him safe into his lodging which thing is worthy to be remembred as a noble vnderstanding part both of a louing friend and faithfull seruant The like may be said of the Elephant of Porus carrying his wounded maister the king in the battel he fought with Alexander for the beast drew the Darts gently out of his maisters body without all paine and did not cast him vntill he perceiued him to be dead and without blood and breath and then did first of all bend his owne body as neare the earth as he could that if his maister had any life left in him he might not receiue any harme in his alighting or falling downe Generally as is already said they loue all men after they be tamed for if they meet a man erring out of his way they gently bring him into the right againe Their loue to their keepers and al men that harme them not yet being wilde are they afraide of the foot-steps of men if they winde their treadings before they see their persons and when they find an herbe that yeeldeth a suspition of a mans presence they smell thereunto one by one and if al agree in one sauour the last beast lifteth vppe his voice and crieth out for a token and watchword to make them all flie away Cicero affirmeth that they come so neare to a mans disposition that their small company or Nation seemeth to ouergoe or equall most men in sence and vnderstanding At the sight of a beautifull woman they leaue off all rage and grow meeke and gentle Their loue of beautiful women and therefore Aelianus saith that there was an Elephant in Egypt which was in loue with a woman that sold Corrals the selfe same woman was wooed by Aristophanes and therefore it was not likely that she was chosen by the Elephant without singular admiration of hir beauty wherein Aristophanes might say as neuer man could that he had an Elephant for his riuall and this also did the Elephant manifest vnto the man for on a day in the market he brought her certaine Apples and put them into her bosome Plutarch holding his Trunke a great while therein handling and playing with her brests Another likewise loued a Syrian woman with whose aspect he was suddainely taken and in admiration of her face stroked the same with his trunke with testification of farther loue the woman likewise failed not to frame for the Elephant amorous deuises with Beads and corals siluer and such things as are gratefull to these brute beastes so shee enioyed his labor and diligence to her great profit and he hir loue and kindnes without al offence to his contentment which caused Horat. to write this verse Quid tibi vis mulier nigris dignissima barris At last the woman died whom the Elephant missing like a louer distracted betwixt loue and sorrow fell beside himselfe and so perished Neither ought any man to maruel at such a passion in this beast who hath such a memory as is attributed vnto him and vnderstanding of his charge and busines as may appeare by manifold examples for Antipater affirmeth that he saw an Elephant that knewe againe and tooke acquaintance of his maister which had nourished him in his youth after many yeares absence When they are hurt by any man they seldome forget a reuenge and so also they remēber on the contrary to recompence al benefits as it hath bin manifested already Their reuēge of harmes obseruation of the mesure of their meat They obserue things done both in waight and measure especially in their owne meate Agnon writeth that an Elephant was kept in a great mans house in Syria hauing a man appointed to bee his ouerseer who did daily defraude the Beast of his allowance but on a day as his maister looked on he brought the whole measure and gaue it to him the Beast seeing the same and remembring howe he had serued him in times past in the presence of his maister exactly deuided the corne into two parts and so laied one of them aside by this fact shewing the fraud of the seruant to his maister The like storie is related by Plutarch and Aelianus of another Elephant discouering to his master the falshood and priuy theft of an vniust seruant Strabo About Lycha in Affricke there are certaine springs of water which if at any time they dry vp by the teeth of Elephants they are opened and recouered againe They are most gentle and meeke neuer fighting or striking man or Beast except they be prouoked and then being angred they wil take vp a man in their trunke and cast him into the ayre like an Arrow Gillius so as many times he is dead before him come to ground Plutarch affirmeth that in Rome a boy pricking the trunke of an Elephant with a goad the beast caught him and lift him vp into the aire to shoote him away and kill him but the people and standers by seeing it made so great a noise and crye thereat that the beast set him downe again faire and softly without any harme to him at all as if he thought it sufficient to haue put him in feare of such a death In the night time they seeme to lament with sighes and teares their captiuity and bondage Gillius Philostratus Their mourning in secret Aristotle The length of their life Arrianus but if any come to that speede like vnto modest persons they refraine suddenly and are ashamed to be found either murmuring or sorrowing They liue a long age euen to 200. or 300. yeares if sicknes or woundes preuent not their life and some but to a 120. yeares they are in their best strength of body at threescore for then beginneth their youth Iuba king of Lybia writeth that he hath seene tame Elephantes which haue descended from the father to the sonne by way of inheritance many generations that Ptolomaeus Philadelphus had an Elephant which continued aliue many Ages and another of Seleuchus Nicanor Aelianus which remained aliue to the last ouerthrow of all the Antiochi The inhabitants of Taxila in India affirme that they had an Elephant at the least three hundred and fifty yeares old for they said it was the same that fought so faithfully with Alexander for king Porus for which cause Alexander cald him Aiax did afterward dedicate him to the Sunne and put certaine golden chaines about his teeth with this inscription vpon them Alexander filius Iouis Aiacem soli Alexander the sonne of Iupiter consecrateth this Aiax to the Sunne The like story is related by Iuba concerning the age of an Elephant which had the impression of a Tower on his teeth and was taken in Atlas 400. yeares after the same was engrauen of the eating Elephants Strabo There are certaine people in the world which eate Elephants and are therefore called of the Nomades Elephantophagi Elephant-eaters as is alreadye declared there are of these which dwell in Daraba neere the wood
among Shepheards They vse also to couer their throat and necke with large broad collars pricked throgh with nailes for else if the wilde beast bite them in those places the dogge is easily killed varro Fronto Ths loue of dogs to the cattell they attend but being bitten at any other place he quickly auoideth the wound The loue of such to the cattel they keepe is very great especially to sheep for when Publius Aufidius Pontianus bought certaine flockes of Sheepe in the farthest part of Vmbria and brought Shepherds with him to driue them home with whome the dogs went along vnto Heraclea and the Metapontine coasts where the drouers left the cattell the dogs for loue of the Sheepe yet continued and attended them without regard of any man and forraged in the fields for Rats and Mice to eat vntill at length they grew weary and leane and so returned back againe vnto Vmbria alone without the conduct of men to their first maisters being many daies iourney from them It is good to keep many of these together at the least two for euery flock that so when one of them is hurt or sick the herd be not destitute it is also good to haue these male and female yet some vse to geld these thinking that for this cause they will the more vigilantly attend the flocke howbeit I cannot assent hereunto because they are too gentle and lesse eager when they want their stones They are to be taken from their dam at two moneths old and not before and it is not good to giue them hot meate for that will encrease in them madnes neither must they tast any of the dead carkasses of the Cattell lest that cause them to fal vpon the liuing for when once they haue taken a smatch of their blood or flesh you shal sildom reclaim theÌ„ from that deuouring appetite The vnderstanding of these Shepherds dogs is very great especially in England for the Shepherds wil there leaue their dogs alone with the flocks and they are taught by custome to keepe the sheep within the compasse of their pasture and discern betwixt grasse and corn for when they see the sheep fall vpon the corne they run and driue them away from that forbidden fruit of their own acord and they likewise keep very safely their maisters garments victuals from all annoyance vntill their return Ther is in Xenophon a complaint of the sheep to the shepherds concerning these dogs we maruel said the sheep at thee that seeing we yeeld thee milk lambs and cheese wherupon thou feedest A pretty fable of the Sheep the Dogge neuertheles thou giuest vnto vs nothing but that which groweth out of the earth which we gather by our own industry and whereas the dog doth none of al these him thou feedest with thine own hand bred from thine own trencher the dog hearing this complaint of the sheep replyed that his reward at the shepherds hand was iust and no more then he deserved for saide hee I looke vnto you and watch you from the rauening Wolfe and pilfering theefe so as if once I forsake you then it will not bee safe for you to walke in your pastures for perrill of death whereunto the sheepe yeelded and not replyed to the reasonable answer of so vnreasonable a beast and this complaint you must remember was vttered when Sheepe could speake as well as men or else it noteth the foolish murmuring of some vulgar persons against the chiefe ministers of state that are liberally rewarded by the princes owne hands for their watchfull custody of the common-wealth and thus much for the shepheards Dogge OF THE VILLAGE DOGGE or house-keeper THis village Dogge ought to be fatter and bigger then the Shepheards Dog of an elegant square and strong body being blacke coloured The colour of this Dog and great mouthed or barking bigly that so he may the more terrifie the Theefe both by day and night for in the night the beast may seize vpon the robber before he discerne his blacke skinne and therefore a spotted branded party-coloured Dogge is not approued His head ought to be the greatest part of his body hauing great eares hanging downe and blacke eies in his head a broade breast thicke necke large shoulders strong Legs a rough haire short taile and great nailes his disposition must not be to fierce nor yet to familiar for so he will fawne vpon the theife as well as his maisters friend Yet is it good that sometime he rise against the house-hold seruantes and alway against strangers and such they must be as can wind a stranger a farre off and descry him to his maister by barking as by a watch-word and setting vpon him when he approcheth neere if he be prouoked Blondus commendeth in this kinde such as sleepe with one eie open and the other shut Of marriners dogs on shipboard so as any small noyse or stirre wake and raise him It is not good to keepe many of these curst Dogs together and them fewe which bee kept must bee tyed vppe in the day time that so they may be more vigilant in the night when they are let loose There are of this kind which Marriners take with them to Sea to preserue their goodes on ship-board they chose them of the greatest bodyes and lowdest voice like the Croatian Dog resembling a Wolfe in haire and bignesse and such as are very watchful according to the saying of the Poet. Exagitant lar turba Dianiae fures Peruigilant que lares peruigilant que canes Vegetius And such also they nourish in Towers and Temples in Towers that so they may descry the approching enemy when the Souldiers are asleepe for which cause Dogs seene in sleepe Aâ—temdorus signifie the carefull and watchfull wife seruants or Souldiers which foresee dangers and preserue publique and priuate good There was in Italy a Temple of Pallas wherein were reserued the axes instruments and armour of Diomedes and his colleages Aristotle â—râ—ldus 〈◊〉 keepers 〈…〉 Dâ—â—â— Chriso the which temple was kept by Dogges whose nature was as the Authour saith that when Graecians came to that Temple they would fawne vpon them as if they knew them but if any other countrey men came they shewed themselues Wild fierce and angry against them The like thing is reported of a Temple of vulcan in Aetna wherein was preserued a perpetuall and vnquencheable fire for the watching whereof were Dogges designed who would fawne and gently flatter vpon all those which came chastly and religiously to worship there leading them into the Temple like the familiars of their God but vpon wicked and euill disposed leude persons they barked and raged if once they endeauored so much has to enter either the Wood or temple but the true cause hereof was the imposture of some impure and deceiteful vnclean diabolical spirits 〈…〉 And by the like instinct Scipio Affricanus was wont to enter into the Capital and commaund
