Wart they then set fire on it and so burn it to ashes and by this way and order the Warts are eradicated that they never after grow again Marcellus Empiricus taketh Spiders webs that are found in the Cypresse tree mixing them with other convenient remedies so giving them to a podagrical person for the asswaging of his pain Against the pain of a hollow tooth Galen in his first Book De Compos medicam secundum loca much commendeth by testimony of Archigenes the Egges of Spiders being tempered and mixed with Oleum Nardinum and so a little of it being put into the tooth In like sort Kiramides giveth Spiders egges for the curation of a Tertian Ague Whereupon we conclude with Galen in his Book to Piso that Nature as yet never brought forth any thing so vile mean and contemptible in outward shew but that it hath manifold and most excellent and necessary uses if we would shew a greater diligence and not be so squeamish as to refuse those wholesome medicines which are easie to be had and without great charges and travail acquired I will add therefore this one note before I end this discourse that Apes Marmosets or Monkies the Serpents called Lizards the Stellion which is likewise a venomous Beast like unto a Lizard having spots in his neck like unto stars Wasps and the little beast called Ichneumon Swallows Sparrows the little Titmouse and Hedge-sparrows do often feed full favourly upon Spiders Besides if the Nightingale the Prince of all singing Birds do eat any Spiders she is clean freed and healed of all diseases whatsoever In the days of Alexander the Great there dwelled in the City of Alexandria a certain young maid which from her youth up was fed and nourished only with eating of Spiders and for the same cause the King was premonished not to come neer her lest peradventure he might be infected by her poysonous breath or by the venom evaporated by her sweating Albertus likewise hath recorded in his writings that there was a certain noble young Virgin dwelling at Colen in Germany who from her tender years was fed only with Spiders And thus much we English men have known that there was one Henry Lilgrave living not many years since being Clerk of the Kitchen to the right Noble Ambrose Dudley Earl of Warwick who would search every corner for Spiders and if a man had brought him thirty or forty at one time he would have eaten them all up very greedily such was his desirous longing after them Of the STELLION THey are much deceived that confound the green Lizard or any other vulgar Lizard for because the Stellion hath a ru 〈…〉 colour and yet as Matthiolus writeth seeing Aristotle hath left recorded that there are venomous Stellions in Italy he thinketh that the little white Beast with stars on the back found about the City of Rome in the walls and ruines of old houses and is there called Tarantula is the Stellion of which he speaketh and there it liveth upon Spiders Yet that there is another and more noble kinde of Stellion 〈…〉 iently so called of the learned shall afterward appear in the succeeding discourse This Beast or Serpent is called by the Grecians Colottes Ascalobtes and Galeotes and such a one was that which Aristophanes faigneth from the side of a house eased her belly into the mouth of Socrates as he gaped when in a Moon-shine night he observed the course of the stars and motion of the Moon The reason of this Greek name Ascalabotes is taken from Ascalos a circle because it appeareth on the back full of such circles like stars as writeth Perottus Howbeit that seemeth to be a faigned Etymologie and therefore I rather take it that Ascala signifieth impurity and that by reason of the uncleannesse of this beast it was called Ascalabates or as Suidas deriveth it of Colobates because by the help and dexterity of the fingers it climbeth up the walls even as Rats and Mice or as Kiramides will have it from Calos signifying a piece of wood because it climbeth upon wood and trees And for the same reason it is called Galeotes because it climbeth like a Weasil but at this day it is vulgarly called among the Grecians Liakoni although some are also of opinion that it is also known among them by the words Thamiamithos and Psammamythe Among the vulgar Hebrews it is sometimes called Letaah and sometimes Semmamit as Munster writeth The Arabians call it Sarnabraus and Senabras a Stellion of the Gardens And peradventure Guarill Guasemabras Alurel and Gnases And Sylvaticus also useth Epithets for a Stellion And the general Arabian word for such creeping biting things is Vasga which is also rendered a Dragon of the house In stead of Colotes Albertus hath Arcolus The Germans English and French have no words for this Serpent except the Latine word and therefore I was justly constrained to call it a Stellion in imitation of the Latine word As I have shewed some difference about the name so it now ensueth that I should do the like about the nature and place of their abode First of all therefore I must put a difference betwixt the Italian Stellion or Tarentula and the Thracian or Grecian for the stellion of the Ancients is proper to Grecia For they say this Stellion is full of Lentile spots or speckles making a sharp or shrill shrieking noise and is good to be eaten but the other in Italy are not so Also they say in Sicilia that their Stellions inflict a deadly biting but those in Italy cause no great harm by their teeth They are covered with a skin like a shell or thick bark and about their backs there are many little shining spots like eyes from whence they have their names streaming like stars or drops of bright and clear water according to this verse of Ovid Aptumque colori Nomen habet variis Stellatus corpora guttis Which may be Englished thus And like his spotted hiew so is his name The body starred over like drops of rain It moveth but slowly the back and tail being much broader then is the back and tail of a Lizard but the Italian Tarentulaes are white and in quantity like the smallest Lizards and the other Grecian Lizards called at this day among them Haconi is of bright silver colour and are very harmful and angry whereas the other are not so but so meek and gentle as a man may put his fingers into the mouth of it without danger One reason of their white bright shining colour is because they want bloud and therefore it was an error in Sylvaticus to say that they had bloud The teeth of this Serpent are very small and crooked and whensoever they bite they stick fast in the wound and are not pulled forth again except with violence The tail is not very long and yet when by any chance it is broken bitten or cut off then it groweth again They live in houses and neer unto the dores
with forein Enemies there is no creature under heaven so bold and adventurous as they are insomuch that what soever whether man or beast or bird or wasp shall molest them vex and seek to destroy them they sharply set themselves against and according as they are able wound them with their stings Unclean persons or any that use sweet oyls or perfumes about them or those that wear curled or ruffled locks or red clothes as resembling the colour of bloud they cannot in any wise endure as also all base and vile companions Whereas on the contrary their masters keepers governors and those that make much of them they do most dearly love and affect and sitting upon their hands in stead of stinging them they seem rather to tickle and as it were by way of sport to lick them without any the least harm at all Yea they may have free leave when they are uncovered in the hear of fummer to gather their Swarms with their bare hands to handle them to dispose of them at pleasure 10 tosse them to and fro to sit or stand before the Hives mouth and therehence to â—â—ive away the Dors Drones Wasps and Hornets with a wond But if any of them have lost his sting in skirmish as a souldier having his armes taken from him he is quite disheartned and living not long after dies with grief When they go forth to battel and are ready to give the onset they carry while the signal is given and then they surround their King if he be one they love and in one battel determine the quarrel But in the fight what wonderful valour strength and courage those little beasts do shew both I my self have seen and know but they far better who report that whole fields of armed men have been conquered by the stinging of them and Lions and Bears and Horâ—â—â— slain with them But yet as fierce and warlike as the are by daily converse with them they become tame and unlesse they be provoked they live very quietly so that any man may stand before their Hives if not on purpose to disturb them and they never offer to hurt him But if we should go about to set forth at large their ingenious disposition cunning workmanship industry and memory we should not with Virgil the Poet yeeld them only to be 〈◊〉 dued with a small portion of divine inspiration but euen wholly to be possest with a 〈◊〉 soul and to erre with Pythagoras to have the understanding of the most ingenious man infused into them by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as soon as they are lodged in a clean and sweet Hive they gather from those plants that distil moisture and yeeld gum as from the Willow Elin and Reed and even from stones themselves a kinde of Glue very thick and claâ—â—y and with that which the Latines call Commesit the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they lay the first fomidation of their work and dawb it all over he with the first plaister or rough cast the which afterwards they cover over again with a 〈◊〉 of wax mix with rosâ—â— and gum last of all with Bee-glew When this tripple wall is aâ—tificially finished they do not only deceive the most curious and 〈◊〉 observer of there works but without any man taking notice they do better and better arm and fence themselves against wind and weather vermine and all their enemies whatsoever When this is done they frame their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with that skilful Architecture as than they may seem to put down Archimedes himself in his own Art For first of all they build the cells of the King and Nobility in the upper or more eminent part of the comb large fair and stately wrought with the most pure wax of all which also the better to secure and defend the Kings persons they compasse round about as it were with a certain fence or wall And as their Bees are of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sort or condition so they make a threefold division of their cells Those that are aged and stricken in years being to be as counsellors of State and Esquires of the Body have their lodgings near the Kings Court next of all to them those of the first year or young fry these of 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 in body they place utmost of all as those that should be able to fight for their King and the royall Issue Notwithstanding Arastotle writes that they first provide cells for themselves and their 〈◊〉 afterwards for their Kings and last of all for the Drones 〈◊〉 in the making of their combs they fashion them according to the largenesse and figure of the place and those either round or long do square 〈◊〉 according as they please and sometimes eight 〈◊〉 in length so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their cell 〈◊〉 tyed to a strict Geometrical for◠〈◊〉 to wi◠〈◊〉 or with fix 〈◊〉 only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 more for the bulk of the inhabitant But those cells where they make their Honey and those which are for 〈◊〉 for their young ones 〈◊〉 all double from one side of the Honey 〈◊〉 the other separated one from the others with a thin partition or mound Those Ligatures whereby the Combs are fastened to the side of the Hive are more 〈◊〉 and are empty of honey being also much more firm and strong that they may the better bear the rest of the weight which depends upon them Those Combs likewise which they cover or plaisler most with wax in those they use to store a greater quantity of Honey as in a more safe and 〈◊〉 repository Now the whole Honey Comb contains four ranks or divisions of cells the first the Bees take up the next the Drones the third the Gentles and the fourth and last is set apart for a store-house for Honey There are that affirm that the Drones do make Combs in the same Hive with the Bees but cannot make any Honey at all whether it be by reason of unwieldinesse or corpullency of their bodies or their natural inbred sloth is uncertain But if their Combs begin by reason of the weight of the Honey to shog or to be ready to fall they raise them up and under-prop them with arched Pillars that they may go under them for to every Comb there must of necessity be a ready passage and whereby they may execute their several offices which are appointed them In some places as in Pontus and the City Anisum they make white Honey in trees without any Hives at all But as for the others in making their Combs so beyond all humane Art who would not acknowledge for truth that of the Poet Esse Apibus partem divina mentis haustus Aethereos That the Bee hath in it a particle of divine understanding and heavenly wisdome Who I say will deny them to have fantasie memory and some kinde of reason But I will not argue the truth of this neither will I affirm with Pythagoras that the souls of other wise and ingeniors creatures or of men
affrighted drew the man out of that deadly danger and so ran away for fear of a worse creature But if there be no tree wherein Bees do breed neer to the place where the Bear abideth then they use to anoynt some hollow place of a tree with Hony whereinto Bees will enter and make Hony-combes and when the Bear findeth them she is killed as aforesaid In Norway they use to saw the tree almost asunder so that when the beast climbeth it she falleth down upon piked stakes laid underneath to kill her And some make a hollow place in a tree wherein they put a great pot of water having anoynted it with Hony at the bottom whereof are fastened certain hooks bending downward leaving an easie passage for the Bear to thrust in her head to get the Hony but impossible to pull it forth again alone because the hooks take hold on her skin this pot they binde fast to a tree whereby the Bear is taken alive and blindefolded and though her strength break the cord or chain wherewith the pot is fastened yet can she not escape or hurt any body in the taking by reason her head is fastened in the pot To conclude other make ditches or pits under Apple-trees laying upon their mouth rotten sticks which they cover with earth and strow upon it herbs and when the Bear cometh to the Apple-tree she falleth into the pit and is taken The herb Wolfeban or Libardine is poison to Foxes Wolves Dogs and Bears and to all beasts that are littered blinde as the Alpine Rhaetians affirm There is one kinde of this called Cyclamine which the Valdensians call Tora and with the juyce thereof they poyson their darts whereof I have credibly received this story That a certain Valdensian seeing a wilde Bear having a dart poysoned herewith did cast it at the Bear being far from him and lightly wounded her it being no sooner done but the Bear ran to and fro in a wonderful perplexity through the woods unto a very sharp cliffe of a rock where the man saw her draw her last breath as soon as the poyson had entered to her heart as he afterward found by opening of her body The like is reported of Hen-bane another herb But there is a certain black fish in Armenia full of poyson with the powder whereof they poyson Figs and cast them in those places where wilde beasts are most plentiful which they eat and so are killed Concerning the industry or natural disposition of a Bear it is certain that they are very hardly tamed and not to be trusted though they seem never so tame for which cause there is a story of Diana in Lysias that there was a certain Bear made so tame that it went up and down among men and would feed with them taking meat at their hands giving no occasion to fear or mistrust her cruelty on a day a young maid playing with the Bear lasciviously did so provoke it that he tore her in pieces the Virgins brethren seeing the murther with their darts slew the Bear whereupon followed a great pestilence through all that region and when they consulted with the Oracle the paynim God gave answer that the plague could not cease untill they dedicated some Virgins unto Diana for