Mole great with young it is apparent as hath been proved that the young ones before birth have eyes but after birth living continually in the dark earth without light they cease to grow to any perfection for indeed they need them not because being out of the earth they cannot live above an hour or two Esop hath a pretty fable of the Asse Ape and Mole each once complaining of others natural wants the Asse that he had no horns and was therefore unarmed the Ape that he had no tail like other Beasts of his stature and quantity and therefore was unhandsome to both which the Mole maketh answer that they may well be silent for that she wanteth eyes and so insinuateth that they which complain shall finde by consideration and comparison of their own wants to others that they are happy and want nothing that were profitable for them Oppianus saith that there was one Phineus which was first deprived of his eye-sight and afterward turned into a Mole It should seem he was condemned first to loose his eyes and afterward his life These Moles have no ears and yet they hear in the earth more nimbly and perfectly then men can above the same for at every step or small noise and almost breathing they are terrified and run away and therfore Pliny saith that they understand all speeches spoken of themselves and they hear much better under the earth then being above and out of the earth And for this cause they dig about their lodging long passages which bringeth noises and voices to them being spoken never so low and softly like as the voice of a man carryed in a trunk reed or hollow thing Their snout is not like a Weasils as Suidas saith but rather like a Shrew-mouses or if it be lawful to compare small with great like to a Hogs Their teeth are like a Shrews and a Dogs like a Shrews in the neather teeth and furthermost inner teeth which are sharp pointed and low inwardly and like a Dogs because they are longer at the sides although only upon the upper jaw and therefore they are worthily called by the Grecians Marootatous that is dangerous biting teeth for as in Swine the under teeth stand out above the upper and in Elephants and Moles the upper hang over the neather for which cause they are called Hyperphereis The tongue is no greater then the space or hollow in the neather chap and they have in a manner as little voice as sight and yet I marvel how the proverb came of Loquax Talpa a pratling Mole in a popular reproach against wordy and talkative persons which Ammianus saith was first of all applyed to one Julianus Capella after he had so behaved himself that he had lost the good opinion of all men The neck seemeth to be nothing it is so short standing equall with the forelegs The lights are nothing else but distinguished and separated Fibres and hang not together upon any common root or beginning and they are placed or seated with the heart which they enclose much lower toward the belly then in any other Beast Their gall is yellowish their feet like a Bears and short legs wherefore they move and run but slowly their fingers or toes wherewithal they dig the earth are armed with sharp nails and when she feeleth any harm upon her back presently she turneth upward and defendeth her self
Persia a female Mouse being slit asunder alive all the young females within her belly are also found pregnant conceived with young It is very certain that for the time they go with young and for the number they bring forth they exceed all other beasts conceiving every fourteen or sixteen days so that it hath been found by good experience that a female Mouse having free liberty to litter in a vessel of millet-seed within less compass then half a year she hath brought forth one hundred and twenty young ones They live very long if they be not prevented of their natural course and dying naturally they perish not all at once but by little and little first one member and then another Pliny saith Evolucirbus hirundines sunt indociles 〈…〉 terrestribus Mures among the Fowls of the air the Swallows are undocible and among the creatures of the earth a Mouse Athertus writeth that he saw in upper Germany a Mouse hold a burning Candle in her feet at the commandment of her Master all the time his guests were at Supper Now the only cause why they grow not tame is their natural fear such as is in Conies Hares and Deer For how can any man or beast love or hearken unto him who they are perswaded lyeth in wait for their life and such is the perswasion of all them that fear which perswasion being once removed by continual familiarity there is no cause in nature but that a Mouse may be docible as well as a Hare or Cony which we have shewed heretofore in their stories It is also very certain that Mice which live in a House if they perceive by the age of it it be ready to fall down or subject to any other ruin they foreknow it and depart out of it as may appear by this notable story which happened in a Town called Helice in Greece wherein the Inhabitants committed this abominable act against their neighbours the Greeks For they slew them and sacrificed them upon their Altars Whereupon followed the ruine of the City which was premonstrated by this prodigious event For five days before the destruction thereof all the Mice Weesils and Serpents and other reptile creatures went out of the same in the presence of the Inhabitants every one assembling to his own rank and company whereat the people wondered much for they could not conceive any true cause of their departure and no marvail For God which had appointed to to take vengeance on them for their wickedness did not give them so much knowledge nor make them so wise as the beasts to avoid his judgement and their own destruction and therefore mark what followed For these beasts were no sooner out of the City but suddenly in the night time came such a lamentable Earth-quake and strong tempest that all the houses did not only fall down and not one of them stood upright to the slaughter of men women and children contained in them but lest any of them should escape the strokes of the timber and house tops God sent also such a great floud of waters by reason of the tempestuous winde which drove the waters out of the Sea upon the Town that swept them all away leaving no more behinde then naked and bare significations of former buildings And not only the City and Citizens perished but also there was ten ships of the Lacedemonians in their port all drowned at that instant The wisdom of the Mouse appeareth in the preparation of her house for considering she hath many enemies and therefore many means to be hunted from place to place she committeth not her self to one lodging alone but provideth many holes so that when she is hunted in one place she may more safely repose her self in another Which thing Plautus expresseth in these words Sed tamen cogitato Mus pusillus quam sapiens sit bestia aetatem qui uni cubili nunquam committit suam cum unum obsidetur aliunde perfugium quaerit that is to say it is good to consider the little Mouse how wise a beast she is for she will not commit her life to one lodging but provideth many harbors that being molested in one place she may have another refuge to flie unto And as their wisdom is admirable in this provision so also is their love to be commended one to another for falling into a vessel of water or other deep thing out of which they cannot ascend again of themselves they help one another by letting down their tails and if their tails be too short then they lengthen them by this means they take one anothers tail in their mouth and so hang two or three in length until the Mouse which was fallen down take hold on the neathermost which being performed they all of them draw her out Even so Wolves holding one another by their tails do swim over great Rivers and thus hath nature granted that to them which is denyed to many men namely to love and to be wise together But concerning their manners they are evil apt to steal insidious and deceitful and men also which are of the same disposition with these beasts fearing to do any thing publickly and yet privately enterprise many deceits are justly reproved in imitation of such beasts For this cause was it forbidden in Gods Law unto the Jews not only to eat but to touch Mice and the Prophet Esai ch 66. saith Comedentes carnem suillam abominationem atque murem simul consumentur inquit Dominus that is they which eat Swines flesh abomination and the Mouse shall be destroyed together saith the Lord wherein the Prophet threatneth a curse unto the people that broke the first Law of God in eating flesh forbidden and the Physitians also say that the eating of the flesh of Mice engendereth forgetfulness abomination and corruption in the stomach The eating of bread or other meat which is bitten by Mice doth encrease in men and children a certain disease in their face and in the flesh at the roots of the nails of their fingers certain hard bunches called by the Venetians Spelli and by the Germans Leidspyssen and by the Latines Dentes Muris yet it is affirmed that the flesh of Mice is good for Hawks to by given them every day or every each other day together with the skin for it helpeth their intrails purgeth fleam and choler restraineth the fluxions of the belly driveth out stones and gravel stayeth the distillation of the head to the eyes and finally corroborateth the stomach Yet we have heard that in the Kingdom of Calecut they do eat Mice and Fishes roasted in the Sun And it is said by some Physitians and Magicians that the flesh is good against melancholy and the pain of the teeth but the medicinal vertues we reserve it to its proper place Pliny affirmeth a strange wonder worthy to be remembred and recorded that when Hannibal besieged Casselinum there was a
to take Egyptian Salt Mouse-dung and Gourds which are sowen in Woods and afterwards to pour in half a pinte of Hony being half boyled and to cast one dram of Rozen into the Hony the Gourds and the Mouse-dung and beat them well and throughly together and then rowl them up and fashion them in the manner of Acorns and put them to the belly of the party â—o grieved as often as you shall think it meet and convenient and in using this some short space or time you shall see the aforesaid putrified fruit to proceed and issue forth Mouse-dung being parched or burned and mingled with Hony is very good and medicinable aswell for those which are troubled with the swellings in their legs and feet as also for those whose eye-lids are pilled and bald to make hair to grow again upon them being spread or anointed there-upon The dung of Mice being dryed and beaten into small dust or powder and put into the teeth of any one which are hollow will presently expel away all pain from them and also confirm and make the teeth strong The dust or powder which proceedeth from Mouse-dung is also very good to cure any disease in the fundament of either man or woman The urine of a Mouse is of such strong force that if it shall but touch any part of a mans body it will eat unto the very bones The bitings of Mice are healed by no other means but by green Figs and Garlick being mixed or mingled together and so anointed thereupon Of the RAT THere is no doubt that this Beast belongeth also to the rank of Mice and the name thereof we have shewed already is common both to the French Spanish Italian and English and it may seem to be derived from the Greek word Rastes or Heurex or Riscos for the Graecians use all those words And this beast is four times so big as the common Mouse being of a blackish dusky colour more white on the belly having a long head not much unlike the head of the Martin short and round ears a reasonable rough skin short legs and long claws and exceeding great eyes such as can see very perfectly in the dark night and more perfectly then by candle light with their nails they climbe up steep and hard walls their tail is very long and almost naked void of hair by reason whereof it is not unworthily counted venomous for it seemeth to partake with the nature of Serpents The quantity of their body is much like a Weesils and sometime you shall see a Rat exceeeding the common stature which the Germans call Ratzen Kunig the King of Rats because of his larger and greater body and they say that the lesser bring him meat and he lyeth idle But my opinion is that as we read of the Dor-mouse she nourisheth her patent when she is old so likewise the younger Rats bring food unto the elder because through their age they are not able to hunt for themselves and are also grown to a great and unweeldy stature of body Sometimes you shall see white Rats as was once seen in Germany taken in the middle of April having very red eyes standing forth of their head and a rough and long beard And at Auspurg in Germany about the Temple called the Church of S. Huldric they abound in greater number then in other places They do not lie in the earth like Mice except in the vally of Ioachim where for the Summer time they forsake houses and go into Cony holes but in the Winter time they return to the houses again They are more noysome then the little Mouse for they live by stealth and feed upon the same meat that they feed upon and therefore as they exceed in quantity so they devour more and do far more harm They are killed by the same poysons and meats that the common Mice are killed except Wolf-bane for if they eat thereof they vomit it up again and are safe They are also taken in the same traps but three or four times so big Their flesh is far more hot and sharp then the flesh of the vulgar Mouse as we have gathered by the dissection of it and therefore in operation it is very like that it expelleth and dryeth more then the other The excrements are also of the same vertue and with the dung of Rats the Physitians cure the falling off the hair And it is said also that when they rage in lust and follow their copulation they are more venemous and dangerous then at other times For if the urine do fall upon the bare place of a man it maketh the flesh rot unto the bones neither will it suffer any scar to be made upon the ulcer and thus much of the vulgar Rat. Of the WATER-RAT SEeing there are two kindes of Rats one of the earth called Rattus terrestris and the other of the water called Rattus Fluviatilis of which we are now to entreat being also called of the Latines Mus aquaticus by the Germans Twassermaus and Wafferrat by the Italians Sorgomogange by the French Rat d' eau This beast hunteth fishes in the Winter and have certain caves in the water sides and banks of the Rivers or Ponds For which occasion it being seen in the waters deceiveth their expectation which look for the return of it to the land And this beast hath been forgotten by the Ancients for they have left of it no description nor story because it liveth partly in the water and partly on the land and therefore he said true that spake of the habitation and place of abode of this beast in this sort Ego non in fluviis nec aliis aquis magnis sed parvis tantum riois atque herbosis omnium ripis hoc aâ—urnal frequentissimum versari audio That is to say That this beast doth not keep in great Waters of Rivers but in small and little currents and Ponds where abundance of grass and other weeds do grow on the sides and banks Pliny attributeth that to the Water-rat which is proper to the Tortoise for indeed there is some similitude of natures bewixt these beasts with this exception that the females in this kinde have three visible passages for their excrements one for their urine another for the dung and the third for the young ones that is a peculiar place for the littering of their young ones and this Water-rat over and beside her common nature with other Rats doth swim over Rivers and feed upon herbs and if at any time she be hunted from her native biding and accustomed lodging then also she goeth among vulgar and common Rats and Mice and feedeth upon such as they eat and Bellonius saith that there are great store of these in Nilus and Strymen and that in calm nights when there are no windes they walk to the shores get up upon the banks eating and gnawing such plants as grow near the waters and if
the dust of womens hair cureth fellons in fingers or any part of the bodies The sewet of Sheep or Goats being mingled with the juyce of Rhenish wine grape and shining horse flies doth without all scruple or doubt ease the pain of the milt if it be anointed thereupon The fat of Sheep doth very easily expell the roughness of the nails The sewet of Sheep or any other small beast being mixed with the herb called Melander and pounded with Alum afterward baked together and wrought into the manner of a Sear-cloth doth very much ease those which are burned by fire in any parts of their body being well applyed thereto The sewet of a Sheep being also applyed to those which have kibes in the heels or chilblanes in their feet will presently heal them The sewet of a Sheep mixed with womens hair which is burnt to powder doth very effectually cure those which have their joynts or articles loose being anointed thereupon The fat of Goats or Sheep moistned with warm water and boiled together being anointed upon the eyes doth speedily cure all pains spots or blemishes in the same whatsoever The fat of a Sheep boyled and drunk with sharp wine is an excellent remedy against the cough The same medicine is also effectually used for the expelling of horses coughes The sewet of a Sheep being boyled with sharp wine doth very speedily cure the obstruction of the small guts bloudy flux and any cough of what continuance soever The same being in like manner drunk while it is hot is accounted for an excellent remedy against the Colick passion The sewet of a Sheep or of a Male goat being mingled with the fime or dung of a Female-goat and Saffron doth very effectually cure those which are troubled with the Gowt or swelling of the joynts being anointed upon the place so grieved It is also reported that the outward sewet of Sheep between the flesh and the skin between the hinder legs is very wholesom for the curing of sundry pains and diseases Sheeps sewet or the fat of any other small beast being gathered from the reins mixed with salt and the dust of a pumice stone being applyed unto the yard of any man doth speedily cure all pains aches or swellings therein The fat of Sheep which is gathered from the caul or cell being mingled with the aforesaid medicines do heal all other pains in the privy members of man or woman whatsoever The same sewet doth stay the great excess of bleeding in the nose being anointed thereupon Sheeps sewet being mixed with Goose grease and certain other medicines being taken in drink doth help abortments in women The liver of a Sheep is accounted an excellent remedy against the shedding of the hair on the eye lids being rubbed thereupon The same being also baked or boyled is accounted very profitable for Sheeps eyes if it be well rubbed thereon The marrow of Sheep is very good to anoint all aches and swellings whatsoever The horns of Sheep or of Goats pounded to powder mingled with parched Barley which hath been well shaled and altogether mixed with Oyl being taken in a certain perâ—ume doth help Women of their seconds and restoreth to them their menstruall fluxes Sheeps hornes burned and beaten in wine untill they be tempered like a pill the right foot being anointed with the right horn and the left foot with the left will mitigate the sorrow of those which are very â—ore pained and troubled with the gowt Rheumatick or watry eyes being anointed with the brains of Sheep are very speedily and effectually cured The brains of the same beast is exceeding profitable for the breeding of young childrens teeth being anointed upon the gums The lungs or lights of small beasts but especially of a Ram do restore the true skin and colour of the flesh in those whose bodies are full of chops and scars The lungs or lights of the same beast concocted upon the uppermost skin of any man and applyed very hot thereunto do diminish the black or blew places therein which have been received by the occasion of any stripes or blows The lungs of Sheep being new taken out of their bellies and applied while they are hot unto beaten or bruised places doth quite abolish the signes thereof and in short space procure remedy The lungs of Sheep or small Cattle being roasted and taken by any man before he drinketh will resist all kind of drunkenness The lungs of Sheep taken out of their bellies and bound about the heads of those which are phrensie while they are hot will very speedily ease them of their trouble The lungs of Sheep being hot and bound to the head is accounted very profitable for those which are troubled with the pestiferous disease called the Drowsie evill The lungs of Sheep being boiled with Hemp-seed so that the flesh be eaten and the water wherein it is sod be drunk doth very effectually cure those which are grieved with excoriations in their bellies and the bloody flux The lungs of Sheep being applyed while they are hot doth heal the Gowt The liver of white Sheep well boiled made moist with water throughly beaten and applyed unto the eye-lids doth purge Rheumatick eyes and cause them to be of a more clear and ample sight If a woman bearing young shall be puffed up with winde give her the liver of a Sheep or Goat beaten into small powder while it is hot being pure and without mixture for four dayes together to eat and let her drink only wine and this will very speedily cure her The gall of a Sheep mingled with hony healeth the Ulcers of the ears and procureth easie hearing The gall of a Sheep mingled with sweet wine if it be tempered in the manner of a glyster and afterwards rubbed upon the ear-laps the ulcers being quite purged will procure a speedy cure and remedy The gall of the same beast distilled with a womans milk doth also most certainly heal their eares which are broken within and full of mattery corruption The gall of a Sheep being mixed with common oyl or oyl made of Almonds doth also heal the pains of the ears being powred therein to Cankers or the corrosion of the flesh being anointed with the gall of a Sheep is very speedily and manifestly cured The Dandraffe or scurfes of the head being anointed with the gall of a Sheep mixed with fullers-earth which is hardned together while the head burneth are very effectually abolished and driven quite away The gall of little cattle but especially of a Lamb being mixed with hony is verily commended or the curing of the Falling evill The milt of a Sheep new taken out by magicall precepts is accounted very good for the curing of the pain in the milt he saying which may be healed that he maketh a remedy for the milt After these things the Magicians command that the grieved party be included in his Dortor or Bed-chamber and that
the doors be sealed up and that a verse be spoken thrice nine times The milt of a Sheep being parched and beaten in wine and afterward taken in drink doth resist all the obstructions or stopping of the small guts The same being used in the like manner is very medicinable for the wringing of the guts The dust of the uppermost of a Sheeps thigh doth very commonly heal the looseness of the joints but more effectually if it be mixed with wax The same medicine is made by the dust of Sheeps jawes a Harts horn and wax mollified or asswaged by oil of Roses The upper parts of the thighs of Sheep decocted with Hemp-seed do refresh those which are troubled with the bloudy flux the water whereof being taken to drink For the curing of a Horse waxing hot with weariness and longitude of the way mingle Goats or Sheeps sewet with Coriander and old dill the Coriander being new gathered and diligently pounded in the juice of Barley and so give it throughly strained for three dayes together The huckle-bone of a Sheep being burned and beaten into small dust is very much used for the making of the teeth white and healing all other pains or aches therein The bladder of a Goat or Sheep being burned and given in a potion to drink made of Vinegar and mingled with water doth very much avail and help those which cannot hold their water in their sleep The skins which cometh from the Sheep at the time of their young doth very much help very many enormities in women as we have before rehearsed in the medicines arising from Goats The milk of Sheep being hot is of force against all poysons except in those which shall drink a venemous fly called a Wag-leg and Libbards bane Oatmeal also doth cure a long lingring disease a pinte of it being sodden in three cups of water until all the water be boyled away but afterwards you must put thereunto a pinte of Sheeps milk or Goats and also Hony every day together Some men do command to take one dram of Swallows dung in three cups full of Goats milk or Sheeps milk before the coming of the quartern Ague Goats milk or Sheeps milk being taken when it is newly milked from them and gargarized in the mouth is very effectual against the pains and swellings of the Almonds Take a pinte of Sheeps milk and a handful of sisted Aniseeds and let them seethe together and when it is somewhat cold let it be drunk and it is very good to loosen the belly Medicines being made of Goats milk and Sheeps milk and so being drunk is very good for the shortness of breath A hot burning gravel stone being decocted in Sheeps milk and so given to one that hath the Bloudy flix is very profitable to him Goats milk or Sheeps milk given alone luke-warm or sodden with Butter is very profitable to those that are brought very weak with the passions of the stone and fretting of the guts To wash ones face with Sheeps milk and Goats milk is very good to make it fair and smooth Evenings milk of Sheep that is the last milk that they give that day is very good to loosen the belly and to purge choler The hairs of the head of a Dog burned into ashes or the gut of the privy place sodden in Oyl is a very good and soveraign remedy for the looseness of the flesh about the nails and for swelling of flesh over them being anointed with Butter made of Sheeps milk and Hony An Oyl sodden in Hony and Butter made of Sheeps milk and Hony melted therein is very profitable to cure ulcers Old Cheese made of Sheeps milk is very good to strengthen those which have been troubled and made weak with the Bloudy flix Again old Cheese made of Sheeps milk taken in meat or scraped upon it and being drunk with Wine doth ease the passion of the Stone There was a certain Physitian being skilful in making medicines dwelling in Asia by Hellespont which did use the dung of a Sheep washed and made clean in Vinegar for to take away Warts and knots rising on the flesh like Warts and kernels and hard swellings in the flesh Also he did bring Ulcers to cicatrising with that medicine which were blasted or scalded round about but he did mingle it with an emplaister made of Wax Rosin and Pitch The dung of Sheep also doth cure pushes rising in the night and burnings or scaldings with fire being smeared over with Vinegar without the commixture of any other things The dung of Sheep being mixed with Hony doth take away small bumps rising in the flesh and also doth diminish proud flesh and also it doth cure a disease called an emmot as Rasis and Albertus say The dung that is new come from the Sheep being first worked in thy hands and applyed after the manner of an emplaister doth eat away any great warts growing in any part of thy body The dung of a Sheep being applyed to thy feet doth consume or waste away the hard flesh that groweth thereon Sheeps dung doth also cure all kinde of swellings that are ready to go into Carbuncles It is also good being sodden in Oyl and applyed after the manner of an emplaister for all new wounds made with a sword as Galen saith Aut si conclusum servavit tibia vulnus Stercus ovis placidae junges adipesque vetustos Pandere quae poterant hulcus patuloque mederi The dung of Sheep and Oxen being burned to powder and smeared with Vinegar is very good against the bitings and venemousness of Spiders And again it is very effectual being new come from them and sodden in Wine against the stingings of Serpents Sheeps dung being mixed with Hony and applyed to Horses whose hoofs are broken is very effectual The dung of Oxen and Sheep being burned to powder and intermixed therewith is very effectual against Cankers and also the bones of the Lambs thighes being burned into ashes is very profitable to be applyed to those ulcers which cannot be brought to cicatrise Also Sheeps dung being made hot in a Gally pot and kneaded with thy hands and afterwards applyed doth presently cease the swellings of wounds and doth purge and cure Fistuals and also diseases in the eyes The Oyl of Cypress and Hony is very effectual against Alopecia that is the falling off of the hair An emplaister made of Sheeps dung and the fat of a Goose and a Hen is very effectual against hair rising in the root of the ear as Rasis and Albertus say Sheeps dung being applyed hot is very effectual against the swellings of womens paps or dugs Sheeps dung being put into the decoction of Wood-bine or Hony and water and so drunk is very profitable against the Yellow-jaunders If the Spleen be outwardly anointed with Sheeps dung and Vinegar it doth lessen the rising of it The dung of Oxen and Sheep which is very moist