words of the Authours when they among themselues haue so diligentlie gathered together the places that they must bring them to mutual light Notwithstanding if so be that it seemeth a worke to declare the wordes and sentences of the Authours I haue done it for my owne helpe and for others and also in causes comprehended in other sentences as they so cal them yet it doeth happen that I am freed by their nature from too dark a stile from euery affectation or curious desire of that thinge which nature hath not giuen I leaue that care to those with whome wordes rather then matter are entertained But that I may repeat more copiouslie in few words their sayings that this book may But that I may repeate more copiously in few wordes their sayings that this booke may not be to large therefore first of all I will entreate of that which is perfected by a number of Authors and afterwards of that which I haue sundry times added thereto because of my owne declaration This booke might be much shorter if I had not touched the loue of learning in which I confesse I haue been too tedious and although this my diligence may be vnprofitable to some yet I hope it will bee pleasant and acceptable to the Grammarians and others but truely it hath cost me great labour and many nightes watching I call that the loue of learning whatsoeuer it is that doth belong to a Grammarian and diuersities of languages prouerbs or common sayings semblables tales or fables wherein bruite Beasts are fained to speake the sayings of Poets and lastly that which doth belong rather to words then to the matters themselues This and such like I haue done for the most part The Reader must note that all thâ—se following are spoken of his latin discorse hauing made a seuerall Chapter of those â—â—nges which belong to euery liuing creature euen to the eight or last Treatise yet notwithstanding sometimes they haue got in by stealth in the former Chapters partly because I was inuited by a small occasion and with a certaine desire of the same to change my purposes and partly because that the light of the Authors should seeme to bring profit to the places fitly recited or openly reade that else where as well as in the second chapter I haue oftentimes also alledged somewhat more of Grammarians Phisitians and other matters In the third Chapter wherein I did entreat of the meates and diseases of liuing creatures I oftentimes turned more copiously to entreate of the plantes by the which they were wholesomely nourished or happily by the strength of the tast of them were hurt or else killed and after the same manner also in the first Chapter if there were any such rootes that the liuing creatures should perish by them throwne by the Hunters with some meate But I haue professed and confessed in that loue of learning that I was wont to name those plantes and sometimes to write of many thinges which haue had their name after a certaine manner from some liuing creature The seuenth Chapter entreateth of the remedies of liuing creatures and of curing the hurts which they were wont to receiue by biting or by a stroke or by eating of meate I do very often esteeme much of many thinges written in the desire of dignifieng medicinall matters It is seene where the places of Authors being depraued and renewed haue allowed occasion of digressing To be short wheresoeuer any rare thing or that which is declared to others did offer it selfe which being vnfolded should seeme to dignifie and honor common learning I haue beene alured contrary to my institution for the declaring thereof For when as being a child I was educated in the Greeke and Latine studies of Gramer and conference as yet being a young man had begun to profit therein vntill growne vnto full age I came to riper profession of Phylosophy especially natural and Medicinall although out of the same I haue not a little increased my loue vnto learning and made it more firme and solide and very greedily haue exercised my selfe in reading of diuers matters I could do somewhat more in the explications of matters and sayings then I perswaded my selfe the rude multitude would regard especially in the age of inferiour students and in the studies of those which are busied in other matters Wherefore I haue written more freely and often more copiously of many thinges I haue reprehended the ancient the later not with any intent to obscure others and aduantage my owne but sincerly and simply as much as in me lyeth that I might aduance common studies But if no man doe disalow their bookes whom in no order but as any thing which commeth into their mindes expound the wordes and sayinges of diuers Authors in both tongues as among auncient Writers Macrobius Gillius Cassidorus and whosoeuer haue written diuers things many whereof I haue declared in the second part of my Bybliotheca and amongst the latter many others as most especially Guilielmus Budaeus Coelius Rhodiginus Chalcagninus Polittanus Erasmus Rotorodamus c. but as it were best of all by desertes whatsoeuer any good man or meanely learned doth thinke of them I doe not see by what right this our labour may be dispraised wherein many thinges truely spoken of by others but disordredly many thinges by me being first deliuered I haue so orderd and disposed that in a manner euery thing may be set in his owne proper place As for al the chapters which we haue set down are not only of them but euery chapter hath his seuerall part and certaine order both the former and the latter one Method and that continuall of the middle part being throughout the whole worke And because sometime it did happen that something might seeme to be referred out of those which I had directed into diuers other places least I should be too tedious in repeating the same and therefore for the most part I remitted it from one place to one Author vnlesse al the story might be repeated in few words These and certaine other things as the words of diuers Authors and variety of stile an vnequal interrupted and a cumbersome worke as I may so call it and as some perchance will obiect they haue stored it alike with dissolute marks or purposes which fault though I should vnderstand I haue notwithstanding refused to commit whiles that it should so profit but this shall bee howsoeuer blemished it is much lesse if any may ghesse with himselfe that I haue composed al these things not by that order that they shold be knowne by continuall seriousnesse of reading of studious men but so to haue tempered them that whatsoeuer any man shal desire concerning any beast that being presently found he may read it by it selfe and wel vnderstand it Therefore if any man will vse this worke only at seasonable times who hath vsed dictionaries and such like common books he shal be able to do these
things profitably but if he shall not remember the order in the prescribed manner let him take counsell of the table Alphabeticall which wee will publish in the end of this our worke but if nothing preuaile in the meane time as we are all subiect to Censure through the Readers infirmity the same in a manner Pliny in the History of nature hath ordained for in his Praeface to Vespasian he writeth because wee must saith he spare your labours for the common good what may be contained in all my Bookes I haue ioyned to this Epistle and haue done my greatest endeuor with the diligentest care that thou shouldest haue these Bookes not to bee read ouer againe and thou by this shalt be the occasion that other may not reade them ouer againe but as euery one shall desire any thing that he may onely seeke that and know in what place he may find it Valerius Soranus did this before me in his books which he inscribed Epopcidoâ— These things Pliny They which desire to profit in this Art of Grammer and to get the vse of some tong vnto themselues who with a compounded Method as they call it deliuer their art from letters and sillables to the sayings and eight parts of speech and last of all speech it selfe and hauing come vnto the Sintaxis doth desire the knowledge of art in the meane time notwithstanding he doth not neglect the profit of Lexicons wherein all sayings and speeches are numbred far otherwise then in the precepts of art where neither all things seuerally nor in any good order are rehearsed not that from the beginning hee may reade through the end which would be a worke more laboursome then profitable but that he may aske counsell of them in due season In like manner he that is desirous to know the History of beasts and will read it through with continuall seriousnesse let him require the same of Aristotle and of other likewise that haue written and let him vse our volume as a Lexicon or as my owne Onomasticon For it is not vnknowne vnto me that Aristotle doth teach in his booke entituled the partes of beasts that it maketh much to the description of Phylosophy and that it is more learned so to write concerning beastes that aswell the parts as the effects might also be handled common to more their History being vnfolded by certaine common places First by prosecuting those things which are most common and somewhat vnto things that are lesse common lastly by loking backe and descending into those things which onely shall be proper vnto certaine kinds and vulgar shapes for if in all beasts any man would seuerrally consider the parts and effects there will many things fall out by the way to be considered and inquired after which he saith will be very absurd and also proue too tedious This discommodity although I should well vnderstand yet I would notwitstanding seuerally prosecute the History of beasts which thing is to be handled in our time wherin the names of very many are not vnderstood I should iudge would be more profitable and I should thinke it lesse absurd that somethings should more often be sought after being ordained for the order of the same that this work might rather serue for inuestigation then continuall reading I haue not notwithstanding euen in al Beasts placed euery thing which is incident to euery kind both for as much as certaine thinges are knowne to some men as most common partes of Foure-footed-Beastes as also if any man shall doubt in some thinges he may refer himselfe into the places of Aristotle wherein those things are handled generally and perhaps we also at sometime or other wil according to the kinds and shapes of Foure-footed-Beastes discourse of somewhat more particular And because I had determined it was more commodious for a History to be made by vs concerning all Beasts euen in that name or title which not Phisically or onely Philosophically but Medicinally also grammatically concerning one thing Neither doth it want the exampls of learnedmen for scarce the one or the other as Theophrastus Ruellius haue deliuered any thing concerning plants according to that Method which in common parts and effectes hath manifested all plants of the earth but very many haue described seuerall plants seuerally and in times past out of our age especially Physitians Ruellius for the most part laboured in both as Galen also but onely in describing of aptnesse Indeede I confesse that I could be far more briefe in many more things although my purpose remaine aboue all other thinges euen that exquisite desire of my diligence had delighted me when that same saying of Liuy came into my mind in a certaine volume beginning after this manner Now sufficient glory was gotten for him and hee could cease himselfe vnlesse his mind should be daily fed with worke although as Pliny saith the greater should the reward be for the loue of worke which better became him not to haue composed it to his owne but to the glory of the Romaine name and not to haue perseuered onely to please his owne minde but to haue set forth the same to the profit of the people of Rome I would haue you iudge that I haue not kept back or stayed my course in these my labours not onely for fauoring my selfe or getting glory to my selfe although Liuius did so but rather to make the truth more plaine pertaining to Histories or to the people of Rome Notwithstanding I think that he spake more modestly least if he should have spoken after that manner which Pliny doth require he should be iudged to haue been more arrogant as one which should foretell any thing to the worthyest people of the whole World or any thing of the honor of the Conqueror of those Nations he would say that they must come from him Likewise although this worke what soeuer it is do not desire to be done wholy for my selfe but for the gouernors and rulers of the common-wealth and to the gouernors of the vniuersity or Academy which haue fauoured mee euen from a Child of their owne liberality and do still continue their fauor vnto me and do exhort me to finish those things which I haue begun already and if there should arise any fame or renowne from thence it should chiefely light vpon them Yet least I should be deceiued I willingly hold my peace and the rest I leaue to iudgement whyther any thing may happen from this worke so praise-worthy and of excellent fame and yet not vnworthye of praise for to the Senate and to the vniuersity I owe much time with many names of worth to those most excellent men of learning and other different vertues But least happily I be held too tedious while I excuse the largenesse of the worke although by the way I haue handled some other thinges all vnder one that I might shew certaine commodities arising from them and also I might excuse our stile I will proceede and
deserts make them tents and fackes It is reported that Empedocles was called Colysanemas because when the Agrigentines were trobled with winds by hanging about their cittie innumerable Asse-skins he safe-guarded them from the windes wherupon some haue thought but falsly that there was some secret in asses skinnes against outragious Tempestes Pâ—â—ny The bones of Asses haue beene vsed for pipes the Artificers make more reckoning of them then of the bones of Hartes and therefore Esop in Plutarch wondereth that so grosse and dull a creature should haue such shrill and musicall bones and the Busirites called the Phylosophers Naucratites because they played musick vpon Asses bones for they cannot abide the sound of a trumpet because it resembleth the voice of an Asse who is very hatefull to them for Typhons sake Macenas allowed the flesh of young Asses to be eaten preferring it before the flesh of wilde asses and this custome also preuailed at Athens where they did eat the flesh of old Asses which hurteth the stomach hauing in it no good iuice or sweetnesse and is verye hard to be digested In like sort about the coasts of Alexandria men vse to eate the flesh of Asses Gâ—lâ—nus which begetting in their body much melancholike and adusted humor causeth them to fall into the Elephantia or spotted leprosie Asses are tamed at three yeares old and taught for those businesses which they must be applied vnto some for the mill some for husbandry and the plough some for burthens and carriage some for the wars and some for draught Merchants vse Asses to carry their wine oyle corne and other things to the sea-side wherefore the countrey man maketh principall account of this beast for his carriage too and fro being fit to carie both on his necke and on his backe Coâ—lâ—mella with them they go to market with their wares vpon them bring home their houshold necessaries Tarde costas agitator aselli Vilibus aut onerat pomis lapidemque reuertens Incussum aut atrae massam picis uerbe reportat They grinde in their milles and fetch home their corne they plough their lande as in Campania Libâ—a and Batia where the ground is soft and in Bizantium that fruitful countrey Pliny Mulisâ—quis 〈…〉 in familia sunt which repayeth the husbandmans labor with increase of an hundred and fifty times more then the seed and where in drie-weather their ground is not arable with the whole strength of Buls yet after a little rain one Asse in one end of a yoke and an old woman at the other end doe easily draw the plough and open the earth to sow their seed wherfore cato said merrily that Mules Horsses and Asses keepe no holli-daies except they be such Asses as keepe within dores Ad haec vâ—ehi cula non ninua pondere trâ—hit In like sort they draw from place to place the carts of Bakers or carts laded with any other carriage if it be not ouergreat The people carmani by reason they want horsses vse Asses in their warres so also do the Saracori who neuer vse them in milles or any such base works but vpon them vnder take all their martiall perils Strabo There was a custome amongst the cumani that when a woman was taken in adultery Aelianus she was led to the market and there set vpon a bare stone afterward she was set vpon a bare Asses backe and so carried throughout