the Bears sake that was slain which some interpreting that they should sacrifice them Embarus upon condition the Priesthood might remain in his family slew his only daughter to end the pestilence and for this cause the Virgins were after dedicated to Diana before their marriage when they were betwixt ten and fifteen year old which was performed in the month of January otherwise they could not be marryed Yet Bears are tamed for labours and especially for sports among the Roxolani and Lybians being taught to draw water with wheels out of the deepest wels likewise stones upon sleds to the building of walls A Prince of Lituania nourished a Bear very tenderly feeding her from his table with his own hand for he had used her to be familiar in his Court and to come into his own chamber when he listed so that she would go abroad into the fields and woods returning home again of her own accord and would with her hand or foot rub the Kings chamber door to have it opened when she was hungry it being locked it happened that certain young Noble-men conspired the death of this Prince and came to his chamber door rubbing it after the custom of the Bear the King not doubting any evill and supposing it had been his Bear opened the door and they presently slew him There is a fable of a certain wilde Bear of huge stature which terrified all them that looked upon her the which Pythagoras sent for and kept to himself very familiarly using to stroke and milk her at the length when he was weary of her he whispered in her ear and bound her with an oath that being departed she should never more harm any living thing which saith the fable she observed to her dying day These Bears care not for any thing that is dead and therefore if a man can hold his breath as if he were dead they will not harm him which gave occasion to Esope to fable of two companions and sworn friends who travelling together met with a Bear whereat they being amazed one of them ran away and gat up into a tree the other fell down and countetfeited himself dead unto whom the Bear came and smelt at his nostrils and ears for breath but perceiving none departed without hurting him soon after the other friend came down from the tree and merrily asked his companion what the Bear said in his ear Marry quoth he she warn'd me that I should never trust such a fugitive friend as thou art which didst forsake me in my greatest necessity thus far Esop They will bury one another being dead as Tzetzes affirmeth and it is received in many Nations that children have been nursed by Bears Paris thrown out of the City was nourished by a Bear There is in France a Noble house of the Vrsons whose first founder is reported to have been certain years together nourished by a Bear and for that cause was called Vâ—son and some affirm that Arcesius was so being deceived by the name of his mother who was called Arctos a Bear as among the Latines was Vâ—sula And it is reported in the year of our Lord 1274. that the Concubine of Pope Nicholas being with childe as was supposed brought forth a young Bear which she did not by any unlawful copulation with such a beast but only with the most holy Pope and conceived such a creature by strength of imagination lying in his Palace where she saw the pictures of many Bears so that the holy Father being first put in good hope of a son and afterward seeing this monster like himself Rev. 13. for anger and shame defaced all his pictures of those beasts There is a mountain
weak and apt to be broken with any small stroke and for this cause he often stayeth to ease himself There is a kinde of thorn called Cactus where withall if a young one be pricked in his legs his bones will never make Pipes Besides these Beasts are annoyed with Scabs and Itches in their head and skin tearmed by the French by a peculiar name Froyer I will not stand upon the idle conceit of Albertus that Waspes and Emmets breed in the heads of Harts for he mistaketh them for the worm before mentioned The skins of this Beast are used for garments in some Countries and in most places for the bottom of Cushions and therefore they chuse such as are killed in the Summer time when they are fat and most spotted and the same having their hair pulled from them are used for Breeches Buskins and Gloves Likewise Pliny and Sextus affirmed that if a man sleep on the ground having upon him a Harts skin Serpents never anoy him whereof Serenus made this Verse Aut tu cervina per noctem in pelle quicscis And the bons of young ones are applyed for making of Pipes It is reported that the bloud of Harts burned together with herb-dragon orchanes orgament and mastick have the same power to draw Serpents out of their holes which the Harts have being alive and if there be put unto it wilde Pellitory it will also distract and dissipate them again The marrow of a Hart hath the same power against Serpents by ointment or perfumed upon coles and Nicander prescribeth a certain ointment to be made of the flesh of Serpents of the marrow of a Hart and Oils of Roses against the bitings of Serpents The fat of a Hart hath the like effects that the marrow hath Achilles that Noble Souldier was said never to have tasted of milk but to be nourished with the marrow of Harts by Chiro as is affirmed by Varinus and Etymologus The like operation hath the tooth as Serenus saith Aut genere ex ipso dentem portabis amicum If the seed of a young Hinde Calf be drunk with Vinegar it suffereth no poison of Serpents to enter into the body that day The perfume of the horn driveth away Serpents and noisome flies especially from the young Calves or from Horses if womens hair be added thereto with the hoof of the Hart. And if men drink in pots wherein are wrought Harts horns it will weaken all force of venom The Magicians have also devised that if the fat of a Dragons heart be bound up in the skin of a Roe with the nerves of a Hart it promiseth victory to him that beareth it on his Shoulder and that if the teeth be so bound in a Roes skin it maketh ones Master Lord or all superior powers exorable and appeased toward their servants and suitors Orpheus in his book of stones commandeth a husband to carry about him a Harts horn if he will live in amity and concord with his wife to conclude they also add another figment to make men invincible The head and tail of a Dragon with the hairs of a Lion taken from between the browes and his marrow the froath or white-mouth of a victorious Horse the nails of a Dog and the nerves of a Hart and a Roe bound up all together in a Harts skin and this is as true as the wagging of a Dogs tail doth signifie a tempest To leave these trifles scarce worthy to be rehearsed but only to shew the vanity of men given over to lying devises let us come to the other natural and medicinal properties not as yet touched The flesh of these Beasts in their running time smelleth strongly like a Goats the which thing is by Blondus attributed also to the flesh of the females with young I know not how truly but I am sure that I have known certain Noble women which every morning did eat this flesh and during the time they did so they never were troubled with Ague and this virtue they hold the stronger if the beast in dying have received but one wound The flesh is tender especially if the beast were libbed before his horns grew yet is not the juice of that flesh very wholesome and therefore Galen adviseth men to abstain as much from Harts flesh os from Asses for it engendereth melancholy yet is it better in Summer then in Winter Simeon Sethi speaking of the hot Countries forbiddeth to eat them in Summer because then they eat Serpents and so are venemous which falleth not out in colder Nations and therefore assigneth them rather to be eaten in Winter time because the concoctive powers are more stronger through plenty of inward heat but withal admonisheth that no man use to eat much of them for it will breed Palsies and trembling in mans body begetting grosse humors which stop the Milt and Liver and Avicen proveth that by eating thereof men in our the quartane Ague wherefore it is good to powder them with salt before the dressing and then seasoned with Peper and other things known to every ordinary Cook and woman they make of them Pasties in most Nations The heart and brain of a Hare or Cony have the power of Triacle for expelling of evill humors but the Liver is intolerable in food the horns being young are meat for Princes especially because they avoid poison It was a cruell thing of King Ferdinand that caused the young ones to be cut out of the Dams belly and baked in Pasties for his liquorous Epicureal appetite The whole nature and disposition of every part of this beast is against poison and venemous things as before recited His bloud stayeth the looseness of the belly and all fluxes especially fryed with Oil and the inferior parts anointed therewith and being drunk in Wine it is good against poisoned wounds and all intoxications The marrow of this beast is most approveable above other and is used for sweet odour against the Gowt and heat of men in Consuptions and all outward pains and weakness as Serenus comprised in one sentence saying Et cervina potest mulcere medulla rigorem Frigoris Likewise the fat and marrow mollifieth or disperseth all bunches in the flesh and old swellings all Ulcers except in the shins and legs and with Venus-navil the Fistula mattery Ulcers in the ears with Rozen Pitch Goose-greace and Goat-sewet the cleaving of the lips and with Calves sewet the heat and pain in the mouth and jawes It hath also vertue being drunk in warm water to aswage the pain in the bowels and small guts or Bloudy flux The gall of a Bull Oil of bayes Butter and this marrow by anointing cureth pain in the knees and loins and other evils in the seat of man in the hips and in the belly when it is costive It procureth flowers of Women cureth the Gowt Pimples in ones face and Ringwormes Absyrtus prescribeth it to be given in sweet wine with wax unto a Horse
dulcedâ— Out of the devourer came meat and out of the strong came sweetness Benaiah the son of Jehoiada one of Davids Worthies did in the Winter time in the snow kill a Lion in a ditch David himself feeding his fathers flock slew a Lion and a Bear which had robbed him of a Lamb. It is reported of Perdiccas one of the Captains of Alexander a valiant man that he went alone into the Den of a Lioness but not finding her therein took away her whelps and brought them forth to the admiration of all meâ— for the Lioness both among the Barbarians and Graecians is accounted the strongest and most unresistible beast In the Northern parts of the World saith Pausanias near the monuments of Alâ—maâ— and Hyllus the sons of Heicules there was a Lion which slew many people and at last also Euippus the only son of King Megareus whereat the King grew so sorrowful and angry thirsting after revenge that he promised to the man that could overcome him his daughter and the succession of his Kingdom There was a noble and valiant young man called Alcathâ—s who undertook the action and killed the Lion for which thing he obatained both the Wiâ—e and the Kingdom according to the promise of Megareus and therefore in thankfulness of so good fortune he builded there a famous Temple dedicating it to Diana Agrâ—t 〈…〉 and Apollo Agreus We have spoken before of Lysimachus unto whom we may add Polydamas the Scotu 〈…〉 who in all things he took in hand propounded unto himself the example of Hercules and did kill a Lion of monstrous stature and bigness being unarmed in the Mountain Olympus as at another time he held a Buls leg so fast in his hand that while the Beast strove to loose himself he left the hoof of his foot behinde him When Hercules was a boy or stripling he slew the Teumessian Lion in Tâ—umessus a Mountain of Beolia and pulled off his skin which ever after he wore in stead of a cloke This Lion is also called a Nemaean Lion yet some are of opinion that the Nemaean Lion was another called also the Molorchaean because having killed the son of Molorchus he perswaded Hercules which did so journ with him to take revenge in his stead From whence the Nemaean Sacrifices is performed by the Graecians in remembrance of Hercules and Lucan maketh mention of this Nemaean Lion in this verse Si saevum premeres Nemeaeum saeva Leonem And upon the den of the Lion was a Temple builded and dedicated to Jupiter Nemaeus V 〈…〉 speaking of the Nemaean Lion telleth this story thereupon whereas saith he the said Lion could not be killed with any sword dart or other sharp instrument Hercules â—orâ— him in pieces with his hands without all weapons and afterward wore his skin in remembrance of that victory It happened on a day that as he travelled he met with his friend T 〈…〉 who wanted children of whom he was intreated that he would make sacrifice to Jupiter for him in that weed or garment and also intreâ—â— for a son Hercules yeelded and taking the golden câ—nsâ—r in his hand made the sacrifice and supplication to Jupiter that Telamon might have a son and as he sacrificed an Eagle flew over them which in Greek is called Aetus wherefore when Hercules saw the same he charged Tel 〈…〉 that his son should be called A 〈…〉 os that is an Eagle and so he was but afterward he was called Aiax and wore continually that Lions skin which was given him by Hercules and therefore he could not be wounded But I take this to be but a fable rather this was the truth Aiax was a valiant souldier and so warily carried himself in many battails that he never received wound but at last he flew himself with his own sword thrusting it through his neck and for this cause it was fabled that he never could be wounded by a vertue as was imagined conferred on him from Hercules Ovid hath a witty fiction of one Phyllius who fell so deeply in love with a little boy that at his pleasure he took many wilde Beasts Birds and Lions and tamed them to the delight of his Amasius at length the insatiable Boy required him to do the like by a Bull which he had overcome but Phyllius denying that request they Boy presently cast himself down from a Rock and was afterward turned into a Swan by which the Poet declareth the unmerciful regard which wretchless and childish mindes bear towards the greatest labours and deserts of the best men and that in such society a man is no longer beloved then he giveth also the denial of one small request cannot be endured although a thousand good turns have gone before it wherefore such mindes may well be transfused into Swans which forsake their owners and breeders going and swimming far from their first and proper habitation Having but mentioned such a story it is not exorbitant to add in one word other fictions of Metamorphosing and transfiguring men into Lions which we promised in the former discourse of Amasis and Apollonius when I discoursed of the food of Lions And first of all it is not unproper to remember the caution of Timaeus the Pythagoraean who affirmeth that the mutation of men into beasts is but a fiction brought in for the terrour of wicked men who seeing they cannot be restrained from vice for the love of well doing they may be deterred for the fear of punishment which is meant by such beastly transfigurations And this thing is thought to be most consonant to the opinion of Plato for in consideration of the habit and not of the kinde a good house-keeper and charitable nourishing man is said to be transmuted into a tree He which liveth by catching and snatching to serve his own concupiscence into a Kite he which for love of military discipline and Martial affairs into a Lion he that was a Tyrant and a devourer of men into a Dragon and Empedocles also said that if a man depart this natural life and be transmuted into a brute beast it is most happiest for him if his soul go into a Lion but if he loose his kinde and senses and be transmuted into a plant then is it best to be metamorphosed into a Laurel or Bay-tree And for these causes we read of Hippo changed into a Lion and Atlas into a Lioness and the like I might say of Proteus of the Curetes and others and generally all the Eastern wise men believed the transmigration of spirits from one into another and insinuated so much to their symmists and disciples making little or no difference betwixt the natures of men and brute beasts Therefore they taught that all their Priests after death were turned into Lions their religious Vestals or women into Hyaena's their Servants or Ministers in the Temples about the service of their vain Gods into Crows and Ravens the Fathers of families into Eagles and Hawks