of edged tools Lycaon the brother of Nestor another the son of Priamus slain by Achilles But the famous and notorious among all was Lycaon the King of Arcadia the son of Titan and the earth whose Daughter Calisto was deflowred by Jupiter and by Juno turned into a Bear whom afterwards Juno pitying placed for a sign in heaven and of whom Virgil made this Verse Pleiadas Hyadas claramque Lycaonis Arcton There was another Lycaon the son of Pelasgus which built the City Lycosui in the Mountain Lyceus this man called Jupiter Lyceus upon a time sacrificed an Infant upon his Altar after which sacrifice he was presently turned into a Wolf There was another Lycaon after him who did likewise sacrifice another childe and it was said that he remained ten years a Wolf and afterwards became a man again whereof the reason was given that during the time he remained a beast he never tasted of mans flesh but if he had tasted thereof he should have remained a beast for ever I might adde hereunto Lycophron Lycastus Lycimnius Lycinus Lycomedes Lycurgus Lycus and of womens names Lyca Lyce Lycaste Lycoris Lycias and many such others besides the names of people as Irpinia of Mountains and places as Lycabetus Lyceus Lycerna Lycaonia Lycaspus Lyceum Aristotles School Of flouds and Rivers as Lycus Lycormas Of Plants as Wolfbane Lupum salictarium Lupinus Lycantheum Lycophrix Lycophone Lycopsis Lycoscitalion and many such others whereof I have only desired to give the Reader a taste following the same method that we have observed in other beasts And thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the names of this beast The Countreyes breeding Wolves are for the most part these that follow The inhabitants of Crete were wont to say that there was neither Wolves Bears nor Vipers could be bred in their Island because Jupiter was born there yet there is in a City called Lycastus so named for the multitude of Wolves that were abiding therein It is likewise affirmed of Sardinia and Olympus a Mountain of Macedonia that there come no Wolves in them The Wolves of Egypt are lesser then the Wolves of Greece for they exceed not the quantity of Foxes Africa likewise breedeth small Wolves they abound in Arabia Swevia Rhetia Athesis and the Earldome of Tyrol in Muscovia especially that part that bordereth upon Lituania The Wolves of Scanzia by reason of extremity of cold in those parts are blinde and lose their eyes There are no Wolves bred in Lombardy beyond the Alpes and if any chance to come into that Countrey presently they ring their Bells and arm themselves against them never giving over till they have killed him or drove him out of the Countrey In Norway there are three kinde of Wolves and in Scandinavia the Wolves fight with Elks. It is reported that there are Wolves in Italy who when they look upon a man cause him to be silent that he cannot speak The French men call those Wolves which have eaten of the flesh of men Encharnes Among the Crotoniatae in Meotis and divers other parts of the world Wolves do abound there are some few in France but none at all in England except such as are kept in the Tower of London to be seen by the Prince and people brought out of other Countreys where there fell out a rare accident namely a Mastive Dog was limed to a she-Wolf and she thereby conceived and brought forth six or seven young Whelps which was in the year of our Lord 1605. or thereabouts There are divers kindes of Wolves in the world whereof Oppianus in his admonition to Shepherds maketh mention of five the first is a swift Wolf and runneth fast called therefore Toxeuter that is Sagittarius a shooter The second kinde are called Harpages and these are the greatest raveners to whom our Saviour Christ in the Gospel compareth false Prophets when he saith Take heed of false Prophets which come unto you in Sheeps clothing but are inwardly Lyce Harpages ravening Wolves and these excell in this kinde The third kinde is called Lupus aureus a golden Wolf by reason of his colour then they make mention of two other kindes called Acmonae and one of them peculiarly Ictinus The first which is swift hath a greater head then other Wolves and likewise greater legs fitted to run white spots on the belly round members his colour betwixt red and yellow he is very bold howleth fearfully having fiery-flaming eyes and continually wagging his head The second kinde hath a greater and larger body then this being swifter then all other betimes in the morning he being very hungry goeth abroad to hunt his prey the sides and tail are of a silver colour he inhabiteth in the Mountains except in the Winter time wherein he descendeth to the gates of Cities or Towns and boldly without fear killeth both Goats and Sheep yet by stealth and secretly The third kinde inhabiteth the white Rocks of Taurua and Silicia or the the tops of the hill Amanus and such other sharp and inaccessible places being worthily for beauty preferred before the others because of his golden resplendent hairs and therefore my Author saith Non Lupus sed Lupo praestantior fera That he is not a Wolf but some wilde beast excelling a Wolf He is exceeding strong especially being able with his mouth and teeth to bite asunder not only stones but Brasse and Iron He feareth the Dog star and heat of Summer rejoycing more in cold then in warm weather therefore in the Dog dayes he hideth himself in some pit or gaping of the earth untill that Sunny heat be abated The fourth and fifth kindes are called by one common name Acmone now Acmon signifieth an Eagle or else an Instrument with a short neck and it may be that these are so called in resemblance of the ravening Eagle or else because their bodies are like to that instrument for they have short necks broad shoulders rough legs and feet and small snowts and little eyes herein they differ one kinde from the other because that one of them hath a back of a silver colour and a white belly and the lower part of the feet black and this is Ictinus canus a gray Kite-wolf the other is black having alesser body his hair standing continually upright and liveth by hunting of Hares Now generally all Authors do make some two some three some four and some five kindes of Wolves all which is needlesse for me to prosecute and therefore I will content my self with the only naming of such differences as are observed in them and already expressed except the Thus and the sea-Wolf of whom there shall be something said particularly in the end of this History Olaus Magnus writeth in his History of the Northern Regions that in the Mountains called Dâ—ffrini which do divide the Kingdomes of Swetia and Norway there are great flocks or heards of Wolves of white colour whereof some wander in the Mountains and some in the vallies They
Italians Serpe Serpente and Massarius saith that Scorzo and Scorzone are general words for all manner of Serpents in Italy which strike with their teeth The Spaniards call them Sierpe the Grecians call the young ones in the Dams belly Embrua and the Latines Catuli And thus much for the names in general which in holy Scripture is Englished a Creeping thing Now it followeth that I should set down 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 mean like the Earth wherein they live and therefore I have seen some black living in dung some yellow living in sandy rocks and some of other colour as green living in trees and fields but generally they have spots on their sides and belly like the scales of fish which are both white black green yellow brown and of other colours also of which Ovid writeth Longo caput extulit antro Caeruleus Serpens horrendaque sibila misit That is The greenish Serpent extold her head from den so steep And fearful hissing did send forth from throat so deep The frame of their bodies do not much vary in any except in the feet and length so that with a reservation of them we may express their universal Anatomy in one view for almost all of them are of the same proportion that is seen in Lizards if the feet be excepted and they made to have longer bodies For they are inclosed in a kinde of shell or crusty skin having their upper parts on thâ—â—r back and their neather parts on the belly like a Lizard but they want stones and have such manner of places for copulation as fishes have their place of conception being long and cloven All their bowels by reason of the length and narrowness of their bodies are also long and narrow and hard to be discerned because of the dissimilitude of their figures and shapes Their artery is long and their throat longer then that the ground or root of the artery is near the mouth so as a man would judge it to be under the tongue so as it seemeth to hang out above the tongue especially when the tongue is contracted and drawn backward The head long like a Fishes and flat never much bigger then the body except in monstrous and great shaped Serpents as the Boas Yea Aristotle maketh mention of a Serpent that had two heads and Arnoldus of a Serpent in the Pireney Mountains slain by a souldier that had three heads in whose belly were found two sons of the said souldier devoured by him and the back-bone thereof was as great as a mans skull or a Rams head And such an one we read in our English story was found in England in the year 1349. And the 23 year of Edward the third there was a Serpent found in Oxfordshiâ—e near Chippingnorton that had two heads and faces like women one being shaped after the new attire of that time and another after the manner of the old attire and it had great wings after the manner of a Bat. The tongue of a Serpent is peculiar for besides the length and narrowness thereof it is also cloven at the tip being divided as it were with very little or small nails points It is also thin long and black of colour voluble neither is there any beast that moveth the tongue so speedily wherefore some have thought that a Serpent hath three tongues but in vain as Isidorus sheweth for they deceive by the nimbleness thereof Their ventricle is large like their maw and like unto a Dogs also thin and uniform at the end The heart is very small and cleaveth to the end of their artery but yet it is long and sheweth like the reins of a Man wherefore sometimes it may be seen to be 〈…〉 the tip or lap thereof to the breast-ward After this followeth the lights but far separate from 〈◊〉 being simple full of fibres and open holes like pipes and very long The liver long and simple the milt small and round as in Lizards The gall is for the most part as in fishes but in Water-snakes it is joyned to the Liver in other Serpents to the stomach or maw All their teeth stand out of their mouth and they have thirty ribs even as there were among the Hebrews and Egyptians thirty days to every moneth Aristotle saith that as their eyes be small so also they have the same good hap that befalleth young Swallows for if by chance they scratch or rend out their eyes then it is faid they have other grow up naturally in their places In like manner their tails being cut off grow again And generally Serpents have their heart in the throat the gall in the belly or stomach and their stones near their tail Their egges are long and soft and in their teeth they cary poyson of defence and and annoyance for which cause they desire above all other things to save their heads Their sight is but dull and dim and they can hardly look at one side or backward because their eyes are placed in their temples and not in their fore-head and therefore they hear better then they see They have eye-lids for generally no creatures have eye-lids except those which have hair in the other parts of their bodies four-footed beasts in the upper cheek fowls in the neather or Lizards which have egs or Serpents which have soft backs They have also certain passages of breathing in their nostrils but yet they are not so plain that they can be termed nostrils but breathing places Their ears are like to finny Fishes namely small passages or hollow places in the backer parts of their head by which they hear Their teeth are like Sawes or the teeth of Combes joyned one within the other that so they might not be worn out by grinding or grating together and yet they bend inward to the end that they may the better hold their meat in their mouths being without all other externall help for that purpose for even those Serpents which have feet yet can they not apply them to their chaps In the upper chap they have 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 utter their poyson Yet there be some good Authors that affirm that this poyson is nothing else but their gall which is forced to the mouth by certain veins under the ridge or back-bone Some again say that they have but one long tooth and that a crooked one which turneth upward by often biting which sometime falleth off and then groweth again of which kinde those are which men carry up and down tame in their bosoms Although they be great raveners yet is their throat but long and narrow for help whereof when they have gotten a booty they erect themselves upon their tails and swallow down their meat the more
them untill the Vinegar be consumed then strain them putting to them of Turpentine three ounces Frankincense Mastick and Sarcocolla three ounces Saffron two ounces working them with a Spathuler till they be cold The powder of a burnt Serpent is likewise good against Fistulaes The fat of a Snake or Serpent mixt with Oyl is good against Strumes as Pliny saith The fat of Snakes mixt with Verdegrease healeth the parts about the eyes that have any rupture To which agreeth the Poet when he saith Anguibus â—reptos adipes aerugine misce Hi poterant ruptas oculorum jungere partes Which may be thus Englished The sat of Snakes mingled with Iron rust The parts of eyes doth mend which erst were burst It is certain that barrenness cometh by means of that grievous torment and pain in childe-birth and yet Olympias of Thebes is of opinion that this is remedied with a Bulls gall the fat of Serpents and Verdigrease with some Hony added to them the place being therewith anointed before the coming together of both parts When a Woman is not able to conceive by means of weakness in the retentive vertue then there is no doubt but there must needs grow some membrane in the bellies entrance for which it is not amiss to make a Pessary of the fat of a Serpent Verdigrease and the fat of a Bull mixt together c. and to be applyed Hippocrates in lib. de Sterilibus Gesner had a friend who signified to him by his Letters that the fat of a Serpent was sent to him from those sulphureous bathes which were neer unto Cameriacum and was sold at a very dear rate namely twelve pounds for every ounce and sometimes deerer They use to mix it with the emplaister of John de Vigo that famous Chirurgeon for all hardnesses and other privy and unseen though not unfelt torments proceeding of the Spanish pox They use it yet further against leprous swellings and pimples and to smooth and thin the skin Matthiolus saith that the fat of a black Serpent is mixt to good purpose with those Ointments that are prepared against the French or Spanish pox And Pliny mixeth their fat with other convenient medicines to cause hair to grow again The suffmigation of an old Serpent helpeth the monthly course Michael Aloisius saith that Oyl of Serpents decocted with the flowers of Cowslips ever remembring to gather and take that which swimmeth at the top is singular to anoint podagrical persons therewith Now followeth the preparing of Serpents Take a Mountain Serpent that ha 〈…〉 black back and a white belly and cut off his tail even hard to the place where he sendeth forth his excrements and take away his head with the breadth of four fingers then take the residue and squeese out the bloud into some vessel keeping it in a glass carefully then fley him as you do an Eele beginning from the upper and grosser part and hang the skin upon a stick and dry it then divide it in the middle and reserve all diligently You must wash the flesh and put it in a pot boyling it in two parts of Wine and being well and throughly boyled you must season the broth with good Spices and Aromatical and Cordial powders and so eat it But if you have a minde 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 dreadful name and conceit of a Serpent for being thus burned it preserveth a Man from all fear of any future Lepry and expelleth that which is present It keepeth youth causing a good colour above all other Medicines in the world it cleareth the eye-sight gardeth surely from gray hairs and keepeth from the Falling-sickness It purgeth the head from all infirmity and being eaten as before is said it expelleth scabbiness and the like infirmities with a great number of other diseases But yet such a kinde of Serpent as before we have described and not any other being also eaten freeth one from deafness You may also finely mince the heads and tails of Serpents and feed therewith Chickens or Geese being mingled with crums of Bread or Oates and these Geese or Chickins being eaten they help all to take away the Leprosie and other foulness in Mans body If you take the dryed skin and lay it upon the tooth on the inner side it will mitigate the pain thereof specially if it proceed from any hot cause In like sort the same skin washed with spittle and with a little piece of the tail laid upon any Impostume or Noli me tangere it will tame and master the pain causing it to putrefie more easily and gently and scarcely leaving behind any cicatrice or skar And if a Woman being in extremity of pain in Childe-birth do but tie or binde a piece of it on her belly it will cause the birth immediately to come away So the skin being boyled and eaten performeth the same effects that the Serpent doth The bloud of a Serpent is more precious then Balsamum and if you anoint your lips with a little of it they will look passing red and if the face be anointed therewith it will receive no spot or fleck but causeth to have an orient or beautifull hew It represseth all scabbiness of the body stinking in the teeth and gums if they be therewith anointed The far of a Serpent speedily helpeth all redness spots and other infirmities of the eyes and being anointed upon the eye-lids it cleereth the eyes exceedingly Item put them into a glassed Pot and fill the same with Butter in the Moneth of May then lute it with well with Paste that is Meal well kneaded so that nothing may evaporate then set the Pot on the fire and let it boil welnigh half a day after this is done strain the butter through a cloth and the remainder beat in a mortar and strain it again and mix them together then put them into water to cool and so reserve it in silver or golden boxes that which is not evaporated for the older the better it is and so much the better it will be if you can keep it forty years Let the sick Patient who is tooubled either with the Gowt or the Palsie but anoint himself often against the fire with this unguent and without doubt he shall he freed especially if it be the Gout All these prescriptions were taken from the writings of a certain nameless Author Hippocrates saith that a Hart or Stag having eaten any Serpents the worms in their guts are thereby expelled And Absyrtus hath the same words that Harts by eating of a Serpent do kill and expell worms from their guts Hierocles to a certain medicine which he prepared for the Strangulion in a Horse mingled the dung of a Lyzard and Stear herpetuou that is as I interpret it the fat of a Serpent the bloud of a Dove c. Laurence
Nicander Praeterea geminae â—alli instar fronte carunclae Haerent sanguine is scintillant lumina flamis That is to say At hard as Brawn two bunches in their face Do grow and flaming bloudy eyes their grace And the dry Asp so called because it liveth in mid-lands farre from any water hath a vehement strong sight and these eyes both in one and other are placed in the Temples of their head Their teeth are exceeding long and grow out of their mouth like a Boars and through two of the longest are little hollowes out of which he expresseth his poyson They are also covered with thin and tender skins which slide up when the Serpent biteth and so suffer the poyson to come out of the holes afterward they return to their place again Of all which thus writeth Nicander Quatuor huic intra Marillae â—â—nâ—ava dentes Radices fixere suas quas juncta quibusdam Pelliculis tunica obducit triste unde venenum Effundit si forte suo se approximet hosti In English thus Within the hollow of their cheeks fiery teeth are seen Fast rooted which a coat of skin doth joyn and over-hide From whence sad venom issueth forth when she is keen If that her â—o she chance to touch as she doth glide The scales of the Asp are hard and dry and red above all other venomous Beasts and by reason of her exceeding drought she is also accounted deaf About their quantity here is some difference among Writers For Aelianus saith that they have been found of two cubits length and their other parts answerable Again the Egyptians affirm them to be four cubits long but both these may stand together for if Aelianus say true then the Egyptians are not deceived because the greater number containeth the lesser The Asp Ptyas is about two cubits long the Chersaean Asps of the earth grow to the length of five cubits but the Chelidonian not above one and this is noted that the shorter Asp killeth soonest and the long more slowly one being a pace and another a fathom in length Nicander writeth thus Tam proceram extensa quaerunt quom brachia duci Tantaque crassities est quantum missile telum Quod faciens hastas doct 〈…〉 faber expolit artâ— Which may be thus Englished As wide as arms in force out-stretched So is the Asp in length And broad even as a casting Dart Made by a wise Smiths strength The colour of Asps is also various and divers for the Irundo Asp that is the Chelidonian resembleth the Swallow the Ptyas or spitting Asp resembleth an Ash colour flaming like Gold and somewhat greenish the Chersaean Asp of an Ash-colour or green but this later is more rare and Pierius saith that he saw a yellow Asp neer Bellun Of these colours writeth Nicander Squalidus interdum color albet saepe virenti Cum maculis saepe est cineres imitante figura Nonnunquam ardenti veluti succenditur igne Idque nigra Aethiopum sub terra quale refusus Nilus saepe lutum vicinum in Nerea volvit Thus overtherwise Their colour whitish pale and sometime lively green And spots which do the Ash resemble Some fiery red in Aethiop black Asps are seen And some again like to Nerean mud Cast up by flowing of the Nilus floud The Countreys which breed Asps are not only the Regions of Africk and the Confines of Nilus but also in the Northern parts of the World as writeth Olaus Magnus are many Asps found like as there are many other Serpents found although their venom or poyson be much more weak then in Asrica yet he saith that their poyson will kill a man within three or four hours without remedy In Spain also there are Asps but none in France although the common people do style a certain creeping thing by that name Lucan thinketh that the Originall of all came from Africa and therefore concludeth that Merchants for gain have transported them into Europe saying Ipsa coloris egens gelidum non transit in orbem Sponte sua Niloque tenus metitur arenas Sed quis erit nobis lucri pudor Inde petuntur Huc Lybicae mortes fecimus Aspida merces In English thus The Asp into cold Regions not willingly doth go But neer the banks of Nilus warm doth play upon the sands Oh what a shame of wicked gain must we then undergo Which Lybian deaths and Aspish wares have brought into our lands Their abode is for the most part in dryest soyls except the Chelidonian or Water Asp which live in the banks of Nilus all the year long as in a house and safe Castle but when they perceive that the water will overflow they forsake the banks sides and for safeguard of their lives betake them to the Mountains Sometimes also they will ascend and climbe trees as appeareth by an Epigram of Anthologius It is a horrible fearfull and terrible Serpent going slowly having a weak sight alwayes sleepy and drowsie but a shrill and quick sense of hearing whereby she is warned and advertised of all noyse which when she heareth presently she gathereth her self round into a circle and in the middest lifteth up her terrible head Wherein a man may note the gracious providence of Almighty GOD which hath given as many remedies against evil as there are evils in the World For the dulnesse of this Serpents sight and slownesse of her pace doth keep her from many mischiefs These properties are thus expressed by Nicander Formidabile cui corpus tardumque volumen Quandoquidem transversa via est prolixaque ventris Spira veternosique nivere videntur ocelli At simul ac facili forte abservaverit aure Vel minimrm strepitum segnes è corpore somnos Excutit teretem sinuat mox asperatractum Horrendumque caput porrectaque pectoratâ—llit In English thus This feared Asp hath slow and winding pace When as her way on belly she doth traverse Her eyes shrunk in her head winking appear in face Till that some noise her watchfull eat doth 〈…〉 ish Then sleep shak'd off round is her body gathered With dreadfull head oâ— mounted neck up lifted The voice of the Asp is hissing like all other Serpents and seldome is it heard to utter any voyce or sound at all except when she is endangered or ready to set upon her enemy Where-upon saith Nicander Grave sibilat ipsa Bestia dum ceriam vomit ira concita mortem In English thus This beast doth hisse with great and lowdest breath When in her mood she threatneth certain death That place of David Psalm 58. which is vulgarly read a death Adder is more truly translated A deaf Asp which when she is enchanted to avoid the voyee of the Charmer she stoppeth one of her ears with her tail and the other she holdeth hard to the earth And of this incantation thus writeth Vincentius Belluacensis Vertute qu 〈…〉 dam verborum incantatur Aspis ne veneno interimat vel â—t quidam
that never in nature hath but two in heaven or earth air or water that will adventure to come neer it and one of these also which is the best deserving it devoureth and destroyeth if it get it within his danger Seeing the friends of it are so few the enemies of it must needs be many and therefore require a more large catalogue or story In the first rank whereof cometh as worthy the first place the Ichneumon or Pharaohs-mouse who rageth against their Egges and their persons for it is certain that it hunteth with all sagacity of sense to finde out their nests and having found them it spoileth scattereth breaketh and emptieth all their egges They also watch the old ones asleep and finding their mouths open against the beams of the Sun suddenly enter into them and being small creep down their vast and large throats before they beware and then putting the Crocodile to exquisite and intolerable torment by eating their guts asunder and so their soft bellies while the Crocodile tumbleth to and fro sighing and weeping now in the depth of water now on the land never resting till strength of nature faileth For the incessant gnawing of the Ichneumon so provoketh her to seek her rest in the unrest of every part herb element throws throbs rowlings tossings mournings but all in vain for the enemy within her breatheth through her breath and sporteth her self in the consumption of those vital parts which waste and wear away by yeelding to unpacificable teeth one after other till she that crept in by stealth at the mouth like a puny thief come out at the belly like a Conqueror through a passage opened by her own labour and industry as we have also shewed at large in the story of Ichneumon But whether it be true or no that the Trochilus doth awake the sleeping Crocodile when he seeth the Ichneumon lie in wait to enter into her I leave it to the credit of Strabo the reporter and to the discretion of the indifferent Reader Monkeys are also the haters of Crocodiles as is shewed in the story and lie in wait to discover and if it were in their power to destroy them The Scorpion also and the Crocodile are enemies one to the other and therefore when the Egyptians will describe the combat of two notable enemies they paint a Crocodile and a Scorpion fighting together for ever one of them killeth another but if they will decipher a speedy overthrow to ones enemy then they picture a Crocodile if a slow and slack victory they picture a Scorpion And as we have already shewed out of Philes that out of the egges of Crocodiles many times come Scorpions which devour 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 kindes one bred in Nilus the other forrain and coming out of the Sea both of them professed enemies to the Crocodile for the first it hath upon the back of it sharp thorny prickles or fins as sharp as any spears point which are well known to the fish that beareth them as her armour and weapons against all adversaries In the trust and confidence of these prickles the Dolphin will allure and draw out the Crocodile from his den or lodging place into the depth of the River and there fight with him hand to hand For the Dolphin as it knoweth his own armour and defence like other Beasts and Fishes so doth it know the weakest parts of his adversary and where his advantage of wounding lyeth Now as we have said already the belly of the Crocodile is weak having but a thin skin and penetrable with small force wherefore when the Dolphin hath the Crocodile in the midst of the deep waters like one afraid of the fight underneath him he goeth and with his sharp fins or prickles on his back giveth his weak and tender belly mortal wounds whereby his vital spirits with his guts and entrails are quickly evacuated 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 battel to the Crocodiles When Bibillus a worthy Roman was Governor of Egypt he affirmed that on a season the Dolphins and the Crocodiles met in the mouth of Nilus and bade battel the one to the other as it were for the soveraignty of the waters and after that sharp combat it was seen how the Dolphins by diving in the waters did avoid the biting of the Crocodiles and the Crocodiles dyed by strokes received from the Dolphins upon their bellies And when many of them were by this means as it were cut asunder the residue betook themselves to flight and ran away giving way to the Dolphins The Crocodiles do also fear to meddle with the Sea-hog or Hog-fish because of his bristles all about his head which hurt him also when he cometh nigh him or rather I suppose as it is friend to the Swine of the earth and holdeth with them a sympathy in nature so it is unto the Swine of the water and forbeareth one in the Sea as it doth the other on the land There is likewise a certain wilde Ox or Bugil among the Parthians which is an enemy to the Crocodile for as Albertus writeth if he finde or meet with a Crocodile out of the water he is not only not afraid of him but taketh heart and setteth upon him and with the weight and violent agitation of his body treadeth him all to pieces and no marvail for all Beasts are enemies to the Crocodiles on the land even as the Crocodile lyeth in wait to destroy all them in the water Hawks are also enemies to Crocodiles and especially the Ibis bird so that if but a feather of the Ibis come upon the Crocodile by chance or by direction of a mans hand it maketh it immoveable and cannot stir For which cause when the Egyptians will write or decipher a ravening greedy idle-fellow they paint a Crocodile having an Ibis feather sticking in his head And thus much for the enmity betwixt the Crocodiles and other living creatures It hath been seldom seen that Crocodiles were taken yet it is said that men hunt them in the waters for Pliny saith that there is an assured perswasion that with the gal fat of a Water-adder men are wonderfully holpen and as it were armed against Crocodiles and by it enabled to take and destroy them especially when they carry also about them the herb Potamegeton There is also a kinde of thorny wilde Bean growing in Egypt which hath many sharp prickles upon the stalks this is a great terrour to the Crocodile for he is in great dread of his eyes which are very tender and easie to be wounded Therefore he avoideth their sight being more unwilling to adventure upon a man that beareth them or one