the citty then brought backe againe to the former stone for a publike spectacle to all the citty Suâ—â—as whereby she remained infamous all her life after and was called Onobatis that is one that had ridden an Asse and the stone whereupon she stood was accounted an vnlucky and an odious place for all posterity In like sort among the Parthians it was held a disgracefull thing to ride or be carried vpon a bare Asses backe Anatolius The dung of Asses is pretious for a gaâ—den especially for Cabadges and if an apple tree be diyng it may be recouered by washing it in Asses dung by the space of six daies and some haue vsed to put into Gardens the skull of a mare Hâ—nâ— caput Ar 〈◊〉 nudum câ—ie sertur 〈◊〉 Tâ—â—henus finisse Tages in â—â—mute ruris or she-asse that hath beene couered in copulation with perswasion that the gardens will be the more fruitfull Asses are of very foolish condicions and slender capacity but yet very tame not refusing any manner of burthen although it breake his backe being loaded it will not out of the way for any man or beast and it only vnderstandeth the voice of that man with whom it is laboured knowing also the way whereunto it is accustomed Ammonianus was in such loue with an Asse and holding him of so great capacity that he had one continually to heare his Lectures in Phylosophie Gallen affirmeth that an Asse vnderstandeth genus species indiuidium Sâ—ndaâ— because if you shew him a Camell that neuer saw one before he is terrified and cannot indure his sight but if he haue been accustomed to such a sight if you shew him neuer so many he is not moued at them In like sort hee knoweth men in generall being not affraid of them but if he see or heare his keeper he knoweth him for his keeper or maister There was a cunning player in Affrica in a citty called Alcair Leo Affric who taught an Asse diuers strange tricks or feats for in a publicke spectacle turning to his Asse being on a scaffolde to shew sport said The great Sultan purposeth to builde him a house and shall neede all the Asses of Alcair to fetch and carry wood stones lime and other necessaries for that busines presently the Asse falleth downe turneth vp his heeles into the aire groneth and shutteth his eies fast as if he had bene dead while he lay thus the player desired the beholders to consider his estate for his Asse was dead he was a poore man and therefore moued them to giue him money to buy another asse In the meane time hauing gotten as much mony as he could he told the people he was not dead but knowing his maisters pouerty counterfaited in that maner whereby he might get mony to buy him prouender and therefore he turned againe to his Asse and bid him arise but he stirred not at all Then did he strike and beate him sore as it seemed to make him arise but all in vaine the asse lay still Then saide the player againe our Sultan hath commaunded that to morrow there be a great triumph without the cittie and that all the Noble women shall ride thither vppon the fairest asses and this night they must be fed with Oates and haue the best Water of Nilus to drinke At the hearing whereof vp starteth the asse snorting and leaping for ioy then said the plaier the gouernor of this towne hath desired me to lende him this my asse for his old deformed wise to ride vpon at which
he will dig the earth and with the hindmost fight like a horse setting on his blowes with great force and redoubling them againe if his obiect remoue not His voice is like the voice of an oxe when he is chased he runneth forth right Albertus The manner of his sight sildome winding or turning and when he is angred he runneth into the Water wherein he couereth himselfe all ouer except his mouth to coole the heate of his blood Nature of their breeding places Pet. crscent for this beast can neither endure outward cold nor inward heate for which cause they breede not but in hot countries and being at liberty are sildome from the waters They are very tame so that children may ride on their backes but on a suddaine they will runne into the Waters and so many times indaunger the childrens liues Of their yōg ones milk Their loue to their young ones is very great they alway giue milke from their copulation to their caluing neither will they suffer a calfe of another kinde whom they discerne by their smell to sucke their milke but beate it away if it be put vnto them wherefore their keepers do in such case annoynt the calfe with Bugils excrement and then she will admit her suckling Albertus Their strength in labor They are very strong and will draw more at once then two horsses wherefore they are tamed for seruice and will draw Waggons and plowes and carry burdens also but they are not very fit for carts yet when they doe draw they carry also great burthens or loads tyed to their backs with ropes and wantyghtes Pet. crescent At the first setting forward they bend their Legges very much but afterward they goe vpright and being ouerloden they will fall to the earth from which they cannot be raised by any stripes vntill their load or carriage be lessened There is no great account made of their hides although they bee very thicke Vse of theyr hydes Bellonius Solinus reporteth that the old Britons made boates of osier twigs or reedes couering them round with Bugils skinnes and sayled in them and the inhabitants of the kingdome of a Caraiani make them bucklers and shields of Bugils skinnes which they vse in Warres the flesh is not good for meate which caused baptista Fiera to make this poem Bubalus hinc abeat neue intret prandia nostra Non edat hunc quisquam sub iugo semper eat For they ingender melancholy and haue no good tast being raw they are not vnpleasant to behold but sod or rosted they shew a deformed substance The milke of this beast maketh very hard cheese which tasteth like earth The medicines made of this beast are not many with the hornes or hoofes they make rings to weare against the cramp The physick made out of Bugils and it hath been beleeued but without reason that if a man or a woman weare rings made of the hornes and hoofes of a bugill in the time of carnall copulation that they will naturally fly off from their fingers whereas this secret was wont to be attributed to rings of Chrisolyts or Smaragde stones To conclude some teach husbandmen to burne the hornes or dung of their bugils on the windye side of their corne and plants to keepe them from cankers and blasting and thus much of the vulgar bugill called bubalus recentiorum whose beginning in this part of the world is vnknowne although in Italy and other parts of Europe they are now bred and fostered OF THE AFFRICAN BVGILL BEllonius reporteth that he saw in Cair a small beast which was in all things like a little Oxe of a beautifull body full of flesh well and neately limmed which he could take for no other then the Affrican Oxe or Bugill of the old Graecians which was brought out of the kingdome of Asamia vnto the citty Cair It was old and not so big as a Hart but greater then a Roe The country of this beast he neuer in all his life tooke more pleasure to behold a beast then in viewing the excellent beauty of euery part in this creature His haire was yellowish glistering as if it had beene combed and trimmed by the art of a Barber vnder his belly it was somewhat more red and taunty then vpon his backe His feete in all thinges like a vulgar Bugils his Legges short and strong the necke short and thicke whereon the dewe-laps of his crest did scarce appeare His head like an Oxes and his hornes growing out of the crowne of his head blacke long and bending like a halfe Moone whereof he hath no vse to defend himselfe or annoy another by reason their points turne inward His eares like a cowes and shoulder blades standing vp a little aboue the ridge very strongly His taile to the knees like a camelopardals from whence hangeth some few blacke haires twice so great as the haires in a horsses tayle His voice was like an Oxes but not so strong and loude to conclude therefore for his discription if a man conceiue in his mind a little yellovv neate Oxe with smooth haire strong members and high hornes aboue his head like a halfe Moone his minde cannot erre from the true and perfect shape of this beast There was such a one to be seene of late at Florence vnder the name of an Indian Oxe sauing his head was greater and longer his hornes not high nor bending together but standing vpright and a little wreathing into spires aboue their roote and the hinder part of the back much lower then the shoulders but it may be the obseruer of this beast fayled and tooke not the true discription of it This creature or Affrican Bugill must be vnderstood to be a Wilde beast The nature of this beast and not of a tame kind although Bellonius expresseth not so much Leo in his discription of Affrique relateth a discourse of a certaine beast called Laut or Daut who is lesse then an Oxe but of more elegant feature in his Legs white hornes blacke nailes which is so swift that no beast can outrunne it except a Barbary horse it is taken most easily in the Summer time with the skinne thereof they make targets and shieldes which cannot be pierced by any Weapon except Gunshot for which cause they fell them very deare which is coniectured to be the Bugill that Bellonius describeth although it bee not iust of the same colour which may vary in this beast as well as in any other and I haue a certaine Manuscript without the authors name that affirmeth there be bugils in Lybia in likenes resembling a Hart and an Oxe but much lesser and that these beasts are neuer taken asleepe which causeth an opinion that they neuer sleepe and that there is another Bugill beyond the Alpes neere the Ryuer Rhene which is very fierce and of a white Colour There is a horne in the towne-house of Argentine foure Romane cubits long Of a
great Riuer neere adioyning The Poets haue fained a certaine Monster called Minotaurus hauing in part the forme of a man and in part the forme of a Bull and they say that Pasiphae the Daughter of the sonne and wife of Minos King of creet fell in loue with a Bull Of the monster minotaurus and by the helpe of Dedalus she was included in a wooden heifer couered with a cows hide and so had copulation with the bul and so came that monster minos included in a laborinth and constraind the Athenians who had slain his son Androgeus to send euery year seauen young men and 7. maides to be giuen to that monster to feede vppon for hee woulde eate mannes flesh At last Theseus sonne of Aegeus king of Athens came into that laborinth and slewe that Minotaure and by the helpe of Ariadne escaped out of the laborinth Other relate the story in this manner that when the Cretensians woulde haue expelled Minos from his kingdome hee vowed that whatsoeuer likenesse firste appeared out of the sea for signe of victorie vnto him he vowed sacrifice it to the goddes if hee did enioy his regiment and thereuppon a goodly Bull came vnto him out of the sea wherewithall he was delighted But after hee had recouered his kingdome in quiet he kepte that Bull in his owne handes and sacrificed another and that by this Bull was the Minotaure begotten on his wife Pasiphae But the trueth is that when Minos was in daunger to loose his kingdome one Taurus a valiant Prince and Captaine came with a Nauie of good souldiours and established him in quiet Afterwarde falling in loue with Pasiphae king Minos wife he lay with her in the house of Daedalus which Daedalus wrought with the Queen to giue him his pleasure and that the Minotaure was a monster in Creete that had the face of an Oxe and the other members like a man such an one was seene in Aristotles time Although other take it for a fiction because the Romaines had it pictured in their ensignes of warre vntill Caius Marius altered it to an Eagle which remaineth to this day Alciatus yeeldeth this reason why the Romans gaue such an armes to signifie that secrecy becommeth a captain and that proud and crafty counsels do hurt the authors of them Limine quod caeco obscura caligine monstrum Depictum Romana phalaux in praelia gestat Nosque monent debere ducem secreta latere Gnosiacis clausit Daedalus in latebris Semiuiroque nitent signa superba boue Consilia authori cognita techna noâ—ent It is reported also that when Cadmus went from Delphos to Phocis an Oxe did directe him in the way and was his guide which Oxe was bought out of the heards of Pelagon hauing in both his sides a white spot it must needs be vnderstood of the moone for Cadmus flying by night hauing the moone to shine vpon him which is hyeroglyphically deciphered by the Oxe gaue him light and direction to another city It were endles to prosecute the seuerall speeches prouerbs allusions emblems playes prizes hyeroglyphicks and deuises made vpon Oxen whereby not onely men and women cities regions and people haue taken denomination from Oxen but also some of the starres in the firmament therefore I will not proceede to those deuises but onely touche the sacrifices made with Oxen and so conclude this story It cannot be denied that the prime institution of sacrifices was from by and for the ordinance of god to teach the world to woorship him in bloud for sin which coulde not be expiated but by the bloud of the onely immaculate son and lambe of god and therefore I wil but remember how corruption polluted that ordinance which was purely without idle cerimonies instituted by the euerlasting god and yet was by mans inuention made wretched horrible and damnable through abuse of the fact that otherwise by diuine constitution as appeares in holy scripture was heauenly honourable and blessed To begin therefore with the originall of that heathenish and paganish sacrifice instead of god the only true and deuine essence to whom al sacrifice and deuine worship was due and whose creatures both men oxen and all other liuing and visible things are they offered vnto all the hoasts of heauen the sun and stars the heathen gods Iupiter Mars Minerua Pandrisus and others and if the sacrifice were costly and sumptuous it was called Hecatombe Now before their sacrifice they made praiers burnd incense for odors presented Prothymes as they were termed certaine preparations and cakes made of barley and salt called Vlochytae After which the prieste turned him sometimes to the right hand and sometimes to the left and then began to take the gristle haires growing on the Oxes forehead betwixt his horns making a tast of them and casting them in the fire to begin the sacrifice Then did he giue into the hands of the people standing by little pots of wine likewise to taste for sacrifice and then hee which killed the beaste drewe his knife or axe or cleauer from the heade to the tayle of the beaste Nowe in euery sacrifice they hadde burning torches which were lawfull for none to carry but for men and not women then the priest commaunded to kill the sacrifice which sometime they did by knocking him on the head if the beast were to be sacrificed to hell and those that weere therein for they sacrificed a barren Cowe or a blacke Sheepe to those ghostes But if the sacrifice were for heauen and to the powers thereof they lifted vp his heade and cut his throate then put they vnder him their Sphagian vesselles to receiue his bloud and when the beast was falne downe they flayed off his skinne Then did the Priest or Flamen deuide the intrals that so he might mâ—â—e his augurisme the bowels being proued at the altar Hauing loked into the bowels they took out of euery gutte member and part a first fruites moulded them together in the meale of greene wheat corne then was it giuen to the Priest who put thereunto frankincense herbe mary and fire and so burned them altogether which was called a perfect hoste But if they sacrificed to the gods of the sea then did they first of all waue the bowels of the beaste in the sea flouds before it was burned The best sacrifices were fatted and white Oxen or Kine such as had neuer been vnder yoake for the beast vsed to labour was accounted vncleane they neuer offered in sacrifice one vnder thirty dayes olde nor ouer fiue yeares by the lawes of the Priests When the Spartanes ouercame their enimies by stratagem they sacrificed to Mars an oxe but when by open force they sacrificed a cocke for they esteemed more of an vnbloudy then a bloudy victory When a man sacrificed a Cowe to Minerua he was bound to sacrifice a Sheepe and an Oxe to Pandrysus When the Locrensians in a publike spectacle woulde make a sacrifice they wanted an Oxe for which