g Horses and some upon gray Horses with glasen eyes which are most swift and which dare only meet Lions when other Horses dare not abide the sight of Lions being on foot do set the Nets Three of them being placed in the snares remain to under prop the Nets with 〈◊〉 and 〈…〉 ddle all the rest in both the bendings or turnings of the same so that â—e which is in the middle can hear both the other at the farther ends some setting round about in warlike manner holding pitchy fire-brands in their right hands and bucklers in their left for with those they make a very great noise and clamor and with shewing their fire brands put the wilde Beasts in an incredible fear Therefore when all the Horse-men being spred abroad invade the Beasts and the Foot-men likewise do follow with a great noise the Lions being terrified with the crying out of the Hunters not daring to resist give place and aswell for fear of fire as of the men they run into the nets and are taken like as fishes in the night time by fire are compelled and driven into the nets of the fishers The third manner of hunting is done with lesser labour that is four strong men armed with shields and fortified all over with thongs of leather and having helmets upon their heads that only their eyes noses and lips may appear with the brandishing of their fire-brands rustle in upon the Lion lying in his den he not bearing this indignation with a gaping and open wide mouth the lightning or burning of his eyes being inflamed breaketh forth into a great roaring and with such celerity rustleth upon them as if it were some storm or tempest they with a firm and constant courage abide that brunt and in the mean while that he coveteth to catch any of them in his teeth or claws another of them provoking him behinde doth smite him and with a loud noise or clamour doth vex him then the Lion in hast leaving the first which he had taken in his mouth turneth back his mouth unto the hinder each of them in several parts do vex him but he breathing forth warlike strength runneth here and there this man he leaveth that he snatcheth up on high at the length being broken with long labour and wearyed foaming in his mouth he lyeth down straight upon the ground and now being very quiet they binde him and take him from the earth as if he were a Ram. I do also finde that Lions are intricated in snares or traps bound unto some post or pile nigh unto some narrow place by which they were wont to pass But Pliny saith that in times past it was a very hard and difficult manner to catch Lions and that the chiefest catching of them was in Ditches In the Mountain Zaronius in Africk the strongest men do continually hunt Lions the best of which being taken they send them unto the King of Eesse and the King ordereth his hunting in this manner in a very spacious field there are little hutches built of that height as a man may stand upright in them every one of these is shut with a little gate and within standeth an armed man the Lion being raised and forced to that place the dores being open then the Lion seeing the dores open runneth with great force which being shut again he is provoked to anger Afterward they bring a Bull to combate with him where beginneth a cruel fight in which if the Bull shall kill the Lion the honour of that day is finished but if the Lion overcome him all the armed men which in number are almost twelve come forth to fight against the Lion some of them having Boar-spears of six cubits long but if the armed men shall seem to overcome the Lion the King commandeth the number to be diminished and if on the contrary the armed men be overcome the King with his Nobles sitting in an high place to see the hunting kill the Lion with Cross-bows but it cometh oftentimes to pass that every one of them is slain before the Lion The reward of those which combate with the Lion is ten golden Crowns together with a new garment neither are any admitted unto this fight except they are of a most pregnant and valorous strength and born in the Mountain Zalag but those which do first of all provoke and give on set to the Lions are born in the Mountain Zaronius To conclude this discourse of the hunting of Lions If it fortune that he be followed with men and Dogs yet in the plain fields he never mendeth his pace as some writers affirm oftentimes turning about and looking upon his pursuers as it were to dare their approchment and to give defiance unto all their pretences yet having gotten the thickets he looketh to his safety with his best celerity and speed so wisely tempering his fear before his foes that it may seem a boldness and so politickly when he thinketh no eye seeth him no longer dissembleth with himself but runneth away like a fearful Hart or Hare laying down his ears and striking his tall betwixt his legs like a Cur-dog seldome times looking behinde him but most irefully upon those that come before him especially if he receive from them any wound whereunto Horace alluded saying Quid ut noverca me intueris Aut ut petiia ferro bellua In his course he spareth no Beast that he meeteth but falleth upon it like a mad Dog except Swine for he is afraid of their bristles and if a man do not attempt to wound him he will snatch at him and overthrow him but do him little harm according to these verses of Ovid Corpora magnanimo satis est prostrasse Leoni Pugna suum finem cum jacet hostis habet He observeth most vigilantly the hand that woundeth him and laboureth to take revenge for the evil turn and so it remaineth in his minde till opportunity send him his adversaries head as may appear by this story following When Juba King of Moors the Father of him which when he was a childe was brought in triumph travelled through the Wilderness with an Army of souldiers to repress certain rebels in one part of his Dominion which had shaken off his government and to settle them again in their first allegiance There was a noble young Souldier in his Train of the race of the Nobility and not only very strong but also well experienced in hunting and by the way he with other of his fellows met with a Lion at whom he presently cast a Dart and gave him a sore wound but not mortal after the wound received the Lion went away guilty of his hurt and the young men did not prosecute him but went forward on their journey After a whole year the King returned homeward the same way and his company that he carryed with him among whom was this young gallant that wounded the Lion The Lion having recovered his hurt and having his Den
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
banquet Among the Chaonians there was a certain young Nobleman which loved a Virgin called Anthippe the which two lovers were walking together a good season in a Wood It happened while they were there that Cichyrus the Kings Son prosecuted a Pardal in hunting which was fled into that Wood and seeing him bent his arm against him and cast his Dart the which Dart missed the mark and killed the Virgin Anthippe the young Prince thought that he had slain the beast and therefore drew neer on Horse-back to rejoyce over the fall of the game according to the manner of Hunters but at his approach he found it far otherwise for in stead of the effusion of the bloud of a beast that which was more lamentable his right hand had shed the bloud of a Virgin For when he came to them he saw her dying and drawing her last breath and the young man held his hand in the wound to stanch the bloud for sorrow whereof he presently fell distracted in his minde and ran his Horse to the top of a sharp Rock from whence he cast down himself headlong and so perished The Chaonians after they understood this fearful accident and the reason of it compassed in the place where he fell with a wall and for the honour of their dead Prince builded a City where he lost his life and called it Cichyrus after his own name Leopards and Panthers do also love Wine above all other drink and for this cause both Bacchus was resembled to them and they dedicated to him Bacchum tauro assimilant Pardali quod homines â—brii belluarum istarum ingenia referant omnia violenter agant quidam enim iracundi fiunt Taurorum instar puâ—naces ferique ut Pardales saith Plato in his second Book of laws they resemble and compare Bacchus to a Bull or Pardal because drunken men in all their actions do imitate the disposition of these wilde beasts both in their folly and violence For some of them are wrathful like Bulls and some of them wilde apt to fight like Pardals Bacchus was also called Nebrides because he wore the skin of a Hinde-calf which is spotted almost like a Panther and therefore a fearful man or a drunken variable and inconstant man is said to wear a skin of divers colours but the chief cause why Panthers were dedicated to Bacchus was for their love of Wine for all Writers do constantly and with one consent affirm that they drink Wine unto drunkenness the manner and end thereof is elegantly described by Oppianus in this sort When the Inhabitants of Lybia do observe some little fountain arising out of the sand and falling down again as in the manner of small Springs which cannot encrease into great Rivers whereat the Panthers and Pardals use to drink early in a morning before it be light after they have been at their prey in the night time the Hunters come and pour twenty or thirty pitchers of old sweet Wine into the said Fountain then a little way from it they lie down and cover themselves with clothes or with straw for there is no shelter either of tree or bushes in that Countrey In the morning the Panthers ardently thirsting and being almost dead for want of drink come unto the same fountain and tasting of the Wine drink thereof great aboundance which presently falleth to work upon their brains for they begin first of all to leap and sport themselves until they be well wearyed and then they lie down and sleep most soundly at which time the Hunters that lye in wait for them come and take them without all fear or perill Thus far Oppianus Concerning the use of their several parts I finde little among the ancients except of their skin for the foot-men and ancient Souldiers of the Moores did not only wear them for garments but also slept upon them in the night time The Shepheards of Aethiopia called Agriophagi do eat the flesh of Lions and Panthers although it be hot and dry The Medicines of the Panther or Leopard If the skin or hide of a Leopard being taken and flead be covered or laid upon the ground there is such force and vertue in the same that any venemous or poysonsome Serpents dare not approach into the same place where it is so laid The flesh of a Panther being roasted or boiled at the fire and smelled by any one which is troubled with the Palsie or shaking in the joynts as also by them which are troubled with the beating and continual moving or turning of the heart is a very profitable and excellent remedy for the same The same fat or sewet of a Leopard being mixed or mingled with the Oyl which proceedeth from the Bay-tree and then mollified both together and so anointed upon any one which is troubled with the scurse or mangy the scabs whereof doth cut or pierce the skin doth presently and without any grief or pain cure the same The twigs of a Vine-tree being dryed and beaten into small dust or powder and mingled together with the fat or grease of a Leopard and so anointed upon the face of any one who is grieved with akings and swelling thereon will not only cure and heal the same without any pain or sorrow but also preserve the same free from blemishes in the time of healing The grease also of a Leopard by it self being anointed upon the head of any one who doth shed or cast his hair or is troubled with the Foxes evill doth immediately help and cure the same The bloud of a Panther being anointed upon the veins or sinews of either man or woman who is grieved with any swelling or akings therein is very profitable and curable to expel the same away The brains of a Leopard being mingled with a little quantity of the water which is called a Canker and with a little Jasmine and so mixed together and then drunk doth mitigate the pain or ach of the belly The brains of the same beast being mixed with the juyce of a Canker and anointed upon the genital of any man doth incitate and stir him up to lechery but the marrow which cometh from this beast being drunk in Wine doth ease the pain or wringing of the guts and the belly The gall of a Panther being received into the body either in meat or drink doth instantly and out of hand kill or poyson him which doth so receive it The right stone of a Leopard being taken of a woman of a far spent age doth restore unto her her menstrual purgation being ceased and doth make her to purge if she doth heartily receive her meat more often Of the POEPHAGUS THere is a beast in India called Poephagus because he feedeth upon herbs and grass like a Horse whose quantity he doth exceed double for he is twice so big his tail is most thick and black the hairs whereof are thinner then the hairs of a mans head and therefore Indian women make
the third kinde of the Unicorn and I trust that there is no wise man that will be offended at it for as we have shewed already in many stories that sundry Beasts have not only their divisions but sub-divisions into sub-alternal kindes as many Dogs many Deer many Horses many Mice many Panthers and such like why should there not also be many Unicorns And if the Reader be not pleased with this let him either shew me better reason which I know he shall never be able to do or else be silent lest the uttering of his dislike bewray envy and ignorance Now although the parts of the Unicorn be in some measure described and also their Countries namely India and Aethiopia yet for as much as all is not said as may be said I will add the residue in this place And first of all there are two Kingdoms in India one called Niem and the other Lamber or Lambri both these are stored with Unicorns And Aloisius Cadamustus in his fifty Chapter of his Book of Navigation writeth that there is a certain Region of the New-found World wherein are found live Unicorns and toward the East and South under the Equinoctial there is a living creature with one horn which is crooked and not great having the head of a Dragon and a beard upon his chin his neck long and stretched out like a Serpents the residue of his body like to a Harts saving that his feet colour and mouth are like a Lions and this also if not a fable or rather a Monster may be a fourth kinde of Unicorn and concerning the horns of Unicorns now we must perform our promise which is to relate the true history of them as it is found in the best Writers This therefore growing out of the fore-head betwixt the eye-lids is neither light nor hollow nor yet smooth like other horns but hard as Iron rough as any file revolved into many plights sharper than any dart straight and not crooked and every where black except at the point There are two of these at Venice in the Treasury of S. Marks Church as Brasavolus writeth one at Argentarat which is wreathed about with divers Spires There are also two in the Treasury of the King of Polonia all of them as long as a man in his stature In the year 1520 there was found the horn of a Unicorn in the River Aâ—rula near Bruga in Helvetia the upper face or outside whereof was a dark yellow it was two cubits in length but had upon it no plights or wreathings It was very odoriferous especially when any part of it was set on â—iee so that it smelled like musk assoon as it was found it was carryed to a Nunnery called Campus regius but afterwards by the Governor of Helvetia it was recovered back again because it was found within his territory Now the vertues of this horn are already recited before and yet I will for the better justifying of that which I have said concerning the Unicorns horn add the testimony of our learned men which did write thereof to Gesner whose letters according as I finde them recorded in his work so I have here inserted and translated word for word And first of all the answer of Nicholas Gerbelius unto his Epistle concerning the Unicorns horn at Argentoratum is this which followeth for saith he The horn which those Noblemen have in the secrets of the great Temple I have often seen and handled