further that at such time as the Millet-seed groweth and flourisheth this Serpent is most strong and hurtful and so with the residue he agreeth with Aelianus but herein he is also deceived writing by hear-say as himself confesseth and therefore it is more safe for us to have recourse to some eye-witnesse for the description of this Serpent then to stand upon the opinions of them which write by the relation of others Bellonius faith that he saw one of these in Rhodes being full of small round black spots not greater then the seeds of Lentiles every one having a round circle about him like an eye after such a fashion as is to be seen in the little Fish called the Torpedo In length it exceedeth not three palms and in bignesse no greater then the little finger It was of an Ash-colour coming neer to the whitenesse of milk but under the belly it was altogether white upon the back it had scales but upon the belly a thin skin as in all other Serpents The upper part of the back was somewhat black having two black lines in the middle which begin at the head and so are drawn along the whole body to the tail As for the Cafezati and Alteratati or Altinatyri those are red Serpents as Avicen 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 Darts do Some of them do so wound with their poyson as the afflicted person dyeth incontinent without sense or pain Some again die by languishing pain after many hopes of recovery losing life Among all the people of the World the Sabeans are most annoyed with this kinde of red Serpents for they have many odoriferous and sweet smelling Woods in the which these Serpents do abound but such is their rage and hatred against men that they leap upon them and wound them deadly whensoever they come within their compasse And surely if it be lawful to conjecture what kinde of Serpents those were which in the Scripture are called fiery Serpents and did sting the Israelites to death in the Wildernesse until the Brazen Serpent was erected for their cure among all the Serpents in the world that kinde of pain and death can be ascribed to none more properly 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 Serpents are so called by figure not that they were fiery but as all Writers do agree either because they were red like fire or else because the pain which they inflicted did burn like fire or rather for both these causes together which are joyntly and severally found in these red Serpents and therefore I will conclude for my opinion that these Serpents as the highest poyson in nature were sent by GOD to afflict the sinning Israelites whose poyson was uncurable except by Divine miracle Mâ—â—thiâ—lus also telleth a story of a Shepheard which was slain in Italy by one of these as he was sleeping in the heat of the day under the shadow of a tree his fellow Shepheards being not far off looking to their flocks suddenly there came one of these Dart-serpents out of the tree and wounded him upon his left pap at the biting whereof the man awaked and cryed out and so dyed incontinently his fellow Shepheards hearing this noise came unto him to see what he ailed and found him dead with a Serpent upon his breast now knowing what kinde of Serpent this was they forsook their flocks and ran away for fear The cure of this Serpents biting if there be any at all is the same which cureth the Vipers as Aetius and Avicen writeth and therefore I will not relate it in this place The gall of this Beast mixed with the Scythian Stone yeeldeth a very good Eye-salve The which gall lyeth betwixt the back and the liver And thus much shall suffice for this Serpent Of the DIPSAS THis Dipsas hath many names from many occasions First Dipsas in Greek signifieth thirst as Sitis doth in Latine and thereof also it is called Situla because whosoever is wounded by this Serpent dyeth It is also called by some Prester and by some Causon because it setteth the whole body on fire but we shall shew afterwards that the Prester is a different Serpent from this It is called likewise Melanurus because of his black tail and Ammoatis because it lyeth in the sand and there hurteth a man It is not therefore unfitly defined by Avicen to be Vipera sitim faciens that is A Viper causing thirst and therefore Ovid sporting at an old drunken woman named Lena calleth her Dipsas in these verses Est quaedam nomine Dipsas anus Ex re noniex habet nigri non illa parentem Memnonis in roseis sobria vidit equis In English thus There is a woman old which Dipsas may be hight And not without some cause thirsty she ever is For never Memnons sire all black and seldom bright Did she in water sweet behold in sobernesse They live for the most part neer the waters and in salt marishy places whereupon Lucan said Stant in margine siccae Aspides mediis sitiebant Dipsades undis That is to say Vpon pits brink dry Aspes there stood And Dipsads thirst in midst of water floâ—d It is called Torrida Dipsat and Arida Dipsas because of the perpetual thirst and therefore the Egyptians when they will signifie thirst do picture a Dipsas whereupon Lucianus relateth this story there is saith he a statue or monument upon a Grave right over against the great Syrtes betwixt Sillya and Egypt with this Epigram Talia passus erat quoque Tantalus Aethiope ortus Qui nullo potuit fonte levare sitim Tale nec è Danao natas implere puellas Assiduis undis vas potuisse reor That is to say Such Tantalus indured in Aethiope bred Which never could by water quench his thirst Nor could the Grecian Maids with water sped That with dayly pourings till the vessel curst The statue was the picture of a man like unto Tantalus standing in the midst of a water ready to drink by drawing in of the water about whose foot was folded a Dipsas close by stood certain women bringing water and pouring it into him to make it run into his mouth besides there were certain Egges as it were of Estriches lay pictured beside them such as the Garamants in Lybia seek after For it is reported by Lucianus that the people of that Countrey do earnestly seek after the Estriches Egges upon the sands not only to eat the meat that is in them but also to make sundry vessels or instruments of the shell and among other things they make Caps of them Near unto these Egges do these treacherous Serpents lie in wait and so while the poor Countrey man cometh to seek for meat suddenly he leapeth upon him and giveth him
they have beards of a yellow golden colour being full of bristles and the Mountain-dragons commonly have more deep eye-lids then the Dragons of the Fens Their aspect is very fierce and grim and whensoever they move upon the earth their eyes give a sound from their eye-lids much like unto the tinckling of Brasse and sometimes they boldly venture into the Sea and take Fishes Of the WINGED DRAGON Saint Augustine saith that Dragons abide in deep Caves and hollow places of the earth and that some-times when they perceive moistnes in the air they come out of their holes beating the air with their wings as it were with the strokes of Oars they forsake the earth and flie aloft which wings of theirs are of a skinny substance and very voluble and spreading themselves wide according to the quantity and largenesse of the Dragons body which caused Lucan the Poet in his verses to write in this manner following Vos quoque qui cunctis innoxia numina terris Serpitis aurato nitidi fulgore Dracones Pestiferos ardens facit Africa ducitis altum Aera cum pennis c. In English thus You shining Dragons creeping on the earth Which fiery Africk holds with skins like gold Yet pestilent by hot infecting breath Mounted with wings in th' air we do behold The Inhabitants of the Kingdom of Georgia once called Media do say that in their Vallies there are divers Dragons which have both wings and feet and that their feet are like unto the feet of Geese Besides there are Dragons of sundry colours for some of them are black some red some of an ash-colour some yellow and their shape and outward appearance very beautiful according to the verses of Nicander â—or 〈…〉 u apparet species pulchro illius ore Triplice conspicui se produni ordine dentes Magna sub egregia scintillant lumina fronte Tinctaque felle tegunt imum palearia mentum Which may be Englished thus Their form of presence outwardly appears All beautiful and in their goodly mouth Their teeth stand double all one within another Conspicuous order so doth bewray the truth Vnder their brows which are both great and wide Stand twinckling eyes as bright as any star With red galls tincture are their dewlaps dyed Their chinor under-chap to cover far Gillius Pierius and Grevinus following the authority of this Poet do affirm that a Dragon is of a black colour the belly somewhat green and very beautiful to behold having a treble row of teeth in their mouths upon every jaw and with most bright and cleer seeing eyes which caused the Poets to faign in their writings that these Dragons are the watchfull keepers of Treasures They have also two dewlaps growing under their chin and hanging down like a beard which are of a red colour their bodies are set all over with very sharp scales and over their eyes stand certain flexible eye-lids When they gape wide with their mouth and thrust forth their tongue their teeth seem very much to resemble the teeth of wilde Swine And their necks have many times grosse thick hair growing upon them much like unto the bristles of a wilde Boar. Their mouth especially of the most tameable Dragons is but little not much bigger then a pipe through which they draw in their breath for they wound not with their mouth but with their tails only beating with them when they are angry But the Indian Aethiopian and Phrygian Dragons have very wide mouths through which they often swallow in whole fowls and beasts Their tongue is cloven as if it were double and the Investigators of nature do say that they have fifteen teeth of a side The males have combes on their heads but the females have none and they are likewise distinguished by their beards They have most excellent senses both of seeing and hearing and for this cause their name Drakon cometh of Derkein and this was one cause why Jupiter the Heathens great God is said to be metamorphosed into a Dragon whereof their flyeth this tale when he fell in love with Proserpina he ravished her in the likenesse of a Dragon for he came unto her and covered her with the spires of his body and for this cause the people of Sabazii did observe in their mysteries or sacrifices the shape of a Dragon rowled up within the compasse of his spires so that as he begot Ceres with childe in the likenesse of a Bull he likewise deluded her daughter Proserpina in the likenesse of a Dragon but of these transmutations we shall speak more afterwards and I think the vanity of these took first ground from the Africans who believe that the original of Dragons took beginning from the unnatural conjunction of an Eagle and a she Wolf And so they say that the Wolf growing great by this conception doth not bring forth as at other times but her belly breaketh and the Dragon cometh out who in his beak and wings resembleth the Dragon his father and in his feet and tail the Wolf his mother but in the skin neither of them both but this kinde of fabulous generation is already sufficiently confuted Their meats are fruits and herbs or any venomous creature therefore they live long without food and when they eat they are not easily filled They grow most fat by eating of egges in devouring whereof they use this Art if it be a great Dragon he swalloweth it up whole and then rowleth himself whereby he crusheth the egges to pieces in his belly and so nature casteth out the shells and keepeth in the meat But if it were a young Dragon as if it be a Dragons whelp he taketh the egge within the spire of his tail and so crushed it hard and holdeth it fast untill his scales open the shell like a knife then sucketh he out of the place opened all the meat of the egg In like sort do the young ones pull off the feathers from the fowls which they eat and the old ones swallow them whole casting the feathers out of their bellies again The Dragons of Phrygia when they are hungry turn themselves towards the West and gaping wide with the force of their breath do draw the Birds that flie over their heads into their throats which some have thought is but a voluntary lapse of the Fowls to be drawn by the breath of the Dragon as by a thing they love but it is more probable that some vaporous and venomous breath is sent up from the Dragon to them that poysoneth and infecteth the air about them whereby their senses are taken from them and they astonished fall down into his mouth But if it fortune the Dragons finde not food enough to satisfie their hunger then they hide themselves until the people be returned from the market or the heard-men bring home their flocks and upon a sudden they devour either Men or Beasts which come first to their mouths then they go again and hide themselves in their dens and hollow Caves
leaves not discerning it because it is of the same colour but presently after they have eaten it their Bellies begin to swell which must needs proceed from the poysoned Frog A second reason proving it to be venomous is for that many Authors do affirm that hereof is made the Psilothrum for the drawing out of teeth by the roots and for this cause is concluded to be venomous because this cannot be performed without strong poyson But for the cure of the poyson of this Frog we shall expresse it afterward in the history of the Toad and therefore the Reader must not expect it in this place Always before rain they climbe up upon the trees and there cry after a hoarse manner very much which caused the Poet Serenus to call it Rauco gaâ—rula quâ—sâ—u at other times it is mute and hath no voyce wherefore it is more truly called Manlis that is a Prophet or a Diviner then any other kinde of Frog because other Frogs which are not altogether mute do cry both for fear and also for desire of carnal copulation but this never cryeth but before rain Some have been of opinion that this is a dum Frog and therefore Vincentius Belluâ—censis faith that it is called a mute Frog from the effect for there is an opinion that this put into the mouth of a Dog maketh him dum which if it be true it is an argument of the extreme poyson therein contained overcoming the nature of the Dog whose chiefest senses are his taste and his smelling And thus much shall suffice for the description of this Frog The medicinal vertues observed herein are these that follow First if a man which hath a cough do spet into the mouth of this Frog it is thought that it doth deliver him from his cough and being bound in a Cranes skin unto a mans thigh procureth venereous desires but these are but magical devices and such as have no apparent reason in nature wherefore I will omit them and proceed to them that are more reasonable and natural First for the Oyl of Frogs that is the best which is made out of the green Frogs as it is observed by Silvius and if they are held betwixt a mans hands in the fit of hot burning Ague do much refresh nature and ease the pain For Fever-hecticks they prepare them thus they take such Frogs as have white bellies then cut off their heads and pull out their bowels afterwards they seethe them in water until the flesh fall from the bones then they mingle the said flesh with Barley meal made into paste wherewithal they cram and feed Pullen with that paste upon which the sick man must be fed and in default of Frogs they do the like with Eels and other like Fishes But there is no part of the Frog so medicinable as is the bloud called also the matter or the juyce and the humor of the Frog although some of them write that there is no bloud but in the eyes of a Frog First therefore with this they kill hair for upon the place where the hair was puld off they pour this bloud and then it never groweth more And this as I have said already is an argument of the venom of this Frog and it hath been proved by experience that a man holding one of these Frogs in his hands his hands have begun to swell and to break out into blisters Of this vertue Serenus the Poet writeth thus Praeterea quascunque voles avertere setas Atque in perpetuum rediviva occludere tela Corporibus vulsis saniem perducito ranae Sed quae parva situ est rauco garrula questu That is to say Besides from whatsoever bodies hairs thou will Be clean destroyed and never grow again On them the mattery bloud of Frogs all spread and spill I mean the little Frog questing hoarse voyce amain The same also being made into a Verdigrease and drunk the weight of a Crown stoppeth the continual running of the urine The humor which cometh out of the Frog being alive when the skin is scraped off from her back cleareth the eyes by an Ointment and the flesh laid upon them easeth their pains the flesh and fat pulleth out teeth The powder made of this Frog being drunk stayeth bleeding and also expelleth spots of bloud dryed in the body The same being mingled with Pitch cureth the falling off of the hair And thus much shall suffice for the demonstration of the nature of this little green Frog Of the Padock or Crooked back FROG IT is apparent that there be three kindes of Frogs of the earth the first is the little green Frog the second is this Padock having a crook back called in Latine Rubeta Gibbosa and the third is the Toad commonly called Rubetax Bufo This second kinde is mute and dumb as there be many kinde of mute Frogs such as is that which the Germans call Feurkrott and our late Alchymists Puriphrunon that is a Firefrog because it is of the colour of fire This is found deep in the earth in the midst of Rocks and stones when they are cleft asunder and amongst metals whereinto there is no hole or passage and therefore the wit of man cannot devise how it should enter therein only there they finde them when they cleave those stones in sunder with their wedges and other instruments Such as these are are found near Tours in France among a red sandy stone whereof they make the Milstones and therefore they break that stone all in pieces before they make the Milstone up lest while the Padock is included in the middle and the Milstone going in the mill the heat should make the Padock swell and so the Milstone breaking the corn should be poysoned Assoon as these Padocks come once into the air out of their close places of generation and habitation they swell and so die This crook-backed Padock is called by the Germans Gartonfrosch that is a Frog of the Garden and Grasfrosch that is a Frog of the grasse It is not altogether mute for in time of peril when they are chased by men or by Snakes they have a crying voyce which I have oftentimes proved by experience and all Snakes and Serpents do very much hunt and desire to destroy these also I have seen a Snake hold one of them by the leg for because it was great she could not easily devour it and during that time it made a pitiful lamentation These Padocks have as it were two little horns or bunches in the middle of the back and their colour is between green and yellow on the sides they have red spots and the feet are of the same colour their belly is white and that part of their back which is directly over their breast is distinguished with a few black spots And thus much may serve for the particular description of the Padock not differing in any other thing that I can read of from the former Frogs it being venomous as they
are and therefore the cure is to be expected hereafter in the next History of the Toad Of the TOAD Now I finde of these Toads two kindes the one called Rubeta palustris a Toad of the fens or of the waters the other Rubeta terrestris a Toad of the earth And these in Authors are sometimes confounded one taken for another The greatest difference that I can learn is their seat or place of habitation for they live both of them in the land and in the water And of them that be in the water some of them be smaller then the other and are therefore called Rubetulae that is little Toads and I think they be the same which are called by some Authors Ranae Simoides Near unto Zurick there are Toads not half so big as the vulgar Toads at a place called Kiburg being of a durty colour on the back and sharp boned the belly white and yellow or rather betwixt both the eyes of a gold flaming colour the buttocks and hinder-legs hairy and besides that place these kindes of Toads are no where found They have a very shrill voyce so as they are heard a great way off like a small bell or trumpet and they never utter their voyce but in the Spring and the fore-part of the Summer for about September they hide themselves in trees neither do they live among the waters but on the dry land when they cry it is certain that the night following will bring forth no frost Like unto this there is a Toad in France called Bufo cornutus a horned Toad not because it hath horns for that is most apparently false but for that the voyce thereof is like to the sound of a Cornet or rather as I think like to a Raven called Cornix and by a kinde of Barbarism called Bufo cornutus The colour of this Toad is like Saffron on the one part and like filthy dirt on the other besides there are other venomous Toads living in sinks privies and under the roots of plants There is another kind also like to the Toad of the water but in stead of bones it hath only gristles and it is bigger then the Toad of the fen living in hot places There is another also which although it be a Toad of the water yet hath it been eaten for meat not many years since the mouth of it is very great but yet without teeth which he doth many times put out of the water like a Tortoise to take breath and in taking of his meat which are flies Locusts Caterpillers Gnats and small creeping things it imitateth the Chamaeleon for it putteth out the tongue and licketh in his meat by the space of three fingers in the top whereof there is a soft place having in it viscous humor which causeth all things to cleave fast unto it which it toucheth by vertue whereof it devoureth great flies And therefore the said tongue is said to have two little bones growing at the root thereof which by the wonderful work of Nature doth guide fortifie and strengthen it And thus much may serve as a sufficient relation unto the Reader for the diversity of Toads Now we will proceed to the common description of both kindes together This Toad is in all outward parts like unto a Frog the fore-feet being short and the hinder-feet long but the body more heavy and swelling the colour of a blackish colour the skin rough viscous and very hard so as it is not easie to be broken with the blow of a staffe It hath many deformed spots upon it especially black on the sides the belly exceeding all other parts of the body standing out in such manner that being smitten with a staffe it yeeldeth a sound as it were from a vault or hollow place The head is broad and thick and the colour thereof on the neather part about the neck is white that is some-what pale the back plain without bunches and it is said that there is a little bone growing in their sides that hath a vertue to drive away Dogs from him that beareth it about him and is therefore called Apoâ—ynon The whole aspect of this Toad is ugly and unpleasant Some Authors affirm that it carryeth the heart in the neck and therefore it cannot easily be killed except the throat thereof be cut in the middle Their liver is very vitious and causeth the whole body to be of ill temperament And some say they have two livers Their milt is very small and as as for their copulation and egges they differ nothing from Frogs There be many late Writers which do affirm that there is a precious stone in the head of a Toad whose opinions because they attribute much to the vertue 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 exemplifying the powerful working of Almighty God in nature for there be many that wear these stones in Rings being verily perswaded that they keep them from all manner of gripings and pains of the belly and the smal guts But the Art as they term it is in taking of it out for they say it must be taken out of the head alive before the Toad be dead with a piece of cloth of the colour of red Scarlet wherewithal they are much delighted so that while they stretch out themselves as it were in sport upon that cloth they cast out the stone of their head but instantly they sup it up again unlesse it be taken from them through some secret hole in the said cloth whereby it falleth into a cistern or vessel of water into the which the Toad dareth not enter by reason of the coldnesse of the water These things writeth Massarius Brasavolus saith that he found such a thing in the head of a Toad but he rather took it to be a bone then a stone the colour whereof was brown inclining to blacknesse Some say it is double namely outwardly a hollow bone and inwardly a stone contained therein the vertue whereof is said to break prevent or cure the stone in the bladder Now how this stone should be there ingendered there are divers opinions also and they say that stones are ingendered in living creatures two manner of ways either through heat or extream cold as in the Snail Pearch Crab Indian Tortoyses and Toads so that by extremity of cold this stone should be gotten Against this opinion the colour of the stone is objected which is sometimes white sometimes brown or blackish having a citrine or blew spot in the middle sometimes all green whereupon is naturally engraven the figure of a Toad and this stone is sometimes called Borax sometimes Crapadinae and sometimes Nisae or Nusae and Cholonites Others do make two kindes of these two stones one resembling a great deal of milk mixed with a little bloud so that the white exceedeth the red and yet both are apparent and visible the other all black
of the poyson of Frogs First therefore the poyson of the Frog causeth swelling in the body depelleth the colour bringeth difficulty of breathing maketh the breath strong and an involuntary profusion of seed with a general dulnesse and restinesse of body for remedy whereof let the party be inforced to vomit by drinking sweet Wine and two drams of the powder of the root of Reeds or Cypresse Also he must be inforced to walking and running besides daily washing But if a Fever follow the poyson or burning in the extremities let the vomit be of water and Oyl or Wine and Pitch or let him drink the bloud of a Sea-tortoise mixed with Cummine and the rennet of a Hare or else sweat in a Furnace or Hot-house a long time besides many other such like remedies which every Physitian both by experience and reading is able to minister in cases of necessity and therefore I will spare my further pains from expressing them in this place and passe on to the medicinal vertues of the Toad and so conclude this history We have shewed already that the Toad is a cold creature and therefore the same sod in water and the body anointed therewith causeth hair to fall off from the members so anointed There is a medicine much commended against the Gowt which is this Take six pound of the roots of wilde Cucumber six pound of sweet Oyl of the marrow of Harts Turpentine and Wax of either six ounces and six Toads alive the which Toads must be bored through the foot and hanged by a thred in the Oyl until they grow yellow then take them out of the Oyl by the threds and put into the said Oyl the sliced root of a Cucumber and there let it seethe until al the vertue be left in the Oyl Afterwards melt the Wax and Turpentine and then put them all together in a glasse so use them morning and evening against the Gowt Sciatica and pains of the sinews and it hath been seen that they which have lyen long sick have been cured thereof and grown perfectly well and able to walk Some have added unto this medicine Oyl of Saffron Opobalsamum bloud of Tortoises Oyl of Sabine Swines grease Quicksilver and Oyl of Bays For the scabs of Horses they take a Toad killed in wine and water and so sod in a brazen vessel and afterwards anoint the Horse with the liquor thereof It is also said that Toads dryed in smoak or any piece of them carryed about one in a linnen cloth do stay the bleeding at the nose And this Frederick the Duke of Saxony was wont to practise in this manner he had ever a Toad pierced through with a piece of wood which Toad was dryed in the smoak or shadow this he rowled in a linnen cloth and when he came to a man bleeding at the nose he caused him to hold it fast in his hand until it waxed hot and then would the bloud be stayed Whereof the Physitians could never give any reason except horror and fear constrained the bloud to run into his proper place through fear of a Beast so contrary to humane nature The powder also of a Toad is said to have the same vertue according to this verse Buffo ustus sistit naturae dote cruorem In English thus A Toad that is burned to ashes and dust Stays bleeding by gift of Nature just The skin of a Toad and shell of a Tortoyse either burned or dryed to powder cureth the Fistulaes Some add hereunto the root of Laurel and Hen-dung Salt and Oyl of Mallows The eyes of the Toad are received in Ointment against the Worms of the belly And thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the history of the Toad and Frogs Of the GREEN SERPENTS IN Valois there are certain Green-serpents which of their color are called Grunling and I take them to be the same which Hesychius called Sauritae and Pliny by a kinde of excellency Snakes of whom we shall speak afterwards for I have no more to say of them at this present but that they are very venomous And it may be that of these came the common proverb Latet Anguis sub herba under the green herb lyeth the Green-snake for it is a friendly admonition unto us to beware of a falshood covered with a truth like unto it Of the HAEMORRHE THis Serpent hath such a name given unto it as the effect of his biting worketh in the bodies of men for it is called in Latine Haemorrbous to signifie unto us the male and Haemorrbois to signifie the female both of them being derived from the Greek word Aima which signifieth bloud and Reo which signifieth to flow because whomsoever it biteth it maketh in a continual bleeding sweat with extremity of pain until 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 Haemâ—rrbous It is doubtful whether this be to be ascribed to the Asps or to the Vipers for Isidorus saith it is a kinde Asp and Aelianus a kinde of Viper They are of a sandy colour and in length not past one foot or three handfuls whose tail is very sharp or small their eyes are of a flery-flaming colour their head small but hath upon it the appearance of horns When they goe they go straight and slowly as it were halting and wearily whose pace is thus described by Nicander Et instar Ipsius obliquae sua parvula terga Cerastae Claudicat ex medio videas appellere dorso Paroum navigium terit imam lubrica terram Alvus haud alio tacitè trahit ilia 〈…〉 tu Ac per Arundineum si transeat illa grabatum In English thus And like the Horned-serpent so trails this elf on land As though on back a little boat it drave His sliding belly makes paths be seen in sand As when by bed of Reeds she goes her life to save The scales of this Serpent are rough and sharp for which cause they make a noyse when they goe on the earth the female resteth her self upon her lower part neer her tayl creeping altogether upon her belly and never holdeth up her head but the male when he goeth holdeth up his head their bodies are all set over with black spots and themselves are thus paraphrstically described by Nicander Vnum longa pedem totoque gracillima tractu Ignea quandoque est quandoque est candida forma Constrictumque satis collum et tenuissima cauda Bina super gelidos oculos frons cornua profert Splendentem quadam radiorum albentia luce Silvestres ut apes populatricesque Locustae Insuper horribile ac asprum caput hortet Which may be Englished in this manner following On foot in length and slender all along Sometime of fiery hue sometime milk-white it is The neck bound in and tayl most thin and strong Whose fore-head hath two horns above cold eyes Which in their light resemble shining beams Like