theeues Pliny and when he was slaine hee departed not from the body but kept it warily from Dogs Birds or wilde Beasts sitting vpon his priuy parts and couering them vntill the Roman captaines came and buryed it Tzetzes But most admirable was the loue of a certaine dog to his maister punished with death for the fact against Germanicus Among other this dog would neuer go from the prison and afterward when his maisters dead bodie was broght in the presence of many Romans the cur vttered most lamentable and sorrowful cries for which cause one of the company threw vnto him some meat to see if that would stoppe his mouth and procure silence but the poore dog tooke vp the meat and caried it to his maisters mouth not without the singular passion of the beholders at last the body was taken vp and cast into the riuer Tiber the poore dog leaped in after it and endeauored by all the meanes his weaknes could afford to keep it from sinking in the presence of an inumerable multitude which without teares could not looke vpon the louing care of this brute beast The dogs of Gelon Hieron Lysimachus Pyrrhus king of Epirus Polus the Tragoedian and Theodorus leaped into the burning fires which consumed their maisters dead bodies Nicias a certaine hunter going abroad in the woods chaunced to fall into a heape of burning coales hauing no helpe about him but his dogs there he perished yet they ranne to the high waies and ceased not with barking and apprehending the garments of passengers to shew vnto them some direfull euent and at last one of the trauailers followed the dogs and came to the place where they saw the man consumed and by that coniectured the whole story The like did the dogs of Marius Caesarinus for by their howling they procured company to draw him out of a deepe Caue whereinto he was fallen on horse-back and had there perished being alone except his hounds had released him But that dogs will also bewray the murtherers of their friends and maisters these stories following may euidently manifest Dogs detectors of murders As King Pyrrhus by chance trauailed in his countrey he found a dog keeping a deade corps Plutarch and he perceiued that the dog was almost pined by tarrying about the body with out all food wherefore taking pittie on the beast he caused the body to be interred and by giuing the dog his belly full of meat he drew him to loue him and so led him awaie afterward as Pyrrhus mustred his souldiours and euery one appeared in his presence the dog also being beside him he saw the murtherers of his maister and so not containing himselfe with voice tooth and naile he set vppon them the king suspecting that which followd examined them if euer they had seen or known that dog they denied it but the k. not satisfied charged them that surely they were the murtherers of the dogs maister for the dog all this while remained fierce against them and neuer barked before their appearance at the last their guilty consciences brake forth at their mouthes and tongues end and so confessed the whole matter The like was of two French Merchants which trauailed togither Blondus and when they came into a certaine wood one of them rose against the other for desire of his money and so slew him and buried him His dog would not depart from the place but filled the woodes with howlings and cries the murtherer went forwarde in his iourney the people and inhabitants neer the said wood came and found both the murdered corps and also the dog which they tooke vp and nourished til the faire was done and the merchants returned at which time they watched the high waies hauing the dog with them who seeing the murtherer instantly made force at him without al prouocation as a man would do at his mortall enemy which thing caused the people to apprehend him who being examined confessed the fact and receiued condigne punishment for so foule a deede To conclue this discourse with one memorable story more out of Blondus who relateth that there was a certaine maid neer Paris who was beloued of two young men one of them on a daye tooke his staffe and his Dog and went abroad as it was thought of purpose to go to his loue but it hapned that by the way he was murthered and buried the dog would not depart from the graue of his maister at the last he being missed by his father and brethren one of them went also to seeke him and see what was become of him and so seeking found the dog lying vpon his graue who houled pittifully when he saw his maisters brother the young man caused the ground to be opened and so founde the wounded corps of his brother which he brought away caused to be buried til the murtherer could be descried afterward in processe of time the dogge in the presence of the dead mans brethren espied the murtherer and presently made force vpon him very eagerly which the brethren suspecting aprehended him and broght him before the gouernors of the citty who examining him with all the policies they could inuent what should be the occasion why the dog should so eagerly fly vppon him at all times whensoeuer hee was brought into his presence could not get any confession of the fact from him then the magistrate adiudged that the young man and the Dogge should combate together The Dog was couered with a dry sod skin instead of armor and the murtherer with a speare and on his body a little thin linnen cloath both came forth to the fight A Combat and so the man presently made force at the dog who leaping vp to the face of the murtherer tooke him fast by the throat and ouerthrew him whereat the wretch amazed cryed out saying take pitty on me you reuerend fathers and pull off the dog from my throat and I will confesse al the which they performed and he likewise declared the cause and manner of the whole murther for which thing he was deseruedly put to death And thus far of the lesser sociable dogs now followeth the second kind of the greater The greater sociable Dogs of defence are such as souldiors vse in warres Blondus The greater sociable dogs or defenders or else are acustomed to keepe houses or cattell This kind ought to be horrible fierce strange and vnacquainted with all except his maister so that he be alway at daggers drawing and ready to fight with all which shall but lay their handes vppon him for which cause hee is to bee instructed from his littering or infancy by art and continuall discipline to supply in him the defects of nature let him be often prouoked to wrath by boies and and afterward as he groweth let some stranger set vppon him with Weapon as staffe or sword with whom let him combate till he be wearied and then let him teare some peece of the prouokers garment
also desire to wash and so will go and seeke out water to wash themselues and of their owne accord returne backe againe to the basket of flowers which if they find not they will bray and call for them Afterward being led into their stable they will not eat meat vntill they take of their flowers and dresse the brimmes of their maungers therewith and likewise strew their roome or standing place pleasing themselues with their meat because of the sauor of the Flowers stucke about their cratch like dainty fed persons which set their dishes with greene hearbs and put them into their cups of wine Their pace is very slow for a child may ouertake them by reason of their high and larg bodies except in their feare and for that cause they cannot swim as also Gillius The shiping of Elephants by reason that the toes of their feet are very short and finally diuided When they are brought into a ship they haue a bridge made of wood and couered with earth and greene boughes are set on either side so that they immagine they go vpon the land vntill they enter into the ship because the boughes keepe them from sight of the Sea They are most chast Aelianus and keepe true vnto their males without all inconstant loue or seperation admitting no adulteries amongest them and like men which tast of Venus not for any corporall lust but for desire of heires and successors in their families so do Elephants without all vnchast and vnlawfull lust take their veneriall complements for the continuation of their kind and neuer aboue thrice in all their daies either male or female suffer carnall copulation but the female onely twice Yet is their rage great when the female prouoketh them and although they fight not among themselues for their females except very sildome yet do they so burne in this fury that many times they ouerthrow trees and houses in India by their tuskes and running their head like a Ram against them wherefore then they keepe them low down by subtraction of their meat also bring some stranger to beat them There was a certaine cunning hunter sent into Mauritania by the Roman Emp to hunt and take Elephants on a day he saw a goodly young Elephant in copulation with another instantly a third aproched with a direfull braying as if he would haue eaten vp al the company and as it afterward appeared he was an arriuall to the female Aelianus which we saw in copulation with the other male when he approched neere both of them set themselues to combat which they performd like some vnresistable waues of the Sea or as the hils which are shaken together by an earthquake wherein each one charged the other most furiously for their loue to the terror and admiration of all the beholders and so at last becam both disarmed of their teeth and hornes by their often blowes before one had ouercome the other and so at last by the hunters were parted asunder being euer afterward quiet from such contentions about their females for copulation The Indians separate the stables of the females far asunder from the males because at that time they ouerthrowe their houses They are modest and shamefast in this action The place manner of their copulation Plinyus for they seeke the Desarts woodes and secret places for procreation and somtimes the waters because the waters doe support the Male in that action whereby hee ascendeth and descendeth from the backe of the female with more ease and once it was seene that in Virgea a Countrey of the Corascens two Elephants did engender out of India otherwise they couple not out of their owne countreys When they goe to copulation they turne their heads towards the east but whether in remembrance of Paradise or for the Mandragoras or for any other cause I cannot tell the female sitteth while she is couerd Albertus They begin to ingender the male at sixe ten twelue fifteene or twenty yeare olde the female not before ten yeares old They couple but fiue daies in two yeares and neuer after the female is filled till she haue beene cleare one whole yeare Solinus The time of copulation Arrianus and after the second copulation he neuer more toucheth his female At that time the male breatheth foorth at his nose a certaine fat humor like a menstruous thing but the female hath them not til hir place of conception be opened and alway the day after her filling she washeth her selfe before she returne to the flocke Aristotle The time of their goâ—og with young The time of their going with yong is according to some two years and according to other three the occasion of this diuersity is because their time of copulation cannot certainely be knowne because of their secrecy for the greater bodies that beasts haue they are the lesse fruitfull She is deliuered in great paine leaning vpon her hinder Legges They neuer bring forth but one at a time and that is not much greater then a great cowcalfe of three monthes old which she nourisheth sixe or eight yeare As soone as it is Calued Diodonus Pogius Aelianus it seeth and goeth and sucketh with the mouth not with the trunke and so groweth to a great stature The females when they haue calued are most fierce for feare of their young ones but if a man come and touch them they are not angry for it seemeth they vnderstand that he toucheth them not for any desire to take or harme them but rather to stroke and admire them The loue of the male to the female of both to the Calfe Sometimes they goe into the Water to the belly and there calue for feare of the Dragon the male neuer forsaketh her but keepeth with her for the like feare of the Dragon and feede and defend their young ones with singular loue and constancye vnto death as appeareth by the example of one that heard the braying of her calfe fallen into a ditch and not able to arise the female ranne vnto it and for hast fell downe vppon it so crushing it to death Tzetzes and breaking her owne Necke with one and the same violente loue As they liue in heards so when they are to passe ouer a ryuer or Water they send ouer the least or youngest first because their great bodies together should not cause the deepe water to swell or rise aboue their heigth the other stand on the bancke and obserue howe deepe he wadeth and so make account that the greater may with more assurance follow after the younger and smaller Plutarch Aelianus Philostratus then they the elder and taller and the females carry ouer their Calues vpon their snowts long eminent teeth binding them fast with their trunks like as with ropes or male girts that they may not fall being sometime holpen by the male wherein appeareth an admirable point of naturall wisedome both in the carriage of their