with my hands It is of the length of a tall man if so be that you shall thereunto add the point thereof for there was a certain evil disposed person amongst them who had learned I know not of whom that the point or top of the same horn would be a present remedy both against all poyson and also against the Plague or Pestilence Wherefore that sacrilegious thief plucked off the higher part or top from the residue being in length three or four fingers For which wicked offence both he himself was cast out of that company and not any ever afterwards of that family might be received into this society by an Ordinance gravely and maturely ratified This pulling off the top brought a notable deformity to that most splendant gift The whole horn from that which sticketh to the fore-head of this beast even unto the top of the horn is altogether firm or solid not gaping with chops chinks or crevises with a little greater thickness then a tile is usually amongst us For I have oftentimes comprehended almost the whole horn in my right hand From the root unto the point it is even as wax candles are rowled together most elegantly severed and raised up in little lines The weight of this horn is of so great a massiness that a man would hardly believe it and it hath been often wondred at that a beast of so little a stature could bear so heavy and weighty a burden I could never smell any sweetness at all therein The colour thereof is like unto old Ivory in the midst betwixt white and yellow But you shall never have a better pattern of this then where it is sold in little pieces or fragments by the Oylmen For the colour of our horn is life unto them But by whom this was given unto that same Temple I am altogether ignorant Another certain friend of mine being a man worthy to be believed declared unto me that he saw at Paris with the Chancellor being Lord of Pratus a piece of a Unicorns horn to the quantity of a cubit wreathed in tops or spires about the thickness of an indifferent staffe the compass thereof extending to the quantity of six fingers being within and without of a muddy colour with a solid Iubstance the fragments whereof would boil in the Wine although they were never burned having very little or no smell at all therein When Joannes Ferrerius of Piemont had read these things he wrote unto me that in the Temple of Dennis near unto Paris there was a Unicorns horn six foot long wherein all those things which are written by Gerbelius in our Chronicles were verified both the weight and the colour but that in bigness it exceeded the horn at the City of Argentorate being also hollow almost a foot from that part which sticketh unto the fore-head of the Beast this he saw himself in the Temple of S. Dennis and handled the horn with his hands as long as he would I hear that in the former year which was from the year of our Lord 1553. when Vercella was overthrown by the French there was brought from that treasure unto the King of France a very great Unicorns horn the price whereof was valued at fourscore thousand Duckets Paulus Poaeius describeth an Unicorn in this manner That he is a Beast in shape much like a young Horse of a dusty colour with a maned neck a hairy beard and a fore-head armed with a horn of the quantity of two cubits being separated with
burneth in lust for procreation but unto stranger-beasts with whom he hath no affinity in nature he is more sociable and familiar delighting in their company when they come willingly unto him never rising against them but proud of their dependence and retinue keepeth with them all quarters of league and truce but with his female when once his flesh is tickled with lust he groweth tame gregal and loving and so continueth till she is filled and great with young and then returneth to his former hostility He is an enemy to the Lions wherefore assoon as ever a Lion seeth a Unicorn he runneth to a tree for succour that so when the Unicorn maketh force at him he may not only avoid his horn but also destroy him for the Unicorn in the swiftness of his course runneth against the tree wherein his sharp horn sticketh fast then when the Lion seeth the Unicorn fastned by the horn without all danger he falleth upon him and killeth him These things are reported by the King of Aethiopia in an Hebrew Epistle unto the Bishop of Rome It is said that Unicorns above all other creatures do reverence Virgins and young Maids and that many times at the sight of them they grow tame and come and sleep beside them for there is in their nature a certain savour wherewithal the Unicorns are allured and delighted for which occasion the Indian and Aethiopian Hunters use this stratagem to take the beast They take a goodly strong and beautiful young man whom they dress in the apparel of a woman besetting him with divers odoriferous flowers and spieces The man so adorned they set in the Mountains or Woods where the Unicorn hunteth so as the winde may carry the savour to the beast and in the mean season the other Hunters hide themselves the Unicorn deceived with the outward shape of a woman and sweet smells cometh unto the young man without fear and so suffereth his head to be covered and wrapped within his large sleeves never stirring but lying still and asleep as in his most acceptable repose Then when the Hunters by the sign of the young man perceive him fast and secure they come upon him and by force cut off his horn and send him away alive but concerning this opinion we have no elder authority then Tzetzes who did not live above five hundred years ago and therefore I leave the Reader to the freedom of his own judgement to believe or refuse this relation neither was it fit that I should omit it seeing that all Writers since the time of Tzetzes do most constantly believe it It is said by Aelianus and Albertus that except they be taken before they be two years old they will never be tamed and that the Thracians do yearly take some of their Colts and bring them to their King which he keepeth for combat and to fight with one another for when they are old they differ nothing at all from the most barbarous bloudy and ravenous beasts Their flesh is not good for meat but is bitter and unnourishable And thus much shall suffice for the natural story of the Unicorn now followeth the medicinal The Medicines arising from the Vnicorn Concerning the horns of the Unicorn I have sufficiently already written as the Antients have delivered in their remedies but in this place I will handle the remedies which late Writers have attributed thereunto as also our own observations of the same I remember that in times past I saw a piece of this horn of the weight of nine Inches with a certain Merchant in the market being black and plain and not wreathed in circles or turnings but at that time I did not so much observe it Now amongst our Apothecaries I do not not only finde small or little fragments out of which there issued as they say some certain marrow which are rounder whiter and softer But both the same colour as also the substance being put too much and eaten if it be easily crummed and not stuft as other horns doth signifie the same not to be good or perfect but counterfeited and corrupted as perhaps the horn of some other beast burnt in the fire some certain sweet odors being thereunto added and also imbrued in some delicious or aromatical perfume peradventure also Bay by this means first burned and afterward quenched or put out with certain sweet smelling liquors There is great care to be had that it be taken new and while it smelleth sweet not either abolished by age nor the vertue thereof diminished by often or frequent cups For rich men do usually cast little pieces of this horn in their drinking cups either for the preventing or curing of some certain disease There are also some which inclose it in gold or silver and so cast it in their drink as though the force thereof could remain many years notwithstanding the continual soaking in Wine But that which is so used and drunk in Wine doth bring upon it a certain dark or obscure colour the whiteness which before remained upon the same being quite lost expelled and utterly abolished Most men for the remedies arising from the same command to use the horn simply by it self Others prefer the marrow therein It being cast in Wine doth boil which some men either through ignorance or deceit impute to be a sign of the true horn when as contrarily any other horns being burnt do in water or wine cause bubbles to arise There are some wicked persons which do make a mingle mangle thereof as I saw amongst the Venetians being as I hear say compounded with lime and sope or peradventure with earth or some stone which things are wont to make bubbles arise and afterward sell it for the Unicorns horn Wherefore it shall be more safe to buy it out of the whole horn if it may be done or of greater crums and which may well describe the figure of a horn then small fragments where you may receive less deceit A certain Apothecary which was at Noremberg in a stately mart Town amongst the Germans declared the way unto me how to deface the colour of an adulterated Unicorns horn being made by some with Ivory either macerated or boiled with certain medicines by Set-foil as I suppose and other things by which means having scraped it I found within the true substance to be Ivory Antonius Brasavolus writeth that all men for the most part do sell a certain stone for Unicorns horn which truly I deny not to be done who have no certainty therein my self notwithstanding also it may to come pass that a very hard and solid horn about the point of asword especially which part is preferred to inferior as also in Harts horns to which either stones or iron may yeild such as Authors attribute to the Rhinocerot And other Unicorns may bear the shape of a stone before it self For if Orpheus concerning Harts horns rightly doubted whether the same or stones were of greatest strength I think it
dicunt ut quieta capi possit gemma de fronte ejus auferri quae natur 〈…〉 ter in eo nascitur that is to say The Asp is enchanted by vertue of certain words so as she cannot kill with her poyson or as some say be taken quietly without resistance and so the Gem or pretious Stone be taken out of her fore-head which naturally groweth therein And from the words of the Psalm aforesaid not only the certain and effectual use of charming is gathered by Pierius but also by many justified in the case of Serpents Whereof I have already given mine opinion in the former general Treatise unto the which I will only adde thus much in conclusion which I have found in a certain unnamed Author Daemones discurrunt cum verbis ad Serpentes infectione interiori hoc faciunt ut Serpentes ad nutum eorum movean 〈…〉 ae sine lâ—sione tractabiles exhibeantur Which is thus much in effect Devils run up and down with words of enchantment to Serpents and by an inward or secret infection they bring to pass that the Serpents dispose themselves after their pleasure and so are handled without all harm And indeed that it may appear to be manifest that this incantation of Serpents is from the Devil and not from God this only may suffice any reasonable man because the Psalmist plainly expresseth that the Serpent shifteth if off and avoideth Peritissimas mussitantium 〈…〉 antationes the most skilful Charmers Now if it came from the unresistable power of Almighty God it should pass the resistance of them or Devils but being a fallacy of the Devil the Serpent wiser in this point then Men that believe it easily turneth tail against it and in this thing we may learn to be wise as Serpents against the inchanting temptation of the Devil or Men which would beguile us with shadows of words and promises of no valuable pleasures If we may believe Pliny Aelianus and Philarchus the Egyptians lived familiarly with Asps and with continued kindeness wan them to be tame For indeed among other parts of their savage beastliness they worshipped Asps even as houshold Gods by means whereof the subtil Serpent grew to a sensible conceit of his own honour and freedom and therefore would walk up and down and play with their children doing no harm except they were wronged and would come and lick meat from the table when they were called by a certain significant noise made by knacking of the fingers For the guests after their dinner would mix together Hony Wine and Meal and then give the sign at the hearing whereof they would all of them come forth of their holes and creeping up or lifting their heads to the table leaving their lower parts on the ground there licked they the said prepared meat in great temperance by little and little without any ravening and then afterward departed when they were filled And so great is the reverence they bear to Asps that if any in the house have need to rise in the night time out of their beds they first of all give out the sign or token lest they should harm the Asp and so provoke it against them at the hearing whereof all the Asps get them to their holes and lodgings till the person stirring be laid again in his bed The holy kinde of Asps they call Thermusis and this is used and sed in all their Temples of Isis with the fat of Oxen or Kine Once in the year they crown with them the Image of Isis and they say that this kinde is not an enemy to Men except to such as are very evill whereupon it is death to kill one of them willingly It is reported of a certain Gardiner making a ditch or trench in his Vineyard by chance and ignorantly he set his spade upon one of these Thermusis Asps and so cut it asunder and when he turned up the earth he found the hinder part dead and the fore-part bleeding and stirring at which sight his superstitious heart overcome with a vain fear became so passionately distressed that he fell into a vehement and lamentable frenzy So that all the day time he was not his own man and in the night in his mad fits he leapt out of his bed crying out with pitiful and eager complaint that the Asp did bite him the Asp did wound him and that he saw the picture of the said Asp by him formerly slain following him and tearing his flesh and therefore most instantly craved help against it saying still he perished by it he was mortally wounded And when he had now saith Aelianus continued a while in this superstitious fury and disease of the minde his kindred and acquaintance brought him into the house of Serapis making request unto that fained God to remove out of his sight that spectre and apparition and so he was released cured and restored to his right minde This kinde of Asp they also say is immortal and never dyeth and besides it is a revenger of sacriledge as may appear by such another History in the same place There was a certain Indian Peacock sent to the King of Egypt which for the goodly proportion and feature thereof the King out of his devotion consecrated to Jupiter and was kept in the Temple Now there was saith he a certain young Mâ—n which set more by his belly then by his God which fell into a great longing for to eat of the said Peacock and therefore to attain his appetite he bribed one of the Officers of the Temple with a good sum of Money to steal the said Peacock and bring it to him alive or dead The covetous wretch enraged with the desire of the Money sought his opportunity to steal away the Pea-cock and one day came to the place where he thought and knew it was kept but when he came he saw nothing but an Asp in the place thereof and so in great fear leaped back to save his life and afterward disclosed the whole matter Thus far Aelianus The domestical Asps understand right and wrong and therefore Philanthus telleth a story of such an Asp which was a female and had young ones in her absence one of her young ones killed a childe in the House When the old one came again according to her custom to seek her meat the killed childe was laid forth and so she understood the harm Then went she and killed that young one and never more appeared in that house It is also reported that there was an Asp that fell in love with a little Boy that kept Geese in the Province of Egypt called Herculia whose love to the said Boy was so fervent that the Male of the said Asp grew jealous thereof Whereupon one day as he lay asleep set upon him to kill him but the other seeing the danger of her love awaked and delivered him There is much and often mention made of Asps in holy Scripture beside the forenamed place Psal 58. as in Esa 59.