that many times whole troops of men and cattell are in an instant overwhelmed and buryed in those sands And this is a wonderfull worâ— of God that those places which are least habitable for man are most of all annoyed with the most dangerous biting Serpents It is also said that once these Horned Serpents departed out of Lybia into Egypt where they depopulated all the Countrey Their habitation is neer the high-wayes in the sands and under Cart-wheels and when they goe they make both a sound with their motion and also a surrow in the earth according to the saying of Nicander Ex iis alter echis velocibus obvia spinis Recto terga tibi prolixus tram te ducit Sed medio diffusius hic cerastes se corpore volvit Curvum errans per iter resonantibus aspera squamis Qualiter aequoreo longissima gurgite navis Quam violentus agit nunc huc nunc Africus illuc Pellitur et laterum gemebunda fragore suorum Extra sulcandas sinuose fluctuat undas Which may be Englished thus Of these the Viper with swift bones thee meets Trayling her back in path direct and strait The Cerast more diffused in way thee greets With crooked turning on scales make sounds full great Like as a ship tossed by the Western winde Sounds afarre off moved now here now there So that by noyse of shrilling sides we finde His furrowes turned in Seas and water sphere The quantity of this horned Serpent is not great it exceedeth not two cubits in length the colour of the body is branded like sand yet mingled with another pale white colour as is to be seen in a Hares skin Upon the head there are two horns and sometimes four for which occasion it hath received the name Cerastes and with these horns they deceive Birds for when they are hungry they cover their bodies in sand and only leave their horns uncovered to move above the earth which when the Birds see taking them to be Worms they light upon them and so are devoured by the Serpent The teeth of this Serpent are like the teeth of a Viper and they stand equall and not crooked In stead of a back-bone they have a gristle throughout their body which maketh them more flexible and apt to bend every way for indeed they are more flexible then any other Serpent They have certain red strakes crosse their back like a Crocodile of the earth and the skins of such as are bred in Egypt are very soft stretching like a Cheverell-glove both in length and breadth as it did appear by a certain skin taken off from one being dead for being stuffed with Hay it shewed much greater then it was being alive but in other Countreys the skins are not so I have heard this History of three of these Serpents brought out of Turkey and given to a Noble man of Venice alive who preserved them alive in a great Glasse made of purpose upon sand in that Glasse neeâ—the fire The description as it here followeth was taken by John Faltoner an English Travailer saying They were three in number whereof one was thrice so big as the other two and that was a female and she was said to be their Mother she had laid at that time in the sands four or five Egges about the bignesse of Pigeons Egges She was in length three foot but in breadth or quantity almost so big as a mans Arm her head was flat and broad as two fingers the apple of the eye black all the other part being white Out of her eye-lids grew two horns but they were short ones and those were truly Horns and not flesh The neck compared with the body was very long and small all the upper part of the skin was covered with scales of ash-colour and yet mixed with black The tail is at it were brown when it was stretched out And this was the description of the old one the other two being like to her in all things except in their horns for being small they were not yet grown Generally all these horned Serpents have hard dry scales upon their belly wherewithall they make a noyse when they go themselves and it is thus described by Nicander Nunc potes actutum insidiatoremque Cerasten Noscere vipereum veluti genus huic quia dispar Non is corpus habet sed qnatuor aut duo profert Cornua cum mutila videatur Vipera fronte Squalidus albenti color est In English thus You well may know the treacher Cerasts noyse A Viper-kinde whose bodies much agree Yet these four hâ—rns and brandy colour poyse Where Viper none but forehead plain we see There is no Serpent except the Viper that can so long indure thirst as this horned Serpent for they seldome or never drink and therefore I think they are of a Vipers kinde for besides this also it is observed that their young ones do come in and out of their bellies as Vipers doe They live in hatred with all kinde of Serpents and especially with Spiders The Hawes of Aegypt also do destroy horned Serpents and Scorpions but about Thebes in Aegypt there are certain sacred Snakes as they are termed which have horns on their head and these are harmlesse unto men and beasts otherwise all these Serpents are virulent and violent against all creatures especially men yet there be certain men in Lybia called Psilli which are in a league or rather in a naturall concord with horned Serpents For if they be bitten by them at any time they receive no hurt at all and besides if they be brought unto any man that is bitten with one of these Serpents before the poyson be spread all over his body they help and cure him for if they finde him but lightly hurt they only spit upon the wound and so mitigate the pain but if they finde him more deeply hurt then they take much water within their teeth and first wash their own mouth with it then spit out the water into a pot and make the sick man to drink it up Lastly if the poyson be yet strong they lay their naked bodies upon the naked poysoned body and so break the force of the poyson And this is thus described by the Poet saying Audivi Lybicos Psyllos quos aspera Sirâ—is Serpentumque ferax patria alit populos Non ictu inflictum diro morsuve venenum Laedere quin laesis ferre opem reliquis Non vi radicum proprio sed corpore juncto That is to say The Lybian Psylli which Serpent-breeding Syrtes dwell As I have heard do cure poyson stings and bites Nor hurt themselves but it in other quell By no roots force but joyning bodies quites When a horned Serpent hath bitten a man or beast first about the wound there groweth hardnesse and then pustules Lastly black earthy and pale matter the genital member standeth out straight and never falleth he falleth mad this eyes grow dim and his nerves immanuable and upon the head of the wound groweth
treatherous persons They are afraid of every noise they are enemies to Bees for they live upon them and therefore in ancient time they mixed Meal and juyce of Mallows together and laid the same before the Hives to drive away Lizards and Crocodiles They fight with all kinde of Serpents also they devour Snails and contend with Toads and Scorpions The Night-owls and Spiders do destroy the little Lizards for the Spider doth so long winde her thred about the jaws of the Lizard that he is not able to open his mouth and then she fasteneth her stings in her brains The Storks are also enemies to Lizards according to this saying of the Poet Serpente ciconia pullos Nutrit inventa per deviarura lâ—certa In English thus With Lizards young and Serpents breed The Stork sâ—eketh her young ones to feed Notwithstanding that by the law of God men were forbidden to eat the Lizard yet the Trogladites Ethiopians did eat Serpents and Lizards and the Amazons did eat Lizards and Tortoises for indeed those women did use a very thin and slender diet and therefore Coelius doth probably conjecture that they were called Amazons because Mazis carebant that is they wanted all manner of delicate fare We have also shewed already that the Inhabitants of Dioscorides Isle do eat the flesh of Lizards and the fat after it is boyled they use in stead of Oyl Concerning the venom or poyson of Lizards I have not much to say because there is not much thereof written yet they are to be reproved which deny they have any poyson at all for it is manifest that the flesh of Lizards eaten I mean of such Lizards as are in Italy do cause an inflamation and apostumation the heat of the head-ach and blindenesse of the eyes And the Egges of Lizards do kill speedily except there come a remedy from Faulkons dung and pure Wine Also when the Lizard biteth he leaveth his teeth in the place which continually aketh until the teeth be taken out the cure of which wound is first to suck the place then to put into it cold water and afterward to make a plaister of Oyl and Ashes and apply the same thereunto And thus much for the natural 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 fat of a Lizard be mixed with Wheat 〈…〉 al Halinitre and Cumin it maketh Hens very fat and they that eat them much fatter for Gordan saith that their bellies will break with fatnesse and the same given unto Hawks maketh them to change their feathers A Lâ—zard dissected or the head thereof being very well beaten with Salt draweth out Iron points of nails and splents out of the flesh or body of man if it be well applyed thereunto and it is also said that if it be mingled with Oyl it causeth hair to grow again upon the head of a man where an Ulcer made it fall off Likewise a Lizard cut a sunder hot and so applyed cureth the stinging of Scorpions and taketh away Wens In ancient time with a Field-lizard dryed and and cut asunder and so bruised in pieces they did draw out teeth without pain and with one of these sod and stamped and applyed with Meal or Frankincense to the fore-head did cure the watering of the eyes The same burned to powder and mixed with Cretick Hony by an Ointment cureth blindenesse The Oyl of a Lizard put into the eat helpeth deafnesse and driveth out Worms if there be any therein If children be anointed with the bloud fasting it keepeth them from swellings in the belly and legs also the liver and bloud lapped up in Wooll draweth out nails and thorns from the flesh and cureth all kinde of freckles according to this verse of Serenus Verrucam poâ—erit sarguis curare Laceâ—ta That is to say The bloud of Lizards can Cure feeckles in a man The urine if there be any at all helpeth the Rupture in Infants The bones taken out of the Lizards head in the full Moon do scarifie the teeth and the brain is profitable for suffusions The liver laid to the gums or to hollow teeth easeth all pain 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 used for a salve Arnoldus doth much commend the dung of Lizards mixed with Meal the black thereof being cast away and so dryed in a furnace and softned again with water of Nitre and froth of the Sea afterwards applyed to the eyes in a cloth is very profitable against all the former evils And thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the first and vulgar kinde of Lizard for killing of whom Apollo was in ancient time called Sauroctonos Of the GREEN LIZARD THe greater Lizard which is called Lacerta Virâ—dis the green Lizard by the Grecians 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 green from whence they are named and yet sometimes in the Summer they are also found pale They are twice so big as the former Lizard and come not neer houses but keep in Medows and green fields They only abound in Italy and it is a beast very loving and friendly unto man and an enemy to all other Serpents For if at any nime they see a man they instantly gather about him and saying their heads at the one side with great admiration behold his face and if it chance a man do spit they lick up the spittie joyfully and it hath been seen that they have done the like to the urine of children and they are also handled of children without danger gently licking moisture from their mouths And if at any time three or four of them be taken and so set together to fight it is a wonder to see how eagerly they wound one another and yet never set upon the man that put them together If one walk in the fields by hollow ways bushes and green places he shall hear a noise and see a motion as if Serpents were about him but when he looketh earnestly upon them they are Lizards wagging their heads and beholding his person and so if he go forward they follow him if he stand still they play about him One day as Frasmus writeth there was a Lizard seen to fight with a Serpent in the mouth of his own Cave and whilest certain men beheld the same the Lizard received a wound upon her cheek by the Serpent who of green made it all red and had almost torn it all off and so hid herself again in her den The poor Lizard came running unto the beholders and shewed her bloudy side as it were desiring help and commiseration standing still when they stood still
ditches and other simple medicines such as are applyed to the curing of the Yellow-jaundise The eyes must be washed with the urine of a childe or young man which never knew any woman carnally and this may be applyed either simply and alone or else by Brine and Pickle so also must the head After that the body is purged anoint it with Balsamum and Honey and take an Eye-salve to sharpen again and recover the sight and for this cause it is very good to weep for by evacuation of tears the venom also will be expelled But if the eyes grow to pain then let their Eye-salve be made more temperate and gentle to keep the head and brain from stupefaction And thus much for the Pelias out of Aetius Of the PORPHYRE THere is among the Indians a Serpent about the bignesse of a span or more which in outward aspect is like to the most beautiful and well coloured Purple the head hereof is exceeding white and it wanteth teeth This Serpent is fought for in the highest Mountains for out of him they take the Sardius stone And although he cannot bite because he wanteth teeth yet in his rage when he is persecuted he casteth forth a certain poyson by vomit which causeth putrefaction where ever it lighteth But if it be taken alive and be hanged up by the tail it rendereth a double one whiles it is alive the other when it is dead both of them black in colour but the first resembleth black Amber And if a man take but so much of the first black venom as is the quantity of a Sesamine seed it killeth him presently making his brains to fall out at his nostrils but the other worketh neither so speedily nor after the same manner for it casteth one into a Consumption and killeth within the compasse of a year But I finde Aelianus Volateran and Textor to differ from this relation of Ctesias for they say that the first poyson is like to the drops of Almond trees which are congealed into a gum and the other which cometh from it when he is dead is like to thin mattery water Unto this Porphyre I may add the Palmer Serpent which Strabo writeth doth kill with an unrecoverable poyson and it is also of a Scarlet colour to the loyns or hinder-parts Of the PRESTER ALthough there be many Writers which confound together the Prester the Dipsas and make of them but one kinde or Serpent of divers names yet seeing on the contrary there he as many or more which do distinguish or divide them and make them two in nature different one from another the Dipsas killing by thirst and the Prester by heat as their very names do signifie therefore I will also trace the steps of this latter opinion as of that which is more probable and consonant to truth The Grecians call it Prester of Prethein which signifieth to burn or inflame and Tremellius and Junius think that the Serpents called fiery Serpents which did sting the Israelitos in the Wildernesse were Presters We finde in Suidas Prester for the fire of Heaven or for a cloud of fire carryed about with a vehement strong winde and sometimes lightenings And it seemeth that this is indeed a fiery kinde of Serpent for he himself always goeth about with open mouth panting and breathing as the Poet writeth Oraque distendens avidus fumantia Prester Inficil ut laesus tumida membra gorat Which may be Englished thus The greedy Presters wide-open foming mouth Infects and swelleth making the members by unâ—outh When this Serpent hath struck or wounded there followeth an immeasurable swelling distraction conversion of the bloud to matter and corrupt inflamation taking away freedom or easinesse of aspiration likewise dimming the sight of making the hair to fall off from the head at last suffocation as it wereby fire which is thus described by Mantuan upon the person of one Narsidus saying as followeth Ecce subit facies leto diversa fluenti Narsidium Marsi cultorem torridus agri Percussit prester illi rubor igneus ora Succendii tenditque cutem pereunte figura Misoens ouncta tumor toto jam corpore major Humanumque egressa modum super omnia membra Efflatur Sanies latè tollente veneno Ipse late penitus congesto corpore mersus Nec lorica tenet distenti corporis auctum Spumeus accenso non sic exundat aheno Vndarum cumulus nec tanto carbasa Core Curvavere sinus tumides j am non capit artus Informis globus confuso pondere triâ—â—â— Intactum voluctum rostris epulasque duturum Haud impune feris non aufi tradere busto Nondum siante modo crescens fugere cadaver Which may be thus Englished Lo suddenly a divers fate the joyful current stayed Narsidius which Marsinus mirror did adere By burning sting of scorching Prester dead was layed For fiery colour his face enflam'd not as before The first appearing visage faild all was out-stretcht Swelling cover'd all and bodies grosnesse doubled Surpassing humane bounds and members all ore reacht Aspiring venom spreads matter blown in carkasse troubled The man lyeth drownd within swoln bodies banks No girdle can his monstrous growth contain Not so are waters swoln with rage of sandy flanks Nor sails bend down to blustering Corus wain Now can it not the swelling sinews keep in hold Deformed globe it is and trunk ore-come with waight Vntoucht of flying Fowls no beaks of young or old Do him dare eat or beasts full wilde upon the body bait But that they die No man to â—ury in earth or fire Durst once come nigh nor stand to look upon that haplesse cste For never ceased the heat of corps though dead to swell Therefore afraid they ran away with speedy pace The cure of the poyson of this Serpent is by the Physitians found out to be wilde Purslain also the flowers and stalk of the bush the Beavers stone called Castoreum drunk with Opoponax and Rew in Wine and the little Sprat-fish in diet And thus much of this fire-burning venomous Serpent Of the RED SERPENT THis kinde of Serpent being a Serpent of the Sea was first of all found out by Pelicerius Bishop of Montpelier as Rondoletus writeth and although some have taken the same for the Myrus or Berus of which we have spoken already yet is it manifest that they are deceived for it hath gills covered with a bony covering and also fins to swim withal much greater then those of the Myrus which we have shewed already to be the male Lamprey This Serpent therefore for the outward proportion thereof is like to the Serpents of the land but of a red or purplish colour being full of crooked or oblique lines descending from the back to the belly and dividing or breaking that long line of the back which beginneth at the head and so stretcheth forth to the tail The opening of his mouth is not very great his teeth are very sharp and like a saw his gils like scaly fishes
laxo nudum est sine corpore vulnus Membra natant sanie surae fluxere sine ullo Tegmine poples erat femorum quoque musculus omnis Liquitur nigra distillant inguina tabe Dissiluit stringens uterum membrana fluuntque Viscera nec quantum toto de corpore dâ—bet Effluit in terras saevum sed membra venenum Decoquit in minimum mors contrahit omnia virus Vincula nervorum laterum textura cavumque Pectus abstrusum fibris vitalibus omne Quicquid humâ— est aperit pestis natura profana Morte patet manant humeri fortesque lacerti Colla caputque fluunt callido non ocyus Austro Nix resoluta cadit nec solem cera sequetur Parva 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 Cyniphias inter pestes tibi palma nocendi est Eriplunt omnes animam tu sola cadaver Mole brevis seps peste ingens nec viscera solum Sed simul ossa vorans tabificus Seps Which is to be Englished thus On wretched Sabels leg a little Seps hung fast Which with his hand from hold of teeth he pluck away From wounded place and on a pile the Serpent all agast He staked in sands to him O woful wretched day To kill this Serpent is but small yet none more power hath For after wound falls off the skin and bones appear full bare As in an open bosome the heart whole body gnaweth Then all his members swam in filth corruption did prepare To make his snaks fall off uncovered were knee-bones And every muscle of his thigh resolved no more did hold His secrets black to look upon distilled all Consumptions The rim of belly brake out fierce which bowels did infold Out fell his guts on earth and all that corps contain The raging venom still heating members all So death contracted all by little poysons main Vnloosing nerves and making sides on ground to fall This plague the hollow breast and every vital part Abstrused where the fibres keep the life in ure Did open unto death The life the lungs the heart O death profane and enemy unto nature Out flow the shoulders great and arm-blades strong Both neck and head gush out in matter all doth run No snow doth melt so soon the Southern blast among Nor wax so fast dissolve by heat of shining Sun These things which now I speak I do account but small That corps should run with filthy core may caused be by flame 〈…〉 Yet bones are spared in fire here all away they fall Of them and marrow sweet fate lets no sign remain Among the Cyniph plagues this still shall bear the bell The soul they take this soul and carkasse both The Seps though short it be in force it is a hell Devouring bones the body all undoth Thus you hear that more largely expressed by Lucan of the Seps which was more briefly touched by Nicander of the Sepedon and all cometh to one end that both kill by putrefaction The length of this Serpent is about two cubits being thick toward the head but thin and slender toward the tail The head thereof is broad and the mouth sharp it is of many colours so as some have thought that it could change colour like a Chamaeleon The four under teeth are hollow and in them lyeth the poyson which are covered over with a little skin Pausanias affirmeth that he himself saw one of them and that Egyptus the son of Elatus a King of Arcadia was slain by one of these They live in Rocks in hollow places of the Valleys and under stones and they fear no Winter acording to this verse of Pictorius Hic hyemis calidus frigora nulla timet Which may be Englished thus Of Winters cold it hath no fear For warm it is throughout the year First of all after the wound appeareth some bloud but that symptom lasteth not long for by and by followeth matter smelling very strong swelling tumor and languishing pain and all the parts of the body affected herewith become white and when the hair falleth off the patient seldom liveth above three or four days after The cure hereof is by the same means that the poyson of the Viper the Ammodyte and Horned-serpent is cured withal And particularly Aetius prescribeth a spunge wet in warm Vinegar to be applyed to the wound or else to lay the ashes of chaffe with the earth upon which they are burned to the place and to anoint it with Butter and Honey or else lay unto it Millet and Honey likewise Bay-sprigs Oxymel Purslain and in their dyet salt fish Aristotle writeth of a little Serpent which by some are called a sacred and holy Serpent and he saith that all other Serpents do avoid it and flie from it because what soever is bitten by it presently rotteth It is in length as he saith a cubit and it is rough all over and therefore I take this Serpent to be a kinde of Sepedon Also Aristoxenus saith that he knew a man by touching this Serpent to die and afterward that the garment which he wore at the time of the touching of the Serpent did likewise rot away And thus much for the Seps and Sepedon of the SLOW-WORM THis Serpent was called in ancient time among the Grecians Tythlops and Typhlynes and Cophia because of the dimnesse of the sight thereof and the deafnesse of the ears and hearing and vulgarly at this day it is called in Greece Tephloti Tefliti and Tephlini and from hence the Latines have taken their word Caecilia que caecus Serpens a blinde Serpent and it is also called Cerula Caecula and Coriella as witnesseth Albertus because the eyes thereof are none at all or very small The Italians call it Bisaorbala and the Florentines Lucignola the Germans Blyndensclycher the Helvetians Envieux al' annoilx and the people of Narbon Nadels It being most evident that it receiveth name from the blindenesse and deafnesse thereof for I have often proved 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 Chamaeleon the skin is very thick and therefore when the skin is broken by a hard blow the whole body doth also break and park 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 rims on the belly for seeing they conceive their young ones in their womb they have such a belly by nature as may be distended and stretched out accordingly as the young ones grow in their womb It hath a smooth skin without all scales The neather eye-lid covereth all the eye it hath which is very small about the head they are more light coloured then about the other parts of the
Beasts do many times die There is another kinde of Phalangium that breedeth altogether in the pulse called Ervum which is like unto Tares and likewise in the Peach tree which Nicander and Aetius tearm Cranocalaptes and Dioscorides nameth it Kephalokroustes because it is so presumptuous bold as to strike at the hands of travellers by the High-ways when as either it passeth down in gliding manner by her fine thread or that she tumbleth down without any stay of thread or other support It is a small creature to see to keeping on the pace very fearfully nodding with the head reeling and as it were staggering being great and heavy in the belly somewhat long of body and of a greenish colour It carryeth a sting in the top of her neck and striking at any she commonly aimeth at those parts which are about the head And as Actius saith En tois phullois tes per seias trepheteis kai ta ptera echei homoia tais en tais kustais psuchais That is they are nourished in Peach tree-leaves and they have wings like unto Butter-flies that are found amongst Barley Whereupon the Scholiast seemeth to insinuate to us that this kinde of Spider is winged which no man as I judge hath hitherto observed Ponzettus and Ardoynus do take the Cranocalaptes to be a Tarantula but herein they are both mistaken as was Rabbi Moses before them The Spider called Sclerocephalus in form 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 seen about Lamps lights or candles in the night time There cometh in the last place to be described the Phalangie Spider of Apulia commonly known by the name of Tarantula taking his denomination from the Countrey of Tarentum where there are found great store and plenty of them Ferdinandus Ponzettus imagineth that it hath but only six feet and Ardoynus is of the same judgement and further faigneth that it hath a stretched out tail Rasis calleth a Torantula by the name of Sypta Albucasis Alsari Rabbi Moses Aggonsarpa Avicen Sebigi Doctor Gilbert Taranta therein following Ardoynus which maketh two sorts of Tarantulaes the one of a brown the other of a yellow colour and cleer shining such as are to be found in Egypt Pliny as you read a little before said that the Phalangium was not known in Italy but in these days they are found throughout all the Southern parts of that Countrey especially nigh the Sea-shore as both Harvest-men and Hunters can well testifie by their own wofull experience Ponzettus was much deceived when in his third Book and xv chapter entreating of the Scorpion he expresly affirmeth the Phalanx to be such a venomous flye It is a vengible and cruel creature as Alexander ab Alexandro saith and to be touched horrible venomous and pestilent and most especially their biting is exceeding venomous in the parching heat of the Summer but at other seasons of the year not so great There be many sorts of Spiders found in very cold Countries but no Phalangies at all or if there be any yet have they very little poyson in them and nothing comparable to them of hotter Climates All the sorts of Phalangies do lay their Egges in a net or web which for the purpose they make very strong and thick and sit upon them in very great number and when their brood is increased to some growth they kill their dam by their hard embracements and fling her clean away and further casting off al fatherly affection they many times serve the male with the same sauce if they can come handsomely by him for he is a helper to the female in sitting over their egges They hatch at one time three hundred as hath been seen by the testimony of Bellonius in his Book Singul. observat chap. 68. The Tatantulaes lie commonly lurking in holes chinks and chaps of the earth and with their teeth they bite and wound at unawares incircumspect Mowers and harvest-folks and rash Huntsmen who think of no such matter and therefore they that are acquainted with their sleights do wear Boots and Gloves on their hands and legs for their further defence so often as they go forth either to hawking hunting or to reaping and mowing or any such like labour in the common fields All these Spiders are venomous even naturally for that is so setled and deeply fastened in them as it can by no means be eradicated or taken away Neither suck they this venom and poysonous quality from plants or herbs as many men think which in very truth they never so much as tast of neither do they purchase this venomous complexion and nature from any naughty hurtful and malignant quality that is in their meat by reason their chief food and sustenance is Flyes Gnats and Bees and without question they can suck and draw no such cacochymical juyce from their bodies If the Formicarian which I call the Pismire-like Phalangie do bite any man there will presently follow most fearful accidents for it bringeth an exceeding great tumor upon the wounded place the knees are loose and seeble trembling of the heart and decay of strength do succeed and sometimes it induceth death it self Nicander saith that they who are bitten of this kinde of Spider do fall into such a profound sleep as that they will never be awaked for they have and suffer that which Histories report of Cleopatra Queen of Egypt who to escape the fingers of Augustus because she would not be brought to Rome in triumph caused two Serpents called Asps to be set to her breasts which did sting her to death whose nature is to give a heavinesse and sleep without any shrinking or mark in the skin only putting forth a gentle sweat out of the face as if one were in a trance and hard to be awaked The Spider called Agrostis maketh but a small wound with her biting and in a manner without any pain at all and no ways deadly unlesse it be but slightly regarded or that no care be had for the cure in the beginning The Phalangie that is called Dusderus which is fashioned like a Wasp if he hurt any one by his biting it causeth the same accidents that the azure or blewish-coloured Spider doth but yet not altogether so terrible and vehement And besides the Dusder-spider with her poyson bringeth a wasting and pining away of the whole body by degrees without any great sense If a man be poysoned with that kinde of Spider which is found among pulse and is as I said before like unto Spanish Flies there will presently arise certain pustules risings or swellings much like unto blisters as if one were scalded with hot water in which swellings there will commonly be much yellowish matter besides the patient is much disquieted vexed and too much out of order the eyes seem to be writhed deformed looking asquint on the one side the tongue