Champion which excelled in strength all the Champions of his time and that he did eat continually Goats flesh for it is very strong and remaineth a long season in the body doth much good being disgested notwithstanding the strong and ranke smell thereof otherwise it is dangerous as is already said therefore Fiera hauing commended the Kydd when hee commeth to speake of the Goat he writeth thus Cum male olet siccat fit iam caper improbus absit Et Cadat ante focos victima Bacche tuos But Pliny affirmeth that if a male Goat eate Barley-bread or Parsneps washed the same day that he is killed then there is no poison in his flesh the stones of a Bucke-goat resist concoction and beget euil humors in the body wherefore such a banket is cald in Greek Tragos Hulibertas for Goats after their copulation Aegineta haue an euil flesh not fat but dry and the remedy to make their flesh sweeter is to geld the male when he is young and tender Albertus for so his temperature is amended by a cold and moist constitution The inhabitants of Portugall eat Goats flesh and account it delicate meat especially such as dwell in the mountaines In Germany they make of it a kind of meat which is called Klobvvsst and is prepared on this manner they take a Goats Hart newly taken out of his bodie Textor and slit it into small peeces and break six Egs vpon it and the crums of white bread seasoned with spices and Saffron and so put into a bagge and sod or roasted afterward they are serued vpon the table and strewed ouer with kitchen suger The guts being salted are called Hilla which the French stuffe like pudinges and call them Saulcisses from whence commeth our English sawsadge of this sewet and fatte of Goats are the best candles made because it is hard and not ouer liquyd The bloode of a Goat hath an vnspeakable propertie for it scoureth rustie yron better then a file it also softneth an Adamant stone Pliny Hermolaus Pausanius and that which no fire is able to melt nor yron to break being of such an inuincible nature that it contemneth al violent things yet is it dissolued by the warme blood of a Goat The Load-stone draweth iron and the same being rubbed with garlicke dieth and looseth that propertie but being dipped againe in goats blood reuiueth and recouereth the former nature Osthanes prescribeth for a remedy of loue the vrine of a Goate to be mingled with Spicknard and so drunk by him which is ouercome with that passion assuring him thereby that they shall fal in as great lothing as euer before they wer in louing With the hoofs of a Goat they driue away Serpentes and also with the haires by burning and perfuming them in the place where the Serpents lodge Pallagdius With the hornes of goats they make Bowes for in Delos there was dedicated the horn of a Goat which was two cubits long and a span and heereat ought no man to wonder Archaâ—hines for that noble bow of Pandarus which Homer commendeth was made of a horne of a female Goat Affricanus declareth that in auncient time they made fruitful their Vine-yards by this meanes Varinus they tooke three hornes of a female goat and buried them in the earth with their points or tops downeward to the root of the Vine stocks leauing the hollow tops standing a little out of the ground and so when the raine descended it filled the hornes and soked to the roote of the Vine perswading themselues thereby that they receiued no small aduantage in their Grapes The gaul of a Female-goat put into a vessel and set in the carth is said by Albertus to haue a naturall power in it to draw Goates vnto it as though they receiued great commodity thereby Likewise if you would haue white haires to grow in any part of a Horse shaue off the haire and annoint the place with the gall of a Goat so shall you haue your desire The Sabcans by reason of the continuall vse of Mirrhe and Frankinsens grow to a loathing of that sauour for remedy of which anoyance they perfume their houses by burning stirackes in goats skins And thus much for the seuerall parts of a goat There were in ancient time three kindes of Heards-men which receiued dignity one aboue another the first were called Bucollici Neat-heards because they keepe the greater Cattell the second were Opiliones Shepheards of their attendaunce vpon sheepe the third last and lowest kind were termed Aepoli and Caprarij that is Goat-heards or keepers of Goates and such were the Locrentians who were called Ozolae because of theyr filthy smell for they had the most parte of their conuersation amonge other beastes A Goate-heard or keeper of these cattle must be a sharpe stearne harde laborious patient bold and chearefull and such a one as can easily run ouer the rocks through the Wildernesse and among the bushes without feare or griefe so that he must not follow his flocke like other heards but goe before them they must also be light and nimble to follow the wandering goats that runne awaie from their fellowes and so bring them back againe for Goates are nimble mooueable and inconstant and therefore apt to depart awaie except they be restrained by the heard and his Dogge Neither haue Goates a Captaine or Bell-bearer like vnto sheepe whom they follow but euery one is directed after his owne will and heerein appeareth the pride of this beast that he scorneth to come behind either catell or sheepe but alwaies goeth before and also in their owne heardes among themselues the Bucke goeth before the Female for the reuerence of his beard as Aelianus saith the labor of the goat-heard must be to see his cattel well fed abroad in the day time and well foulded at night the first rule therefore in this husbandry is to deuide the flockes and not to put any great number of them together for heerein they differ from sheep who loue to liue together in multitudes as it were affecting society by which they thriue better and mourne not so much as when they are alone but goats loue singularity and may well be called Schismatiks among Cattell and therefore they thriue best lying together in small numbers otherwise in great flockes they are soone infected with the pestilence and therefore in France they care not to haue Magnos Gregos sed plures not great flocks but many The number of their flocke ought not to exceede fifty whereupon Varro writeth this story of Gabinus a Roman Knight who had a field vnder the suburbes containing a thousand Akers of pasture ground who seeing a poore goat-heard bring his goats euery day to the citty and receiued for their milke a peny a peece he being led with couetousnesse proponed to himselfe this gaine that if he stored his said fielde with a thousand Milch-female-goates he also should receiue for their milke a thousand pence a
olde Cough let him take the dryed trindles and put them into the best wine and drinke it off so shall he presently auoid his fleame and filthy humor and be healed The remedies out of a wilde Goat The same vertue which are in the Goats before spoken of do also belong to the wilde Goats the blood taketh away bunches in the flesh and being mingled with Sea-palme causeth the hair to fall off An ointment made of the fat of Goates is profitable to them which haue webs in their eies and the fat of mountaine Goats helpeth infected Lightes His liuer broiled vpon coales and taken alone helpeth the Flix but most certainely when it is dried and drunke in wine the gawle is good for many things especially it is a Treacle against poison suffusions whitnesse and blindnesse of the eies by annointing it cureth the purblind and the webs in the eie and generally it hath the same properties in euery part as the tame goats before spoken of The like may be said of the Kyds or young goats and first of all a Kyd being slit assunder aliue and his warme flesh laide to a poisoned wound doeth most assuredly heale the same Others take the warm flesh of kyds and perfume them with hair by the sauor whereof they driue away Serpents the skinne newly pulled off and put vppon the body beaten with stripes taketh away their paine others againe vse it against the Crampe and not without reason for the tender skinnes of Lambes and Goates being sprinkled or dipped in Warme Oyle giueth very much strength and patience to endure the convultion Praxagoras prescribeth the flesh against the falling euil and by gargarizing the broath when it was sod cureth the Quinsie and sorenesse of the throat Demetrius saith that the braine being drawne thorough a gold ring and giuen to a Hawke which hath the fallinge sicknes it will worke admirably vpon her The blood being dried and decocted with marrow is good against all intoxicat passions and being mingled with sharpe Vineger before it be congealed it helpeth the spitting of blood the same being eaten cureth all kinde of Flixes being taken three daies together Gallen rehearseth in the Antidot of Vrbane among other things the blood of Kyds to draw the deade young ones out of the dammes belly With the fatte there is an ointment made with rose water to heale the fissures of the lippes and nose which is much desired of women not onely for the before rehearsed virtue but also because by annointing they keepe by it their face from Sunne-burning The French and Italians call it Pomato because it smelleth like Apples they put also into it muske and Rose-water a pound of kyds sewet and warme it in a Bath vntill all bee white and so wash it with the saide rose water and afterward repose it in a glasse The ointment which is caled Vnguentum album is like vnto it the ashes of the thighes of a kyd healeth burstnes and stancheth blood the rennet is also commendable against Hemlocke or toad-stoole and against al the poisonfull strokes of Sea-beasts Being drunke in Wine it stayeth bleeding and refresheth excreations of bloode being taken with Vineger it helpeth also the flix being drunk fasting it hath some operation to stay womens flowers The lights of a kydde sod and eaten fasting preserueth from drunkennesse that day and the powder of it burned easeth the itching of the eies and pield eyelids if it be applyed like Stibium likewise the bladder of a female kyd drunke in powder helpeth the inconstancy of vrine the melt laide vppon the Spleene of an infant asswageth the paine and tumors thereof the liuer is not fit for temperate men but for weake colliricke men The inhabitants of the mount Atlas do gather Euforbium and corrupt it with Kyddes milke but it is discerned by fire for the good Euforbium being burned yeeldeth an vnacceptable sauor and so we conclude this storie with the two Emblems of Altiatus One against them that take much paine and make good beginninges but euell endes like a goat which giueth a good messe of milke and ouerturneth it with hir foot Quod fine egregios turpi muculaueris orsus Innoxamque tuum verteris officium Fecisti quod Capra sui mulctraria lactis Cum ferit proprias calce pro fundit opes The other Emblem is vpon a Goat the which by her keeper was constrained to giue a young wolfe suck who afterward notwithstanding that good turn deuoureth his nurse and it maie be applied vnto them which nourish their owne harmes and saue a theef from the gallowes Capra lupum non sponte meo nunc vbere lacto Quod male pastoris prouida cura iubet Ceruerit ille simul mea me post vbere pascit Improbitas nullo flectitur obsequio There is a prettie comparison of a Harlottes loue to a fisherman which putteth vpon him a goats skin with the hornes to deceiue the Sargus-fish for that fish loueth a goat aboue all other creatures and therefore the fisher-man beguileth her with a false appearance as the flattering loue of Harlots do simple minds by fained protestations OF THE GVLON THis beast was not known by the ancients but hath bin since discouered in the Northern parts of the world and because of the great vorasity thereof it is called Gulo that is a deuourer in imitation of the Germans who call such deuouring creatures Vilsruss and the Swedians Cerff in Lituania and Muscouia it is called Rossomokal It is thought to be engendered by a Hyaena a Lionesse for in quality it resembleth a Hyaena Mathias it is the same which is called Crocuta it is a deuouring and an vnprofitable creature hauing sharper teeth then other creatures Some thinke it is deriued of a wolfe and a dog for it is about the bignesse of a dog it hath the face of a Cat the body and taile of a Foxe being black of colour his feet and nailes be most sharp his skin rusty the haire very sharp and it feedeth vpon dead carkases These things are reported by Olaus Magnus and Mathias Michou But I would to God that this same more then beastly intemporate gluttony had beene circumscribed and confined within the limets of those vnchristian or hereticall-apostaticall-countries and had not spred it selfe and infected our more ciuell and christian partes of the World so should not nobility society amity good fellowship neighborhood and honesty be euer placed vpon drunken or gluttonous companions or any man be comended for bibbing and sucking in wine and beere like a swine When in the meane season no sparke of grace or christianity appeareth in them which notwithstanding they take vppon them being heerein worse then beastes who stil reserue the notes of their nature and preserue their liues but these loose the markes of humanity reason memory and sence with the condicions of their families applying themselues to consume both patrimony and pence in this voracity and forget the Badges of