coals and they make great plenty specially near to the River Vasses and of Plate The Bees called Chalcoides which are of the colour of brass and somewhat long which are said to live in the Island of Creta are implacable great fighters and quarrellers excelling all others in their stings and more cruel then any others so that with their stings they have chased the Inhabitants out of their Cities the remainder of which Bees do remain and make their Honey-combes as Aelianus saith in the Mountain Ida. Thus much of the differences of Bees now it remaineth to discourse of the Politick Ethical and Oeconomick vertues and properties of them Bees are governed and do live under a Monarchy and not under a tyrannical State admitting and receiving their King not by succession or casting of lots but by respective advice considerate judgement and prudent election and although they willingly submit their necks under a Kingly government yet notwithstanding they still keep their ancient liberties and priviledges because of a certain Prerogative they maintain in giving their voices and opinions and their King being deeply bound to them by an oath they exceedingly honour and love The King as he is of a more eminent stature and goodly corporature as before we have touched then the rest so likewise which is singular in a King he excelleth in mildness and temperateness of behaviour For he hath a sting but maketh it not an instrument of revenge which is the cause that many have thought their King never to have had any For these are the laws of nature not written with Letters but even imprinted and engraven in their conditions and manners and they are very slow to punish offenders because they have the greatest and Soveraign power in their hands And although they seem to be slack in revenging and punishing private injuries yet for all that they never suffer rebellious persons refractorious obstinate and such as will not be ruled to escape without punishment but with their pricking stings they grievously wound and torment so dispatching them quickly They are so studious of peace that neither willingly nor unwillingly they will give any cause of offence or displeasure Who therefore would not greatly be displeased with and hate extreamly those Dionysian Tyrants in Sicilia Clearchus in Heraclea and Apollodorus the Theef Pieler and spoiler of the Cassandrines And who would not detest the ungratiousness of those lewd claw-backs and Trencher-parasites and flatterers of Kings which dare impudently maintain that a Monarchy is nothing else but a certain way and rule for the accomplishing of the will in using their authority as they list and a science or skilful trade to have wherewith to live pleasantly in all sensual and worldly pleasure which ought to be far from a good Prince who whilest be would seem to be a Man he shew himself to be far worser then these little poor winged creatures And as their order and course of life is far different from the vulgar sort so also is their birth for they of the Kingly race are not born after the manner of a little Worm as all the Comminalty are but is forthwith winged and amongst all his younglings if he finde any of his sons to be either a fool unhandsome that none can take pleasure in rugged rough soon angry furnish or too teasty ill shaped not beautiful or Gentleman-like him by a common consent and by a Parliamentary authority they destroy for fear lest the whole Swarm should be divided and distracted into many mindes and so at length the Subjects undone by factions and banding into parts The King prescribeth laws and orders to all the rest and appointeth them their rules and measrues for some he straightly chargeth and commandeth as they tender his favour and will avoid his displeasure to fetch and provide water for the whole Camp He enjoyneth others to make the Honey-combes to build to garnish and trim up the house well and cleanly to finish perfectly the work to finde and allow to promote and shew others what to do Some he sendeth forth to seek their living but being worn with years they are maintained at the common stock at home The younger and stronger being appointed to labour and take their turns as they fall And although being a King he be discharged and exempt from any mechanical business yet for all tliat in case of necessity he will buckle himself to his task never at any time taking the field or air abroad but either for his healths sake or when he cannot otherwise chuse by means of some urgent business If in respect of his years he be lusty and strong then like a Noble Captain he marcheth before his whole winged-army exposing himself first to all perils neither with his good will will he be carryed of his Souldiers unless he be wearied and weakened by means of crooked age or mastered and clean put out of heart by any violent sickness so that he can neither stand on his legs nor flie When night approacheth the sign and token being given by his Honey-pipe or Cornet if you will so call it a general Proclamation is made through the whole Hive that every one shall betake himself to rest so the watch being appointed and all things set in order they all make themselves ready and go to bed So long as the King liveth so long the whole swarm enjoy the benefit of peace leading their lives without any disquieting disturbance vexation or fear of future wars For the Drones do willingly contain themselves in their own cells the elder living contented with their own homes and the younger not daring for their ears to break into their fathers Lands or to make any inrodes or invasion into the houses of their predecessors The King keepeth his Court by himself in the highest and largest part of the whole Palace his lodging being workmanlike and very cunningly made of a fine round or enclosure of Wax being thus as it were fenced and paled about as with a defensible wall A little from him dwell all the Kings children being very obedient to their parents beck Their King being dead all his subjects in an uprore Drones bring forth their young in the cells of the true Bees all are in a hurly burly all being out of season and order Aristotle saith that Bees have many Kings which I would rather tearm Viceroys or Deputies sithence it is certain as Antigonus affirmeth that as well the swarms do die and come to nought by having of many Kings as none at all And thus to have spoken of good Kings let this suffice Evill Kings are more rough rugged browner blacker and of more sundry colours whose natures and dispositions you will condemn in respect of their habit and manner of body and minde the one and other are thus Physiognomically described by the Poet Namque duae regum facies duo corpora gentis Alter erit maculis auro squallentibus ardens Et rutilis clarus squamis
corpora bello objectant pulchramque petunt per vulnera mortem Their war is either civil or forain Of the former there be divers causes that is to say the multitudes of their Dukes or Captains lying in wait to betray both King and Kingdom scarsity of victual straightness of place and room corruption of manners and idleness For if they have no Dukes then it is expedient as other whiles it happeneth they stay the overplus left the number of them growing too great either violence might be offered to the King or the Commons drawn to some sedition They kill them most of all when as they have no great store of young Bees to plant any new Colonies overthrowing and spoiling withall their Honey-combs if they have any They execute and Theeves and Drones so often as they have not room enough to do their business in for they bold the more inward part of the Hive so taking from them at one time both their Honey-combs and meat The scarsity and lack of Honey causeth them also to be at deadly feud so that the short Bees do encounter the long with might and main In the which bickering if the short be Conquerors it will be an excellent Swarm but if fortune smile on the long Bees side they live idlely making never any good Honey Whosoever getteth the day they are so given to rapine and revenge as they take no prisoners nor leave any place to mercy but commit all to the sword Now concerning their forain wars I must say they give place to no other living creature either in fortitude or hardy venturing and if either men four-footed beasts birds or Wasps do either hinder disquiet or kill any of them so that they be not well contented against all these they oppose themselves very stoutly according to their power wounding them They hate extreamly adulterous persons and such men as be smeared with any Ointment those that have curled or crisped hair as also all unfaithful and base raskally people and all those that wear any red clothes of the colour of bloud as contrariwise they love and reverence exceedingly their Masters Keepers Tutors Defenders and Maintainers so that sitting upon their hands they do rather tickle and lick them in sporting wise then either wound or hurt them though never so little with their sting Yea these men may safely without any touch of hurt and without any covering to their hands gather together the swarms in a very hot Summer yea handle place them in order heap up together sit or stand before their Hives and with a stick take clean away Drones Theeves Wasps and Hornets If any Souldier loseth his sting in fight like one that had his Sword or Spear taken from him he presently is discouraged and despaireth not living long through extremity of grief Going forth into the field to fight they stay till the watchword be given which being done they flock in great heaps about their King if he be a good one ending all their quarrell in one set battel In their order of fighting how great vertue courage strength and nobleness these poor creatures shew as well we our selves can testifie and they better who have assured us by their writings that whole Armies of armed men have been tamed by the stings of Bees and that Lions Bears and Horses have been slain by means of them And yet how fierce and warlike soever they seem to be they are appeased and made gentle with continual or daily company and unless they be too much netled and angred they live peaceably enough without any great trouble never hurting any one maliciously or deceitfully that standeth before their Hives If I should go about to declare at large their ingeny natural inclination cunning workmanship and memory I should not only give unto them with Virgil Particulam aurae divinae but also haustus mentis aethereae and liccat Pythagoricè errare the Metempsachoosis of that ingenious Philosopher For after that they are inclosed in a clean and a sweet hive they gather out of gummy and moist liquor yeelding trees a kinde of glutinous substance thick clammy and tough called of the Latines Camosis and of the Greeks Mitys especially from Elms Willows Canes or Reeds yea even from stones and this they lay for the first foundation of their work so covering it all over as with a hard crust at first bringing to it afterwards another layer of Pissocera which is a kinde of juyce of Wax and Pitch made with Gum and Rosin and over that again they lay Propolis which we call Bee-glew In this same three-fold tilie and sure ground-work thus artificially begun they do not only laugh to scorn jest at and mock the eyes of the over-curious spectators of their Common-wealth and works but that which no man considers they do hereby defend both themselves and theirs against rain cold small vermin and beasts and all their enemies Then after this they build their Combes with such an Architectonical prudence that Archimedes in respect of them seems to be no body For first of all they set up the cells of their Kings and Princes in the higher place of the Honey-combes being large fair sumptuous stately and lofty being cunningly wrought of the most tried purest and refined Wax trenching them round for the greater defence of the Regal Majesty with a mound and enclosure as it were with a strong Wall Bulwark or Rampire And as Bees in regard of their age and condition are of three sorts so likewise do they divide their Cells for to the most ancient they appoint houses next to the Court as those that are the fittest to be of his privy Councel and guarders of his Person next to these are placed the young Bees and those that be but one year old And they of middle years and stronger bodies are lodged in the uttermost rooms as those that are fittest and best able to fight for their King and Countrey Yet Aristotle saith that Bees in the making of their Tents or Cells do first of all provide for themselves and next for their King and his Nephews and lastly for the Drones And as in the fabricature of their Honey-combes they make the fashion according to the magnitude and figure of the place fashioning it either orbicular long square sword-like or foot-like c. according to their own liking running out sometimes in length eight foot so their little Cells contrariwise are framed after a certain form in a Geometrical proportion and measure for by rule they are justly Sexangular and capable enough to hold the tenant The whole Combe containeth four orders of Cells the first the Bees occupy the next the Drones possess the third those that are called of the Greeks Chadoones of the Latines Apum soboles call them if you please Schadones The last is appointed for the room of Honey-making There be some who constantly aver that the Drones do make combes in the same hive the labouring Bees do but that they lack
him with their wings pricking and tormenting him with their stings and if he offer any resistance to their Lordly rule then they violently cast him down from the shelf or step whereon he holdeth down to the earth as though they would break his neck Thus when they have glutted their wills and punished him at the full they at length put him to a shamefull death all which we have often beheld not without great admiration and pleasure Sometimes the Drones remain like banished persons before the entrance of the Hive and dare not venture to presse in For three causes specially the Bees do drive and cast out the Drones either when they multiply above measure or when they have not place enough left for their labourers or that they be pinched with hunger and famine for lack of Honey And as they carry a deadly hatred against the Drones so to make it more apparent they will not hurt such persons as offer either to take away with their bare hands any of the Drones and to cast them away yea though they be in the greatest heat of their fight Aristotle in his ninth Book D◠〈…〉 t s Animal Cap. 40 affirmeth that Bees are engendred apart one from another if their Captain liveth but in case their King and Captain dies some say they breed in the Bees Cells and that of all others of this kinde they are the most noble and couragious The young Drones are bred without any King but the true younger Bees never for they derive their Originall and petigree from the Kingly stock Some will say that the young Drones do fetch their Original from the flowers of the herb 〈◊〉 described by Pliny which is a kinde of Honey â—uckle having the taste of the Honey and Wax together from the Olive tree and Reed but this opinion is weakly grounded and standeth upon small reason Aristotle affirmeth that they proceed from the longer and bigger Bees yea and those that are termed Thieves which without question he received either from the ancient Philosophers or some others that had the charge and were skilful of ordering Honey that lived in his time Some will have them to breed and come from putrefaction as Isidoâ—e from stinking and putrefied Mules Cardan from Asses Plutarch and Servius from Horses Othersome are of opinion that they fiâ—st proceed of Bees and that afterwards they degenerate bastardlike from them after they have lost their stings for then they become Drones neither are they afterwards known to gather any Honey but being as it were deprived of their strength they grow effeminate ceasing either to hurt or to do any good at all Some again hold the contrary side assuring us upon their knowledge that the true labouring Bee fetcheth his beginning from the Drone because long experience the Mistress of Wisdome hath taught us that there is yearly known to be the greater swarm when there is the greater multitude of Drones But this to me seemeth rather the devise and invention of some curious brain then any true grounded reason For because that many Drones breed as it cometh always to passe in good and plentiful years therefore there should be greater swarms is no good consequent but contrariwise because the multitude of Bees do greatly increase through the