of all Controversie and Rhodiginus thinketh it a very significant word derived from the people Marsi because they carryed about Vipers The Mountebanks do also call Suffili from Sibila the hissing voyce which it maketh Some will have Nepa to be also a Viper yet we have shewed that already to signifie a Scorpion The Grecians say that the Viper is called Echidna para to echein in eaute ten gonen achri thanaton because to her own death she beareth her young one in her belly and therefore the Latines do also call it Vipera quasi Vi pariat because it dyeth by violence of her birth or young and they attribute unto it venom and pestilence and generally there are few Epithets which are ascribed to the Serpent but they also belong unto this There is a precious stone Echites greenish in colour which seemeth to be like a Viper and therefore taketh name from it Also an herb Echite like Scammony and Echidmon or Viperina In Cyrene there are Mice which from the similitude of Vipers are called Echenatae Echâ—on was the name of a man and â—châ—onidae and Echionii of people and Echidnon a City beside the Sea Aegeum Also the Eagle which by the Poets is faigned to eat the heart of Pâ—omeâ—heus is likewise by them said to be begotten betwixt Typhon and Echidna and the same Echidna to be also the Mother of Chimaera which from the Navel upward was like a Virgin and downward like a Viper of which also Diodorus Siculus and Herodotus telleth this story When Hercules was driving away the Oxen of Geryon he came into Scythia and there fell asleep leaving his Mares feeding on his right hand in his Chariot and so it happened by divine accident that whiles he slept they were removed out of his sight and strayed away from him Afterward he awaked and missing them sought all over the Countrey for them at last he came unto a certain place where in a Cave he found a Virgin of a double natured proportion in one part resembling a Maid and in the other a Serpent whereat he wondered much but she told him that if he would lie with her in carnal copulation she would shew him where his Mares and Chariot were whereunto he consented and begat upon her three Sons famous among Poetical Writers Namely Agathyrsus Gelonus and Scythus but I will not prosecute either the names or these fables any further and so I will proceed to the description of Vipers The colour of Vipers is somewhat yellowish having upon their skin many round spots their length about a cubit or at the most three palms The tail curled at the end very small and sharp but not falling into that proportion equally by even attenuation growing by little and little but unevenly sharped on the sudden from thicknesse to thinnesse It is also without flesh consisting of skin and bone and very sharp The head is very broad compared with the body and the neck much narrower then the head the eyes very red and flaming the belly winding upon which it goeth all in length even to the tail and it goeth quickly and nimbly some affirm that it hath two canine teeth and some four And there is some difference betwixt the male and female the female hath a broader head the neck is not so eminent a shorter and thicker body a more extended tail and a softer pace and four canine teeth Again the male hath a narrower head a neck swelling or standing up 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 this is the peculiar outward difference betwixt the male and the female Vipers Avicen saith besides that the tails of Vipers make a noise when they go or move Those are taken to be the most generous and lively that have the broadest and hollowest head like a Turbot quick and lively eyes two canine teeth and a gristle or claw in the nose or tail a short body or tail a pale colour a swift motion and bearing the head upward For the further description of their several parts Their teeth are very long upon the upper chap and in number upon either side four and those which are upon the neather gum are so small as they can scarce be discerned until they be rubbed and pressed but also it is to be noted that while they live or when they be dead the length of their teeth cannot appear except you take from them a little bladder in which they lie concealed In that bladder they carry poyson which they infuse into the wound they make with their teeth they have no ears yet all other living creatures that generate their like and bring forth out of their bellies have ears except this the Sea-calf and the Dolphin yet in stead hereof they have a certain gristly cave or hollownesse in the same place where ears should stand The womb and place of conception saith Pliny is double but the meaning is that it is cloven as it is in all females especially Women and Cows They conceive Egges and those Egges are contained neer their reins or loins Their skin is soft yeelding also to any stroke and when it is fleyed off from the body it stretcheth twice so big as it appeared while it covered the living Serpent To conclude Phyliologus writeth that their face is somewhat like the face of a man and from the Navel it resembleth a Crocodile by reason of the small passage it hath for his egestion which exceedeth not the eye of a Needle It conceiveth at the mouth And thus much for the description in general There is some difference among this kind also according to the distinction of place wherein they live for the Vipers in Aethiopia are all over black like the men and in othes Countreys they differ in colour as in England France Italy Greece Asia and Aegypt as writeth Bellonius There is scarce any Nation in the World wherein there are not found some Vipers The people of Amyctae which were of the Grecian bloud drove away all kind of Serpents from among them yet they had Vipers which did bite mortally and therefore could never be cured being shorter then all other kinds of Vipers in the World Likewise in Arabia in Syagrus the sweet Promontory of Frankincense the Europaean Mountaines Seiron Pannonia Aselenus Corax and Riphaeus the Mountaines of Asta Aegages Bucarteron and Cercaphus abound with Vipers Likewise Aegypt and in all Africa they are found also and the Africans affirm in detestation hereof that it is not so much Animal as Malum naturae that is A living Creature as evill of Nature To conclude they are found in all Europe Some have taken exceptions to Crete because Aristotle writeth that they are not found there but Bellonius affirmeth that in Crete also he saw Vipers which the Inhabitants call by the name of Cheudra which seemeth
one colour The kindes of common Bees as Columella observes out of Aristotle are thus distinguished some are great round black hairy others are lesse round of a dark colour rough hair there are yet others lesse than they and not so round but more fat of a straw colour on their sides there are some least of all very slender sharp whose bellies are various coloured from yellow and very small But the blackish are most to be approved of that are very little round lively shining gentle having if we credit Virgil Their bodies shine with equall spots of gold The greater Bees are and fatter or longer the worse they are and if they be fierce and waspish they are worst of all But their anger is pacified by the daily company of their keeper and they are made more tame with the only tinckling of brasse The Bees called Chalcoides in Crete are of a brazen colour and something long and are said to be very implacable and given to fighting exceeding all others in their stings and pricking more fiercely so that they have driven the Citizens out of the Towns by their stings And Aelian out of Antenor relates that in the Mount Ida the remainder of that race dwell and make their combs Such are also the Bees at Carthagena like to Muskitos Pausanias writes in Atticis that Bees are so gentle in Halizomus that they go forth to feed amongst men and wander where they please for they are shut up in no hives wherefore they make their works every where and that so fast that you cannot part the honey from the wax They are smooth shining of variable colours and not unlike to our good Bees Lastly since all Bees are by nature void of poyson yet the place causeth the long Bees and the distaffe fashioned about Carthagena in America to make venomous honey where they collect honey that is infected with the contagion of trees winds air and earth it self and be it what it will be they lay it up in their cellars Also Bees subterrestrial have another form and nature For those that work in hives and trees are greater longer softer better wing'd more yellow on their backs and bellies But they that are under the earth build in little holes and are short compacted with black heads and foresails hairy almost on their whole body a yellow down colour on their sides and rump and that doth much adorn them Of Bees some finde themselves houses in woods some are received into houses made of straw or horn some civil and well nurtured Bees who will not refuse the care of the Bee-master who hath skill but will much love and delight in it The prince of Philosophers confounds the sex of Bees but most writers distinguish it some say the females are the greater and without stings others say they are lesse and have stings The sounder Philosophers whose opinion I follow acknowledge no males but their chief leaders which are more strong greater more able and alwaies stay at home for propagation and seldome go forth but with the whole swarm whom nature hath commanded to be frequent in Venus occasions and ordained them to stay alwaies at home with their females Experience witnesseth that these do foster their young as birds do very diligently and sit upon them and thrust forth their young Bees when the membrane is broken The differences of their Ages are known by the habit of their body for those that are new come forth have most thin and trembling wings those that are a year old as also of two or three years old are very bright neat and are of the likenesse and colour of oyl but at seven years old they lay aside all fatnesse and smoothnesse nor can any one tell certainly by their figure and quality of their skin and body as it useth to be with horses how old they are The elder of them are hairy hard full of wrinkles lean rough to your â—ight and feeling long starveling and noted by a venerable kinde of hoarinesse And this was shewed to the Dutchesse of Somerset when I was a youth under whose chamber window there was the very same hive of Bees that had been there 30 years and this justifies Aelians relation of the same kinde But as they appear more ugly in form so are they before the rest in industry and experience for years have taught them skill and by length of time and practise they know better how to gather and make honey CHAP. II. Of the Politick Ethick and Oeconomick virtues of Bees BEES are swayed by soverainty not tyranny neither do they admit of a King properly so called by succession or by lot but by due advice and circumspect choice and though they willingly submit to regall authority yet so as they retain their liberty because they still keep their Prerogative of Election and when their King is once made sure to them by oath they do in a principal manner love him He as he doth excell all the rest in portliness and feature of body as is above said so likewise which is the chief thing in a Prince in gentlenesse of behaviour For although he hath a sting as others yet he never useth it to punish withall insomuch that some have thought that the King is without a sting For their law is the law of nature not written but imprinted in their manners and they are yet more gentle in punishing because they have the greater power and although they seem somewhat slow in revenging private wrongs yet suffer they not the refractory and rebels to go unpunished but wound and stab them with their stings So desirous they are of peace that neither with their wills nor against do they offer any annoyance Who would not then utterly abhorre the Diobysian Tyrants in Sicily Clearchus in Heraclea Apollodorus the Cassandrian Robber Who would not detest the villany of those close Parasites to Kings who affirm that Monarchy is no other but the means how to accomplish or satisfie the will and a device how to maintain lust that which ought to be far from a vertuous Prince lest while he would seem to be a man he betray himself to be worse then these little winged beasts And as their manner of life is not pedantick or according to the vulgar sort so neither is their birth For the royal Race is not begotten a little worm at the first as the Bees are but presently able to fly And if he chance to finde amongst his young ones any one that is a fool unhandsome hairy of an angry disposition ill shapen or naturally ill conditioned by the unanimous consent of the rest he gives order to put him to death lest his souldiery should be disordered and his subjects being drawn into faction should be destroyed He sets down a way to the rest gives order what they shall do some commands to fetch water others to make honey-combs within to build them up and garnish them othersome to go and get in
juice of bruised Quinces 5 pounds fountain water Sextarii boyl them till they grow soft take them from the fire let them cool then strain them and crush out the Quinces and cast them away add to this water half honey boyl it scum it till an eighth part be consumed some make it of sweet Apples or Pears the same way Hydromel of Dyoscorides is made of two parts of old rain-water and one part of honey mingled and set in the Sun Some call it Hydromel because it is wont to be made of the washing of the honey combs with water but it must not be made stronger because it will hurt sick people by too much matter proceeding from the wax Hydromel after it hath been long kept is as strong as small wines or Lora being but half so old Wherefore it is preferred before them in abating inflamations The use of old Metheglin is condemned for such as are inflamed or costive but it is good for weak stomacks and such as loath their meat or sick people that sweat much or for those that are thirsty or after a burning feaver hath wasted a man Aetius describes a Clyster only of honey and water to move the belly and with the same he cleanseth hollow ulcers Galen commends and uses Melicrate wherein some Hysop Origanum or Thyme or Peniroyal hath been boyled to prepare and purge gross humours in an acute disease but he commends it not for the want of a stomach Lately the English found out a new composition of Hydromel they call it Varii and serves better for ships than any Wine The preparation is this Take Barley torrefied after due sleeping in water what you please boyl it long in 5 quarts of fountain water till it taste well of the malt I pound of this boyled with 8 pounds of honey and 20 pounds of water makes a drink that tasts most sweet and is most healthful for use It nourisheth well is hardly corrupted and keeps very long Hydromel of the Moscovites Take of the decoction with Hops 12 pounds purified honey scummed 1 pound and half tosted bread strowed with the flour of malt one piece put all into a wooden vessel well covered and place it near a stool take away the froth that riseth twice a day with a wooden skimmer that hath holes in it after 10 daies set it up in your cellar after 14 daies drink it They make it the same way in summer with fair water and made this way they drink it in winter and when they desire to be drunk In Russ and English they call it Mede 2. Oenomeli it is called honeyed Wine Pollux calls it Molicraton Plautus honeyed Wine others call it Mulsum Aristaeus was the first that brought this into Thrace being taken with the incredible sweetness of Honey and Wine mingled together Mulsum made of honey of Heraclea when it growes old ceaseth to be hurtful Pliny The new writers describe this potion thus Take 1 gallon of the best Honey 6 gallons of old Wine Salt 2 ounces it must then be skimmed as it works then put in the Salt and season it with Annise-seed and roots of Elecampane let down into the vessel with a bag The Egyptians make it otherwise namely of Raisins and Honey which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is of a very sweet taste Oenomeli spiced Take Pepper washt and dried 8 scruples Athenian Honey 1 sextarius and 5 sextarii of old white Wine mingle them Celsus as I remember and Caelius speak of it Aurelianus in the cure of the Sciatica Also there is a kinde of Mulsum which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consisting of 36 ingredients Gorreus May be it is the same which Athenaeus cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a drink made of Wine and Honey and divers herbs mingled Such as our Welch men call Metheglin The Irish prepare a distilled Oenomeli made with Honey Wine and some herbs which they cal Vsquebach not unfit for a nation that feeds on flesh raw or but half sod Mulsum made of sweet new Wine the Greeks call Nectar to new Wine sodden they add a tenth part of Honey but this kinde is offensive to the stomach and causeth windiness it is given to purge the belly Hippocrates cals it Melihedia and Melichron as Galen notes Atheneus writes that another kinde which was true Nectar indeed was wont to be made about Olympus a Mountain of Lydia of Wine Bees-combs and sweet flowers I take notice that Alexandrida did not think Nectar to be drink but the meat of the gods For he saith I eat Nectar chewing and ministring to Jupiter I drink Ambrosia Yet Homer and the greatest part of the Poets took Nectar for drink Dioscorides made Oenomeli thus Take old Wine 2 Sextarius's the best Honey 1 Sextarius Some that they may drink it the sooner boyl honey with wine and strain it Some for profit sake to 6 sextarius's of new wine working add one of honey and when it hath workt they put it up in a vessel for it remains sweet The use of honied Wine is this It is given in long Feavers that have weakned the stomach with crudities collected in it It looseth the belly gently it provoketh urine it cleanseth the stomach it is good for the disease of the joynts faults of the reins a weak head and to women that drink no wine for it is pleasant in smell and nourisheth the body It moveth vomit drunk with oyle and it is profitably given to them that have drunk poyson as also for such as are weak and their pulse is feeble for such as are troubled with a cough and a short breath or Impostume in the Lungs and those that are wasted with extream sweating But then it is for to mingle it with Hydromel Also Galen prescribes to them Melicrate qualified with water that have had a shaking fit not above a week and nature being yet strong Some there are that utterly condemn this in Feavers but that must be understood of some times in Feavers Romulus a certain guest of Caesars being asked how he had preserved the natural vigor of his body and minde so long for he was above a hundred years old he answered Without with oyl within with honey and wine sodden together as Pollio did That we may the more wonder at the use of Mulsum which the Ancients esteemed very much for that they were perswaded that all acrimony of the minde was pacified with sweet liquors and the spirits made peacable the passages made softer and fitter for transpiration and that it was also physick for manners Plinius 3. Oxymeli or honeyed Vinegar is thus made as Pliny thinks Take honey 6 pound old Vinegar 5 Hemina Sea-salt 1 pound rain-water which Galen likes not of 5 sextarii It must all be made scalding hot ten times and then set in the Sun till it grow stale and Oxymel is made But it lasts not above one year
and well compacted sting with which he strikes through the Oxe his hide he is in fashion like a great Fly and forces the beasts for fear of him only to stand up to the belly in water or else to betake themselves to wood sides cool shades and places that the wind blowes through For whilest they stand in the cold water they flap their wet tails all about their bodies and so cause him to be gone The Scholiast of Nicander saith that they are bred of Horseleeches As if he would have us to understand Horseleeches by those slat creatures of which Arist makes mention before and yet it is against nature or experience that bloud-sucking mothers should bring forth a bloud-sucking brood He flies exceeding swiftly drawes bloud with much pain Pennius hath set down 2 very raâ—e kindes of Asili one of which was sent him out of Virginia by White the other out of Russia by Elmer a Chirurgeon for a gâ—eat present That out of Virginia was full as big as the biggest Flies having a reddish head and very like in shape too but only that the head was black and had from the shoulders a white streak drawn to the mouth having also bigger and blaâ—ker eyes He had in his mouth a long 〈…〉 ing and very strong his shoulder of a blackish brown colour from whence came forth two wings of a silver colour to the tail downward it had six or seven joynts or fissures of a whitish colour all the rest of the body blackish In swiftnesse of flight inferious to none surpassing the most his belly was between an ash and yellow colour or a pale green That of Elmer which came from Moscovia had silver wings longer than the whole body great eyes very long taking up almost all the head a black bill or beak hardish tripartite with which out of hand she penetrates hose lined with a three double cloth skin flesh and all sucking it with great pain As for the Generation of the Asili or the Fly with great eyes I wonder at the inconstancy of the Philosophers opinion thereupon For first he makes them to come of a little flat creature swimming in the water which the Scholiast of Nicander not unfitly cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Hirudines in English Horseleeches and in the 8. of his History he will have them the off-spring of the Gnats in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some living creatures live first in moysture and after that they change their shape and live out of it as it fals out with Gnats about rivers from which proceeds the Brees But how that can be I know not For of creatures that have wings it is impossible that other winged creatures of a diverse form should be generated as the diligent observer of Nature may easily gather And so much of the Oxe-fly which the Goths call Hestabryviss but the English have no name for it Wherein the Author seems to me to be mistaken because it hath afforded it a very proper name as is abovesaid He feeds not only on the juice of flowers and honey but on the bloud of beasts which with great tediousnesse and pain he sucks out There is another Fly much of the same sort with a head and body more inclining to green His shoulders shine with greennesse wings he hath two whitish in the middle and outward parts but are otherwise blackish or dunnish This only once Pennius saw it it Hanworth in the year 86. in the moneth of August In the year 82. he found in England two other sorts of Flies like Gnats one of which had a pretty big body of yellow and red colour it had two wings the head very long the tail reddish The other also had a long head long and slender shanks of a very sad black colour the latter were longer than the former which he stretched at length when he flew and let hang down A Countrey-man there was that affirmed for certain that out of their eggs for he had observed them coupling together came those worms that usually eat the leaves of trees The Fly called in Latine Tabanus is of the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason perchance of its stinging or pricking for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies also a spur wherewith horses are pricked or spurred The French call it Tahon the Italians Tabano the Spaniard Tavano the Germans Braem Kâ—flyege ross muck the Brabanters Rochleghebrem the Polonian Kirowia muka the English a Burrel-fly Stowt and Breese and also of sticking and clinging Cleg and Clinger This Calepine more boldly then truly saith hath four wings But with more judgement Aelian and others say it hath but two silver white The whole bulk or body is very long divided into three principal parts the head shoulders and the ventricle or belly distinguished with five or six clefts or incisures the whole body of a blackish white in the mouth of it it carries a strong long and browny Proboscis it hath six black feet in all parts else representing much the Dog-fly In the moneths of July and August by reason of the extremity of heat they are most fierce and do miserably handle Oxen and Horses and young cattel unlesse protected with fly-flaps boughs of trees or plants which they follow by sent of their sweat because they cannot reach them with their sight being very weak sighted from whence the infirmity of the eyes called purblindnesse is in Greek termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are generated saith Pliny of the worms that come out of the wood putrefied Which some cunning men before they have wings did use to binde about the wrist of the left arm as a remedy against Quartain Agues They suck out bloud with such force and in so great abundance that a friend of mine whom I dare believe told me that his horse being tyed to a tree was by reason of the multitude of them killed in lesse then six hours they had drawn out so much bloud that the spirits failing he fell down dead By these things it is manifest that the Tabani are of a different nature from the Asili notwithstanding that most of the Greek and Latine Authors do seem to confound them and make them all one Yea even Gesner himself in this very matter could not tell what to say in his book de Quadrup and indeed unlesse it were only Pierius and my friend Pennius now deceased no man as yet found the difference between them Ardoinus is here desired to be censured in the first place because he saith that both the Tabanus and Asilus have stings in their tails as the Wasps have and secondly because he makes them to have eight feet where as none of them in the world was ever known to have above six Lastly he reckons them in the classis or rank of Gnats whereas the Gnat never bites in the heat of the day as the Asilus and Tabanus do but altogether in the night at what
the number of wings only for that he makes to have four wings whereas Nature hath afforded this but two There are other sorts of Flies that devour herbs and flowers that are not like Bees to wit the Struthiopteri Eninopteri and Chelidonii because it is like to the Swallow Of the Struthiopteri I have seen three sorts The first whereof is tender and sort six footed with two wings the belly longer then ordinary sending forth from the head a little above the eyes two feathers like Ostriches feathers as it were horns of a downy softnesse as soft as any feathers whatsoever crump shouldered all the rest of the body white longer then the wings which are black The second is of the same colour whitish the head of a dusky colour otherwise it differeth little or nothing at all from the former The third is all alike only the horns are not so soft and downy the tail is white the body long with five white lines going athwart it the feet long marked with black and white colours as it goeth it lifteth up the tail a little and softly claps his two transparent wings together These three species do appear in the Spring time with the first in gardens hedges and shady places very frequently before and after rain The Erinopteros is a fly all over white or rather silver colour small and every where downy inasmuch as when it sits upon a flower if you look not hard upon it you would think it were a feather the wings of it are divided the feathers being severed one from the other almost like Birds wings Pennius received one of these painted from Edmund Knivet afterwards he often saw them in hedges and places set with privet The Fly called Chelidonius is swifter of wing then all the rest sides tail head brown and hairy the eyes black and hanging out the bill or rather the nose picked out of the top of which start out two horns the top of the shoulders as also the back black two silver wings the forepart whereof do answer to the blacknesse of the feet sometimes it sits in one place for a great while together as if it were unmovable but as soon as you come near it it s out of your sight before you can say What 's this and will not yeeld a jot to the Swallow from whom it hath its name for swiftnesse of â—light Pennius received another flower-Fly of the learned Carolus Clusius black having two silver wings two dainty white eyes in the back having seven yellow spots in the midst whereof is to be discerned a speck of black There are Flies that are found in beans of sundry colours but especially of a pale purple which I conceive do come of the smal worms called Midae For when they are gone which is in the midst of Summer suddenly there comes forth a great number of those Flies swarming amongst the Beans The Fly of Napellus I have not seen but those that come out of those black grains that stick to the stalk of the wormwood much less than Millet seed more black than any Moor only famous for their wonderful smalnesse There is a certain Fly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very rare and wonderful whether you respect the form or the shortnesse of its life It hath many names Aelian calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of others it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Diaria it moves with four wings and as many feet for that it hath not peculiar to it in regard of the shortnesse of its life only saith the Philosopher but also as it is a four footed creature and a flying creature It comes forth with the Sun groweth flourisheth languisheth and dieth the same day with the Sun setting In the time of the Summer Solstice these diary creatures break forth out of certain husks of putrefied grapes which husks or such as seem to be so whether they are a kinde of Aurelia proceeding from some kinde of canker-worms living in the water it is not easie to shew for in that particular the Philosopher is silent from whom most of this story is gathered Pliny cals them thin membranes Aristot small bottles and saith they are common to be seen in the River Hippane by the Cimmerian Bosphorus of Pontus They live a life both short and sweet for they live not beyond the space of a natural day and in the evening they put an end as to their lives so to their miseries In the mean while they are sustained and kept alive with their own radical moisture neither are beholding either to air or earth hence we may gather the length of their life yea rather admire and wish for it These Insects Cicero speaks of in the first of his Tuscul Questions these also Matthias Michoides in his 2. Book de Sarmatia Europaea describes in these words You may take notice saith he that in the Rivers of Russia and Lituania especially in Boristhenes and Botus in the Summer there are a great company of the Flies called Ephemers or Day Flies they are Worms and Flies both some have four others six wings in the morning they run upon their feet over the water about noon they fly about the banks the sun setting as many as were bred that day dye in the self-same day Which description doth much differ from Aristotles History of them first because in the morning it is a creeping worm then about noon a fly altogether besides that he giveth to some six wings contrary to the minde of Arist Jul. Scaliger in his learned Exoterick Exercitations against Cardanus describes this Fly after this manner I have observed a kinde of Fly frequenting Sarca and the Lake of Bennacum called Ephemerus in the evening but never any in the morning being taken it lived only a night it hath four very long wings how many feet I know not but if it have six for I do not remember how many it hath it sufficeth it hath a head like a Fly great eyes the snout or beak rolled up together the belly large the tail exceeding long and full of joynts in the end forked in some three forked of colour a darkish yellow in the bigger sort in the lesser of a brown or dunnish very specious The Taurini call this insect Monietta as they would say Monachella The Adriatick about Meranum and Tergeste call it Cuzotulum of my Countreymen it is called Sitivola i. e. Sagitella Aelian lib. 2. de Animal c. 4. sets forth another kinde of these Insects such as are bred of sowre wine Lees which when the vessell is opened come forth and the same day for nature hath given them a beginning of life but in regard of the many miseries to which it is incident quickly freeth them of it before they can be sensible of their own or any others unhappiness But yet what these Flies of which Aelian speaketh be unlesse they be those that we call Bibiones I know not