christians offering sacrifice to nothing but their bellies The church forsaketh them the spirit accurseth them the ciuell world abhorreth them the Lord condemneth them the diuill expecteth them and the fire of hell it selfe is prepared for them and all such deuourers of Gods good creatures to helpe c. To helpe their disgestion for although the Hiena and Gulon and some other monsters are subiect to this gluttonie yet are ther many creatures more in the world who although they be beastes and lacke reason yet can they not by any famine stripes or prouocations be drawne to exceede their naturall appetites or measure in eating or drinking There are of these beastes two kindes The kinds of Gulons distinguished by coulour one blacke and the other like a Wolfe they seldome kill a man or any liue beastes but feede vpon carrion and dead carkasses as is before saide yet sometimes when they are hungry they prey vpon beastes as horses and such like and then they subtlely ascend vp into a tree and when they see a beast vnder the same they leape downe vpon him and destroy him A Beare is afraid to meete them and vnable to match them by reason of their sharpe teeth This beast is tamed and nourished in the courts of Princes for no other cause then for an example of incredible voracitie When he hath filled his belly if he can find no trees growing so neare together as by sliding betwixte them hee may expell his excrements then taketh he an Alder-tree and with his forefeete rendeth the same asunder and passeth through the middest of it for the cause aforesaid When they are wilde men kill them with bowes and guns for no other cause than for their skins which are pretious and profitable for they are white spotted changeably interlined like diuers flowers for which cause the greatest princes and richest nobles vse them in garments in the Winter time The skinnes of Gulons such are the kinges of Polonia Sweue-land Goatland and the princes of Germany neither is there any skinne which will sooner take a colour or more constantly retaine it The outward appearance of the saide skinne is like to adamaskt garment and besides this outward part there is no other memorable thing woorthy obseruation in this rauenous beast and therefore in Germany it is called a foure-footed Vulture OF THE GORGON or strange Lybian Beast AMong the manifold and diuers sorts of Beasts which are bred in Affricke it is thought that the Gorgon is brought foorth in that countrey It is a feareful and terrible beast to behold it hath high and thicke eie-lids The country and description eies not very great but much like an Oxes or Bugils but all fiery-bloudy which neyther looke directly forwarde nor yet vpwards but continuallye downe to the earth and therefore are called in Greeke Catobleponta From the crowne of their head downe to their nose they haue a long hanging mane which maketh them to look fearefully It eateth deaâ—ly and poysonfull hearbs and if at any time he see a Bull or other creature whereof he is afraid he presently causeth his mane to stand vpright and being so lifted vp opening his lips and gaping wide sendeth forth of his throat a certaine sharpe and horrible breath which infecteth and poysoneth the air aboue his head so that all liuing creatures which draw in the breath of that aire are greeuously afflicted thereby loosing both voyce and sight they fall into leathall and deadly convulsions It is bred in Hesperia and Lybia The Poets haue a fiction that the Gorgones were the Daughters of Medusa and Phorcynis Aelianus and are called Steingo and by Hesiodus Stheno and Euryale inhabiting the Gorgadian Ilands in the Aethiopick Ocean ouer against the gardens of Hesperia Medusa is said to haue the haires of his head to be liuing Serpentes against whom Perseus fought and cut off his hed for which cause he was placed in heauen on the North side of the Zodiacke aboue the Waggon and on the left hand holding the Gorgons head The truth is that there were certain Amozonian women in Affricke diuers from the Scithians against whom Perseus made Warre and the captaine of those women was called Medusa whom Perseus ouerthrew and cut off her head and from thence came the Poets fiction discribing it with Snakes growing out of it as is aforesaid These Gorgons are bred in that countrey and haue such haire about their heads as not onely exceedeth all other beastes but also poysoneth when he standeth vpright Pliny calleth this beast Catablepon because it continually looketh downeward and saith that all the parts of it are but smal excepting the head which is very heauy and exceedeth the proportion of his body which is neuer lifted vp but all liuing creatures die that see his eies By which there ariseth a question whether the poison which he sendeth foorth proceede from his breath or from his eyes Wherupon it is more probable that like the Cockatrice he killeth by seeing then by the breath of his mouth which is not competible to any other beasts in the world Besides when the Souldiors of Marias followed Iugurtha they sawe one of these Gorgons and supposing it was some sheepe bending the head continually to the earth and mouing slowly they set vpon him with their swordes whereat the Beast disdaining suddenly discouered his eies setting his haire vpright at the sight whereof the Souldiors fel downe dead Marius hearing thereof sent other souldiers to kill the beaste but they likewise died as the former At last the inhabitauntes of the countrey tolde the Captaine the poyson of this beasts nature and that if he were not killed vpon a sodaine with the onely sight of his eies he sent death into his hunters then did the Captaine lay an ambush of souldiers for him who slew him so dainely with their speares and brought him to the Emperour whereupon Marius sent his skinne to Rome which was hung vp in the Temple of Hercules wherein the people were feasted after the triumphes by which it is apparant that they kill with their eies and not with their breath So that the fable of Seruius which reporteth that in the furthest place of Atlas these Gorgons are bredde and that they haue but one eie a peece is not to be belieued excepte he meane as elsewhere he confesseth that there were certaine maides which were sisters called Gorgons and were so beautyfull that all young men were amazed to beholde them Whereupon it was saide that they were turned into stones meaning that their loue bereft them of their witte and sence They were called the daughters of Cetus and three of them were made Nimphes which were called Pephredo Enyo and the third Dinon so called a Geraldus saith because they were olde women so soone as they were borne whereunto was assigned one eie and one tooth But to omit these fables it is certaine that sharpe poisoned sightes are called Gorgon Blepen and therefore we will
Lady of Brittaine which being commaunded by his Ryder to salute the Queene presently did bend both his knees vnto her and then rose againe running away as fast as a bird could flye Homer seemeth also to affirme that there are in Horsses diuine qualityes vnderstanding things to come for being tyed to their mangers they mournd for the death of Patroclus and also fore-shewed Achilles what should happen vnto him for which cause Pliny saieth of them that they lament their lost maisters with teares and foreknow battailes Virgill writeth thus of the horsse of Pallas Post bellatrix equus positis insignibus Aethon Lachrymans quisque humectat grandibus ora Accursius affirmeth that Caesar three daies before he died found his ambling Nag weeping in the stable which was a token of his ensewing death which thing I should not beleeue except Tranquillus in the life of Caesar had related the same thing and he addeth moreouer that the Horsses which were consecrated to Mars for passing ouer Rubricon being let to run wilde abroad without their maisters because no man might meddle with the horses of the Gods were found to weepe aboundantly and to abstaine from all meat Whereof their could be no cause giuen but the loue of their former maisters It is also reported of Rodatus a captain to Charls the great who after the death of the Emp. was made a Monk his horse would neuer suffer any to come on his back except his maister who likewise had abstained from riding many yeares But it happened that certaine Pagans brake in vpon the said monastery whereupon poore Rodatus went vnto his horse who after many years discontinuance willingly tooke vp his aged maister vpon his back and so carried him vntil he â—riumphed ouer his aduersaries and no maruaile for dogs and horses are most louing to men if they be brought vp carefully and liberally they recompence the good turnes of their benefactors It is obserued in the nature of horses that they seldome hurt a man or child except in their madnes yet are there malitious horses as well as men It is reported by Pliny and Tzetzes that when a foale hath lost his dam the residue of the Mares which giue suck bring it vp and that they are seldom found at variance except the barren mares pull away the foales from the naturall dams For there is no creature so louing to their young ones as are Mares neither any so desirous of young for which cause when they are barren themselues they labour to steale them away from others They which were wont to runne rases would performe it vpon Mares Aristotle newly deliuered of Foals they tyed vp the Foals at home and led the Mares to the begining of the race making the end thereof at the Foales stable and so putting the Beast forward she runneth homewardes more speedily for the remembrance of her Foale Of the feare of Horsses and their enemies in nature HOrsses are afraid of Elephants in battaile and likewise of a Cammell for which cause when Cyrus fought against Craâ—sus he ouerthrew his Horsse by the sight of Camels for a Horsse cannot abide to looke vpon a Camell If a Horsse tread in the foot-path of a Wolfe he presently falleth to be astonished Likewise if two or more drawing a charriot come into the place where a Wolfe hath troad they stand so still as if the Charriot and they were frozen to the earth sayth Aelianus and Pliny Aesculapius also affirmeth the same thing of a Horsse treading in a Beares footsteps and assigneth the reason to be in some secret betwixt the feete of both beastes We haue shewed already that if a Mare strike a Wolfe Orus or treade in the footsteppes thereof she presently casteth her Foale and therefore the Egyptians when they signifie a Woman suffering abortement picture a Mare kicking a Wolfe The Dextanian Horsses being not gelded dare fight with Lyons but being gelded like al other Horsses Oppianus they are so afraid of Lions that no stripes nor Spurs is able to bring them in their presence the Caropion Horsses excepted Al kind of Swine are enemies to Horses the Estridge also is so feared of a Horse Cardan that the Horsse dares not appeare in his presence The like difference also is betwixt a Horsse and a Beare There is a bird which is called Anclorus which neyeth like a Horsse flying about the Horsse doth many times driue it away but because it is somewhat blind and cannot see perfectly therfore the horsse doth oftentimes ketch it and deuoure it hating his owne voice in a creature so vnlike himselfe It is reported by Aristotle that the Bustard loueth a Horsse exceedingly for seeing other Beastes feeding in the pastures dispiseth and abhorreth them but as soone as euer it seeeth a Horsse it flyeth vnto him for ioy although the Horsse run away from it Aelianus and therefore the Egyptians when they see a weake man driuing away a stronger they picture a Bustard flying to a horsse Horsses are also taught to leape if a man take him by the rains and go ouer the ditch before him holding him fast and pulling him to him But if he be vnwilling then let another come behinde him and strike him with a Whip or with a rod so will he leape ouer without delay and thus when you haue vsed him to leape empty likewise accustome him loaded First ouer smaller and then ouer greater hedges But at the beginning let him leape in softe ground and being wel practized in harder and when he beginneth to leape let the Rider put Spurres vnto him for so will he performe his leape with more safety to himselfe and the rider and by custome hee may leape and runne as wel downe the hil as vp hil and therefore the Persians and Nodrisians vse and accustome their Horsses to run both down hil and vp hil These Epethits following do serue and expresse the nature of Horsses ful of stomach generous magnanimious strong ardent sharpe couetous fierce bolde threatening terrible foaming such were the Horsses of Arcauania Argose Mysene Aria Elis Epid. Spaine Thesalt Farsalis of which country was Bucephalus the Horsse of Alexander Ballasia a prouince addicted to Mahomet hath many of these excellent great and swift horsses whose hoofes are so hard that they neede no yron shooes although they trauaile ouer rocks and mountaines The Arabians also haue such horses and in the kingdom of Senega they haue no breed of Horsses at all by reason of the heate of their Countrey which doth not onely burne vp all pasture but also cause Horsses to faâ—l into the strangury for which cause they doe buy Horsses very deare vsing in stead of hay the stalkes of Pease dryed and cut asunder and Millet seede in stead of Oates wherewithall they grow exceeding fat and the loue of that people is so great to Horsses that they giue for a Horsse furnished nine bond-slaues or if it please them well fourteen but when they haue bought
their Horsses they send for Witches and obserue therein this ceremony They make a burning fire with stickes putting therein certain fuming Herbes afterwardes they take the Horsse by the bridle and set him ouer this smoking fire annointing him with a very thinne oyntment muttering secretly certaine charmes and afterwardes hanging other charmes about their Necke in a red skinne shut them vp close for fifteene daies together then did they bring them forth affirming that by this meanes they are made more valiant and couragious in war The loue and knowledge of Horsses to men ANd to this discourse of Horsses belongeth their nature either of louing or killing men Of the nature of Alexanders Horsse before spoken off called Bucephalus is sufficiently said except this may be added that so long as he was naked and without furniture he would suffer any man to come on his backe but afterwardes being sadled and furnished hee could endure none but Alexander his maister For if any other had offered to come neare him for to ride him he first of all terrified him with his neighing voice and afterwardes troad him vnder foot if he ran not away When Alexander was in the Indian Warres and ryding vpon this Horsse in a certaine battaile performed many valiant acts and through his own improuidence fell into an ambush of his foes froÌ„ which he had neuer bin deliuered aliue but for the puisancy of his Horsse who seeing his maister beset with so many enemies receiued the Dartes into his owne body and so with violence pressed through the middest of his enemies hauing lost much bloude and receiued many woundes ready to die for paine not once staied his course till hee had brought his maister the King safe out of the battell Gillius and set him on the ground which being performed in the same place hee gaue vppe the ghoast and dyed as it were comforting himselfe with this seruice that by his owne death hee had saued the life of such a King for which cause after Alexander had gotten victory in that very place where his Horsse died he built a citty and called it Bucephalon Textor It is also reported that when Limus the Emperour would haue had his Horsses to teare in pieces his Daughter because she was a Christian he himselfe was by one of them bitten to death Neocles the Sonne of Themistocles perished by the biting of a Horsse neither heerein onely is the nature of Horsses terrible because also they haue been taught to teare men in pieces for it is said that Busiris and Diomedes did feede their Horsses with mans flesh and therefore Hercules tooke the like reuenge of Diomedes for hee gaue him to his Horsses to be eaten of Diomedes were these verses made Vt qui terribiles programen habentibus herbis Impius humano viscere pauit equos The like also is reported of Glaucus the son of Sysiphus who fed Horsses with mans flesh at Potnia a city of Boeotia and afterward when he could make no more prouision for them they deuoured their maister whereof Virgill writeth thus Et mentem venus ipsa dedit quo tempore Glauci Potniades malis membra absumpsere quadrigae But this is thought a fiction to expresse them which by feeding and keeping of Horsses consume their wealth and substance and thus much for the natural inclination of Horses Of seuerall kindes