moderatenesse of the pure air and the plenty of the Honey-dropping dew and through the abundance of this mellifluous moisture there must needs follow a greater foison and store of Drones as the Philosopher hath well observed But admit that this be true that whereas there is the greater encrease of Drones there should yearly ensue the more swarmings yet must we not thereupon conclude that Bees do owe and ought to ascribe their first original from Drones but rather that they are indebted and bound in honesty to the Drones because in time of breeding they give much warmth and comfort to their young as Pliny lib. 11. c. 11. saith conferring upon them a lively heat fit for their encrease and prospering Some divide them into male and female and that by coupling together they make a propagation of their kinde although as Athenaeus writeth neither Drones nor Bees were ever yet seen of any one to couple together But whereas Wasps Hornets and other Cut-wasted creatures that make any combes and breed in the same have been sometimes though seldom seen both by us and Aristotle to joyn together I can surely see no cause why we should utterly take from them the use of Venus though in that respect they be very modest and moderate I have before in the discourse of their generation said that the Bees do make the male kinde and the Drones to be but the female but sith that in the of Honey-making they punish them so sharply after they have ejected them from possession first so that afterwards they put them to death I can hardly be induced to believe that the Drones are but the female kinde considering that one thing would eclipse and overcast all those resplendent vertues which all men know to be in Bees to deal thus cruelly with their Parents To what use therefore serve they in Hives Seeing Virgil in the fourth book of his Georgicks thus describeth them Immunisque sedens aliena ad pabula fucus That is to say The Drones as free and bold doth sit And wast of others food commit Where Festus taketh Immunis for lazy idle unserviceable unprofitable and such as are nothing worth except perchance after the guise of wicked men they so serve their own turns as to live by the sweat of other mens labours and to bring out of order or utterly seek to overthrow the whole frame of the Common-wealth But the most approved Authors set down divers good use of Drones For if there be but a few of them among the Bees they make them the more careful about their affairs and to look more duly to their task not by their good example for they live in continual idlenesse but because they might continue their liberality towards strangers they work the more carefully in their Honey-shop And if Bartholemaeus do not deceive us these Drones be not altogether idle but they imploy themselves about the building of the Kings House which they make large stately and very sumptuous in the higher and middle part of the combes being very fair to see to in respect of their covering So then they are but lazy in respect of Honey-making and gathering but if you look toward their Art or Science of building they are to be accounted excellent devisers of the frame and chief Masters of the whole work For as the Bees do fashion out the combes of the Drones nigh the Kings Palace so again for the like counterchange of kindenesse the Drones are the sole inventors and principal work-masters of the Kings Court for which cause both they and their off-spring kinsfolks and friends if they have any are bountifully rewarded of the whole stock of Bees by giving them franckly
and to go away with him Pindus also being no less glad of the company of the Dragon did daily give unto him the greatest part of his hunting as a deserved price and ransome of his life and conquest of such a Beast Neither was he unrequited for it for Fortuâ—e so favoured his game that whether he hunted fowls of the air or beasts of the earth he still obtained and never missed So that his fame for hunting procured him more love and honor then ever could the Imperial Crown of his Countrey For all young men desired to follow him admiring his goodly personage and strength the Virgins and Maids falling in love contended among themselves who should marry him the wives forsaking their husbands contrary to all womanly modesty rather desired his company then the society of their husbands or to be preferred among the number of the Goddesses Only his Brethren inraged against him sought all means to kill and destroy him Therefore they watched all opportunities lying in continual ambush where he hunted to accomplish their accursed enterprise which at last they obtained for as he followed the game they enclosed him in a narrow straight neer to a Rivers side where he had no means to avoid their hands they and their company being many and he alone wherefore they drew out their swords and slew him When he saw no remedy but death he cryed out aloud for help whose voyce soon came to the ears of the watchful Dragon for no Beast heareth or seeth better out he cometh from his den and finding the murtherers standing about the dead body he presently surprized and killed them so revenging the quarrel of Pindus and then fell upon the dead body of his friend never forsaking the custody thereof until the neighbours adjoyning to the place taking knowledge of the fact came to bury the bodies But when they came and saw the Dragon among them they were afraid and durst not come neer but stood afar off consulting what to do till at last they perceived that the Dragon began to take knowledge of their fear who with an admirable curtesie of nature perceiving their mourning and lamentation for their dead friend and withall their abstinence from approaching to execute his exequies or funerals began to think that he might be the cause of this their terror and far standing off from the dead bodies wherefore he departed taking his farewell of the body which he loved and so gave them leave by his absence to bestow upon him an honourable burial which they performed accordingly and the River adjoyning was named by the name of Pindus-death By which story may appear that these savage Dragons are made loving and tame to men by good turns and benefits bestowed upon them for there is no nature which may not be overcome by kindenesse And yet I may not leave this matter thus nor from these two examples alone conclude the practise and possibility of love betwixt Men and Dragons I will therefore add some three or four examples more There was a Dragon the lover of Aetholis as Plutarch writeth who came unto her every night and did her body no harm but gently sliding over her played with her till morning then also would he depart away assoon as light appeared that he might not be espyed The Maidens friends came to the knowledge hereof and so removed her far away to the intent the Dragon might come no more at her and thus they remained asunder a great while the Dragon earnestly seeking for the Maiden wandered far and neer to finde her out At last he met with her and not saluting her gently as he was wont flew upon her binding her hands down with the spire of his body hissing softly in her face and beating gently with his tail her back-parts as it were taking a moderate revenge upon her for the neglect of his love by her long absence Another like story unto this is reported by Aelianus of a great Dragon which loved a fair Woman beloved also of a fair Man the Woman oftentimes did sleep with this Dragon but not so willingly as with the Man wherefore she forsook the habitation of her place for a month and went away where the Dragon could not find her thinking that her absence might quench his desire But he came often to the place where he was wont to meet with the woman and not finding her returned quietly back again and came again another time at last he grew suspicious and like a lover failing in his expectation grew very sorrowful and so continued till the month was exspired every night visiting the accustomed place At last the woman returned and the Dragon presently met with her and in an amorous fashion full of suspicion and jealousie winding about her body did beat her as you have heard in the former story and this saith Aelianus happened in Judea in the days of Hered the King There was a little Dragon-whelp bred in Arcadia and brought up familiarly with a little boy from his infancy until the Boy became a young Man and the Dragon also became of great stature so that one of them loved another so well as Man and Beast could love together or rather two play-fellows from the Cradle At last the friends of the Boy seeing the Dragon grow so great in so short a space began to be suspicious of him whereupon they took the bed wherein the Boy and the Dragon were lodged and carryed the same into a far remote place of Woods and Wildernesse and there set down the bed with the Boy and the Dragon together The boy after a little while returned and came home again to his friends the Dragon wandered up and down in the Woods feeding upon herbs and poyson according to his nature and never more cared for the habitation of men but rested contented with a solitary life In the length of time it came to passe that the boy grew to be a perfect man and the Dragon also remained in the Wood and although absent one from the other yet mutually loving as well as ever It hapned that this young man travelled through that place where the Dragon was lodged and fell among theeves when the young man saw their swords about his ears he cryed out and the Dragons den being not far off his cry came to the Dragons ears who instantly knowing the voyce of his play-fellow answered the same with another at whose hissing the theeves grew afraid and began to run away but their legs could not carry them so fast as to escape the Dragons teeth and claws for he came speedily to release his friend and all the theeves that he could find he put to cruel death then did he accompany his friend out of the place of peril and returned back again to his den neither remembering wrath for that he was exposed to the Wildernesse and there left by his play-fellow nor yet like perverse men forsaking their old friend in danger They
provision those that are stricken in years he cherisheth at home the younger he exerciseth in labour and vicissitude of imployments and although he himself hath immunity from mechanick labour yet as cause shall require he also refuseth not to work nor ever doth he go abroad but for healths sake or necessity If he be by reason of age in health he marches as General in the Vantguard of his Army and in person opposeth himself to all encounters neither is he born by his attendants willingly unlesse it be when he is so old and diseased that he cannot either go or fly When night comeâ— on the signal being given by the Trumpeter the common sort are commanded to their lodging and the watch being set every one betakes himself to his rest As long as the King lives all the swarm enjoyes peace and all things are in quiet for the Drones keep themselves willingly in their own cells the elder Bees are content with their own places nor do the younger run out of their own into the elders lodgings The King lives apart from the rest in a more eminent and large palace with a waxen fence curiously made compassed about as it were with a kinde of wall A little way from him dwell the Kings children to whom if their father or mother do but hold up the finger as they say they are husht But the King being dead the subjects are perplext the Drones lay their young ones in the Bees cells and all things are out of order Aristotle makes mention of more Kings or master Bees than one in a swarm which I had rather terme Vice-royes or petty Kings For as much as Antigonus testifieth the Swarm is in no lesse danger when it hath many Kings as when it hath none at all And so much be spoken of the good Kings The bad are more hairy and more dark black and various coloured you will condemn their skill when you observe their habit Their Kings in fabe and person differ one Bright as it were with golden spangles drest And gorgeous glittering scales to look upon The other 's a foul sordid dusty beast Sluggish large pauncht unworthy of the Train Kill this â—ut give the other leave to reign And thus far of the Kings and Nobility now let us proceed to speak of the vulgar sort or Commonalty of the Bees Bees are neither wilde nor tame creatures but a middle kinde of nature between both but of all in a manner the most serviceable and most profitable Their sting both keeps them alive and kils them for if that be once lost they cannot live but being armed therewith they guard the Swarm from all hostile invasion There are none of them idle although all do not have not the skill to make honey neither do they which can do nothing at all become like Drones for they do not as they do spoyl the combs nor steal the honey But they themselves are nourisht by the flowers and flying abroad with others feed together with them Albeit also there are some amongst them have not the industry to make and store up honey yet every one hath his work and his art wherein he doth imploy himself Some bear water to the King and to such of the Bees that are spent with old age and are decrepit The more ancient and graver sort of Bees are chosen to be of the Kings Life-guard or Esquires of the Kings Body if they be any way in health as being of known trust and well seen in the right ordering and managing of State-affairs Others of them administer Physick and undertake to cure such as are sick and of the Annise-flower Saffron and Violet collect together compound and give them to drink a most medicinable and cordial Honey It any of them chance to die by reason of Age or sicknesse forthwith the Bearers meet together which carry forth the Corps on their shoulders as on a Beer out of doors lest they should any way pollute or defile their clean and neat Hives with any uncleannesse filth or putrefaction Neither are the Bees without their commanders Captains Lievtenants Trained-bands Cornets Trumpeters Fifes Scoutmasters Watchmen and Souldiers an Army which do as if it were a little City guard and defend their Honey and do in condign manner punish and torment the Dors that fly thither and Worms that undermine them Lest they should be taken for Drones as they fly they make 〈◊〉 buzzing or humming noise which according as they begin to fly or cease is heard or not heard which sound whether it proceed from their mouth or from the motion of their wings Aristotle and Hesychius do much contend about Neither was I ever so quick sighted as to determine of a matter so exceeding intricare and obscure But the Fifes and Cornets seem to make that sound or noise which Hesychius calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the English call it singing and that they make their signal or watch-word when they are to watch when to sleep when to go to work So great is their care of preserving their King that they suffer him not to go abroad alone but gathering close together on both sides their company being divided they hem him in and guard him as he goes along But if perchance in their journey the King shall wander out of the way or shall be gone out of sight being driven by violence of stormy weather then all make search after him and do follow him by the sent as it were till they know certainly what is become of him And if he be tyred with flying or tediousnesse of weather the company bearing him up with strength of their wings as it were in a Charâ—oâ— convey him home If he die all of them go their waies or if they chance to stay some time after they make only combs but no Honey and within a while after being altogether idle full of diseases starved wall owing at last in their own filth they miserably end their lives Without a King they cannot bâ— against whom they make not the least resistance much lesse do they put him to death unlesse as tyrants are wont he make his lust the rule of his Government or being negligent of the Common-wealth takes no care of it yea if he use often to remove from place to place which he cannot do without grow detriment to his subjects they do not forthwith kill him only crop his wings and if he amend his manners and demean himself as he ought to do afterwardâ— they love an 〈…〉 pect him as well as ever they did before If he shall fly away and leave the Swarm they sent for him back again and if he fly out of the Kingdome they follow him and finding him out by his sent as it were by a track for above all the rest the King of Mast 〈…〉 hath a very 〈◊〉 smell they bring him back unto his royal Palace again Not a Bee whatsoever daâ—es go out of doors to feed any where unlesse the King