smal long beams dispersedly drawn like threds to the very outmost of the coat and this is adorned within with golden crooked lines like the Moon being it self a murry nicked on the sides like a Saw the body is purple coloured from black the eyes shine like gold the feet and horns are black 13. The body and wings appear black upon the black wings jagged in the circumference first hairs grow then borders and lastly golden studs also the small eyes in the black head are tinctured with gold but the horns grow forth with spots white and black and end with a small very black knob 14. It much delighteth in the curiosity of the decking of it the body is rough and blackish from white a black eye and a white pupilla about the bald eye you shall see a circle almost white as snow the horns are the same with the former the outward face of the greater wing is known by the flaming colour golden lines being drawn upon it with four dinted skirts about the end of it three round pence set triangular do adorn it But the inward face of it seems most pleasant with divers golden scales and studs put like a coat of male and tyles of a house also a golden line beautifies the utmost part of the wings It represents a Peacock very much by its wings and as that is so hath it a proud and gallant body the feet and legs are some-what black lest it should be proud of its feature the snout is like a spiral line made up like a Maze 15. This hath also a hairy beak wreathed up like a vine tendrel it is inwardly ash-coloured and outwardly a faint gray the wings are prickly jagged like bats wings some dun lines do outwardly part these inwardly six black studs do much set them forth The outward wings of all are a dark green in sight which some spots and pieces of white and yellow do beautifie the inward are perfectly red being sprinkled with ten most black spots the belly shines with eight yellow scales the back is red inclining to yellow and the tip of the tail is a light blue The rough shoulders are commended by a yellow Moon drawn downwards a white silver coloured apple makes the red eyes more sharp 1. The eyes seem yellowish the horns a decayed russet the wings and all the rest of the body are a pale yellow the inward wings are marked outwardly with one only full yellow spot but inwardly they are tinctured with a certain black spot upon a watry green the back is blackish from a blew the belly is yellowish it proceeds from an Aurelia coloured with gold 2. The second is not so pleasing a colour the inward wings from a fading blew decline to a Crane colour and end as it were into a lead-colour the outward wings are blacker noted here and there with dark spots and the body seems to be the same it flies rudely with dented wings and retched in the borders and as it were prickly and like a mourner of that kinde it never comes forth but in mourning apparell 3. We have painted out this as it were stiffe and raising it self with the wings lifted up it hath also prickly dents but the outward wing from a pale yellow is marked with the black pieces but the next part of the inward wing from the root is dark black the middle part is pale the last part is whitish chequered with right and thwart fibres the body appears dusky the eye is black as pitch the horns are black 4. This is distinguished two waies for when she opens either wing to ballance her body the body shewes black and four dark wings fastned to it ridged as it were with a black pencil and ending in a shining rusty colour but when it sits on flowers and lifts up the wings the first wing is yellowish adorned with a comely round spot like a target the colour whereofis pale the boss of it black the outward circle citron coloured the belly and breast and the whole face are white the black horns incline toward a yellow 5. It seems inside and outside all alike the head and wings look pale the body is wan as also the horns the eyes are flaming red the shoulders are hairy with a pale down When it stretcheth its wings towards you it appears a shining sandy colour like herb dragon with black spots the body also if you see the back seems a watry black the belly somewhat more dark they eye is black clearwith a white or whitish apple the horns are black as a crow the wings from you are of an unpleasant brown and of a decayed Weesilcolour 7. The Jagged wings represent a fire-stone shining with brasse coloured little veins and the skirt also being sprinkled with black spots the whole body is of a shining black but that white points divide the horns and in the black forehead golden eyes twinkle after a sort 8. This hath the same kinde of body but the horns are reddish from yellow the wings appear changeable marked with divers pleats ridges borders skirts of many colours all these colours are sad and dull to the eye they want all clearnesse and varnish and are pleasant only in their mixture placing and number in some places they represent a smoky flame elsewhere an unpleasing dark colour and a fading red and the rubies included in the last border in white semicircles are nothing lively 9. The outward wings are spotted with dirty muddy spots about the last part they are adorned with a black target the middle whereof is set forth with an ivory point the inward wings have four such targets but augmented with a yellow circle besides the two middlemost are of a fit magnitude the two outmost are very small the body of this creature is a whitish dark the eyes that stick out are black but if you look upon the inward part of the inmost wing they look smoky and they are very beautifull with six gilded leaves curiously disposed 10. The head is a pure white but some dusky and black spots adorn the milky wings the back and sides are red from yellow 9 or 10 black spots put under the cuts do adorn them 11. In proportion and almost in colour and form of the body it represents the Eagle amongst birds of prey It hath narrower wings than other Butterflies it hath as it were a broad feathery tail the inward wings are not watry coloured like the rest of the body but red from yellow or of a flame colour it hath a crooked nose like the Eagle a belly hoary the horns are great and strong of the same colour with the uppermost wings the eyes are pretty well prominent black with a pupill white as snow 12. This hath the same form it only differs in colour The body is ash-colour the tail is black and the back is something silver coloured the wings are long and blackish and polluted with little black spots the inward wings appear
matter distilled from the head into the kernels of the ears whether they be bound upon the place or the place anointed therewith they serve also together with their earth to anoint the Kings-Evill Their ashes mixt with oyl bring old ulcers to Cicatrice The Kricket diluted in water is good against the Stone or difficulty of urine Bellunensis used to drop the oyl of them into the ears of them that are diseased in that part by that means taking away all the dolour and pulsation of them Marcellus much commends the stroking of them upon the tumours of the jawes and binding them upon the same and in the opinion of Haly being hung about the neck they cure the Quartan Ague Serenus saith they cure the swelling of the Tonsils in this Distich A Kricket with right hand on Tonsils prest To kill the Kricket gives the patient rest Children as the Italians do Grashoppers do keep them in a box bored full of holes or bags to hear them sing in the night giving them leaves of herbs whereon to feed and so keep them all the Summer They are kept in Africk in iron cages and are sold at a great rate as I have heard by some Merchants to cause sleep For those of the inhabitants of Fesse are exceedingly delighted with their shrill noise as much as the Irish and Welch with the sound of the Harp With which also learned Scaliger seems to be not a little affected when for their musick sake he kept them inclosed in a box the which if he had kept in such a thing where they might have had air he had not found dead after three daies but able to live a long while lib. de plant For being secluded from the air they cannot live which besides air and sound have nothing in them nor seem to be any thing else The last Summer I had a male and a female of them but within eight daies I found the sides of the female eaten out by the male which also it self two daies after expired The Bird Lanio as the learned Brewer hath observed is fed with them The which she fastens upon thorns near to her nest of young for fear they should want food When they become offensive by reason of their number thus they may be driven away or taken off Take a good deep dish filled of water and place it before their holes mouth with a good deal of oatmeal round about it so the Krickets leaping up into the boul are drowned or if you mix water with Vitriol and inject it into their hole they will be gone Hitherto I thought good also to refer the water Grashopper of Rondoletius whose head is like a pentangle having as it were five corners the eyes round and standing out of the head not great but black the cornicles very short coming forth out of the outermost part of the mouth on each side it hath three feet the hindermost longer than the rest on the back it hath little wings or some coming the tail forked the belly oftentimes as it were cleft the colour of the body some-what dun or rather black and white I found them in muddy and standing waters but the nature of it I yet know not This differs from the land Grashopper both for that the head stands out more and it seems to have some kinde of neck and also it hath wings not fit for flight but only to lift it self up This is said to make a kinde of a pleasant noise like the land Grashopper upon the leaves of the water Lilly pond-weed and other water herbs The which I have not as yet heard CHAP. XVIII Of Moths called Blattae MOst men talk much of the Blattae but few or none able to describe what the Blattae properly so called are neither do they give the least mark whereby they may be known but gathering divers notions here and there do put them all together and confound them And but that Pliny had brought some light to this History the Blattae had altogether been omitted or lost First of all therefore we shall shew to what Insects the name of Blatta was given according to Authors then we shall set down what the true Blatta and properly so called is Now under the name of Blatta are comprehended both the worms growing in the ears as also those Phalens which trouble the Hives of Bees But since these desire the light the other altogether shun it why they should be accounted Phalens I do not see The Blatta also is a little worm eating cloathes or books So Horace in his Sermons Blattarum tinearum epulae c. But Martial altogether distinguisheth between the Blatta and the Tinea and sheweth them to be creatures of several kindes It is taken also of the Moderns for the little worm called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of whose web silken garments are made Some call the little worm that groweth in the grain in the low oake Blatta from whence cometh the Blattean colour or grain colour So Turneb advers l. 18. c. 17. l. 28. c. 23. The Blattean colour is died with worms which come out of the grain of Cockle out of whoâ—e bloud is produced a most curious colour not black as some think but a bright purple or scarlet To which the Book de natura rerum Gualter de Conchis do assent The worms of the belly some call Blattae Cardanus in one place calleth the worms that breed in meal or bran Blattae Gaza interprets the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blattae But the proper and right name thereof is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Pollux 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also according to Lucian deâ—iding a man that was no Scholar yet bought many books The Italians call it Blatta and Tarma the Hetrurians Piattela the Germans Wibell Brottworme Brottkarfaer Malkaefaer Springwibell they of Norimberg call one species of them by way of sport Schavahen because it cannot endure cold as Cordus writeth the Illyrians Swinie the Polonians Molulowy the Hungarians Moly the Spaniards Ropa cova potilla Now the Blatta is an Insect flying in the night like to a Beetle but wanteth the sheath wings The Mill or Bake-house Moth I have seen the Greeks call the female if I am not deceived because it had no wings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is longer thicker and of a more shining black colour than the ordinary soft Moth with a little forked mouth placed as it were under its belly the cornicles like to the first little hollow eyes or rather eye-holes the breast foursquare with the four foremost feet fastned to it the hindermost to the belly above the shoulders appear as it were little wings though they are not so indeed the rest of the body somewhat thick cut all over round about circle or oâ—bicular wise in the sides resembling the form of a saw the tip of the tail and a fork growing
wind creeps between the skin and flesh which hapneth no doubt by the flux of humours melted by the poison and the vapours elevated upwards The lips are of a strong colour to wit of a dead violet In the mouth there is the like poysonous taste the stomach belly and guts do ake extremely the urine is stopt the body is ill all over as also the head and brain are sensible of it A remedy of this is Salt-peter taken in Wine and Oxe gall Useful to that purpose is womans milk suckt out abundantly and in defect cowes goats or sheeps milk Womans urine drank and vomited up again but before a vomit they ought not be given because by that means the Feaver would be more sharp Dioscor First of all therefore of good store of Wine sodden or with oyl of Myttle Bacon lard or fat Pork broth or with good store oyl of Olive or boyled Wine a Vomit is to be made New Wine drank freely is held to be a special remedy against the Buprestis Galen and Ardoynus Pliny commends Nitre with water or Laserwort Asa dulcis Wine and Honey or Bezoin dissolved in warm water or take red Nitre 4. drams and in warm water or Posca cause Vomit After vomit there must be means used for purgation afterwards use dry Figs as Galen prescribeth or a decoction of them in old generose Wine when the fit begins to bate The Thebane date is prescribed to eat alone or bruised in sweet Wine or womans Milk all kinde of Pears and oyl of blossomes of Apples are much commended for this use Nicander commends wood-pears for that I think he means by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and especially Myrtle berries following the authority of Dioscorides For that they do refrigerate and bind and by that means do asâ—wage the hot nature of the Buprestis and help the weakness of the stomach But heed must be taken they be not eaten while the body is yet swoln lest the disease be increased by the poyson being kept in Some with good reason give 31. berries of bladder Nightshade and with Almonds the make Almond-milk together with the decoction of Lettice Violets Borage Bugloss garden Nightshade Plantain Raisins and the great cold Seeds Aetius gives the root of Scorpion grass in sweet Wine to drink Many extoll the wings and feet of the Cantharides for an Antidote against the Buprestis but either it hath an opposite quality by antipathy which makes good that opinion or else we may suspect it to be false If an Horse or an Oxe eat one of these flies presently he swels growes mad and shortly after bursteth and dieth So Aelian 6. de Anim. c. 35. and Hierocles a Greek writer witnesseth it He bids to binde the horses head and to open the veins about his nostrils that the bloud may run forth of his mouth and to rub it with Coleworts and give him Fish-pickle and Oyl and Vegetius likewise almost in the same words If a Horse or an Oxe eat a Buprestis with the grass his belly will instantly swell he is inflated all over he refuseth his meat and he often and by little and little sends forth his dung To cure this Absyrtus and Vigetius prescribe one and the same remedy presently get upon the Horse and cause him to gallop as fast as he is able afterwards let him bloud a little in the roof of his mouth and let him swallow the bloud as it runs forth chewing it in his mouth then keep him continually walking let his diet be wheat steeped in sweet Wine with Leeks given him with a horn in Wine warm well beaten with Raisins Some as Praxanus taught them pour Oyl into the nostrils of the Oxe l. 17. c. 17. To Goats that are swoln with the Buprestis apply Bacon-lard or pour the fat broth of it down their throat saith the same Author The Cynoprestis seems to be the same with the Buprestis for that works the same effects in Dogs as this doth in Cattel or if it be a different sort of creature from this I confess ingenuously I have not met with it CHAP. XX. Of the Cantharides or Spanish Fly I Know not what the reason was that the Cantharides above the rest so well known of so great use in Physick were omitted by Pennius and Gesner Which task notwithstanding I shal willingly undertake and thus I begin their History The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek is the same in Latine in French it is Cantaride in Italian Catarella in Spanish Cubillo in the German Tongue Grune Kefer Goldkefer in Low Dutch Spaensche Vlieghe in English Cantharides or Spanish Fly Of the Cantharides two sorts have come to our knowledge the one greater the other lesse Of the greater sort there are some thick and long taken in wheat and fat likewise as the Blats are drawn with variety of golden lines which in the wings run athwart and those are accounted of the best use in Physick Others are lesse and lean hairy called the innermost not so fit for medicine Of the greater sort also not all are of a glittering green but some of them of a sad red but all of them of an inexpressible splendor and very pleasant to the eye Their virtue consists in burning the body causing a crust or as Dioscorides will have it to corrode cause exulceration and provoke heat and for that reason are used mingled with medicines that are to heat the Lepry Tettars and Cancerous sores And in being mixt with Cecots or fit plaisters they do cure deformities of the nails causing them to fall off They are used in medicines for Corns on the feet or hands Some anoint the places where the hair 〈◊〉 off with Cantharides bruised and liquid Pitch the skin being prepared with Nitre they are good for Cauteries but care must be had that they do not ulcerate so deep then some command to annoint those ulcers made with the heads of with the gall or dung of Mice mixt with Helleboâ—e and Pepper Cantharides mixt with quick Lime cure Botches as if you should cut them off with a razour Some use to cast a little of them into Medicaments to provoke urine But there is a great question of it because they are poyson drank in respect of the bladder that they afflict with perpetual tomentâ— But these is no question but in oyntment they may do good with the juyce of wilde Vine or with Sheeps or Goats suet Some of my Masters put only their wings and their feet into Medicaments that provoke urine We saith Galen are wont to cast in the Cantharides whole and we judge those to be the best that are found in wheat and have a yellow girdle running athwart their wings to adorn them L. 3. l. 11. desimpl fac also put under they mightily provoke the terms and put to medicaments for the Dropsie they are a very good antidote against it as not only Hippocrates and Dioscorides but Galen Avicenna Rhasis
easily understand the sense of Ausonius his Epigram upon Marcus that was gelded Rhodiginus l. 8. c. 5. Antiq. lect renders it to us Also the Aegyptians caused a picture of this creature to be made on the statnes of their Heroes intimating thereby their manhood that had no mixture of feminine weakness for men must be valiant and manly 〈◊〉 pufillanimity is a great disgrace to them All Beetles cast their skins and they have no sting when you touch them they are afraid and they leave off to move and they g 〈…〉 〈◊〉 tus did vainly ascribe to them four wings hid under a crusty cover for experience she 〈…〉 t two very tender and frail wherefore they have them shut up in a hard cover over 〈…〉 them that they may take no hurt by hard bodies For the greatest part of them either 〈◊〉 under ground or bites rotten wood with their teeth and makes houses and nests there so that if they were not excellent well guarded they could never keep themselves safe from external injuries When they fly they make such a humming or noise in the air that Laertius writ that the gods talk with men by these creatures Of all plants they cannot away with Rose trees and they hate them as the destruction of their kinde for they dye by the smell of them as we read in Geopas but on the contrary they take great pleasure in stinking and beastly places I have learned no other use of them in Physick than that taken in the left hand they drive away quartain Agues Plin. l. 30. cap. 11. It may be posterity by better experience will discover more of their vertues and will not suffer themselves to be perswaded that a creature God hath made so curiously can want rare vertues in Medicaments which he hath bestowed on far baser things according to his goodness unto mankinde Flitter-mice take this for their chief dainties and prefer it before Gnats especially if they can catch them and squeeze them alive A Hee begat me not nor yet did I proceed From any Female but my self I breed For it dies once in a year and from its own corruption like a Phoenix it lives again as Moninus witnesseth by heat of the Su 〈…〉 A thousand summers heat and winters cold When she hath felt and that she doth grow old Her life that seems a burden in a tomb Of spices laid comes younger in her room The second kinde of Nose-horn very rare and worthy to be seen sacred to Mercury Carolus Clusius sent painted from Vienna where it is very frequent the form is as you see it it would seem all pitch colour but that the belly is a full red that crooked horn in the nose is so sharp that what is said of an Elephant going to battle you would think it had got an edge by rubbing it against a rock The third Nose-horn and fourth seem to be alike but that the former hath wings growing out longer than the sheath covers but the others are shorter You would say they were rub'd with shining ink they are so perfectly all over black The Ram or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath knotty horns violet colour a head greenish from gold colour the shoulders like vermilion a purple coloured belly sheath wings of the colour of the head it goes forward with legs and feet of a light red but the wings shut up in the sheath do fitly express the small whitish membrane of a Cane The greater Beetles without horns are many namely that is called Pilularius and another that is called Melolanthes another purple one again that is dark coloured one called Arboreus and another Fullo Some call the Pilularius the dunghill Beetle because it breeds from dung and filth and also willingly dwels there The Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from its form like a cat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Germans Rosskafer Kaat or Mistkafer in English Dung-beetle Sharnbugg in French Fouille merde as you would say Dung-digger the Latines call it Pilularius because it turns up round pills from the dung which it fashions by turning it backwards with its hinder feet Porphyrie doth thus describe the nature of it All your Pilularii have no females but have their generation from the Sun they make great balls with their hinder feet and drive them the contrary way like the Sun it observes a circuit of 28. daies Aelian saith almost the same There is no female Beetle it puts the seed into a round ball of dung which it rowâ—s and heats in 28. daies and so produceth its young They would say thus much that the Beetle called Pilulariâ—â— makes a round ball of the roundness of the Heavens which it turns from East to West so 〈…〉 brought it to the figure of the World afterwards 〈…〉 es it up 〈◊〉 the earth whe 〈…〉 up it lets it remain there fo 〈…〉 when that 〈…〉 by it self which being â—issolved in water 〈…〉 ies it growes up to be a flying 〈…〉 For this 〈…〉 to Apollo and adored it for 〈…〉 mall god by 〈…〉 lected that the likeness of the Sun was given to th 〈…〉 and so he excused the 〈…〉 ustomes of his Countrey Pliny and Plutarch Symp 〈…〉 gue of their family but dung especially of Cow 〈…〉 the smell of them a very great way off they w 〈…〉 â—uddenly to it 〈…〉 of Smel But they 〈…〉 slowly yet they labour continually and exceedingly and delight most of all to produce the 〈…〉 â—oung ones for oft times the little 〈◊〉 bals that they make by the injury of the winds or of the place fall awâ—y and fâ—ll from a high place to the bottome but this Beeâ—â—e de 〈…〉 ing a propagation watcheth with perpe 〈…〉 care and raising this Sisyphian ball to its hold with continual striving and that tumbling back again at length she reduceth it And truly unless it were endued with a kinde of divine soul as all things are full of Gods wonderfulness it would â—aint and be spent in this great contest and would never take this pains any more Some say they die being blinded by the Sun but the most think they are choked by lice that creep all about them they hardly hold out one winter They chiefly delight in the shade of the Ivy-tree as most healthful for them Praxanus in Geopon I have â—et down the form of it so exactly and in its colours for it is all black that I need say no more Beetles first breed from dung saith Johan Langius as the Worms bâ—eed out of rotten wood then their seed being shed into a round ball and the same being enlivened breeds their young ones every one knoweâ— this sufficiently unlesse they live where no dung is for in dunghils they are obvious to every Man Beetles serve for divers uses for they both profit our mindes and they cure some infirmities of our bodies For when this living creature and scarce a living creature for it wants some senses
some black seeds the hairs obtain the colour of the Aurelia which is ashes colour Here we shew you two hedge Catterpillers the greater hath a face Saffron coloured but that triangle you see in place of its nose was Lilly coloured the body is varied with spots white yellow red and black which we have expressed placed in no order it is rough with yellowish hairs it devours the leaves of hedges and makes them naked where at length leaving a bottom of yam of courser silk she drawes her self into a case of a bay colour as into a sepulchre The lesser hath a countenance blewish as also the whole body except that it hath spots black and white it hath hairs of the same colour with the former These have fewer hairs namely Cranesbill-eater Catterpiller St. James wâ—rt Catterpiller Sayl-yard Vrchin Bramble Catterpillers and that little horn beast which the Germans call Horn-worm We have here set down exactly the form and magnitude of the Cranesbill-eater you must make the white spots that adorn its black girdles of an iron colour and paint the belly and feet and the white 〈◊〉 between the girdles with a Leek-green colour C 〈…〉 arius sent this to Pennius with this subscription A great Catterpiller feeding only on wilde herbs and is especially an enemy to Crowfoot Cranesbill in the Marishes The body of the Sayl-yard is various from the head to the third incision you would say he were smeered with chalk in the five following with ashy dark colour and on the three last with white lead the sayls are made of hairs as it were platted together the like stand up at the end of his back like a crest Those four tusts on the back are made of hairs also growing in order like to teeth St. James wort Catterpiller or that which eats the greater Groundsel with the head and feet of a decayed purple colour the belly of a pale green hath the body of an impleasant fading green and adorned with black yellow and fiery coloured spots the colour of the hair agree with the belly I have observed two kindes of Urchins one of a blewish green the other a mingled white The first of the Urchin Catterpillers hath a chequered body varied with black and yellow the thorny bristles seem yellow when Autumn comes it is transformed into an ashy coloured Aurelia The second is perfectly like an Urchin half the back namely the first half is black from yellow the latter is white from yellow it hath pricks very sharp and thick of a grayish colour Nature hath painted the bramble Catterpiller ashy black on both sides with three ridges of a pale yellow colour the hairs are very thin and altogether black There is also the horn Catterpiller who hath many green spots from yellow the hairs bred on the middle of the back are hoary but the horn is notched and red Many diversities there are of these Catterpillers upon the Mullen Hop Pile-wort Bitter-sweet Nightshade Elder Elm Basill Tythimals and almost every herb hath its particular devouring Catterpiller which that I may not prove tedious I overpass as well enough known I never had the hap to see the stinking Catterpiller of Gesner described by him in these words as I have it in writing It is saith he most like the horned Catterpiller but it differs something in the horns and colour I took one creeping on a wall at the end of August in 1550. It sends forth a filthy smell that you would verily believe it were venomous it was angry and with its two forefeet it held the head alwaies upright I think it is blinde it was a finger long and thick it was rough on the back and sides with a few hairs scattering on them the back was black the colour of the belly and sides was reddish from yellow the whole body is distinguished by fourteen distinct knots all these joynts again have a prop or wrinkle over the back it hath a black some-what hard head the mouth is forked and dented or saw-fashioned whatsoever it catcheth with these nippers it bites it it goes on sixteen feet as most of the Catterpillers do without doubt it is venomous Vergerus thought it to be the Pine-Catterpiller others thought it was Scolopendra But its number of feet will not let it be Scolopendra I could scarse endure the smell while I took the description alive it did so infect two stoves with an extreme and intolerable stink that I could not stay to endure it so sayeth Gesner CHAP. IV. Of the original breeding nourishment and change of Catterpillars DEar book the faithfull witnesse of my pain Let not the purple red thy fair cheeks stain Whilest I in tables paint the rude worms race And such as change their skins into a case For these by Gods wise hand created are Which in small things is wonderful and rare And more to be admired in Worms than Whales Or Elephants Leviathan with scales Arm'd as with harnesseâ— strong as iron bars And roars like thunder terrible in wars Who drinks the sea and sâ—ews it up again Compar'd with worms will be admir'd in vain So I shall begin with our Poet who observed a divine power in Catterpillers from their Original which whilest divers Authors have diversly expressed I know not into how great darkness they have cast us Aristot 5. Hist 19. writes that they begin from green leaves of herbs as from Cabbage or Radish namely by a seed like Millet left there in Autumn whence little Worms proceed From these Worms in three daies space Catterpillers breed at the end of the Spring which being augmented and nourished sufficiently they leave off moving and at the beginning of Autumn they change their form and life for an Aurelia Pliny saith that dew thickned by heat of the Sun is left upon the leaves whence he derives all kindes of Catterpillers to whom Arnoldus agrees others say they all come from Butterflies which so soon as they come forth of their Aâ—reliae they thrust forth above or beneath the leaves hard by some eggs the barbarous call them Turds and these are greater or less according to their bodies some of these have blew shels some yellow some white or black green or red in fourteen daies they are hatched by heat of the Sun and the shell breaking they thrust forth small Catterpillers like very small Worms but coloured at first beginning they are very hungry and do nothing but devour leaves and flowers especially of those herbs and plants where they were left in eggs But I should maintain that they are not bred only one way but all these waies for though Aristotles doctrine seems to some not acute enough that the Cabbage little Worm grows to be a Catterpiller yet it is not against reason for as nature from an egg so from a worm she produceth a more perfect living creature as perfecting not as corrupting For though the worm be not that it was before as is clear to sense yet as much as