of Horsses THere be seuerall kinds of horsses which require a particular tractate by themselues and firste of all the martiall or great warlicke horsse which for profit the poet coupleth with sheepe Lanisierae pecudes equorum bellica proles The parts of this horsse are already described in the Stallion the residue may be supplied out of Xenophon and Oppianus He must be of a singular courage and docibility with out maime fearâ— or other such infirmity He must be able to run vp and down the steepest hils to leap and bite and fight in battail but with the direction of his rider for by these is both the strength of his body and mind discouered and aboue al such a one as will neuer refuse to labor though the day be spent wherefore the rider must first look to the institution and first instruction of his horsse for knowledge in martiall affaires is not naturall in men or horsses and therefore except information and practise adorne nature it cannot be but either by feare or heady stubbornes they will ouerthrow themselues and their riders First of all they must not be geldings because they are fearefull but they must bee such as wil reioyce and gather stomacke at the voice of musicke or trumpets and at the ringing of armour they must not be afraid of other horsses and refuse no combate but be able to leape high and far and rush into the battell fighting as is said with heeles and mouth The principall things which he must learne are these Xenophon first to haue a lofty and flexible necke and also to be free not needing the spur for if he be sluggish and need often agitation too and fro by the hand of the rider or els if he be full of stomacke and sullen so as he will do nothing but by flattery and faire speeches he much troubleth the mind of the rider but if he run into the battell with the same outward aspect of body as he doth vnto a flocke or company of Mares with lowde voice high necke willing minde and great force so shall he be both terrible to looke vppon and valiantly puissant in his combate Wherefore the rider must so cary his hand as the reynes may draw in the horsses necke and not so easily as in a common trauelling gelding but rather sharply to his greeuance a little by which he wil be taught as it were by signes and tokens to fight stand still or run away The manner of his institution may bee this The institution of a warlicke horsse after the dressing and furnishing of your horsse as aforesaid and likewise the backing first of al moue stir or walk your horsse gentlie vntil he be wel acquainted with the cariage of your hand and whole body and afterward accustome him to greater and speedier pace or exercise vse him also to run longer races and also by drawing in your hand to stay or stop suddenly for there are horsses so instructed that they can stay themselues in their speediest course vpon an instant without any circumambulation shaking off the violence of their course like an ordinary trotting nag by mounting vp a little with their forefeet And alway it is to be remembred that after the mounting on horsse-backe you must first of al begin on the left hand bending your hand that waie and also to the right hand when you would haue your horsse to turne on that side And aboue all other things horsses are delighâ—ed wâ—â—â— crooked bending and round courses such as are in circles and Rings and he must be accustomed 〈…〉 other horsses leauing them behind
that country haue liberty to tast thereof that day because of a battaile which once they obtained for the great Cam. The property of this milke is to loosen the belly and because it is thin and hath no fat in it therefore it easily discendeth and doeth not curdle in the stomacke and it is sayde that the Scythians can keep it twelue daies togither therwithal satisfying their hunger quenching their thirst and thus much shall satisfie for the naturall discourses of horsses heereafter followeth the morrall The morrall discourse of Horsses concerning fictions pictures and other deuises ANd first of al for the morral dignity of horsses ther is a celestiall constellation called Hippos according to these verses of Arratus thus translated Huic Equus ille iubam quatiens fulgore micanti Summum contingit caput aluo stellaque tungens vna The Latines call this starre Pegasus and they say that hee is the sonne of Neptune and Gorgon Medusa with striking his foot vpon a Rock in Hellicon a mountaine of Baeotia opened a fountaine which after his name was called Hippocrene Others tell the tale in this sort at what time Bellerophon came to Praetus the sonne of Abas the king of the Argiues Antia the kinges wife fell in loue with her ghuest and making it knowne vnto him promised him halfe hir husbands kingdome if he woulde lie with her but he like an honest man abhorring so foule a fact vtterly refused to accomplish the desire and dishonesty of the lustfull Queene wherupon shee being affraid least he should disclose it vnto the king preuented him by her owne complaint enforming the king that he would haue rauished her when the king heard this accusation because he loued Bellerophon wel would not giue punishment himselfe but sent him to Schenoâ—eas the father of Queen Antia that he in defence of his daughters chastity might take reuenge vpon him who presently cast him to Chimaera which at that time depopulated all the coast of Lycia but Bellerophon by the helpe of the horsse Pegasus did both ouercome and auoide the monster and being weary of his life perceiuing that there was no good nor truth vpon the earth determined to forsake the world and flye to heauen who comming neare to Heauen casting downe his eies to the earth trembled to see how farre hee was distant from it and so his heart fainting for feare fell downe backewarde and perished but his horsse kept on his flight to heauen and was there placed among the stars by Iupiter Euripides telleth the tale otherwise for hee saith that Chiron the Centaure had a Daughter nourished in the mountaine Pelius which was called Theas and afterward Hippe because of her exceeding hunting on horsse backe shee was perswaded by Aeolus the sonn of Hellen a Nephew of Iupiters to let him lie with her wherupon she conceiued with child and when the time of her deliuerance cam she fled from her father into the woods for feare the losse of her virginity should be knowne vnto him but hee followed her to see what was the cause of his Daughters departure whereupon shee desired of the Goddes that her father might not see her in trauaile her prayer was graunted and shee after her deliuery was turned into a mare and placed amongst the stars Others say that shee was a prophetesse and because she reuealed the counsels of the Goddes was therefore metamorphized in that shape in the place aforesaid Others say that because shee gaue ouer to worship Diana she lost her first presence but to returne to the first tale of Bellerophon who after the death of Chimaera growing proud for his valor attempted to fly to heauen but Iupiter trobled his horsse with a fury and so he shook off his rider who perished in the field Alecus apo tese alese because of his error and Pegasus was placed in heauen But to come nearer to the description of the poetical horsse Albertus Magnus and some others say that it is a beast bred in Aethiopia hauing the head and feete of a horsse but horned and wings much greater then the winges of an Eagle which he not doth lift vp into the aire like a bird but onely stretcheth them out when he runneth whereby his only presence is terrible to all creatures vnto whom he is enemy but especially to men but for the truth heereof although Pliny and some others seeme to affirme as much yet will I set downe nothing for trueth and certainety because as the poets call euery swifte horsse volutres and Alipedes so the errour of that figure hath rather giuen occasion to the framing of this newe Monster Pegasus then anye other reasonable Aligory Likewise I knowe no cause why the poets shoulde faine that Ceres was turned into a Mare and hidde hir selfe in the heards of Oncius Neptune falling in loue with her followed her to those fields and perceiuing that hee was deceiued turned himselfe also into a horsse and so had to doe with her whereat Ceres was greeuously offended and fell into a very great fury for which cause shee was called Erinnis yet afterwardes shee washed her selfe in the Riuer Ladon laying aside al her rage and fury at the fulnes of time she brought foorth Arion And the Arcadians also had a certaine Denne wherein they had a great remembrance of this rauishment of Ceres sitting in a Denne wherein they say she hidde hir selfe from all creatures and whereunto they offer diuine worship They picture her in a colts skinne sitting like a woman in all parts with a long garment downe to her ancles but the head of a horsse with the pictures of many Dragons and other such wilde beasts holding in one of her hands a Dolphin and in the other a Doue By all which it is not easie for euery man to knowe and conceiue their meaning that plenty of food signified by Ceres doth not only maintaine men Fowls Beasts and Fishes but also the immoderate vse therof draweth men to inordinate lust and concupisence and that the Goddes of the Heathen were more rather to be accounted beastes then men Diana also among the Arcadians was called Eurippa for the finding out of those Mares which Vlysses had lost which Vlysses erected a statue for Neptune the greate Ryder and they say that Hippolitus being torne in pieces by Horsses through the loue of Diana and skill of Aesculapius by the vertue of certaine Hearbes hee was restored vnto life againe Whereupon Iupiter being sore vexed and angry with Aesculapius for such an inuention deluding as it were the fury of the Goddes killed him with lightning and thrust him downe to hell because no wretched man woulde feare death if such deuises might take place which fact Virgil describeth in these verses At Triuia Hippolitum secretis alma recondit Sedibus nymphae Aegeriae nemorique relegat Solus vbi in siluis Italis ignobilius aeuum Exigerit versoque vbi nomine virbius esset Vnde etiam Triuiae templo lucisque sacratis
that some such like humor may issue out of them not onely by accident but through affinity of nature and condensate into a stone which the people finding couered in the sand vnder the trees and through their former perswasion might easily take it for the stone ingendred by the vrine of the Linx Hermolaus also writeth this of the Lycurium that it groweth in a certaine stone and that it is a kind of Mushrom 〈…〉 out of 〈◊〉 or Padstoole which is cut off yearely and that another groweth in the roome of it a part of the roote or foot being left in the stone groweth as hard as a flint and thus doth the stone encrease with a naturall fecundity which admirable thing saith he I could neuer be brought to beleeue vntill I did eate thereof in myne owne house Euax as is recyted by Syluaticus saith that the vrine of the Linx domi seruatus generat optimos sungos supra se quotanis reserued at home in ones house bringeth forth euery yeare the best Mushroms This is also called lapis Litzi and lapis prasius which is deuided into three kindes that is Iaspis Armeniâ—cus and lapis phrigius called also Belemintes wherewithall the Chirurgians of Prussia and Pomerania cure greene wounds and the Phisitians breake the stone in the bladder But the true Lyncurium which is extant at this day and currant among the Apothecaries is as light as the Pummis-stone and as big as filleth a mans fist being of a blackish colour or of a russet the russet is more solide sandy and fat and being bruised or eaten tasteth like earth both kinds are couered with little white skins and there is apparant in them a spungy tenatious substance and this I take to be the Mushrom whereof Hermolaus speaketh And by the little stones and small skinnes it may be coniectured to be corpus heterogones interracoalescens A Hetrogenian body encreasing in the earth wherewithall it hath no affinity There was another stone of the vrine of a Linx to be seen in Sauoy the substance wherof was clearely christal the forme of it was triangular the hardnes so as you might strike fire with it and the colour partly white and partly like wine mingled with water so that I will conclude that the vrine of a Linx may engender a stone though not in such manner as is before saide For the Arabian Iorath affirmeth that with in seauen daies after the rendring it turneth into a stone but it is not the Lyncurius property so called for that is the Amber or gum before spoken of although catacrestically so called And if it be true that there bee certaine Mushroms neare the red-sea which by the heat of the sunne are hardned into stones then also it may follow very naturally that those stones may produce Mushroms againe for both the dissolution and the constitution of things are thought to be grounded vpon the same principles And thus much shal suffice for the vrine of the Linx and the stone made thereof The skins of Linxes are most pretious vsed in the garments of the greatest estates both Lords Vses of theyr seueâ—â—â— parts Pâ—â—rus Kings and Emperors as we haue shewed before and for that cause are sold very deare The clawes of this beast especially of the right foote which hee vseth instead of a hand are eâ—cluded in siluer and sold for nobles a peece and for Amulets to bee worne against the falling sicknesse The loue of these beasts to their young ones is very great like as the Pardals Lions and Tygers The king of Tartaria hath tame Linxes which he vseth in hunting instead of dogs The ancient Pagans dedicated this beast to Bacchus feigning that when he triumphed in his chariot of vine branches hee was drawne by Tygers and Linxes Lynxes tamed And therefore Virgill saith Quid Lynces Bacchi variae And Ouid Dicta racemifero Lyncas dedit India Baccho Al the nailes of a Linx being burned with the skin beaten into powder and giuen in drink will very much cohibite and restraine abhominable lechery in men the medcines of the Lynx it will also restraine the lust in women being sprinkled vpon them and also very effectually and spedily take away either itch or scurfe in man or womans body The vrin of this beast is accounted very medicinable for those which are troubled with the strangury or running of the raines The same is also very good and wholesome for the curing of any paine or griefe in the wind-pipe or throat Pliny Bonarus Baro doth affirme that the nailes of Linxes which are in their country are had in great estimation and price amongst their piers or noble men for there is a very certaine opinion amongst them that those nailes being put vpon the yeard of either horse or beast whose vrine is kept backe or restrained will in very short space cause them to void it without any griefe at al. He reporteth also that their nailes doe there wax white and that they include them all in siluer and do commend them for an excellent remedy against the cramp if they be worne peraduenture because they are bending and crooked by which perswasion ther are some superstitious men which hang certain rootes which are crooked and knotty about them against the crampe There are likewise some which do ascertaine that these nailes are good and ready helpes for the sorenes of the vnula which is in Horses mouthes and for that cause there are many horsemen which carry them continually about them The Linxe or wolfe which is begotten of a wolfe and a Hinde the Musk-cat Arnoldus the weasell and al such other like beasts do more hurt men by their biting teeth-wounds then by poison There was a certaine hunter as Collinus reporteth which told him that the flesh of a Linx being sod in some whot pottage or broth and afterwardes eaten would be a very good and wholesome medicine for the expelling of the Ague or quartan feauer and that the bones of the same beast being brent and pounded into powder would be a very excellent remedy for the curing of wounds which are old and stale and ful of putrifaction as also the Fistulaes which grow in the thighes or hips of men Of the Marder Martell or Marten THis beast is called in the Hebrew Oach or as some say Zijm amongst the Arabians Eastoz or rather Kacheobeon The seueral names or Kachineon in Latine Martes the Germans Marder or Marter like the english the Italians Marta Martore or Martorello the French Mardre or Foyne the Spaniards Marta the Illirians and Polonians Kuna and some later Latins vse these words Marta Martarus Marturus and Marturellus the reason or etimoligy of this Latin worde is taken from Martia which signifieth Martial because this beast in warlike hostill manner destroyeth her aduersaries two kinds of Martens and liueth vpon the prey of hens birds and Mice The Germans deuide these into two kinds which they