that every village or town almost is full of them And thus much may suffice to have spoken of the Generation of Bees come we now to their Propagttion concerning which Authors have divers opinions Some say they never couple or bring forth because no man ever yet saw or could tell whether they did so or no. Others say that when they have shed their seed upon the flowers or leaves of trees they carry it to their Hives by diligent and soft sitting upon it it comes to perfection Pliny will have it gathered from the Flower of the Honey-suckle or Honey-wort Aristotle from the flower Calander so called Athenaeus of the Reed-flower some of the flower or berry of the Olive taking that for an argument that in those years wherein these flowers are most plenty there are great store of swarms of Bees but when there is scarcity then few or none are to be seen when as yet they do not consider or observe that even in very cold countreys where none of these flowers grow nor are so much as seen there are plenty of Bees I am of opinion that they are propagated by copulation and am confident the male Bee is the greater the female the lesse who whether as Cocks do tread their Hens so they accordingly engender let experience teach yet certain it is that the lesser Bees only to wit the females do sit upon the egge and the shells being broken after the manner of Hens they do by an admirable and natural midwifery put forth their young Aristotle on the contrary affirms that the Kings or Master-Bees themselves do first bring forth and afterwards all the rest as those also do the Drones but the Drones beget nothing and so their generation ceaseth And this it may be not without some reason in regard that the Kings or Master-Bees alwaies remain within as if they were ordained by nature only for procteation neither ever appear abroad but when together with the whole Swarm they go to some other place to dwell For the same reason also they are so extremely beloved of all the Bees and live exempted from all necessary businesse and labour These do also excell the other Bees both in bulk of body and strength as if their bodies were by nature made only for breeders But the greater Drones keep a mean between both and hold such a loving correspondence with the labouring Bee as that they may nourish both the Drones their Nephews and the Kings their Parents But as for that which the Philosopher addes that Bees do not engende◠by way of copulation because their young is so small the same argument may be held of the Flies of which some are bigger than Bees who lay lesse worms the which growing by little and little become like Bees without wings and afterwards become Flyes Others there are who think that Bees do spring from the Honey or with the Honey or at least of the most pure and excellent part of it and that without all putrefaction But yet something whatsoever it be serving to engender and out of which Bees are engendred without doubt is layed in the cells Scaliger thinks they lay Eggs although the Bee-masters with one consent say that they lay little Worms not Eggs. Taxites is of opinion that they do couple and determines the Bees to be the males the Kings the females and that the Kings at a certain time do put forth little Worms all about the Hives as the Flyes do and the Drones sit upon them as the Serpent useth to do and by sitting upon them for such a time doth cherish them Then afterwards these little Worms called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are fed with the purest as it were with a mixture of wine and honey together till at length they grow to be Nymphs i. e. little Bees but without wings and then being wrapped up like to Aurelia they lye still in the cells neither taking any food or making any excrement Till at length by such a day the shell wherein they lay being broken out come the Bees and addresse themselves to their several imployments their wings being not yet fully grown All this time the Bees are much delighted with urine especially of men and therefore do frequent those places which are wet with it but especially after rain To the Conservation or keeping of Bees many things are required to wit orderly diet drink sleep watching air exercitation habitation convenience of place as also moderation of minde and physick fit to cure their Diseases of which we shall speak in particular As touching their provision they seek for nothing but they themselves being mindeful of the approaching winter they take pains for in summer and what they get store up accordingly For they gather and cook or dresse their diet themselves the prime or chief whereof is Honey which being over nearly drawn from them they become gaunt and lank and transparent that you may see through their bodies and unlesse there be other means made to sustain their hunger they all dye for want of food They have also other meat to preserve themselves withall as Wan-wort Honey-wort Bees-meat called Sandaracha but this is the worst and tastes sweet like a fig when these fail the Bee-masters lay before their doors figs sugar dried raisins the drones bruised the heads of gentles wool wet in sod or sweet wine and also honey-water lest they should faint and dye for hunger Pliny would have raw flesh if it be sweet and fresh to be laid for them to feed upon Generally all sweet things and of pleasant smell they covet though at a great distance not so much for the smells sake but as being their natural food as Flies feed upon wine No odoriferous and fragrant flowers do they refuse from whence they are in the Latine called Florilegae in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the delight they take in them and their greedinesse in gathering them The Plants most acceptable to Bees are the white and red Thyme Melicor the Myrtle the Willow the Broom Lavander Beans wilde Thyme Violets Kexes Rosemary sweet Fleabane Almonds Heath the Tamarisk the Cytisus Casia Daffodil Asphodil but chiefly Balm concerning which Macer sang these macilent verses That herb the Greeks call Balm the Bees approve And above other plants do highly love No flower or plant doth please them half so much Also the Ivy black Hellebore Origanum Savoury wilde Violets sweet Marjoram the Hyacynth the Palm-tree the wilde Olive-tree the Flower-de-luce Saffron Rose Lilly the Juniper-tree Pear-tree Peach-tree Turpentine Mastick Cedar Tiel-tree the smaller Oak goldy-locks wilde Saffron Cumila flowers of Mustard French Spondilium Crowfoot purging Thom all trees that bear Mast Apple-trees which have no bitternesse in their blossoms moreover they feed greedily on the flowers of dead Nettles both white and yellow whereupon this herb by the Helvetians is called Biensauge as if you would say sucked by Bees As for their drink if there be
in Summer nor very cold in Winter quiet from wind not woody not inclosed with an over high wall or pale not against a place where any eccho is given planted with natural and ordinary food remote from the company of men or cattel which may crop or shake off the dew from the flowers near no jakes privy-houses dung-hils common-shores standing ponds bogs gallows or place of execution Church-yards or where bodies use to be buried and so ordered that it may be in the bottome of a hill or in a valley to the intent the Bees being laden may with greater ease fly down to their Hives To conclude if there be a wind above other that doth infest any countrey in that let the Hives be placed where they may suffer the least harm and in no wise let them have any doors open against it But this diet is necessary for the tame Bees for to maintain their lives now as for the wilde and wood Bees they live after another manner they chuse their places of residence themselves and furnish them accordingly â—n the Countrey of the Abissines under Prester John the Bees live in the Tradesmens houses and slying up and down amongst them without fear hang up their Combs their hives being made fast to the beams or joyces of the same without any harm at all to those that work in the place Moreover in many places in England they have been known to have taken up their harbour of their own accord and that for a long time together between the rafters and the ceiling of houses and in the hollow trunks of trees and from thence the old Bees have sent forth three or four swarms of young ones in one year And what is worthy to be noted they live here longer and more happily then in their artificial woven Hives with so great diligence perfumed so curiously set ordered digested and placed But yet I commend their industry who have freed the Bees from this trouble and have no lesse ingeniously built them houses to keep them from wind and weather But they above all the rest deserve commendation who have found out how to cure the diseases of their bodies and mindes inward and outward and have had the skill how to apply them accordingly The passions or distempers of their mindes with which they are most troubled are Anger Grief and Fear For they very hardly digest injuries and they betray a great deal of choler and spleen to be in them by their often fighting even amongst themselves For if they over abound with issue they are all in an uproar about their cells and lodgings nor can the quarrel be composed till many are slain on either party or being divided into faction they do of their own accord seek other places of habitation More then this even the souldiers of the same Colony when they for some private grudge or jealousie fall into a rage they make war and fall foul one upon the other the which the wary Bee-master espying and casting in dust or cold water by squirts in at the vent holes where they go in and out or making a terrible and hoarse noise with the palms of his hands doth before it be too late pacifie For if he should let them fight on they would be so mad and cruel one against the other that they would never be quiet till they were all killed Sadnesse and Melancholy also doth very much distemper and disturb them arising sometimes from the death of the King or Master Bee sometimes of their young ones sometimes of their keeper neither will a day cease their conceived sorrow but they take it to heart that their bodies pine away and it consumes them to skin and bone Neither will the tinging or tinkling of the brasse pan or any harmony whatsoever delight them which yet when they are mad and dote so that they know not what they do is wont to cure them there is no plague or disease that can be named that is more deadly to them than this They most stand in fear of the Spider Lizzard Crocodile Toad Glow-worm Gad-bee Wasp Hornet the multitude of Dors or Drones a little bird called a Houp the Titmouse Swallow the Woodpecker or Eat-bee the Owle and other the like destroyers and spoilers of the Hives They are likewise very fearful of an Eccho thunder and lightning and the like sudden crackling noise as on the contrary with a soft still whistling or murmuring noise and tinkling of brasse they are exceedingly taken and delighted When fear takes hold on them poor creatures they wander up and down they know not whither and when they go out or in to their Hives they seem to be giddy as if they had a Vertigo in their brains whirling and turning round as for their Honey or their young ones or for those that are sick they scarce regard them and never leave trembling and quaking in their wings and shanks The Bee-master therefore when their provision fails ought to destroy the Drones and by putting raw flesh into a pot to take the Hornets and then burn them To kill the Frogs Butterflyes Wood-worms and Canker-worms to wipe away their webs to entrap the Gnats and Flyes to stab through the Lizzard Crocodile black fly or Beetle and by putting in a Candle to which they will come of their own accord to burn the Glow-worms or Moths to chase the Frogs and hunt them from the standing waters and fenny places to throw down all the nests of Swallowes Modwals Owls or Wood-peckers especially in all the neighbourhood or places hard by them to destroy the Muskin or Titmouse and to defend them against all other beasts that lie in wait for them and all other strange Swarmes In which fight the Bees do as it were acknowledge their keeper who after the victory issuing forth set upon the vanquish'd troops but to their defender or champion offer not the least harm The Bees by these means thus quitted of their fears only with the tinkling of the Pan and sometimes with the Bee-masters voice only are strengthened and brought to themselves again and every one cheerfully returns to his several appointed imployment as before Some Bees also are caught wandring up and down and flying away from their Hives for they take pleasure in wandring delights and embracements and never care at all for coming home to their own habitations this ill habit and haunt the Bee-masters with clapping of their hands and with the sound of the brasse in which Bees are said extremely to delight do presently remedy although it is yet uncertain whether they do hear the sound and are led by the pleasure of it or whether or no rather being affrighted and terrified with the trembling and reverberation of the air as when it thinders they return to their Hives and I see no reason why Pliny and Niphus should here make a doubt Others lest the swarm should fly away and so be gone do crop off half the wings of the
a sort of creatures of a greater growth very like the Bees and accordingly he placeth them in the rank of herding or swarming creatures They suffer egregiously of the whole swarm many times not only for their sloth and rapacity but for that wanting a sting they seem effeminate and not able to make any opposition Plin. l. 11. c. 17. describeth them thus The Drone is an imperfect Bee without a sting and begotten then after all when the Bee is decayed with labour not being able to labour any longer Like as men past their labour and stricken in age beget of women when they have well-nigh left teeming through age and weakness feeble children uncapable of procreation little better then eunuchs so it may not seem strange how these Drones are too weak and impotent being begotten of the Bees when they are exhausted with age and labour insomuch that they are fit neither to propagate their one species nor to take pains as the other do Which is the reason why the Bees so lord it over them for they put them first forth to work if they loyter they punish them without mercy For in the moneth of June two or three especially the younger fry drag out one Drone by himself alone buffet him with their wings gore him with their stings if he resist them they cast him down from the form upon the ground and at length when they have made him weary of his life for anguish they make an end of him and kill him this I beheld with mine eyes not without exceeding admiration and delight Sometimes the Drones being banisht from the Hive are fain to remain without doors not daring to enter Now for three reasons especially thereunto moving the Bees do shut out the Drones either when their number is above measure increased or when there is not room enough left for the Bees to work in or else when their honey fails and they are straightned for want of provision And as they bear a deadly hatred against the Drones so neither will they hurt any man if with his naked hands he shall take the Drones and cast them forth no although they be in fight The Drones if the King be alive as some affirm are begotten in a place by themselves But if the King be dead they are begotten of the Bees in their cells and those are a great deal lustier than the other in which regard they are said to have a sting in their souls although they are allowed none in their bodies by nature ' Thus Aelian lib. 1. de Animal Hist c. 10. The Drone which is bred amongst the Bees lies hid all day between the honey cells but in the night when he observes that the Bees are gone to their rest and are fast asleep he sets upon their works and preys upon their Hives This assoon as they understand for that most of the Bees being weary with labour fall asleep and some few watch when they espy the thief they moderately and gently chastise him crop his wings thrust him out from thence and banish him But not content with this punishment whereby to amend his fault being naturally possest with two ill qualities idleness and luxury he hides himself amongst the combs But assoon as the Bees are gone forth to pasture presently he falls upon the works doth as much as in him lies glâ—â—s himself with honey and utterly ransacks the sweet treasury of the Bees They coming home