rather from God himself In the same fashion they enter the lists with land and water Toads and kill them in single fight For not only Pliny and Albertus the Philosopher mention this but also Erasmus in his Dialogue of friendship relates how a certain Monk who slept with open mouth and had a Toad hanging at his lip escaped by assistance of the Spider Oft-times also they enter the stage with the winged Hornet that hath a strong sting and fibres almost of horn who straight by main force breaks through their webs as great rich men do with the Laws yet at last he is wrapt in a more tenacious glew and pays for breaking open their houses and conquer'd in single duel he becomes subject to the Spider I must not passe by their temperance that was once proper to Man but now the Spiders have almost won it from them Who is there now if age will let him who will be content with the love of one and doth not deliver up himself body and soul to wandring lust But the Spider so soon as they grow up choose their mates and never part till death Moreover as they are most impatient of corrivals so they set upon any Adulterers that dare venture upon their Cottages and bite them and drive them away and oft-times justly destroy them Nor doth any one of them attempt to offer violence to the female of another or to assault her chastity So great command have they of their affections so faithful and entire are they in their conjugal love like Turtles If you respect their houshold government what is there more frugal more laborious or more cleanly to be seen in the whole world For they will not suffer the least thread to be lost or placed in vain and they ease themselves by interchangeable work for when the female weaves the male hunts if either be sick the other supplies both offices that they may deserve alike So sometimes the female hunts and the male weaves and this at any time when the one wants the others assistance for we cannot think them so void of mutual love that living so faithful in Matrimony the one should not lend a helping hand to the others necessities and so by mutual courtesie they continues their friendship amongst themselves The female at home being now learned from her Parents to spin and weave as she is wont to do with us she begins her webs and her belly contains all the matter of them whether it be for that at a certain time her entrails are so corrupted as Democritus said or that there is a kinde of woolly fruitfulnesse in her as there is in the Silk-worm Yet Aristotle will have the matter to be without like a thin shell which is drawn in length by spinning and weaving or after the manner of those that shoot out their bristles as the Porcupine However it be they lose not the least end of a thred but they undertake all by providence Their love to their young ones no man can rightly describe but he that loves his children himself For by mutuall incubation they foster their Egges and raise up and increase the heâ—t of them and thouhg oft-times they produce three hundred young ones yet they bring them all up alike to labour sparingnesse discipline and weaving and love them all alike I have oft wondred at their cleanlinesse when I have seen those that were weak and sick to go down to the bottome of their Web out of their dens and exonerate their bellies lest by the filth of their excrements their houses or Web or threds should be polluted And these things shall suffice for their civill and oeconomicall vertues Now let us proceed to their art of making Nets which is so offensive to Pallas for the Scholar exceeded her Mistris in the curiosity of her work First therefore we shall consider the clammy stuffe that drawes like Bird-lime which loseth not its tenaciousnesse by drinesse nor by moysture we said from Pliny that she drawes this stuffe out of her belly But seeing that the males weave also I think on good grounds with our friend Bruerus that it is drawn out of the entrails behinde And since it cannot be exhausted we may wonder at the infinite and endlesse power of God and adore it for it were next to madnesse to assign this to bodily or naturall causes Those Spiders are held to be the best Artificers that work in Autumn and are called Holei they draw a thred that is smaller then any linnen or silk and farre lighter and so pure saith Aelianus that the whole Web wrapt together will scarce make one thred as great as a linnen thred though it be never so small Edwardus Monimus described these both Males and Females very elegantly Heptam l. 7. in these words He hunts at home But she doth weave within her tender loom And jugler-like she from her belly casts Great clewes of yarn and thred which while it lasts She works to make her Nets and every part She frames exactly by Dedalian art Her Web is fastened to the beam the threds Are parted by fit lines at severall heads She works from Centre to circumference The Web is made on both sides for defence Pervious lest when the East-winde doth set Strong it might break this tender wâ—rke and yet The strongest Flie may be held in this Net No sooner can a Flie but shake her thread The male runs to the Centre and his head Peeps forth to catch what comes so is he fed The variety of their Nets is so great that it is not called amisse the Goddesse of a thousand works some of them are looser some thicker some triangular others square some Diamond figures for the commodity of the swiftnesse of hawking But that which is round is commonly wrought between two trees or Reeds and oft times in divers windowes hanged fast with ropes and sail-yards Good God what great reason judgement art what admirable wisdome and beauty she shews Truly we may not suppose amisse to say that Euclides learned to make his figures from hence and Fishermen their Nets for from whence else could they fetch such an example of so curious and laborious a Mistresse So finely is her work besmeared and made so round and exact and so equally ballanced and she doth so work her body in place of a weight and spindle that she may well be compared with Minerva but that the comparison makes me afraid Also the work is so firm though it appear so weak that it will hold Hornets endure force of windes and dust being fallen into it it rather yeelds than breaks or is hurt The manner of her Net-work is this First she drawes her semidiameters to the places circumabient most fit for her work then with no compasse but by a naturall skill of her feet she makes 44 circles with her thread from the center to the circumference by equall parts more distant one from the other Moreover that is worth our
is in pain and it profits much Or presse out the juice of Spiders with juice of Roses and put it in with Wooll Marcellus Empir Pliny bids infuse them in Vinegar or Oyl of Roses and stamp them and then drop some into the ear with Saffron and it will still the pain certainly Dioscorides affirms as much Sostratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith that Cranocolaptes a certain Spider drowned in Oyl is a present remedy against poysons as the Scholiast of Nicander professeth Somecatch a Spider with their left hand and bruise her in Oyl of Roses and drop some of it into the ear of the same side the tooth akes and Pliny saith it is a cure Laid upon their own bites and taken inwardly they help us What should I speak of the Albugo of the eye a most hurtfull disease Yet that is taken away very easily by the help of one Spider if you do but bruise the longest and slenderest feet especially of that kinde of Spiders that are the whitest with Oyl and anoynt the eyes affected with it Pliny Also the running of the eyes is stopped which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the dung and urine of a House Spider dropt in with Oyl of Roses or one dram of Saffron or else laid on alone with Wooll whereby you may know that there is nothing so filthy in a Spider that is not good for something Aetius for suffocation of the mother applyed a Cerate of Spiders to the Navel and saith it did great good Pliny saith that Spiders help the swelling and pain of the spleen but he tells us not his reason He saith moreover that if any man take a Spider coming down with his thread and bruised in the hollow of his hand do lay it to the Navel it will cause a stool but if he takes him climbing up and applies him it stops the belly He writes also that a Spider applyed to one that knowes not of it and taken off the third day will cure a Felon The head and feet being taken away it helps swellings of the Fundament The same Author By the fume of Spiders all the Lice fall down and never breed again Goose-grease and Oyl of Roses with a Spider anoynted on the breasts keeps the milk from curding in them Anonymuss Also that knotty Whip of God and mock of all Physicians the Gowt which learned men say can be cured by no remedy findes help and cure by a Spider layd on if it be taken at that time when neither Sun nor Moon shine and the hinder legs pulled off and put into a Deers skin and bound to the pained foot and be left on it for some time Also for the most part we finde those people to be free from the Gowt of hands or feet which few Medicaments can doe in whose houses the Spiders breed much and doth beautifie them with her Tapestry and hangings Oh the rare miracle of Nature O the wonderfull vertue of a poor contemptible Creature O most happy rich men if they knew many of them how to make use of a thing ready to do them so much good Antoninus Pius was wont to say that the quirks of Sophistry were like to Spiders Webs that had a great deal of art and ingenuity in them but very little profit But how often hath the bloud run forth of the body most miserably by a fresh wound yet it had been easie to have stopt it by laying on a Spiders Web something thick and binding it fast on were we but more attentive to look to such remedies that God affords us in our houses But we are greedy after forain remedies fetcht from farre as if they were better that we bring with great pains from the farthest Indies or more healthfull because of their greater cost But unlesse mad affection did drive us as if we were Gad-stung through all the places of Sea or Land to finde remedies to stop bloud cure Ulcers hinder corruption drive away inflamation knit wounds One Spiders Web would do more good than Sercocolla Sandaraca Bole brought from Armenia Terra Sigillata Argilla Samia Terra Lemnia For it bindes cools dries glutinares and will let no putrefaction continue long there wherefore it suddenly stops all bleeding at the nose as also bleeding of the Emrods and bloud in a Dysentery Menstrual bloud and all over great evacuations of bloud by the opening of the mouths of the veins whether you give it alone with wine inwardly and lay it on outwardly or else mingle it with Bloud-stone Crocus Martis and other things of that kinde Also the Spiders web is put into the Unguent against Tetters and applyed to the swellings of the Fundament it consumes them without pain Marcel Emp. Also Pliny saith it cures runnings of the Eyes and layd on with Oyl it heals up wounds in the joynts Some rather use the ashes of the webs with Polenta and wine Our Chirurgians cure warts thus They wrap a Spiders ordinary web into the fashion of a Ball and laying it on the wart they set it on fire and so let it burn to ashes by this means the wart is rooted out by the roots and will never grow again Marcellus Empiricus was wont to use the webs of Spiders sound in the Cypress tree in a remedy for the Gowt to ease the pains For the Tooth-ache Galen 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Archigenes commends highly Spiders Egges mingled with Spike Oyl and put into the tooth Also Kiranides gives Spiders Egges to drink against a Tertian whence we conclude with Galen ad Pison From the Spiders web we may understand enough that Nature hath made nothing so vile but thâ—t it serveth for its necessary use if so be Physitians would use more diligence and would not disdaign to enter into the wood of such things as are easie to attain Now I will proceed to other things least if I stay too long in the History of the Spiders I may indeed be said to weave the Spiders web yet I will add this that Munkeys Apes Stellions Lizards Wasps Ichneumons Swallows Sparrows Muskins Hedge-sparrows feed on Spiders And the Nightingale that is the chief of singing Birds is cured from some diseases by eating of Spiders When Alexander reigned it is reported that there was a very beautifull Strumpet in Alexandria that fed alwayes from her childehood on Spiders and for that reason the King was admonished that he should be very carefull not to embrace her least he should be poysoned by venome that might evaporate from her by sweat Albertus also makes mention of a certain Noble Mayd of Collen that was fed with Spiders from her childehood And we in England have a great Lady yet living who as we said before will not leave off eating of them I cannot but repeat a history that I formerly heard from our dear friend worthy to be believed Bruerus A lustfull Nephew of his having spent his estate in rioting and Brothel-houses being ready to undertake any
Roses cures Kibe-heels Marcellus Serenus saith that when the nerves are cut in sunder it is good to lay on Earth-worms bruised with Hogs-grease that is old and rank Marcellus Empiricus adds Groundsel to the Hogs-grease and Earth-worms with the tender tops of Box with Frankincense and this he laies on the nerves cut or pain'd Pliny saith that the ashes of these and of a wilde Mouse laid on for a plaister with oyl of Roses is excellent for broken bones For the great pains of Horses in their nerves or joynts to help them Russius Absyrtus Didymus collect a great number of Earth-worms whence Cardan gathers that they will ease all pains Mundella affirms that contraction of the nerves will be cured if you anoint them with oyl of Camomil that is well replenished with Worms Marcellus saith that the same is done with Honey and Worms as before Aetius saith without doubt they are an excellent remedy for the Gowt boyled in oyl and a little wax so saith Marcellus but he sometimes mingles Honey with them Vigo for pains in the joynts makes a plaister of these and Frogs to which he adds Vipets-grease For pains of the joynts Take ashes of Worms iij. ounces oyl of Roses or Foxes what may suffice mingle them to an ointment Another that is singular Take the marrow of a Calfs leg compleat and old oyl of Roses iij. ounces Earth-worms cleansed with Wine and Salt ij ounces let them boyl in Balneo to the consistence of a Mucilage with this anoint the neck shoulders and the places where the pain is for it gives great help Pliny Marcellus anoints them with Honey and then he laies on the Mucilage prepared When any part is wasted and receives no nutriment cleansed Worms must be put into a glass very well luted that nothing may breathe forth and so set in a warm oven or in Balneo and they will then resolve into a clammy moisture an admirable remedy and approved for the Palsie of the limbs Take the ashes of tender Earth-worms iij. pounds Ginger Galanga of each iij. ounces with clarified Honey incorporate them for an Unguent with this for three nights together anoint the Patient binding his arms forcibly over his belly or stomach then cover him warm and let him beware of cold Jacobus de parma To drive away hoary hairs women use these ashes mingled with oyl whilest they comb their head as Pliny saith to whom Serenus subscribes in these verses Earth-worms and oyl of Olives free from cares They will preserve a man from hoary hairs We said before how they cure the Tooth-ache But further the powder of them rubb'd on will preserve the sound teeth and being injected will make rotten teeth though it be a grinder to fall forth especially if the tooth be first scarified and fill'd with powder well sprinkled on it Aetius Gal. 5. sec loc bids us do almost the same out of Archigenes Also they are good with the root of Mulberries boyled in Vinegar of Squils to wash the teeth For purulent Ears poured in with oyl they help much as Galen thinks and cure their inflamations being boyled with oyl of Roses Aetius If that your hearing fail an old disease Is cur'd with Earth-worms boyled with Ducks grease Serenus Myrepsus bruiseth Worms with some small quantity of the earth from whence they were taken and works them together and anoints that upon ears that are bruised Marcellus bruiseth them with oyl of Roses Celsus with oyl of Olives Faventinus for pains of the ears anointeth the outward parts with oyl of Earth-worms and also pours it into the inward parts Marcellus bids to bruise Leeks not planted but sowed odd in number and as many Worms together and boyl these in the best Oyl to thirds and he saith that this oyl put into the ears is very good for their greatest pains and deafness Abinzoar cures clefts of the hands and feet with oyl of Earth-worms For an old pain of the head they are held very excellent bruised with Vinegar Frankincense and Castoreum Galen for the same prepares in his Euporists such a Remedy Take xv Earth-worms as many grains of Pepper Vinegar what is sufficient mingle them smeer them on Another Take Earth-worms Mouse-dung white Pepper Myrrhe each half an ounce bruise and mingle them with Vinegar and anoint that part of the head that the pain lies on Myrepsus will have the Worms to be odd and to be taken only with the left hand and so superstitiously anointed If thou wouldst try saith Marcellus whether a swelling in thy neck be the Kings-evill lay a live Worm upon each swelling if it be a scrophulous tumour each Worm will turn to earth if not he will be alive and receive no hurt so saith Pliny also Earth-worms are a part of that noble Plaister of Arnoldus 2 Breviarii of a Rams skin or the bloud of a man that is red against the Rupture and Hollerius commends it to cure Enterocele and Epiplocele They also diminish the Stone both taken inwardly as also anointed on the share somewhat thick Gal. What concerns womens diseases bound to the neck they retain the birth but contrarily applied to the hips they draw the birth out and the secundine for they draw mightily wheresoever they are applied living Plin. Inflamations of the breasts Earth-worms alone laid on will cure for they concoct open draw forth and heal Alex. Benedict So Myrepsus makes a plaister of them bruised Lay on Earth-worms with Quinces or with dried Barley flour upon Breasts hardned or inflamed Aetius But if after delivery womens breasts swell and to use the words of Serenus If the swoln breasts do feel great pain Smeer them with Earth-worms 't will help them amain For they will concoct the Impostumes and suppurations of the breasts and after concoction will heal them and void out the matter For the Shingles the Indians saith Carolus Clusius make an unguent thus Take Earth-worms and feed them some time with leaves fine flour or flour and milk and when they are grown fat boyl them in an earthen vessel alwaies scumming them when they are strained boyl them again to the consistence almost of a plaister which well prepared will be almost of a yellow colour dissolve some part of this in distilled water of Roses and wash the part affected with it twice a day A most excellent remedy saith Clusius and proved by very long experience Pliny saith they will do the same in Vinegar who together with Aetius and Myrepsus affirms that Worms bruised and laid on the place a Scorpion hath stung are an admirable remedy for they presently ease the pain and correct the malignity of the tumour Oâ—l of Earth-worms is known by all to be good against divers infirmities and the Ancients made it thus Take Earth worms half a pound Oyl of Roses Omphacine two pound the best white wine two ounces let them boyl in balneo till the wine be consumed This cures the nerves relaxed contracted astonished cut in sunder or cooled
gnash their teeth wink with their eyes they will be very silent and are angry with those that rowse them up the balks of their cheeks in a short time are sometimes red sometimes wan-coloured If the Worms run up to the stomach they cause nauseating gnawing and want of appetite and if the sick are forced to eat they scarse can swallow it and if they swallow it down they vomit it up again they void many corruptions of meat by their bellies and they are swoln like a drum the rest of the body growes unreasonable lean not by reason of hunger nor immoderate evacuations These things happen when these creatures creep and gnaw in the belly A feaverish heat sends up ill vapours to the brain that arise from putrid moisture collected in the stomach So writes Paulus But Aetius out of Herodotus writes thus Those that are troubled with Worms have a most cruel pain of their stomach and bellies and they have a little frequent tickling cough and yet they spit up nothing iâ— their sleep they shiver and rise preternaturally some again put out their tongues and shut their eyes and are silent and cannot endure to be rowsed and cannot watch for weakness some have their eyes bloudshed their pulses unequal obscure deficient and recurrent some want an appetite children whilest they sleep bite their tongues and move their mouthes as if they sucked or eat meat But these things are done for a short time and by circuits Moreover some children besides reason rise with crying and presently fall down again some crash their teeth which it seems happens when the Worms suck and gnaw their bellies and guts And now it appears that some are come up into the stomach and cause loathing and bitings oft-times also by themselves they are cast upward but sometimes with some flegmatick humour Some Infants neglected lose their motion and are benummed and like those that are in a swound they sweat a cold thin humour and most commonly they are wan-coloured sometimes the face will be red especially about the cheeks but this colour again is changed into more than ordinary paleness Others again like dotards speak strange words in their sleep others change their places they 〈…〉 y on still sleeping and they are vexed and turn from place to place but very few of those do cry for most of them are void of reason and are silent Also they that are vexed with round Worms loath their meat and if they eat any thing they cast it up again or â—oath it so much they can hardly swallow it for they fall into Feavers with vehement cold in the outward parts some have their bellies swoln like a drum So saith Aetius But these are the marks he reckons from Hippocrates opinion Worms in the belly are discovered by these marks If they be sleepy and the disease will not let them and their outward parts be cold and there be gnawing at their hearts the urine troubled and the tongue full of moisture also they that have Worms in their stomach are full of spittle and if any little Worm comes forth they spit no more therefore all those that have Worms in the mouth of their stomach do commonly cast them up all by vomit but those that have belly Worms void them by siege But they all nauseate and vomit up what they take in They are like to those that are pricked that have contractions all over their bodies and move suddenly and confusedly and they have torments and pains of their guts Vapours carried to the head cause Vertigoes Moreover the manner of diet that the party used will shew the generation of Worms and all the rest These are the signs of round Worms but all these signs must not be sought for in every one as Paulus saith but some and the principal of them I might joyn here many things out of our new writers unless what they say and more also were not to be found in Avicenna whence they borrowed it Paulus gives us these notes of broad Worms sometimes they abound in those that have Feavers and sometimes in those that have none In Chronical diseases they breed gnawing the stomach and causing a greedy appetite They eat the meat so fast that we need more and if it be not present they bite shrewdly the body growes lean and weak and unequal But the most certain sign is that some bodies like Gourd-seeds come forth with our excrements so saith Paulus and Aetius doth not differ from him but that he saith that they gnaw the stomach continually and cause an insatiable appetite and that the meats eaten soon turn to excrements They that are affected grow weak of body and sluggish and are alwaies hungry for what is living in the guts when it hath consumed the meat feeds on the body but this sign will not fail us if some things like Gourd-seeds be voided by stool The signs Hippocrates gives are these He writes after this fashion There is another kinde of this that comes forth like the white shavings of the guts which hath these marks The party voids seed like Cucumer-seed and when he is fasting he is vexed and spits much his liver being affected sometimes not and sometimes when this vehemently affects his liver it stops his speech and he spits much and after that it stops and sometimes there is great pains in the guts sometimes the shoulders ake and then it stops again Sometimes these are the signs of the broad Worms He that is affected with this Worm is almost alwaies in health but when he growes weak he can hardly endure it or be recovered For this broad Worm takes some part of those things that go down into the stomach and if care be taken it may be cured but if not the Worm will not come forth it self nor doth it kill a man but growes old with him c. Ascarides are alwaies about the bottome of the belly as we said and there they cause a great itching almost continually as Paulus and Aetius have written and sometimes as it is reported they will make one faint For that is shewed by their name For they moving alwaies do continually exercise a man and tire him out They that are troubled with these feel alwaies a heaviness about their Praecordia and backs The signs of these are chiefly taken from the filthy smelling of the excrements They that have Worms their eyes at first shine their cheeks are wan in the night they have cold sweats their mouth is pale they start in their sleep in the day they are more feaverish their tongues and are dry lips their breath commonly stinks their face is pale they nauseate and vomit often they loath meat they crash their teeth especially in the night they put forth their tongues and they seem to eat they are angry with those that awake them they speak strange words sometimes they are in a lethargy and pick straws and their heads ake they cry out in their
after a shipwrack swimming to land was seen by a Countrey-man and thinking him to be a man in the water gave him his hand to save him yet in the mean time asked him what Countreyman he was who answered he was an Athenian well said the man dost thou know Piraeus which was a port in Athens very well said the Ape and his wife friends and children where at the man being moved did what he could to drown him They keep for the most part in Caves and hollow places of hils in rocks and trees feeding upon Apples and Nuts but if they find any bitterness in the shell they cast all away They eat Lice and pick them out of heads and garments They will drink wine till they be drunk but if they drink it oft they grow not great specially they lose their nails as other Quadrupedes do They are best contented to sit aloft although tied with chains They are taken by laying for them shoos and other things for they which hunt them will anoint their eyes with water in their presence and so departing leave a pot of lime or hony in stead of the water which the Ape espying cometh and anointeth her eyes therewith and so being not able to see doth the hunter take her If they lay shoos they are leaden ones too heavy for them to wear wherein are made such devises of gins that when once the Ape hath put them on they cannot be gotten off without the help of man So likewise for little bags made like breeches wherewithal they are deceived and taken They bring forth young ones for the most part by twins whereof they love the one and hate the other that which they love they bear in their armes the other hangeth at the damns back and for the most part she killeth that which she loveth by pressing it too hard afterward she setteth her whole delight upon the other The Egyptians when they describe a Father leaving his inheritance to his Son that he loveth not picture an Ape with her young one upon her back The male and female abide with the young one and if it want any thing the male with fist and ireful aspect punisheth the female When the Moon is in the wane they are heavie and sorrowful which in that kind have tails but they leap and rejoyce at the change for as other Beasts so do these fear the defect of the Stars and Planets They are full of dissimulation and imitation of man they readilyer follow the evill then the good they see They are very fierce by nature and yet tamed forget it but still remain subject to madness They love Conies very tenderly for in England an old Ape scarse able to go did defend tame Conies from the Weasel as Sir Thomas More reported They fear a shell fish and a Snail very greatly as appeareth by this History In Rome a certain Boy put a Snail in his hat and came to an Ape who as he was accustomed leaps upon his shoulder and took off his hat to kill Lice in his head but espying the Snail it was a wonder to see with what haste the Ape leaped from the Boys shoulder and in trembling manner looked back to see if the Snail followed him Also when a Snail was tied to the one end of another Apes chain so that he could not chuse but continually look upon it one cannot imagine how the Ape was tormented therewith finding no means to get from it cast up whatsoever was in his stomach and fell into a grievous Fever till it was removed from the Snail and refreshed with wine and water Gardane reporteth that it was an ancient custom in former time when a Parricide was executed he was after he was whipped with bloudy stripes put into a sack with a live Serpent a Dog an Ape and a Cock by the Serpent was signified his extreme malice to mankind in killing his Father by the Ape that in the likeness of man he was a Beast by the Dog how like a Dog he spared none no not his own Father and by a Cock his hateful pride and then were they all together hurl'd headlong into the Sea That he might be deemed unworthy of all the Elements of life and other blessings of nature A Lion ruleth the Beasts of the Earth and a Dolphin the Beasts of the Sea when the Dolphin is in age and sickness she recovereth by eating a Sea-ape and so the Lion by eating an Ape of the earth and therefore the Egyptians paint a Lion eating an Ape to signifie a sick man curing himself The heart of an Ape sod and dryed whereof the weight of a groat drunk in a draught of stale Hony sod in water called Melicraton strengthneth the heart emboldneth it and driveth away the pulse and pusillanimity thereof sharpeneth ones understanding and is soveraign against the salling evill The MUNKEY They are bred in the hils of Constance in the woods of Bugia and Mauritania In Aethiopia they have black heads hair like Asses and voices like to other In India they report that the Munkeys will clime the most steep and high rocks and fling stones at them that prosecute to take them When the King of Ioga in India for Religion goeth on Pilgrimage he carryeth with him very many Munkeys In like sort Munkeys are brought from the new found Lands from Calechut and Prasia and not far from Aden a City of Arabia is a most high hill abounding in these beasts who are a great hinderance to the poor vintagers of the Countrey of Calechut for they will climb into the high Palm trees and breaking the vessels set to receive the Wine pour forth that liquor they find in them they will eat hearbs and grain and ears of grasse going together in great flocks whereof one ever watcheth at the utmost bounds of their camp that he may cry out when the husbandman cometh and then all flying and leaping into the next trees escape away the females carry their young ones about with them on their shoulders and with that burden leap from tree to tree There be of this kind of Munkeys two sorts one greater the other lesser as is accounted in England and Munkeys are in like sort so divided that there be in all four kinds differing in bigness whereof the least is little bigger then a Squirrel and because of their marvellous and divers mowings movings voices and gestures the Englishmen call any man using such Histrionical Actours a Munkey The only difference betwixt these and other Apes aforesaid is their tail they differ from men in their nerves in the joints of their loynes and their processes and they want the third muscle moving the fingers of their hands Mammonets are lesse then an Ape brown on the back and white on the belly having a long and hairy tail his neck almost so big as his body for which cause they are tied by