ayre they draw in and the sauour they send forth Among all kinds of Beastes the male is most couragious and fierce except in Beares and panthers for the female panther is more generous then the male At the time of their lust they haue very peculiar voices which caused the poet to write thus Their time of lust Panther caurit amans Pardus hiando felit At the sound of those voices other beasts come about them as both Lyons Lyonesses Wolues and Thoes They neuer bear aboue once because when the young ones begin to stirre in the dams belly and gather strength for birth they canot tarry the iust time of their deliuery but teare out the womb or bag wherein they lie with the sharpnes of their nails and therefore their dam is forced for the auoiding of pain to cast them forth of the womb both blind and deformed which yet she norisheth tenderly but afterwards can neuer conceiue againe by reason that her wombe is so torne with the clawes of her firste whelpes that it is not able to retaine to perfection the receiued seed of the male Panthers liue togither in flockes or heards Their loue and hatred enemies and friends and greatly delight in their owne kind but in no other that I knowe and therefore I wonder from what Author Isidorus wrote Panther omnium animalium amicus est excepto Dracone That the panther is friendly to al beasts except the Draggon It was not in vaine that the poets feigned the Nurses of Bacchus to bee turned into panthers and that they deuoured Peutheus because he railed vppon Bacchus for as a Lyon doeth in most thinges imitate and resemble the very nature of man so after the very selfe-same manner doeth the panther of a Woman for it is a frauduleâ—t though a beautifull beast or as Adamantius writeth Pantherae ingenium molle est effoeminatum iracundum in sidiosum frandulentum timidum simul audax his moribus corporis etiam forma respondit that is The disposition of the Panther is wanton effeminate The descrâ—ptâ—â—n of 〈…〉 outragious treacherous deceiptfull fearefull and yet bold and for this occasion in holy scriptures it is ioyned with the Lyon and the Wolfe to make vp the triplicity of rauening beasts and therefore also we read that the wisest among the EGYPTIANS when they will signifie a cunning man couering the secret corruption and euil disposition of his mind pretending good and yet intending euill they picture a PANTHER for we haue shewed already how hee doeth couer both his heade and his bodie to take his prey The â—aming of Panthers This beast is neuer so tamed but that he faleth into his wilde fits againe Their loue to their yong ones is exceeding great for if at any time while they are abroad to forage they meet with hunters that would take them away they fight for them vnto death and to saue them from blowes interpose their owne bodies receiuing mortall woundes but if they find their young ones taken out of their denne in their absence they bewaile their losse with loud and miserable howling Demetrius the Phylosopher relateth this story of a Panther that lay in the high waye to meet with a man to helpe hir young ones out of a ditch or deepe pit wherein they were fallen at length there appeared in hir sight the father of Philinus a Phylosopher who presently began to runne away as soone as he saw the beast but the poore distressed Panther rouled after him in humble maner as though she had some sute vnto him and took him lightly by the skirt of his garment with one of her clawes the man perceiuing that shee gaue sucke by the greatnesse of her Vdders hanging vnder her belly beganne to take pitty vpon her and layed away feare thinking that indeed which happened that her young ones were taken from her by one meanes or other therefore he followed hir she drawing him with one of her feet vnto the caue whereinto hir young ones were fallen out of which he deliuered them to the mother as raunsome for his owne life and then both shee and the young ones did follow him reioycing out of the daunger of all beastes and out of the wildernesse dismissing him without all manner of harme which is a rare thinge in a man to be so thankefull and much more in a beast and vnto this story of their loue and kindnesse to their young ones I may adde another woorthy to bee remembered out of Aelianus A notable storie of a Panthers â—â—ue to his companion There was saith he a man which brought vp a tame Panther from a whelpe and had made it so gentle that it refused no society of men and he himselfe loued it as if it had bin his wife There was also a little Kyd in the house brought vp tame of purpose to be giuen vnto the Panther when it was growne to some stature or quantity yet in the meane season the Panther plaied with it euery day at last it being ripe the maister killed it and layed it before the Panther to be eaten but he would not touch it wherevpon he fasted till the next day and then it was brought vnto him againe but he refused it as before at last hee fasted the third daie and making great moane for meat according to his vsuall manner had the Kyd laide before him the third time the poore beast seeing that nothing woulde serue the turne but that he must either eat vppe his chamber fellow or else his mayster would make him continually fast he ranne and killed another Kyd disdaining to medle with that which was his former acquaintance yea though it were dead heerin excelling many wicked men who doe not spare those that haue liued with them in the greatest familiarity and friendshippe to vndooe and ouerthrow them aliue for the aduauncement of themselves We haue saide already that they most of all resemble Women and indeed they are enimies to all creatures The Leopards of BARBARY do little harme to men that they meet The harmes of Panthers except they meet them in some path waie where the man cannot decline the beast nor the beast the man there they leape most fiercely into his face and pull awaie as much flesh as they can laie hold vpon and manie of them with their nailes do pierce the brains of a man Leo. Afer Albertus They vse not to inuade or force vpon flocks of sheepe or Goats yet wheresoever they see a Dogge they instantly kill and devoure him The great Panther is a tetror to the dragon and so soone as the Dragon seeth it he flyeth to his caue Auicen The lesser Panthers or Leopards do ouercome Wolues being single and hand to hand as we say but by multitude they ouermaister and destroy him for if he endeuour to run away yet they are swifter and easily ouercome it There is also great hatred and enmity betwixt the Hyaena and the
to be Oxsen and Sheep and no man might name an Oxen vntil he had named a sheep Among the Trogladites they had their Wiues common yet their Tyrants had lawes to keepe their wiues to themselues and they thought it a great penalty for the adultery of their wife if the adulterer payed them a sheepe The Poets haue a pretty fiction that Endimion the Sonne of Mercury fell in loue with the Moone who dispised him and that therefore he went and kept Sheepe afterward the Moone fell in loue with his white Sheepe and desired some of them promysing to grant his request if he would gratifie her choyce whereupon the Wise-man as Probus writeth deuided his flock into two partes the whiter on the one side which had the courser Wooll and the blacker on the other side which had the finer Wooll so the Moone chose the white one and graunted him her loue whereupon Virgill thus writeth Pan munere niueo lunae captum te luna fefellit It may appeare also in what great regard Sheepe were in auncient time for that their Priestes made holy Water and sacrifices for their santification whereof I finde these relations in Gyraldus Virgil and others At the lustration of Sheepe there was another manner of sanctifieng then at other times for the Sheapheard rose betimes in the morning and sprinkled his Sheepe all ouer with Water making a perfume round about the fold with Sulphar Sauine Lawrell Wine and fire singing holy verses and making sacrifice to the God Pan for they did beleeue that by this lustration the health of their Sheepe was procured and all consuming diseases driuen away It is reported that when Sheepe of strange colours were sprinkled with this water it signified great happinesse to the princes of the people and they were gifts for the Emperor whereupon Virgill made these verses Ipse sed in pratis aries iam suaue rubenti Murick iam croceo mutabit vellera luto When men went to receiue answers of the Oracles they slept all night in the skinnes of Sheep There was a Noble sacrifice among the Pagans called Hecatombe wherein were sacrificed at one time a hundred Sheepe at a hundered seueral alters It is reported of King Iosias that hee sacrificed at one time twelue hundered Oxen and eight and thirty hundered sheepe so great was the dignity of this beast that God himselfe placed in the death thereof one part of his worship and whereas it was lawfull among the heathens to make their sacrifices of Seepe Goates Swine Oxen Hennes and geese they made reckoning that the lambe and the Kid was best of all for that God was not pleased with the quantitie but with the qualitie of the sacrifice The auncient Egyptians for the honor of sheepe did neither eate nor sacrifice them and therefore we reade in holy Scripture that the Israelites were an abhomination to the Egyptians because they both killed and sacrificed sheepe as all Diuines haue declared There is a noble story of Clitus who when he sacrificed at the Altars was called away by King Alexander and therefore he left his sacrifices and went to the King but three of the sheep that were appointed to be offered did follow after him euen vnto the Kings presence whereat Alexander did very much wonder and that not without cause for he called together all the wise men South sayers to know what that prodegy did fore-shew whereunto they generally answered that it did fore-shew some fearefull euents to Clitus for as much as the sheepe which by appointment were dead that is ready to die did follow him into the presence of the King in token that he could neuer auoid a violent death and so afterwards it came to passe for Alexander being displeased with him because as it is said he had raild on him in his drunkennes after the sacrifice commanded him to be slaine and thus we see how diuine things may be collected from the natures of sheep These things are reported by Plutarch Pausanias Another note of the dignity of sheep may be collected from the custome of the Lacedemoniās When they went to the wars they droue their goats their sheep before them to the intent that before they ioyned battell they might make sacrifice to their Gods the goats were appointed to lead the way for the sheep for they were droue formost and therefore they were called Cataeades and on a time this miraculous euent fell out for the wolues set vpon the flocks yet contrary to their rauening nature they spared the sheepe and destroyed the goats which notable fact is worthy to be recorded because that God by such an example among the heathen Pagans did demonstrate his loue vnto the good in sparing the sheepe and his hatred vnto the wicked in destroying the goates and therefore he reserued the sheepe to his owne Altar Idibus alba Ioui grandior agna cadit So saith Ouid Nigram hiemi pecudem zephyris falicibus albam So saith Virgil. And againe Huc castus Hibilla Nigrarum multo pecudum te sanguine ducet To Iupiter and to the sunne they were wont to sacrifice white sheepe or lambes but to Pluto and to the earth they sacrificed blacke sheep or lambes in token of deadnes Therefore Tibullus writeth Interea nigras pecudes promittite Diti And Virgil saith Duc nigras pecudes ea prima piacula sunto When the Graecians sent their spies to the tents of the Troyans to discouer what order strength and discipline they obserued Nestor and the ancients of Greece vowed vnto the Gods for euery one of the captaines a seuerall gift that was Oin melainan thelen hyporrenon that is a black sheep great with yong the reason whereof is giuen by the Scholiast they vowed saith he a blacke sheep because the spies went in the night time blacknesse being an emblem of darkenes and a sheepe great with young because of good fortune for they spedde well in Troy In Apolonia there were certaine sheepe that were dedicated to the sunne and in the day time they fed neere the riuer in the best pasture being lodged euery night in a goodly spatious caue neere the Cittie ouer whom the greatest men both for wealth strength and wit were appointed euery night to watch by turnes for their better safegard and the reason of this custody and the great account made of these sheepe was for that the Oracle had commanded the Apolonians to do so vnto them and make much of them Afterwards Euenius a noble man among them keeping watch according to his turne fell asleep so that threescore of the said sheep were killed by wolues which thing came in question among the common magistrats to know the reason of that fact Coelius Herodotus how it came to passe whether by negligence or by some other violent incursion Euenius being no waies able to defend it was condemned to haue both his eies put out that so he might be iudged neuer more worthy to see the light