again from feeding as soon as they meet with him no more favour him as before with easie stripes or as if they were about only to banish him again but setting upon him with their stings they wound the felon and no more satisfie themselves with chiding of him but then he payes for his voracity and gluttony with no lesse than his life This the Bee-masters say and perswade me that it is true Drones come forth without a King the Bees never For they alwaies descend from Kings There are that affirm that the young Drones are brought thither from other places from the flowers of honey-suckles or of the olive or â—eed But this opinion is infirm and doth not stand with reason Aristotle affirms that the great store both of Drones and Theeves are sprung of the longer and slender kinde of Bees which doubtlesse he was informed of by the ancient Philosophers or by Bee-keepers and Honey-masters of his time Some likewise say they are ingendred of putrefaction as of Mules so Isidore of Asses so Cardane of Horses so Plutarch and Servius Others will have them to be the issue of Bees by a certain degeneration when they have lost their stings for then they become Drones nor are observed to gather any honey and being as it were gelt of their natural strength they neither do harm or good Others on the contrary say that the Bees are bred of the Drones because long experience hath taught that as the number of Drones aboundeth by so much every year is the number of the Swarms greater But that in my apprehension is rather a feigned than a solid reason for therefore are there not as some seasonable years it comes to passe more Swarmes of Bees because more Drones are bred but rather on the contrary because the increase of Bees is more in regard of the clemency of the heavens and the plenty of mellifluous dews so from the abundance of superfluous moisture proceed the greater store of Drones as the Philosopher hath well collected Or if we grant them this that the more the Drones are every year so the more Bees yet nothstanding we ought not to conclude from thence that the Bees should derive their original of being to the Drones but rather are beholding and indebted to them for their conservation whilest they at the time of sitting and incubation by their company do much further the procreation of the Bees the throng of them to use the words of Pliny exceedingly encreasing the vegetative heat by which they are sooner hatched up There are that divide the Drones into Male and Female and will have them to propagate their species by way of copulation although as Athenaeus writes neither Drone nor Bee were ever seen to couple together Yet forasmuch as Wasps and Bumble Bees and all other Hiveborn Insects are seen sometime though very seldome to couple I see no reason why the modesty of the Bee and of the Drone whereby they abandon publick scortation and venery should debar them of the private use of copulation For they as the chaster sort of men are wont do it privately and do naturally detest the impudence of those that publickly prostitute themselves in the day time and when all eyes are upon them We have told you before in the generation of Bees that some would make the Bees the male and the Drones the female But when as about the time of making their honey they do so sharply punish them after they have cast them out of their Hives and
kill them such violence which if used to their mothers would much blemish the virtues of the Bees I scarse think they are females Of what use then are they of in the Hives is the Drone altogether unprofitable good for nothing idle without sting fit for no service no way helpful to the publick More than that Virgil himself chants it to that effect Immunisque sedens aliena ad pabula fucus The Drone sits free feeding on others food Where Festus takes the word in that sense for a slothful idle unprofitable creature void of all imployment unlesse it be that of theeves and robbers who take such a course that either they will live by the sweat of other mens browes or else they will disturb the whole Kingdom Such like Hesiod makes women to be when he compares them to Drones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is I interpret it in Latine thus Qui segnes resident contectis aedibus atque Sudorem alterius proprium furantur in alvum Or in English thus Who sit at home and to work have no will With others sweat they do their bellies fill But more creditable Authors propound divers uses of Drones for if there be but a few of them amongst the Bees they make them more diligent and careful in their businesse not by their example for they live perpetually idle but because they take the more pains in making honey that they may be able to continue their liberality to strangers They discover also signs whereby to know when the honey is come to maturity for when they have perfected their honey then they kill them in abundance lest they should as their custome is rob them of it in the night for as Aelian saith the Drone all the day lies quietly in the honey cells but in the night when he perceives that the Bees are in their dead sleep he sets upon their works and destroies their combs But yet if Barthâ—lomaeus deceive us not they are not unbusied neither but they build houses for the Kings large and magnificent in the top and middle part of the Hive very finely covered over They are therefore idle to say say with Aristotle in regard of making honey or gathering dew but in regard of their Architecture so they are workmen For as the Bees make the combs of the Drones hard by the Kings Court so under the same consideration the Drones build the Kings houses which is the reason why they and their young ones if they have any are sustained by the Bees The cells of the Drones now grown up according to the bulk of their bodies are larger but their combs lesse for the Bees built these but those the made themselves because it is not fitting that the same proportion of food should be allowed to hindes and hired servants as to the childâ—en or masters of the family Tzetzes in his elegant Poem and other of the Greek Poets make them to be the Bees cellarmen or water-bearers and do assign unto them a most kindly heat whereby they are said to hatch the young Bees and make them thrive In like manner Columella the Drones do very much help to breed the young Bees by sitting upon those seeds out of which they are made And theâ—efore they are more familiarly admitted to the nursery to bring up and cherish the young bâ—ood which when they have done afterwards they are thrust out of doors And Pliny also in his 11. Book They do not assist the Bees in their Architecture only but also in cherishing their young the multitude of them causing heat and warmth the which the greater it is unlesse the honey chance to fail in the mean time the more the swarmes of Bees are increased To conclude unlesse they had been for some great use for the Bees Almighty God had never housed them under one roof nor made them as it were free Denisons of the same City Neither would the Bees lay hands on them at all as enemies of the State but when their servile multitude doth increase and they take up offensive arms or scarcity of provision were to be suddenly expected in which tempest of affairs who would not rather judge that the Carpenter should be dismissed than the Ploughman especially when without him by reason of want of victuals we may hazard our lives but the other we may be without for a time without prejudice to our lives and our selves if need requires are able to build habitations every one for himself Now as these being but a competent number of them are very profitable to the Bees so if they be over many Plato not without cause terms them morbum alvearium the Pest or Plague of the Hive in the 8. book of the Common-wealth where you may see a most elegant comparison between Acolastus and the Drone both because they waste the provision of the labouring Bees as also with their too much heat stifle them This inconvenience the Author of the Geoponicks doth thus remedy take the covers of the Hives and sprinkle them on the inside over night with water and you shall finde them betimes in the morning when you take off the cover of the Hives again all over covered with the Drones for when their bellies are full of honey they are very thirsty and are mightily perplext with an intolerable desire of water so that they cling fast to the lid of the Hive and it is an easie matter to put them all to death or if you will rather to take away the greatest part of them But if you take away the young ones and all that are not yet come to have wings and pluck off their heads casting the bodies in again to the other Bees you shall offer to them a very dainty dish Moreover also if you shall take the Drone and crop off his wings and cast it back into the Hive he will if we may credit Pliny pull ofâ— all the wings of the rest lib. 21. c. 11. or rather the Bees themselves will devour the wings of the rest of the Drones that are left For so saith Aristot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it is not probable that either the Bees should crop one the others wings or that the Drones should so far adventure or be able to offer such violence to the Bees so that as Pliny was mistaken in reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so also they do not a little speak by guesse who refer the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rest to the Bees and not to the Drones But what the dreaming of Drones doth portend what use they may be of in the way of Hieroglyphicks let Apomasaris out of the Schools of the Persians and Aegyptians declare It shall abundantly satisfie for what we intended to speak of them to shew their true use true nature generation degeneration description and name But as for what belongs to Emblemes and Hieroglyphicks and precepts for Manners
Author of Naumachia in these verses The nurse childe of death Famine was present with her empty veins The poor with hunger starved their breath Was spent for neither broth nor bread remains Vpon their mouthes and guts hunger laid hold They move their chaps and bite their teeth not meat Through wrinkled skin their bowels might be told Nothing but skin and bone they 'd nought to eat In stead of belly stood an empty place the brest hung down and seemed for to stay On the back bones rough grate pale was the face Lips white eyes sunk teeth stark all was like clay Nor was France free from their teeth and devouring but in the years since the time the Virgin brought forth her son namely in the year 455 874 1337 1353 1374. was miserably waited and the Citizens consumed by famine and very many killed by a plague that followed it and sometimes it lost a third part of the inhabitants These Locusts had commonly six wings and were brought thither from the East But at length by force of winds they were carried into the British Sea and drowned there but by the flowing of the sea they were cast to the shore and infected the air and caused a plague no less cruel than the famine that went before Otho Frisingensis Also in the year 1476 they wasted almost all Polonia In 1536. innumerable troops of Locusts were brought by winds from the Sea Euxinum into that part of Sarmatia which is called Podolia they did change their camps in a military order and they eat up all that was in the fields where they pitched both by day and night these of an unusual greatness at first wanted wings then their wings growing forth they flew at pleasure and what shall I say they eat not only herbs and leaves and flowers but hardly left any bark on the trees Then they wandred through Germany and came as far as Millan and having devoured all there they returned to Polonia and Silesia At last in November for so long they lived when they were consumed by force of cold they raised such a stench that had they not been eaten up by hogs and wilde bores they would have caused as great a plague as they had done a famine in Germany and Italy In the year 1543 Locusts did a very great mischief to the Countreys of Misnia and Marchia at which time they were so frequent in Lucania that being in heaps they were above a cubit high Jacobus Ekcelius In the year 1553 it is commonly known what great dammage the mighty company of Locusts did at Arles whilest we were writing this we received news that the Spaniards were sorely afflicted with swarms of Locusts brought thither out of Africa For they flew like Armies through the skies and darkned the air And the people when they saw them rang all their bels shot off ordinance sounded with trumpets tinkled with brazen vessels cast up sand did all they could to drive them away but they could not obtain what they desired wherefore sparing their labour in vain they died every where of hunger and contagion as the Mariners and steer-men reported to us who escaped very hardly from that danger themselves Eutropius lib. 4. makes mention of very great Locusts which were seen not far from Rome to the wonder and amazement of the beholders the inhabitants were so afraid of them for their devouring nature that they were frighted at their sight Hence we may collect that those creatures are not the smallest amongst the Armies of the Lord of hosts when he pleaseth to punish the sins of men and to revenge himself on the despisers of his Lawes But as his Justice is admirable so in his greatest severity Mercy is not wanting for being that Locusts have brought sundry Nations to want and hunger and they have had no thing to eat these Locusts have died suddenly and became meat for the people they afflicted before the people of hot Countreys whom especially they spoil of their increase of fruits as the Aethiopians Tagetenses Parthians Arabians Lybians Mellenses Zemenses Darienenses Africans and those that live about Lepris the Azanaghi Senegenses people of Mauritania and others live chiefly upon Locusts and account their eggs to be dainties others prepare them thus First in a low large place they make a great smoak by which the Locusts in flying are hindred and forced to fall than when they have taken them they dry them with salt the Sun and smoke and cutting them in pieces they keep them for their yearly provision as we do fish not only those which have large legs but the Attelabi the Aselli Asiraci and almost all kindes of Locusts as we collect out of Dioscorides Strabo Pliny Solinus Agatharsis Plutarch Avicenna Posidonius Leo and Dionysius Africanus Aelian Diodorus Siculus Aloysius Cadmustus Agricola and the Centuries of Navigations whence they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Locust-eaters Yet though they accounted them amongst their choicest meats yet the Grecians esteemed them but for meaner fare if we beleeve Aristophanes and Plutarch in Sympos where he cals them the Sustainer of the Countreymans table S. Matthew in the 3. chapter saith that John the Baptist lived upon them and wilde honey and God appointed four sorts of them to be clean and suffered the people of Israel to feed upon them whosoever desireth more concerning Locusts for food let them read the most learned Annotations of Venerable Bede upon St. Matthew They have no venome in them yet they that feed on them are not long lived and seldome live to 40 years and frequently die young as Diodorus Siculus Agatharsis and Strabo have observed St. Ambrose saith that Locusts hurt neither men nor fruits by themselves but nourish them and feed not on fruits unless God command them But when God gives the word they kill men spoil the ground and execute the vengeance of God Mantis as I said shewes travellers their right way Ophiomachus kils Serpents all Locusts foreshew the Spring and what is more acceptable to us and if by so great multitudes they foretell of famine by that they sweetly invite us to prayers and repentance they live so lovingly together that they stand in need of neither King nor Emperor for they fly together as Solomon saith Prov. 30. without a King and live in concord whence is that saying of Ecclesiastes Thy keepers are as Locusts and thy children as the young Locusts that is not only numerous but unanimous and conspiring together What concerns their use in Physick the Locusts are serving to that end also for their smell cures the Strangury especially of women Dioscorid Bread eat with the flesh of Locusts is good for those who are troubled with the Stone fryed Locusts take away the roughness of the nails Locust legs bruised with Goats tallow cure the Leprosie Pliny Mantes cure hard scrofulous tumors Aselli dried and drank with wine are excellent good against the stinging of the Scorpion Attelabi cure