the hips that they slip not collar They have a round head a face like a man but black and bald on the crown his nose in a reasonable distance from his mouth like a mans and not continued like an Apes his stones greenish blew like a Turkey stone They are caught after the manner of Apes and being tamed and taught they conceive and work very admirable feats and their skins pulled off them being dead are dressed for garments The foolish Arabians dedicated Memnonius cercopitheous unto heaven and in all afflictions implored his aid There is one other kind of Munkeys whose tail is only hairy at the tip called Cercolipis The CEPUS or Martine Munkey THe Martin called Cepus of the Greek word Kepos which Aristotle writeth Kebos and some translate Caebus some Cephus or Cepphus or more barbarously Celphus the Latines sometimes Ortus for indeed this kind of Ape in his best estate is like * a garden set with divers flowers and therefore the best kind of them is discerned and known by the sweetest favour such being alwayes the most ingenious imitators of men It is very probable that this name Cepus is derived of the Hebrew Koph and Kophin signifying Apes in general as is before said but yet this kind is distinguished from other by Strabo Aelianus and Pliny although Aristotle doth make no difference betwixt this and another ordinary Munkey The games of great Pompey first of all brought these Martines to the sight of the Romans and afterward Rome saw no more they are the same which are brought out of Aethiopia and the farthest Arabia their feet and knees being like a mans and their fore-feet like hands their inward parts like a mans so that some have doubted what kind of creature this should be which is in part a man and yet a Four-footed beast it having a face like a Lion and some part of the body like a Panther being as big as a wilde Goat or Roe-buck or as one of the Dogs of Erithrea and a long tail the which such of them as have tasted flesh wil eat from their own bodies Concerning their colour howsoever they are not all alike for some are black with white spots having a greater voice then others some yellow some Lion-tauny some golden-yellow and some cole-black yet for the most part the head and back parts to the tail are of a fiery colour with some golden hair aspersed among the residue a white snowt and certain golden strakes like a collar going about the neck the inferiour parts of the neck down to the breast and the forefeet are white their two dugs as big as a mans hand can gripe are of a blewish colour and their belly white their hinder legs black and the shape of their snout like a Cynochephale which may be the difference betwixt Aelianus and Strabo their Cepus and Aristotles Cebus for nature many times bringeth forth like beasts which are not of the same kind In England there was a Martine that had his back and sides of a green colour having here and there white hair the belly chin and beard which was round white the face and shins black and the nose white being of the lesser kind for in bigness it exceeded not a Coney Some of them in Aethiopia have a face like a Satyre and other members in part resembling a Bear and in part a Dog so are the Prasian Apes This Martine did the Babylonians inhabiting neer Memphis for the stangeness the colour and shape thereof worship for a God They are of evill disposition like Apes and therefore we will spare both their pictures and further description finding very little of them in Histories worth commemoration The Ape CALITRICH THe Calitrich so called by reason of his beard and may be termed in English a bearded Ape will live no other where then in Ethiopia and India which are easie to take but very hard to bring away alive into these Countrys They differ in appearance from all other Apes having a long beard and a large tail hairy at the end being in India all white which the Indians hunt with darts and being tamed they are so apt to play that a man would think they were created for no other purpose whereupon the Grecians use in proverbe an Ape having a beard for a ridiculous and foolish jesting man Of the Prasyan Apes MEgasthenes saith Aelianus and Strabo writeth of Apes in Prasia a Region in India which are no lesse then great Dogs and five cubits high having hair like a Man coming forth of their forehead and beards being altogether white except their tails which are two cubits and a half long very like a Lions and unto a simple man it might seem that their tufts of hair were artificially trimmed thought it grow naturally Their beard is much like a Satyres and although their body be white yet is their head and tip of their tail yellow so that the Martins before mentioned seem to be affianced to these These Prasyan Apes live in Mountains and Woods and yet are they not wilde but so tame that oftentimes in great multitudes they come down to the Gates and Suburbs of Latagis where the King commandeth them dayly sodden Rice for their food which they eat and being filled return again to their home and usuall places of harbour in great moderation doing no harme to any thing While he was in the ship bound with chains other of the company having been on land to forrage brought out of the Marishes a Bore which Bore was shewed to the Munkey at the first sight either of other set up their bristles the raging Munkey leapeth upon the Bore and windeth his tail round about the Bore and with the one arme which he had left caught him and held him so fast by the throat that he stifled him There is another kind of Munkey for stature bignesse and shape like a Man for by his knees secret parts and face you would judge him a wilde man such as inhabit Numidia and the Lapones for he is altogether overgrown with hair no creature except a man can stand so long as he he loveth women and children dearly like other of his own kind and is so venereous that he will attempt to ravish women whose Image is here described as it was taken forth of the book of the description of the holy Land Of the CYNOCEPALE or BABOUN CYnocephales are a kind of Apes whose heads are like Dogs and their other parts like a mans wherefore Gaza translateth them Canicipites to wit dog-heads In the French German and Illyrian tongues they are called of some Babion and Babuino in Italian is a small kind of Ape but Aristotle saith that a Cynocephale is bigger then an Ape In English they are called Babouns There are many kinds of Baboons whereof some are much given to fishing so that they will tarry
wound to be judged by the eye unto those parts that are next the entrails as the heart liver and the rest They weave their webs after a fine and exquisite manner as Spiders do drawing out in length framing and trimming in good order their hairy small threads And under these when â—ight draweth on they lie as in their own proper tent and pavillion aswell to avoid cold as the 〈…〉 mmodities of furious blasts and storms for the matter and substance of this their tent is so handsomely wrought so firm stiffe clammy and sure that they neither care for furious windes nor yet any rain or storm will ever sole through Besides the largenesse of this house is such and of so great receit as it will easily receive and lodge many thousands of Caterpillers They make their nests or buildings in the highest branches of the Pitch and Pine-trees where they live not solitarily as other Palmer-worms do but in flocks or companies together Which way soever they take their journey they are still spinning and drawing out their threads for their web and early in the morning if it be likely to prove fair the younger sort by heaps attend the elder and having first bared and robbed the trees of all their boughs and leaves for they make clean riddance of all wheresoever they come they afterwards dexterously bend themselves to their weaving craft They are the only plague and destruction of Pitch and Pine-trees for unto any other roziny or gummy trees they never do harm There is great plenty of them to be found in the Mountain of Athos situate betwixt Macedonia and Thrace in the Woods of Trident and in divers Valleys beyond the Alpes in which places there is store of these fore-named trees as Matthiolus saith They are doubtlesse most poysonous and venomous vermine whether they be crushed outwardly with the hands or taken inwardly into the body yea they are so known manifest and so never failing a poyson and so esteemed of in times past as that Vlpian the famous Lawyer interpreting the Law Cornelia de Sicariis or privy murtherers that he in that place calleth and esteemeth the giver of any Pityocampie in drink or otherwise to any one to be doomed a murtherer and their punishment to be equallized Sect. Alium ff ad Leg. Corn. de sic As soon as this kinde of Caterpiller is received into the body there followeth immediately a great pain extremely tormenting the mouth and palate the tongue belly and stomach are grievously inflamed by their corroding and gnawing poysonous quality besides the intolerable pain the receiver feeleth although at first the party seemeth to feel a certain pleasant itching but it is not long before he perceiveth a great burning within loathing and detesting of meat and a continual desire to vomit and go to the stool which neverthelesse he cannot do At length unlesse speedy succour be given they so miserably burn and parch the body that they bring a hard crustinesse skurffe or scald upon the stomach as though the sides thereof had been plastered with some hard shards or other like things after the manner of Arsenick as Dioscorides Aetius Pliny and Celsus do assure us In like manner Galen in his eleventh Book Simp. cap. 50. and Avicen 505. cap. 25. have testified the same And for this cause Aetius and Aegineta do say that it is nothing wholesome for any to sit down â—o meat to spread the Table or make any long tariance under any Pine tree lest peradventure through the savour or smell of the meats the reek or vapour of their broaths or noise of men the Pityocampies being disturbed from their homes and usual resting places might fall down either into their meats beneath or at least-wise cast down or let fall any of their seed as poysonous as themselves They that receive hurt by them must have recourse to those preservatives and medicines as were prescribed to those that were poysoned by Cantharides for by them they are to be cured and by no other means Yet for all that Oyl of Quinces is properly commended to vomit withall in this case which must be taken twice or thrice even by the prescript of Dioscorides and Aetius They are generated or to speak more aptly they are regenerated after the manner of Vine-fretters which are a kinde of Caterpillers or little hairy Worms with many feet that eat Vines when they begin to shoot of that Autumnal seed of theirs left and reserved in certain small bags or bladders within their webs There is another sort of these Caterpillers who have no certain place of abode nor yet cannot tell where to finde their food but like unto superstitious Pilgrims do wander and stray hither and thither and like Mice consume and eat up that which is none of their own and these have purchased a very apt name amongst us Englishmen to be called Palmer-worms by reason of their wandering and roguish life for they never stay in one place but are ever wandering although by reason of their roughnesse and ruggednesse some call them Bear-worms They can by no means endure to be dieted and to feed upon some certain herbs and flowers but boldly and disorderly creep over all and tast of all plants and trees indifferently and live as they list There are sundry other sorts of these Cankers or Caterpillers to be found in the herbs called Cranesbil Ragwort Petie-mullen Hops Coleworts Hasels Marigolds Fennil Lycorice Basil Alder Nightshade Water-betony Garden-spurge and other sorts of that herb in Elm-trees Pear-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 known of all though perhaps not of all observed I will lest I should seem to be infinite passe over with silence But yet I will adde a word or two of a strange and stinking Caterpiller which it was never my hap as yet to see described by Conradus Gesner in these words following This stinking Caterpiller saith he is very like to those that are horned but yet it wanteth horns differing from them all in colour I first espyed it creeping upon a wall toward the end of August Anno 1550. there cometh from it a lothsome and an abominable savour and smell so that you would verily believe it to be very venomous It went forwards very frowningly and with a quick angry and despightful countenance as it were in bending wise the head always stretched up a loft with the two former feet I judge her to be blinde She was the length and breadth of a mans finger with a few scattering and rugged hairs somewhat bristly and hard both on her back and sides the back was very black the colour of her belly and sides was somewhat red enclining to yellow and the whole body was distinguished divided and easily discerned with fourteen joynts or knots and every joynt had a certain furrow like a kinde of wrinckle running all
along the back Her head was black and somewhat hard her mouth crookedly bending like hooks having teeth notched like a saw and with these teeth as with pincers or nippers whatsoever she laid hold on she as famished did bite She went on sixteen feet as for the most part all the sorts of Palmer-worms do Without doubt she must be concluded to be exceeding venomous The learned man Vergerus took it to be a Pityocampe and others thought it a Scolopendra but that could not be by reason of the number of her feet I could hardly with much ado endure her tile smell till I had drawn out her description She so infected two Hot-houses with her abominable savour and stink that my self and they that were with me could not endure in the place Thus far Gesner as I have to shew out of certain scroles of paper of his never as yet imprinted Now will I proceed to discourse of the original generation aliment and metamorphosis of Caterpillers Chare liber nostrûm testis benefide laborum Ne tua purpureo suffuderis ora rubore Agrestes abacis tineas si expressero nostris Vermiculosque levem qui in thecam vellera mutant Hi siquidem artificis prudenti pollice Divi Finguntur tenui qui non tenuatur opella Et qui vermiculis dextrae miranda potentis Signa suae prodit potius quam corpore vasti Molifero Barrhi tumido vel robore Ceti Squamantisque aliis qui lata per aequora tentant Fulmineas sine mente minas nostra profundó Lintea qua mergant largo mare gutture ructant Which may be Englished thus Deer Book a witnesse of my labour true Be not ashamed to write of little worms Nor Caterpillers which from base things ensue And into easie cases again returns For these are fram'd by hand of God most wise Never abased in any work so small For out of Worms his wonders do arise As well as from great Beasts so tall Tower bearing Elephant huge Whale And other monsters swimming in the Seas Ireful beasts in hills and deepest dale Death threatning to all that them displease For so I think it best to begin with the â—erses of a good Poet who indeed did see and admire the inscrutable wisdom and divine Providence of the Almighty in the generation and breeding of Caterpillers Which whilest divers Authors laboured to expresse and set down diversly I know not what clowds of errors they have thrust us into for swarving themselves besides the way although they pretend a matchlesse understanding in these mysteries of Philosophy they have caused others to tread awry as much as themselves and to be blinded with the mascarados of absurdities And first if we will begin to rifle in the monument of former times I will here produce Aristotles opinion in his fifth Book Histor. cap. 19. who there expresly saith that they take their beginning from the green leaves of herbs and namely of Radish and Coleworts by means of their small seed of generation being like unto Millet-seed which is there left about the end of Autumn from which female Worms proceed and of these little Worms in the space of three days a Caterpiller is formed about the Spring time or toward the later end thereof which growing to their due quantity and well fed withall they cease at length from any further motion and when Autumn beginneth they change both form and life Pliny is of this minde that Caterpillers fetch all their pedegree race parentage and birth from a dew thickned and incrassated by the heat of the Sun and so still left behinde in leaves and Arnoldus de Villa nova is of the same judgement Othersome derive them wholly from Butter-flies and will have them to proceed of no other beginning which as soon as they are crept out of their hard shells or scabbards wherein they had lain as it were dead all the Winter assoon as Summer and warm weather draweth on they cast certain eggs either under or above the leaves of certain herbs which egges according to the quantity of their bodies are either greater or lesser and some of these shells wherein they are included are of a sky colour others yellow white black green or red and so being at length about fourteen days quickned and nourished with the lively and kindely heat of the Sun their shell-house being broken first cometh forth small Caterpillers like unto little Worms saving that they are diversly coloured who at their first appearance being as it should seem very hungry do altogether bend themselves to devour and eat up both leaves and flowers especially of those trees and plants whereon they were whilest they were in egges But I am of opinion that not only this but by divers other ways and means they may proceed and increase for although the doctrine of Aristotle in this point seemeth to be unsavoury and nothing relishing divers tastes because he affirmeth that that little Worm which is found upon Coleworts doth turn into a Caterpiller yet for all that it is not so much without smack of salt or so abhorrent to reason as they would make some believe For Nature as she is able and doth produce and bring forth a living creature from an Egge so likewise from a Worm she breedeth a more perfect living creature by many degrees and that not by way of corruption but by way and means of her excellent perfection For although a Worm afterwards be not that thing which before it was so far as is apparent to outward sense yet for any thing we can gather or perceive it is that which it was and this That is more by a great deal now then before it was For a Worm dyeth not that a Caterpiller may thereby spring but to the old body Nature addeth a greater magnitude as for example feet colours wings so that whilest life remianeth it acquireth other parts and other offices There be some also that deride the opinion of Pliny because he contendeth that Caterpillers have their beginning and production from dew But it may not be denyed in my conceit that some imperfect small creatures are bred and take life from dew and not without great reason For the Sun by his kindely heat and warming quality worketh and acteth being as it were the form and the moisture or humor is Passive as the matter or the subject for the heat of the Sun is different from that of the fire for it either quickneth and inspireth with life or at least-wise conserveth and maintaineth our life by means of likenesse proportion or symmetry wherein our lives and spirits respect each other Besides there is nothing more nourishing then Dew for with it only some certain small creatures are fed and do thereby live which thing the divine Poet very well observed when he uttered these words Quantum nos nocte reponit So that in respect that it is humour it is matter in respect it is thin it pierceth and easily entreth in and in respect it
his famous success in hunting and that afterward the Goddess taking pity on him translated him into heaven Others write again that he had his eyes put out by Oenopion and that he came blind into the Island Lemnos where he received a horse of Vulcan upon which he rode to the Sun-rising in which journey he recovered again his eye-sight and so returning he first determined to take revenge upon Oenopion for his former cruelty Wherefore he came into Greet and seeking Oenopion could not finde him because he was hid in the earth by his Citizens but at last coming to him there came a Scorpion and killed him for his malice rescuing Oenopion These and such like fables are there about the death of Orion but all of them joyntly agree in this that Orion was slain by a Scorpion And so saith Anthologius was one Panopaeus a Hunter There is a common adage Cornix Scorpium a Raven to a Scorpion and it is used against them that perish by their own inventions when they set upon others they meet with their matches as a Raven did when it preyed upon a Scorpion thus described by Alciatus under his title Justa ultio just revenge saying as followeth Raptabat volucer captum pede corvus in auras Scorpion audacipraemia parta gulae Ast ille infuso sensim per membra veneno Raptorem in stygias compulit ultor aquas O risu res digna aliis qui fata parabat Ipse periit propriis succubuitque dolis Which may be Englished thus The ravening Crow for prey a Scorpion took Within her foot and therewithall aloft did flie But he impoyson'd her by force and stinging stroke So ravener in the Stygian Lake did die O sportfull game that he which other for bellyes sake did kill By his own decreis should fall into deaths will There be some learned Writers who have compared a Scorpion to an Epigram or rather an Epigram to a Scorpion because as the sting of the Scorpion lyeth in the tayl so the force and vertue of an Epigram is in the conclusion for vel acriter et salse mordeat vel jucunde dulciter delectes that is either let it bite sharply at the end or else delight pleasingly There be many wayes of bringing Scorpions out of their holes and so to destroy and take them as we have already touched in part unto which I may adde these that follow A perfume made of Oxe-dung also Storax and Arsenick And Pliny writeth that ten Water-crabs beaten with Basil is an excellent perfume for this purpose and so is the ashes of Scorpions And in Padua they use this art with small sticks or straw they touch and make a noyse upon the stones and morter wherein they have their nests then they thinking them to be some flies for their meat instantly leap out and so the man that deluded them is ready with a pair of tongs or oâ—â—er instrument to lay hold upon them and take them by which means they take many and of them so taken make Oyl of Scorpions And Constantius writeth that if a mans hand be well anoynted with juice of Radish he may take them without danger in his bare hand In the next place we are to proceed to the venom and poyson of Scorpions the instrument or sting whereof lyeth not only in the tail but also in the teeth for as Ponzettus writeth Laedit scorpius morsu et ictu the Scorpion harmeth both with teeth and tail that is although the greatest harm do come by the sting in the tayl yet is there also some that cometh by their biting This poyson of Scorpions as Pliny out of Apollodorus writeth is white and in the heat of the day is very fervent and plentifull so as at that time they are insatiably and unquenchably thirsty for not only the wilde or wood Scorpion but also all other are of a hot nature and the symptomes of their bitings are such as follow the effects of hot poysons and therefore saith Rasis all their remedies are of a cold quality Yet Galen thinketh otherwise and that the poyson is cold and the effects thereof are also cold For which cause Rondeletus prescribeth Oyl of Scorpions to expell the stone and also the cure of the poyson is by strong Garlick and the best Wine which are hot things And therefore I conclude that although Scorpions be most hot yet is their poyson of a cold nature In the next place I think it is needfull to expresse the symptomes following the striking or stinging of these venemous Scorpions and they are as Aetius writeth the very same which follow the biting or poyson of that kinde of great Phalanx Spider 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 hayl being so cold as if he were continually in a cold sweat and so in short space the poyson disperseth it self within the skin and runneth all over the body never ceasing untill it come to possesse some predominant or principall vitall part and then followeth death For as the skin is small and thin so the sting pierceth to the bottom thereof and so into the flesh where it woundeth and corrupteth either some vein or arterie or sinew and so the member harmed swelleth immediately into an exceeding great bulk and quantity and aking with insufferable torment But yet as we have already said there is a difference of the pain 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 and the swelling thereof but if in the upper part then is the person affected with cold and the place smitten is as if it were burned his countenance or face distorted glewish spots about the eyes and the tears viscous and slimy hardnesse of the articles falling down of the fundament and a continuall desire to egestion foaming at the mouth coughing convulsions of the brain and drawing the face backward the hair stands upright palenesse goeth over all the body and a continuall pricking like the pricking of needles Also Gordomus writeth that if the prick fall upon an artery there followeth swouning but if on a nerve there speedily followeth putrefaction and rottennesse And those Scorpions which have wings make wounds with a compasse like a bow whose succeeding symptomes are both heat and cold and if they hurt about the canicular dayes their wounds are very seldome recovered The Indian Scorpions cause death three moneths after their wounds But most wonderfull is that which Strabo relateth of the Albenian Scorpions and Spiders whereof he saith are two kindes and one kinde killeth by laughing the other by weeping And if any Scorpion hurt a vein in the head it causeth death by madnesse as writeth Paracelsus When an Oxe or other beast is
strucken with a Scorpion his knees are drawn together and he halteth refusing meat out of his nose floweth a green humour and when he is laid he careth not for rising again These and such like are the symptomes that follow the bitings 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 whatsoever Art could collect out of nature And seeing we in our Countrey are free from Scorpions and therefore shall have no need to fear 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 adorn this History and so I will proceed to the medicines drawn out of Scorpions The application or use of Scorpions in medicine is either by powder or by Oyl or by applying them bruised to their own wounds wherefore every one of these are to be handled particularly and first of all for the powder it is made by ustion or burning in this manner They take ten Scorpions and put them alive into a new earthen pot whose mouth is to be dammed up with loam or such like stuffe then must it be set upon a fire of Vine-tree-shreds and therein must the pot stand day and night untill all within it be consumed to powder and you shall know by their white colour when they be enough otherwise if they be brown or burned they must be continued longer and the use of this powder is to expell the stone Again they use to make this powder another way they take twenty Scorpions and put them in a little earthen pot with a narrow mouth which mouth must be stopped and then the pot put into a Furnace by the space of six hours which Furnace must also be kept close within and with a gentle fire then after six hours take off the pot and bruise the Scorpions into powder and keep that powder for the use aforesaid There are other wayes also to prepare this powder but in all preparations the attendant and assistant must take heed of the fume or smoak that cometh from it for that is very venemous and contagious But besides there are many things to be observed herein as first that the Scorpions be alive and that they be killed in Oyl then that they be put in whole with every 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 Sun is in Leo and not in Scorpias as some without reason have imagined The Oyl so made is distinguished into two kindes one simple and the other compound The simple is made of a convenient number of Scorpions as it were twenty if they be great and more if they be little and they being put into a glasse vessel Oyl of bitter-Almonds must be powred upon them and so the vessel stopped close and set in the Sun by the space of thirty dayes and then stirred and used Yet the women of Ferrara use Oyl-olive in stead of Oyl of bitter Almonds and also observe no quantity of Oyl but fill the pot full and likewise no order in the number of the Scorpions putting one to day and another to morrow and so more the next week or moneth as they can finde them The compound-oyl is thus made they take round Astrologe Cypresse and Gentian the roots of Capars and upon these they pour Oyl of bitter Almonds and soak the roots in the Oyl in the hot sun for the space of twenty dayes then take they a complete number of Scorpions from betwixt ten to fifteen these they put again to the Oyl and so stop up the mouth again and set it the second time in the sun thirty dayes and afterward strain it and use it This compound-Oyl is not so much approved by Brasavolus as the former simple because the first hath more Scorpions and the second is stuffed or seasoned with spices The green Scorpion which is bred of Basill having seven knots in the tayl being beaten and pounded with the herb Scorpion and so made into pills then dryed and put into a glasse are very profitable to him that hath the Falling-sicknesse if he take of them three every morning fasting in temperate Wine but these being given to a sound man putteth him clean out of his wits If a man take a vulgar Scorpion and drown the same in a porringer of Oyl in the wane of the Moon and therewithall afterward anoynt the back from the shoulders to the hips and also the head and forehead with the tips of the fingers and toes of one that is a demoniack or a lunatick person it is reported that he shall ease and cure him in short time And the like is reported of the Scorpions sting joyned with the top of Basil wherein is seed and with the heart of a Swallow all included in a piece of Harts skin The Oyl of Scorpions made of common Oyl-olive is good for the pain in the ears infused by distillation also it cureth a Pleurisle in this manner They take meal out of a Windmill and make thereof with water paste or little cakes in quantity like a French Crown these must be sod in a frying-pan in Oyl of Scorpions and so applyed as hot as can be to the place where the pricking is and so kept to the same very hot and when it beginneth to be cold let new be applyed still nine times together successively one time after another Scorpions bruised in new sweet Wine doe cure the Kings-evil The ashes of a Scorpion infused by the yard into the bladder breaketh and disperseth both the stone of the bladder and the reyns And the like operation hath a vulgar Scorpion eaten with vinegar and Rose-cakes applyed to the gowty members it many times easeth the inflaming pains thereof The Oyl of Scorpions is very available in the time of Plague both by Oyntment and also in potion wherewithall one did affirm to Wolphius that he gained a great summe of money which he prepared in this manner He took a hundred Scorpions and sod them in the oldest Oyl-olive he could get untill such time as the Scorpions were consumed then did he strain them through a linnen cloth adding unto it an ounce of Rubarb and so shutting it close in a glasse bottle he set it forty dayes together in the sun and afterward he gave of it to be used in time of infection advising them that had it to apply it in oyntment to the pulse heart hinder part of the head neck and nostrils And if a man began to be sick within twelve hours after the first sense of his pain he was annnoynted herewith about the tumour and then was it launced This oyntment is also commended against all manner of poyson not onely of other Serpents and venemous beasts but also of